MET 
MET 
wliich cannot be ascertained with certainty, 
on account of the apparent diminution of 
bodies through distance. Tire most re- 
markable of late times were those of 1783 
and 1805 : tlie former was very luminous, 
and its supposed diameter 1000 yards : the 
latter passed with such astonishing rapidity, 
tliat amazement had not subsided ere it va- 
nished, consequently very little dependence 
can be placed on what has been said con- 
cerning its bulk and shape ; the light which 
it emitted was a pale blue, and almost as 
instantaneous as a flash of lightning, and 
the rushing of the enormous body produced 
a sound like very distant thunder. Some 
of the smaller meteors explode after a cer- 
tain interval of burning, and it has been 
uniformly asserted that they deposited 
stones ; the apparent improbability of this 
assertion long prevented persons of en- 
lightened minds from crediting it, and till 
Dr. Chladni published a dissertation on the 
subject in 1794, which induced Mr. King 
to collect every instance, ancient and mo- 
dern, calculated to establi.sh the fact with 
the public, and this was no easy task. Mr. 
Howard followed the example of those two 
gentlemen ; but went further, and actually 
procured specimens of the substances al- 
luded to, which having compared, he pro- 
ceeded to analyze by chemical means. He 
found them entirely different from all known 
stones, and exaetly resembling each other, 
even in their component parts. 
It has been said that the stones, thus in- 
contestibly proved by different authoiities, 
and from various places, to have fallen after 
the explosion of meteors, are heated and 
luminous when they reach the earth : the 
force of their descent buries them some 
depth into it, and they have been seen un- 
der these circumstances in Italy, Germany, 
France, England, and India, lire meteors 
either really do, or appear to, move hori- 
zontally, and aie said to deseend ere they 
explode. The stones are of different sizes, 
and from a few ounces in weight to several 
tons : they are generally circular, and inva- 
riably covered with a rough black crust, 
which, according to Howard, is principally 
composed of oxide of iron. The process 
adopted by that gentleman produced a re- 
sult which has since been confirmed by 
Klaproth and Vauquelin. We shall give the 
analysis of two of these substances, by 
Howard, of a stone which fell in Yorkshire ; 
and by Vauquelin and Fourcroy, of another 
that fell at Laigle in France, 1803. 
Mr. Howard found that 150 grains con- 
tained 
75 Silica 
37 Magnesia 
48 Oxide of iron 
2 Oxide of nickel. 
162 
The oxidizement of the metallic bodies 
caused this increase of weight. Messrs. 
Vauquelin and Fourcroy found the mass 
they examined contained 
54 .Silica 
36 Oxide of iron 
9 Magnesia 
3 Oxide of nickel 
2 Sulphur 
1 Lime 
105 
The conjectures which these extraordi- 
nary productions have occasioned are vi- 
sionary in the extreme : indeed M. Laplace 
supposes them to be fragments ejected by 
volcanos in the moon : Sir AVilliam Hamil- 
ton and Mr. King, on the contrary, imagine 
that they are concretions formed in the at- 
mosphere. 
METEOROLOGY, is the science of 
studying the phenomena of the atmosphere 
and the term by which is expressed all the ob- 
servations that tend to make them a system. 
There are many most important meteoro- 
logical phenomena, and those may be class- 
ed under five distinct heads ; for instance, 
the alterations that occur in the weight of 
the atmosphere, those that take place in 
its temperature, the changes produced in 
its quantity by evaporation and rain, the 
excessive agitation to which it is frequently 
subject, and the phenomena arising from 
electric and other causes, that at particular 
times occasion or attend the precipitations 
and agitations alluded to. 
All the above phenomena prove to de- 
monstration that constant changes take 
place, the consequences of new combina- 
tions and decompositions rapidly follow- 
ing eachotlier. The majority of meteorolo- 
gical alterations depend on these chemical 
changes, and were we accurately acquaint- 
ed with the peculiarities of all the sub- 
stances which form the component parts 
of the atmosphere, nothing w'ould be more 
easy than to explain the residt of their 
mutual action ; but as that is unfortunately 
not the case, we must be contented to build 
