56 MERRILL 



same chondrule. In other cases, as in figs. 3 and 4 of the 

 same plate, the fractures are old and show abraded surfaces. 

 Figs. 2 and 5 are plainly those of fragments of elongated 

 chondrules that have been broken across. Figs. 3, 4, 5 and 9, 

 PI. V, are evidently sections of just such fragments, and in fig. 

 4 the splintering fracture along a cleavage plane of the enstatite 

 (below in the figure) is plainly evident under the microscope. 

 With reference to such forms as that shown in fig. 6, PI. V, 

 one can assume that after the olivines had become imperfectly 

 secreted the magma was resolved into spherical drops which 

 cooled too rapidly for further crystallization, while in the en- 

 statite forms crystallization may have been in some cases prior 

 to the assumption of the globular form and in others subse- 

 quent thereto. Such forms seem to lend support to the theory 

 of Sorby ^ that "some at least of the constituent particles 

 of meteorites were originally detached glassy globules, like fiery 

 rain." It is possible to conceive that these chondrules, first as 

 blebs of molten matter and then as consolidated particles, may 

 have been triturated in the deep throat of some volcano. The 

 spherical form, however, I do not regard as due to trituration, 

 like volcanic lapilli, as formerly held by some writers, but rather 

 to a previous molten condition. Be this as it may, consolidation 

 must obviously have taken place before the mass was shot forth 

 into space. The manner in which the metallic portions are 

 wrapped about or even injected into the silicate particles and 

 the chondrules (see figs. 6, 7, 8 and 9, PI. V) suggests the 

 possible reduction of the iron — or at least a remelting in an 

 atmosphere from which oxygen was largely excluded — after 

 the stony portion assumed its present form. 

 1 Nature (London), Vol. 15, April 5, 1S77. 



