270 Dr. Reynolds on Meteors. 
their influence.* The exterior strata of the earth, and espe- 
cially the more exposed parts thereof, envelope in their com- 
pounds, elements of an aeisike of character with those com- 
posing meteoric stones. 
‘The atmosphere is the great recipient of all volatilized bo- 
Sian; it possesses but feebly the powers of a solvent, unaided 
by heat or moisture, but’ when these are adjuvants, no body in 
nature can totally resist their action for a long time. 
Now if the above principles are admitted, we have in their 
application a reasonable solution of most meteoric phenomena. 
Thus, the rays of the sun darting through the atmosphere 
reach the surface of the earth, where by accumulation, they 
produce sensible heat, which though not intense, is steady and 
uniform, for many hours every day; minute portions of the 
earthy and metallic compounds exposed to the sun’s influence, 
will be volatilized by the absorption of heat, and thereby assum: 
ing the state of elastic fluids, will ascend until they arrive at 
media of their own density. The atmosphere in contact, will 
have some of its particles blended in these compounds, = 
common occurrences of na 
- The utmost height to which these elastic fluids ascend; may 
be estimated at something more than one hundred miles; and 
they float at every intermediate distance between their great 
est elevation and the clouds, but rarely below the: latter, &© 
cept their course is directed towards the earth: in’their expl 
sions. They probably ascend at first in small daily detached 
portions of ‘gaseous clouds, and are diffused over wide regions: 
but having no sensible resistance opposed to their mutual at 
traction, they will by the laws of their affinities congre egate 
immense volumes of highly concentrated elastic fluids, which 
‘Here we might properly enough notice the high-ways, streets, and pe" 
ments of cities, &e. on which the materials being minutely divided by, att 
cumstances of heat. 
