224 Dr. Buacven’s Account of 
as, for inftance, by meeting or juftling fometimes near the 
earth, or by falling to the earth in confequence of various ac- 
cidents; at leaft we might expeét they would be feen in the 
day-time, either with the naked eye of telefcopes, by fome of 
the numerous obfervers who are conftantly examining the hea 
vens. With regard to thefe falling ftars, it were much to be 
wifhed, that obfervations fhould be made upon them by dif- 
ferent perfons in concert at diftant flations, for the purpofe of 
afcertaining their height and velocity; which would tend very 
much to illuftrate all this part of meteorology. 
Another argument of great weight again{t the sibecnati 
that fire-balls are terreftrial comets, is iT from their great 
velocity. A body falling from infinite fpace toward the earth, 
would have acquired a velocity of no more than 7 miles a fe- 
cond, when it came within 50 miles of the earth’s furface ; 
whereas thefe meteors feem to move at leaft three times fafter. 
And this obje&tion, if there be no miftake in regard to the ve- 
locity of the meteors, as ] think there is not, abfolutely over- 
fets the whole hypothefis. | 
What then can thefe meteors be? The only agent in nature 
with which we are acquainted, that feems capable of producing 
fuch phenomena, 1s electricity. Ido not mean that by what 
is already known of that fluid, all the difficulties relative to 
meteors can be folved, as the laws, by which its motions on a 
large {cale are regulated in thofe regions fo nearly empty of air, 
‘can fearcely, 1 imagine, be inveftigated in our fmall experi- 
ments with exhaufted veffels * ; but only that feveral of the faéts 
point out a near connexion and analogy with electricity, and 
that none of them are irreconcilable to the difcovered laws of 
that fluid. 
* How nearly the phenomena of meteors have been reprefented by artificial - 
electricity is known from a very remarkable experiment of Mr, Arpen’s. Sce 
PuriesTLEY, Vol. V. p. 379. 
7 1. Electricity 
