354 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



found in the two hemispheres. Thus, taking falls and finds together, 

 of the 256 meteorites known from the western hemisphere, 182 are 

 irons and only 74 stones; while from the eastern hemisphere, of 378 

 known, 299 are stones and only 79 are irons. Professor Berwerth has 

 sought to account for the excess of irons in the new world by the sug- 

 gestion that the dry air of the desert areas which abound in this 

 hemisphere has preserved meteorites fallen in long distant periods, 

 while those of a similar age in the other hemisphere have been exposed 

 to a moist climate and have for the most part been decomposed. It 

 is true that many of the iron meteorites known from the western 

 hemisphere occur upon the Mexican and Chilean deserts, but quite as 

 many come from the southern Appalachians, where a comparatively 

 moist climate prevails. There are also numerous desert areas in the 

 old world perhaps as fully explored as those of the new, so that on the 

 whole the above explanation seems inadequate. 



Other remarkable groupings of meteorites with regard to their 

 geographical distribution may be noted when areas smaller than 

 hemispheres are compared. Thus of a total of nine meteorites be- 

 longing to the peculiar class called howardites, five have fallen in 

 Eussia. Of the nine meteorites known belonging to the still more 

 remarkable class of carbonaceous meteorites, three have fallen in 

 France and two in Russia. 



Again small areas of equal extent and equally well populated vary 

 curiously in their number of meteorite falls. Within the state of 

 Illinois, for instance, no meteorite is known ever to have fallen, while 

 in the state of Iowa, which has about the same area, but a smaller 

 population, four falls have been noted, and from the state of Kansas, 

 which has a larger area than Illinois, but a smaller and less uniformly 

 distributed population, twelve meteorites are known. 



It is usual to dismiss inquiries regarding the meaning of such 

 groupings with the remark that they are mere coincidences. But it 

 is the mission of science to investigate coincidences, and however long 

 the task may be of determining the laws which bring about the partic- 

 ular occurrences here referred to, there can be no doubt that they are 

 the result of law and of law which will some day be discerned by the 

 human mind. 



