50. Adjudication of the Rumford Medals.-The President and Council of the Royal Society of London have adjudged to Dr Brewster the Gold and Silver Medals on Count Rumford's donation, given every two years for the most important discoveries on Light or Heat made in any part of Europe during that period.

51. Establishment of a Physiological Prize in France.-A sum of money having been anonymously transmitted to the Royal Academy of Sciences in France, for the purpose of founding a Prize in Physiology, the Academy has announced that a Gold Medal of 440 francs value, will be given to the Author of the printed work or manuscript sent to them before the 1st of December 1819, which shall be considered as having contributed most to the progress of Experimental Physiology.

52. New Fund for the Establishment of Prize Medals in Scotland. We have great pleasure in announcing, that the late Alexander Keith, Esq. of Ravelston, has left L. 1000, under the management of the present Mr Keith of Ravelston, Mr Keith, surgeon in Edinburgh, and Dr Brewster, for the purpose of promoting the advancement of the Arts and Sciences in Scotland. We expect to be able, in our second or third Number, to announce the particular purposes to which this liberal donation will be appropriated.

ART. XXXVIII.-List of Patents granted in Scotland in 1819.

1. TO JAMES FOX the younger, of Plymouth, in the county of Devon, rectifier, for his invention "of an improved method or methods of diminishing the loss in quantity and quality of ardent spirits, and other fluids, during the processes of distillation or rectification." Sealed at Edinburgh 23d January 1819,

2. TO JAMES JEFFRAY of Glasgow, professor of Anatomy in the University, for his invention" of combinations of, and improvements in, machinery to be moved by wind, steam, animal strength, water, or other power, by which means boats, barges, ships, or other floating vessels, may be propelled, or made to move in water, and which invention is further applicable to other useful purposes." Sealed at Edinburgh 2d March.

3. TO JOHN SIMPSON of Birmingham, in the county of Warwick, slater, for his invention of "a method of constructing and making harness, on an improved principle, for horses, or any other animals used for the purpose of drawing or conveying carriages, to be called Release Harness." Sealed at Edinburgh 17th March..

4. TO EDMUND HEARD of Brighton, in the county of Sussex, chemist, for his invention "of certain processes, means or methods of hardening and improving animal fats and oils, so as to manufacture therewith candles of a superior quality to those at present made from tallow." Scaled at Edinburgh 2d April.

5. TO DAVID GORDON, Esq. of the city of Edinburgh, for his invention "of a portable gas lamp." Sealed at Edinburgh 23d April.

6. TO JOIN NEILSON of Linlithgow, in the county of Linlithgow, glue-maker, for his invention, "That certain vegetable substances, not hitherto used by tanners and leather-dressers, may be employed in tanning and colouring leather; and that certain vegetable substances, not hitherto used by dyers, may be employed in the art of dyeing." Sealed at Edinburgh 12th April.

7. TO PHILIP PINDIN of Farningham, in the county of Kent, shoemaker, for his invention" of an improvement on single and double trusses." Sealed at Edinburgh 11th May.

8. TO HENRY PETER FULLER, for " An improvement in the method of preparing or procuring sulphate of soda, soda, subcarbonate of soda, and muriatic acid." Sealed at Edinburgh 11th May.

9. TO JOHN THOMAS BARRY of Plough Court, Lombard Street, London, chemist and druggist, for an improved "Apparatus for distillation, evaporation, and exsiccation, and for the preparation of colours." Sealed at Edinburgh 12th May.

Explanation of figures of Granite,—(Pl. III. Fig. 1. and pp. 111, 112.) a, Central mass of granite, surrounded by horizontal strata. 6, Bed of granite, in strata of gneiss.

<, Central mass of granite, surrounded with mantle-shaped strata. d, Central mass of granite, surrounded by strata that dip towards it from every side.

e, Imbedded mass of granite, in horizontal strata.

Imbedded mass of granite, with veins shooting from it into the surrounding strata.

P. Neill, Printer.

THE

EDINBURGH

PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL.

ART. I.-Account of Meteoric Stones, Masses of Iron, and Showers of Dust, Red Snow, and other Substances, which have fallen from the Heavens, from the earliest period down to 1819.

ALTHOUGH philosophers have devoted much of their at

tention to the investigation of the nature and origin of those singular substances which occasionally fall from the heavens, yet we are at the present moment as ignorant of the part of space in which they are formed, and of the manner of their formation, as we were at the very commencement of the inquiry.

As there were no analogous phenomena which could indicate the formation of hard metallic substances within the limits of our own atmosphere*, it was natural to seek for their origin in the nearest of the planets; and hence it has been very generally maintained by many distinguished individuals, that meteoric stones have their origin in the Moon, and that they are projected from her surface within the reach of the Earth's attraction, by some powerful volcanic agency. The improbability of the existence of such a high degree of volcanic force in so small a planet as the moon, has led to other speculations, and it has been maintained that meteoric stones are portions of small invisible planets circulating round the Earth+; that they are the fragments of a large planet which formerly existed between Mars and Jupiter, and of which the four small planets, Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta are the remaining fragments ; and, lastly, that they are

• Speaking of Meteoric Stones, M. Humboldt, who has examined this subject with much attention, remarks, that " they certainly do not belong to our, atmos phere."- Personal Narrative, vol. iii. p. 345., Note.

+ Voigt's Magazine 1797, or Phil. Mag. vol. ii. p. 1, 225, 338.

‡ Edin. Encycl. vol. ii. p. 641.

VOL. I. NO. 2. OCTOBER 1819.

minerals in their primitive state, which are ejected from the interior of our own globe by volcanoes situated in the polar regions, which produce at the same time the phenomena of the northern lights ..

The last of these opinions is that of the late M. de la Grange, the most celebrated mathematician of modern times; and all his views coincide with the second hypothesis above mentioned, which had been previously proposed by Dr Brewster. La Grange supposes the bursting of a planet to be a very probable event; he maintains that meteoric stones are unchanged minerals from the interior of a planet, and he has investigated formulæ for computing the velocity with which the fragments of a burst planet must be projected, in order to move in elliptical, parabolic, or hyperbolic orbits. Assuming the initial velocity of a cannon ball at 1400 French feet per second, he has shewn that in the case of a planet situated beyond the orbit of Uranus, a velocity twelve or fifteen times greater than that of a cannon ball, would be sufficient to make the fragments move in an elliptical or parabolic orbit, whatever be their dimensions, and the directions in which they are projected.

to

As a high degree of interest must always be attached to a subject like the present, we have drawn up the following list of meteoric stones, &c. including all those which have fallen, up the present time. It is taken, to a certain extent, from a list newly published by the celebrated M. Chladni of Wirtemberg † ; but we have added to it several which are not included in his list, and have enlarged the account of others, from a manuscript paper on meteoric stones, drawn up by Thomas Allan, Esq., which was read some years ago to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and which he has kindly allowed us to use. A very great number of the phenomena, as given by Chladni, we have not taken from his paper, but from a very curious work by a Jesuit, Domenico Troili, entitled Della Caduta di un Sasso dall aria ragionamento, Modena 1766, and in the possession of Thomas Allan, Esq. The ingenious author of that work, proves, in the clearest manner, both from ancient and modern history, that stones had repeatedly fallen from the heavens; and nothing can shew more strikingly the universality and obstinacy of that

La Grange, Sur l'Origine des Cometes, in the Connaissance de Tems 1814, p. 211. † Journal de Physique, Oct. 1818, p. 273.

scepticism which discredits every thing that it cannot understand, than the circumstance that this work should have produced so little effect, and that the numerous falls of meteoric stones should have so long been ranked among the inventions of ignorant credulity.

A. C.

CHAP. I.-CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF METEORIC STONES.

SECT. 1.-Before the Christian Era.

Division I.—Containing those which can be pretty nearly referred to a date.

1478. The thunderstone in Crete, mentioned by Malchus, and regarded probably as the symbol of Cybele.-Chronicle of Paros, 1. 18, 19.

1451. Shower of stones which destroyed the enemies of Joshua at Beth-horon.-Joshua, chap. x. v. 11 *.

1200. Stones preserved at Orchomenos.-Pausanias.

1168. A mass of iron upon Mount Ida in Crete.-Chronicle of Paros, 1. 22.

705 or 704. The Ancyle or sacred shield, which fell in the reign of Numa. It had nearly the same shape as those which fell at the Cape and at Agram.-Plutarch, in Num. 654. Stones which fell upon Mount Alba, in the reign of Tullus Hostilius.-"Crebri cecidere cœlo lapides."-Liv. 1. 31. 644. Five Stones which fell in China, in the country of Song.De Guignes.

466. A large stone at Egospotamos, which Anaxagoras supposed to come from the sun. It was as large as a cart, and of a burnt colour." Qui lapis etiam nunc ostenditur, magnitudine vehis, colore adusto."-Plutarch, Pliny, lib. ii. cap. 58. 465. A stone near Thebes.-Scholiast of Pindar.

461. A stone fell in the marsh of Ancona. Valerius Maximus, Liv. lib. 7. cap. 28.

• The word 'N abenim, which, according to Parkhurst, signifies stones in general, has been translated, without any reason, hailstones, in our version of the Bible. In the Book of Job, however, ch. 28. v. 3., the same word is translated stones of darkness, meaning, says Scott, "undoubtedly metallic stones or metals which man searches out." Miss Smith, in her Translation of Job, attaches the very same meaning to the word.