,*?98 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles, 



FALL OF A METEORITE IN INDIA, ON THE 8TH OF JUNE 1834. 



VV^e extract the following from the Proceedings of the Asiatic So- 

 ciety of Bengal, as given in the Journal of that Society, No. 32, for 

 August 1 834 :— 



** Read the following extracts of a letter from the Reverend R. 

 Everest regarding the fall of an aerolite at Hissar. 



** * Having seen in the possession of Mrs. Metcalfe of Delhi a frag- 

 ment of meteoric stone, which she informed me had lately fallen near 

 Hissar, I wrote to Capt. Parsons, Supt. H. C. Stud there, for parti- 

 culars, and have now the pleasure of sending his answer to you. The 

 fragment 1 have seen bears the usual external characters of meteoric 

 stone, has the same specific gravity, viz. '^'^, and aifects the magnet. 

 There can therefore be no doubt of the fact. Rob. Everest. 



Extract of a letter from Captain Parsons, dated Hissar, 2nd Aug. 1834. 



" * I hasten to give you all the information 1 possess relative to the 

 meteoric stone. It fell on the 8th of June (as far as I could ascer- 

 tain), at Charwallas, a village 23 coss west of this ; about 8 o'clock 

 in the morning the sky was cloudy and the weather gusty, or ap- 

 proaching to a north-wester, but no rain j very loud thunder, similar 

 to constant discharges of heavy artillery, was heard for about half an 

 hour before it fell, and in the direction with the wind to a great di- 

 stance; when the stone fell it was accompanied by a trembling noise 

 similar to a running fire of guns. It fell in the jungle close to a palee 

 (or herdsman), who was out with his cattle. The original weight of 

 the stone was 1 2 seers } but before my man reached the place, it had 

 been broken and pieces taken away to Bikaneer, Puttialah, &c. The 

 piece 1 have is upwards of 4 seers, and if you would like to send it to 

 Calcutta, you are most welcome to it, and I will send it to you, should 

 you wish for it.' " 



QUERIES ON SOME POINTS CONNECTED WITH THE UNDULA- 

 TORY THEORY. BY A CORRESPONDENT. 



To the Editors of the Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science. 

 Gentlemen, 



As every fact connected with the theory of light has at the pre- 

 sent day assumed an unusual degree of interest from the contro- 

 versy so much agitated between the corpuscular and undulatory 

 theories, I shall be excused, I trust, in offering, through the me- 

 dium of your Journal, a query as to one fact apparently having a 

 close bearing upon the question at issue. 



The fact 1 allude to is mentioned by Mr. Potter in a paper in 

 this Journal, Third Series, vol. ii. p. 279, viz. that when a right- 

 angled prism has its hypotenusal side pressed against a lens, the 

 central black spot of Newton's rings remains visible even in the 

 middle of the total reflection : hence Mr. Potter infers that the 

 rings cannot be formed by interference ; because, 1 presume, he 

 supposes no light can be transmitted through the base of the prism 

 at that part where total reflection takes place. 



Now the query I wish to propose, which, perhaps, some of your 

 optical readers will answer, is this: Is not this supposition un- 



