Fitch & Anders: "Organized Elements" in Chondrites 507 



alone will stain some starch grains. This staining was more pronounced when 

 an aged batch of Schiff's reagent was used, and was somewhat stronger for 

 "Biosorb" (modified starch prepared by Ethicon Laboratories) than for potato 

 starch. We cannot exclude the possibility that the particle in figure 8, A is 

 actually a juniper pollen grain. Again, morphological criteria seem to be in- 

 adequate to establish the identity of a given particle. 



Another organized element, classified by Claus as a type II element resem- 

 bling a Thecamoeba, is shown in figure 9, A. Illustrated in figure 9, B is an 

 object with similar morphology found in the airborne pollen sample collected 

 on July 20, 1961 by Siegel at the Jewish Hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y. These 

 microscope slides, prepared for the New York City annual pollen survey, were 



t'iGURE 9. (.4) Organized element from preparation of Claus and Nagy. (B) Particles 

 with similar appearance found in pollen survey slide. See text for discussion. 



kindly loaned to us by Siegel. We are not certain as to the identity of this 

 object, but the resemblance between the organized element from the meteorite 

 and the airborne particle is evident.* More recently, we have found several 

 similar particles in dust samples from the American Museum of Natural His- 

 tory. 



Pollen, mold, and fungus spores, and a variety of other objects are present in 

 large numbers in the atmosphere at certain seasons, with daily totals of up to 

 100 ragweed pollen grains per cm.- " and up to 363 mold spores per cm.- ^~ being 



* Gregory (i)rivate communication) has suggested that these particles might be furnace 

 ash spheres. 



