304 On Stones tvhkk Imve fallen from the Atmospheie, ^e, 



served among minerals, some philosophers should concludei 

 that they do not belong to the fossils of our globe. Several 

 hypotheses have consequentlv^ for some months past, been 

 devised to explain the formation of these singular produc- 

 tions. 



It has long been asserted that thev are nothing else but 

 minerals elevated and projected from the earth by volcanoes. 

 Other philosophers considered them as stones of our globe 

 struck and fused on the outside by lightning on the spot 

 ■where they were found ; and lately thoy have been consi- 

 dered as earthy and metallic substances raised into the air, 

 which being there collected and agglutinated have formed 

 these masses, which immediately fell down by their own 

 weight. 



The manifest contradictions exhibited by these opinions, 

 either with the principal circumstances or the fact itself, ot* 

 the fall of these stones, have given rise to one less impro- 

 bable, though perhaps more extraordinary. It is that of 

 some geometricians, who consider them as volcanic produc- 

 tions projected from the moon beyond the sphere of its at- 

 traction, and to the confines of that of the earth. 



If this opinion, on the first view, seems to be contra- 

 dieted by all the ideas hitherto entertained, it is at any rate 

 seen that it is much less susceptible of solid objections than 

 any of the preceding hypotheses. The same may be said 

 of that of Chladni, who with some other pliilosophers cour 

 siders all the masses which have fallen to the earth as solid 

 bodies detached from some other planet at the time of their 

 formation, and which move about in infinite space till they 

 meet with another, which becoming to them a new centre 

 of gravity attracts them to its surface. 



An analytical examination of all these hypotheses, and 

 the little agreement between them and the ao-o-reoate of the 

 circumstances which constantly accompany the phcenoine- 

 non of the fall of stones, and which are essential to them, 

 have induced the author of the Lithologie Atmosphcriqne 

 to suppose that these stones are formed of the elements of 

 those earths and metals which they exhibit by analysis; 

 elements which he supposes to be in the gaseous state at a 

 greart height in the atmosphere, and the combination of 

 which he ascribes to unknown circumstances that rarely 

 occur. This opinion admits of several hypotheses, too far 

 distant from vvhat is yet known not to present difficulties 

 which cannot be solved in the present slate of our know- 

 ledge, 



Xq conclude : In &ueh.situatiojia one is obliged to choose 

 3 amon<£ 



