THE 
fo EN OLOGLS TE: 
A RECORD OF SCIENCE. 
——()-—_—. 
DECEMBER, 1866. 
—-)0-—= 
ABROLITES. 
BY TOWNSHEND M. HALL, F.G.S. 
ETEORIC stones, or aérolites, as they are gene- 
rally called (from two Greek words, aer and “thos, 
signifying “air-stones”), may be defined as solid masses 
consisting principally of pure iron, nickel, and several 
other metals, sometimes containing also an admixture of 
augite, olivine, and hornblende, which, from time to time, 
at irregular intervals, have fallen upon the surface of the 
earth from above. 
Other designations, such as “fire-balls and thunder- 
bolts,” have been popularly applied to these celestial 
masses, the former denoting their usual fiery appearance, 
whilst the latter has reference to the extreme suddenness 
of their descent. 
Shooting stars also, although they are not accompanied 
by the fall of any solid matter upon the earth, are gene- 
rally placed in this same category, since they are supposed 
to be aérolites which pass (comparatively speaking) very 
near our earth, and are visible from it by night; at the 
same time their distance from us, varying as it does from 4 
to 240 miles and upwards, is in most instances too great to 
allow of their being drawn down by the attractive power 
possessed by the earth. Like comets and eclipses, these 
celestial phenomena in former times were universally re- 
garded with feelings of the greatest awe and superstition ; 
and in Eastern countries especially where the fall of a 
meteoric stone was supposed to be the immediate precursor 
NEW SERIES.—VOL. I. x 
