i02 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1714. 



hour and three quarters after sun set, which happened to be observed, and was 

 well considered, by the famous professor of mathematics in Bononia, Geinini- 



from the northward, with a loud hissing noise, and seemed to be enveloped in a small cloud, which 

 exploded when the stone fell. It looked like iron dross, and smelled of sulphur. 



In Sept. 1753, several stones fell, accompanied with loud noises, in the province of Bresse, a 

 little west from Geneva j particularly one fell at Pont-de-Vesle, and one at Liponas, at 9 miles 

 distance from each other. The sky was clear, and the weather warm. A loud noise and hissing 

 sound were heard at those two places, and for many miles round, at the time the stones fell. The 

 stones appeared exactly similar to each other, of a darkish dull colour, very heavy, and their surface 

 showing as if they had suffered a violent degree of heat. The largest weighed about 20lb., and pe- 

 netrated about 6 inches into the ploughed ground, a circumstance which renders it highly improbable 

 that they could have existed there before the explosion. This phenomenon has been described by the 

 astronomer Delalande, who seems to have carefully examined, on the spot, the truth of the circum- 

 stances he describes. 



In the year 1768, three stones were presented to the Academy of Sciences at Paris, which had 

 fallen in diflferent parts of France; one at Luce in the Maine, another at Aire in Artois, and the 

 third in Cotentin. These were all externally of the very same appearance; and Messrs. Fougeraux, 

 Cadet, and Lavoisier drew up a particular report on the first of them. They state, that on the 18th 

 of Sept. 1768, between 4 and 5 afternoon, there was seen near the village of Luce, in Le Maine, 

 a cloud, in which a short explosion took place, followed by a hissing noise, but without any flame ; 

 that some persons about 10 miles from Luce heard the same sound, and, looking upwards, they per- 

 ceived an opaque body describing a cune line in the air, and fall on a piece of green turf near the 

 high road j that they inamediately ran to this place, where they found a kind of stone, half buried 

 in the earth, extremely hot, and weighing about 7^ lb. 



July 24, 1790. between 9 and 10 at night, a shower of stones fell near Agen, in Guienne, near 

 tlie south-west angle of France. First, a luminous ball of fire was seen, traversing the atmosphere 

 with great rapidity, and leaving behind it a train of light which lasted about 50 seconds ; soon a loud 

 explosion was heard, and sparks were seen flying off" in all directions. This was soon after followed 

 by the fall of stones, over a considerable extent of ground, and at various distances from each other. 

 These were all alike in appearance, but of many different sizes, the greater number weighing about 

 2 ounces, but many a vast deal more : some fell with a hissing noise, and entered the ground, but 

 the smaller ones remained on the surface. The shower did no considerable damage, only breaking 

 the tiles of some houses. All this was attested in a proces-verbal, signed by the magistrates of the 

 municipality : it was further substantiated by the testimony of several hundred persons, inhabitants 

 of the place ; and several learned men wrote the very same account to their scientific correspondents : 

 one of those, (son of the celebrated chemist M. D'Arcet) mentions two additional and important cir- 

 cumstinces, from his own observation: viz. that the stones, when they fell on the houses, had not 

 the sound of hard and compact substances, but of a matter in a soft, half-melted state; and that such 

 of them as fell upon straws, adhered to them, so as not to be easily separated. That these stones 

 broke the roofs of houses, and were found above pieces of straw adhering to them, is a clear proof 

 of their falling from above, and in a state of fusion. 



December 18, 1795, several persons, near Captain Topham's house in Yorkshire, heard a loud 

 noise in the air, followed by a hissing sound, and soon after felt a shock, as if a heavy body had 

 fallen to the ground at a little distance from them : in fact, one of tliem saw a huge stone fall to the 

 earth at 8 or 9 yards from the place where he stood } it was 7 or 8 yards above the grouod when he 



