Meinschein et al. : Evidence in Meteorites of Former Life 557 



Although a semimicro balance was used in all weighings, 1 or more removals 

 of solvent and 2 or more weighings were required to obtain a residue weight. 

 Therefore, the weights listed are probably accurate to only ±0.2 mg. 



Sulfur removal. Elemental sulfur was removed from all meteorite rinses and 

 extracts by means of colloidal copper columns.^" 



Chromatograpluc separations. The 6-hour extracts of 1-Orgueil and 1- 

 Murray, and 20-hour extracts of 2-Murray and 2-Orgueil fragments were 

 fractionated on 9-gm. silica gel columns. ^^ The Holbrook extract was too 

 small to fractionate. This method of chromatographic separation on silica 

 gel has been previously investigated. Thousands of crude oils and organic 

 extracts of sediments and organisms have been fractionated by this chromato- 

 graphic procedure. Infrared, ultraviolet, and mass spectrometric analyses, 

 elemental analyses, and aluminum chromatographic analyses^^''^** of numerous 

 fractions of these silica gel eluates have established: (1) the M-heptane eluates 



Table 1 



Organic Residues 



(Weights in milHgrams) 



* A portion of sample lost when solvent "bumped." 



t Not determined. 



X Nonvolatile residue — inorganic salts. 



§ Contained visible traces of colloidal copjjer from sulfur removal step. 



\ Estimated from mass spectra peak heights. 



are composed primarily of saturated hydrocarbons; (2) carbon tetrachloride 

 fractions contain saturated hydrocarbons, olefins, traces of some nonpolar 

 organic nitrogen and sulfur compounds, and alkyl- and cycloalkylbenzenes; 

 (3) benzene eluates contain most of the aromatic hydrocarbons, some organic 

 esters, alcohols, and other organic nonhydrocarbons;^i and (4) methanol eluates 

 are composed predominately of organic nonhydrocarbons. 



Weights of the chromatographic fractions of 1-Orgueil, 1-Murray, 2-Murray, 

 and blanks, which were in most ca.ses too small to be determined accurately, 

 are presented in table 2. The 2-Orgueil extract was of sufficient size for a 

 triplicate analysis, and the chromatographic data on the 3 alic|uots of this 

 sample are given in table 3. 



Infrared spectroscopy. All blanks, rinses, extracts, and the methanol eluates 

 of 1-Orgueil and 2-Murray were scanned in the 2 to 15 m region. Infrared 

 spectra were obtained of the //-heptane, carbon tetrachloride, benzene, and 

 methanol fractions of 2-Orgueil. Scans were run on a Baird Associates Model 

 4-55 spectrometer with a sodium chloride prism. Sample and blank cells 

 had 0.1-mm. cell lengths and were equipped with sodium chloride windows. 



