441 
nese. It was pronounced to be an undoubted meteorite by most 
tee7and n to a b 'l ^ “1^ * u PP 0Sed to lla ™ fallen into the 
tiee, and to have been imbedded in the timber by its growth 
Some circumstances caused a degree of scepticism to be 
entertained as to the meteoric origin of the mass; a further 
search was macte. Digging about the root of the tree, several 
bntoT SeS Weie f r d V taTi ^ the same chemi °al composi- 
° ’ , possessing other charactensticswhich showed that they 
once sTooIlfeTh than f the « Ia & of a * old iron-furnace which 
once stood near the spot, and a piece of which must have been 
thrown up into the fork of the tree. 
no 1 2r ' I ™ a 8' ined ,tP a t the fall of meteorites was 
tovented thf tabll + hed “ * ^ than Philosophers speedily 
invented theories to_ account for their appearance. Ignoring 
eory o Soldani, “ that the stones were generated in the 
air by a combination of mineral substances, which had risen 
somewhere or _ other as exhalations from the earth and 
these m meteo re r e Tt, ° f M * ^ who traoed ^ origin of 
these meteorites to the matter projected from our own vol- 
densed ° f the air ’ and tIlen c on- 
densed by chemical and electrical forces ; the most popular 
theory for many years was to ascribe their origin to lunar 
volcanoes. . Herschel, senior, fancied he sal numerous 
volcanoes in an active state of combustion in the moon, though 
modern observers tell us that this was a delusion g 
0 ftt C vnh Bl0t ’ Brandes and Poisson all adopted the theory 
to the aUd Ca cuIated the Projectile force necessary 
to throw the volcanic ashes of the moon so far within the 
earth s sphere of attraction as to bring them to its surface 
Laplace put this force as not greater than five or six times that 
til tol t n “T Ca f nCm - The r6aS011 ^ W rather than 
Icause oftoJ ““I ° f , tie meteOTS chosen, was 
surface n th ? “ oon s . supposed freedom from water on its 
aslmed th^t 1S th r6 “t atmos P her e, if it had any ; it being 
assumed that the native iron could not be formed in the 
piesence of oxygen or water. 
JP? disoov ery, : however, of the large number of bodies 
lulfthelw ' r0 d d th Caasedtho complete abandonment of the 
mical orfcd/' f nd *1 ad °P tl0n of wha t Is now called the cos- 
mica! ongm of meteorites. 
l n „ B0d6 +! tb u ■ astrcmome r, discovered a peculiar arithmetical 
hi stance If M° eS ° f It pla “ 6tS fl '°“ the Assuming 
the distance of Mercury to be as 4, the following is very nearly 
the order of the distances of planets from the sun 7 7 
