528 STUDIES FOR STUDENTS 



then are decomposed to form amorphous carbon and an oil hav- 

 a bituminous or fatty odor. Such substances were considered 

 by Wohler similar to the mineral wax ozocerite and by Shepard 

 they were designated meteoritic petroleum. Friedheim states 

 that a substance extracted by him from the meteorite of Nagaya 

 by means of ether had a bituminous odor, volatilized at 200° 

 and resembled a product of distillation of brown coal. A similar 

 substance extracted by Roscoe from the meteorite of Alais was 

 found to have a composition corresponding nearly to the formula 



Hydrocarbons of the second class were obtained by Smith 

 by treating the graphite of iron meteorites and some carbona- 

 ceous meteorites with ether. These compounds were fusible 

 and volatile. He regarded them as having the general compo- 

 sition C^H^gSg. He obtained similar products by treating 

 cast iron with ether or petroleum as did also Berthelot by the 

 action of ether on sulphur or iron sulphide in the presence of 

 oxygen. 



Hydrocarbons of the third class have been obtained from 

 the meteorites of Orgueil and Hessle. The Orgueil extract 

 resembles peat, humus or lignite in its composition and proper- 

 ties. That from Hessle has approximately the composition 

 nCgHgOg. 



The above mentioned facts make it clear that a number of 

 meteorites contain products of an easily destructible, volatile, 

 and combustible character which resemble terrestrial bitumens, 

 petroleum or oxygenated hydrocarbons. The quantity of these 

 products is relatively small, being less than i per cent, in the 

 majority of meteorites in which they occur. Yet that they 

 occur at all is significant. While some have urged that these 

 products might have arisen from the union of their elements in 

 the terrestrial atmosphere there seems little reason for doubting 

 their pre-terrestrial origin. There is no evidence that life had 

 anything to do with their origin. We must conclude then that 

 they were formed in an inorganic way by a union of their ele- 

 ments. The conclusion at once suggests the possibility that 



