+ 
A16 ' Report on Meteorites. 
' : a Concord, New Hampshire. 
For a description of this stone see Vol. iv, ii ser., p. 353. 
In his account, of this’ body, Prof. Silliman has made an ‘fits 
ence in favor of its meteoric character, founded upon the suppo- 
sed identity of its composition with the Bishopsville stone, or 
rather with the chladnite, which forms 90 per cent. of this stone. 
o far as the elements are concerned in the two “bodies, the anal- 
ogy is striking; but the analysis of chladnite, (not then publish- . 
ed ») on which [ asserted that it was a tersilicate, was based on 
[homson’s view of the constitution of silicic acid, whereas 
Prof. Silliman has adopted the atomic weight of Berzelius. ‘The 
results of analysis, however, placed side by side, stand thus: — 
Concord ‘Stone. _Chiadnite. 
Silicic acid, 84-973 70° 
gee ¥ 12-076 98-25 
2-218 1:34 
99-767 100-00 
In addition to the analogy of elements found in the composi- 
tion’of these substances, it remains to’be stated that there is a 
manifest resemblance between the melted surface of the Concord 
‘stone and certain ‘parts of. that of the Bishopsville meteorite, in 
color, lustre, translucency, and hardness, as well as in bik 
before the blowpipe. 
The extra-terrestrial origin of meteoric stones and aa ae 
seems likely to be more-and more called in question, with the ad- 
vance of knowledge respecting such ee and as additions 
continue to be made to the connected sciences; I may therefore 
take an early. occasion to present the Atsbciasion with some | 
views, founded in part upon Biot’s theory of the aurora borealis, 
ospheric accumulations of meteoric dust, (a single case being 
recorded where the area must have been thousands of square 
miles in extent, and where the pero of earthy matter precip- 
itated must have been from 50 to 100,000 tons in mater a 
Great electrical excitation is known to accom 
eruptions, which may reasonably be su posed to occasion some 
che eet nges in the volcanic ashes ejected ; these being — 
by the ascensional force of the eruption into the regions — 
magneto-polar influence, may there undergo: @ species of 
