556 Annals New York Academy of Sciences 



constitute evidence that the meteorites were either contaminated while on 

 Earth or a part of a parent body which supported hfe. Careful consideration 

 will be given to the compositions of the extracts of the sediments and meteorites 

 so as to determine, as well as these compositions permit, whether the extractable 

 fractions of carbonaceous chondrites are indigenous or contaminants. 



Experimental Procedure 



Solvents and glassware. Reagent Cirade solvents were used exclusively. 

 Before use, solvents were distilled through 6 plate glass helices columns, and 

 100 gm. aliquots of each solvent batch were blown to constant weight in the 

 sample recovery system. Solvents accepted for use contained less than 0.1 mg. 

 residue per 100 gm. of solvent and these residues did not absorb detectably in 

 either the 2 to 15 yu or 220 to 400 m/i regions. All glassware and porcelain 

 used in preparing and analyzing meteorite samples were cleaned with acid 

 and carefully rinsed with the accepted solvents. 



Blanks. A blank, which omitted only the meteorite sample, was run on 

 each step of sample preparation and analysis. 



Extractions. Consolidated fragments of the l-Orgueil(B) (1.7 gm.), 2- 

 Orgueil(C) (14.5 gm.), 1-Murray (1.9 gm.), 2-Murray (10.2 gm.), and Hol- 

 brook (1.8 gm.) meteorites were placed individually on glass wool plugs in 5 

 glass funnels.-'' Each fragment was rinsed separately with several portions of 

 a 1 volume methanol to 9 volumes benzene (9:1 benzene-methanol) solvent. 

 Meteorite samples smaller than 2 gm. were rinsed with 25 ml. of solvent, and 

 the 2-Orgueil and 2-Murray fragments were rinsed with 80 and 50 ml. of solvent 

 respectively. The rinses from each meteorite were analyzed separately. 



The rinsed fragments were crushed to 20 to 40 mesh size, placed separately 

 on a glass wool plug above a sintered glass partition between a boiling tiask 

 and a water-cooled condenser in an all glass, single piece, Soxhlet-type extractor. 



Small (<2 gm.) and large (>10 gm.) fragments were extracted by slightly 

 different procedures. A 25-ml. aliquot of 9:1 benzene-niethanol was added 

 to each of the extractors containing the crushed small fragments. After 6 

 hours at reflux, the extracts were withdrawn and a second 25 ml. of the solvent 

 was added to each unit. The extractions were continued an additional 14 

 hours. In this manner, a rinse, a 6-hour extract, and a 6- to 20-hour extract 

 of each small fragment was obtained. The large 2-Murray and 2-Orgueil frag- 

 ments were extracted for 20 hours with 50 ml. of solvent, so that only a rinse 

 and a 20-hour extract of each of these samples was recovered. 



Sample recovery. Solvents were evaporated from rinses, extracts, and from 

 the eluates of colloidal copper and silica gel columns. Sample bottles con- 

 taining organic solutions of meteorite rinses, extracts, or eluates were placed in 

 receptacles or aluminum cups in a constant temperature bath maintained at 

 40 ± 1° C. Nitrogen filtered through silica gel was blown over the organic 

 solutions for 4 to 6 hours. This recovery procedure removes the solvents and 

 most organic compounds from the meteorites that have vapor pressures greater 

 than Ci:i w-paraffins. Thus, the hydrocarbons recovered in the meteorite 

 samples consisted primarily of Ch and larger molecules. 



In TABLE 1 are presented the weights of the extracts recovered from the 

 sulfur removal step. 



I 



