1804. | 
have been in a foft or welding ftate, be- 
caufe it has received various impreffions. 
The Siberian iron has globular concavi- 
’ ties, in part filled with a tran{parent fub- 
ftance, which, the proportional quantity 
of oxide of iron excepted, has nearly the 
compofition of the globules in the ftene 
of Benares. The iron trom Bohemia ad- 
heres to earthy matter ftudded with glo- 
bular bodies. 
From thefe facts the Count . fubmits 
the following queries :—1. Have not all - 
fallen ftones, and what are called native 
iron, the fame origin? 2. Are all,. or 
any of them, the produce or the bodies of 
‘meteors? Specimens of the Yorkthire 
and Benares ftones have been depofited in 
the Britith Mufeum. 
If the facts to which we have referred 
be credited, it will not appear furprizing 
that fo ftriking a pbyfical and chemical 
analogy fhould induce a belief that all 
thefe ftones have the fame origin; and 
that, as they form an order of compounds 
different from any thing ever yet obferved 
among minerals; fome philofophers fhould 
conclude that they do not belong to the 
foffils of our globe. Several hypothetes 
have confequently been invented to ex- 
plain the formation of thefe fingular pro- 
-du‘iions. 
It has long been aflerted, that they are 
nothing elfe but minerals elevated and 
projected .from the earth by volcanoes. 
Others have confidered them as {tones of 
our globe truck and fufed on the outfide 
by lightmmg-on the fpot where they were 
found ; and lately they have been confi- 
dered as earthy and metallic fubftances 
railed into the air, which, being there 
colieéted and agolutinated, have turmed 
thefe maffes, which immediately fell down 
by their own weight. : 
The manifett contradiGiions exhibited 
by thefe opinions, either with the pringi- 
pal circumfances, or the fact ittelt, of 
the fall of thefe ftones, have given rife to 
one lefs improbable, though perhaps more 
. extraordinary. It is that of fome geo: 
metricians, who cenfider them as volcanic 
productions projected from the mdon be- 
yond the fphere of its attraGtion, and to 
' the confines of that of the earth. 
If this opinion feems to be contradiéted 
by all the ideas hitherto entertained, it is 
at any rate feen that it is lefs fufceptible 
of folid obje€tions than any of the pre- 
¢eding hypothefes, The fame may be faid 
On Stones, isc. faid to have fallen from the Clouds. = B87 
of that of Chladni, who with fome other 
philofophers, confiders all the mafies 
which. have fallen to the earth as folid bo- 
dies detached from fome other planet at 
the time of their formationy and which 
move about in infinite {pace till they meet 
with another, waich, becoming to them a 
new centre of gravity, attracts them to 
its furface. 
An analytical examination of thefe hy. 
pothefes, and the little agreement between 
them, and the circumftances which con- 
ftantly accompany the fall of ftones, have 
induced M. Gzarn, the author of Litholo- 
gie Atmofpherique, to fappofe that thefe 
ftones are formed of the elements of thofe _ 
earths and metals which they exhibit by 
analyfis, and which he fuppofes to be in 
a gazeous flate at a great height in 
the atmofphere, and the combination of 
which he afcribes to unknown circum- 
fiances that rarely occur. ‘This gentle- 
man has brought together a cellection of 
faéts and opinions, publifhed in France 
during the laft century, on thunder-ftones, 
thunder, ftones fallen from the heavens, 
&c. &c. and he infers that the pheno- 
menon of the fall of folid bodies on the 
earth is, according to every appearance, 
as old as the “world; and that the cer-~ 
tainty of the fact is now fo well proved, 
that it can be denied only by thofe who 
admit nothing as certain. 
clufion- he. gives a recapitulation of his 
whole work in the two following tables, 
Table I.—Of the principal Opinions entor- 
tained in regard to the folid Subftances 
which have fallen fromthe Clouds. 
Philofophers who have confidered them as 
productions thrown on the earth by volca. 
noes or hurricanes: . - 
Freret, Barthold, 
Gaflendi, G. A. Deluc, 
Mufchembroek, . Delalande. 
As mineral fubftances fufed by lightning 
on the {pots where found: 
Lemery, Stahl, 
The Academicians, Gronberg, 
Agricola, Patrin, 
As concretions in the atmofphere: 
Defcartes, Sir William Hamilton, 
Leffer, Edward King, 
Goyons-d’Arzas, Eufebius Salverte, 
As maifes foreign to our planet : 
_ Chladni, Poiffon, 
Biot, The Bibliothéque Britannique, 
Table II, 
At-the con. 
