In the Hiftory of the Academy of Sciences for 1769, 
we find very remarkable accounts of three maffes which 
fell from the clouds during a thunder-ftorm. Thefe ac¬ 
counts were tranfmitted to the academy by their corre- 
fpondents from Maine, Artois, and Cotantin, three places 
lying at a very great diftance from each other. The fame 
circumftances were remarked to have taken place in regard 
to thefe three maffes 1 . They were all hot wherrfirft found ; 
they were of the fame compofition, as they contained (ul- 
plnir and iron, and were covered with a hard cruft of that 
metal. They proceeded, in all probability, from the fame 
meteor which in the courfe of its fomewhat ferpentine 
courfe, asisufual, may have made feveral explofions. 
Ancient authors, fuch as Pliny, Plutarch, and Livy, re¬ 
late various inftances of ftones that fell from the heavens, 
which are commonly confidered as fabulous ; but which, 
on account of the number of new obfervations of the like 
kind, may be admitted as real phenomena of nature. 
Avicenna mentions a fulphureous kind of ftone which fell 
from the atmofphere at Cordova in Spain. It is related 
in Spangenberg’s Chronicon Saxonicum, that two large 
ftones fell at Magdeburg, in the year 99S, with loud ex- 
piofions like thunder. Cardan relates, that in 1510, leve- 
ral large ftones fell from the heavens, which were moftly 
of a ferruginous colour, exceedingly hard, and, when 
found, ftill exhated a fulphureous vapour. We are af- 
fured by Julius Scaliger, that he himfelf had in his pof- 
feffion a piece of iron which fell from the atmofphere in 
Savoy. Mnfchenbroek, and various other writers, men¬ 
tion a blackifh ftone of three hundred pounds weight, ex¬ 
hibiting traces of fire, which fell at Enfiftieim in Alface, 
in 1493, and which was faid to be preferved in the church 
of that place. In the fummer of 1766, a ftone fell from 
the clouds at Alboreto, in the duchy ot Modena, which 
is briefly mentioned by Vaflalli in his Phy fico-meteorolo- 
gical Letters, and on which Troili has written a treatife. 
In the Breflau Collection refpedting Natural Hiftory, four 
inftances are quoted of ftones having dropped from the 
heavens, l ive ftones, as large as a man’s head, exceed¬ 
ingly heavy, of a rufty iron colour, and having a ftrong 
fmell of fulphur, fell from the heavens with explofions 
and a dreadful concuffion of the air, at Mifcoz in Tran- 
fylvania, in 1339, and are preferved in the treafury at 
Vienna. On the 26th of July, 1581, between the hours 
of one and two in the afternoon, a ftone thirty-nine pounds 
in weight, of a blue and brownifh colour, and which rtruck 
fire with (teel, fell from th? clouds in Thuringia, with 
an explolion which (hook the earth, and accompanied by 
the appearance of a {’mail light cloud, that could have 
been nothing but a fire-ball, the heavens at that time 
being in other refpefts perfectly ferene. This ftone, which 
funk°to a confiderable depth, made the earth fly up to 
twice the height of a man, and was fo hot that no perfon 
could touch it. We are told that it was carried to Dref- 
den. On the 6th of March, 1636, while the heavens 
were perfectly ferene, a large ftone fell with a loud craft) 
between Sagan and the village of Dubrow in Silefia. It 
had internally the appearance of a mineral, could be eafily 
nibbed to powder, was covered on the ontfide with a 
cruft, and feemed as if burnt by fire. On the 16th of 
March, 1698, a black ftone fell from the atmofphere with 
various explofions, and was tranfmitted with an account 
of the circuniftance to the library at Berne. This ftone 
is mentioned by Scheuchzer, in his Natural Hiftory ot 
Swilferland. D. Roft relates, in the Breflan Collection 
refpecting Natural Hiftory, that at two o’clock in the af¬ 
ternoon on the 22ft of July, 1723, the weather being then 
ferene, there was feen a fmail cloud (probably a fire-ball), 
and at the fame time feveral large and fmall ftones fell 
from the heavens, accompanied by loud explofions, but 
without any lightning. Thefe ftones, which were black 
on the oulide, had internally the appearance of metal, and 
exhaled a ftrong fmell of fulphur. It is worthy ot re¬ 
mark, that the iron mafs mentioned by Pallas, which lias 
no affinity with any of the known foftils, but which cot'¬ 
ll E. 
refponds in many refpeCts with fome.of the before-men. 
tioned maffes, and particularly that which fell at Agram, 
was confidered by the inhabitants of Siberia, where it was 
found, as a facred relic dropped from heaven. It is to 
be lamented that the place was not dug up where the 
fire-ball, mentioned in the Philofophical TranfaCtions, 
No. ccclvii. p. 148, fell at Jamaica, in the year 1700. In 
that fpot there were found feveral holes in the earth, 
which were fo deep, that the poles with which they were 
examined did not reach to the bottom of them. A ful¬ 
phureous vapour was perceived in the neighbourhood;, 
and the grafs around the holes appeared fcorched. 
When all thefe data, which correfpond fo well with 
each other, are compared with the obfervations made on 
other fire-balls, where no opportunity occurred of getting 
poffeflion of the fallen maffes, the following conciufions 
may be drawn : 1. That the accounts given of fcoriaceous 
maffes, which contained iron, earth, fulphur, &c. having 
fallen from the heavens with violent explofions, are not 
fictions, but true relations of real natural phenomena 
actually obferved at various times. 2. That fire-balls and 
the falling of fuch maffes are the fame meteor. 
Refpefting the queftion, whence fire-balls and fuch 
fallen maffes proceed, opinions are very different. Molt 
people believe that they are owing to accumulations in. 
the atmofphere. But even when it is allowed that a great 
many foreign fubftances are diffolved in the atmofphere, 
the quantity of them, efpecially in regions at the diftance 
of eighty miles or more, from which fuch fire-balls are 
feen to fall in the form of a luminous point, is too fmall 
to admit of our fuppofing fuch large maffes to be formed 
of it. Should the folid particles, which may perhaps be 
diffolved in the atmofphere, precipitate themfelves, it 
would be rather in the form of a fine powder. Profeffor 
Chladni confiders it, therefore, with Anaxagoras, Mafke- 
lyne, Halley, &c. as more probable that thefe maffes 
come to our regions from the common expanfe of the 
univerfe, and tiiat, befirf.es planetary bodies, there are 
fmaller accumulations of matter, which when they ap¬ 
proach too near our earth, niuft fall down. That mate¬ 
rial bodies actually exift in the remoteft regions, is ftievvn 
both by the (ingle and accumulated luminous fparks which 
Dr. Schroeter (aw pafs over the field of his telefcope, as 
alfo by the (hooting ftars which pafs by our earth, pro¬ 
bably at a greater diftance and with greater velocity than 
to allow their being attrafted by it, and made to fall to 
its furface, and to which, fire-balls on their firft appear¬ 
ance, when they feem to approach like a luminous point, 
have a perfect refemblance. There are many re a fons for 
inducing us to believe that fhooting ftars cannot be mere 
electric phenomena, without the prefence of fonie coarfer 
fubftances. 
It would, however, be the height of prefumption to 
attempt to decide positively on the nature and origin of 
thefe phenomena, which occur but feldom, and always 
furprife us as it were on a fudden. The fureft method of 
arriving at truth and faff, would be by fetting on foot a 
feries of accurate obfervations on all the circumftances 
which might occur in future phenomena of die kind j 
and which, in the hands of.the mathematician, might 
hereafter condudi with greater certainty to a more ade¬ 
quate knowledge of this curious and interefting depart¬ 
ment of aftronomical fcience. 
FIRE-8 ALLS,/ in naval and military taffies, are very 
formidable, though humble, imitations of the grand yet 
awful phenomena above deferibed. Thefe artificial fire¬ 
balls confift of bombs, red-hot carcafes, hand-grenades, 
coveys of partridges, &c. for an account of which lee the 
article Artillery, and corefponair.g Engraving, vol. ii. 
P- 232-233. 
FIRE-COCKS,/ By flat. 14 Geo. III. C.7S. (thelaft 
building aft,) churchwardens in London and within the 
bills of mortality, are to fix fire-cocks, Sec. at proper 
diftances in ffreets, and keep a large engine and hand- 
engine for extinguifliing fire, under the penalty of ten 
pounds. 
