most rarefied air from the velocity of their motion must be sufficient
to ignite their mass so that they are fused on entering the atmosphere.
It is estimated that a body moving through our atmosphere with the
velocity of one mile in a second, would extricate heat equal to 30,000 deg.
of Fahrenheit--a heat more intense than that of the fiercest artificial
furnace that ever glowed. The chief modification given to the Chladnian
theory has arisen from the observed periodical occurrence of meteoric
showers--a brilliant and astonishing exhibition--to some notices of
which we proceed.

The writers of the middle ages report the occurrence of the stars
falling from heaven in resplendent showers among the physical
appearances of their time. The experience of modern days establishes the
substantial truth of such relations, however once rejected as the
inventions of men delighting in the marvelous. Conde, in his history of
the dominion of the Arabs, states, referring to the month of October in
the year 902 of our era, that on the night of the death of King Ibrahim
ben Ahmed, an infinite number of falling stars were seen to spread
themselves like rain over the heavens from right to left, and this year
was afterward called the year of stars. In some Eastern annals of Cairo,
it is related that "In this year (1029 of our era) in the month Redjeb
(August) many stars passed, with a great noise, and brilliant light;"
and in another place the same document states: "In the year 599, on
Saturday night, in the last Moharrem (1202 of our era, and on the 19th
of October), the stars appeared like waves upon the sky, toward the east
and west; they flew about like grasshoppers, and were dispersed from
left to right; this lasted till day-break; the people were alarmed." The
researches of the Orientalist, M. Von Hammer, have brought these
singular accounts to light. Theophanes, one of the Byzantine historians,
records, that in November of the year 472 the sky appeared to be on fire
over the city of Constantinople with the coruscations of flying meteors.
The chronicles of the West agree with those of the East in reporting
such phenomena. A remarkable display was observed on the 4th of April,
1095, both in France and England. The stars seemed, says one, "falling
like a shower of rain from heaven upon the earth;" and in another case,
a bystander, having noted the spot where an aerolite fell, "cast water
upon it, which was raised in steam, with a great