Dr. Reynolds on Meteors, 275 



sufficient magnitude, they might volatilize a space equal to the 

 state of New-York in a moment of time ! As all bodies pos- 

 sess a limited capacity for heat, does it not follow that there 

 must be some outlet to its perpetual accession to our globe, or 

 the earth would soon become so highly ignited as to glow with 

 the fulgour of a meteor ? And may not this outlet be found in 

 the above described compounds ? which serve as conductors 

 of the surplus of heat from the earth to the higher regions of 

 the air, where on being freed by displosion, from the grosser 

 matters incumbering it, it finds a rapid passage to its great 

 archetype and parent, the sun. Thus his daily waste may be 

 restored, and an equilibrium, by the return of his own emana- 

 ted particles, preserved, between the sun and the earth, and 

 probably all the planets of our system. 



The last consideration I shall oflFer in favour of the domes- 

 tic or earthly origin of meteoric phenomena, is the difficulties 

 that present to our granting them a foreign one. Though I am 

 well aware of the respectability of the names which the theory 

 of moonstones can summon to its support, yet I have always 

 regarded it as unfounded and unphilosophical for the following 

 reasons, viz. 1st. Whether the moon has an atmosphere or not, 

 we will all admit that she has attraction, which must extend to 

 many thousands of miles from her surface. No projectile force 

 that we are acquainted with can throw a heavy body 100 miles, 

 even though no atmospheric, or other resistance than its own 

 gravity, were present ; hence the idea of that force extending 

 to thousands of miles from the moon's surface, is gratuitous 

 and nugatory. 2dly. The products of volcanoes bear no si- 

 milarity of origin, or kindred resemblance to meteoric stones ; 

 those are lavas of different kinds, pumicestone, scoria, ashes, 

 &,c. these solid masses of matter, with some degree of regula- 

 rity in the arrangement of their constituent particles. Sdly. 

 The descent of these stones has no coincidence in point of 

 time with the position of the moon. She is as often in their 

 nadir as their zenith. We also witness in all cases, explosion 

 and light in our own atmosphere, at the time of the descent of 

 these stones. This could not be the case if they proceeded 

 from the moon, for obvious reasons. 4thly. The heat ade- 



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