Noll RESEARCHES ON METEORITES— MERRILL. 25 



Sulphur. — The siilphur in meteorites is unquestionably combined in large part with iron, 

 though the form of combination, whether as troilite or p3Trhotite or some intermediate com- 

 pound, is recognized as still open to discussion. The work of Dr. E. T. AUen, of the Geo- 

 physical Laboratory, has shown that in the presence of an excessive amount of iron appar- 

 ently only the mono-sulphide is possible of formation. That it sometunes occurs in this form 

 in stony meteorites poor in iron has been shown by the writer « and also by Ramsay and 

 Borgstrom.'' The subject is thoroughly reviewed up to date of publication by Cohen in his 

 Meteoritcnkunde (vol. 1, 1894, pp. 182-209), and it is evident that fm-ther work is needed 

 before the question can be considered fully decided. A portion of the sulphur, and one that 

 heretofore has been almost wholly ignored if not overlooked, is that combined with calcium 

 in the form of — 



OUhamite. — The presence of this sulphide was first noted in 1870 by Maskelyne in the 

 meteorite of Busti. "^ Its probable occurrence was also suggested in that of BishopviUe. Since 

 that time the mineral has been determined both chemically and microscopically by Borgstrcim 

 in the meteorite of Hvittis, and by Lacroix and the present writer in that of Indarch. Its prob- 

 able presence as indicated by a soluble calcium-bearing mineral (oldhamite or its alteration 

 product gypsum) has been also shown by the present writer in the stones of Morristown <* and 

 Cullison, and in that of Allegan by Tassin. « These results rendering it probable that, as 

 suggested by Maskeljme, the mineral was more commonly distributed than the pubhshed 

 description would lead one to suppose, quantities of a gram or so from each of the stones listed 

 below were finely pulverized and boUed for an hour in distilled water, the solutions being then 

 tested for calcium by the ordinary ammonium oxalate method. The residues from this boiling 

 were in some cases boiled also in very dilute hydrochloric acid and the solutions tested for 

 phosphoric acid, with a view of deciding if the phosphorus shown in the bulk analyses was 

 from the schreibersite, which would be insoluble under these conditions, or existed in the form 

 of apatite or other soluble mineral. The results of the calcium tests were as follows: 



Alfianello Positive reaction. 



Allegan / Positive reaction. 



Beaver Creek Negative reaction. 



Bishop\'ille Positive reaction. 



Cullison Positive reaction. 



Dhurmsala Positive reaction. 



Dores dos Campos Positive reaction. 



Estherville Positive reaction. 



Farmington Faint positive reaction. 



Fayette Positive reaction. 



Felix Positive reaction. 



Forest City Positive reaction. 



Hessle Faint positive reaction. 



Holbrook Positive reaction. 



Homestead Positive reaction. 



Knyahinya Negative reaction. 



L' Aigle Positive reaction. 



Mocs Positive reaction. 



Monroe Negative reaction. 



New Concord Doubtful reaction. 



Pamallee Faint positive reaction. 



Pultusk Positive reaction. 



Quenggouk Positive reaction. 



Stannern Negative reaction. 



Tennasilm Positive reaction. 



a \ recent meteorite fall near Holbrook, Ariz., Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. 60, No. 9, 1912, p. 4. 



<> Bull. Com. Oeol. Finlande, No. 12, 1912. 



c Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. London, vol. 160, 1870, pp. 189-214. 



d Amer. Journ. Sci., vol. 4, 1S96, p. 149. 



« Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 34, 1908. p. 433. 



/ Quantiutive tests on this stone by 'Whitfleld show but O.OM per cent of this constituent, as against upwards of 6 per cent as found by Tassin 

 (Proc. U. S. N. M., vol. 34, 190S, p. 433). Although not so stated, it seems probable that the latter ascd an acid solution and decomposed in part 

 the pbosptaatic mineral and iron sulphide. This would account for the present writer's Inability to detect the mineral in the thin section. 



