I9I3] EXCHANGE VALUE OF METEORITES. 517 



long into failure during the years which are required for exchangers 

 to get together. Apart from the few who devote much time to 

 meteorites, are the many to whom they have but an incidental and 

 minor interest, and who have little idea of values other than those 

 given by the owner. Hence the occasional as well as the regular 

 collector may find worth while a brief examination of the subject. 

 We may first exclude local values, since they are usually determined 

 by agreement between finder and buyer. 



The first to attempt any systematic enlightenment in this field 

 was Dr. Otto Buchner. In 1863 appeared his volume on meteorites 

 in collections,^ wherein he noted 230 different localities. 



Thirty-four years after Buchner's publication. Professor E. A. 

 Wtilfing, an eminent authority, wrote : " The present interest in 

 meteorites on the part of many, could be increased by a wider dis- 

 tribution of material. Believing that this is attainable through 

 active exchanging, and further because I see an aid to this end in a 

 determination of the relative value of meteorites, even if only ap- 

 proximately, I shall endeavor to establish their exchange values." 

 Accordingly, in 1893 he wrote to all owners or curators of meteorite 

 collections, asking them to report the weight of each meteoritic fall 

 or locality in their possession. Then followed a long and volumi- 

 nous correspondence which, with the arduous tabulation of the 

 data secured and the development of his formula, delayed for nearly 

 four years the publication of his exhaustive treatise^ of some 500 

 pages. The major part of this work consists of a list of all known 

 meteorites, giving, for each, the full locality, symbol, date of fall or 

 find, bibliography, original weight, present known weight, and 

 finally, a list of owners with the weight in grams of their holdings. 

 In the two concluding chapters is elaborated a theory of values. He 

 finds but three important factors which enter into the value of each 

 meteorite : 



I. The Present Known Weight. — This, Wiilfing states, is incom- 

 plete in many cases, because of his failure to reach some owners and 

 to secure full data from others. Where the original weight is un- 



~ " Die Meteoriten in Sammlungen, ihre Gewichte, mineralogische und 

 chemische Beschaffenheit." 



3 " Die Meteoriten in Sammlungen und ihre Literatur," Tiibingen, 1897. 



