On the Ong'm cyf Metc&ric Stones. ^ 



pie is given in a note, p. 97. To reconcile this appearance 

 with his hypothesis, he 6U})pgses the mass, in this instance, to 

 have reached the atmosphere in the state of dust, and then first 

 to have been formed into a compact fire-ball, on this body of 

 dust becoming inflamed by its entrance into the atmosphere. I 

 doubt whether this supposition can be maintained ; for it ap- 

 pears to me incomprehensible how this cloud of dust should be 

 united into one body, although each particle were melted, since 

 the attraction of cohesion, which alone could bring about such 

 a concentration, only operates when in contact, or at inconceiv- 

 ably short distances, but which, at the smallest finite distance, is 

 incomparably weaker than gravitation. Such a concentration 

 could, therefore, only be affected by some external power acting 

 mechanically to bring the particles into contact. It is not at all 

 intelligible, however, whence such a power can be derived, es- 

 pecially since the glowing heat of the separate particles must ne- 

 cessarily produce a pressure of the air in all directions. On the 

 contrary, this appearance coincides so well with our hypothesis, 

 that it seems as if nature had been observed in the great labora- 

 tory of the atmosphere, in the act of forming a fire-ball or me- 

 teoric stone. For should one kind of electricity have sufficiently 

 accumulated at any particular place, and vapours at same time be 

 present, susceptible of reduction by electricity, unquestionably 

 the first effect would consist in the electricity being diffused with 

 the rapidity of lightning through the whole, and making it lu- 

 minous by the commencement of the reduction, whereby a faint 

 but extensive illumination must be produced. Such an exten- 

 sive illumination having, it may be, a diameter of several de- 

 grees, may, as has already been shewn at a height of perhaps 

 more than twenty miles (93 Eng.), contain matter for the great- 

 est meteoric stones. The illumination, however, cannot be of 

 long continuance, for, as soon as the reduction is complete, the 

 attraction of cohesion, on account of the intimate connexion of 

 all parts of the vapour, would then act with its whole force, and 

 speedily collect the whole into a compact body. 



I confess, therefore, that my hypothesis of the origin of me- 

 teoric stones, notwithstanding many remaining difficulties, ap- 

 pears to me to be more satisfactory than every other, partly be- 

 cause it presupposes nothing miraculous, nor beyond the reach 



