I5P ROCHESTER ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



fell down from Jupiter" at Ephesus (Acts 19 : 35), and the much 

 more definitely determined ones of Aegopotamus and the Ancyle, 

 have been seriously sought after within the present century. The 

 traveller Brown, in 1810, sought the former in Thrace, and all exca- 

 vators of the Roman ruins have in mind the possible finding of the 

 Ancyle. This iron — so called from its shield shape — is reported by 

 Plutarch to have fallen from heaven in the eighth year of the reign 

 of Xuma Pompilius (about 705 or 704 B. C), taken to Rome and 

 there cared for by one of Numa's Salishan priests. Meunier further 

 enumerates 161 meteorite falls commencing with 106 A. D., and con- 

 tinuing till 1799 A. D. Of these he accepts 142 as being well authenti- 

 cated. We have thus a total of about 170 falls in 30 centuries preced- 

 ing the year 1800, or about 19 falls in each century. The number is 

 meager, but we bear in mind the insufficiency of written record in 

 those early ages. Of those which fell since the commencement of 

 our era and preceding 1800, but 35 are positively known to exist 

 in collections to-day. If now we add the 135 meteorites known to 

 have been lost, to the 680 to-day known in collections, we have 

 about 815 individual kinds of these heavenly bodies known and 

 recorded as having been held in human hands. Of the many more 

 hundreds of meteorites which have fallen and been handled in these 

 past centuries of which we know by a process of sure induction, it 

 is beyond our purpose to speak here. Our present theme is 



THE STATE OF METEORITE COLLECTIONS TO-DAY, WITH 

 THEIR EARLY ORIGINS, 



Doubtless the earlier meteorites were too rare an occurrence, 

 too little understood and too sparsely distributed, that they should 

 have been brought together to any " collection." They were often 

 — perhaps usually — taken to some temple, where they were pre- 

 served with reverence, often on a pedestal and under a roof of 

 their own. It would be facetious to note the case of the Ancyle 

 and its w facsimiles. But when we read that a meteorite was pre- 

 served in the Lyceum at Girgenti, we have a curious thought of 

 others which may possibly have been there preserved and displayed 

 with it. If so, that was our initial collection ! 



It may here be the place to call attention to the fact that the 

 conception of meteorites — that they fell from space — was more 

 universal and unchallenged in earlier centuries than it became in 

 times nearer our own. This because probabh^ all that were recog- 



