74 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [March, 



railways, or even from factory-chimneys, but it was found that 

 in the street-dust magnetic as well as other particles which had 

 been formed by horseshoe denudation were almost always 

 jagged in outline and showed none of the characteristics of the 

 spheroidal bodies in terrace-dust. All know the great distances 

 to which \olcanic ejectamenta were carried after the great erup- 

 tion of Krakatoa. 



Mr. J. Wood-Mason said he had found similar bodies and 

 thought that thev might be the residue from the disintegration of 

 the building materials used in construction of the roof and 

 parapets. 



Mr. Holland remarked that the rounded, smooth surfaces of 

 the opaque as well as the translucent bodies were decidedly sug- 

 gestive of previous fusion, and having discussed the possibility 

 of their being carried from the roads during the dust-storms of 

 Mav, he thought the evidence, taken as a whole, limited the con- 

 clusions either to the author's view of their cosmic origin or, 

 according to the president's suggestion, to the Public Works De- 

 partment. He had examined the material in the chemical labora- 

 tory, but the evidence so obtained did not exclusively favor either 

 view. After removal of the organic material, the residue con- 

 sisted of quartz-granules with a few splinters of augite and biotite 

 insoluble in hydrochloric acid, and a soluble portion, composed 

 principally of iron oxide with lime, soda, and potash. One spec- 

 imen contained small, though distinct, particles of metallic iron, 

 but not a trace of nickel could be found. Qiiartz has not with 

 certainty been found in meteorites, although silica in the form of 

 asmanite was found by Professor Maskelyne in 1867. The quartz 

 in Mr. Simmons' specimens was in angular fragments and would 

 not, of course, be removed with the ferruginous particles by the 

 magnet. The presence of this mineral, though not necessarily 

 connected with the magnetic spherules, and absence of nickel in 

 the spherules themselves, though worthy of consideration, must 

 only bear the weight of negative evidence. But there remained 

 the magnetite, the glassy globes, and the metallic iron, hinting 

 quite as strongly in favor of their meteoric origin. In review- 

 ing some of the popular notions concerning meteorites, he pointed 

 out that recent researches, especially those of Lockyer, have 

 taught us to regard these bodies as neither so strange nor so un- 

 common as was formerly imagined ; and, notwithstanding the 

 inconclusive state of the evidence in the present instance, he 

 would favor the meteoric origin of these particles. 



Mr. P. N. Bose said the streets were paved with basaltic 

 rocks from which the magnetite, as well as the augite mentioned 

 by Mr. Holland, could have been derived. Rounded particles 

 could be more easily carried by the wind. 



