[meteorite-list] More on Jefferson and Weston from Burke

From: Martin Horejsi <martinh_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue Mar 22 12:06:59 2005
Message-ID: <ddb2d44979af5900995be65ae43d4039_at_isu.edu>

Hello Bernd and All,

In my article about historical falls in the November 2004 issue of
Meteorite Magazine, I included the Jefferson quote as it, whether
really said or not, has become as tied to Weston as the dog to Nakhla.
However, as a result of my study of Weston's place in the evolution of
meteorite science, I included the following words as well:

" But in defense of Jefferson, he is correct in that science is
parsimonious thus favoring the simplest answer, and it is likely that
Jefferson did not dispute the origin of the stones, but rather their
mode of delivery."

Cheers,

Martin




On Mar 21, 2005, at 2:46 PM, bernd.pauli_at_paulinet.de wrote:

> BURKE J.G. (1986) Cosmic Debris - Meteorites in History, p. 57:
>
> It was not until October 1805 that Ellicott received published
> material from France,
> which convinced him that stones did fall, that they had an unusual
> composition and
> texture, and that they were generated in the atmosphere. He advised
> Jefferson of
> his conversion, and Jefferson responded on 25 October 1805. He wrote
> that he had not
> seen the documents to which Ellicott referred, but that he had read
> Izam's Lithologie
> atmosph?rique, which was "an industrious collection" of facts of the
> same kind:
>
> "I do not say that I disbelieve the testimony but neither can I say I
> believe it. Chemistry
> is too much in its infancy to satisfy us that the lapidific elements
> exist in the atmosphere
> and that the process can be completed there. I do not know that this
> would be against the laws
> of nature and therefore I do not say it is impossible; but as it is so
> much unlike any operation
> of nature we have ever seen it requires testimony proportionately
> strong."
>
> This passage indicates that Jefferson's skepticism was not about the
> fall of meteorites, but
> about their generation in the atmosphere. It is in this light that we
> should attempt to judge
> whether or not the remark so often attributed to him following the
> fall of the Weston meteorite
> two years later is apocryphal - namely, "It is easier to believe that
> two Yankee professors
> would lie than that stones would fall from heaven." In his Discourse
> on Jefferson, Samuel Latham
> Mitchill reported that soon after the Weston fall, he received an
> account and a specimen from
> friends. A senator who was to dine with Jefferson that evening asked
> to borrow the report and
> sample to show to the President and request his comments. When
> presented with the evidence,
> Jefferson, according to Mitchill's friend, said that "it is all a
> lie." Later, on 15 February 1808,
> in a reply to a letter from a citizen offering to send a fragment of
> the Weston stone for an official
> examination by the Congress, Jefferson suggested that the members of a
> scientific society would be
> better qualified to examine the stone, "supposed meteoric," than those
> of the national legislature.
> He continued:
>
> "We certainly are not to deny whatever we cannot account for. A
> thousand phenomena present
> themselves daily which we cannot explain, but where facts are
> suggested, bearing no analogy
> with the laws of nature as yet known to us, their verity needs proof
> proportioned to their
> difficulty. A cautious mind will weigh the opposition of the
> phenomenon to everything hitherto
> observed, the strength of the testimony by which it is supported, and
> the error and misconceptions
> to which even our senses are liable. It may be very difficult to
> explain how the stone you possess
> came into the position in which it was found. But is it easier to
> explain how it got into the clouds
> from whence it is supposed to have fallen? The actual fact however is
> the thing to be established."
>
> The tenor and even the wording of this letter is quite similar as that
> in Jefferson's December 1803
> reply to Ellicott. It is possible that, upon reflection, he dismissed
> the notion of the atmospheric
> generation of stones and reverted to his original ambivalence about
> their fall. One other point is
> relevant. At the time of the Weston fall, the New England states were
> in an uproar about the economic
> effects of the Jeffersonian-sponsored Embargo Act of November 1806,
> and there was even talk of secession.
> Jefferson was antagonistic to the New Englanders, because they sought
> to circumvent the embargo by smuggling
> goods into Canada. It is therefore possible that soon after the fall
> and before the American Philosophical
> Society in March 1808 heard Silliman's report and accepted his memoir
> for publication, Jefferson, in a fit
> of temper, made the remark. But scholars have not yet located the
> source, so that at this time it must
> remain conjectural.
>
>
> Best regards,
>
> Bernd
>
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Received on Tue 22 Mar 2005 12:06:43 PM PST