596 COSMOS. 



silicium, aluminum, magnesium, calcium, potassium, sodium, 

 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 ; (6) oxidized : mag- 

 netic 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 

 striking, as " the metallic alloy of nickel and iron, which is 

 constantly contained in certain meteoric masses," has not 

 hitherto been discovered in telluric minerals. The same dis- 

 tinguished 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 appro- 

 priately discussed in the geological part of the COSMOS. 



\. * ZeitscJirift der deutscJien geolog. Gesellschaft, Bd. i. 

 p. 232. All the matter in the text from p. 593 to p. 596, 

 which is between inverted commas, was taken from the manu- 

 script of Professor Rammelsberg (May, 1851). 



