26 Professor Apjohn on a Meteoric Stone 



But 5.04 Is to 2.08 4" -43 almost exactly as 2 : 1. So that we thus arrive at 

 the very interesting conclusion that the matrix of the stone is a bisilicate of mag- 

 nesia and oxide of iron; that is, a true augite, or pyroxene. 



This latter result, namely, the identification of the earthy base of the aerolith 

 with a well known volcanic mineral, and the detection, for the first time, as far as 

 I was aware, of cobalt, in association with the iron and nickel, appeared to me to 

 be, per se, points of sufficient importance to j ustify me in laying them before the 

 Academy. But even though nothing new had been disclosed by the chemical 

 examination, I could not doubt but that an interest would be felt in the results of 

 a carefully-made analysis of one of those mysterious bodies (one, too, which has 

 fallen in our own country) whose existence was once denied, and in relation to 

 whose source we have as yet little better than vague conjecture. 



The analysis just detailed was completed early in March, and would have been 

 communicated to the Academy at its general meeting of that month, but for the 

 following circumstance. 



Mr. Nathaniel Hone, of this city — a gentleman who has devoted himself, in 

 my laboratory, with great zeal and considerable success, to the cultivation of 

 analytical chemistry — while repeating, at my request, the chemical examination 

 of this stone, drew my attention to the unusually light colour of the peroxide of 

 iron which he had extracted, in the usual way, from the portion insoluble in acids, 

 and which we have already designated by the letter (B). This, we found, was 

 not due to alumine, for none of this earth could be extracted by potash, nor was 

 the colour of the precipitate altered by digestion with the alkali. Neither did I 

 suspect it, at the time, to be owing to magnesia, having been assured that the 

 usual precautions were taken to prevent the precipitation of any of this earth 

 upon the addition of the volatile alkali. With a view, therefore, to a further in- 

 vestigation of the matter, the peroxide of iron was well washed with distilled wa- 

 ter, to remove all trace of potash ; and, being then transferred to a porcelain 

 capsule, it was heated, with a solution of oxalic acid gradually added, which dis- 

 solved the iron, and left a small quantity of a white precipitate. This latter, 

 being well washed, dried, and ignited in a platinum crucible, gave a brownish 

 residue, which was easily shown to be magnesia, coloured by deutoxide of manga- 

 nese. Such was the pursuit that prevented me from sooner submitting the re- 

 sults of my analysis to the judgment of the Academy. 



