140 Fall of a Meteoric Stone 



other competent person, for minute analysis, and for confirm- 

 ation of its celestial origin. The stone itself is now in the 

 possession of the Rev. Dr. Lee of Hartwell House, near 

 Aylesbury. Had I been so fortunate as to have obtained it, I 

 should have deposited it in the Ashmolean Museum at Ox- 

 ford, as being a county curiosity, worthy of a place in that 

 valuable, and now scientifically arranged, collection. 



There has been great diversity of opinion among scientific 

 men as to the origin of these bodies, whose reality is placed 

 beyond doubt by historical records, competently authenti- 

 cated, in almost every part of the globe. By some they have 

 been supposed to be ejected from volcanoes on the earth or in 

 the moon ; and it has been estimated that, if impelled from 

 the moon at the rate of a mile and a half in a second, which 

 is about three times the velocity of a cannon ball, they would 

 be driven beyond the sphere of her attraction, and enter our 

 atmosphere in about two days, with a velocity of about 25,000 

 feet in a second. Their ignition is accounted for on this hy- 

 pothesis, by supposing that sufficient heat would be generated 

 by their rapid passage through our atmosphere, or by re- 

 garding them as combustible bodies ignited by mere contact 

 of air. 



Dr. Brewster, who regards them as having a common origin 

 with the four new planets, Ceres, Pallas, Juno, and Vesta, 

 states that they are fragments of a planet formerly existing 

 between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars. He says : " When 

 the cohesion was overcome by the action of explosive force, 

 a number of little masses, detached along with the greater 

 masses, would, on account of their smallness, be projected 

 with very great velocity ; and, being thrown beyond the at- 

 traction of the larger fragments, might fall to the Earth when 

 Mars happened to be in the remote part of his orbit. The 

 central parts of the original planet being kept in a state of 

 high compression by the superincumbent weight, and this 

 compressing force being removed by the destruction of the 

 body, a number of smaller fragments might be detached from 

 the larger masses by a force similar to the first. These frag- 

 ments will evidently be thrown off with the greatest velocity, 

 and will always be separated from those parts which formed 

 the central portion of the primitive planet. The detached 

 fragments, therefore, which are projected beyond the attrac- 

 tion of the larger masses, must always have been torn from 

 the central parts of the original body; and it is capable of 

 demonstration, that the superficial or stratified parts of the 

 planet could never be projected from the fragments which 

 they accompany. 



