Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 501 



printed for distribution among the Proprietors of the Institution and 

 other attendants on the Lectures. It contains indications of certain 

 views on the subjects of the Course, to which I may hereafter have 

 occasion to refer. 



Lecture I. Thursday, November 11, 1841. — Introduction: con- 

 nexion of the subject with that of the course on Igneous Geology 

 delivered last year ; the operation of Heat on certain kinds of matter, 

 whether in Meteors or in the crust of the earth, produces crystalline 

 mineral aggregates or rocks. History of our knowledge respecting 

 Meteorites or Meteoric rocks. The fall from the heavens of stones 

 and blocks of iron recorded by the historians and naturalists of 

 Classical Antiquity and the Middle Ages. The statements of those 

 and subsequent writers disbelieved in more recent times ; but their 

 truth demonstrated, and the descent of such bodies from Igneous 

 Meteors established as a fact in science early in the present cen- 

 tury. Fall of a large stone in Yorkshire in 1795 — of a shower of 

 stones from a Meteor, near Benares, in India, in 1798 — of a shower 

 of several thousand stones at L'Aigle, in Normandy, in 1803. 



Lecture II. Nov. 18. — Phenomena of those Meteors which as- 

 sume the form of Balls of Fire, and are thence called Igneous Meteors 

 and Fire-Balls. The Meteor which passed over Great Britain in 

 1783 taken as an example. Figure and aspect of Igneous Meteors 

 in general, with pictorial illustrations. Their light more intense 

 than that from any other source except the Sun : their velocity equal 

 to that of the planets and relatively much greater. Their height 

 above the Earth's surface — their explosions — the luminous tracks 

 they leave in the sky. Some throw down red-hot stones, others 

 blocks of iron. Fall of a shower of stones from a great Meteor 

 which appeared in North America in 1807. More recent instances 

 in India, Russia, Germany, the British Islands, the South Sea Islands, 

 Brazil, and Southern Africa. The most recent authenticated in- 

 stance — that of a large stone which fell at Chateau-Renard, near Or- 

 leans, on the 12th of June, 1841. Other Phenomena attending the 

 fall of Meteorites described and illustrated. 



Lecture III. Nov. 25. — The nature of Meteoric Stones, their 

 mineralogical characters and constitution, and chemical composition, 

 illustrated by specimens. The immense blocks of metallic iron, some 

 many tons in weight, found on the surface of the earth in various 

 countries, especially in Africa and America, all cast down by Me- 

 teors. Observed fall of such a block, in Hungary, in 1751. The 

 peculiar nature of Meteoric Iron illustrated. Meteoric stones and 

 iron form one class or series of bodies, collectively termed Meteo- 

 rites, or Meteoric rocks. Some meteorites mineralogically identical 

 with certain volcanic rocks : these two classes of rocks still perfectly 

 distinct : both of igneous origin, but the production of the one at- 

 tended by meteoric phamomena in the atmosphere or the planetary 

 spaces, and of the other by volcanic phenomena within the Earth's 

 crust. Final illustrations of the peculiar characters of Meteorites. 



Lecture IV. Dec. 2. — The problem of the origin of Meteorites 



