SC/ENCE-GOSS/1' 



07 



fell ;ii Krakliut, near Benares, in India. The space. In 1803, however, scientibc upiniuu cliaii^eii 



womler of the inhribltanls was the greater, because in consequence of a great fall of stones in France, 



(hey came from a [jcrfcclly blue sky. on Tucsilay, 26th of April of that year, at IWigle, 



In 1802, Kilwanl Hiiwanl, who hail paiil some in the department of Orne. This was accompanied 



:it(t'nliiin to the subject, obtained fr.igments from by a violent series of explosions in a comparatively 



the stones of Wold Cottage, Benares ami Siena, clear sky, so loud as to be heard for seventy-five 



and also of one from Tabor, in Bohemia. He miles around. The eminent phvsicist Biot, a 



.■\N\vriit:K PoRTio.N" oi" YocNDEGix Iron Mass. weight 3S3LP. 



then examined them chemically and mineralogi- 

 cally, and read a paper on the results before the 

 Royal Society, on Ffbruary 25th, 1802. This 

 appears to have been the first real attempt to scien- 

 tifically investigate the question of the origin of 

 these fallen stones. With that paper, it mav be 

 said the scientific investigation of meteorites com- 

 menced. Still, they were considereil to be of 

 earthly origin, though a German, named Chl.idni, 

 had, in 1794, st.Ue.l his belief thev came from 



Member of the I-rench Academv, was sent, at the 

 request of that body, by the Minister of the Interior 

 to investigate the matter. He was satisfied of 

 their celestial origin, and estimated that from two 

 thousand to three thousand stones fell in an ellipse 

 of six or seven miles long, by two miles broad. 

 Since the issue of Biot's very exhaustive report on 

 this fall, the world of science has accepted the 

 theory of the e.\lr.i-terrestrial origin of meteorites, 

 notwithstanding the fact that no element or mineral 



