on the occasion of the fall of an aërolite at Milan in 1660, by which a
Franciscan monk was killed, was the first who surmised that aërolites were
of selenic origin. He says, in a memoir entitled 'Musæum Septalianum,
Manfredi Septalæ, Patricii Mediolanensis, industrioso labore constructum'
(Tortona, 1664, p. 44), "Labant philosophorum mentes sub horum lapidum
ponderibus; ni dicire velimus, lunan terram alteram, sine mundum esse, ex
cujus montibus divisa frustra in inferiorem nostrum hunc orben dela bantur."
Without any previous knowledge of this conjecture, Olbers was led, in the
year 1795 (after the celebrated fall at Siena on the 16th of June, 1794),
into an investigation of the amount of the initial tangential force that
would be requisite to bring to the Earth masses projected from the Moon.
This ballistic problem occupied, during ten or twelve years, the attention
of the geometricians Laplace, Biot, Brandes, and Poisson. The opinion which
was then so prevalent, but which has since been abandoned, of the existence
of active volcanoes in the Moon, where air and water are absent, led to a
confusion in the minds of the generality of persons between mathematical
possibilities and physical probabilities. Olbers, Brandes, and Chladni
thought "that the velocity of 16 to 32 miles, with which fire-balls and
shooting stars entered our atmosphere," furnished a refutation to the view
of their selenic origin. According to Olbers, it would require to reach the
Earth, setting aside the resistance of the air, an initial velocity of 8292
feet in the second; according to Laplace, 7862; to Biot, 8282; and to
Poisson, 7595. Laplace states that this velocity is only five or six times
as great as that of a cannon ball; but Olbers has shown "that, with such an
initial velocity as 7500 or 8000 feet in a second, meteoric stones would
arrive at the surface of our earth with a velocity of only 35,000 feet (or
1.53 German geographical mile). But the measured velocity of meteoric
stones averages five such miles, or upward of 114,000 feet to a second; and,
consequently, the original velocity of projection from the Moon must be
almost 110,000 feet, and therefore fourteen times greater than Laplace
asserted." (Olbers, in Schum, 'Jahrb.', 1837, p. 52-58; and in Gehler,
'Neues Physik.' 'Wörterbuche', bd. vi., abth.3, s. 2199-2136.) If we
could assume volcanic forces to be still active on the Moon's surface, the
absence of atmospheric resistance would certainly give to their projectile
force an advantage over that of our terrestrial volcanoes; but even in
respect to the measure of the latter force (the projectile force of our own
volcanoes), we have no observations on which any reliance can be placed, and
it has probably been exceedingly overrated. Dr. Peters, who accurately
observed and measured the phenomena presented by Ætna, found that the
greatest velocity of any of the stones projected from the crater was only
1250 feet to a second. Observations on the Peak of Teneriffe, in 1798, gave
3000 feet. Although Laplace, at the end of his work ('Expos. du Syst. du
Monde', ed. de 1824, p. 399), cautiously observes, regarding aërolites,
"that in all probability they come from the depths of space," yet we see
from another passage (chap. vi., p. 233) 6that, being probably unacquainted
with the extraordinary planetary velocity of meteoric stones, he inclines to
the hypothesis of their lunar origin, always, however, assuming that the
stones projjected from the Moon "become satellites of our Earth, describing
around it more or less eccentric orbits, and thus not reaching its
atmosphere until several or even many revolutions have been accomplished."
As an Italian at Tortona had the fancy that aërolites came from the Moon,
so some of the Greek philosophers thought they came from the Sun. This was
the opinion of Diogenes Laertius (ii., 9) regarding the origin of the mass
that fell at "gos Potamos (see note, p. 116). Pliny, whose labors in
recording the opinions and statements of preceding writers are astonishing,
repeats the theory, and derides it the more freely, because he, with earlier
writers (Diog. Laert., 3 and 5, p. 99, Hübner), accuses Anaxagoras of
having predicted the fall of aërolites from the
Sun: "Celebrant Græci Anaxagoram Clazomenium Olympiadis septuagesimæ
octavæ secundo anno prædixisse cælestium litterarum scientia quibus
diebus saxum casurum esse e sole, idque factum interdia in Thraciæ parte ad
gos flumen. Quod si quis prædictum credat, simul fateatur necesse est,
majoris miraculi divinitatem Anaxagoræ fuisse, solvique rerum naturæ
intellectum, et confundi omnia, si aut ipse Sol lapis esse aut unquam
lapidem in eo fuisse credatur; decidere tamen crebro non erit dubium." The
fall of a moderate-sized stone, which is preserved in the Gymnasium at
Abydos, is also reported to have been foretold by Anaxagoras. The fall of
aërolites in bright sunshine, and when the Moon's disk was invisible,
probably led to the idea of sun-stones. Moreover, according to one of the
physical dogmas of Anaxagoras, which brought on him the persecution of the
theologians (even as they have attacked the geologists of our own times),
the Sun was regarded as "a molten fiery mass" ([Greed words]). In
accordance with these views of Anaxagoras, we find Euripides, in 'Phaëton',
terming the Sun "a golden mass;" that is to say, a fire-colored,
brightly-shining matter, but not leading to the inference that aërolites
are golden sun-stones. (See note to page 115.) Compare Valckenaer,
'Diatribe in Eurip. perd. Dram. Reliquias', 1767, p. 30. Diog. Laert., ii.,
40. Hence, among the Greek philosophers, we find four hypotheses regarding
the origin of falling stars: a telluric origin from ascending exhalations;
masses of stone raised by hurricane (see Aristot., 'Meteor., lib. i., cap.
iv., 2-13, and cap. vii., 9); a solar origin; and, lastly, an origin in the
regions of space, as heavenly bodies which had long remained invisible.
Respecting this last opinion, which is that of Diogenes of Apollonia, and
entirely accords with that of the present day, see pages 124 and 125. It is
worthy of remark, that in Syria, as I have been assured by a learned
Orientalist, now resident at Smyrna, Andrea de Nericat, who instructed me in
Persian, there is a popular belief that aërolites chiefly fall on clear
moonlight nights. The ancients, on the contrary, especially looked for
their fall during lunar eclipses. (See Pliny, xxxvii., 10, p. 164.
Solinus, c. 37. Salm., 'Exere.', p. 531; and the passages collected by
Ukert, in his 'Geogr. der Griechen und Römer', th. ii., 1, s. 131, note
14.) On the improbability that meteoric masses are formed from
metal-dissolving gases, which, according to Fusinieri, may exist in the
highest strata of our atmosphere, and previously diffused through an almost
boundless space, may suddenly assume a solid condition, and on the
penetration and misceability of gases, see my '
Relat. Hist.', t. i., p. 525.
p 122
The view of the original existence of
p 123
small planetary masses in space is simpler, and at the same time, more
analogous with those entertained concerning the formation of other portions
of the solar system.
It is very probable that a large number of these cosmical bodies traverse
space undestroyed by the vicinity of our atmosphere, and revolve round the
Sun without experiencing any alteration but a slight increase in the
eccentricity of their orbits, occasioned by the attraction of the Earth's
mass. We may, consequently, suppose the possibility of these bodied
remaining invisible to us during many years and frequent revolutions. The
supposed phenomenon of ascending shooting stars and fire-balls, which
Chladni has unsuccessfully endeavored to explain on the hypothesis of the
'reflection' of strongly compressed air, appears at first sight as the
consequence of some unknown tngential force propelling bodies from the
earth; but Bessel has shown by theoretical deductions, confirmed by Feldt's
carefully-conducted calculations, that, owing to the absence of any proofs
of the simultaneous occurrence of the observed disappearances, the
assumptiopn of an ascent of shooting stars was rendered wholly improbable,
and inadmissible as a result of observation.*
[footnote] *Bessel, in Schum., 'Astr. Nachr.', 1839, No 389 und 381, s. 222
und 346. At the conclusion of the Memoir there is a comparison of the Sun's
longitudes with the epochs of the November phenomenon, from the period of
the first observations in Cumana in 1799,
The opinion advanced by Olbers that the explosion of shooting stars and
ignited fire-balls not moving in straight lines may impel meteors upward in
the manner of rockets, and influence the direction of their orbits, must be
made the subject of future researches.
Shooting stars fall either seprately and in inconsiderable numbers, that is,
sporadically, or in swarms of many thousands.
p 124
The latter, which are compared by Arabian authors to swarms of locusts, are
periodic in their occurrence, and move in streams, generally in a parallel
direction. Among periodic falls, the most celebrated are that known as the
November phenomenon, occurring from about the 12th to the 14th of November,
and that of the festival of St. Lawrence (the 10th of August), whose "fiery
tears" were noticed in former times in a church calendar of England, no less
than in old traditionary legends, as a meteorological event of constant
recurrence.*
[footnote] *Dr. Thomas Forster ('The Pocket Encyclopedia of Natural
Phenomena' 1827, p. 17) states that a manuscript is preserved in the library
of Christ's College, Cambridge,** written in the tenth century by a monk,
and entitled 'Ephemerides Rerum Naturalium', in which the natural phenomena
for each day of the year are inscribed as, for instance, the first flowering
of plants, the arrival of birds, etc.; the 10th of August is distinguished
by the word "meteorodes." It was this indication, and the tradition of the
fiery tears of St. Lawrence, that chiefly induced Dr. Forster to undertake
his extremely zealous investigation of the August phenomena. (Quetelet,
'Correspond. Mathém.', Série III., t. i., 1837, p. 433.)
[further footnote] **[No such manuscript is at present known to exist in
the library of that college. For this information I am indebted to the
inquiries of Mr. Cory, of Pembroke College, the learned editor of
'Hieroglyphics of Horapollo Nilous', Greek and English, 1840.] -- Tr.
Notwithstanding the great quantity of shooting stars and fire-balls of the
most various dimensions, which, according to Klöden, were seen to fall at
Potsdam on the night between the 12th and 13th of November, 1822, and on the
same night of the year in 1832 throughout the whole of Europe, from
Portsmouth to Orenburg on the Ural River, and even in the southern
hemisphere, as in the Isle of France, no attention was directed to the
'periodicity' of the phenomenon, and no idea seems to have been entertained
of the connection existing between the fall of shooting stars and the
recurrence of certain days, until the prodigious swarm of shooting stars
which occurred in North America between the 12th and 13th of November, 1833,
and was observed by Olmsted and Palmer. The stars fell on this occasion,
like flakes of snow, and it was calculated that at least 240,000 had fallen
during a period of nine hours. Palmer, of New Haven, Connecticut, was led,
in consequence of this splendid phenomenon, to the recollection of the fall
of meteoric stones in 1799, first described by Ellicot and myself,* and
which, by
p 125
a comparison of the facts I had adduced, showed that the phenomenon had been
simultaneously seen in the New Continent, from the equator to New Herrnhut
in Greenland (65 degrees 14' north latitude), and between 46 degrees and 82
degrees longitude.
[footnote] *Humb., 'Rel. Hist.', t. i., p. 519-527. Ellicot in the
'Transactions of the American Society', 1804, vol. vi., . 29. Arago makes
the following observations in reference to the November phenomena: "We thus
become more and more confirmed in the belief that there exists a zone
composed of millions of small bodies, whose orbits cut the plane of the
ecliptic at about the point which out Earth annually occupies between the
11th and 13th of November. It is a new planetary world beginning to be
revealed to us." ('Annuaire', 1836, p. 296.)
The identity of the epochs was recognized with astonishment. The stream
which had been seen from Jamaica to Boston (40 degrees 21' north latitude)
to traverse the whole vault of heaven on the 12th and 13th of November,
1833, was again observed in the United States in 1834, on the night between
the 13th and 14th of November, although on this latter occasion it showed
itself with somewhat less intensity. In Europe the periodicity of the
phenomenon has since been manifested with great regularity.
Another and a like regularly recurring phenomenon is that noticed in the
month of August, the meteoric stream of St. Lawrence, appearing between the
9th and 14th of August. Muschenbrock,* as early as in the middle of the
last century, drew attention to the frequency of meteors in the month of
August' but their certain periodic return about the time of St. Lawrence's
day was first shown by Quetelet, Olbers, and Benzenberg.
[footnote] *Compare Muschenbroek, 'Introd. ad Phil. Nat.', 1762, t. ii., p.
1061; Howard, 'On the Climate of London', vol. ii., p. 23, observations of
the year 1806; seven years, therefore aftr the earliest observations of
Brandes (Benzenberg, 'über Sternschnuppen', s. 240-244); the August
observations of Thomas Forster, in Quetelet, op. cit., p. 438-453; those of
Adolph Erman, Boguslawski, and Kreil, in Schum., 'Jahrb.', 1838, s. 317-330.
Regarding the point of origin in Perseus, on the 10th of August, 1839, see
the accurate measurements of Bessel and Erman (Schum., 'Astr. Nachr.', No.
385 und 428); but on the 10th of August, 1837, the path does not apper to
have been retrograde; see Arago in 'Comptes Rendus', 1837, t. ii., p. 183.
We shall, no doubt, in time, discover other periodically appearing streams,*
probably about the 22d to the
p. 126
25th of April, between the 6th and 12th of December, and, to judge by the
number of true falls of aërolites enumerated by Capocci, also between the
27th and 29th of November, of about the 17th of July.
[footnote] *On the 25th of April, 1095, "innumerable eyes in France saw
stars falling from heaven as thickly as hail" ('ut grando, nisi lucerent,
pro densitate putaretur'; Baldr., p. 88), and this occurrence was regarded
by the Council of Clermont as indicative of the great movement in
Christendom. (Wilken, 'Gesch. der Kreuzzüge', bd. i., s. 75.) On the 25th
of April, 1800, a great fall of stars was observed in Virginia and
Massachusetts; it was "a fire of rockets that lasted two hours." Arago was
the first to call attention to the "trainée d'asteroïdes," as a recurring
phenomenon. ('Annuaire', 1836, p. 297.) The falls of aërolites in the
beginning of the month of December are also deserving of notice. In
reference to their periodic recurrence as a meteoric stream, we may mention
the early observation of Brandes on the night of the 6th and 7th of
December, 1798 (when he counted 2000 falling stars), and very probably the
enormous fall of aërolites that occurred at the Rio Assu, near the village
of Macao, in the Brazils, on the 11th of December, 1836. (Brandes,
'Unterhalt. für Freunde der Physik', 1825, heft i., s. 65, and 'Comptes
Rendus', t. v., p. 211.) Capocci, in the interval between 1809 and 1839, a
space of thirty years, has discovered twelve authenticated cases of
aërolites occurring between the 27th and 29th of November, besides others
on the 13th of November, the 10th of August, and the 17th of July.
('Comptes Rendus', t. xi., p. 357.) It is singular that in the portion of
the Earth's path corresponding with the months of January and February, and
probably also with March, no 'periodic' streams of falling stars of
aërolites have as yet been noticed; although when in the South Sea in the
year 1803, I observed on the 15th of March a remarkably large number of
falling stars, and they were seen to fall as in a swarm in the city of
Quito, shortly before the terrible earthquake of Riobamba on the 4th of
February, 1797. From the phenomena hitherto observed, the following epochs
seem especially worthy of remark:
22d to the 25th of April.
17th of July (17th to the 26th of July?). (Quet., 'Corr.', 1837, p. 435.)
10th of August.
12th to the 14th of November.
27th to the 29th of November.
6th to the 12th of December.
When we consider that the regions of space must be occupied by myriads of
comets, we are led by analogy, notwithstanding the differences existing
between isolated comets and rings filled with asteroids, to regard the
frequency of these meteoric streams with less astonishment than the first
consideration of the phenomenon would be likely to excite.
Although the phenomena hitherto observed appear to have been independent of
the distance from the pole, the temperature of the air, and other climatic
relations, there is, however, one perhaps accidentally coincident phenomenon
which must not be wholly disregarded. The Northern Light, the Aurora
Borealis, was unusually brilliant on the occurrence of the Borealis, was
unusually brilliant on the occurrence of the splendid fall of meteors of the
12th and 13th November, 1833, described by Olmsted. It was also observed at
Bremen in 1838, where the periodic meteoric fall was, however, less
remarkable than at Richmond, near London. I have mentioned in another work
the singular fact observed by Admiral Wrangel, and frequently confirmed to
me by himself,* that when he
p 127
was on the Siberian coast of the Polar Sea, he observed, during an Aurora
Borealis, certain portions of the vault of heaven which were not
illuminated, light up and continue luminous whenever a shooting star passed
over them.
[footnote] *Ferd. v. Wrangle, 'Reise längs der Nordküste von Sibirien in
den Jahren', 1820-1824, th. ii., s. 259. Regarding the recurrence of the
denser swarm of the November stream after an interval of thirty-three years,
see Olbers, in 'Jahrb.', 1837, s. 280. I was informed in Cumana that
shortly before the fearful earthquake of 1766, and consequently thirty-three
years (the same interval) before the great fall of stars on the 11th and
12th of November, 1799, a similar fiery manifestation had been observed in
the heavens. But it was on the 21st of October, 1766, and not in the
beginning of November, that the earthquake occurred. Possibly some traveler
in Quito may yet be able to ascertain the day on which the volcano of
Cayambe, which is situated there, was for the space of an hour enveloped in
falling stars, so that the inhabitants endeavored to appease heaven by
religious processions. ('Relat. Hist.', t. i., chap. iv., p 307; chap. x.,
p. 520 and 527.)
The different meteoric streams, each of which is composed of myriads of
small cosmical bodies, probably intersect our Earth's orbit in the same
manner as Biela's comet. According to this hypothesis, we may represent to
ourselves these asteroid-meteors as composing a closed ring or zone, within
which they all pursue one common orbit. The s aller planets between Mars
and Jupiter present us if we except Pallas with an analogous relation in
their constantly intersecting orbits. As yet, however, we have no certain
knowledge as to whether changes in the periods at which the stream becomes
visible, or the 'retardations' of the phenomena of which I have already
spoken, indicate a regular precession of oscillation of the nodes -- that is
to say, of the points of intersection of the Earth's orbit and of that of
the ring; or whether this ring or zone attains so considerable a degree of
breadth from the irregular grouping and distances apart of the small bodies,
that it requires several days for the Earth to traverse it. The system of
Saturn's satellites shows us likewise a group of immense width, composed of
most intimately-connected cosmical bodies. In this system, the orbit of the
outermost (the seventh) satellite has such a vast diameter, that the Earth,
in her revolution round the Sun, requires three days to traverse an extent
of space equal to this diameter. If, therefore, in one of these rings,
which we regard as the orbit of a periodical stream, the asteroids should be
so irregularly distributed as to consist of but few groups sufficiently
dense to give rise to these phenomena, we may easily understand why we so
seldom witness such glorious spectacles as those exhibited in the November
months of 1799 and 1833. The acute mind of Olbers led him almost to predict
that the next appearance of the phenomenon of shooting stars and fire-balls
intermixed, falling like flakes of snow, would not recur until between the
12th and 14th of November, 1867.
p 128
The stream of the November asteroids has occasionally only been visible in a
small section of the Earth. Thus, for instance, a very splendid 'meteoric
shower' was seen in England in the year 1837, while a most attentive and
skillful observer at Braunsberg, in Prussia only saw on the same night,
which was there uninterruptedly clear, a few sporadic shooting stars fall
between seven o'clock in the evening and sunrise the next morning. Bessel*
concluded from this "that a dense group of the bodies composing the great
ring may have reached that part of the Earth in which England is situated,
while the more eastern districts of the Earth might be passing at the time
through a part of the meteoric ring proportionally less densely studded with
bodies."
[footnote] *From a letter to myself, dated Jan. 24th, 1838. The enormous
swarm of falling stars in November, 1799, was almost exclusively seen in
America, where it was witnessed from New Herrnhut in Greenland to the
equator. The swarms of 1831 and 1832 were visible only in Europe, and those
of 1833 and 1834 only in the United States of North America.
If the hypothesis of a regular progression or oscillation of the nodes
should acquire greater weight, special interest will be attached to the
investigation of older observations. The Chinese annals, in which great
falls of shooting stars, as well as the phenomena of comets, are recorded,
go back beyond the age of Tyrtæs, or the second Messenian war. They give a
description of two streams in the month of March, one of which is 687 years
anterior to the Christian era. Edward Biot has observed that among the
fifty-two phenomena which he has collected from the Chinese annals, those
that were of most frequent recurrence are recorded at periods nearly
corresponding with the 20th and 22d of July, O.S., and might consequently be
identical with the stream of St. Lawrence's day, taking into account that it
has advanced since the epochs* indicated.
[footnote] *Lettre de M. Edouard Biot à M. Quetelet, sur les anciennes
apparitions d'Etoiles Filantes en Chine, in the 'Bull. de l'Académie de
Bruxelles', 1843, t. x., No. 7, p. 8. On the notice from the 'Chronicon
Ecclesiæ Pragensis', see the younger Boguslawski, in Poggend., 'Annalen',
bd. xlviii., s. 612.
If the fall of shooting stars of the 21st of October, 1366, O.S. (a notice
of which was found by the younger Von Boguslawski, in Benessius de Horowic's
'Chronicon Ecclesiæ Pragensis'), be identical with our November phenomenon,
although the occurrence in the fourteenth century was seen in broad
daylight, we find by the precession in 477 years that this system of
meteors, or, rather, its common center of gravity, must describe
p 129
a retrograde orbit round the Sun. It also follows, from the views thus
developed, that the non-appearance, during certain years, in any portion of
the Earth, of the two streams hitherto observed in November and about the
time of St. Lawrence's day, must be ascribed either to an interruption in
the meteoric ring, that is to say, to intervals occurring between the
asteroid groups, or, according to Poisson to the action of the larger
planets* on the form and position of this annulus.
[footnote] *"It appears that an apparently inexhaustible number of bodies,
too small to be observed, are moving in the regions of space, either around
the Sun or the planets, or perhaps even around their satellites. It is
supposed that when these bodies come in contact with our atmosphere, the
difference between their velocity and that of our planet is so great, that
the friction which they experience from their contact with the air heats
them to incandescence, and sometimes causes their explosion. If the group
of falling stars form an annulus around the Sun, its velocity of circulation
may be very different from that of our Earth; and the displacements it may
experience in space, in consequence of the actions of the various planets,
may render the phenomenon of its intersecting the planes of the ecliptic
possible at some epochs, and altogether impossible at others." -- Poisson,
'Recherches sur la Probabilité des Jugements', p. 306, 307.
The solid masses which are observed by night to fall to the earth from
fire-balls, and by day generally when the sky is clear, from a cark small
cloud, are accompanied by much candescence. They undeniably exhibit a great
degree of general identity with respect to their external form, the
character of their crust, and the chemical composition of their principal
constituents. These characteristics of identity have been observed at all
the different epochs and in the most various parts of the earth in which
these meteoric stones have been found. This striking and early-observed
analogy of physiognomy in the denser meteoric masses is, however, met by
many exceptions regarding individual points. What differences, for
instance, do we not find between the malleable masses of for instance, do we
not find between the malleable masses of iron of Hradeschina in the district
of Agram, those from the shores of the Sisim in the government of Jeniseisk,
rendered so celebrated by Pallas, or those which I brought from Mexico,* all
of which contain 96 per cent. of iron, from the aërolites of Siena, in
which the iron scarcely amounts to 2 per cent., or the earthy aërolite of
Alais (in the Department du Gard), which broke up in water, or, lastly, from
those of Jonzac and Javenas, which contained no metallic iron, but presented
a
p 130
mixture of oryctognostically distinct crystalline compoonents!
[footnote] *Humboldt, 'Essai Politique sur la Nouv. Espagne' (2de édit.),
t. iii. p. 310.
These differences have led mineralogists to separate these cosmical masses
into two classes, namely, those containing nickelliferous meteoric iron, and
those consisting of fine or coarsely-granular meteoric dust. The crust or
rind of aërolites is peculiarly characteristic of these bodies, being only
a few tenths of a line in thickness, often glossy and pitch-like, and
occasionally veined.*
[footnote] *The peculiar color of their crust was observed even as early as
in the time of Pliny (ii., 56 and 58): "colore adusto." The phrase
"lateribus pluisse" seems also to refer to the burned outer surface of
aërolites.
There is only one instance on record, as far as I am aware (the aërolite of
Chantonnay, in La Vendée), in which the rind was absent, and this meteor,
like that of Juvenas, presented likewise the peculiarity of having pores and
vesicular cavities. In all other cases the black crust is divided from the
inner light-gray mass by as sharply-defined a line of separation as is the
black leaden-colored investment of the white granit blocks* which I brought
from the cataracts of the Orinoco, and which are also associated with many
other cataracts, as, for instance, those of the Nile and of the Congo River.
[footnote] * Humb., 'Rel. Hist.', t. ii., chap xx., p. 299-302.
The greatest heat employed in our porcelain ovens would be insufficient to
produce any thing similar to the crust of meteoric stones, whose interior
remains wholly unchanged. Here and there, facts have been observed which
would seem to indicate a fusion together of the meteoric fragments; but, in
general, the character of the aggregate mass, the absence of compression by
the fall, and the inconsiderable degree of heat possessed by these bodies
when they reach the earth, are all opposed to the hypothesis of the interior
being in a state of fusion during their short passage from the boundary of
the atmosphere to our Earth.
The chemical elements of which these meteoric masses consist, and on which
Berzelius has thrown so much light, are the same as those distributed
throughout the earth's crust, and are fifteen in number, namely, iron,
nickel, cobalt, manganese, chromium, copper, arsenic, zinc, potash, soda,
sulphur, phosphorus, and carbon, constituting altogether nearly one third of
all the known simple bodies. Notwithstanding this similarity with the
primary elements into which inorganic bodies are chemically reducible, the
aspect of aërolites, owing to the mode in which their constituent parts are
compounded, presents, generally, some features foreign to our telluric rocks
and minerals. The pure native iron, which is almost always
p 131
found incorporated with aërolites, imparts to them a peculiar, but not
consequently, a 'selenic' character; for in other regions of space, and in
other cosmical bodies besides our Moon, water may be wholly absent, and
processes of oxydation of rare occurence.
Cosmical gelatinous vesicles, similar to the organic 'nostoc' (masses which
have been supposed since the Middle Ages to be connected with shooting
stars), and those pyrites of Sterlitamak, west of the Uralian Mountains,
which are said to have constituted the interior of hailstones,* must both be
classed among the mythical fables of meteorology.
[footnote] *Gustav Rose, 'Reise nach dem Ural', bd. II., s. 202.
Some few aërolites, as those composed of a finely granular tissue of
olivine, augite, and labradorite blended together* (as the meteoric stone
found at Juvenas, in the Department de l'Ardèche, which resembled
dolorite), are the only ones, as Gustav Rose has remarked, which have a more
familiar aspect.