224 Olservaitons on the Fall of Stones from the Clouds. 



in the eruptions of volcanoes they are very rarely perceived, aiul 

 in a way purely accidental. The frequently considerable in- 

 equality of their orbit, the obliquity of their direction, and their 

 course, frequently also almost parallel to the earth, and still more 

 the multiplied reboundings of one of those stOHCS, (which prove a 

 direction quite the reverse of that of gravity,) are so many proofs 

 which will not admit of our regarding the lunar theory as the 

 most probable. 



We may add, that by adopting this theory we can by no means' 

 explain the slowness of the fall of aerolites. Bodies falling from 

 the moon would not be precipitated on the roofs of houses, 

 without sinking into them or damaging them considerably : but 

 this has never been observed. The duration of the phsenomenon 

 ought to be nearly the same, making allowance for their volume 

 ■or weight ; but sometimes their duration is ]3rolonged for some 

 minutes, and on some rare occasions for whole hours. 



Besides these difficulties, which are vveighty, there are other 

 phenomena which scarcely can be accounted for upon the same 

 theory; and although these pheenomena are not absolutely of the 

 same kind with meteorolites, they are so closely allied to them 

 that we can scarcely separate them. 



We ought probably to rank with aerolites the ignited bodies, 

 xvhich are only distinguished from them by their substance not 

 t)eing metallic. Besides, they fall, like meteoric stones, in the 

 warmest months and in calm iveather ; they burn in the same 

 ■manner, and traverse their orbit w-ith the same velocity ; while 

 the direction in which they approach the earth is similar to that 

 of the aerohtcs. Then their explosions are nearly similar; and 

 even there has been observed, as well as with meteorolites, par- 

 ticularly that of 1772, a rotation around their centre. 



What merits most attention is, that these ignited globes have, 

 like the aerolites, a roundish form and a gelatinous consistence. 

 In fact, a globe of fire which fell in the East Indies in 1218 

 left, after a dreadful explosion, a large round heap of gelatine of 

 tolerable consistence. A similar mass, but gray and spongy, was 

 found at Coblentz after the explosion of a ball of fire "". These 

 observations are not unique : latterly similar masses have been 

 found of the size of a man's head f. Silverschlag even relates 

 having seen the residue of an ignited globe which presented a 

 gelatinous aspect with a whitish colour X' 



* Comment, de Rebus, tome xwi. p. 179. 

 ■y .hna'niil u'r. Fhi/!ii(jue <ic Gilbert, totne vi. 

 *, Tlitorie drr ViO'i, beobuchkten Fever Kiigel, Leipsic, 17G4. 

 [To be continued.] 



XXXVIJ. Dff- 



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