at Launton, in Ox/brdshire. ' 141 



" When the portions which are thus detached arrive within 

 the sphere of the Earth's attraction, they may revolve round 

 that body at different distances, and may fall upon its surface 

 in consequence of a diminution of their centrifugal force ; or, 

 being struck by the electric fluid, they may be precipitated on 

 the Earth, and exhibit all the phenomena which usually ac- 

 company the descent of meteoric stones. Hence we perceive 

 the reason why the fall of these bodies is sometimes attended 

 witli explosions, and sometimes not ; and why they generally 

 fall obliquely, and sometimes horizontally ; a direction which 

 they never could assume if they descended from a state of 

 rest in the atmosphere, or had been projected from volcanoes 

 on the surface of the earth." 



1 do not presume to determine the question, but it requires 

 no great stretch of credulity or imagination to attribute their 

 formation to the transmuting powers of electricity, without tra- 

 velling out of our own orbit for a solution of the difficulty. 

 In the great laboratory of the atmosphere, electricity being 

 the chemist, changes may possibly occur attended by the 

 formation of iron and other metals from the consolidation 

 of simple elementary substances ; and this conjecture is 

 strengthened by the fact of the uniform connection of meteoric 

 phenomena with electro-magnetism ; and of the remarkable 

 coincidence that no other metals are found in meteoric stones 

 but those four only which possess the magnetic virtue, viz. 

 iron, nickel, chromium, and cobalt. When we see the ele- 

 ments of potash newly arranged by the galvanic battery, and 

 assuming the metallic form and qualities of potassium, can we 

 doubt the possibility of more astonishing productions being 

 formed with the great battery of Nature ? 



I am, Sir, yours, &c. -"' 



Buckingham, May 28. 1830. William Stowe. 



The portion of the stone received was operated on by Dr. 

 Turner, Professor of Chemistry in the London University, 

 who could not detect in it either nickel or chromium, owing, 

 as the professor observes, " rather to the minute quantity of 

 stone operated upon, than to the total absence of these m^- 

 tsih:' — Cond, 



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