302 On Stones which have fallen from the Atmo'^phcrtf 



The 5 per cent, of increase arose from the oxidation of 

 the metals produced by the analysis. 



Sr.cTiON ir. 

 Analysis of the Stone (f Ens'ishehn. 



The stone which fell at Ensishcim about the end of ihe 

 15th century has given rise to many accounts more or less 

 fabulous. Almost all contemporary authors speak of it^ 

 M. Butcnschoen, professor of history in the central school 

 of Colmar, has communicated to me several interesting 

 extracts from them : but I shall give only the principal facts 

 of this interesting history. 



We read in a manuscript chronicle, written in German, 

 that between the hours of eleven and twelve in the fore- 

 noon, on the 7th of November 1492, there was heard in 

 the environs of Ensishcim a terrible clap of thunder, and 

 that a child saw fall in a field sown with wheat an enor- 

 mous stone, which entered the earth to the depth of about 

 three feet : it weighed at that time 260 pounds. Maximi- 

 lian, king of the Romans, after causino; some frasiments to 

 be detached from it, gave orders tliat it should be Suspended 

 in the parish church of Ensisheiui. Since the revolution 

 it has been transported to Colmar, and placed in the library: 

 at present it weighs only 171 pounds. 



M. Barthold, professor of chemistry in the central 

 school of the Upper Rhine, gave in the year 8 an ana- 

 lysis of this stone. Besides silex, iron, sulphur, and mag- 

 nesia, he announced 0- 1 7 of alumine, and considers it as 

 a secondary argillo-ferruginous stone, arising from the de- 

 composition of primitive''rocks, and detached from a neigh* 

 bouring mountain. 



The method of analysis which the profes:-or followed did 

 not allow him to distinguish very accuvatelv the earths 

 which enter into the composition of this production. He 

 admits also alumine, which we did not find in any of our 



txperimcnti j. 



