42 MM. Steininger, Noeggerath, axd Chladni 



He was also kind enough to lay my I'equest before the Society 

 for Useful Investigations, in whose possession those fragments 

 were, and to send me, with their consent, some parts of them, 

 together with an earlier essa}' of his, on the subject, the pub- 

 lication of which he left to my option. 



M. Steininger writes : 



" After the communications made by Messrs. Bischof and 

 Noeggerath in Bonn, concerning the problematic meteoric 

 mass of Bitburg in Schweigger's Journal, it may not be unin- 

 teresting to state that two pieces of this mass in its natural 

 and unaltered condition are still extant in the cabinet of the 

 Society for Useful Investigations at Treves ; which, being suf- 

 ficiently large to show the original physical characters and 

 external appearances of that mass, will in some measure con- 

 sole us for the loss sustained by science of the mass itself, 

 which was melted down at the forge of Pnlwig. 



" At fii'st sight they appear like a tolerably pure kind of 

 iron, the produce of art; and I also find the pieces at Treves, 

 which had been presented by Dr. Schmitz, of Hillesheim, in 

 the Eifel, to the late dean H. Castello, to have been marked 

 in the latter gentleman's catalogue of minerals, as problematic 

 meteoric native iron; a designation which was subsequently 

 erased, w'ith the observation that this mass had been produced 

 by art, — and this opinion was founded on the supposition of 

 a distinguished mineralogist. 



" The specific gravity of the pieces at Treves, is 6*14 in a 

 temperature of about 61°"25 Fahr. ; and to judge by the im- 

 pressions the fragments received on being knocked off, and 

 the experiments made on a third fragment at Treves, they are 

 rather of a tough nature. They are much corroded and per- 

 forated with holes, and the small cavities are in part covered 

 with oxide of iron, and lined with small grains of quartz, some 

 of which may be distinguished by the naked eye. But it may 

 be seen by means of a lens, and in parts acted upon by an 

 acid, that these grains of quartz are more or less mingled with 

 the whole mass, which in many parts has the appearance of 

 peroxide of iron, and has only a metallic glimmering lustre 

 in detached places, but on the whole has an earthy look and 

 dense structure. In parts where the mass of metal is pure, 

 it is either hackly or granular. The colour of the larger me- 

 tallic granules is a bright white, and their brilliancy perfectly 

 metallic. They do not seem to be oxidated readily in atmo- 

 spheric air, as they appear quite fresh although exposed to it 

 for many years. In some parts may be i-ecognized through 

 a lens, a black dross with small cavities in it, the sides of which 



