160 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



soidal surfaces which lead from the sphere to the paraboloid, the 

 same identical process can be applied, provided that the object 

 which is used as a mark be placed at one of the foci, and the image 

 examined at the other. The information whicli is thereby obtained, 

 and the corrections which must be deduced therefrom, are based on 

 the same appearances ; only they have reference especially to the 

 sort of surface given by the position of the foci, and the inequalities 

 which are discovered show deviations which are reckoned in the same 

 way as for the spherical figure, viz. from the level of the correct sur- 

 face which it is desired to obtain. — Proceedings of the Royal AstrO' 

 nomical Society, June 10, 1859. 



ON THE ORGANIC SUBSTANCE IN THE METEORIC STONE OF KABA. 

 BY PROFESSOR WOHLER. 



The following note on the organic matter contained in the 

 meteoric stone of Kaba was communicated by Ilaidinger to the 

 Academy of Sciences at Vienna. 



Experiments made with about 10 grms. of powder and small frag- 

 ments of the meteoric stone of Kaba, have shown that this meteorite, 

 beside its free carbon, contains a carbiiretted substance which 

 appears to have some similarity with certain fossil carburets of 

 hydrogen, such as the so-called mineral tallows, Ozokerite, Sche- 

 reritej &c., and is undoubtedly of organic origin. Perhaps it is 

 only a small residue of a larger quantity which the meteorite pre- 

 viously contained, and which was destioyed, at the moment of the 

 fiery phaenomenon, with deposition of carbon. 



The fragments were reduced to powder, exhausted with perfectly 

 pure alcohol, which was then filtered and evaporated. There re- 

 mained a colourless, white, apparently crystalline mass, which pos- 

 sessed a weak, peculiar aromatic odour. It was soluble in alcohol ; 

 and this solution was rendered milky by the addition of water. In 

 aether it was broken up into small oily drops, as if it had been decom- 

 posed into an insoluble fluid, and a soluble solid portion. On the 

 evaporation of the aether, the latter remained in a distinctly cry- 

 stalline form. When heated in the air, the substance was volatilized 

 in white fumes of a slightly aromatic odour. When, on the con- 

 trary, it was heated in a narrow tube, it fused very readily, and was 

 decomposed by a stronger heat, with deposition of a black coal and 

 evolution of a fatty odour. The substance remained unaltered in 

 caustic soda. 



The pulverized stone which had been treated with alcohol, when 

 ignited in oxygen gas, gave but little vapour, and only a trace of 

 sublimate, but a large drop of water, although it had been carefully 

 dried beforehand. The powder, which had acquired a cinnamon- 

 brown colour, became heated when water was poured over it; for it 

 contained a large quantity of sulphate of magnesia, cxtractablo by 

 water, and some sulphate of nickel, formed by the sulpiiur of the 

 sulphuret of iron contained in the stone. — Sitzutiysher. der A/tad 

 der Wiss. zu Wien, xxxiv. p. 7. 



