METEOROLITE. This term is derived from the Greek μετιωζα, a meteor, and ∖ ιDος, a stone, and denotes a stony substance, exhibiting peculiar characters, and the descent of which to the earth is usually accompanied by the appearance and explosion of a fire-ball.

Luminous meteors have, in all ages, been observed in the atmosphere. It is also well known that their disappearance has frequently been attended with a loud noise; but that they should moreover terminate in the fall of one or more solid bodies to the earth’s surface, is a position so repugnant to our ordinary conceptions of the tenor of physical events, that we cannot admit it as a fact upon slight or scanty evidence. With all proper deference, however, to some philosophers of name, we are not prepared to assert that it implies impossibility. For who has explored the higher regions of the atmosphere, or who knows what may take place beyond its precincts? If a solid result from the combination of two aeriform substances, as the muriatic acid and ammoniacal gases; if oxygen, the properties of which are most familiar to us in the state of gas, can undergo fixation; and if fluids can pass into crystalline forms; is it too bold to presume, that the same or similar processes, effected in the grand laboratory of the atmosphere, may be within the range of possible occurrences? Every thing around us proclaims that matter is subject to incessant change. New forms and new modifications are ever springing into being. Can we doubt, then, that the same particles, as they may happen to be affected or influenced by various circumstances, may exist in the state of gas, of aqueous vapour, or of a concrete mass?

Again, it will not surely be seriously maintained, that, from the rarity of a phenomenon, we are warranted to infer its non-existence. The appearance of a comet is a rare, but certainly not a fictitious occurrence. Nay, we may safely advance a step farther, and assert, that the existence of a phenomenon, if otherwise well attested, cannot be disproved by onr inability to explain it. How multiplied, in fact, are the subjects, even of our daily and hourly observation, which we cannot satisfactorily expound? We cannot say why a small seed should gradually unfold into a large tree, why flame should produce heat, why the hand should act in immediate subserviency to the will, or why a contusion of the brain should induce stupor, alienation of mind, or death. It is one thing to prove a fact, and it is another to account for it.

From these premises it follows, that we are not entitled to reject the existence of meteoric stones, provided this be established by valid testimony. Should the historical evidence, upon a fair and dispassionate review, be deemed conclusive, we may afterwards examine the theories which have been proposed for the solution of the appearance.

We are not aware that any passage can be cited from the books of the Old Testament in direct corroboration of the descent of stones from the atmosphere. The ingenious and fanciful Edward King, indeed, in his Remarks con [7:14:706] cerning the Stones said to have fallen from the Clouds, both in these Days and in Ancient Times, adverts to the 13th verse of the xviiith Psalm: « The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hailstones and coals of fire.” This last expression has, no doubt, been conjectured to denote real hard bodies, in a state of ignition; and the Greek term employed by the cautious Seventy-two rather favours such an interpretation. The same expression, however, occurs in the preceding verse, without admitting this interpretation, and the phrase seems to be only a figurative mode of describing lightning. In the sober latitudes of the north, and even in ordinary colloquial language, we talk of “balls of fire,” and “thunderbolts,” without any reference to solid matter. Mr King likewise quotes the 11th verse of the xth chapter of Joshua: “And it cam*e to pass, as they fled from before Israel, and were in the going down to Bcth-horon, that the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died; they were more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword.” Here the expression “great stones” is much less equivocal than “coals of fire ;” yet the context hardly allows us to doubt, that the great stones were really hailstones, or rather, perhaps, lumps of ice consolidated in the atmosphere, such as occasionally fall in hot countries, and such as alarmed the whole of Paris and its neighbourhood in the year 1788. At any rate, the slaughter of the Canaanites is represented as resulting from the special interposition of divine power, and the consideration of miracles is irrelevant to our present purpose.

If from sacred we turn to the early period of profane history, we shall find the annals of public events very copiously interspersed with notices of strange appearances, many of which may be safely ascribed to the ascendency which superstition long obtained over the human mind. The scepticism of the learned is, however, sometimes not less injudicious and indiscriminate than the credulity of the savage; and he who should resolve every extraordinary event which is recorded by the writers of Greece and Rome into a “cunningly-devised fable,” would not be less reprehensible for want of candour than the untutored rustic, who yields his assent to every alleged miracle, may be taxed with want of discernment.

Although these general positions can scarcely admit of any dispute, it becomes extremely difficult, after a lapse of many ages, and in the collation of marvellous records, to separate truth from falsehood. In our attempts to prosecute this analytical process, we may sometimes advance a certain length with perfect security, without being able to trace uniformly the precise lines of demarcation. Thus, in regard to the topic at present in discussion, we are aware that in various periods of the world the vulgar have ascribed a celestial origin to stones of a peculiar configuration; as to certain modifications of pyrites, to belemnites, orthoceratites, and others, which the subsequent observations of naturalists have proved to be of mineral formation; and to the heads of arrows and sharpened flints, which have been fashioned by the hand of man, and which, accordingly, we are authorized to exclude from the ex-terrestrial catalogue. But when substances dissimilar to these, and not coinciding in any one character or circumstance with modern specimens of atmospherical stone, are reported by the ancients to have fallen from the clouds, the distance of ages and the defectiveness of the documents may powerfully affect our appreciation of the reputed evidence. When, therefore, we shortly touch upon a few of the many instances which might be quoted from the annals of antiquity, we mean not to vouch for the truth even of these particular instances, but merely to admit their probability, and the weight which the mention of them may be considered to add to that of subsequent and recent narrations.

Through the midst of fable which envelopes the history of the baetuli, we discern some characters which correspond with those of meteorolites. Thus, in the A ∣ Q ∣ κα, a poem falsely ascribed to Orpheus, the σιδηο ∣ της, which Falconet properly classes with the baetuli, is said to be “rough, heavy, and black.” Damascius, in an extract of his life of Isidorus, preserved by Photius, relates, that the baetuli fell on Mount Libanus, in “a globe of fire.” A fragment ofSan-choniathon, preserved by Eusebius in his Praeparauo Evangelii (i. 10), moreover informs us, that these stones were fabricated by the god Uranus or Heaven, one of whose four sons was named Baetul. May not this mythological genealogy be regarded as merely emblematical of their descent from the upper regions of the atmosphere? In the same chapter we are told that Astarte found a “star” which had “fallen from heaven,” and honoured it with consecration in the city of Tyre. The stone denominated “the mother of the gods,” if we can believe Appian, Herodian, and Mar-ccllinus, “fell from heaven.” Aristodemus, cited by the Greek scholiast on Pindar, asserts that it fell encircled by fire, upon a hill, at the feet of the Theban bard. It is said to have been of a black colour, and of an irregular shape. Herodian expressly declares, that the Phoenicians had no statue of the sun, polished by the hand, but only a certain stone, circular below, and terminated acutely above, in the form of a cone, of a black colour, and that, according to report, it “fell from heaven,” and was regarded by the people as the image of the sun.

Amongst various instances which might be selected from Livy, is that of a shower of stones on the Alban Mount, in the reign of Tullus Hostilius, or about six hundred and fifty-two years before the birth of Christ. When the senate were told that it had rained stones, they doubted the fact, and deputed commissioners to inquire into the particulars, They were then assured that stones had really fallen, “haud aliter quam quum grandinem venti glomeratam in terras agunt.” On this occasion, the historian mentions that similar events were celebrated by a festival of nine days. “Mansit solenne, ut quandocunque idem prodigium nuntiaretur, feriae per novem dies agerentur.”

But one of the most remarkable cases which occurs in the records of antiquity, is that which is mentioned in the fifty-eighth chapter of the second book of Pliny’s Natural History, of a large stone which fell near Egospotamos, in Thrace, in the second year of the seventy-eighth Olympiad, or, according to our chronology, about four hundred and sixty-seven years before the Christian era. Pliny assures us that this extraordinary mass was still shown in his day; and that it was as large as a cart, and of a burned colour. The Greeks pretended that it had fallen from the sun, and that Anaxagoras had predicted the day of its arrival upon the earth’s surface. According to Plutarch, in the life of Lysander, the inhabitants of the Chersonesus held the Thracian stone in great veneration, and exhibited it as a public show. His account of its first appearance is chiefly extracted from the relation of Daimachus of Pla∙ taeae, and may be thus translated: “During seventy-five successive days before the stone fell, a large fiery body, like to a cloud of flame, was observed in the heavens, not fixed to one point, but wandering about with a broken irregular motion. By its violent agitation, several fiery fragments were forced from it, impelled in various directions, and darted with the velocity and brightness of so many shooting stars. After this body had fallen on the Chersonesus, and the people had assembled to examine it, they could find no inflammable matter, nor the slightest trace of combustion, but a real stone, which, though large, by no means corresponded to the dimension of the flaming globe which they had seen in the sky, but appeared to be only a piece detached from it.” Daimachus, it is true, may, upon this occasion, have given way to his reputed love [7:14:707] of the marvellous; and we can easily believe that the “seventy-five continuous days” is either an error of the copyist, or an original exaggeration; yet, from the marked coincidence of some of the circumstances with those more fully detailed in the sequel, there arises the presumption that a meteorolite really fell at the place and time above mentioned.

From this period till near the close of the fifteenth century, any historical notices which we have been enabled to collect are so vague and scanty, that, in this abridged view of the subject, we may pass them over in silence.

Professor Bantenschoen, of the central school of Colmar, first directed the attention of naturalists to some of the old chronicles, which commemorate, with much naivete, and in the true spirit of the times, the fall of the celebrated stone of Ensisheim. The following account accompanied this very singular mass, when it was suspended in the church. “In the year of the Lord 1492, on Wednesday, which was Martinmas eve, the 7th of November, there happened a singular miracle; for, between eleven o’clock and noon, there was a loud peal of thunder, and a prolonged confused noise, which was heard to a great distance, and a stone fell from the air, in the jurisdiction of Ensisheim, which weighed 260 pounds, and the confused noise was, moreover, much louder than here. There a child saw it strike on a field, situated in the upper jurisdiction, towards the Rhine and Inn, near to the district of Gisgard, which was sown with wheat; and did it no harm, except that it made a hole there; and then they conveyed it from that spot, and many pieces were broken from it, which the landvogt forbade. They, therefore, caused it to be placed in the church, with the intention of suspending it as a miracle, and many people came hither to see this stone. So there were remarkable conversations about this stone; but the learned said that they knew not what it was, for it was beyond the ordinary course of nature that such a large mass should smite the earth from the height of the air; but that it was really a miracle of God, for before that time never any thing was heard like it, nor seen, nor described. When the people found that stone, it had entered into the earth to the depth of a man’s stature, which every body explained to be the will of God that it should be found; and the noise of it was heard at Lucerne, at Villing, and in many other places, so loud, that it was believed that houses had been overturned. And as the king (Maximilian) was here, the Monday after St Catherine’s day, of the same year, his royal excellency ordered the stone which had fallen to be brought to the castle, and after having conversed a long time about it with the noblemen, he said the people of Ensisheim should take it, and order it to be hung up in the church, and not allow any body to take any thing from it. However, his excellency took two pieces of it, of which he kept one, and sent the other to the Duke Sigismund of Austria; and they spoke a great deal about this stone, which they suspended in the choir, where it still is, and a great many people came to see it.”

Again, Trithemius, in his Hirsaugiensian Annals, employs language to this effect: “In the same year, on the 7th day of November, in the village of Suntgaw, near the townlet of Ensisheim, not far from Basil, a city of Germany, a stone, called a thunder-stone, of a prodigious size, for we know from eye-witnesses that it weighed 255 pounds, fell from the heavens. Its fall was so violent that it broke into two pieces. The most considerable is still exhibited at the door of the church of Ensisheim, suspended by an iron chain, as a proof of the fact which we have mentioned, and to preserve it in the public recollection.” We learn also from Paul Lang, “that there arose a furious storm on the 7th of November 1492, and that whilst the thunder roared, and the heavens appeared all on fire, a stone of enormous size fell near Ensisheim. Its form was that of the Greek delta, with a triangular point. They still show it at Ensisheim as an astonishing phenomenon.”

It is worthy of observation that these chroniclers lived at the period which they assign to the descent of the stone, and that, although their names are hastening to oblivion, Trithemius yielded to few of his contemporaries in labour and learning; whilst Lang, a German Benedictine, had travelled in search of historical monuments, arraigned the license of the Catholic clergy, and applauded the independence of Luther and Melancthon.

We are fully aware that Barthold has laboured to convince his readers {Journal de Physique), that the far-famed mass of Ensisheim is merely argillo-ferrugineous, of secondary formation, détached from an adjacent mountain, and conveyed to the spot upon which it was found by some torrent or land-flood. In this opinion we might partially acquiesce, did not the artlessness of contemporary and concurring records militate against it, and had not the more accurate analysis ofVauquelin detected the same constituent parts as in the other stony and metalline substances denominated meteoric. “It is certainly composed of silica,” observes this celebrated chemist, “of magnesia, of iron, of nickel, of sulphur, and of a small quantity of lime. Particular trials have convinced me of the presence of sulphur and nickel in the grains of malleable iron, and in the pyrites, though in different proportions. This stone, then, in every respect resembles others which have fallen from the atmosphere.”

In the Commentary ofSurius, a Carthusian monk of Cologne, mention is made of a shower of large stones which fell in Lombardy in 1510. These stones were harder than flint, and smelled of sulphur. The heaviest weighed 120 pounds. The same event is more particularly related by Cardan, in his work entitled De Ferum Varietate (lib xiv. c. 72). According to this author, near the river Adda, not far from Milan, and at five o’clock in the evening, about 1120 stones fell from the air, one of them weighing 120 pounds, and another sixty pounds. Many were presented to the French governor and his deputy. At three o’clock in the afternoon the sky appeared as if in a general blaze; and the passage, though somewhat ambiguous, would lead us to infer that the meteor was visible for two hours. Like many of the learned and unlearned of his day, Cardan instantly connects the extraordinary appearance with the political transactions of his district.

We shall next produce an interesting extract from the memoirs of the Emperor Jehangire, written in Persian by himself, and translated by Colonel Kirkpatrick.

“ A∙ H. 1030, or 16/A year of the reign. — The following is amongst the extraordinary occurrences of this period. Early on the 30th of Furverdeen of the present year (1620), and in the eastern quarter of the heavens, there arose in one of the villages of the purgunnah of .Ialindher such a great and tremendous noise, as had nearly, by its dreadful nature, deprived the inhabitants of the place of their senses. During this noise a luminous body was observed to fall from above on the earth, suggesting to the beholders the idea that the firmament was raining fire. In a short time, the noise having subsided, and the inhabitants having recovered from their alarm, a courier was despatched to Mahommed Syeed, the aumul of the aforesaid purgunnah, to advertise him of this event. The aumul, instantly mounting his horse, proceeded to the spot. Here he perceived the earth, to the extent of a dozen of yards in length and breadth, to be burned to such a degree, that not the least trace of verdure or a blade of grass remained, nor had the heat yet subsided entirely. Mahommed Syeed hereupon directed the aforesaid space of ground to be dug up, when the deeper it was dug the greater was the heat of it found to be. At length a lump of iron made its appearance, the heat of which was so violent that one might [7:14:708] have supposed it to have been taken from a furnace. After some time it became cold, when the aumul conveyed it to his own habitation, from whence he afterwards despatched it in a sealed bag to court.

“Here I had this substance weighed in my presence. Its weight was 160 tolahs.^[1. A tolah is about 180 grains Troy weight. ] I committed it to a skilful artisan, with orders to make of it a sabre, a knife, and a dagger. The workman reported that the substance was not malleable, but shivered into pieces under the hammer. Upon this I ordered it to be mixed with other iron. Conformably to my orders, three parts of the iron of lightning ^[2. This expression is equivalent to our term thunderbolt. ] were mixed with one part of common iron, and from the mixture were made two sabres, one knife, and one dagger.

Our limits will not permit us to give the whole of the extract, nor the remarks of Mr Charles Greville and Colonel Kirkpatrick, which were read before the Royal Society of London on the 27th of January 1803. We feel no hesitation, however, in considering this document as something very nearly approaching to direct evidence of the fact in question.

The celebrated Gassendi informs us, that on the 27th of November 1627, about ten o’clock in the morning, during a very clear sky, he saw a flaming stone, of the apparent diameter of four feet, fall on Mount Vaision, an eminence situated between the small towns of Perne and Guillaumes, in Provence. This stone was surrounded by a luminous circle of different colours, nearly resembling the rainbow, and its fall was accompanied with a noise like the discharge of artillery. It weighed fifty-nine pounds, and its specific gravity was to that of common marble as fourteen to eleven. It was of a dark metallic colour, and extremely hard. Though it was not subjected to chemical analysis, and is not now to be found, the circumstances which have been stated by the philosopher are sufficiently minute to operate on the conviction of those who are willing to be convinced.

From a curious book printed at Paris in 1672, and now become very scarce, entitled “Conversations tireés de l’Académie de Μ. l’Abbe Bourdelot, contenant diverses Recherches et Observations Physiques, par le Sieur Legallois,” we make the ensuing extract: “A member presents a fragment of two stones which fell near Verona, one of which weighed 300, and the other 200 pounds. These stones,” says he, “fell during the night, when the weather was perfectly mild and serene. They seemed to be all on fire, and came from above, but in a slanting direction, and with a tremendous noise. This prodigy terribly alarmed three or four hundred eye-witnesses, who were at a loss what to think of it. These stones fell with such rapidity that they formed a ditch, in which, after the noise had ceased, the spectators ventured to approach them, and examine them more closely. They then sent them to Verona, where they were deposited in the academy, and that learned bodysent fragments of them to different places.” That which accompanied the above intimation was of a yellowish hue, very easily pulverized, and smelled strongly of sulphur. In the course of examining one of these stones, Μ. Laugier, professor of pharmacy at Paris, has recently detected the presence of chrome, by means of the caustic alkali. The date of the Verona phenomenon, if we have been correctly informed, is 1663.

In the Bornian collection there is a substance which is designated “Ferrum retractorium, granulis nitentibus matrice virescenti immixtis (Ferrum virens, Lin.), cujus fragmenta ab unius ad viginti usque librarum pondus, cortice nigro scoriaceo circumdata, ad Plann, prope Tabor, circuli Bechinensis Bohemiae, passim reperiuntur.” The following note is subjoined: “Quae fragmenta, 3 Julii anni 1753, inter tonitrua, e caelo pluisse creduliores quidam asserunt.” The expression “creduliores quidamf it may be alleged, at once destroys the evidence of this memorandum. It deserves, however, to be noted, that in regard to our present subject, what was formerly accounted the credulity of the vulgar, may now, upon several occasions, be construed into probability, if not into matter of fact; and that Mr Greville has found the identical fragment to have the same composition with the other meteoric stones. Hence we are compelled either to admit its super-terrestrial origin, or the existence of a substance originally belonging to the earth, and yet agreeing in character with those deemed atmospheric. The former branch of the alternative is perfectly consonant with well-authenticated facts; whereas, of the latter, we are not warranted to pronounce that a single case has hitherto been established to the perfect satisfaction of any chemist or mineralogist.

But we have now to direct our attention to a report of Μ. de Lalande, inserted in the Historical Almanac of Bresse for 1756. In the month of September 1753, about one o’clock afternoon, when the weather was very hot, and very serene, without the least appearance of clouds, a very loud noise, like the discharge of two or three cannons, was heard within the circumference of six leagues, but was of very short duration. This noise was loudest in the neighbourhood of Pont-de-Vesle; and at Liponas, a village three leagues from the last-mentioned place, it was even accompanied with a hissing, like that of a cracker. On the same evening there were found at Liponas and at Pin two blackish masses, of a form nearly circular, but very uneven, which had fallen on ploughed ground, and sunk, by their own weight, to the depth of half a foot below the surface. One of them weighed about twenty pounds; and a fragment of one of them, weighing eleven and a half pounds, was preserved in the cabinet of Μ. Varenne de Beost, at Dijon. The basis of these masses resembled a grayish whinstone, and was very refractory; and some ferrugineous particles were disseminated in grains, filaments, or minute masses, throughout the substance of the stone, especially in its fissures. This iron, when subjected to a red heat, became obedient to the magnet. The black coating on the surface Μ. de Lalande ascribes to fusion, induced by violent heat. This gentleman’s acknowledged respectability, and accuracy of observation, combined with the circumstances which he has produced, circumstances, too, which, if mis-stated, lay open to public investigation, powerfully plead in favour of his testimony.

On the 15th of September 1760, according to the Abbé Bachelay, about half past four o’clock afternoon, there appeared near the Chateau de Chevabric, in the neighbourhood of Luce, a small town of the province of Maine, a stormy cloud, from which proceeded a loud peal of thunder, like the discharge of cannon, and followed by a noise which was mistaken by several people for the lowing of oxen. This sound was heard over a space of about two leagues and a half, but unaccompanied by any perceptible flame. The reapers in the parish of Periguc, about three leagues from Luce, on hearing the same noise, looked up, and saw an opake body, which described a curve, and fell on soft turf, upon the high road from Mons, near which they were at work. They all quickly ran up to it, and found a sort of stone, nearly half of which was buried in the earth, and the whole so hot that it could not be touched. At first they ran away in a panic; but upon returning to the spot some time afterwards, they found the stone precisely in the same situation, and sufficiently cooled to admit of being handled, and narrowly examined. It weighed seven ounces [7:14:709] and a half, and was of a triangular form, presenting, as it were, three rounded horns, one of which, at the moment of the fall, had entered into the ground, and was of a gray or ash colour, whilst the rest, which was exposed to the air, was very black. When the abbé presented this stone to the academy, that body appointed three of its number, namely, MM. Lavoisier, Fougeroux, and Cadet, to examine and analyse it. This task they performed with more care and accuracy than M. de Lalande had done on the preceding occasion; but their trial was confined to an integral part of the whole, considered as a homogeneous substance, instead of being repeated on each of the constituent parts. The substance was of a pale cincreous hue, speckled with an infinite number of small and shining metallic points, visible through a magnifying glass. That part of the outer surface which remained above ground was incrusted with a thin black coating, which seemed to have undergone fusion, and which gave a few sparks when struck with steel. The specific gravity of the mass was 3535. Two other stones, nearly of the same characters, the one reported to have fallen at Aire, in Artois, and the other in the Cotentin, in Normandy, were also presented to the academy in the course of the same year, by M. Gurson de Boyaval, honorary lieutenant-general of the bailliage of Aire, and the younger Morand. According to the academical report, these three stones, when compared, presented no difference to the eye; they were of the same colour, and nearly of the same grain, exhibiting metallic and pyritous particles, and covered with a black and ferrugineous incrustation. Although the coincidence of facts and circumstances, in three places so remote from one another, did not convince the academy that these stones had been conveyed to the earth by lightning, yet it induced them to invite naturalists to prosecute the examination of the subject.

On the 20th of November 1768, a stone fell at Mauer-kircken, near the river Inn, in Bavaria, which weighed thirty-eight pounds, and was of a triangular form, being about eight inches in thickness. Its fall was accompanied by a hissing noise, and great darkness in the atmosphere. This meteorolite penetrated two feet and a half into the soil. Part of it, formerly in the cabinet of the Right Honourable Charles Greville, is now in the British Museum.

The next remarkable case that has been recorded occurred on the 20th of August 1789, at Barbotan, near Roquefort, in the landes of Bourdeaux, and is thus related by Citizen Lomet, who was known to several members of the Institute, and happened to be at Agen when the meteor appeared. “It was a very bright fire-ball, as luminous as the sun, of the size of an ordinary balloon, and, after inspiring the inhabitants with consternation, burst and disappeared. A few days afterwards, some peasants brought stones, which they said fell from the meteor; but the philosophers to whom they offered them laughed at their assertions as fabulous. The peasants would have now more reason to laugh at the philosophers.” One of these stones broke through the roof of a cottage, and killed a herdsman and some cattle. Vauquelin, who received a proces-verbal of the circumstances, also examined one of the specimens.

A much more remarkable phenomenon, however, of the same description, occurred near Agen, on the 24th of July 1790. An inhabitant of St Severe communicated the following particulars to Μ. Darcet the chemist, who was then resident at Paris. “Our town’s-people were yesterday very much alarmed. About a quarter past nine o’clock in the evening, there suddenly appeared in the atmosphere a fire-ball, dragging a long train, which diffused a very vivid light over the horizon. This meteor soon disappeared, and seemed to fall at one hundred paces from us. It was quickly followed by an explosion louder than that of a cannon or of thunder. Every body dreaded being buried under the ruins of his house, which seemed to give way from the concussion. The same phenomenon was seen, and the report heard, in the neighbouring towns, as Mont de Marsan, Tartas, and Dax. The weather in other respects was very calm, without a breath of wind or a cloud, and the moon shone in all her brightness.” M. Darcet’s brother, a clergyman in that part of the country, sent him a small stone, which was picked up on the morning after the explosion, and the history of which he was scrupulously anxious to investigate. Being satisfied with respect to all the particulars, he at length despatched it to Paris, accompanied with some very curious remarks. “When these stones fell,” says he, “they had not their present degree of hardness. Some of them fell upon straw, bits of which stuck to the stones, and incorporated with them. I have seen one in this predicament. It is at present at La Bastide; but I cannot persuade the owner to part with it. Those which fell on the houses produced a noise, not like that of stones, but rather of a substance which had not yet acquired compactness.”

Μ. Baudin mentions, that, as M. Carris of Barbotan and he were walking in the court of the Castle of Mormes, about half past nine o’clock in the evening of the 24th of July 1790, when the air was perfectly calm, and the sky cloudless, they found themselves suddenly surrounded by a pale clear light, which obscured that of the moon, although the latter was nearly full. On looking up, they observed, almost in their zenith, a fire-ball, of a larger apparent diameter than that of the moon, dragging a tail which seemed to be five or six times longer than the diameter of its body, and which gradually tapered to a point; the latter approaching to blood-red, though the rest of the meteor was of a pale white. This luminous body proceeded with great velocity from south to north, and in two seconds split into portions of considerable size, like the fragments of a bursting bomb. These fragments became extinguished in the air, and some of them, as they fell, assumed that deep-red colour which had been observed at the point of the tail. Two or three minutes afterwards, Μ. Baudin and his friend heard a dreadful explosion, like the simultaneous firing of several pieces of ordnance; but they were not sensible of any tremulous motion under their feet, although the concussion of the atmosphere shook the windows in their frames, and threw down kitchen utensils from their shelves. When these gentlemen removed to the garden, the noise still continued, and appeared to be directly over their heads. Some time after it had ceased, they heard a hollow sound rolling, in echoes, for about fifty miles, along the chain of the Pyrenees, and at the end of about four minutes gradually dying away in distance. At the same time, a strong sulphureous odour was diffused in the atmosphere. The interval which occurred between the disruption of the meteor and the loud report induced M. Baudin to conjecture that this fire-ball must have been at least eight miles from the earth’s surface, and that it fell about four miles from Marines. “The latter part of my conjecture,’’ says he, “was soon confirmed by an account which we received of a great many stones having fallen from the atmosphere at Juillac and in the neighbourhood of Barbotan.” It appears, indeed, from the concurring testimony of intelligent persons worthy of credit, that the meteor really exploded at a little distance from Juillac, and that its fragments were found lying in an almost circular space of nearly two miles in diameter. Some of them weighed eighteen or twenty, and a few, it is alleged, even fifty pounds. Μ. de Carris procured one of eighteen pounds, which he transmitted to the Academy of Sciences at Paris. That examined by Μ. Baudin was small, but heavy in proportion to its size, black on the outside, grayish within, and interspersed with many minute, shining, metallic particles.

In one of his letters to Professor St Arnaud, Μ. Goyon d’Arzas remarks, that these stones, though generally smooth [7:14:710] on the outside, presented some longitudinal cracks or fissures, whilst their interior parts exhibited symptoms of metallic veins, especially of a ferrugineous complexion. When yet red hot, and scattered about in various directions, they formed that magnificent fire-work, that shower of flame, which enlightened the horizon over a large tract of country; for this extraordinary meteor was seen at Bayonne, Auch, Pau, Tarbes, and even at Bordeaux and Toulouse. Atthe last-mentioned place it excited butlittle attention,on account of its great distance, and its appearing only a little brighter than a shooting star. It, moreover, deserves to be noted, that the meteorolites in question were found upon a bare moor, of an extremely thin soil, on which no such stones, or indeed stones of any description, had been observed within the memory of man. They who are solicitous of additional information on this part of the subject may consult the Journal des Sciences Utiles of Montpellier for 1790, and the Decade Philosophique for February 1796.

Our chronological series of cases has now brought us to the fall of several meteorolites near Sienna, the particulars of which, as reported by the Karl of Bristol and Sir William Hamilton, are recorded in the first part of the Philosophical Transactions for the year 1795 (p. 103). Mr King, likewise, in the tract which we have already quoted, communicates some interesting circumstances relative to this phenomenon, chiefly extracted from an account of it published by Professor Soldant. Whilst we refer our readers to these details, we cannot omit mentioning here, that, in regard to aspect and composition, the Sienna stones are perfectly analogous to the others already noticed, and very different from any that occur in Tuscany. As the meteor from which they were discharged appeared on the morning after a violent eruption of Vesuvius, they were at first supposed to be volcanic, until cool reflection and examination betrayed the extravagance of such a hypothesis. The precise number of stones which were collected on this occasion is not specified; but many of them were small, weigh-, ing from a quarter of an ounce to two ounces. The date of the Sienna meteor is the 16th of June 1794. On the 13th of December in the following year, about three o’clock in the afternoon, another of these singular stones, weighing about fifty-six pounds, fell near the country-house of Captain Topham, in Yorkshire. The captain’s report, which is inserted in the Gentleman’s Magazine for 1796, is distinct and satisfactory; whilst the chemical examination of the mass, detailed in Mr Howard’s paper in the Philosophical Transactions for 1802, affords a still more decisive proof of its atmospheric origin. Μ. de Drée also found it to correspond exactly in aspect and character with fragments of meteoric stones from Benares and Ville-Franche. The original mass is larger than a man’s head.

Mr Southey, in his letters from Spain and Portugal, transcribes the authenticated relation of another instance of the descent of a stone from the clouds on the 19th of February 1796. But we pass to some of the most important details relative to the stone which is affirmed to have fallen near Ville-Franche, in the department of the Rhone, on the 12th of March 1798. When it was transmitted to Professor Sage, member of the National Institute, he considered it at first as only a pyritous and magnetical ore of iron, although it bore no resemblance to any known species of ore of that metal, inasmuch as it contained nickel, silica, magnesia, and native iron, which shone like steel when polished. “It is of an ash-gray colour,” says Μ. Sage, “granulated, and speckled with gray, shining, and pyritous metallic points. One of its surfaces is covered with a dingy black enamel, about the third of a line in thickness. This stone acts very powerfully on the magnetic needle. When the senator Chasset transmitted it to me, it was accompanied with an historical notice of similar import with that of Μ. Delièvre of Ville-Franche, who saw and de scribed the phenomenon on the spot.” At six o’clock in the evening, a round body, which diffused the most vivid light, was observed in the vicinity of Ville-Franche, moving westward, and producing a hissing like that of a bomb which traverses the air. This luminous body, which was seen at the same time at Lyons and on Mont Cenis, marked its path by a red track of fire, and exploded, about two hundred toises from the earth, with a tremendous report and concussion. One of the flaming fragments fell on the vineyard of Peter Crépier, an inhabitant of Sales. On the spot where this portion of the meteor was seen to fall, and in a fresh opening of about twenty inches in depth and eighteen in width, was found a black mass, fifteen inches in diameter, and rounded on one side.

An account of the same meteor was published in the Journal de Physique by Μ. de Drée. From his minute and deliberate investigation, it appears that the fire-ball had scarcely fixed the attention of the inhabitants of Sales and the adjacent villages, when its rapid approach, accompanied by ⅛ terrible whizzing noise, like that of an irregular hollow body, traversing the air with unusual velocity, inspired the whole commune with alarm, especially when they observed it passing over their heads, at an inconsiderable elevation. It left behind a long train of light, and emitted, with an almost unceasing crackling, small vivid flames, like little stars. Its fall was remarked, at the distance of only fifty paces, by three labourers, one of whom, named Montillard, let fall his coat andbundle of sticks, that he might run the faster; whilst the other two, Chardon and Lapoces, fled with equal precipitation to Sales, where the alarm had become general. These three witnesses attest the astonishing rapidity of the meteor’s motion, and the hissing which proceeded from the spot where it fell. So terrified was Crépier at the explosion, that he locked himself up with his family, first in his cellar, and then in his private apartment; nor did he venture abroad till next morning, when, in the company of Μ. Blandel, Chardon, Lapoces, and many others, he repaired to the opening which had heen made by the fire-ball. At the bottom of this opening, which was eighteen inches deep, including the entire thickness of the mould, they found a large black mass, of an irregularly ovoid form, having a fanciful resemblance to a calf’s head. Although no longer hot, it smelled of gunpowder, and was cracked in several places. When the observers broke it, and discovered nothing but stone, indifference succeeded to curiosity, and they coolly ascribed its appearance to causes more or less whimsical and supernatural. The original weight of this stone was about twenty pounds. Its black vitrified surface gave fire with steel. Its interior was hard, earthy, ash-coloured, of a granular texture, presenting different substances scattered through it, namely, iron in grains, from the smallest size to a line or even more in diameter, somewhat malleable, but harder and whiter than forged iron; white pyrites, both lamellated and granular, and in colour approaching to nickel; some gray globules, which seemed to present the characters of trap; and a very few and small particles of steatites, inclining to an olive hue. On account of its heterogeneous composition, its specific gravity could not be easily ascertained. One hundred parts of the mass gave, according to Μ. Vauquelin, 46 of silica, 38 of oxide of iron, 15 of magnesia, 2 of nickel, and 2 of lime. The excess of this result was ascribed to the absorption of oxygen by the native iron during the process.

On the I9th of December 1798, about eight o’clock in the evening, the inhabitants of Benares and its neighbourhood observed in the heavens a very luminous meteor, in the form of a large ball of fire, which exploded with a loud noise, and from which a number of stones were precipitated near Krakhut, a village about fourteen miles from the city of Benares. Mr Davis, the judge and magistrate [7:14:711] of the district, affirmed that in brilliancy it equalled the brightest moonlight. Both he and Mr Erskine, the assistant collector, were induced to send persons in whom they could confide to the spot where this shower of stones was asserted to have taken place, and thus obtained additional evidence of the phenomenon, and several of the stones, which had penetrated about six inches into fields recently watered. Mr Maclane, a gentleman who resided near Krakhut, presented Mr Howard with part of a stone, which had been brought to him the morning after its descent, by the watchman who was on duty at his house, and through the roof of whose hut it had passed, and buried itself several inches in the floor, which was of consolidated earth. Before it was broken, it must have weighed upwards of two pounds. At the time that this meteor appeared, the sky was perfectly serene; not the smallest vestige of a cloud had been seen since the 11th of the month, nor was any observed for many days afterwards. “Of these stones,” says Mr Howard, “I have seen eight nearly perfect, besides parts of several others which had been broken by the possessors to distribute among their friends. The form of the more perfect ones appeared to be that of an irregular cube, rounded oft’ at the edges; but the angles were to be observed on most of them. They were of various sizes, from about three to upwards of four inches in their largest diameter; one of them, measuring four inches and a quarter, weighed two pounds twelve ounces. In appearance they were exactly symilar; externally they were covered with a hard black coat or incrustation, which in some parts had the appearance of varnish or bitumen; and on most of them were fractures, which, from their being covered with a matter similar to that of the coat, seemed to have been made in the fall by the stones striking against each other, and to have passed through some medium, probably an intense heat, previous to their reaching the earth. Internally they consisted of a number of small spherical bodies, of a slate colour, imbedded in a whitish gritty substance, interspersed with bright shining spiculae, of a metallic or pyritical nature. The spherical bodies were much harder than the rest of the stone; the white gritty part readily crumbled on being rubbed with a hard body; and, on being broken, a quantity attached itself to the magnet, but more particularly the outside coat or crust, which appeared almost wholly attractable by it.”

The history of the extraordinary shower of stones which fell near L’Aigle, in Normandy, on the 26th of April 1803, first appeared in the following artless letter, addressed by Μ. Marais, an inhabitant of the place, to his friend in Paris. “An astonishing miracle has just occurred in our district. Here it is, without alteration, addition, or diminution. It is certain that it is the truth itself. On Friday (26th of ApriD, between one and two o’clock in the afternoon, we were roused by a murmuring noise like thunder. On going out we were surprised to see the sky pretty clear, with the exception of some small clouds. We took it for the noise of a carriage, or of fire in the neighbourhood. We were then in the meadow, to examine whence the noise proceeded, when we observed all the inhabitants of the Pont de Pierre at their windows, and in gardens, inquiring concerning a cloud which passed in the direction of from south to north, and from whence the noise issued, although that cloud presented nothing extraordinary in its appearance. But great was our astonishment when we learned that many and large stones had fallen from it, some of them weighing ten, eleven, and even seventeen pounds, in the space between the house of the Buat family (half a league to the north-north-east of L’Aigle) and Glos, passing by St Nicoas, St Pierre, &c. vhich struck us at first as a fable, but which was after-vards found to be true. The following is the explanation r iven of this extraordinary event by all who witnessed it.

They heard a noise like that of a cannon, then a double report still louder than the preceding, followed by a rumbling noise, which lasted about ten minutes, the same which we also heard, accompanied with hissings, caused by these stones, which were counteracted in their fall by the different currents of air, which is very natural in the case of such a sudden expansion. Nothing more was heard; but it is remarkable, that, previously to the explosion, the domestic fowls were alarmed, and the cows bellowed in an unusual manner. All the country people were much dismayed, especially the women, who believed that the end of the world was at hand. A labourer at La Sapée fell prostrate on the ground, exclaiming. ‘ Good God, is it possible that thou canst make me perish thus? Pardon, I beseech thee, all the faults I have committed.’ The most trifling objects, in fact, might create alarm; for it is not improbable that history offers no example of sŭch a shower of stones as this. The piece which I send was detached from a large one, weighing about eleven pounds, which was found between the house of the Buats and Le Fertey. It is said that a collector of curiosities purchased one of seventeen pounds weight, that he might send it to Paris. Every body in this part of the country is desirous of possessing a whole stone, or a fragment of one, as an object of curiosity. The largest were darted with such violence that they entered at least a foot into the earth. They are black on the outside, and grayish, as you see, within, seeming to contain some species of metal and nitre. If you know before us of what ingredients they are composed, you will inform us. One fell near M. Bois de la Ville, who lives near Glos. He was much afraid, and took shelter under a tree. He has found a great number of them, of different sizes, in his court-yard, his wheat field, &c. without reckoning all those which the peasants have found elsewhere. Numberless stories, more or less absurd, have been circulated amongst the people. You know that our country is fertile in such tales. Cousin Moutardier sends one of these stones to Mademoiselle Hébert; and he is not less eager than we are to know how these substances can be compressed and petrified in the air. Do try to explain the process. The person who gave me the largest stone which 1 send to you went to take it at the moment that it fell, but it was so hot that it burned him. Several of his neighbours shared the same fate in attempting to lift it. The cider Buat has just arrived, and desires us to add, that a fire-ball was observed to hover over the meadow. Perhaps it was wildfire.”

At the sitting of the Institute on the 9th of May, Fourcroy read a letter from L’Aigle addressed to Μ. Vauquelin, and which sufficiently corroborates the preceding statements. But we pass to the substance of Μ. Biot’s letter addressed to the minister of the interior, and published in the Journal des Débats. This very eminent philosopher was deputed by government to repair to the spot, and collect all the authentic facts. He left Paris on the 5th of June, and, instead of proceeding directly to L’Aigle, went first to Alençon, which lies fifteen leagues to the west-southwest of that place. He was informed on his way that a globe of fire had been observed moving towards the north, and that its appearance was followed by a violent explosion. From Alençon he journeyed through various villages to L’Aigle, being directed in his progress by the accounts of the inhabitants, who had all heard the explosion on the day and at the hour specified. Almost all the inhabitants of twenty hamlets, scattered over an extent of upwards of two square leagues, affirmed that they were eye-witnesses of a dreadful shower of stones which were darted from the meteor. The following is his summary of the whole evidence. “On Tuesday, 6th Floreal, year 11, about one o’clock p. μ. the weather being serene, there was observed from Caen, Pont d’Audemer, and the environs[7:14:712] of Alençon, Falaise, and Verneuil, a fiery globe, of a very brilliant splendour, and which moved in the atmosphere with great rapidity. Some moments after, there was heard at L’Aigle, and in the environs of that town, in the extent of more than thirty leagues in every direction, a violent explosion, which lasted five or six minutes. At first there were three or four reports, like those of cannon, followed by a kind of discharge which resembled the firing of musketry; after which there was heard a dreadful rumbling, like the beating of a drum. The air was calm, and the sky serene, except a few clouds, such as are frequently observed. This noise proceeded from a small cloud which had a rectangular form, the largest side being in a direction from east to west. It appeared motionless all the time that the phenomenon lasted; but the vapours of which it was composed were projected momentarily from different sides, by the effect of the successive explosions. This cloud was about half a league to the north-northwest of the town of L’Aigle. It was at a considerable elevation in the atmosphere, for the inhabitants of two hamlets, a league distant from each other, saw it at the same time above their heads. In the whole canton over which this cloud was suspended, there was heard a hissing noise like that of a stone discharged from a sling, and a great many mineral masses, exactly similar to those distinguished by the name of meteoric stones, were seen to fall. The district in which these masses were projected forms an elliptical extent of about two leagues and a half in length, and nearly one in breadth, the greatest dimension being in a direction from south-east to north-west, forming a declination of about 22 degrees. This direction, which the meteor must have followed, is exactly that of the magnetic meridian, which is a remarkable result. The greatest of these stones fell at the south-eastern extremity of the large axis of the ellipse, the middle-sized in the centre, and the smaller at the other extremity. Hence it appears that the largest fell first, as might naturally be supposed. The largest of all those that fell weighs seventeen pounds and a half. The smallest which I have seen weighs about two gros (a thousandth part of the last). The number of all those which fell is certainly above two or three thousand.”

Any one who compares the various accounts of the L’Aigle meteor with a critical eye, may detect some apparent contradictions, which, however, on reflection, will be found to be strictly conformable to the truth. Thus, according to some, the meteor had a rapid motion, others believed it stationary; some saw a very luminous ball of fire, others only an ordinary cloud. Spectators, in fact, viewed it in different positions with respect to its direction. They who happened to be in its line of motion would see it stationary, for the same reason that we fancy a ship under full sail to be motionless when we are placed in its wake, or when we view it from the harbour to which it is approaching in a straight line. They, on the other hand, who had a side view of the meteor, would reckon its progress more rapid, in proportion as their position approached to a right angle with its line of passage. They, again, who saw it from behind, as the inhabitants of L’Aigle, would perceive only the cloud of vapour which it left in its train, and which, in the dark, would figure like a blazing tail, in the same manner as the smoke of a volcano appears black during the day and red at night. Lastly, they who were placed in front of the meteor would reckon it stationary, but brilliant and cloudless.

It deserves to be remarked, that the L’Aigle stones were very friable for some days after their descent, that they gradually acquired hardness, and that after they had lost the sulphureous odour on their surface, they still retained it in their substances, as was found by breaking them. Professor Sage submitted them to several comparative trials with those of Ville-Franche; and, though the L’Aigle specimens present some globules of the size of a small coriander seed, of a darker gray than the mass, and not attractable by the magnet, yet, in respect of granular texture and general aspect, the coincidence was so striking as to lead one to suppose that they were all parts of the same mass. The L’Aigle stones, according to Μ. Fourcroy, are generally irregular, polygonal, often cuboid, sometimes sub-cuneiform, and exceedingly various in their diameter and weight. They are all covered with a black gravelly crust, consisting of a fused matter, and filled with small agglutinated grains of iron. The greater part of them are broken at the corners, either by their shock against each other, or by falling upon hard bodies. The internal parts resemble those of all the stones analyzed by Messrs Howard and Vauquelin, being gray, a little varied in their shades, granulated, and as it were scaly, split in many parts, and filled with brilliant metallic points, exactly of the same aspect as those of other stones of a like description. The proportions of their constituent materials are stated as nearly 54 silex, 36 oxidated iron, 9 magnesia, 3 nickel, 2 sulphur, and 1 lime, the five per cent, of increase arising from the oxidation of the metals produced by the analysis.

Of the two specimens which Μ. Biot presented to the celebrated Patrin, one was less compact, and of a lighter gray, than the other, and likewise exhibited small patches of a rust colour. When immersed in water, it gave out a hissing sound, like the humming of a fly which is held by one wing; and as it began to dry, it was observed to be marked by curvilineal and parallel layers. The more compact specimens, when moistened, presented no such appearances, but assumed the aspect of a gray porphyry, with a base of trap, mottled with small white spots, and speckled with metallic points.

That some of the relations to which we have referred are vague and unsatisfactory, cannot be denied; but the circumstantial testimony conveyed by others is pointed and positive; and the whole mass of historical proof especially when combined with the argument deduced from the identity of the physical and chemical constitution of the stones, appears to us to be altogether irresistible.

In the course of our inquiry into this novel and interesting subject, we have ascertained a variety of circumstances which render it highly probable, if not indubitable, that those detached masses of native iron, the history of which has so often staggered and perplexed the geologist, are only modifications of meteoric depositions. The Tartars, for example, ascribe the descent of the Siberian mass described by Chladni, Pallas, Patrin, and others, to a period that is lost in the remoteness of antiquity; and whilst tradition thus favours our hypothesis, the analogy which is obviously observable, in point of texture and chemical characters, with those of other solid bodies the fall of which is no longer questioned, strengthens tradition. According to the discoveries of Proust and Klaproth, native iron, reputed meteoric, differs from that which occurs in a fossil state by the presence of nickel. The former of these celebrated analysts obtained fifty grains of sulphate of nickel from a hundred of the South American mass, arid his results are corroborated by Mr Howard and the Count de Bonrnon.

Of the two pieces of Siberian iron possessed by Mr Greville, one, which was transmitted by Dr Pallas, weighs several pounds; and another presents a cellular and ramified texture, analogous to that of some very light and porous volcanic scoriae. When attentively examined, there may be perceived in it not only empty cells, but also impressions or cavities of greater or less depth, and in some of which there remains a transparent substance, of a yellowish-green colour. The iron itself is very malleable, and may be easily cut with a knife, or flattened under the hammer. The specific gravity is 6487, which is obviously inferior to that of unforged iron that has undergone fusion, and may be [7:14:713] partly owing to the oxidizement of the surface of the iron, and partly to the many minute cavities in its substance, which are often rendered visible by fracture, and which have their surface also oxidized. The fracture is shining and silvery, like that of white cast iron; but its grain is much smoother and finer, and it is much more malleable when cold. The heavier specimen is more solid and compact, exhibiting no cavities or pores, though its surface is ramified and cellular. So blended and incorporated is its compact part with the yellowish-green substance mentioned above, that if the whole of the latter could be subtracted, the remainder would consist of iron in the metallic state, and would display the same cellular appearance as the preceding specimen, or as the superficial portion of that now described. This stony part of the composition usually assumes the appearance of small nodules, generally of an irregular shape, but sometimes nearly globidar, with a smooth, shining, and glassy surface. This substance, which is always more or less transparent, is hard enough to cut glass, but makes no impression upon quartz. It becomes electric by friction, is very refractory, and varies in specific gravity from 3263 to 3300. Of all substances hitherto known, it approaches most to the peridot, or Wernerian chrysolite, which yielded to Μ. Klaproth nearly the same results which this substance did to Mr Howard. In the mass of iron it is liable to decomposition, changing to an opake white, and crumbling into a gritty dry powder when lightly pressed or squeezed between the fingers. “I cannot help observing,” says the Count de Bournon, “that there appears to exist a very interesting analogy between these transparent nodules and the globules I described as making part of the stones said to have fallen on the earth. This analogy, though not a very strong one, may lead us to suppose that the two substances are similar in their nature, but that the globules are less pure, and contain a greater quantity of iron.”

Although onr limits will not permit us to dwell with minuteness on the physical and chemical characters of meteorolites, we shall shortly state those which the Count de Bournon found to appertain to the specimens from Benares, and which may serve as no unfair standard of the aspect and composition of the others.

Like all of the same origin which were subjected to the count’s examination, the Benares stones are covered over the whole extent of their surface with a thin crust, of a deep black colour, sprinkled over with small asperities, which make it feel somewhat like shagreen or fish skin. Their fracture exhibits a grayish colour, and a granulated texture, like that of coarse gritstone. By the help of a lens, they are perceived to be composed of four different substances. One of these occurs in great abundance, in the form of small bodies, some of which are perfectly globular; others rather elongated or elliptical, and all of various sizes, from that of a small pin’s head to that of a pea, or nearly so. These small globules are usually gray, sometimes inclining much to brown, and always opake; they are easily broken in any direction, and have a conchoidal fracture, and a fine, smooth, compact grain, with a slight degree of lustre approaching to enamel; lastly, they can destroy the polish of glass without being able to cut it, and sparkle faintly when struck with steel. Another of these substances is martial pyrites, of an indeterminate form, and reddish-yellow colour, slightly verging to the nickel tint, or to that of artificial pyrites; of a somewhat I loosely granulated texture, and irregularly distinguished in the mass, being black when reduced to powder, and not attracted by the magnet. The third of these substances consists of small particles of iron, in a perfectly metallic state, so that they may be easily flattened or extended under the hammer; and, though in a much smaller proportion than the pyrites just mentioned, they impart the mag netic attraction to the stone. When a piece of the latter was pulverized, and the particles of iron separated from it as accurately as possible, by means of a magnet, they appeared to compose about two hundred parts of the weight of the stone. These three substances are united by means of a fourth, which is nearly of an earthy consistency, and of a whitish-gray colour. The black crust, or outward coating, though of very inconsiderable thickhess, emits bright sparks when struck with steel, may be broken by the hammer, and seems to possess the same properties with the black oxide of iron, although, like the substance of the stone, it is occasionally intermixed with small particles of iron in the metallic state. These are easily distinguished by passing a file over the crust, which reveals their lustre. The specific gravity of the Benares stone is 3352. None of them, when breathed on, emit the argillaceous odour.

In consequence of various experiments, Μ. Sage infers that meteorolites are composed of native iron, sulphuret of nickel, quartz or silica, alumina, and magnesia; that the proportions of iron and nickel vary; that the quartz seems to form at least one half of the stone, the alumina and magnesia the sixth, and the sulphur the thirtieth part. These general results pretty nearly accord with the more special reports of Howard and Vauquelin, except that the latter makes no mention of alumina, the existence of which in atmospherical stones is by no means distinctly ascertained.

We shall only beg leave to add, on this part of our subject, that Laugier, an ingenious chemist, by employing the caustic alkali, has detected a small portion of chrome. The results of his experiments, which are stated in the fifty-eighth volume of the Annales de Chimie, are, first, that the five stones from Verona, Barbotan, Ensisheim, L’Aigle, and the neighbourhood of Apt, besides the principles already recognised, contain about one per cent, of chrome; secondly, that it is exceedingly probable that all meteorolites contain this principle, since they all resemble one another in their physical and chemical properties, and have all, apparently, the same origin; and, thirdly, that in many cases the perfection of chemical analysis requires that the same substance should be treated both by acids and alkalies, since experience has shown, that a principle which eluded the former method has been revealed by the latter.

Having now, as we apprehend, sufficiently established the existence and nature of meteorolites, we hope that our readers will excuse us from enlarging on the various causes which have been assigned for their origin, as these seem to lie beyond the reach of our present state of knowledge. After a candid and patient review of the principal theories, we conceive that most of them are open to many and formidable objections.

The terrestrial hypotheses, we believe, begin already to be generally abandoned as untenable. Until the phenomenon of exploding meteors had been distinctly observed and recorded, Lemery and others could maintain, with some degree of plausibility, that lightning might tear up the ground, and convert soil into a compact mass. But the appearances of a thunder-storm and of a fire-ball are now ascertained to differ in various important particulars. Spectators worthy of credit have seen the latter terminate in the fall of solid bodies, and the composition of these solid bodies has been found to differ from that of all the known fossil substances on the surface of the globe. It is in vain, then, to allege that they are formed on the ground by common lightning, which has often produced very extraordinary effects, but which never generated thousands of stones in fine calm weather. The supposition that such stones have been projected from some of our volcanoes is hardly less conceivable. The ashes which accompany a violent eruption of Aetna or Vesuvius have, from their levity[7:14:714], been carried to a very considerable distance; but we are totally unacquainted with any projectile force which could dart solid masses many hundred miles through such a dense medium as the atmosphere. The compact lavas of burning mountains are never found remote from the scene of their formation, and none of them present the characters and aspect of the stones which we have described. Μ. Bory de St Vincent, indeed, in his Voyage dans les quatre Principales Isles des Mers d , Afrique, expounds a doctrine which, in our opinion, carries its confutation along with it. According to this writer, meteorolites were projected from immense depths, in an early stage of the earth’s existence, when ignivomous mountains were endued with propelling forces sufficient to drive masses of matter into the regions of space, where they were constrained to obey, for ages, the combined laws of impulse and gravitation, until, in the progress of time, their spiral revolutions at length terminated upon the surface of their native earth.

Of those who contend for the atmospherical formation of meteorolites, scarcely any two agree in regard to the manner in which such formation is effected. Patrin, who is solicitous to extend and illustrate his theory of volcanoes, labours at great length to maintain the existence of a regular circulation of gaseous fluids between the primitive schistose strata of the globe and its surrounding atmosphere, and, from this fancied circulation, which he flatters himself he has demonstrated, he deduces the occasional ignition and concretion of portions of these fluids in the higher regions of the air. This ingenious mineralogist and geologist is so extremely tenacious of these ideas that we shall not attempt to disturb his self-complacency; but he will excuse us if we refuse to assent to results which rest upon imaginary foundations. The celebrated Muschenbroeck, in one part of his writings, ascribes the descent of stones from the air to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, an opinion which later observations have disproved. In other passages, however, he seems to incline to a modification of the atmospherical hypothesis, and endeavours to trace the origin of shooting stars to an accumulation of the volatile matters which are suspended in the air. It is extremely probable, that shooting stars and fiery meteors have an intimate relation to one another, if they are not identical appearances; but it is certain that the former move at a much greater distance from our earth than fire-balls, and only occasion a transient luminous appearance in their passage through the upper regions of the atmosphere. Perhaps they are analogous to those telescopic sparks of light which were observed by Μ. Schröter. Muschenbroeck, however, adopts the vulgar notion of their falling to the earth, and seems to confound their residue with tremella nostoc. M. Salverte has given extension to the theory of formation from vapours, by having recourse to the agency of hydrogen gas. According to him, in consequence of the decomposition of water, which is constantly going on at the surface of the earth, immense quantities of hydrogen gas are continually rising into the atmosphere, and ascending to its higher regions. As this gas is capable of dissolving metals, it carries along with it a portion of iron and nickel. During thunder-storms this gas is kindled by electricity; the metals are deposited, reduced, melted, and vitrified; in other words, meteors are produced and stones formed. ∙But this hypothesis is scarcely more satisfactory than the others. It does not account for the presence of magnesia and silica, nor does it explain why the stones are always composed of the •same materials. Besides, the existence of hydrogen gas in the atmosphere has not been proved, far less that it forms a separate atmosphere, which is contrary to all experience; and it is well known, that a little hydrogen, mixed with a large portion of atmospheric air, cannot be fired by electricity. In general, we may observe, that if the origin of meteorolites be really atmospherical, the matters of which they are composed must have existed in one of two states, namely, in very attenuated particles or concretions of the matters themselves volatilized and held in solution in the air, or only in the elements of these matters. In the first case, when abandoned by their menstruum to their reciprocal tendencies, they would unite by aggregation only; in the second, by chemical combination. Now we can hardly suppose that disengagement of light and viol ent detonation should result from the mere affinity of aggregation, whereas they are strictly symptomatic of the affinity of composition. This, and various other considerations which might be stated, if we could make room for them, induce us to regard the doctrine of combination as the most plausible. Μ. Izarn, who has published a treatise on Atmospherical Lithology, has entered into a tedious and somewhat obscure exposition of his own theory, founded on this principle. We shall give the summary, as nearly as we can, in his own words.

“Gaseous substances, arranged in spherical masses in the upper regions of the air, being admitted, the various agitations of the atmosphere should naturally waft some of these masses from their insulating medium, into one capable of combining with them. If the combination begins, the disengagement of light is explained. In proportion as the combination advances, the specific gravities are changed; and, consequently, a change of place will commence, and that in the quarter which presents least resistance, or where the medium is most rarefied, in course rather towards the south than the north. Hence, most fire-balls are observed to move from north to south, or from northeast to south-west. Motion being once impressed, the mass traverses other media, capable of supplying new principles, which, still increasing the weight, determine the curve; and when at length the principles which are at work, and which issue in all directions, have attained the requisite proportion for extinguishing the elements in the birth of the compound, the grand operation is announced by the explosion, and the product takes its place among the solids.” That the stones in question are produced by chemical combination in the higher regions of the atmosphere, and that they are thus formed from their own elements, are suppositions fully as probable as any that have been advanced on the subject; but whether the union of their parts be effected in the manner detailed by Μ. Izarn we are unable to determine, both because we are uncertain if we perfectly comprehend his meaning, and because our range of data is as yet too circumscribed to warrant any specific or decisive conclusions.

A much bolder theory has been suggested, and its possibility demonstrated, by Laplace, who shows that meteorolites may be the products of lunar volcanoes. We shall present the reasoning upon which this extraordinary hypothesis is founded, in the popular and perspicuous language of Dr Hutton of Woolwich. The respect due to the name of Laplace will justify the length of the extract. “As the attraction of gravitation extends through the whole planetary system, a body placed at the surface of the moon is affected chiefly by two forces, one drawing it toward the centre of the earth, and another drawing it toward that of the moon. The latter of these forces, however, near the moon’s surface, is incomparably the greater. But as we recede from the moon, and approach toward the earth, this force decreases, whilst the other augments; till at last a point of station is found between the two planets, where these forces are exactly equal, so that a body placed there must remain at rest; but if it be removed still nearer to the earth, then this planet would have the superior attraction, and the body must fall towards it. If a body, then, be projected from the moon towards the earth, with a force [7:14:715] sufficient to carry it beyond the point of equal attraction, it must necessarily fall on the earth. Such, then, is the idea of the manner in which the bodies must be made to pass from the moon to the earth, if that can be done, the possibility of which is now necessary to be considered. Now, supposing a mass to be projected from the moon, in a direct line towards the earth, by a volcano, or by the production of steam by subterranean heat; and supposing, for the present, these two planets to remain at rest; then it has been demonstrated, on the Newtonian estimation of the moon’s mass, that a force projecting the body with a velocity of 12,000 feet in a second would be sufficient to carry it beyond the point of equal attraction. But this estimate of the moon’s mass is now allowed to be much above the truth; and, on Μ. Laplace’s calculation, it appears that a force of little more than half the above power would be sufficient to produce the effect, that is, a force capable of projecting a body with a velocity of less than a mile and a half per second. But we have known cannon balls projected by the force of gunpowder with a velocity of 2500 feet per second or upwards, that is, about half a mile. It follows, therefore, that a projectile force, communicating a velocity about three times that of a cannon ball, would be sufficient to throw the body from the moon beyond the point of equal attraction, and cause it to reach the earth. Now there can be little doubt that a force equal to that is exerted by volcanoes on the earth, as well as by the production of steam by subterranean heat, when we consider the huge masses of rock, so many times larger than cannon balls, thrown on such occasions to heights also so much greater. We may easily imagine, too, such cause of motion to exist in the moon as well as in the earth, and that in a superior degree, if we may judge from the supposed symptoms of volcanoes recently observed in the moon by the powerful tubes of Dr Herschel; and still more, if we consider that all projections from the earth suffer an enormous resistance and diminution by the dense atmosphere of this planet, whilst it has been rendered probable, from optical considerations, that the moon has little or no atmosphere at all, to give any such resistance to projectiles.

“Thus, then, we are fully authorized in concluding, that the case of possibility is completely made out; that a known power exists in nature, capable of producing the foregoing effect, of detaching a mass of matter from the moon, and transferring it to the earth in the form of a flaming meteor or burning stone: at the same time we are utterly ignorant of any other process in nature by which the same phenomenon can be produced. Having thus discovered a way in which it is possible to produce those appearances, we shall now endeavour to show,from all the concomitant circumstances, that these accord exceedingly well with the natural effects of the supposed cause, and thence give it a very high degree of probability.

“This important desideratum will perhaps be best attained by examining the consequences of a substance supposed to be projected by a volcano from the moon into the sphere of the earth’s superior attraction, and then comparing those with the known and visible phenomena of the blazing meteors or burning stones that fall through the air on the earth. And if in this comparison a striking coincidence or resemblance shall always or mostly be found, it will be difficult for the human mind to resist the persuasion that the assumed cause involves a degree of probability but little short of certainty itself. Now the chief phenomena attending these blazing meteors or burning stones are these: 1. That they appear or blaze out suddenly; 2. that they move with a surprisingly rapid motion, nearly horizontal, but a little inclined downwards; 3. that they move in several different directions with respect to the points of the compass; 4. that in their flight they yield a loud whizzing sound; 5. that they commonly burst with a vio∙ lent explosion and report; 6. that they fall on the earth with great force, in a sloping direction; 7. that they are very hot at first, remain hot a considerable time, and exhibit visible tokens of fusion on their surface; 8. that the fallen stony masses have all the same external appearance and contexture, as well as internally the same nature and composition; and, 9. that they are totally different from all our terrestrial bodies, both natural and artificial.

“Now these phenomena we shall proceed to compare with the circumstances of a substance projected by a lunar volcano, and in the order in which they are here enumerated. And, first, with respect to the leading circumstance, that of a sudden blazing meteoric appearance, which is not that of a small bright spark, first seen at an immense distance, and then gradually increasing with the diminution of its distance. And this circumstance appears very naturally to result from the assumed cause. For, the body being projected from a lunar volcano, may well be supposed in an ignited state, like inflamed matter thrown up by our terrestrial volcanoes, which, passing through the comparatively vacuum in the space between the moon and the earth’s sensible atmosphere,, it will probably enter the superior parts of this atmosphere with but little diminution of its original heat; from which circumstance, united with that of its violent motion, this being ten or twelve times that of a cannon ball, and through a part of the atmosphere probably consisting chiefly of the inflammable gas rising from the earth to the top of the atmosphere, the body may well be supposed to be suddenly inflamed, as the natural effect of these circumstances; indeed it would be surprising if it did not. From whence it appears, that the sudden inflammation of the body, on entering the earth’s atmosphere, is exactly what might be expected to happen.

“2. To trace the body through the earth’s atmosphere, we are to observe that it enters the top of it with the great velocity acquired by descending from the point of equal attraction, which is such as would carry the body to the earth’s surface in a very few additional seconds of time if it met with no obstruction. But, as it enters deeper in the atmosphere, it meets with still more and more resistance from the increasing density of the air, by which the great velocity of six miles per second must soon be greatly reduced to one that will be uniform, and only a small part of its former great velocity. This remaining part of its motion will be various in different bodies, being more or less as the body is larger or smaller, and as it is more or less specifically heavy; but, for a particular instance, if the body were a globe of twelve inches diameter, and of the same gravity as the atmospheric stones, the motion would decrease so as to be little more than a quarter of a mile per second of perpendicular descent. Now, whilst the body is thus descending, the earth itself is affected by a twofold motion, both the diurnal and the annual one, with both of which the descent of the body is to be compounded. The earth’s motion of rotation at the equator is about seventeen miles in a minute, or two sevenths of a mile in a secs ι nd; but in the middle latitudes of Europe little more than the half of that, or little above half a quarter of a mile, in a second; and if we compound this motion with that of the descending body, as in mechanics, this may cause the body to appear to descend obliquely, though but a little, the motion being nearer the perpendicular than the horizontal direction. But the other motion of the earth, or that in its annual course, is about twenty miles in a second, which is eighty times greater than the perpendicular descent in the instance above mentioned; so that, if this motion be compounded with the descending one of the body, it must necessarily give it the appearance pf a very rapid motion in a direction nearly parallel to the horizon, but a little declining downwards; a circumstance [7:14:716] which exactly agrees with the appearances of these meteoric bodies, as stated in the second article of the enumerated phenomena.

“3. Again, with regard to the apparent direction of the body; this will evidently be various, being that compounded of the body’s descent and the direction of the earth’s annual motion at the time of the fall, which is itself various in the different seasons of the year, according to the direction of the several points of the ecliptic to the earth’s meridian or axis. Usually, however, from the great excess of the earth’s motion above that of the falling body, the direction of this must appear to be nearly opposite to that of the former. And, in fact, this exactly agrees with a remark made by Dr Halley, in his account of the meteors in his paper above given, where he says that the direction of the meteor’s motion was exactly opposite to that of the earth in her orbit. And if this shall generally be found to be the case, it will prove a powerful confirmation of this theory of the lunar substances. Unfortunately, however, the observations on this point are very few, and mostly inaccurate; the angle or direction of the fallen stones has not been recorded; and that of the flying meteor commonly mistaken, all the various observers giving it a different course, some even directly the reverse of others. In future, it will be very advisable that the observers of fallen stones observe and record the direction or bearing of the perforation made by the body in the earth, which will give us perhaps the course of the path nearer than any other observation.

“4. In the flight of these meteoric stones, it is commonly observed that they yield a loud whizzing sound. Indeed it would be surprising if they did not. For if the like sound be given by the smooth and regularly-formed cannon ball, and heard at a considerable distance, how exceedingly great must be that of a body so much larger, which is of an irregular form and surface, too, and striking the air with fifty or a hundred times the velocity.

“5. That they commonly burst and fly in pieces in their rapid flight, is a circumstance exceedingly likely to happen, both from the violent state of fusion on their surface, and from the extreme rapidity of their motion through the air. If a grinding-stone, from its quick rotation, be sometimes burst, and fly in pieces, and if the same thing happen to cannon balls when made of stone and discharged with considerable velocity, merely by the friction and resistance of the air, how much more is the same to be expected to happen to the atmospheric stones, moving with more than fifty times the velocity, and when their surface may well be supposed to be partly loosened of dissolved by the extremity of the heat there.

“6. That the stones strike the ground with a great force, and penetrate to a considerable depth, as is usually observed, is a circumstance only to be expected from the extreme rapidity of their motion and their great weight, when we consider that a cannon ball or a mortar shell will often bury itself many inches, or even some feet, in the earth.

“7. That these stones, when soon sought after and found, are hot, and exhibit the marks of recent fusion, are also the natural consequences of the extreme degree of inflammation in which their surface had been put during their flight through the air.

“8. That these stony masses have all the same external appearance and contexture, as well as internally the same nature and composition, are circumstances that strongly point out an identity of origin, whatever may be the cause to which they owe so generally uniform a conformation. And when it is considered,

“9. That in those respects they differ totally from all terrestrial compositions hitherto known or discovered, they lead the mind strongly to ascribe them to some other origin than the earth we inhabit; and none so likely as coming from our neighbouring planet.

“Upon the whole, then,” continues Dr Hutton, “it appears highly probable that the flaming meteors and the burning stones that fall on the earth are one and the same thing. It also appears impossible, or in the extremest degree improbable, to ascribe these either to a formation in the superior parts of the atmosphere, or to the eruptions of terrestrial volcanoes, or to the generation by lightning striking the earth. But, on the other hand, that it is possible for such masses to be projected from the moon so as to reach the earth, and that all the phenomena of these meteors or falling stones, having a surprising conformity with the circumstances of masses that may be expelled from the moon by natural causes, unite in forming a body of strong evidence that this is in all probability actually the case.”

Μ. Poisson, a very ingenious French mathematician, has shown, by an algebraical calculation, the possibility of a projectile reaching our planet from the moon. His calculation, however, which may be found in the work of Izarn, quoted above, proceeds on the supposition that our satellite has no atmosphere, or next to none. There are, no doubt, appearances which seem to favour this supposition, but they do not amount to positive proof of the fact. Even could the latter be established, the combustion of a volcano without the presence of atmospherical air would remain to be explained. But, granting that this difficulty were surmounted, there are other circumstances which we cannot easily reconcile to the lunar hypothesis. The occasional arrival of fragments of lava upon the earth’s surface would argue, on a fair computation of chances, such a copious discharge of volcanic matters, that the moon, by this time, would consist of hardly any thing else. Again, if we may be allowed to reason from analogy, the volcanic productions of the moon should exhibit varieties of aspect and composition like those with which we are acquainted, and not a definite and precise number of the same ingredients. We may also remark, that the soft and incoherent state of several of the recent specimens of meteorolites but ill accord with their supposed passage through any considerable portion of space; and that the L’Aigle phenomenon, which is so distinctly recorded, evidently suggests the notion of instantaneous formation in the atmosphere. And though this view of the subject may be regarded by some as inexplicable, we cannot conceive that it is more so than the doctrine of crystallization, or than many of the results of chemical combination, the existence of which it is impossible to deny. These and other arguments· may, we apprehend, be fairly urged against any theory which attempts to explain the history of meteors by the agency of lunar volcanoes.

The hypothesis of Dr Chladni, which likewise boasts of its advocates, though still more startling than the preceding, deserves to be stated. As earthy, metallic, and other particles, form the principal component parts of our planet, amongst which iron is the prevailing part, other planetary bodies, he affirms, may consist of similar, or perhaps the same component parts, though combined and modified in a very different manner. There may also be dense matters accumulated in smaller masses, without being in immediate connection with the larger planetary bodies, dispersed throughout infinite space, and which being impelled either by some projecting power or attraction, continue to move until they approach the earth or some other body, when, being overcome by attractive force, they immediately fall down. By their exceeding great velocity, which is increased by the attraction of the earth and the violent friction in the atmosphere, a strong electricity and heat must necessarily be excited, by which means they are reduced to a flaming and melted condition, and great quantities of vapour and different kinds of gases are thus disengaged, which distend the liquid mass to a monstrous size, until, by [7:14:717] still further expansion of these elastic fluids, they must at length displode. That portions of cosmical matter are allowed to revolve in space, and to terminate their career on the surface of a planet, is a position too gratuitous and vague to be readily admitted, but the belief of which involves no principle of atheism or impiety, as some of Dr Chladni’s antagonists have very unhandsomely insinuated. If worlds disappear, and others spring into existence, a sportive imagination may be permitted to indulge in the innocent supposition that fragments of their materials are detached from their fractured masses, and obey those laws of attraction which seem to extend their influence to the remotest corners of the universe.

For further information on the subject of this article, see Izarn’s Lithologie Atmosphérique; Biot’s Relation d’un Voyage fait dans le Departement de l' Orne, pour constater la réalité d’un Météore observé à L'Aigle; Böttiger’s Observations on the Accounts given by Ancient Authors, of Stones said to have fallen from the Clouds ; Fulda’s Memoir on Fire-Balls ; Cavallo’s Elements of Natural Philosophy; Klaproth on Meteoric Stones; Soldani’s Account of the Tuscan Meteor ; Chladni’s Treatise on the Siberian Mass of Iron ; Mr Edward King’s Remarks concerning Stones said to have fallen from the Clouds ; and the Transactions of several learned societies. (ι. ι.1.1.)