METEORITE. 



141 



Meteorite, he conjures tip at pleasure to suit his purpose. On 

 < * - ~V^ >/ such a supposition, however, the bursting of stones 

 from the surface of the earth, and their ascent into the 

 air, should be as frequently seen a* their fall to the 

 ground, and tome of the profound openings and fis- 

 sures occasioned by their violent passage through the 

 strata, ought, before now, to have been observed ; for 

 we are not entitled to presume that they were all ef- 

 fected in the receuet of Jcreils, or elated again, after 

 the stones had made their escape. Again, an expan- 

 sive force commensurate to the conditions of the hypo- 

 thesis, would occasion wide and ruinous disorder, which 

 could scarcely fail to be observed in every inhabited 

 country. 



Atsaetphe- Of the many who contend for the atmospheric for- 

 ric hypo- mation of meteorites, scarcely any two agree in regard 

 to the manner in which such formation is effected. 

 Muschenbroeck, in one pan of his writings, ascribe* 

 the descent of stones from the air to earthquakes and 

 volcanic eruptions ; an opinion which I iter observa- 

 tions have disproved. In other passages, however, he 

 leans to a modification of the atmospheric hypotheses, 

 and attributes the origin of shooting stars to the ac- 

 cumulation of volatile matters suspended in the air. 

 Whatever relation may subsist between shooting stars 

 and fiery meteors, the former seem to move at a much 

 greater distance from the earth than the Utter, and oc- 

 casion only a transient luminous appearance, in their 

 passage through the upper regions of the atmosphere. 

 The Dutch philosopher, however, adopt* the common 

 notion of their falling to the ground, and seems to con- 

 found their residue with trcmrlla luntnc. 



The late ingeniouf, but fancitul I'atrin, who was so- 

 licitous to extend and illustrate his favourite doctrine 

 of a regular circulation of gaseous fluids between the 

 schistose strata of the globe and its surrounding atmo- 

 sphere, very confidently deduced from this fancied cir- 

 culation the occasional ignition and concretion of por- 

 tions of these fluids in the higher regions of the air. 

 But it is a sufficient confutation of hi* theory, that it 

 rest* on asumed and very improbable foundations. 



In aid of the same cause, M. Salverte had recourse 

 to a very liberal exhibition of hydrogen gas, kindled 

 by electricity during thunder storms, but we have 

 shown that thunder and meteors are distinct |>henoa)e- 

 ni ; and this gentleman's magazines of hydrogen re- 

 main to be proved. 



Hi* countryman, If. Isarn, has dragged his readers 

 into a tedious and somewhat obscure exposition of his 

 own sentiments, founded on the principles of chemical 

 combination ; but we are not certain that we perfectly 

 comprehend his meaning ; and, at any rate, his infer- 

 ences depend on admissions of gaseous substances, ar- 

 rang. <1 in - j.lierical masses in the superior regions of 

 r, and occasionally detached from their insulating 

 medium, and brought into one capable of combining 

 with them ; a disposition of things which may, or 

 which may not exirt, but of which we are entirely ig- 

 nor 



M. Seguin thinks it not improbable that the consti- 

 tuent principles of meteorites being transported by 

 chemical or mechanical means into the upper portion's 

 of the atmosphere, where a vacuum, the cause of the 

 noise of thunder, ii produced, there remain suspend- 

 ed by >!iitin, or otherwise ; but, although dissemi- 

 l. being pressed by the extenial strata which fill 

 the vacuum, they unite, conglomerate, and form a mass, 

 the more c<imi<leral>le in proportion to the quantity of 

 material* which it encounters in this place. Now, 



granting to this philosopher his conjectural premises, Meteorite. 

 we have again to repeat, that the fall of meteorite* is "~~Y~ m * 

 indejwndent of thunder, and that the noi.>e of the ex- 

 plosion, which so much resembles thunder as to have 

 been often confounded with it, is posterior to the con. 

 solidation of the mas*. 



In the 75th volume of the Annalet de Cfiimie, M. 

 Marcel de Serres enters into the discussion of the ori- 

 gin of meteorites : but much of his paper is occupied 

 with a very rapid and imperfect recapitulation of the 

 instances of their occurrence, and incidental notices of 

 showers of >and, &c. His decided bias, howtver, is 

 to the generation of the-e bodies in the atmosphere, 

 from the contact of all the matters carried up by * va- 

 por-lion, and the formation of metallic particles dur- 

 ing the ignition. Yet, his solution of the proMem is, 

 on the whole, far from lu-> inou* ; nor is he altogt tlier 

 insensible to the difficulties with which it is encom- 

 passed. The total absence of oxygen in the Lissa 

 tone, in particular, strikes him very lorcibly. It is, 

 besides, extremely difficult to conceive the machinery 

 by which an immense field of gaseous, or highly at- 

 tenuated matter in the air, can be instantaneously re- 

 duced into the compiss and consistency of a solid com- 

 pact mass, of very moderate dimensions, and suspend- 

 ed in the air, a* if by enchantment, until it explodes, 

 and ii precipitated to the earth. 



Dr. Reynolds' Outline of the Theory of Meteors 

 doe* not very materially differ from some of those to 

 which we have just alluded ; for it proceeds on the 

 supposition that minute portions of the earthy and me- 

 tallic compounds of the surface of the globe, being ex- 

 posed to the sun'* influence, will be volatilized by the 

 absorption of heat, and thereby assuming the state of 

 elastic fluids, will ascend, until they arrive at media of 

 their own density, where, congregating into immense 

 and highly concentrated volumes, they will explode, 

 and exhibit all the appearances of meteoric stones and 

 showers. But the elevation of panicles of stone and 

 iron, however much attenuated, to the enormous height 

 of a hundred miles above the earth's surface, is scarce- 

 ly conceivable on any principle with which we are ac- 

 quainted ; and their combustion and explosion, in such 

 a lofty and frigid medium, are alike unsusceptible of 

 satisfactory explanation. 



We know not that Dr. Murray is more successful, 

 when he insinuate", in one passage, that these bodies 

 spring from the thunder storm, and when he resorts, 

 in another, to the solvent agency of hydrogen, and the 

 changes produced on different substances by the influ. 

 ence of the electric fluid. That truly philosophic tra- 

 veller and observer, Humboldt, who ntudied the pre- 

 sent subject with much atlenlion, is decidedly of opi. 

 nion, that meteoriu-s are foreign to the confines of our 

 atmosphere. 



The romantic notion, that they are the products of Lunar hy. 

 lunar volcano*, has derived some countenance from po"e*i. 

 the ineculations of the celebrated La Place, Poisson, 

 Dr. Mutton, and others, who have demonstrated the 

 abstract proposition, that a heavy body, projected with 

 a velocity of about 6000 feet in a second, may be drivi n 

 hi von. 1 the sphere of the moon's attraction, into that 

 of the earth. But the existence of any such volcanic 

 force in the moon is purely hypothetical ; nay, the 

 existence of volcanos at all in our satellite, begins to 

 be very seriously questioned. Overlooking these con- 

 siderations, however, as well as the combustion of sub- 

 lunar substances without the contact of ntmo-pherical 

 air, the occasional arrival of fragments of such lava on 



