172 Analysis of the Braunau Meteorite. 



The second body occurring imbedded here and there in the 

 general mass, and which is readily distinguishable therefrom by 

 its color, fracture, brittleness and lustre, may be extracted without 

 much difficulty by mechanical means. 



The third, in fine, can be separated from the meteoric iron in 



the form of small plates or spangles, by allowing the action of 



chlorohydric acid to continue thereon as long as a solution goes 



on forming. # 



I do not consider that there is ground for regarding the black 

 powder, which is separated by the action of the acids, as also a 

 peculiar and distinct body, inasmuch as it contains the several 

 constituents of the general mass, which are thus separated ow- 

 ing to their insolubility in the acids employed. 



Although my endeavors were directed towards ascertaining the 

 ratio of the constituents of these two substances, that is to say 

 the bodies two and three, yet from the extremely minute quantity 

 thereof at my disposal, I was forced to confine myself principally 

 to their qualitative examination. 



1. The imbedded substance. — Diluted chlorohydric acid which 

 does not exert any action upon the principal mass for some time 

 disengages at once a considerable quantity of sulphuretted hydro- 

 gen when poured on to this body, dissolving it completely, with 

 the exception of a minute residue in the form of a greyish black 



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powder. The hydrogen given off by the general mass during 

 its solution in chlorohydric acid has not, it must be observed, the 

 slightest smell of sulphuretted hydrogen with it. unless some of 

 these scales or spangles happen to be present. This powder when 

 transferred to a strip of thin platina foil and exposed to a mode- 



rate heat takes fire, glimmering like tinder, a phenomenon which 



is repeated upon the foil attaining a red-heat. The powder which 

 has now become of a brown color was fused with nitrate of soda 

 on platina foil and exposed to a ied-heat. On becoming cold the 

 salt was of a yellow color, which color it retained when dissolved 

 in water. This solution after being neutralized with nitric acid 

 —for the double purpose of converting both the caustic soda and 

 the nitrite of soda into a nitrate — produces in a solution of nitrate 

 of silver a beautiful red precipitate, readily soluble both in nitric 

 acid and in ammonia, from which solution it is a second time 

 thrown down, of the same brilliant red color as before, by recip- 

 rocally rendering the solution neutral j that is to say, the nitric so- 

 lution by ammonia, and the ammoniacal solution by nitric acid.f 



* Berzelius iound a body of a similar nature in the meteoric iron of Bolmmilitz, 

 and Which he termed scales, they were however white, more granular and 

 heavier, and rould therefore be separated by adulcoration from the carbonaceous 

 powder disengaged at the same time with them from the mass, a proceeding that 

 is only partially successful with the minute spangles in question. — (See Pogg- 

 Anna! . vol.-xxvii, p. 122.) 



t The reaction given here for chromic acid appears to me to be at once very char- 

 acteristic and sure, added to which, it is remarkably simple. 



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