THE 
EDINBURGH 
PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL 
Art. I. — Account of Meteoric Stones^ Massed of Iro% and 
Showers of Dust, Red Snow, and other Substances, which have 
fallen from the Heavens, from the earliest period down to 
1819. 
Although philosophers have devoted much of their at- 
tention to the investigation of the nature and origin of those 
singular substances which occasionally fall from the heavens, 
yet we are at the present moment as ignorant of the part of 
-space in which they are formed, and of the manner of their for- 
mation, as we were at the very commencement of the inquiry. 
As there were no analogous phenomena which could indicate 
the formation of hard metallic substances within the limits of 
our own atmosphere it was natural to seek for their origin in 
the nearest of the planets ; and hence it has been very generally 
maintained by many distinguished individuals, that meteoric 
stones have their origin in the Moon, and that they are projected 
from her surface within the reach of the Earth’s attraction, by 
some powerful volcanic agency. The improbability of the exis- 
tence of such a high degree of volcanic force in so small a planet 
as the moon, has led to other speculations, and it has been main- 
tained that meteoric stones are portions of small invisible planets 
circulating round the Earth -j- ; that they are the fragments of a 
large planet which formerly existed between Mars and J upiter, 
and of which the four small planets, Ceres, Pallas, Juno and 
Vesta are the remaining fragments J ; and, lastly, that they are 
* Speaking of Meteoric Stones, M. Humboldt, who has examined this subject 
with much attention, remarks, that “ they certainly do not belong to our atmoi? 
phere .” — Personal Narrative^ vcl. iii, p. 34'5., Note. 
•)* Voigt’s Magazine 1797, or Phil. Mag. vol. ii. p. 1, 2S5, 338, 
^ Edin. Encycl. vol. ii. p. 641. 
VOL. I. NO. % OCTOBER 1819- A 
