GREAT METEORITE COLLECTIONS. 153 



Travellers, too, brought them from their distant wanderings. 

 Humboldt, from Mexico ; Bousingault, from the Upper Valley of 

 the Magdalena ; Woodbine Parish, from Buenos Ayres, etc., etc. 



We cannot undertake to note the increase of collections from 

 then on through the century which has just closed. We have on 

 our list nearly two hundred of these in Europe alone. Twelve of 

 them, in the order of their numerical importance, are : Vienna, 

 560; London, 557; Paris, 490; Berlin, 470 ; Buda-Pesth, 390; 

 Greifswald, 358 ; Stockholm, 245 ; Gottingen, 210 ; Tubingen, 200 ; 

 Museum of Practical Geology (London), 200 ; Dorpat, 175 ; and 

 Strasburg, 135. 



Of private meteorite collections in Europe there are but four 

 prominent ones : Dr. Brezina and Prof. Friedrichs of Vienna, Mar- 

 quis de Mauroy of Wassy, France, and Max J. Neumann of Gratz, 

 Austria. Each of these lies in numbers of kinds between 200 and 

 250. The struggle to increase their number of specimens is very 

 great ; yet for an evident, if not a commendable reason, these large 

 museums do not share specimens with each other. It would be an 

 easy matter for any two of the larger museums of Europe to 

 increase their collections any day by thirty or more specimens (a 

 normal growth of two or three years) by each giving to the other 

 of its duplicate material in exchange for such kinds as it lacks. It 

 would seem that this action would accord with a true spirit of 

 science. 



The issuing of catalogues of the contents of the meteorite col- 

 lections of Europe is a matter of old standing, commencing with 

 Chladni in 1817, and has increased with the growth of the collec- 

 tions themselves. These catalogues are to-day a prominent feature 

 of every collection, to be repeated every second or third year. 

 Most of these are simply enumerative, giving the names and locali- 

 ties of the specimens with their individual weight and size. But 

 many of the catalogues — particularly from the great museums — are 

 almost treatises on the subject by reason of the attention paid to 

 the classification adopted, the remarks on the character of indi- 

 vidual specimens, the correction and extension of geographical 

 dispersion, and the introduction of latest and widest views of the 

 whole subject. The introduction by Brezina to his catalogue 

 (1895) of the Vienna collection, that of Fletcher of the British 

 museum, of Klein of Berlin — and, still more, the whole contents of 

 Meunier's catalogue (1898) of the Paris collection, is a real treatise 



