32 Hiftory of Ajironomy for the Year 1803. 
aecording to M. Fict, infpector of the fa- 
lubrity of the prefeCturate. The year 
concluded with a very extraordinary om 
nomeron,—the hurricane of December 2 
unroofed houtes, overturned chimneys, to 
tore up trees by the rocts, in a manner 
never b-fore known at Paris. 
Mr. Wheatcroft, an Englifhman, fet- 
tled at Caen, has made many obferva- 
tions on the variation of the magnetic 
needle, arid has fent us a memoir on the 
aurore boréales. He has obferved fome 
of the moft remarkable; the nucleus or 
focus of which feemed to be in that place 
ef the heavens, which correfponds’ with 
the magnetic pole :. I gave the pofition of 
this pole in lat. 77° and long. 282° from 
the fir meridian*. We have, there- 
fore, a new reafon for believing that the 
aurora borealis is an electric phenomenon, ; 
for it is well known that there is a great 
affinity between eleétricity and magne- 
tifm. 
In regard to the pofition of the magne. 
tic pole, as foon as peace takes place, we 
mean to propole that government fhould 
fend obfervers, to verify on the {pot this 
important and curious fact in natural phi- 
lofophy ; and the zeal which it {hows for 
the {ciences, Seis us reafon to hope that 
our requeft will be attended with fuccefs. 
I thall conclude this hiftory of meteoro- 
logy with an account of a fire-ball, which 
burft on the 26th of April, near PAiele, 
¥ clafs thefe fire-balls among fhooting- 
ftars, and I have enumerated thirty fix in- 
flances of them. They have given rife 
this ae to a great many diflertations. 
Fhe noife of it was heard at Evreux, 
Caen, and Havre. A great many ftones, 
fimilar to thofe colle€&ted on other occa- 
fons of the fme kind, fell at l’Aigle. 
‘They were analyfed by Vauquelin. IVI. 
Tzarn has publifhed a volume on this fub- 
je&t, under the title of Lzthologie Atmo- 
Jpberique. Some confider them as formed 
in the atmofphere ; others as coming from 
the moon in two days a 
afcribe them to volcanic eruptions, the fo- 
cus of which is unknown; and others to 
fmall planets, the revolutions of -which 
have by fome obfacle been fulpended. 
After that which appeared, June 17, 
1798, feveral fones, one of which weighed 
twenty-ix pounds, were picked up at Vil- 
lefranche, near Lyons f. Hitherto there 
* Connoiffance des Temps, an 13. 
+ Connoifiance des Temps, an 7. 1799. 
J journal de Piyfique, Germinal, an y1. 
and a half; fome’ 
[Augul fy 
have been nine inftances of fuch ftones 
falling from the heavens: they are all of 
the fare nature, 2nd have no refemblance 
to any of thofe known on the earth in 
mines, or near volcanoes. As for my 
part, when I confider that thefe fones are 
friable, and-have an odour of fulphur ; that 
the explofion is heard to the difance of 
thirty miles round; and that the rolling ; 
noife refembles that of mufketry : it ap- 
pears to’me that all thefe pic aaa 
collected by M. Biot in his learned reper 
which has been printed, indicate their ai 
mation in the fire-baill, which is heard to 
detonate. Chemifts are divided in regard 
to the poffibility of this formation; but 
M. Cadet Gafficourt, fon of our cele- 
brated chemi, who has already diftin- 
euifhéed himfelf in the fame career, and 
who has publifhed an excellent dictionary 
,of chemiltry, reafoned with me in this 
manner : 
‘6 Hydrogen gas diffolves falphury 
charcoal, pholphorus, zinc, and iten ; its 
gravity is not thereby fenfibly tnerealed; 
and it may rife, thus charged, toa confi- 
derable height.” 
May not hydrofulphurets, which ‘af- 
fume the gafeous fate, and which diffolve, 
a gréat deal of earth, and metals, and vo- 
latile acids, carry with them filex and 
magnefia, or the elements of the latter, 
which is ftrongiy fufpe&ed to be a com-= 
pound body? There is nothing in the re- 
ceived theories which oppofes this ideas 
If the conftituent principles then of at« 
mofpheric ftones, can be at the fame time | 
in folution in very light gafes, when the 
hydrogen gas inflames, they will be forms - 
ed into {ones ; for the gas, by detonating, 
abandons the bodies it ‘held in folution 3 
the vacuum which it forms, draws towards 
the centre the molecule of the revived 
fubftances ; they yield to the general at- 
traction, and tend to unite: as they pais 
from the fluid to the folid ftate, they ne- 
ceffarily difengage enough of caloric to 
produce incandefcence, and that vitrifica< 
tion which we fee at their furface, but 
not enough to fufe them or oxidate them 
entirely. Yefterday * the Infitute re- 
ceived: from the minifter Chaptal, a ftone 
of feven pounds weight, which fell cr 
the 8th of O¢icber, near Apt, in Pro- 
vence, under fimilar circumftances, and 
which refembles ail the others of the fame 
kind +. 
* November 21, 1803, 
 Sce Moniteur, November 24. 
For 
