Volume 1

The occult sciences. The philosophy of magic, prodigies, and apparent miracles / From the French of Eusèbe Salverte, with notes illustrative, explanatory, and critical, by Anthony Todd Thomson.

  • Salverte, Eusèbe, 1771-1839.
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The occult sciences. The philosophy of magic, prodigies, and apparent miracles / From the French of Eusèbe Salverte, with notes illustrative, explanatory, and critical, by Anthony Todd Thomson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    54/350 (page 46)
    40 signs facts wlilch slie lias recognized as certain with- out being able to explairi them. We at one time regarded as fables ail tbat the ancients recorded respecting the falling of stones from the sky. In the commencement of the nine- teentb century, the most distinguished of the French philosophers rejected, with some degree of harsh- ness, the relation of a shower of aerolites ; but, a few days afterward, they were forced to acknowl- edge its truth ; and the naiTation lias been verified. by the frequent répétition of this phenomenon.* On the 27th of May, 1819, a violent liai! storm devastated the country of Grignoncourt.t The mayor of the place had some of the hailstones col- * Altliough the fall of aerolites, or meteoric stones, is not now doubted, yet it does not augment the credibility of the sbower of <]uicksilver related by Dion ; it only sliows ns how cautions we ougbt to be in rejecting the accouuts of ancieut writers, however iucousistent witb our expérience. The most authentic account of a fall of aerolites is tbat wbicb describes the pbenomenou as it occurred near L’Aigle, in Normandy. in 1803. About one o’clock in the afternoon, the sky being clear, a bail of lire was observed in the atmosphère, in different parts of Normandy, and at the saine time loud explosions were heard in the district of L’Aigle. These lasted for five or six minutes, reserabling the discharges of cannon and musketry, followed by a long, rolling noise, like tbat of many drnms. The meteor, whence the noise seemed to pro- ceed, was like a small triangular cloud, whicli remained station- ary ; but vapor seemed to issue from it after each explosion. Throughout the whole district a hissing noise, like tbat caused by stones thrown from a sling. was heard, and a great number of stones fell to the gi-ound. Above two thousand were collected ; they varied in weight from two drachms to seventeen pounds and a half Aerolites, in whatever part of the world they bave fallen, resemble one another in composition, and consist ôf silica, iron, magnesia, nickel, and sulpbur, but in proportions difterent from those in any stones known on the surface of our globe. Numer- ous conjectures bave been advanced respecting the source of these stones. They bave been supposed to be projected from the moon, or from volcanoes, or to be fonned in the atmosphère. The most probable theory is that proposed by Chladni, namely, that these meteors are either original, small, solid bodies, or fragments separated from larger masses moving in space round the èarth in eccentric orbits. and containing, according to iSir H. Davy, com- bustible or elastic matter.—Ed. t Ncufchàtcau, in the department of the Vosges.