STONES FALLING FROM THE AIR. 
24<7 
1654, 1668, 16/4, 1723, 1743, 1753, 1755, 1768, 1812, &c. 
may be mentioned. Frequently the epocha of an earthquake 
has exactly coincided with the fall of aerolites, as in 1654, 
where in the Isle of Funen, in the north of Germany, the same 
week very violent shocks of an earthquake took place, and a 
shower of meteorolites fell. The same effects have been felt 
in Germany and even in Switzerland*. Thus, on the 7 l h of 
November, 1742, the day on which the town of Bale sustained 
so much damage in consequence of an earthquake, an aerolite 
fell at Etisisheim, which is a short distance from this townf. 
We have already observed, that the principal hypotheses ad- 
vanced in order to explain all these phenomena, are reduced to 
two fundamental positions j one of which may be called cosmic , 
and the other telluric. The first has been most generally 
adopted, especially that which considers aerolites as bodies shot 
from the moon, which pass beyond the point where the attrac- 
tions of the earth and of the moon are in equilibrio, It may 
be said, on this subject, that, in adopting this hypothesis, not 
the least attention seems to be paid to the difference of weather, 
nor to the height of the thermometer or barometer, nor to the 
season or hour of the day in which these aerolites most fre- 
quently fall ; — notwithstanding there exists, in this respect, 
very sensible differences, which can scarcely be explained by 
adopting the theory which makes the aerolites come from 
the moon. Neither does this theory shew the relation 
which exists between the fall of these stones and the cloud 
which always accompanies their fall. This cloud, even in 
some circumstances, precedes the fall of meteorolites, which 
proves that it is not formed by the vapours exhaled by the 
I stones, as certain philosophers have pretended. This explana- 
tion, besides, would not be admissible, on account of the quan- 
tity of such vapours, which ought to be in proportion to those 
proceeding from the stone itself 5 and lastly, these bodies thrown 
* See the work of M. Bertrand on the earthquake in Switzerland! 
* f Seethe analysis of this aerolite, in the Memoir of Fourcroy : An- 
nales du Museum d’histoire naturelle, tom. III. p. 108. 
Objections to 
the theory that 
these bodies 
come from the 
moon. 
from 
