VOL. XXIX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TKANSACTIONS. 101 



Like to this, but much more considerable, was that famous meteor which 

 was seen to pass over Italy on the 21st of March O. S. Anno 1676, about an 



be probable, or even possible. Any ordinary person might at random utter the vague expression of 

 a thing coming from the moon : but no one, except the philosopher, could propose the conjecture 

 seriously, and prove its possibility. This M. Laplace has been enabled to do by strict mathematical 

 calculation. He has proved that a mass, if projected by a volcano from the moon, with a certain 

 velocity, of about a mile and half per second, (which is possible to be done) it will thence be thrown 

 beyond the sphere of the moon's attraction, and into the confines of the earth's ; the consequence of 

 which is, that the mass must presently fall to the earth, and become a part of it. 



To prepare the way for a calculation, and a comparison of this supposed cause with the phaeno- 

 mena, it will be useful here to premise a short account of the late and best observed circumstances in 

 the appearance of fireballs, and the fall of stony masses from the atmosphere, extracted from the last 

 published accounts of some of the more remarkable cases. 



It is remarkable how generally the tradition has prevailed, in almost all ages, and among all people, 

 of the fall of solid materials from the atmosphere, under the various denominations of thunder- 

 bolts, showers of stones, masses of native iron, &c. generally believed by the common people, who 

 had often witnessed the fact, as coming from the sky or the heavens, and thence ascribed to the 

 miraculous judgments of the Deity, while they were as generally disbelieved by the philosophers, 

 either because they had never seen the fall, or because they found it impossible to account for the 

 cause of them. 



In the later ages of the world however the fact has been observed by more respectable evidences, 

 and recorded with circumstances of considerable accuracy. One instance of this kind, is that given 

 by the celebrated astronomer Gassendi, who was an eye-witness of what he relates. Nov. 27, l627, 

 the sky being quite clear, he saw a burning stone fall on mount Vaisir, in the south-east extremity of 

 France, near the city of Nice, on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. While in the air, it seemed 

 to be about 4 feet in diameter; it was inclosed in a luminous circle of colours like a rainbow; and in 

 its fall it produced a sound like the discharge of cannon. It weighed 59lb. was very hard, of a dull 

 metallic colour, and in specific gravity considerably more than that of marble. 



Prior to this is another remarkable instance in the stone that fell near Ensisheim, a considerable 

 town in Alsace, the north-east point of France, near the Upper Rhine, a little north of Basil. This 

 was in 1492, Nov. 7> between 11 and 12 before noon, when a dreadful thunder-clap was heard at 

 Ensisheim, and a child saw a huge stone fall on a field lately sowed with wheat. On the people 

 going to the place, the hole was found, and digging out the stone, it was found to have entered 3 

 feet deep, and weighed 260lb., which makes its size equal to a cube of about 13 inches the side. 

 No doubt has ever been entertained of this fact, and cotemporary writers all agree in its general be- 

 lief by the neighbourhood, and the natives of the place must have known that in their wheat field no 

 such stone or hole had formerly existed. 



In the year l672, two stones fell near Verona in Italy ; the one weighing 300, the other 2001b. 

 Soon after, one of the members of the Abbe Bourdelot's academy presented, at one of their meet- 

 ings, a specimen of these two stones ; stating that the phenomenon had been seen by 3 or 400 per- 

 sons ; that the stones fell in a sloping direction, during the night, and in calm weather j that they ap- 

 peared to burn, fell with great noise, and ploughed up the ground. — It is a pity the record does not 

 mention the bearing of their path, as to point of the compass. 



It is related by Paul Lucas, the traveller, that when he was at Larissa, a town in Greece, near the 

 gulph of Salonicha, a stone of 72lb. weight fell in the r^eighbourhood. It was observed to come 



