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On turning to the article Soil, from which we expected much important information, we were extremely disappointed to find it dispatched in two very short sentences.

We must not, however, dismiss this volume without pointing to the article Toxidermia, which is long, curious, and interesting. By this new term, M. Dufresne denotes the preparation and arrangement of the skins of animals, destined to be preserved in cabinets of natural history. It comprises much valuable matter: but, as our extracts have already multiplied beyond expectation, we must abstain from particulars.

For the same reason, we must not dwell on the Temperature of the Earth, Truffle, Vegetable, Meat, Wine, and various other important and well digested articles, which will be found in the twenty-second and twenty-third volumes.

The consideration of M. Patrin's ideas on Volcanos would require a separate article. Here we can state only part of the summary of his theory:

All active volcanos, without exception, are contiguous to the sea, and are situated in those districts in which sea salt is most abundant. The volcanos of the Mediterranean absorb the salt which the waters of the ocean are constantly conveying into it, through the straights of Gibraltar.-The primitive schistose strata are the laboratory in which the volcanic materials are prepared by means of a continual circulation of divers fluids: but these strata furnish no part of their own substance. The sphere of volcanic action may extend beyond these strata, but has no other focus than the vents through which the gases escape, when they are partly dissipated in the atmosphere, and partly reduced to a concrete state by the fixation of oxygen.-The force and duration of the volcanic paroxysms are proportioned to the extent of the schistose beds in which the volcanic fluids are accumulated. These fluids are:

1. The muriatic acid, which, by abstraction of the oxygen from the metallic oxides of the schistus is converted into super-oxygenated muriatic acid.

2. The oxygen of the atmosphere, which constantly replaces in the metals that of which they are deprived by the muriatic acid.

3. The carbonic gas, which the water absorbs from the atmosphere, and transmits to the schistus, which always abounds in coal.

4. The hydrogen which results from the decomposition of water. Part of this hydrogen is ignited by electrical explosions, and part, united with the carbonic acid, forms oil, which becomes petroleum, by its combination with the sulphuric acid. It is this petroleum which

communicates a bitter taste to sea-water.

5. The electric fluid which is attracted from the atmosphere, chiefly by the metals contained in the schistus. Sulphur seems to be the most homogeneous portion of this fluid in a concrete state. Phosphorus is a modification of it, and contributes to fix the oxygen.

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6. The metalliferous fluid. It forms iron in lava, gives birth to metallic veins, and is the colouring principle in organized bodies. integral substance is iron, and its decomposition' produces the other' metals.

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7. Lastly, Azotic gas. To this we ought probably to attribute the formation of the masses of carbonat of lime ejected by Vesuvius, and of the calcareous earth contained in lava.'

We now hasten to intimate the distribution of the concluding volume. It opens with thirty-two pages of additions, which were procured when the work was in the press. The greater part of this supplement, which we expected would have been more complete, relates to omissions in ornithology. An interesting extract is also given from Cuvier's Memoir on the Palæotherium, published in the 16th No. of the Annals of the Museum.-Next follows an index of the Latin names. In this catalogue, the specific appellations are not treated with more respect than in the body of the work. Their frequent omission is certainly to be regretted.-The editor's advertisement is a convenient key to the systematic use of the work, and a suitable introduction to the synoptical tables.-An explication of the technical distinctions and characters, according to which the productions of the three kingdoms of nature are classed, is neatly laid down in eighty pages, and illustrated by twenty-eight plates. The synoptical view of the orders, classes, families, genera, &c. extends to 238 pages, and is enriched by some va luable notes. An index to the plates, and an alphabetical list of the numerous subscribers, terminate the whole.

We formerly hinted that the press-work of this publication was correct and elegant: but we cannot approve of the occasional use of a small type. The latter is sufficiently distinct for the purposes of consultation; and its uniform adoption would have diminished the number of the volumes: but the blending of the two sizes, which frequently occurs in the discussion of the same article, has an unpleasant effect. We may also be per mitted to hint, that a quarto or a folio form would have been more advantageous for the developement of the figured objects. The best of the plates are engraved by Tardieu.

To conclude this alphabetical body of Natural History, with all its omissions and inequalities, deserves to stand first in the list of similar productions.Another performance, conducted on nearly the same plan, will shortly solicit our

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ART. VIII. Des Pierres tombées du Ciel, &c. i. e. A Treatise on Stones fallen from the Clouds; or, Atmospheric Lithology; exhibiting the Progress and actual State of the Science; a View of the Phænomenon of Thunder-Stones, Showers of Stones, Stones fallen from the Heavens, &c. several unpublished Observations, communicated by M.M. Pictet, Sage, Darcet, and Vauquelin; with an Essay on the Theory of the Formation of the Stones. By JOSEPH IZARN, M.D. Professor of Natural Philosophy, Member of the Society of Sciences, Belles-Lettres, and Arts, of Paris, &c. &c. &c. 8vo. pp. 430. Paris. 1803. Imported by de Boffe.

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HE subject of atmospheric stones has of late frequently attracted our attention, and, in common with many scientific men, has excited our scepticism. In the preceding article, (p.496.) it again came before us; and we referred to the separate work of which we are now to enter on a consideration, in discussing what Dr. IZARN is pleased to dignify somewhat prematurely with the name of Science. When any extraordinary appearance is stated to have taken place, the public are intitled to all the force of evidence of which the case is susceptible; and the fall of stones from the atmosphere is a circumstance so remote from the common course of events, and apparently so repugnant to the ordinary train of our conceptions, that we cannot give it credence on slight or doubtful testimony.

In his first section, which is by far the most voluminous, the learned Doctor marshals his "cloud of witnesses" in pompous, but partial array. By confining his reports to facts and opinions published in France, since the year 170c, he robs his creed of the support which it might derive from prior and foreign relations, a few of which are noted only incidentally. The common-place remarks, by which he prefaces the French accounts, are not the less insignificant, because they are expressed in solemn and methodical diction; while several of the modern narratives do not bear directly on the subject of discussion. A more liberal and regular procedure would be to select, in chronological order, some of the most striking instances which record the alleged fact, in remote and more downward periods; and to dwell with some minuteness on such of the recent accounts as have produced conviction on the minds of many persons. In collecting and digesting the antient recitals, considerable assistance may be derived from M. FALCONET's paper on the Bætilia, KING's Remarks concerning Stones said to have fallen from the Clouds, ZAHN's Specula Physico-Mathematica Historiana, aud GEMMA's Fisica Sotteranea.

We shall now shortly lay before our readers the amount of such cases as the author has thought it proper to register, and

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which have not been announced in some of our preceding articles.

No. 1. is an extract of a paper by M. Lemery, disavowing his belief in the vulgar notion of thunder-bolts (pierre de tonnerre), but admitting the probability of a mineral substance being fused by lightning on the spot where it is found.

2. A short account of a shower of fire, which is asserted to have fallen at Quesnoy, at two different periods.

3. An extract from M. Freret's paper on the prodigies recorded by the antients. The passages which relate to volcanos, showers of blood, &c. might have been omitted, being as foreign to the subject as the shower of fire just mentioned. Some other examples are more in point. In the second year of the 78th Olympiad, there fell from the clouds, in broad day, a stone, near the river Negos, in Thrace. Pliny assures us that It was exhibited in his time, and that it was magnitudine vehis, colore adusto. The latter circumstance coincides with the dark. coating observable on atmospheric stones. According to Paul Lucas, an eye-witness, a stone fell from the air, at Larissa, in Macedonia, in the month of January 1706. It weighed about 72lbs., resembled the dross of iron, and was seen to proceed from the north, with a loud hissing, apparently enveloped in a small cloud, from which it burst, and fell with a very loud explosion.

The celebrated Gassendi, whose accuracy is allowed to have equalled his knowledge, relates that, on the 27th of November 1627, when the sky was very clear, he saw a burning stone, apparently four feet in diameter, fall on mount Vaiser, between the towns of Guillaumes and Perne in Provence. It was surrounded by a luminous circle of different colours, like a rainbow; and its fall was accompanied by a noise like that of many cannons fired at once. This stone weighed 59lbs. It was of a dark metallic colour, and very hard. Its weight was to that of marble as 14 to 11.'

4. An account of a shower of common and very fine sand, which fell in the Atlantic, at eight or nine leagues from land, on the 6th of April 1719, and which continued from ten o'clock at night till one o'clock P. M. of the following day.

Nos. 5, 6, 7, and 8. treat of Cerannia, or thunder-stones, and the reproduction of flint, but have no immediate reference to atmospheric lithology.

9. A view of Muschembroek's sentiments relative to extraordinary showers, including those of stones, which he ascribes to earthquakes.

10. We make the subsequent extracts from M. de Lalande's narrative published in the Historical Almanac of the rovince of Bresse, for 1756:

In the month of September 1753, about one o'clock in the afternoon, the weather being very warm and serene, without any appear ance of clouds, a great noise was heard like the firing of two or three cannons. Though of very short duration, it was audible at the distance of six leagues in every direction. This noise was loudest in the neighbourhood of Pont de-Vesle. A hissing sound, like that of a squib, was likewise heard at Liponas, a village three leagues from Pont-de-Vesle, and four from Bourg. On the same evening, there were found at Liponas and at Pin, a village near Pont de-Vesle, and three leagues from Liponas, two blackish masses, of a figure nearly circular, but very unequal, which had fallen on ploughed ground, into which they had sunken half a foot by their own weight. One of them weighed about twenty pounds. They were broken, and the fragments were shewn to all the curious.

A similar noise was heard on St. Peter's day, in 1750, in Lower Normandy; and a mass very nearly of the same nature with that which I have just described, but much larger, fell at Niort.

One of the stones which I have mentioned, weighing eleven pounds and a half, may be seen at Dijon, in the museum of M. Varenne de Beast, principal secretary to the States of Burgundy, and correspondent of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris.”

From the description and rude analysis of the first of these bodies, we are warranted to infer that it resembled, in various respects, those which have been more recently described.

11, and 12. For the subject of these two numbers, see the Philos. Transact. of the Royal Society of London, P. 1. for 1802.; or p. 41 of the 39th volume of our New Series. IZARN has inserted the details at considerable length.

M.

13. M. Gronberg's arguments against the popular belief in thunder-stones. Like Lemery, this naturalist is of opinion that pretended thunder-stones are mineral substances, fused by lightning on the earth's surface.

14. This number contains some interesting and circumstantial communications from M.M. Pictet and the younger Darcet, concerning the descent of stoney and metallic substances. We regret that we cannot make room for them. M. Saint-Amand may, however, be allowed to speak for himself:

To M. Pictet, one of the Editors of the Bibliotheque Britannique.

On the perusal of the second of the interesting letters which you addressed from England to your fellow-journalists, and in which you treat of stones supposed to have fallen from the clouds, I resolved to acquaint you of a fact, in support of the new ideas which seem to originate in that subject; and on which I did not seriously reflect, till I read your letter, inserted in Nos. 135, and 136, of the Bibliotheque Britannique.

On the 24th of July 1790, about nine o'clock in the evening, a very considerable ball of fire appeared at Agen, and was also observed in the neighbouring departments After this meteor had traversed a

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