partlcularli/ near La'tgle, in the Department of I' me. 303 



txperimcnts ; while, on the other hand, he observed no 

 nickel; which, indeed, it was impossible to discover by the 

 means he employed. 



C. Felix Desp'ortes, prefect of the Upper Rhine, always 

 disposed to favour researches useful to the sciences, sent 

 me a fragment of the stone of Ensisiieim weighing several 

 kilogrann-nea, which contained on one side a portion of the 

 black fused crust a little oxidated, and exhibited all the other 

 properties of the other stones which have fallen from the 

 atmosphere. There are found in it a kind of small veins of 

 gray brilliant sulphuret of iron and nickel. We did not 

 meet with anv vcrv apparent globules of iron. 



A hundred part's of this stone, treated according to the 

 processes alrcadv described, trave 



Silc'x - - - 



Oxidated iron 



Magnesia 



Nickel 



Sulphur _ - - 



Lime _ _ - 



It contains then the same principles as the, 3tonc of 

 Laigle, and diflers frcnn it only by a little less iron and 

 nickel, and by a little more magnesia and sllex : but this 

 ^iflerence amounts only to a few hundredth parts. 



On comparing the analysis of these two stones with the ;?« 

 already made by Aiessrs.' Howard and Vauquelin, it is im- 

 possible not to observe a striking identity in their compo- 

 sition. 



Section III. 



Conclusion and Reflections on the Origin of llic^e Stones. 



Here then we have nine stones all well ascertained to 

 have fallen from the atmosphere with noi.^e, detonation, 

 luminous meteors ; all gray, granulated, and metalliferous 

 in the interior parts; wliich give the same prcdr.cts by ana- 

 lysis, containing no alumine, but a great deal of silex, a 

 little magnesia, and a singular combination of iron, jii^ke!, 

 and sulphur: in a word, all perfectly similar to c:ich other, 

 and all diftercnt from the other known minerals of the earth. 



It cannot therefore appear surprising that so striknig a 



physical and chemical analogy should induce a belief that 



all these stones have the same'origin, an.ltliat, as they form 



an order of compounds differcnl from anything ever yet ob- 



5 ' served 



