Meinschein et al. : Evidence in Meteorites of Former Life 563 



Mass spectral data. Mass spectra of complex saturated hydrocarbon mix- 

 tures suggest the structures and molecular weight distributions of certain of 

 the compounds and compound types that comprise the mixtures. Spectra 



Table 5 



Mass Spectrum of the Carbon Tetrachloride Eluate from Silica Gel of the 



1-Orgueil 6-Hour Extract. Saturated, Olefinic, plus Minor Concentrations 



OF Aromatic Hydrocarbons 



Total ionization = 18452.57 



Normalized isotope corrected peak heights (300,000) 



Humble parafRn-naphthene type analysis in percentage 



Paraffins 16.78 



Noncondensed naphthenes 22.52 



2-Ring naphthenes 9.86 



3-Ring naphthenes 15.87 



4-Ring naphthenes 17.00 



5-Ring naphthenes 7. 10 



6-Ring naphthenes 10.87 



Total 



100.00 



shown in tables 4, 5, and 7 indicate the relative numbers of ions of various 

 masses that were formed when gaseous, predominantly saturated hydrocarbons 

 were bombarded by 70-volt electrons. The ions measured consisted chiefly 

 of fragment and "parent" ions. Fragment ions are made by the rupture of 

 carbon-to-carbon and/or carbon-to-hydrogen bonds of hydrocarbon molecules. 



