302 Von Hoff on the Origin of Meteoric Stones. 



are sometimes seen through telescopes, may partly be ejected 

 masses, partly such newly formed bodies as we have mentioned, 

 none of which reach the earth. But regarding such speculations 

 I do not wish to proceed beyond reasonable limits. It now 

 only remains for me to recapitulate briefly the result of the pre- 

 ceding considerations, and to express concisely the view which I 

 have formed on this subject. 



The hypothesis of the formation of meteoric stones within the 

 limits of the atmosphere, and by the sole agency of that ter- 

 restrial atmosphere, and the matter contained in it, seems to 

 me to be unsatisfactory. But, whether the earth's atmosphere 

 has not some share in the production of these bodies ; whether 

 the finding solid matter in rain, and the atmosphere, indicates 

 a connection by means of that matter between the earth, the re- 

 gion of the atmosphere, and space, a connection which admits 

 of a reciprocal operation of phenomena, extending upwards to 

 a great height ; these are questions which I cannot directly 

 answer in the negative. 



It appears to me that all the phenomena of meteoric stones 

 are not sufficiently explained by the hypothesis which regards 

 them as of lunar origin. 



From the information we at present possess, I am much more 

 inclined to regard, as in some degree sufficient to explain the 

 phenomena satisfactorily, or at least tolerably well, that hypo- 

 thesis, according to which, meteoric masses are not originally 

 solid fragments, which have been torn away and violently pro- 

 jected from their rocky beds ; but bodies which, at the instant 

 of the occurrence of the meteoric phenomena of the light and the 

 explosion, are, by the agency of a great physico-chemical process, 

 newly formed from incoherent, and probably gaseous materials, 

 and by the same cause solidified, and which descend to the earth's 

 surface when this, still to us obscure process, takes place within 

 the sphere of attraction of our globe. 



In conclusion, I cannot refrain from adding a few remarks 

 on the historical sketch given by Berzelius, of the views which 

 have at different periods prevailed regarding the phenomena of 

 aerolites. 



Berzelius says, " It is only since the commencement of the 

 present century, that the occasional descent to the earth of 

 larger or smaller masses of stone, has been regarded as scienti- 



