FIRE. 
together in large mattes, by the power of attraction ; or 
that new planetary bodies have been formed from the 
Fragments of much larger ones that have been broken to 
pieces, either perhaps by fume external (hock, or by an 
internal explofion. Let whichever of thefe hypothefes 
Le the trued, it is'not improbable, or at lead not contrary - 
to nature, if we fuppofe that a large quantity of' fuch 
material particles, either on account of their too great 
diflance, or becatife prevented by a ftronger movement 
in another direction, may not have united themfelves to 
the larger accumulating mafs of a new world ; but have 
remained infulated, and, impelled by fome ttiock, have 
continued their courfe through infinite fpace, until they 
approached fo near to fome planet as to be within the 
fphere of its attraction, and then by falling down to oc- 
cafion the phenomena before mentioned. 
It is worthy of remark, that iron is the principal com¬ 
ponent part of all the mattes of this kind hitherto difeo- 
vered ; that it is found aimed every where on the furface 
of the earth, as a component part of many fubftances in 
■the vegetable and animal kingdom ; and that the efleCts 
of magnetifm give us reafon to conclude, that there is a 
large provifion of it in the interior parts of the earth. 
We may therefore conjecture that iron, in general, is the 
principal matter employed in the formation of new pla¬ 
netary bodies; as is dill farther probable by this circtim- 
dance, that it is drongly connected with the magnetic 
power ; and alfo on account of their polarity, may be 
necelfary to thefe bodies. It is alfo probable, if the 
above theory be jud, that other fubdances contained in 
fuch fallen mafles, fuch as fulphur, filiceous earth, man- 
ganefe, &c. may be peculiar not to our globe alone, but 
may belong to the common materials employed in the 
formation of all the planetary worlds. 
In addition to the above reafoning, fays profeffor 
Chladni, other circumdances have occurred, which far¬ 
ther confirm my theory. One of the mod intereding 
phenomena of thefe was the diower of dones which fell 
near Sienna, on the 16th of June, 1794, of which an ac¬ 
count has been given in the works of feveral Italian and 
other philofophers; and in a paper, by Mr. Zolner, in 
the Berlin Monatfchrift for September 1796. About 
feven o’clock in the evening of that day there appeared a 
longidi, round, dark cloud, totally infulated, which by 
its Angular appearance excited fear as well as attention, 
and was obferved, at the fame time, at various places 
lying at a conliderable didance from each other. All of 
a fudden there fell, amidd the mod dreadful explofions, 
accompanied with lightning and a kind of vapour or fmoke 
■which burd from the clouds, a multitude of red-hot dones 
of the vitrified kind, mod of them quite fmall, but fome 
of them a pound in weight, many of which funk to the 
depth of more than an ell in the earth. One of them 
pierced the brim of a boy’s hat and dnged the felt: others, 
which fell upon trees, left traces of their ignition on the 
leaves. Some of confiderable fize, which fell in a pond, 
fplaflied the water out to a confiderable didance, and made 
it even begin to boil. The government found means to 
■drain the pond in order to get at the dones, fome of which 
were purchafed at a dear rate by fome Englidi travellers 
then fin that part of the country. 
It was at fird believed that this phenomenon might 
have had fome connexion with the eruption of Vefuviits, 
which took place the day before ; but the Italian natu¬ 
ral ids all agree that this opinion is entirely void of foun¬ 
dation, as the dones which fell from the atmofphere had 
no (imilarity to the volcanic fubdances thrown up by Ve- 
fuvius, and as the place where they fell was above two 
hundred miles’ didant from that mountain. A done of 
this kind, which was fubjeCted to examination, was in¬ 
wardly of an adt-grey colour; and had a dull earthy frac¬ 
ture mixed with fliining metallic particles which refem- 
bled pyrites. In other fpecimens there were found oc- 
toedral crydals, which were found to be magnetic iron. 
The colour on the outfide was a greyilh-black, and the 
Voi.. VJI. No. 435. 
.‘3 8 Q 
wrinkled furface betrayed marks of fttfion. This fob- 
dance, in all probability, was of much the fame nature as 
that which fell, with a dreadful explofion,' from a fire¬ 
ball in Gafcony, on the 24th of July, 1790, as mentioned 
above. In the Englith journals there is an account of a 
done weighing fifty-fix pounds, which fell from the atmo¬ 
fphere with a loud report at Wold Newton in Yorkdiire, 
on the 13th of December, 1795. A- s funk only eigh¬ 
teen, or according to others twenty-one, inches into the 
earth, it is to be conjectured that the ground was ex¬ 
tremely hard, or that the done did not fall in a folid 
body, but in a foft liquid mafs. It was dill warm to the 
touch when found ; feemed externally of a black colour, 
and in the infide exhibited fliining particles, and traces of 
fulphureons vapours. There is alfo an account of fome 
dones which fell near Perrefwood, in the county of Wefr- 
meath, in Ireland, in the year 1779, accompanied by a 
violent clap of thunder. Thefe dones, which had no 
lilcenefs to any of the known fulfils in that neighbour¬ 
hood, weighed only from three to four ounces; they were 
almod like freedone, of a whitifli-brown colour, and in 
the infide were interfperfed with filvery white fliining 
fpecks. They were dill warm when taken up ; and after 
tiiey fell, the whole neighbourhood was filled with ful- 
phtireous vapour. 
The only known indance of a foft frothy mafs being 
found in the place where a fire-ball fell, is that which 
occurred in Lufatia, and the neighbouring diflriCts, on 
the 8th of March, 1796; and of which an account was 
given, in particular by Mr. Von Gerfdorf and Mr. Bauer, 
in the Lufatian Monatfchrift, for April and May 1796. 
The fallen mafs appeared to be only a part which had 
been broken off, or which had, in fome meafure, dropped 
from one of thefe fire-balls. It is much to be lamented 
that the apparent courfe of this body, as far as could be 
done by the eye, was not obferved with more accuracy, 
that by calculating their parallax their real path might 
be difeovered. Its velocity mud have been as great as 
that of many other five-balls, which have moved at the 
rate of feveral German miles per fecond, and equal to 
the velocity of the planets in their courfes. This fire¬ 
ball, as was the cafe with one obferved on the ±2d of 
July, 1762, was fird vifible at a confiderable height above 
the horizon in the form of a fliining point; moved along 
in a fomewhat ferpentine direction, and increafed ftiddenly 
to a confiderable fize : the duration of the whole pheno¬ 
menon was about two feconds. 
It may not be fuperfluous to notice here that very re¬ 
markable indance, related by Mr. Stiitz, of the falling 
of a dre-ball at fix o’clock in the evening on the 26th of 
May, 1751, in the diflriCt of Agram in Sclavonia, as inti¬ 
mated above. This dre-ball, which burd afunder into 
two parts, that had the form of chains of fire twified to¬ 
gether, (and, according to all appearance, were liquid 
mafles,) feemed accompanied with fmoke, and fell with 
a dreadful explofion, and fuch force that it fnook the earth, 
into which it funk to the depth of three fathoms. One 
part weighed feventy-one and the 'other fixteen pounds. 
The larger, which confids entirely of iron, and exhibits 
on its furface the mod evident marks of Are, is now to be 
feen in the imperial collection of natural curiodties at 
Vienna, together with an attedation refpeCting it from 
the confiflory of the bifliopric of Agram, who examined 
feveral eye-witnettes that had feen it, and which Mr. 
Stiitz has inferted in his paper. The fame naturalifl quotes 
alfo two other indances -. one is of a done, which, accord¬ 
ing to the account given, fell with a violent explodon in 
the diflriCt of Eichfladl, and was fo hot that it could not 
be touched till it had been cooled in fnow ; this done con- 
dds of filiceous earth and ferruginous particles, and is 
covered with acrufl of native iron : the other is a fliinilm 
iron ore deferibed by Born, interfperfed in a green matrix 
having a fcoriaceous furface, and which, as w e are allured, 
fell from the heavens during a thunder-dorm on the 3d 
of July, 17S3- 
S G 
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