<?£ Obfervations on Fire Balls. 



tended, and have then deduced from them general concltf* 

 fions *, which in the hands of the mathematician may con- 

 duel with the greateft certainty to a knowledge of their na- 

 ture, and of the caufe3 by which they are produced. I fhaH 

 endeavour, therefore, to prefent the reader with fuch con- 

 clufions drawn from a feries of obfervations made in regard 

 to fire-balls, not with the intention of giving any explana- 

 tion from them myfelf, but in compliance with the excellent, 

 rule laid down by Le Roy, when he fays, fpeaking of this 

 circumflance : "Let us always colle<St obfervations without 

 being too forward to deduce confequenees from them, and 

 to explain phenomena refpe&ing which we have at prefent 

 fo little knowledge f. 



Some of the obfervations here given, as well as the con- 

 clufions drawn from them, have been already employed by 

 Dr. Chladni, in a particular treatife % t0 explain the origin of 

 the mafs of iron found by ProfefTor Pallas in Siberia §, and 

 Other malfes of the like kind, as welt as (tones which, ac- 

 cording to accounts worthy of credit, are faid to have fallen 

 from the heavens, and therefore more in a geological than a 

 meteorological view. My objeft is quite different. - I pro- 

 pofe, nolwithftanding the difficulty of determining properly 

 from the obfervations made to what clafs of luminous ap- 

 pearances fuch phenomena belong ||, to colle6l together thofe 

 accounts which have been- confidered, at keaft with fome 



proba- 



•' 11 faudroitetudier avee (bin k)9 rapports &zct% phenomena avec lis au- 

 tres phcnoniL-ncs atmofpheriques; rechercher I'etat du cicl avant et apres 

 leur apparition, determiner les terns, les circonltanccs et lieux ou ils font 

 les plus comniuns, favoir pourquoi ils font rares, et pourquoi ils arrivent. 

 Que d'obfervations a faire I Que d'obfervateurs ii occuper ! — Sennebiet. 



\ Mcmoires de 1' Academic des Sciences, 1771. 

 • "l Ueber den Urfprung der von Pallas gefundenen und andercr ihr ahn- 

 Irchen Eifen-Maffen, von C. F. F. Chladni. Riga 1794. 



§ See PlvHofuphical Magazine, Vol. II. p. 1. 



|j Hi-nry Rarham, as mentioned in the Philofophical Tranfaflions, vol-. 

 xxx. p. oj7, law in Jamarca, ia the. year 1700, a flaming fire-ball, of the 



&ze 



