120 



the Royal Society on 25th February, 1802. Howard con- 

 cludes as follows : — 



" The mineral ogical descriptions of (the Luce stone by) 

 the French Academicians, of (the Ensisheim stone by) 

 M. Barthold, and of (the above four stones by) the 

 Count de Bournon, all exhibit a striking conformity 

 of character common to each of these stones, and I 

 doubt not but the similarity of component parts, 

 especially of the malleable alloy, together with the 

 near approach of the constituent proportions of the 

 earth contained in each of the four stones, will estab- 

 lish very strong evidence in favour of the assertion 

 that they have fallen on our globe. They have been 

 found at places very remote from each other, and at 

 periods also sufficiently distant. The mineralogists 

 who have examined them agree that they have no 

 resemblance to mineral substances properly so called, 

 nor have they been described by mineralogical 

 authors." 



This paper stirred up much interest in the scientific world, 

 and, though Chladni's theory that such stones came from outer 

 space was still not accepted by it, belief therein was rendered 

 more possible after Laplace had shown that a body shot from 

 the moon in the direction of the earth, with an initial velocity 

 of 7592 feet per second, would not fall back upon the moon, 

 but would actually, after a journey of sixty-four hours, reach 

 the earth, upon which, neglecting the resistance of the air, it 

 would fall with a velocity of about 31,508 feet per second. 



Whilst the minds of the philosophers were in this unsettled 

 condition, there came a report that still another shower of 

 stones had fallen, this time in France, and within easy reach 

 of Paris. To settle the matter finally, if possible, the physicist 

 Biot, Member of the French Academy, was directed by the 

 Minister of the Interior to inquire into the event upon the 

 spot. After careful investigation of the whole of the pheno- 

 menon, Biot was convinced that — 



1. On Tuesday, April 26, 1803, about 1 P.M., there was 

 a violent explosion in the neighbourhood of TAigle, 



