Having, nevertheless, gone so far as to say thus much; I ought to add, that the memorial of such sort of large stones having fallen from the clouds is still preserved also in Germany.
For one is recorded to have fallen in _Alsace_, in the midst of a storm of hail, November 29th, A. D. 1630;[DD] which is said to be preserved in the great church of _Anxissem_: and to be like a large dark sort of flint-stone; having its surface operated upon by fire: and to be of very many pounds weight.
And another is said to be still preserved at Vienna.
This last is described by _Abbé Stutz_, Assistant in the Imperial cabinet of curiosities at Vienna, in a book printed in German, 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 phænomenon 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?"