S26 COSMOS. 



them consist merely of the two last-mentioned simple miner- 

 als, and the feldspar tribe is then represented by anorthite.* 

 Chrome iron ore (oxyd of chromium and protoxyd of iron) 

 is found in small quantity in all meteoric stones ; phosphoric 

 acid and titanic acid, which Rammelsberg discovered in the 

 very remarkable stone of Juvenas, perhaps indicate apatite 

 and titanite. 



" Of the simple substances hitherto detected in the meteoric 

 stones, there are 18 :f oxygen, sulphur, phosphorus,, carbon, 

 silicium, aluminum, magnesium, calcium, potassium, sodi- 

 um, iron, nickel, cobalt, chromium, manganesium, copper, 

 tin, and titanium. The proximate constituents are, (a.) 

 metallic : nickel-iron, a combination of phosphorus with iron 

 and nickel, sulphuret of iron and magnetic pyrites ; (b.) oxy- 

 dized: magnetic iron ore and chrome iron ore ; (c.) silicates: 

 olivin, anorthite, labrador, and augite." 



In order to concentrate the greatest number of important 

 facts separated from hypothetic conjectures, it still remains 

 for me to develop the manifold analogies which some mete- 

 oric stones present as rocks with older, so-called trap rocks 

 (dolerites, diorites, and melaphyren), with basalts and more 

 recent lava. These analogies are so much the more strik- 

 ing, as " the metallic alloy of nickel and iron, which is con- 

 stantly contained in certain meteoric masses," has not hither- 

 to been discovered in telluric minerals. The same distin- 

 guished chemist whose friendly communications I have made 

 use of in these last pages, enters fully into this subject in a 

 special treatise, $ the results of which will be more appropri- 

 ately discussed in the geological part of the COSMOS. 



* Shepard, in Silliman's American Journal of Science and Arts, ser. 

 ii., vol. ii., 1846, p. 377 ; Rammelsberg, in Poggeud., Ann., bd. Ixxiii., 

 1848, p. 377. 



t Compare Cosmos, vol. i., p. 130. 



t Zcitschrift der Devtschen Geolog. Gesellschaft, bd. i., p. 232. All 

 the matter in the text from p. 224 to p. 226, which is between inverted 

 commas, was taken from the manuscript of Professor Rammelsberg 

 (May, 1851). 



