ON METEORIC STONES. 3 



mention it as having occurred at various times, and later ages 

 have recorded the time and authenticated circumftances of 

 feveral fuch incidents. In ourowndays, (tones or mineral bodies 

 termed meteoric, have been collected in the Eaft Indies, 

 America, Scotland, England, France, Italy, Hungary, and and in all parts 

 laftly in Spain : and that nothing may be wanting in future to * 



convince thofe who refufe their aflfent to the united teftimony 

 of all ages and all countries, nature appears to have purpofely 

 ordered a repetition of this furprifing phenomenon: no longer 

 ago than the 26th of April, 1803, a (bower of thefe (tones Shower of ftones 

 covered a fpace of ground two miles long and above a mile ln l8o 3» 

 broad, near l'Aigle in Normandy. The French Inftitute im- 

 mediately nominated a eommiffioner, to examine into the fact 

 on the fpot, to take the depofitions of witneffes, compare 

 them with the circumftances, and bring forae of the (tones to 

 Paris. 



As the firft thing to be done with a new mineralogical fub- AnaJyfis of 

 itance, is, to analyfe it, the Prefident of the Royal Society of J^f ^ ! 

 London, and feveral other gentlemen who had fuch (tones in Howard, 

 their collections, put them into the hands of Mr. Howard, a 

 Member of the Society, that he might fubject them to chemical 

 examination. He found to his great furprife, that all thefe who found them 



ftones, from the remoteft quarters of the globe, contained ^ f lnlllar "* 

 .1 r • • i i'/r • i • ,• i . their comyofi- 



the lame principles, differing only in proportion; and, what tion. 



was (till more ftriking, that they all contained iron combined 



with nickel, a compound to be met with among none of the 



minerals in any part of the globe with which we are acquainted, 



Vauquelin has (ince confirmed by repeated experiments, the 



accuracy of Mr. Howard's observations. All men of fcience They have 



have hence been led to conclude, that thefe ftones muft have therefore a 



a common origin; but whence they originate is the queftion. comminon S in > 



Do they belong to that earth on which they fall? are they but whence ? 



formed in the atmofphere itfelf? or have they been projected 



from lunar volcanoes ? On thefe points men's fentiments are 



divided ; and the arguments have been collected by Dr. Izarn, 



in his Lithologie Atmofpherique. 



One of thefe ftones has been in the royal collection at ° n * Jn tne co ** 



Madrid -ever fince 1773. This the minitter has allowed MaS" 



Mr. P. to analyfe, leaving the principal part of it ftill in the 



collection for the fatisfaction of the curious. The following 



letter was fent with it to Don Manuel de P^oda, Minifter of 



State, by the captain-general of SaragofTa, 



B2 *« In 



