Remarks Concerning Stones Said to Have Fallen from the Clouds, Both in These Days, and in Antient Times

Res ubi plurimum proficere, et valere possunt, collocari debent. Cicero de Orat. 37.

F.1.F.2. F.3.
An Attempt to account for the Production of a Shower of Stones, that fell in Tuscany, on the 16th of June, 1794; and to shew that there are Traces of similar Events having taken place, in the highest Ages of Antiquity. In the course of which Detail is also inserted, an Account of an extraordinary Hail-stone, that fell, with many others, in Cornwall, on the 20th of October, 1791.
Having received this last winter, from Sir Charles Blagden, some very curious manuscript accounts, concerning a surprising shower of stones; which is said, on the testimony of several persons, to have fallen in Tuscany, on the 16th of June, 1794;—and having also perused, with much attention, a very interesting pamphlet, written in Italian, by Abbate Ambrose Soldani , Professor of mathematics, in the University of Siena, containing an extraordinary and full detail of such facts as could be collected relating to this shower; the whole has appeared to me to afford such an ample field for philosophical contemplation, and also for the illustration of antient historic facts; that (leaving the whole to rest upon such testimony as the learned Professor has already collected together; and to be supported by such further corroboration, as I am informed is likely soon to arrive in England,) I cannot but think it doing some service to the cause of literature, and science, to give to the world, in the earliest instance, a short abridgement of the substance of the whole of the information; expressed in the most concise and plainest language, in which it is possible for me to convey a full and exact idea of the phænomenon.
It may be of some use, and afford satisfaction to several curious persons, to find the whole here compressed in so small a compass.
And, as I shall add my own conclusions without reserve; because the whole of the phænomenon tends greatly to confirm some ideas which I had previously been led to form, many years ago, concerning the consolidation of certain species of stone; it may open a door for further curious investigation.