Von Hoff on the Origin of Meteoric Stones. 303 



fically proved." This is perfectly correct ; but, he continues, 

 " the certain knowledge which we at present believe ourselves 

 to possess, was originally grounded on the duly accredited fall 

 of a stone, on the 13th December 1795, in England, viz. at 

 Woodcottage in Yorkshire. Howard, who, a few years after- 

 wards, undertook the examination of this, and several other 

 presumed meteoric stones, found that they agreed in appearance 

 and composition, but that they differed distinctly from minerals 

 of terrestrial derivation." Further, " Howard communicated 

 the results of his investigation, in the year 1802, to the Royal 

 Society of London. They excited universal attention," &c. 



This is also at least substantially correct ; but Berzelius has 

 passed over in silence the following facts relative to the early 

 history of the subject. 



In the year 1794, at the Easter Leipzig Fair, therefore 

 at a time when this great phenomenon attracted the attention 

 of no one, was to many altogether unknown, and by those who 

 possessed information on the matter was regarded as a fable or 

 a superstition, at that period appeared Chladni's well-known 

 tract, on the origin of the mass of iron found by Pallas, and of 

 other similar bodies, &c. 



In that essay Chladni endeavoured to prove that stony masses 

 might fall from the air, and that the well-known phenomenon 

 of fire-balls was identical with such falls of stones. He adduced 

 many accounts, which had previously been regarded as fabu- 

 lous, of falls of stones whose products were still preserved in 

 collections ; and he asserted that the Pallas iron was such a 

 mass, an opinion which corresponded with the prevailing tradi- 

 tion among the inhabitants of the Ural. Among the examples 

 brought forward by Chladni, in which the period of the fall of 

 the mass was known, and the products still preserved, the most 

 remarkable were the falls of Eichstadt and of Agram, while the 

 most modern were those of Alboreto, in the year 1766, and of 

 Luze on the 13th September 1768. 



No other philosopher had, at that time, dedicated his at- 

 tention to this phenomenon, and Chladni was not able to quote 

 any more recent falls. That distinguished man, endowed with 

 all the requisite attainments for the investigation of the ques- 

 tion, was the first who combined the then existing data in one 



