BULLETIN 149, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 

 Gases in stony meteorites 



Gases in iron meteorites 



Omitting the high content of sulphur dioxide of the Orgueil stone, 

 which is obviously abnormal, and presumably due to the weathering 

 of the troilite, the total average volume of gas from the stony mete- 

 orites is 4.8 times the volume of the material used. In like manner 

 the amount of CO2 in the Arva iron is abnormal and probably due to 

 oxidation. An average in the irons of 2.83 is therefore considered 

 correct. 



Sundry attempts at the determination of the radioactive properties 

 of meteorites have been made by use of photographic plates, but 

 with results by no means satisfactory. Strutt,^^ working by what is 

 loiowTi as the Emanation method, was the first to demonstrate the 

 presence of radium in determinable quantity in the stone of Dhurm- 

 sala. Later Messrs. T. T. Quirke and L. Finkelstein ^^ examiaed a 

 considerable number of stones and have shown that "the average 

 stony meteorite is considerably less radioactive than the average 

 igneous rock, probably less than one-fourth as radioactive as an 

 average granite, and that the metallic meteorites are almost free 

 from radioactivity." Sixteen meteoric stones were found to have an 

 average radioactivity of 7.39 by 10~^^ gram of radium to a gram of 



12 Proc. Roy. Soc, vol. 77, March, 1916, p. 480. 

 "3 Amer. Journ. Sci., vol. 44, 1917, pp. 237-242. 



