METEORITES IN ANCIENT AND MODERN TIMES. 363 



Chladni even went so far as to suggest that these masses 

 were bodies of the same sort as those which produce the 

 appearance of a shooting star in their passage through the air. 



He subsequently fortified his views by an enumeration 

 of a great number of reported falls of stone from the sky 

 in ancient and mediaeval times, of which I have quoted 

 ■several above. 



Of course Chladni's theory was not accepted — it was so 

 improbable, and his arguments seemed to be only based 

 upon the difficulty of accounting for the presence of this 

 particular mass of iron in Siberia in any other way. His 

 contemporaries regarded the essay as an ingenious but 

 unconvincing piece of work. 



Fall of the Sienna Stone. 



Immediately after the appearance of Chladni's paper, 

 .however, a remarkable event took place at Sienna in Tuscany 

 ■on 1 6th June, 1794, at 7 o'clock in the evening. 



The event is thus described in the following letter from 

 the Earl of Bristol to Sir William Hamilton which has been 

 ■often quoted. 



"In the midst of a most violent thunderstorm about a 

 ■dozen stones of various weights and dimensions fell at the 

 feet of different persons, men, women and children. The 

 .stones are of a quality not found in any part of the Siennese 

 territory ; they fell about eighteen hours after the enormous 

 •eruption of Mount Vesuvius ; which circumstance leaves a 

 •choice of difficulties in the solution of this extraordinary 

 phenomenon. Either these stones have been generated in 

 this igneous mass of clouds which produced such unusual 

 •thunder ; or — which is equally incredible — they were thrown 

 from Vesuvius at a distance of at least 250 miles : judge then 

 •of its parabola. The philosophers here incline to the first 

 .solution. I wish much, sir, to know your sentiments. My 

 first objection was to the fact itself, but of this there are 

 .so many eye-witnesses it seems impossible to withstand 

 their evidence." 



Sir Wm. Hamilton [Phil. Trans., 85, p. 103), after 

 ■quoting this letter says : — 



" The outside of every stone that has been found, and 



