C 346 ] 



LXII. Memoir on the Stones /aid to have fallen from the 

 Heavens. Read in the French National Injtitute by 

 C. VAUaUELIN *. 



VV H I L E all Europe refounded with the report of ftonea 

 fallen from the heavens, and while philofophers, divided in 

 opinion on this fubjert, were forming hypothefes to explain 

 the origin of them, each according to his own manner, Mr. 

 Edward Howard, an able Englifli chemift, was purfuing jn 

 filence the only route which could lead to a folution of the 

 problem. He collecl:ed fpecimens of Hones which had fallen 

 at different times, procured as much information as poffible 

 refpefting them, compared the phyfical or exterior charac- 

 ters of thefe bodies ; and even did more, in fubjcfting thein 

 to chemical analyfis by means as ingenious as exaft. 



It refults from his refearches, that the ftones which fell in 

 England, in Italv, in Germany, in the Eall Indies, and in 

 other places, have all fuch a perfeil refemblance that it is 

 almoft impoflible to diftlnguifli them from each other; and 

 what renders the fimilitude more perfeft and more llriking 

 is, that they are compofed of the fame principles and nearly 

 in the fame proportions. 



Before the iaft refults of the labour of Mr. Howard were 

 known in France, 1 had employed myfelf on the lame ob- 

 ject ; and I have the fatisfai^ion to find in his memoir, which 

 has been fince printed, that they perfeilly agree with thofe 

 which I had obtained. 



I fliould have abftaincd from any public notice of an objeft 

 which has been treated of in fo able a manner by the Englifli 

 themift, if he himfelf had not induced nie to do fo during 

 his refidence at Paris; had not the Hones which I analyfed 

 been from another country ; and had not the intereft excited 

 bv the fubje6l rendered this repetition excufable. 



It is therefore to gratify Mr. Howard, to give, if poffible, 

 more weight to his experiments, and to enable philofophers 

 to place full confidence in them, rather than to ofl'er any- 

 thing new, that I piiblifh this memoir. One of the ftones 

 which I examined was tranfmitted to me by C. Saint- 

 Amans : it fell at Creon, in the pariih of Juliac, on the 24th 

 of July 1790, about nine in the evening. This ftone ap- 

 peared in the air under the form of a fire-ball, which was 

 vifible in almoft the whole of the fuuth of France. A very 



• From iht jomnal dts M'lnay No. 76, 



correct 



