METEORITES AND THE ORIGIN OF LIFE. 



89 



leaving a slight carbonaceous residue. The crys- 

 tals really appear to be of two kinds : acicular 

 crystals, which are sparingly soluble in absolute 

 alcohol, but are readily taken up by ether, car- 

 bon disulphide, turpentine, and cold nitric acid, 

 and dissolve in cold sulphuric acid, striking a 

 brown color ; and rhombic crystals, which dis- 

 solve in ether and carbon disulphide, but are 

 unaffected by cold nitric acid, sulphuric acid, or 

 turpentine. An analysis of 0.0078 gramme of 

 the crystals soluble in alcohol gave the following 

 numbers : 



Sulphurous acid . 0.010 Sulphur . . 005 

 Carbonic acid . . 008 Carbon . . 0.0022 

 Water 0.003 Hydrogen . 0.0003 



The atomic ratio of carbon to hydrogen, then, is 

 nearly 1 : 1, or that of the reddish-brown and 

 colorless mineral resin konleinite, which occurs 

 in crystalline plates and grains in the lignite of 

 Uznach, in Switzerland. Kraus makes the fus- 

 ing-point of konleinite 114°C. ; it is slightly solu- 

 ble in alcohol, but much more soluble in ether. 

 Dr. Lawrence Smith, who has recently examined 

 the Alais meteorite, arrives at the same results 

 as Roscoe ; and, also, that the carbonaceous in- 

 gredient of this meteorite resembles, in all its 

 physical characters, those of a substance which 

 he obtained from the graphite of the Sevier Coun- 

 ty meteoric iron, to which I shall presently refer. 

 1838. October IZth, 9 a. m.— At the hour 

 mentioned a great number of large stones fell 

 over a considerable area at Kold-Bokkeveld, 

 seventy miles from Cape Town. Those which 

 fell near Tulbagh are estimated to have weighed 

 many hundred-weights. It is said that they 

 were soft when they fell, but became hard after 

 a time. This material has a dull, black color, 

 and is very porous and friable. Harris, who 

 analyzed it in 1859, determined the presence of 

 1.67 per cent, of carbon, and somewhat more 

 than 0.25 per cent, of an organic substance solu- 

 ble in alcohol. This compound is described as 

 possessing a yellow color, and a soft, resinous, or 

 waxy, aspect. It readily fused with a slight rise 

 of temperature, and when heated in a tube it was 

 decomposed, emitting a strong bituminous odor, 

 and leaving a carbonaceous residue. Some four 

 years ago I was considering what should be done 

 with a trace of this substance, so small in amount 

 that it could not be removed from the vessel con- 

 taining it. I was unwilling to throw away even 

 so small a quantity of so precious a substance, 

 so I drew off the neck of the flask and placed it 

 in a dark cupboard of a room, the temperature 

 of which, during the greater part of the year, is 



unusually high. In the interval this organic com- 

 pound has sublimed, and is deposited on the 

 higher parts of the vessel in colorless and well- 

 defined crystalline plates. 



1840. — During this year a large mass of mete- 

 oric iron was discovered in Sevier County, Ten- 

 nessee, inclosing a large nodule of graphite. " It 

 is," writes Dr. Lawrence Smith, " the largest mass 

 of graphite which has come under my observa- 

 tion, and is perhaps the largest known." Its di- 

 mensions are 60 mm by 20 mm and 35 mm , and it 

 weighs ninety-two grammes. Two grammes of 

 this nodule were reduced to powder and treated 

 with ether, and the liquid on evaporation left a 

 residue weighing fifteen milligrammes, and pos- 

 sessing an aromatic, somewhat alliaceous, odor. 

 It consisted of long, colorless acicular crystals, 

 others which were shorter, as well as some rhom- 

 boidal crystals and rounded particles. This ex- 

 tracted substance melted at about 120°C. When 

 heated in a tube closed at one end it melts and 

 then volatilizes, condensing in yellow drops, and 

 leaving a carbonaceous residue. Dr. Lawrence 

 Smith believes that the three elements, carbon, 

 hydrogen, and sulphur, which they contain, may 

 be in combination, and he has named the mete- 

 oric sulphohydrocarbon " celestial ite." 



1857. April 15th, 10.11 p. M .— A brilliant 

 detonating meteor was observed at this hour 

 over Kaba, southwest of Debreczin, Hungary, 

 and a meteorite weighing four kilogrammes was 

 found on the following morning imbedded in the 

 hard surface of a road close by. The crust is 

 black, and the mass of the stone dark gray; 

 throughout the structure black portions of the 

 size of peas lie scattered, giving the stone a por- 

 phyritic character. Wohler treated the stone 

 with alcohol, which removed a white, apparently 

 crystalline, substance possessing a peculiar aro- 

 matic odor. With ether it broke up into oily 

 drops, and appeared to be decomposed into an 

 insoluble fluid body and a soluble solid portion. 

 The solid substance was obtained in a distinctly 

 crystalline condition on driving off the ether. It 

 volatilizes in air, fuses in a close tube, and is de- 

 composed when greater heat is applied, a fatty 

 odor being observed, and a black residue left. 

 The hydrocarbon is believed by Wohler to be 

 allied to ozocerite or scheererite. When the 

 powdered stone is heated in oxygen it turns of a 

 cinnamon-brown color. This meteorite contains 

 0.58 per cent, of carbon. 



1861. — The huge mass of meteoric iron dis- 

 covered at Cranboune, near Melbourne, Australia, 

 in 1861, incloses more or less rounded masses of 



