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cases,, except perhaps in one instance, the fire-ball was not 
seen by those witnessing the fall of the stone. So that it is 
doubtfnl whether the two phenomena were connected. And 
in the only instance in which a fire-ball and a meteoric cloud 
shooting stones to the earth were observed to be identical, it by 
no means follows that that fire-ball was identical in composition 
or nature with ordinary fire-balls. 
Again : we are to suppose that, when the earth passes 
through those parts of space the richest in planetoids, all those 
producing the phenomena of falling stars are reduced by fric- 
tionally developed heat into vapour. And yet these bodies, 
assumed to be identical in composition with meteoric stones, 
thus converted in such extraordinary numbers into vapour, are 
followed in no known instances by any remarkable showers of 
meteoric dust. Again : the meteoric stones which reach the 
earth pass through a much denser portion of the earth's 
atmosphere without being so dissipated. If we are to account 
for this latter fact on the supposition that they are larger 
planetary masses than those causing a falling star, we are to 
suppose that the larger bodies are found in those parts of the 
planetary ring in which the planetoids are most sparsely 
scattered. Again : I cannot at all account for the smaller 
bodies being totally dissipated into vapour in the highest 
regions of the atmosphere, where the density and consequent 
friction of the moving mass is the least, with the appearance 
of every meteorite that has been seen to fall. These indicate 
the action of an intense heat indeed, but penetrating only a line 
or two into the thickness of the stone. According to Professor 
Thomson's and Professor Joule's estimate, every meteorite 
that has reached the earth from the supposed planetary ring 
ought to have been fused into vapour, like those supposed to 
produce the falling stars. The meteoric stones, so far from 
reaching the earth in a state of fusion, are not even red-hot. 
We have seen that they have fallen on dry leaves without 
setting them on fire. If the case reported by Professor 
Haughton is to believed, on the testimony of the natives who 
handled the stone after it fell, it was so far from being hot, 
that it was colder than ice. 
On the whole, I cannot but conclude that the modern theory 
of the planetary origin of falling stars, fire-balls, and meteoric 
stones, is far from being supported by the facts which have 
been recorded; — that the common origin of these three 
phenomena has by no means been proved; and that the 
planetary origin and combustion of the falling stars cannot be 
admitted, if we refer the meteoric stones to the same source. 
This is just one of those subjects where a confession of 
