[footnote] I[The analysis of an aerolite which fell a few years since in
Maryland, United States, and was examined by Professor Silliman, of New
Haven, Connecticut, gave the following results: Oxyd of iron, 24; oxyd of
nickel, 1.25; silica, with earthy matter, 3.46; sulphur, a trace - 28.71.
Dr. Mantell's 'Wonders of Geology', 1848, vol. i., p. 51.] -- 'Tr.'
Again, experiments with the pendulum, particularly those prosecuted with
such rare precision by Bessel, confirm the Newtonian axiom, that bodies the
most heterogeneous in their nature (as water, gold, quartz, granular
limestone, and different masses of aerolites) experience a perfectly similar
degree of acceleration from the attraction of the earth. To the experiments
of the pendulum may be added the proofs furnished by purely astronomical
observations. The almost perfect identity of the mass of Jupiter, deduced
from the influence exercised by this stupendous planet on its own
satellites, on Enck's comet of short period, and on the small planets Vesta,
Juno, Ceres, and Pallas, indicates with equal certainty that within the
limits of actual observation attraction is determined solely by the quantity
of matter.*
[footnote] *Poisson, 'Connaissances des Temps pour l'Anne' 1836, p.
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