236 Mr. Bowditch’s estimate of the height, Se. 
that fell at Weston (which weighed about 225 pounds to a cubic foot) 
would contain a quantity of matter exceeding in weight sia miilions 
of tons. If the specific gravity were the same as that of the ait 
at the surface of the earth, the quantity of matter would exceed 
two thousand tons, and if the specific gravity were the same as that of 
the air at the height of the meteor (which by the usual rule for Baro- 
metrical admeasurements is about ;th. part of that at the surface of 
the earth) the quantity of matter would exceed fifty tons. Either of 
_ these estimates exceeds by far the weight of the whole mass that fell 
near Weston, which by the accounts published does not appear to 
have been greater than half a ton, and would not form a sphere of two 
feet diameter of the same specific gravity as the stone, as was observ- 
ed by Professor Day, in his valuable paper on the origin of meteoric 
stones. A sphere of this diameter, seen at the distance of the meteor 
from Wenham, would hardly be visible without the assistance of a 
telescope, since its apparent diameter would not exceed two thirds of 
a second. These reasons seem strongly to favour the opinion, that by 
far the greater part of the mass continued on its course without falling 
to the earth, and the gradual disappearance of the meteor, as observed 
by Judge Wheeler, is agreeable to this hypothesis. 
As it is but within a few years that observations of these meteors 
have been carefully made, we have not yet sufficient data for a well 
grounded theory of their nature and origin; none that has yet beet. 
proposed is free from difficulties. The greatness of the mass of the 
Weston meteor does not accord either with the supposition of its 
having been formed in our atmosphere, or projected from a volcano 
of the earth or moon; and the striking uniformity of all the masses 
that have fallen at different places and times (which indicates a com 
mon origin) does not, if we reason from the analogy of the planetary 
system, altogether agree with the supposition that such bodies are 
satellites of the earth. 
