of superstition. This was the less surprising because no
scientifically authenticated instance of such an occurrence was known,
and the stones popularly believed to have fallen from the sky had
become the objects of worship or superstitious reverence, a fact not
calculated to recommend them to scientific credence. The celebrated
``black stone'' suspended in the Kaaba at Mecca is one of these
reputed gifts from heaven; the ``Palladium'' of ancient Troy was
another; and a stone which fell near Ensisheim, in Germany, was placed
in a church as an object to be religiously venerated. Many legends of
falling stones existed in antiquity, some of them curiously
transfigured by the imagination, like the ``Lion of the
Peloponnesus,'' which was said to have sprung down from the sky upon
the Isthmus of Corinth. But near the beginning of the nineteenth
century, in 1803, a veritable shower of falling stones occurred at
L'Aigle, in Northern France, and this time astronomers took note of
the phenomenon and scientifically investigated it. Thousands of the
strange projectiles came from the sky on this occasion, and were
scattered over a wide area of country, and some buildings were hit.
Four years later another shower of stones occurred at Weston, Conn.,
numbering thousands of individuals. The local alarm created in both
cases was great, as well it might be, for what could be more
intimidating than to find the blue vault of heaven suddenly hurling
solid missiles at the homes of men? After these occurrences it was
impossible for the most skeptical to doubt any longer, and the regular
study of ``aerolites,'' or ``meteorites,'' began.

One of the first things recognized was the fact that fire-balls are
solid meteorites in flight, and not gaseous exhalations in the air, as
some had assumed. They burn in the air during their flight, and
sometimes, perhaps, are entirely consumed before reaching the ground.