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of stones or hard masses of iron from the heavens. . In spite 
of many recorded instances in ancient and modern times, the 
account of these falls was regarded with scepticism by the 
scientific world. _ _ J , , ,, 
In the year 1794 Chladni published a tract at Riga, on the 
supposed origin of a mass of iron found by Dr. Pallas in 
Siberia, which the Tartars called a holy thing, and asserted 
that it had fallen from heaven. In this tract Chladni cafied 
attention to many authentic instances of stones falling Irom 
heaven, adducing, among others, the testimony of the cele- 
brated Cardan, that in the year 1510 he himself had seen 120 
stones fall from heaven, one weighing 120 and another 60 
pounds ; — that they were mostly of an iron colour, very hard, 
and smelt of brimstone. 
In the same year that Chladni published this tract, a 
remarkable shower of stones fell in Tuscany on the 16th ot 
June. This was described in a pamphlet by Ambrose boidam, 
Professor of Mathematics in the University of Sienna. In 
1795 a large stone, now in the British Museum, fell near 
Wold Cottage, the house of Captain Topham, m Yorkshire, 
and was exhibited in London. Mr. Edward King a fellow of 
the Royal Society, having received from Sir Charles Blagden 
some manuscript accounts of the Sienna fall stones, and 
having also seen the pamphlets of Soldani and Chladni, called 
the attention of English men of science to this phenomenon m 
the first English work on meteoric stones. It is called Remarks 
concerning Stones said to have fallen from the Clouds both in 
these Bays and in Ancient Times , and was published m London 
in 1796. It is an exceedingly clear, well written, and scientmc 
account of a remarkable phenomenon, to which little can really 
be added, with all our increase of knowledge on the subject. 
It was very unfairly treated and ridiculed, at the time it was 
published, by the reviewers. In 1799, Sir J. Banks received 
some specimens of stones which were seen to fall at Benares, 
in Bengal, on the 19th of December, 1798, and perceived a 
remarkable similarity between these stones and that oi e 
Yorkshire stone, and a specimen of one of the Sienna stones 
which he possessed. In 1802, Mr. Luke Howard published 
in the Philosophical Transactions a paper entitled ^ x P el ?' 
ments and Observations on certain Stony Substances which, 
at different times, are said to have fallen on the Earth. ' In 
this paper will be found the first chemical analysis of an 
aerolite. ■ . _ . . t 
The year after this, when an official account was received 
in Paris of a shower of stones at L’Aigle, in Normandy, on 
the 26th of April, 1803, the matter was treated with ridicule. 
