50 BULLETIN 149, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



material was found, the writer (Tracul) regarded it as perhaps 

 identical with that described by Meunier. 



The fall of a meteor or fire-ball, witnessed by Professor Dewey, 

 at Amherst, Mass., in August, 1819, is described by a Mr. Rufus 

 Graves.^ In this case the object was described as being as large as a 

 man's hand, and the conditions of observation were such that there 

 could seemingly be no doubt where it fell. This was in the evening. 

 Early on the ensuing morning there was found at this point "a sub- 

 stance unlike anything before observed by anyone who saw it," and 

 which was regarded as beyond reasonable doubt the residuum of the 

 meteoric body. It was described as of circular form, resembling a 

 sauce or salad dish, bottom upwards, about 8 inches in diameter, 

 something more than an inch in thickness, and of a bright buff color. 

 Interiorly it was of a pulpy consistency like soft soap, with a suffocating 

 and very offensive odor. After brief exposure it changed into a livid 

 color resembling veinous blood. It shortly began to Hquefy, and in 

 the course of a few days evaporated, leaving a small, dark colored 

 residuum which, w^hen rubbed between the fingers, produced a fine, 

 ash-colored powder without taste or smell. Nitric and muriatic acid 

 seemed to have no chemical effect upon it, while with sulphuric acid a 

 violent effervescence ensued and nearly the whole substance dissolved. 



This would certainly indicate that it was of organic and probably 

 fungoidal nature, and not meteoric. 



Again, in the same journal (vol. 16, 1829), is given the translation 

 of an account of a like gelatinous material found in a wet meadow in 

 Germany and under such conditions that it was supposed to be 

 meteoric and was distinguished by the name " sterne-gallerte " (star 

 jeUy). Counselor Doctor Schultes considered it as a "tremella 

 nostoc." Buchner thought otherwise because he could discover no 

 organic structure, and maintained that it could be neither plant nor 

 animal, as a whole, but might be a product, like gum or mucus. The 

 writer of the article. Doctor Brandes, regarded the masses as either 

 animal excretions or gelatinous meteors, but he did not think it 

 probable that they were like the manna of the Israelites, as had been 

 suggested. A reference is made to the observations of a Spanish 

 soldier who, while standing on sentinel duty, during cool nights had 

 frequently observed shooting stars and in the morning, in wet places, 

 in spots where he thought the stars had fallen, he would find white, 

 gelatinous masses which soon dissolved. He quotes also the work of 

 a Mr. Schwabe, an apothecary of Dessau, who examined a gelatinous 

 mass found in a wet meadow, and who decided that it was the real 

 "nostoc commune" of Vauch. The writer enters into a somewhat 

 elaborate discussion of the chemical nature and general appearance of 



' Amer. Journ. Sci., vol. 2, 1820. 



