72 On the Origin of Stones 



teors, given in the sixth volume of the Abridgment of the 

 Philosopiiical Transactions, now publishing. 



Dr. Hailcy takes it tor gianted that the luminous bodies 

 sometimes ?een in the atmosphere are merely unkindled 

 vapours. Dr. Hutton observes, that "^ the difficulty, not 

 to say impossibility of conceiving how any exhalations 

 could be raised so high, ought to have hinted the idea of 

 some other origm," and then proceeds as follows : 



" Later observations have niduced a belief that these 

 luminous appearances are allied to, if not the same as, the 

 stones which have frequently been known to fall from the 

 atmosphere, at different tuTies, and in all parts of'the earth. 

 Several of the phsenomena are common to both. These 

 luminous bodies are seen to m'>ve with very great velocities, 

 in oblique directions descending ; commonly with a loud 

 hissing noise, resembling th;it uf a miatar shell, or cannon 

 ball, or rather that of an irregular hard mass projected 

 violently through 'he air; surrounded by a blaze or flame, 

 tapering off to a narrow stream in the hinder part of it ; are 

 heard to explode or burst, and seen to fly in pieces, the 

 larger parts going foremost, and the smaller ff)llowing in 

 succession; are thus seen to fall on the earth, and strike it 

 with great violence ; that on examining the place of the 

 fall, the parts are found scattered about, being still consi- 

 derably warm, and most of them entered die earth several 

 inches deep. After so many facts and concurring circum- 

 stances, it is diflicuk to refuse assent to the identity of the 

 two phaenomena : indeed it ,,eems now not to be doubted, 

 but generally acquiesced in. And hence it is concluded, 

 that every such meteor-hke appearance is attended by the 

 fall of a stone, or of stones, though we do not always see 

 the place of the fall, nor discover the stones. 



'' This conclusion, howxrver, has contributed nothing 

 towards discovering the origin of the pheenomenon, at least 

 as to its generation in the atmosphere : on the contrary, it 

 seems still more difficult to accbunt for the production of 

 stones, than gaseous meteors, in the atmosphere, as well 

 as to inflame and give them such violent motion. In 

 fact, it seems concluded as a thing impossible to be done 

 or conceived ; and philosophers have given up the idea 

 as hopeless. This circumstance has induced ihem to 

 endeavour to discover some other cause or oriain for these 

 phrenoniena. But no idea that is probable, or even 

 possible, has vet been started, excepting one, by the 

 very celebrated mathematician Laplace, and that of so 

 extraordinary a nature, as to astonish us with its novelty, 



and 



