"I have much considered this appearance, and think
it one of the hardest things to account for that I have
yet met with in the phenomena of meteors, and I am
induced to think that it must be some collection of
matter formed in the aether, as it were, by some
fortuitous concourse of atoms, and that the earth met
with it as it passed along in its orb, then but newly
formed, and before it had conceived any great impetus
of descent towards the sun. For the direction of it
was exactly opposite to that of the earth, which made
an angle with the meridian at that time of sixty-seven
gr., that is, its course was from west southwest to east
northeast, wherefore the meteor seemed to move the
contrary way. And besides falling into the power of
the earth's gravity, and losing its motion from the
opposition of the medium, it seems that it descended
towards the earth, and was extinguished in the
Tyrrhene Sea, to the west southwest of Leghorn. The
great blow being heard upon its first immersion into
the water, and the rattling like the driving of a cart
over stones being what succeeded upon its quenching;
something like this is always heard upon quenching a
very hot iron in water. These facts being past dispute,
I would be glad to have the opinion of the learned thereon,
and what objection can be reasonably made against
the above hypothesis, which I humbly submit to their
censure."[1]

These few paragraphs, coming as they do from a