1 10 On MeieorolUes, 



on the Sth ultimo, (an account of which you have kindly inserted 

 in your valuahle Magazine of last month,) an interesting con- 

 versation took place between us upon our meeting soon after- 

 wards, in which the probahility of metcorolites being projected 

 from the moon was amongst other things discussed ; from which 

 subseijuently resulted the inclosed interesting letter, affording me 

 much gratification; and, as being replete with intelligence and 

 ingenuity, will, I trust, be considered as deserving a place in your 

 next number. Notwithstanding the subject has frequently ar- 

 rested the attention of several eminent philosophers, who have 

 deemed it no stretch of belief to account for the fall of stones to 

 the earth, by their being projected from the volcanoes in the 

 moon, — 1 acknowledge my total want of faith in so unlikelv an 

 occurrence ; nor have any arguments I have heard or read, at all 

 lessened my conviction of their fallacy : and if I had needed anv 

 further confirmations of niv opinion, the recent discoveries in 

 chemistry respecting the decomposition of the alkalies and earths 

 by electrical agency (as wtll as the circumstance of our having 

 volcanoes upon our globe), would have been all-sufiicient for such 

 purpose. It appears to me quite as vvonderhd that amuKmiu 

 should be capable of being reduced to a metal, as that meteoric 

 stoiies should he formed in the atmosphere, one of the ^rand la- 

 boratories of nature. The mind is lost in astonishment at con- 

 templating the extraordinary powers of galvanism and electricity 

 in the combustion of metals, the dccomiJosition of water, air, 

 alkalies, earths, salts, and most other bodies submitted to their 

 influence ; and it scarcely can be doubted, but the establishment 

 of these facts must appear as extraordinarv to such of our present 

 chemical philosophers, who were in existence tb.irty years ago, 

 as the phoenornenon of stones being formed in our atmosphere, 

 or thrown from our volcanoes; and thus judging from analogy of 

 the efficient power of nature to jjroduee sucii effects, tiiev would 

 lumecessarily, and I should think reluctantly, carry their imagi- 

 nation so far as the moon for an explanation of the causes. 



Having been latelv eiigaged in son)e Galvanic and electric ex- 

 periments, I cannot resist this opportunity of informing vou that 

 I succeeded in decomposing a small quantity of potash by a sin- 

 gle battery of fifty doulile four- inch plates of zinc and copper 

 with glass partitions, and a mixture of one part of the common 

 muriatic acid of commerce and nine parts of water. 1 made 

 use of the apparatus invented bv Ivir. Pepvs, sometime since de- 

 scribed in your Magazine, without the naphtha: the metal, con- 

 sisting of tliree or four small globules, was found imbedded in the 

 alkali, and being placed under naphtha in a watch-glass was ex- 

 tricated with u silver knife. Solutions uf Glauber salts and sul- 

 phate of silver were afterwards submitted to its action, and de- 

 composed 



