AEROLITES, called also Meteoric Stones, are bodies which have fallen on the earth from the atmosphere, and are named from (DA atmosphere, and Meer, a stone. We possess historical records from very remote antiquity, and numerous writers in all ages have mentioned instances of the remarkable phenomenon of stony bodies having been seen to fall from the sky ; yet, till within the last fifty years, all such accounts were treated as tales of the ignorant and super stitious. The first man of science who directed attention to the subject of a6rolites was Madill a German philosopher, who, in a tract published at Riga and Leipzig, in 1794, upon the mass of native iron found by Pallas in Siberia, maintained the credibility of the traditions of that and other stony bodies having fallen from the air. His sagacious inductions, although they failed at the time to make any great impres sion, prepared philosophers for a more willing reception of the evidence as to two instances of the same extraordinary event, which were shortly afterwards brought under their notice. In 1796 a stone was exhibited iu London, weighing 56 pounds, which fell at \Vold Cottage, in York shire, in December of the preceding year ; but, although the fact was attested by several credible witnesses, the possibility of such an occur rence was still doubted. It was remarked, however, by Sir Joseph Hanka, that there was a great resemblance between the Yorkshire stone and one in hia possession, sent to him from Italy, with an account of its having fallen from the eland's along with many others of a similar nature, near Sienna, in July, 1794. I u the year 1799 Sir Joseph Banks received a circumstantial acoonnt, accompanied by specimens, of a fall of stoma from the atmosphere, which was said to have taken place near Benares, in Hindustan, in the preceding December ; and as theme specimens were Mao nearly identical with the Yorkshire stone, incredulity began to give way. It was not, however, till the appear ance of the celebrated paper of Howard, in the ' Philosophical Trans actions' for 1802, giving an account of his analysis of the Bemires stone, that men of science declared their belief in the phenomenon, supported, as the evidence then was, by the researchers and opinion of so cautious and accurate an inquirer ; and a fall of stones at L'Aigle, in Normandy, which took place in the following year, at the time the memoir of Howard sews in the hands of the public, removed all doubt The Institute of France deputed the celebrated Biot to examine, on the spot, the whole circumstances attending this remarkable event ; and the result of his labours will be found in his report, in the seventh volume of the ' Metnoiree de 'Institut.' Ile antisfied himself of the
authenticity of the facts which had been narrated ; and the specimens he collected on the ground, being analysed by Vauqualin and Th6nard, yielded the same result as the analysis of the Betters++ atone by Howant An account ca the circumstances that attended the fall of stones at and ',angler afterwerds discovered the presence of chrome in it. Frequently small detached portions of malleable iron aro disseminated thrOugh the mass, and the black crust acts powerfully on the magnet The appearance of these bodies is not periodical, nor connected with any particular state of the atmosphere, nor of the weather; and they have fallen in all climates, on every part of the earth, at all seasons, in the night and in the day.
Chladni has compiled a very copious catalogue of all recorded instances, from the earliest times : of which twenty-seven are previous to the Christian era ; thirty-five from the beginning of the first to the end of the 14th century; eighty-nine from the beginning of the 15th to the date of the fall at L'Aigle at the beginning of the present century. Iii 1837 M. Quetelet, of Brussels, published a catalogue of remarkable meteors, and again in 1841. Mr. Henick, in America, and M. Chasles, in France, also published lists in 1841. The latest accounts have been published by Professor Baden Powell, in the 'Transactions of the British Association,' since the year 1847. Numerous as the instances are in which these phenomena have been witnessed they can form but a small proportion of the whole amount, when we compare the small extent of surface occupied by those capable of keeping a record of such events, with the wide expanse of the ocean, the vast uninhabited deserts, mountains, and forests, and the countries possessed by savage nations. Many of those which occur in the night must also escape observation even in civilised countries.