REMARKS
CONCERNING
STONES
SAID TO HAVE FALLEN FROM THE CLOUDS, BOTH
IN THESE DAYS,
AND IN ANTIENT TIMES.
BY
EDWARD KING, ESQ. F. R. S. AND F. A. S.
Cicero de Orat. 37.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR G. NICOL, BOOKSELLER TO HIS MAJESTY,
PALL-MALL.
1796.
An Attempt to account for the Production of a Shower of Stones,that fell in Tuscany, on the 16th of June, 1794; and to shewthat there are Traces of similar Events having taken place,in the highest Ages of Antiquity. In the course of which Detailis also inserted, an Account of an extraordinary Hail-stone,that fell, with many others, in Cornwall, on the 20th ofOctober, 1791.
Having received this last winter, from Sir Charles Blagden,[3]some very curious manuscript accounts, concerning a surprisingshower of stones; which is said, on the testimony ofseveral persons, to have fallen in Tuscany, on the 16th ofJune, 1794;—and having also perused, with much attention,a very interesting pamphlet, written in Italian, by Abbate AmbroseSoldani, Professor of mathematics, in the University ofSiena, containing an extraordinary and full detail of suchfacts as could be collected relating to this shower; the wholehas appeared to me to afford such an ample field for philosophicalcontemplation, and also for the illustration of antienthistoric facts; that (leaving the whole to rest upon such testimonyas the learned Professor has already collected together;and to be supported by such further corroboration, as I aminformed is likely soon to arrive in England,) I cannot butthink it doing some service to the cause of literature, andscience, to give to the world, in the earliest instance, a short[4]abridgement of the substance of the whole of the information;expressed in the most concise and plainest language, in whichit is possible for me to convey a full and exact idea of thephænomenon.
It may be of some use, and afford satisfaction to several curiouspersons, to find the whole here compressed in so small acompass.
And, as I shall add my own conclusions without reserve;because the whole of the phænomenon tends greatly to confirmsome ideas which I had previously been led to form, manyyears ago, concerning the consolidation of certain species ofstone; it may open a door for further curious investigation.
And it may at least amuse, if not instruct; whilst I add ashort detail of uncommon facts, recorded in antient history,and tending to shew clearly, that we are not without precedentsof similar events having happened, in the early ages ofantiquity.
On the 16th of June,