A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



was exactly opposite to that of the earth, which made 

 an angle with the meridian at that time of sixty-seven 

 gr., that is, its course was from west southwest to east 

 northeast, wherefore the meteor seemed to move the 

 contrary way. And besides falling into the power of 

 the earth's gravity, and losing its motion from the 

 opposition of the medium, it seems that it descended 

 towards the earth, and was extinguished in the Tyr- 

 rhene Sea, to the west southwest of Leghorn. The 

 great blow being heard upon its first immersion into 

 the water, and the rattling like the driving of a cart 

 over stones being what succeeded upon its quenching ; 

 something like this is always heard upon quenching a 

 very hot iron in water. These facts being past dispute, 

 I would be glad to have the opinion of the learned there- 

 on, and what objection can be reasonably made against 

 the above hypothesis, which I humbly submit to their 

 censure." 1 



These few paragraphs, coming as they do from a 

 leading eighteenth-century astronomer, convey more 

 clearly than any comment the actual state of the 

 meteorological learning at that time. That this ball 

 of fire, rushing " at a greater velocity than the swiftest 

 cannon-ball," was simply a mass of heated rock passing 

 through our atmosphere, did not occur to him, or at 

 least was not credited. Nor is this surprising when we 

 reflect that at that time universal gravitation had been 

 but recently discovered; heat had not as yet been 

 recognized as simply a form of motion; and thunder 

 and lightning were unexplained mysteries, not to be 

 explained for another three-quarters of a century. 

 In the chapter on meteorology we shall see how the 



10 



