erman, at
_Leipsyc_, in 1790: entitled _Bergbaukimde_ (or _the Science of
Mining_.)

After describing two other stones, said to have fallen from the clouds:
one in the _Eichstedt_ country in Germany; and another in the _Bechin_
circle, in Bohemia, in July, 1753; concerning the _real_ falling of
which he had expressed some doubts; he proceeds to describe the falling
of two, (whereof this was one,) not far from _Agram_, the capital of
_Croatia_, in Hungary; which caused him to change his opinion; and to
believe, that the falling of such stones from heaven, was very possible.

His words, fairly translated,[EE] in the beginning of his narrative,
are, "These accounts put me in mind of a mass of iron, weighing
seventy-one pounds, which was sent to the imperial collection of natural
curiosities: about the origin of which _many mouths have been distorted
with scoffing laughter_. If, in the _Eichstedt_ specimen, the effects of
fire appear _tolerably_ evident; they are, in this, not to be
mistaken.--Its surface is full of spherical impressions, like the mass
of iron, which the celebrated _Pallas_ found on the Jenisei river;
except that here the impressions are larger, and less deep; and it
wants both the yellow glass, which fills up the hollows of the
_Siberian_ iron; and the _sand stone_, which is found in the _Eichstedt_
specimen; the whole mass being solid, compact, and black, like hammered
iron."

And his words in the end of the narrative are,

"There is a great step from the disbelief of tales, to the finding out
the true cause of a phaenomenon which appears wonderful to us. And
probably I should have committed the fault into which we so naturally
fall, respecting things we cannot explain; and have rather denied the
whole history, than have determined to believe any thing _so
incredible_; if various new writings, on electricity, and thunder, had
not fortunately, at that time come into my hands; concerning remarkable
experiments of reviving _metallic calces_ by the electric spark.
Lightning is an electrical stroke on a large scale.--If then the
reduction of iron can be obtained, by the discharge of an electrical
machine; why should not this be accomplished as well, and with much
greater effect by the very powerful discharge of the lightning of the
clouds?"

The substance of the account of the fall of stones, in Hungary, as given
by him, after the most accurate inquiries, is what I shall now add in
the following abridge