﻿256 Chevalier W, von Haidinger on the Luminous , Thermal, 



of the meteor in a distance of 58 kiloms. (7*815 geogr. or 36*68 

 English miles) amounted to 11*72 kiloms. (1*579 geogr. or 9*332 

 English miles). The obliquity of the course towards the surface 

 is therefore =11° 26', and the zenithal distance of the fall = 

 78° 34'. The meteorites of Orgueil, their cosmical velocity- 

 having been annihilated by atmospheric resistance, fell down as 

 any other heavy body would have done. Had they pursued 

 their course to the last, they would have touched the ground 

 about 90 kiloms. (12*12 geographical or 56*92 English miles) 

 further off, at all events still W. of Montpellier. Such a 

 course would be quite incon- Fig. 6. 



ceivable if supposed to have 

 been pursued by the greater 

 portion of the meteorite's nu- 

 cleus, after the extinction of 

 the light concomitant with 

 the transmutation of the vis 

 viva of movement. M. Bagel 

 remarked that after extinc- 

 tion of the brightest light the meteor seemed to pursue its way 

 for a brief time, emitting a feeble reddish light : this may indeed 

 have taken place during the brief moment in which the in- 

 candescent crust fell to red-hot temperature. A bird or any 

 creature organized for flight and endowed with volition may 

 change the direction of its movement at its own choice ; but this 

 is not the case with an inorganic body. 



6. B. Primordial formation of Meteorites. — It must be ad- 

 mitted as a fundamental principle that, from the first moment 

 of their existence, the material elements possessed no other 

 properties, and the vis viva acted according to no other laws, 

 than those which we know to exist at present. The first 

 consequence of creation (an act quite above human comprehen- 

 sion) must therefore have been aggregations of pulverulent sub- 

 stances spread about in the intensely cold cosmical space. The 

 successive phases of formation may be supposed thus : — 



(1) Creation, matter in statu nascenti. 



(2) Cosmic bodies in the state of aggregations of pulverulent 

 matter. 



(3) Increase of temperature by pressure of the superficial 

 strata against the deeper ones, and by natural pressure of homo- 

 geneous and heterogeneous particles, the interior of the. cosmical 

 body against its superficial crust*. 



(4) Formation of a solid crust, the innermost space still pro- 

 gressing in solidification. 



(5) Explosion of the cosmical body in consequence of the dif- 



* Humboldt, Cosmos, vol. i. p. 209. 



