pie late fiery Meteors, © a2F 
oné of a very oppofite nature, that meteors’are permanent folid 
bodies, not raifed up from the earth, but: revolving rounded in 
very eccentric orbits; or, in ‘other ‘words, “that they are ter- 
reftrial comets*: The objections to this opinion, however, 
feem to me equally great. Moft obfervers defcribe the meteors, 
not as looking like folid bodies, but rather like a fine luminous 
matter, perpetually changing its fhape and appearance. Of 
this many defenders of the opinion are fo fenfible, that they 
fuppofe the revolving body gets a coat’or atmofphere of elec-. 
tricity, by means of which it becomes luminous; but, I 
think, whoever carefully perufes 'the various accounts of fire- 
balls, and efpecially ours of the 18th of Auguft when it di- 
vided, will perceive that their phenomena do not correfpond 
with the idea of a folid nucleus enveloped in a fubtile fluid, 
any more than with the conjecture of another learned gentle- 
man, that they become luminous by means of a contained 
fluid, which occafionally explodes through the thick folid outer 
fhell +. 
A ftrong objeGion to this hypothefis of permanent revolving 
bodies, is derived from the great number of them there muft 
be to anfwer all the appearances. Such a regular gradation is 
obferved, from thofe large meteors which ftrike all beholders 
with aftonifhment, and occur but rarely, down to the minute — 
fires called fhooting ftars, which are feen without being re- 
garded in great numbers every clear night,. that it feems impof- 
fible to draw any line of diftinGion between them, or deny 
that they are all of the fame nature. But fuch a crowd of re- 
volving bodies could {carcely fail to announce their exiftence by 
fome other means than merely a luminous train in the night ; 
* See a differtation on this fubject by Profeffor Crap, of Yale College, New. 
England, 
+ Phil, Tranf. vol. LI, p. 267. 
65 
uw 
