l62 ROCHESTER ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



Others are instances of man's wonder at Nature's display of the 

 apparently supernatural. They give character to the collection in 

 which they are found. 



THE PROPORTION OF OLD FALLS IN THE COLLECTION. 



These, whether historical or not, whether or not of any especial 

 scientific value, have still the well recognized merit of age. They 

 are, in their sentimental character, like old books. But unlike these, 

 they have nothing in their structure, composition, or other features, 

 to differentiate them from the falls of to-day. There are about 35 

 of these in collections whose fall antedates the 19th century; two 

 of them include Elbogen and Ensisheim — in the 14th century. We 

 enumerate them in foot-note.* 



The list, of course, takes no note of the much greater number 

 of those which have been /ou/id even in the last 50 years, of which 

 some at least may be older of date of fall than any dates which we 

 have preserved. Indeed, there are five (Octibbeha, Anderson, Till 

 Porter, Casas Grandes and Lujan) which are prehistoric, — the last, 

 in fact, of geologic (Pliocene) age. 



These old falls in our collections have not only the sentimental 

 value of age, but by reason of time elapsed having brought their 

 division and distribution, they are of greater intrinsic value. Few 

 old aerolites are in large pieces to-day. 



THE EXTENT TO WHICH THE SPECIMENS HAVE BEEN TREATED BY 



CUTTING, POLISHING, ETCHING, ETC., TO SHOW THEIR INNER 



STRUCTURE, AS ALSO TO PRESERVE THE AIASS. 



It is evidently a point of prime merit that a meteorite collec- 

 tion should possess sizeable pieces of all available falls. This is a 

 basic, fundamental factor of value. But just as the value of a 

 specimen is increased by a label telling of its name, locality, etc., 

 so any treatment of the specimen which tells more about it than it 

 shows in its natural state, is an enhancing of its value. A small 

 cut surface of a stone meteorite will when polished show the 

 structure of the mass, whether homogenous or heterogenous in 

 composition — whether brecciated, fragmentary, chondritic, granu- 

 lar, compact or crystaline ; also whether it has veins, fissures or 



* 'Meteorites fallen or found prior to 1800, and now preserved: Elbogen, 1400 (?) ; Ensisheim, 

 1492 ; La Caille, 1600 (?); Morito, 161Q ; Tucson, 1650 ; Vago, 1668; Scheilin, 1715; Ploschkowitz, 

 1723 ;Ogi (Hizen), 1744; Medwedewa, 1749; Hraschina, 1751 ; Steinbach, 1751 ; Luponnas, i7';3; 

 Tabor, 1755 ; Senegal, 1763 ; Alboreto, 1766 ; Luce, 1768 ; Mauerkirchen, 1768; Sena, 1773; Des- 

 cubridora, 1780 ; Campo del Cielo, 1783 ; Bendego, 1784 ; Toluca, 1784 ; Adargas, 1784 ; Eichstadt, 

 1785 ; Charkow, 1787 ; Barbotan, 1790 ; Zacatecas, 1792; Cape of Good Hope, 1793 ; Sienna, 1794 ; 

 Wold Cottage, 1795 ; Bjelaja-Zerkow, 1796 ; Pranbanan, 1797 ; Salles, 1798 ; Benares, 1798. 



