iSa Boj'cl Academy of Sciences at Berlin. 



nature of the agents emploved in the procefs, and details a 

 number of ingenious experiments undertaken cxprefsly for 

 the purpofe of afcertaining the mode of their operation. The 

 refiilts are interefting, andcannot fail to be ufeful to thofe en- 

 gaged in the manufadure of leather. 



nOVAL ACADKMY OF SCIENCES AT BERLIN. 



On the iSlh of January the academy held a public fitting 

 to celebrate the anniverfary of its edablifliment. It was 

 opened by the director Merian with an oration; after which 

 ]M. de Verdv du Vernois read the (ketch of a plan for reviv- 

 ing the antient tournaments, and fliowed the utility of again 

 introducing this antient amufement, formerly a fchool tor 

 dexterity and intrepidity, and which might be attended with 

 great advantage to the cavalry fervice, and to all troops that 

 iighl on horfeback. 



M. K^rman then read a paper containing particulars re- 

 fpe6ting the reign of the eleihlor Frederic William the Great, 

 extrafttd from a manufcript diary of marflial Dieierich Si- 

 gifnuind von Buch. 



M. Klaproth next read a difTertation on (lones atid iron 

 mafles, and fliowed that the fall of fuch bodies from the 

 heavens is a phasnomenon totally different from all the other 

 phajuomena of nature ; and that it needs therefore excite no 

 wonder that doubts have been entertained rel'peiling the truth 

 pf fuch fa6ls,.but that hitherto thev are not only fupported 

 by experience, but by chemical analyfes of the fallen bodies. 

 As a contribution towards this fnhjed:, M. Klaproth gave an 

 account of experiments, made by himfelf, with fome of thefe 

 produ£lions which had fallen at different times and in dif- 

 ferent countries, particularly a fpecimen of that which fell 

 near Siena on the i6th of January 1794; and a fragment of 

 the mafs of iron, weighing 7 1 pounds, which fell near Agram 

 cn the 26th of May 175 1, comparing them with the ana- 

 Ivfes lately jjublifned by Mr. Howard of the ftones which 

 fell at Benares in the Eaft Indies on the igth of December 

 1798, and on the 13th of December 1795 in Yorkfliire; and 

 adding a fliort hiftory of thefe and fome other bodies that 

 have fallen from the clouds. They confilt either entirely of cel- 

 lular maflt^s of iron, or of ftony fubftances mixed with grains 

 of iron. In all of them the iron is of the fame nature: it is 

 ductile, exceedingly tough, appears white when tiled, and 

 almofi; always contains nickel. The ftones are covered on 

 the outfidc with a black cruft^, are bright gray in the infide 

 with black fpots, and interfperfed, befules the ferruginous 

 particles, with grains of pyrites. Thp principal part of the 

 ' ' Q mafs 



