aay - Dr. BuaGvEN’s Account of 
perpetually from the body of fire-balls, may poffibly have fome — 
connexion with thefe ftreams*. Jn the fame manner the found 
of explofions may perhaps be eae to us quicker, than if it 
were propagated through the whole diftance by air alone, 
Should thefe ideas be well founded, the change of dire€tion 
which meteors feem at times to undergo, may poflibly be ins _ 
fluenced by the ftate of the furface of the earth over which 
** J obferved a fiery meteor. Its dire&ion was from N.W. to S.E, nearly in a 
** horizontal direction ; it paffied very near to me, and was of an elliptical form ; 
«its motion about 40° in 2” or 3!’ of time. It was very bright and lucid to 
“* appearance like the paleft peauniites and emitted fparks Continually, which 
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formed a kind of tail toward the N.W. which feemed to be extinguifhed at the 
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diftance of 2° or 3° from the body; there was a {mall portion that parted from 
*¢ ig, The cohefion “of matter was fo great, that it drew a thread of confiderable 
4 
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length from the body, before it broke from it. During the paffage there was a 
4¢ kind of A:ffing noife, much lke to what we hear from the electrical machine 
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when the electric matter 1s running away, or as when it is efcaping from a full 
‘‘ charged jar.” Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica, N° VII. p. 81. : 
* Hitt, de l’Acad. des Scienc. 1761, p. 28. Mem. de l’Acad, des Science. 
1771, p. 682. Extract of a letter from the Abbé Mann, Director of the 
Academy at Bruffels, to Sir JosepH Banxs, Bart. P.R.S. §* I fhall only men-. 
** tion one fingular circumftance, which was communicated to me by a particular 
‘* friend of mine. It happened at Mariekercke, a fmall village on the coafty 
** about half a league to the W. of Oftend. The curate of the village was 
‘* fitting in the dufk of the evening with a friend, when a fudden light furprifed 
“© them, and immediately after a {mall ball of light-coloured flame came through 
‘¢ a broken pane of glafs, croffed the room where they were fitting, and fixed 
*¢ itfelf on the chink of a door oppofite to the window where it entered, and 
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there died gradually away. It appeared to be a kind of phofphoric light, 
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*¢ that the fire, which had come in through the window, had been detached from a 
large meteor in its paffage.”’ 
How far thefe and fimilar appearances may be owing fimply to the illumina- 
tion produced by meteors, fhould be attentively confidered in the inveftigation 
of fuch fags. ; 
I they 
carried along by the current of air. The curate andhis friend, greatly furprifed at. 
what they faw, apprehended fire in the neighbourhood ; but going out, found 
