THE 



EDINBURGH NEW 

 PHILOSOPHICAL JOURNAL, 



On Meteoric Stones* By Professor JACOB BERZELIUS.* 



METEORIC stones, considered as inorganic masses occurring 

 on the surface of the earth, are to be regarded as objects of mi- 

 neralogical investigation ; and they are rendered the more inter- 

 esting by their affording information as to the nature of the mi- 

 neral productions of other worlds, and thus giving us an oppor- 

 tunity of comparing them with those of our own globe. In a 

 memoir communicated to the Royal Swedish Academy of 

 Sciences, I have given the results of my investigations regarding 

 various meteoric stones which I examined, with the view of stu- 

 dying them as mountain rocks, in order thus to determine the 

 individual minerals of which they are composed. The original 

 cause of my engaging in this investigation was the commission 

 kindly given me by Reichenbach of Blansko, to analyze a me- 

 teoric stone, whose brilliant appearance, at six o^clock on the 

 evening of the 25th November 1833, was witnessed by himself. 

 After great expense and trouble, he at length succeeded in col- 

 lecting scattered fragments of the aerolite in the neighbourhood 

 of Blansko. 



The meteoric stones examined by me are those which fell at 

 Blansko in Moravia, Chantonnay in France, Ellenbogen in Bo- 

 hemia (the Burggrqf), and lastly, the meteoric iron made known 

 by Pallas, from the district between Abekansk and Krasno- 

 yarsk in Siberia. 



* From Leraelius'a Jahres-Bericht, 1836. 

 VOL. XXir. NO. XLIII. JANUARY 1837. A 



