174 Analysis of the Braunau Meteorite. 



Heated upon platinum foil this substance, like the former one, 

 takes fire at a moderate heat, glimmering like sugar, losing there- 

 by its metallic lustre and being converted to a brown powder 

 from which both chlorohydric and nitric acids dissolve out a con- 

 siderable portion. 



The constituent parts of this substance are : 



Iron, phosphorus, nickel, carbon and silica. Berzelius in the 

 scales from the Bohumilitz iron found the same constituents in 

 the following proportions : but whether those proportions obtain 

 in the scales now under examination, I could not from the small 

 quantity at my disposal, (—0-047 gramme,) ascertain.* 



Iron . 



Phosphorus ..... 



Nickel .... 



Carbon ..... 



Silica.f ..... 



65-977 

 14023 



15008 



1-422 



2-007 



The iron was the only element I endeavored to determine ap- 

 proximately, and in the present case it amounted to 51 per cent, 

 or thereabouts. 



These two substances, both the imbedded one and the scales, 

 form, disregarding the other constituents, a remarkable contrast. 

 The former consisting principally of sulphuret of iron, and the 

 latter of phosphuret of iron. Another peculiarity is that the former 

 substance occurs only here and there, and comparatively speak- 

 ing, in considerable masses; while the second substance on the 

 contrary, is generally diffused throughout the mass and in such 

 very minute spangles : — this difference in the disposition of the 

 two bodies being probably to be accounted for by their different 

 fusibility and setting-point upon cooling. 



The phosphuret of iron separates at a temperature at which 

 the sulphuret of iron still remains in fusion, thus allowing the lat- 

 ter to unite into larger masses. 



That the scales are very generally diffused through the mass 

 is proved by the action of chlorohydric acid, for even in a very 

 little while they are thus rendered visible, especially upon sha- 

 king the fluid, which causes them to float about therein. This 

 conduct tends at the same time to establish their minuteness and 

 levity, inasmuch as in spite of their general diffusion they do not 

 amount to one per cent, of the mass, and this even when taking 



with them. 



powder 



* Berzelius bad it in his power to employ about GO grammes of the meteoric iron 

 to obtain the scales, and tlie quantity he thus procured amounted to about 0* 777 

 , ramme. All that I had to work upon was about 5 grammes, inasmuch as I had 

 lost a considerable portion of the iron I had through an accident, which 1 will sub- 

 join in a note at the close of this Paper as a caution to other experimenters. 



t See Berzelius in Poggendorfs Annal., vol. xxvii, p. 131. 





