ROOM L MINERALS. 15 



the south side, and the other thirty in a reversed direction on 

 the opposite side. The affixed numbers are here inserted 

 between brackets. 



TABLE CASE 1. [60.] Organico-chemiccd minerals Salts : Mellite or 

 honey-stone, found in brown coal at Artern in Thuringia, (see Pictorial 

 Atlas of Organic Remains, pi. L fig. 2.;) oxalate of iron: struvite ; 

 Resins: amber, of which there are beautiful specimens from Prussia 

 and from the muschel-sandstone of Lemberg in Gallieia, many with 

 insects and portions of vegetables ; fossil copal from London Clay, High- 

 gate ; Retinasphalt, from Bovey ; Idriolite. Bitumens : mineral pitch, 

 asphalt and jet ; Dapeche ; Hatchettine ; varieties of coal. 



(1.) Meteorites. In this case, and in a small table adjoining, are 

 deposited a very rich collection of native iron and meteorolites. The 

 origin of these substances is so mysterious, as to invest them with a 

 high degree of interest, and I therefore subjoin from Mr. Konig's 

 Synopsis, the following chronological list of those in the Museum whose 

 history is authenticated. 



Meteorites or aerolites, i.e. stones that fall from the higher regions of 

 the atmosphere, appear to be unquestionably foreign to our planet, and 

 there seems every reason to conclude that these substances originate 

 from small cosmical bodies, having orbital motions through space, and 

 which are occasionally drawn within the sphere of the earth's attrac- 

 tion. Baron Humboldt states that " their direction and enormous 

 velocity of projection render it more than probable that these masses, 

 enveloped in vapours, and reaching the earth in a high state of temper- 

 ature, are small heavenly bodies which the attraction of our globe has 

 caused to deviate from their previous path. The aspect of these aero- 

 lites, and the analogy to minerals contained in the crust of the earth, is 

 very striking. They afford the only experimental knowledge we pos- 

 sess of any of the specific properties or qualities of matter not belonging 

 to our own planet." Meteorites appear to have fallen in the earlier 

 ages of our globe ; Sir C. Lyell cites the discovery of a mass of native 

 iron and nickel weighing seventeen pounds, in the auriferous alluvium 

 of Altai, at a depth of thirty feet ; and other instances are stated to have 

 been observed in the Carpathian mountains. 



2. Native Iron. These masses consist of upwards of 90 

 per cent, of pure iron, with a small proportion of nickel, cop- 

 per, cobalt, <fcc. Native iron, of undoubtedly terrestrial origin, 

 is of very rare occurrence, almost all the insulated masses of 

 this metal hitherto fouod having proved to be meteoric ; and 

 of these the following specimens are deposited nearly in the 

 order of their discovery, or of the first mention made of them. 



1847,' and will, if circumstances allow it, be hereafter adopted for the 

 collection contained in the Table Cases; the present arrangement 

 remaining nearly as we find it in the 4th ed. of Berzelius' work on the 

 Use of the .Blowpipe, published in 1824." Mr. Konig's Synopsis. 





