154 ROCHESTER ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



and text-book of the science. In short, both in the activity of 

 collecting, the prices paid for individual specimens, and the issuing 

 of catalogues of the specimens, the European meteorite collections 

 have far outrun the rest of the world. Vienna, the birthplace of 

 meteorite study, has continued to be the headquarters of meteorite 

 collecting and distribution. 



The high prices paid for meteorites, particularly for those of 

 small size and rare — preferably, too, for those of European origin — 

 are most notable, and a constant surprise to the layman. It suffices 

 that the extreme rarity of a meteorite be known to make it com- 

 mand an extraordinary price. We read that after the L'Aigle 

 meteorite shower, just a century ago, Mr. Lambertin, a mineral 

 dealer in Paris, did a large business in selling many hundred speci- 

 mens throughout Europe at ten francs (two dollars) per ounce. 

 This is not very far from what Pultusk — also a great shower — sells 

 for to-day. But many others sell at prices ranging up from fifty 

 cents to one dollar, two dollars, or even five dollars per gramm, 

 the latter being seven times its weight in gold. This comes from 

 the gradual diminution and dispersion through an entire century. 



Instances of the highest-priced would be those meteorites of 

 which the original amount was small — perhaps only one or two 

 pounds — and the greater part went at once into some public or 

 roval collection, whence no influence or persuasion will bring any 

 out. There are probably twenty meteorites of each of which two 

 or three gram pieces might be sold, if they would be given up, 

 for ten dollars per gram — fourteen times their weight in gold I 

 This touches the extreme side of the question — the fancy of eager 

 competing collectors. With these there is the effort, amounting to 

 a true struggle, to obtain a fragment of every known kind. It is 

 the apotheosis of the collecting mania — not surpassed by postage 

 stamps or orchids. Such a collector would probably give a hun- 

 dred dollars for a gram of the Kaaba could he get it and prove 

 its authenticity. 



Various causes contribute to a meteorite's value. Among 

 these are some peculiarity in fall or time of fall, some peculiarity 

 of composition or structure, some historical character, its being 

 worshipped, its being pre-historic, etc. Some, too, have marked an 

 epoch in the science or a factor in classification. In most of these 

 cases there has been but a small amount of the meteorite, so that 

 at best very few can have it. It is like a piece of the true Cross. 



