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XXXIV. Remarks on the Luminous, Thermal, and Acoustic Phe- 

 nomena attending the Fall of Meteorites. By Chevalier W. von 

 Haidinger*. 



I. JUTETEORIC falls in the course of the year 1868.— The first 



of these falls in 1868 brought to the notice of the scientific 

 world was that at Pultusk, near Warsaw, January 30. Next to it 

 came the falls of Villanova and Motta dei Conti, near Casale (Pied- 

 mont), February 26, between 10.30 and 10.45 a.m., of Slavetic 

 (Croatia), May 22, and of Ornans (Departement du Doubs), July 



II. The detonatiou of a fifth meteor was heard at Salzburg in 

 the night of September 27-28, without having (at least as far as hi- 

 therto known) left any tangible traces. A fragment of the Ornans 

 meteorite, weighing 39 grms., has come into possession of the 

 Imperial Museum of Vienna through the kind intervention of the 

 eminent geologist, M. Joachim Barrande. The fall of Villanova 

 was preceded by a number of detonations ; no igneous globe, 

 only a small cloud with internal motion and in rapid progression, 

 was observed. The meteor passed from N.W. or W.N.W. to 

 S.E. or E.S.E. at a small angle to the horizon. Two stones, 

 the one weighing 6*700 grms., the other 1*920 grm., have been 

 preserved ; a third, whose w 7 eight may have amounted to from 

 300 to 500 grms. was broken by the violence of its fall. 



2. M. Stanislas Meunier has published ' Geologie comparee : 

 Etude descriptive theorique et experiment ale sur les Meteorites/ 

 Paris, 1867, a book highly commended by Madame Cat. Scar- 

 pellini. In one passage (p. 18) the author says, "A great num- 

 ber of circumstances attending meteoric falls have as yet re- 

 mained without explanation. The causes of the explosions, 

 especially when repeated, and of the incandescence, are still un- 

 known." So it may be inferred that he had no knowledge of 

 the notices on these questions published by von Haidinger in 

 the Proceedings of the Vienna Academy (vol. xliii. p. 380, vol. 

 xlvii. sect. 2. pp. 283-298). M. Meunier, quoting the Nou- 

 velles Archives du Museum, vol. hi. p. 1, 1867, says, further, 

 (p. 29), " Generally the crust is not uniformly spread over the 

 whole surface of the meteorites, showing seams and wrinkles, the 

 iorm of which in certain cases may indicate the position kept by 

 the meteorite during its flight through the air. These circum- 

 stances have been duly noticed by M. Daubree in his remarks on 

 the Meteorite of Orgueil." The late Director Schreibers, in a 

 book published in 1820, and von Haidinger, in several papers 

 published in the Vienna Academy's Proceedings (vol. xi. p. 525, 

 and vol. xlv. p. 791), had, long before Professor Daubree, de- 



* Abstract of a memoir read before the Imperial Academy of Vienna, 

 Oct. 8, 1868, for which we are indebted to Count Marschall, For. Corr. G.S. 



