Mrs. O'Leary's comet : cosmic causes of the great Chicago fire

Did Mrs O'Leary's cow cause the fire? Or was it something different, something much bigger? Mel Waskin explores the bigger possibility that the Chicago Fire was caused by the earth's collision with a comet. He draws on a wide range of sources, from speculations on catastrophism to astronomical observations to eyewitness accounts of the fateful night in Chicago, and in Wisconsin and Michigan, where companion fires blazed.