OBSERVATIONS OF LUMINOUS METEORS. 253 



in the fragments, and have often a rounded form. The metal of this portion, 

 as -w^ell as in the other, exhibits no Widmannstiittian figures ; but in both, by 

 treatment -with acid, lines are developed like those of the Braunau iron. 



The two species of rock, the chondritic fragments (I.) and tlie darker ce- 

 menting material (II.), have the follcwing composition : — 



These results establish the similarity in composition of the two portions, 

 and, as Tschermak points out, the erroneous character of Bellucci's analysis, 

 to which a.ttention has already been directed. 



Tschermak's paper is illustrated with a plate, giving a figure of the meteo- 

 rite he examined ; a drawing, actual size, of the section, showing very di- 

 stinctly the appearance of fusion ; and three microscopic sections, magnified 

 20 diameters, of the two rock varieties composing the greater part of the 

 stone. 



Pakt III. Eeeent contributions to Aerolitic literature. Bij A. S. IIerschel, 



In the foregoing resume it will be seen that the annals of meteoric falls 

 increase yearly in numbers and extent, and that a leading clue to the ex- 

 planation of these phenomena is presented by the frequently recorded falls 

 of meteorites in every continent of the globe. The researches of Howard and 

 Vauquelin, of Gr. Rose, Wohler, Reichenbach, Rammelsberg, Tschermak, 

 Daubree, L. Smith, and Sillimau, and, returning from the first of these to our 

 own countrymen, of Maskelyne and Sorby, have rendered modern mineralo- 

 gists so familiar with the nature, both structural and chemical or elementary, 

 of these mineral fragments scattered and imported from distant spheres to the 

 surface of our globe, that the views presented by these numeroiis investiga- 

 tions cannot fail to give a strong impulse to questions in the solution of which 

 cultivators of every science must feel an intei'cst, and promise groat achieve- 

 ments in the future discoveries of astronomy. Not only is a kindred character 

 met with among the fragments occurring thus problematically for examination, 

 but again this type itself is Idndred to that of materials which are substances 

 of familiar occurrence in terrestrial rocks, and the majorit)- of stony 

 meteorites are themselves tufaceous or brecciated masses of obviously volcanic 

 production. That they enclose metallic iron and nickel, and that they some- 

 times consist of these metals in a solid mass, is not a complete anomaly even 

 in terrestrial geology, if the inquiries in course of prosecution on the sites of 

 discovery of the irons of Pallas and Ovifak, supposed to be meteoric, should 

 (as appears probable) bear out a different conclusion. But in the progress 

 of chemical and microscopical inspections of their substance, numerous 



