374 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



end of the bill of a newly hatched chick. It would be of more practi- 

 cal value did they know that the real cause was a little thread-like 

 worm far back in the throat. This worm may easily be removed by a 

 loop of horse-hair, or destroyed by the application of proper remedies. 

 In the same localities I remember that when I was a child " luck-eggs," 

 as we called the very small eggs, now and then dropped at the end of 

 the laying-season, were highly valued by children, as they believed 

 that so long as one of these small treasures was kept unbroken good 

 fortune would attend the possessor. Children in some parts of New 

 England have a very singular notion that it is the yelk of the egg 

 which, during the process of incubation, develops into the body of the 

 chick, while the white gives rise to the feathers. With this instance I 

 may close the present brief account of such specimens of the animal 

 and plant lore of children as a moderate amount of inquiry has en- 

 abled me to procure. I have mentioned approximately the regions 

 where I knew the various superstitions were entertained, but doubt- 

 less many of them have wider range than has here been indicated. 

 More extended research, particularly in out-of-the-way localities in the 

 South and West, may greatly add to the list of such beliefs. 



NofE. The writer will gratefully acknowledge the receipt of additional myths of 

 similar character to those here given, with a view to subsequent fuller treatment of the 

 subject. Beliefs of adults will be acceptable, as well as those held only by children, and 

 it will be of service if considerable detail be given in regard to the geographical or social 

 boundaries of the superstition, and if the latter be stated as explicitly as possible. Ad- 

 dress Mrs. Fanny D. Bergen, P. 0. box 253, Peabody, Massachusetts. 







THE ORIGIN AND STRUCTURE OF METEORITES. 



By M. A. DAUBREE. 



TILL the second half of this century the nature of the innumerable 

 stars with which space is peopled was wholly a subject of imagi- 

 native speculation. Recent science has been able to substitute more 

 exact ideas for premature hypotheses. Notwithstanding the immense 

 distances that separate them from us, spectrum analysis has enabled us 

 to make chemical investigations of the sun, the comets, stars, and 

 nebulae. It is, further, possible to reach results more precise and more 

 complete in other respects for many extra-terrestrial bodies ; that is, 

 for those bodies, fragments of which are dropped from time to time 

 upon our globe. Although we have no means of going to them, they 

 come to us, real messengers from above, to satisfy our legitimate curi- 

 osity. The study of these fragments, the only cosmic bodies which it 

 is possible for us to handle immediately, concerns one of the funda- 

 mental questions of the physical history of the universe. 



The list of meteors, both in ancient and modern times, is very full. 



