1164 



METEOROLOGY. 



[AEBOLITES SHOOTING STABS. 



hare been extracted from the place whereon they have 

 fallen. Nevertheless, some afrolitos have fallen upon 

 the earth without the assumption of a previous appear- 

 ance of luminosity. Cases, though rare, are well 

 of an aerolite suddenly falling from a small cloud, 

 attended with a noise resembling the discharge of 

 cannon ; others, again, have fallen silently, and out of 

 ,r :iir. nut the slightest trace of cloud being 

 visible at the time.* 



Testimony concerning showers of stars and the fall 

 of aerolites has been handed down to ns from all 

 periods ; but it is only since the time of Chladni that 

 the occurrence of these phenomena has been placed 

 beyond doubt. 



Amongst the best-attested examples of tho fall of 

 aerolites are the following : On the 16th of June, 1704, a 

 shower of stars fell at Sienna ; and in the following 

 year, December 13, an aerolite, weighing no Jess than 

 fifty-six pounds, fell in England. Three years after- 

 wards, and, remarkably enough, also on December 13th, 

 a fire-ball split up and discharged round stones. A very 

 large shower of stones fell April 26th, 1803, near Aigle, 

 in France ; the occurrence is particularly interesting 

 on account of its having been noticed and verified by 

 M. Biot. Ten such meteoric showers were observed in 

 France in twenty-six years i. e., between 1790 and 

 1815. The meteoric shower at Aigle in 1803, which 

 poured its contents over a surface of two-and-a-half 

 French miles long, by one in breadth, consisted of 

 2,000 fragments of different sizes, some weighing not 

 more than two drachms, others near twenty pounds. 

 Aerolites are sometimes much larger than ttm ; one fell 

 at Agram on the 26th of May, 1751, weighing seventy- 

 one pounds; but the largest known aerolite fell in 

 Mexico, and weighed between 30,000 and 40,000 

 pounds. 



As to shape, aerolites are generally prismatic, or 

 angular rarely smooth ; and almost always sheathed in 

 a crust of pitchy blackness. Their specific gravity is 

 various, some being sufficiently porous to absorb water 

 with rapidity, others being dense and metallic. Looking 

 at the specific gravity of aerolites in the aggregate, it 

 may be said to vary between 1-94 to 4-28, presenting 

 a mean of about 3 -5. All the heavier varieties of aerolites 

 are made up of iron, holding a little nickel; traces also 

 of cobalt, manganese, chromium, copper, arsenic, tin, 

 and other well-known elementary bodies, are found. 



ORIGIN OF PIKE-BALLS AND SHOOTINO STARS. Va- 

 rious opinions have been advanced to account for these 

 bodies. One of tho earliest, if not the very earliest, of 

 these hypotheses, originated in 1660, and assumed fallen 

 aerolites to be mineral masses originally projected from 

 lunar volcanoes ; and calculations were made, having 

 for their object to demonstrate what volcanic force 

 t be sufficient to project aerolites of a given mass 

 t he sphere of attraction of the earth's atmosphere. 

 Unfortunately for the probability of this theory, the 

 moon's surface appears to be altogether devoid of active 

 volcanoes. Then followed the chemical hypotheses, 

 according to which it was assumed that aerolites were 

 iii 'thing more than aggregations of metallic vapours, 

 which Yiad risen to the upper region of the atmosphere, 

 aggregated there, anil fallen. The opinion of Chladni is 

 . however, generally received ; he regards aerolites 

 to be of cosniical origin to be so many planets, or 

 planetary fragments, which revolve in orbits of their 

 own, variously inclined to the orbit of the earth ; that, 

 our planet encounters periodic shoals of these little 

 worlds, some of which, becoming entangled in the earth's 

 gravitating system, pass into our atmosphere, become 

 boated by fnction against its particles, and ultimately 

 fall to the ground. Although the discovery of aerolites 

 is comparatively rare, the meteors, of which they are the 

 iiii.il r -ult, are by no means so. It has been calculated 

 ttmt the average annual fall of aerolites is not less than 

 7"". or about two daily. 



MtTKOKOLOOlC llKHULT OW OcCCTLT EMANATIONS 



A Urtr rollrrilno of IbcM curium lutntancci may be Men In the 

 BtUUli MUMU > 



When the utmost powers of a refined chemistry have 

 bean applied to tho analysis of at mo-spheric constit 

 and conditions, much still remains to be uiiv. il.-l. 

 There are atmospheric can ' or they may be, of 



epidemic ami endemic d and perhaps other 



agencies whi.-li our philosophy little suspects or dr. 

 of. We have ventured to include these undetermined 

 agencies under the general expression OCCK^ MM 

 It is not difficult to point out obj< etions to this designa- 

 tion in some of its applications. Perhaps it is not 

 strii-tly philosophical to speak of emanations thus hypo- 

 thetically ; perhaps this may be only a repetition of the 

 error of assuming the existence of an electric fluid ; 

 perhaps the number of influences due to allotropism 

 and to polarity is greater than we imagine ; but, at any 

 rate, the term "occult emanations" may be accepted as 

 a rallying-point fur a certain class of facts, until the 

 time arrives when their true significance shall be correctly 

 mad > out. 



Without invoking the hypotheses of allotropism and 

 polarity, there are undoubtedly some atmospheric agencies 

 to which the expression oi-ciilt emanations is appUOfcble, 

 and concerning which, the only thing occult about them 

 is the insufficiency of ordinary chemical examinations to 

 demonstrate their existence, though that existence 

 admits of being demonstrated by extraordinary chemical 

 means. Thus, for example, it is a well-authenticated 

 fact, that the atmosphere of localities in which fever is 

 endemic, usually contains minute traces of hydrosul- 

 phuric acid, and an odorous animal matter substances 

 which ordinary chemical processes fail to detect, but 

 which, nevertheless, by the adoption of refined methods 

 of investigation, can be proved to exist. The late Pro- 

 fessor Daniell was of opinion that the much-dreaded 

 fever of Western Africa was augmented by the diffusion, 

 through the atmosphere of that coast, of minute traces 

 of sulphuretted hydrogen. And the circumstances under 

 which African fever originates, are perfectly consonant 

 with the above theory. The disease only prevails now 

 on the coast, its ravages being limited to a small belt, 

 partly of land and partly of sea, Central Africa being 

 comparatively exempt from its inflictions. Now Pro- 

 fessor Daniell assumes the hydrosulphuric acid to be the 

 result of decomposition, under a powerful sun, of matter 

 borne seawards by the Niger and other great rivers, in 

 connection with certain sulphates of sea-water. Be this 

 theory true or tho contrary, there can be no doubt as to 

 the truth of the assumption which refers fever, when 

 endemic, to a vitiated condition of atmosphere ; which 

 vitiation may be generally summed up as consisting of 

 minute traces of hydrosulphuric acid, and of undeter- 

 mined animalised matter. 



Amongst other occult emanations, we can hardly 

 refuse to admit the cause, whatever that cause may bo, 

 of intermittent fevers. The ultimate, if not the proxi- 

 mate, cause of this class of disease is so well known, 

 that we may almost produce or banish intermittent 

 fevers at pleasure. Given, heat and moisture con- 

 tinuously; ague almost invariably sets in, and continues 

 its ravages as long as the conditions of heat and mois- 

 ture co-exist. 



What is the occult emanation heret What is the 

 proximate cause of intermittent fever t Are we to 

 attribute the disease to the conjoined evaporation of 

 moisture, and heat directly, or to some further emanation 

 to which these conditions give rise ? Some pathologists 

 have assumed that light carburetted hydrogen, or 

 marsh-gas, as it is called, determines the disease ; but 

 the notion hardly coincides with known facts. The 

 horizontal demarcation of altitude, above which the 

 influence of ague cannot extend, is one of the most 

 remarkable circumstances in connection with the disease; 

 a difference of no more than ten feet in perpendicular 

 height frequently corresponding with the region of fever 



bfl i-i'jiuii of salubrity respectively. 



Tho mention of light marsh-gas naturally su^esto the 



curious moteorologic phenomenon called Will-o'-the-wisp, 



or Jack-o'-lantern ; of which gas, ignited, or, according to 



some, phosphurotted hydrogen gas, it is bcli ved to con- 



