THE JOURNA 



OF THE 



mhttt lititrffsropiol €lnh. 



t 



On Fluid Cavities in Meteorites. 



By Heinrich Hensoldt. 



(Bead August 26, 1881.) 



The paper which I have now the honour to read before this 

 audience is the outcome of a discovery, furnished by accident, which 

 I was fortunate enough to make about two years ago, and to 

 which I attach some importance, having strong reasons for believing 

 it to be original. 



A series of observations and experiments, resulting from this 

 discovery, have led to the accumulation of a number of facts which 

 I consider to be of sufficient interest to justify the desire to make 

 them more generally known. 



The discovery consists in the detection of fluid cavities in a 

 fragment of material which is undoubtedly of meteoric origin ; at 

 least, it was obtained under conditions which admit of no other ex- 

 planation, as I will immediately proceed to show. 



On the 19th of March, 1879, early in the morning, a shepherd, 

 occupied with the erection of a pen in a field near Braunfels, a 

 small town in the Rhine Province, Germany, was startled by a 

 peculiar noise in the air above him, which he describes as a series 

 of detonations, following each other in rapid succession ; the whole 

 being accompanied by a violent hissing. According to his narra- 

 tion, the whole phenomenon, which did not occupy more than about 

 three seconds, bore a great resemblance to a clap of thunder, fol- 

 lowed by a flash of lightning. There was, however, a clear, though 

 not quite cloudless sky, and not the least indication of a thunder- 

 storm observable. 



Journ, Q. M. C, Series II., No. 1. b 



