44 fc SPECIAL RESULTS IN THE URANOI,OGICAL 



of dolerite, in which crystallised olivine, augite, and anor- 

 thite, can be severally recognised ; others (as the mass of 

 Pallas) shew merely iron, containing nickel and olivine; 

 while others again (judging by the relative proportions of 

 the ingredients) are aggregates of hornblende and albite 

 (Chateau-Renard), or of hornblende and labradorite (Blansko 

 and Chantonnay). 



According to a general review of the results which have 

 been derived by Professor Rammelsberg, an acute chemist, 

 who has recently occupied himself uninterruptedly, with 

 equal activity and success, with the analysis of aerolites, and 

 with their composition from simple minerals, "the dis- 

 tinction of masses which have fallen from the atmosphere 

 into two classes viz. meteoric iron and meteoric stones is 

 not to be taken rigidly and absolutely. We find, although 

 rarely, meteoric iron with intermingled silicates, (in the 

 Siberian mass of 1270 Russian pounds, which has been re- 

 weighed by Hess, there are interspersed grains of olivine) ; 

 and, on the other hand, many meteoric stones contain me- 

 tallic iron. 



"A. Meteoric iron, the fall of which has only in a few 

 cases been actually observed by eye-witnesses (Hradschina, 

 Agram, 26th of May, 1751; and Braunau, 14th of July, 

 1847), while the greater number of analogous masses have 

 remained long on the surface of the ground, has in general 

 very similar physical and chemical qualities. It almost 

 always contains, in finer or coarser particles, a sulphuret 

 of iron, which does not, however, appear to be either 

 iron pyrites or magnetic pyrites, but proto-sulphuret of 

 iron ( 7 6 ) . The principal mass in such cases does not con- 

 sist of a pure metallic iron ; it is formed rather of an alloy 



