Natural History. 449 
of the explosion he saw the meteor burst, and fragments passing 
to the side opposed to that of the storm. The explosion was 
neither accompanied nor preceded by lightning, or any other 
luminous appearance. After his alarm had subsided, he ex- 
amined the place, about twelve steps off, where the explo-~ 
sion took place; he found a round hole in the pavé, the sur- 
face was smoked, and the bottom held the pieces of a stone, 
black at the surface, gray within, granular, friable, and with 
various brilliant points, and ferruginous threads in the metallic 
state ; it was depressed on its inferior surface, and rounded on 
other parts. Its size was about that of a six-pounder shot. 
He thought, at first, it was hot, but having moistened it, found 
its heat very supportable. At the moment this phenomenon 
happened the storm was near the zenith; the thunder sounded 
before and after with the greatest force, and the rain fell with 
more violence. 
After examination shewed that the soil where the aérolite 
fell was sandy, and contained no stones like those that had 
fallen. The evidence of all the inhabitants also went to prove 
that the air was calm at the time, so that no whirlwind could 
have carried the stone with it. If this relation is exact, and it 
seems well authenticated, for it is attested by the Mayor of 
Baffe, by Nicolas Etienne, Sc., itbecomes a question whether, in 
this case, the aérolite had its origin from the storm, or whether 
it was mere accident that they occurred simultaneously, or whe- 
ther there was any general cause for the two effects. It is also 
important to know what the nature of this aérolite is. On all of, 
which points we shall probably have information from the French 
philosophers shortly.— Ann. de Chim, xxi. 17. 
4. Remarkable Aérolite.—Signor Angelo Bellani, of Pavia, 
has published an essay in the Giornale di Fisica, v. p. 47, ‘¢ on 
the fall of an ancient aérolite,” not mentioned in catalogues. 
Besides the hypothesis advanced, the following is a principal 
feature in the account, and is extracted from a work in the Set- 
talian Museum, published at Tortona in 1677, under the title 
of “ Museo o Galeria adunato dal sapere e dallo studio del Sig. 
Canonico-Manfredo Settala nobile Milanese, descritta in Italiano 
da Pietro Francesco Scarabelli. Tortona, 1677.” Settala was 
still living, aged 84, as we read on the portrait prefixed to this 
edition. 
In the 18th chap. of this book is the following passage: “It 
seems evidently demonstrated that thunder ought to be attributed 
to a solid and stony substance, and not to an exhalation of any 
kind ; as is proved by one of those stones projected from the 
clouds, which struck with sudden death a Franciscan friar of 
Santa Maria della Pace, at Milan, and which is open to the 
inspection of every body in our Museum. I will relate the cir- 
Vot. XIV, 2G 
