200 Mr. Howard’s Experiments and Observations 
constituent proportions of the earths contained in each of the 
four stones, the immediate subject of this Paper, will establish 
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. I would 
further urge the authenticity of accounts of fallen stones, and the 
similarity of circumstances attendant on such phenomena ; but, 
to the impartial it would be superfluous, and, to those who dis- 
believe whatever they cannot explain, it would be fruitless. At- 
tempts to reconcile occurrences of this nature with known prin- 
ciples of philosophy, it is true, are already abundant ; but (as the 
Earl of Bristol has well expressed) they leave us a choice of dif- 
ficulties equally perplexing. It is however remarkable, that 
Dr. Chladni, who seems to have indulged in these specula- 
tions with most success, should have connected the descent 
of fallen stones with meteors ; and that, in the narrative of 
Mr. Williams, the descent of the stones near Benares, should 
have been immediately accompanied with a meteor. 
No luminous appearance having been perceived during the 
day on which the stone fell in Yorkshire, it must be admitted, 
rather militates against the idea, that these stones are the sub- 
stances which produce or convey the light of a meteor, or that a 
meteor must necessarily accompany them.* Yet the stones from 
Sienna fell amidst what was imagined lightning, but what 
might in reality have been a meteor. Stones were also found, 
■* In the account of the stone which fell in Portugal, no mention is made, either of 
a meteor or lightning. 
