PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROCHESTER ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 

 Vol. 4., pp. 149-164. October io, i904. 



GREAT METEORITE COLLECTIONS ; SOME WORDS AS 

 TO THEIR COMPOSITION AS AFFECTING 



THEIR RELATIVE VALUES. -IBRaRY 



NEW YORK 

 By Henry A. Ward. BOTANICAL 



(Presented before the Academy, October lo, 1904. ) ^JAJ^DEN. 



The great attention which is at the present time being given 

 to the study of meteorites, and especially the activity which is being 

 shown in their gathering and in the increasing of meteorite collec- 

 tions, both public and private, is a notable feature in the view over 

 this field of inorganic study. The time seems thus a favorable one 

 for consideration of some of the material features of the subject — 

 both in past time and in the present. 



A retrospect through the pages of meteorite lore is instructive 

 and of practical interest in this connection. We find, to our sur- 

 prise, that meteorites and their fall are among the earliest of 

 recorded facts. The ancient Chinese chronicles are full of these. 

 So also in the archives of Phoenician, Grecian and Roman peoples, 

 where the fall of these celestial bodies is recorded with many attend- 

 ant circumstances, the whole usually crusted over with mythical 

 and religious lore. There are now extant in the European numis- 

 matic collections — according to Brezina, who has made an ex- 

 haustive study of the matter — no less than two hundred medals in 

 silver, bronze and iron, which were cast in record of falls of 

 meteorites in these lands. The worship of these Betyls (Beth-El : 

 House of God) was an extensive one, while their superstitious 

 reverence among aboriginal folk has ever been a universal feature 

 of primitive man. 



Meunier, one of a trio (Brezina, Cohen, Meunier) of European 

 leaders in meteorite study, cites 32 meteorite falls commencing 

 with 1478 B. C. and continuing down to 6 B. C. Of these, 28 are 

 so exact and circumstantial in their recording that he considers 

 them as reliable historical occurrences, although none of the masses 

 have been preserved. Several of them, notably the " Image which 



14, Proc. Roch. Acad. Science, Vol. 4, October, 1904. 149 



CD 



CI 



