Dr. Laurence Smith, U.S., accepts the “lunar theory,” and considers meteorites to be masses thrown off from the moon, the attractive power of which is but one-sixth that of the earth; so that bodies thrown from the surface of the moon experience but one sixth the retarding force they would have when thrown from the earth’s surface.
Look again (says Dr. Smith) at the constitution of the meteorite, made up principally of pure iron. It came evidently from some place where there is little or no oxygen. Now the moon has no atmosphere, and no water on its surface. There is no oxygen there. Hurled from the moon, these bodies,—these masses of almost pure iron,—would flame in the sun like polished steel, and on reaching our atmosphere would burn in its oxygen until a black oxide cooled it; and this we find to be the case with all meteorites,—the black colour is only an external covering.
Sir Humphry Davy, from facts contained in his researches on flame, in 1817, conceives that the light of meteors depends, not upon the ignition of inflammable gases, but upon that of solid bodies; that such is their velocity of motion, as to excite sufficient heat for their ignition by the compression even of rare air; and that the phenomena of falling stars may be explained by regarding them as small incombustible bodies moving round the earth in very eccentric orbits, and becoming ignited only when they pass with immense rapidity through the upper regions of the atmosphere; whilst those meteors which throw down stony bodies are, similarly circumstanced, combustible masses.
Masses of iron and nickel, having all the appearance of aerolites or meteoric stones, have been discovered in Siberia, at a depth of ten metres below the surface of the earth. From the fact, however, that no meteoric stones are found in the secondary and tertiary formations, it would seem to follow that the phenomena of falling stones did not take place till the earth assumed its present conditions.
VAST SHOWER OF METEORS.
The most magnificent Shower of Meteors that has ever been known was that which fell during the night of November 12th, 1833, commencing at nine o’clock in the evening, and continuing till the morning sun concealed the meteors from view. This shower extended from Canada to the northern boundary of South America, and over a tract of nearly 3000 miles in width.
IMMENSE METEORITE.
Mrs. Somerville mentions a Meteorite which passed within twenty-five miles of our planet, and was estimated to weigh 600,000 tons, and to move with a velocity of twenty miles in a second. Only a small fragment of this immense mass reached the earth. Four instances are recorded of persons being killed by their fall. A block of stone fell at Ægos Potamos, B.C. 465, as large as two millstones; another at Narni, in 921, projected like a rock four feet above the surface of the river, in which it was seen to fall. The Emperor Jehangire had a sword forged from a mass of meteoric iron, which fell in 1620 at Jahlinder in the Punjab. Sixteen instances of the fall of stones in the British Isles are well authenticated to have occurred since 1620, one of them in London. It is very remarkable that no new chemical element has been detected in any of the numerous meteorites which have been analysed.