1802.] 
In Mr. Howarn’s experiments and ob- 
fervations on certain fteny fubitances 
which at different. times are faid to have 
fallen on the earth, we have hiftorical ac- 
counts of all thofe faéts on the fubje& 
which feem to be well authenticated. — 
Particular mention is made of one that 
fell in Portugal in 1796—of about a do- 
zen that fell at Sienna in July, 1794—o0f 
one that weighed 56 lbs. that fell in De- 
cember, 1795, near Wold-cottage, in 
Yorkthire—and of others that fell, in 
3798, near Benares, in the Eaft Indies, 
We have then a mineralogical defcrip- 
tion of thefe various ftones, by the Count 
de Bournon; after which, Mr. Howard, 
following the example of the French Aca- 
demicians, who, in 1768, brought one of 
thefe fubftances to the tet of chemiftry, 
proceeds to vonfider the affiftance to be de- 
rived from the {cience of chemiitry in dif- 
tinguifhing them from all other known 
fubftances, and in eftablifhing the affertion 
that they have fallen on the earth— 
-Count de Bournon’s defcription of native 
iron, and Mr. Howard’s examination. of 
fpecimens of iron from South America, 
Bohemia, and Senegal, follow in fuccef- 
fion ; from which the Author, inftead of 
drawing any conclufions, propofes the fol- 
lowing queries :—1. Have not all fa/lex 
ftcnes, and what are called native irons, 
the fame origin ?>—z. Are all, or any, the 
produce, or the bodies, of meteors ?—3. 
Might not the ftone from Yorkfhire have 
formed a meteor in regions too elevated to 
be difcovered. 
Specimens of the Yorkfhire and Benares 
fiones have been depofited in the Britifh 
Muieum. 
NATURAI HUSTORY. . 
Mr. Everarp Home's de‘cription of 
the anatomy of the ornithorhyachus ad- 
mits not of abridgement ; the following 
particulars are however interefling. The 
ornithorhynchus is about 17 inches long, 
and 41 inches in circumference. Jt is found 
only in the frefh water lakes in New South 
Wales : it does not {wim upon the farface 
of the water, but comes up occaiionally 
to breathe, in the fame manner as the 
turtle. The natives fit on the banks with 
{mall wooden fpears, and watch them every 
time they come to the furface, till they 
get anopportunity of firiking. Governor 
Hunter faw a native watch one for above 
an hour before he attempted to fpear it, 
which he did through the neck and fore- . 
Jeg: whenon fhore, it uféd its claws with 
fo much force, that they were obliged to 
confine it between two pieces of beard 
wiple they were cutting off the barbs of 
MontTuuy Mac. No. 90. 
Proceedings of Learned Societies. 
57 
the {pear to difengage it. When loofe, it 
ran upon the ground with as much aéti- 
vity as a land-tortoife. It inhibits the 
banks of the lakes, and is fuppofed to fred 
in the muddy places which furround them; 
but the particular kind of food on which 
it fubfifts is not known. 
Ts a 
MANCHESTER LITERARY AND PHILO= 
SOPHICAL SOCIETY™*. 
BELLES LETTRES, &c. 
The Rev. G. WALKER, inan excellent 
paper ‘On Tragedy, and the intereft in 
tragical Reprefentations,”’ has attempted to 
account for the ftrange intermixture of 
pain, and fomething like joy, excited in 
the fame inftant, by the fame object, each 
apparently dependant on each other, and 
yet not blended together in the fame mafs. 
He examines the moft celebrated theories 
on the fubjeét, fuch as that of the Abbe 
du Bos, who refers the folution of the dif- 
ficulty to that averfion which we have toe 
indolence, and, in confequence, to the de- 
light we feel in having our mcf aétive 
and lively paffions rouf-d ; and that of 
Fontenelle, which fays, that pleafure and 
pain, like many other extremes, approach, 
and, at a certain point, pafs into each 
other : plealure, pufhed too far, becomes 
pain, and the movement of pain, a little 
moderated, becomes pleafure. He then 
confiders the more plaufible theory of Da- 
vid Hume, which refers the greateft part 
of that pleafure which {prings out of the 
bofom of uneafinels, and yet retains all 
the feasures and fymptoms of diftrefs and 
forrow, to the bewitching power of the 
eloquence with which the melancholy {cene 
is reprelented. ‘* The effet,” fays Mr. 
Hume, ‘ is like the compofition of twa 
forces, which, combining together, pro- 
duce a new direction, a direétion not con- 
trary to that of either, but partaking of 
both.” : 
Having analyfed thefe fyitems, and 
pointed out their feveral defegis,. Mr. 
Walker concludes, that in every view of 
the human mind, daring the exhibition of 
tragic imitations, compailion or fympathy 
in a more extended feufe preients itielf as 
the operating principle, the immedicte 
fenfe to which fuch icenes addrefs them- 
felves. ‘* This,” fays ne, < is. the ony 
principle within us which is fuficient-to 
* Notice of the papers publithed in the 
fecond part of vol. V. of the Memoirs of rhe 
Literary and Philofophical Gociety dF Man. 
chefter. ‘ 
Hi  gttach 
