H. HENSOLDT ON FLUID CAVITIES IN METEORITES. 11 



high, called Papandayang, suddenly burst into eruption, and in a 

 single night threw thirty thousand million cubic feet of materials 

 into the atmosphere, which fell upon the country around, burying 

 no less than forty villages. After the eruption, the volcano was 

 found to have been reduced in height from 9,000 to 5,000 feet, 

 and to present a vast crater in its midst, which had been formed by 

 the ejection of the enormous mass of materials. 



That heavenly bodies, such as fixed stars or planets, should be 

 capable of exploding, seems not only possible, but extremely 

 probable. If in the interior of our own planet the force of vapours 

 held in confinement has been great enough to transplant gigantic 

 mountains, and to effect the most appalling changes in the aspect 

 of the surface, there is nothing illogical in the conclusion that vast 

 accumulations of gases may lead to the shattering of whole worlds, 

 or that the violence of explosion may ruin them partly, hurling 

 fragments far enough to place them beyond the attraction of the 

 remaining wrecks. 



On such stupendous explosions taking place, it is almost certain 

 that great numbers of fragments would be sent through space in 

 similar directions, forming swarms, which, on coming within the 

 attraction of some great body, would take definite courses, while 

 many others would be so directed as to diverge, the further they 

 move, till each pursues a solitary path. The magnificent showers 

 of so-called " shooting stars " have been proved to be caused by 

 the passage of the earth through such bands of travelling bodies ; 

 and even comets have now been identified with streams of 

 planetary bodies of minute size, moving in regular orbits through 

 our system. 



Now, as it is extremely probable that meteorites are fragments 

 of celestial bodies, vastly mightier than themselves, their closer 

 examination leads us to the conclusion that at least those which 

 have from time to time fallen upon the earth's surface are derived 

 from planets very similar to, if not identical in their composition 

 with our globe. 



The existing literature on meteorites is very poor ; fifty years 

 ago there were hardly two works to be found exclusively devoted 

 to meteorites, and at the present moment we are only in the 

 possession of very few and isolated attempts to treat the subject 

 with the amount of attention which its importance deserves. 



There has not as yet been discovered in a meteorite one single 

 element which does not also occur on the earth, and the mineral 



