106 THE METEOEITES.— THEIR OEIGIN AND CHARACTER. 



description and figures the reader is referred to the original paper.* If Tseliermak is 

 correct this meteorite must have come from a body either partly solid and partly liquid, 

 or one in which cooler fragments fell mto the liquid mass. 



Chanionncvj, Vendee, France. 



Tliis is described by Tschermak as composed of olivine, bronzite, a finely-fibrous 

 translucent mineral, nickeliferous iron, and pyrrhotite. , Its structure is similar to the 

 Orvinio meteorite ; that is, is composed of chondritic fragments cemented together by a 

 black, glassy and semi-glassy material, f 



Section III. — The Meteorites. — Their Origin and Character. 



It is thought most convenient to enter upon these questions here in con- 

 nection with the largest class of authenticated meteorites. And in doing 

 this the views of those persons who have studied them microscopically will 

 be especially referred to. 



Professor N. S. Maskelyne taught, in 18G3, regarding the chondritic meteo- 

 rites : — 



" that there have been stages in the progress of the slag-like mass from the first origin of 

 the spherule — in perhaps a seething lake of mixed and molten metals on which a rare 

 oxygenous atmosphere was acting and fermenting out as it were the more oxidizable ele- 

 ments — to the final state of compact continuity in which the spherules are found agglu- 

 tinated together or iml^edded in a magma of mineral." % 



The previous year he had said : — 



" The spherules which characterize this structure are often composed of a single crys- 

 talline and homogeneous mineral, with a radiating structure ; often they are breccias 

 made up of several crystals of the same or of different minerals united by a granular 

 network of mineral. These spherules are often surrounded by a shell of meteoric pyrites 

 or iron, and are set in a uiLxed mass, often highly porphyritic, composed of similar ingre- 

 dients with the spherules. The solidification of this ground-mass marks, probably, a 

 second stage in the history, the former indicating the very gradual separation by cooling 

 of some of the ingredients of the aerolite, and the latter the result of the further gradual 

 cooling of the residuary mass. There is no glass or uncrystallized matter apparent in 

 any aerolite yet examined." § 



Professor Maskelyne's views were set forth again in 1875, but with great 

 caution and indefiniteness. The following extract gives the chief additional 

 point blearing on the chondritic structure : — 



" We may, perhaps, go so far as to suppose that if groups of the individual particular 

 units of a meteor cloud once should approach each other to a distance small enough to 



* Sitz. Wieu. Akad., 1874, Ixx. (1), 459-465. f Sitz. Wien. Akad., 1874, Ixx. (1), 405-472. 



+ Phil. Mag , 1863 (4), sxv. 440. § Proc. Brit. Assoc, 1862, xxxii. (sect.) 188-191. 



