METEORS. ITS 



final, owing to the enormous velocity imparted to the 

 erupted matter. And if the sun thus rejects matter, so 

 also do those other suns, the stars. Let us add to this 

 reasoning two facts which have been regarded as seve- 

 rally sufficient to establish the strange theory that 

 many meteors, if not most or even all, have been 

 expelled from the interior of the suns which people 

 space. 



One of the most eminent microscopists living, and 

 perhaps the most eminent of all who have applied the 

 microscope to the study of rock-substances Sorby, of 

 Sheffield has arrived at the conclusion that the struc- 

 ture of meteorites ' cannot be explained in a satisfactory 

 manner, except by supposing that their constituents 

 were originally in the state of vapour, as they now exist 

 in the atmosphere of the sun. ' 



Again, the late Professor Graham, one of the most 

 eminent chemists of our time, was led to a similar con- 

 clusion by the chemical analysis of a meteor. He had 

 found that the iron of the Lenarto meteor contains 

 much more hydrogen (' occluded ' in its substance) than 

 can be forced into the substance of malleable iron. ' It 

 has been found difficult,' he says, c to impregnate 

 malleable iron with more than its own volume of 

 hydrogen, under the pressure of our atmosphere. Now 

 the meteoric iron (this Lenarto iron is remarkably pure 

 and malleable) gave up about three times that amount, 

 without being fully exhausted. The inference is, that 

 the meteorite was extruded from a dense atmosphere 

 of hydrogen gas, for which we must look beyond the 



