20 1 
on certain stony and metalline Substances, &c. 
after the meteor seen in Gascony, in July, 1790. And Mr. 
Falconet, in the memoir I have already quoted, relates, that 
the stone which was adored as the mother of the gods, was a 
Boetilia; and that it fell at the feet of the poet Pindar, enveloped 
in a ball of fire. He also observes, that all the Boetilia had the 
same origin. 
I ought not perhaps to suppress, that in endeavouring to form 
an artificial black coating on the interior surface of one of the 
stones from Benares, by sending over it the electrical charge of 
about 37 square feet of glass, it was observed to become lumi- 
nous, in the dark, for nearly a quarter of an hour ; and that the 
tract of the electrical fluid was rendered black. I by no means 
wish to lay any stress upon this circumstance ; for I am well 
aware, that many substances become luminous by electricity. 
But, should it ever be discovered that fallen stones are actually 
the bodies of meteors, it would not appear so problematical, that 
such masses as these stones are sometimes represented, do not 
penetrate further into the earth : for meteors move more in a 
horizontal than in a perpendicular direction ; and we are as 
absolutely unacquainted with the force which impels the meteor, 
as with the origin of the fallen stone. 
Before I close this subject, I may be particularly expected to 
notice the meteor which, a few months ago, traversed the 
county of Suffolk. It was said, that part of it fell near Saint 
Edmundsbury, and even that it set fire to a cottage in that 
vicinity. It appeared, from inquiries made on the spot, that 
something, seemingly from the meteor, was, with a degree of 
1 eason, believed to have fallen in the adjacent meadows ; but the 
time of the combustion of the house did not correspond with 
the moment of the meteor s transition, A phenomenon much 
MDCCCII. D d 
