20 Shooting Stars. 



Art. II. — Examination of a substance called Shooting Star, 

 which was found in a wet meadow ; by Counsellor Dr. 

 Brandes, of Salzuflen. 



(Translated from the German, for the American Journal of Science and Arts.)* 



My friend the Counsellor, Dr. Buchner, some time since 

 took a part in the discussion, in Kast7ier''s Archives, upon 

 the substance called sternschruppen, (shooting star,) which 

 Counsellor Kastner has distinguished by the name of s/erne- 

 gallerte, (star jelly.) A specimen of this substance, having 

 a gelatinous appearance, was found in a wet meadow, which 

 Counsellor Dr. Schultes considered as a tremella nostoc. 

 Buchner was of a different opinion, because he could dis- 

 cover in the substance no trace of organic texture, when he 

 came to examine it himself. As respects the question, wheth- 

 er it were of a celestial or of a terrestrial origin, he main- 

 tains, that this gelatinous mass could not be either a plant or 

 an animal, as a whole, but rather the product of a plant or 

 an animal, an excretion, like gum, mucus, &c. ; and he de- 

 nies the possibility, that such a body could have fallen from 

 the atmosphere upon the earth, or that the idea is sustained 

 by the least probability. The comparison of this mucilagin- 

 ous mass, which has been made by some, to the manna of 

 the Israelites that fell from heaven, does not appear to him 

 as altogether exceptionable; at least, this mucilaginous mass, 

 like the oyster, may possess very nutritious properties. I 

 readily agree with my learned friend, that the former suppo- 

 sition is probable, viz. : that these masses are animal excre- 

 tions, or are from gelatinous meteors ; but the idea seems to 

 be improbable, that they are like the manna of the Israelites, 

 from their presenting such diversities, both in the nature of 

 their bodies, and in their localities. From the absence of or- 

 ganic structure, in the mass examined and described by 

 Buchner ; — further, from the account by R. Graves, of a fire- 

 ball, {fuer-meteor) which fell in Massachusetts in North 

 America, on a place where the next morning a gelatinous 

 substancet was found ; — from my own observations of the 



* Extracted from the Jahrbuch der Chemie und Physikfiir 1827. Heraus- 

 gegeben vera Dr. J. S. C. Schweigger, und Dr. Fr. W. Schweigger-Seidel. 

 Halle. Ausgegeben am 26. Juni, 1827. 



t We were informed before we saw the present article, that a gelatinous fun- 

 gus was the next year observed near the place where the meteor mentioned 

 by Col. Graves was supposed to have fallen ; we cannot say that the two facts 

 have any connexion, but it appears proper that the coincidence should be men- 

 tioned. — Ed, 



