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BOOK X.

METEORIC ASTRONOMY.

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CHAPTER I.

Classification of the Subject. — Aerolites.—Summary of the Researches of

Berzelius , Rammelsberg, and others.—Celebrated Aerolites _ Summary

of Facts. — Catalogue of Meteoric Stones. — Arago’s Table of Appari-tions. — The Aerolite of 1492 . — Of 1627 .— Of 1795 . — The MeteoricShower of 1803 .

The phenomena, of which we are now about to speak, form ahighly interesting and by no means unimportant branch ofdescriptive astronomy. We shall treat of the subject underthree heads: —

1. Aerolites.

z. Fireballs.

3. Shooting Stars.

Of all cosmical meteors, those known as aerolites, meteor-lites, or meteoric stones, are the rarest, but nevertheless notso rare as to prevent the most satisfactory evidence beinggiven, that such occurrences have happened from time totime. It is to Chaldni that we owe much of our knowledgeon this branch of the subject. Many of these meteoric stones,picked up in different parts of the world, have been subjectedto chemical analysis at the hands of Berzelius , Rammelsberg,and others, w r hose deductions may be thus summed up : —

1. Meteoric stones are composed of elements all of whichoccur in terrestrial minerals.

2. Of the 65 elementary substances known, 19 have beenfound in meteoric stones.