OE, abe ain’) som nn 
‘Ill. Extract of a Memoir, by A. LAUGIER, on a new Prin- 
ciple in Meteoric Stones. Read in the Prench National 
Institute March 10, 1806 *. 
Suxce the period when Mr. Howard called the attention of 
the learned to tlie. substances called meteoric stones, every 
chemist who repeated his experiments has met with the same 
fesults. All agree that they had discovered in these stones, 
at whatever time or place they had fallen to the ground, the 
same principles ; viz. silex, iron, magnesia, sulphur, nickel, 
and accidentally traces of lime and alumine. Upon com- 
paring the results of their analyses, we find that the aboye 
principles were found very nearly in the same proportions 
in each experiment, M. Proust has latterly discovered the 
existence of manganese in such meteoric stones as he ana- 
lysed ; and the fact has since been confirmed by other che- 
mists. 
M, Laugier, assistant-professor of natural history, is 
charged with the analyses for the Museum of Natural His- 
tory. Upon analysing a meteoric stone w ‘hich had fallen at 
Verona i in 1663, he discovered a principle hitherto unknown 
to. exist in these substances. This new principle, which 1 1s 
chrome, is the subject of M. Laugicr’s memoir, : 
« It is probable,” he says, “ that I should not have dis- 
covered the chrome, had I not made use of a mode of ana- 
lysis totally new. Hitherto the acids have been always re- 
sorted to; and this is, perhaps, the most natural and conve- 
nient process ; on the present occasion, however, I employed 
caustic alkali. This has the peculiar advantage of showing 
the presence of chrome, however small in quantity ; ; whereas 
it is almost impossible to perceive it when it is dissolved in 
the acids, particularly since it is then mixed with a great 
quantity of iron, manganese, &c.’ 
M. Laugier had recourse, therefore, to the following pro- 
cess for separating the chrome; and he determined its pro- 
portions pretty exactly: he melted one part of the stone 
* From Annales de Chimie, tome lviii. p. 261. 
with 
