112 THE METEORITES. — THEIR ORIGIN AND CHARACTER. 



material is continually being thrown up from their surfaces and falHng back 

 ao-ain ; and it is to be exjDected that some of these drops would be inclosed 

 and thrown up in other masses before they had been entirely liquefied, 

 although they were probably viscous. 



So far as meteorites have been examined by me, they do not appear to be 

 fragmental in the sense of consolidated cold masses joined together. It is 

 possible that "they may be composed in part at least, of molten globules — 

 originally united in a pasty condition ; but the uniformity of composition of 

 each spherule is a remarkable circumstance, if they are formed from drops. 

 One would suppose that each chondrus would possess all the elements of the 

 meteorite as a whole. 



So far as can be learned from the structure of most meteorites, it appears 

 to the writer that they must have come from a liquid mass, and that in the 

 majority of cases the length of time in which they passed from the liquid to 

 the solid condition was not great. The silicates held in the interstices of 

 metallic masses, like the pallasites, would have time to crystallize through 

 the effect of the heat of the surrounding iron, and the chondritic structure 

 would not be developed in this class as a rule, if at all ; while Professor Ball's* 

 claim that meteorites must have been torn from a solid rock does not seem 

 to be borne out by the structure of the meteorites themselves. Starting 

 with the hypothesis that all cosmical matter was originally in a gaseous state, 

 and that this gas, through condensation or otherwise, was intensely hot, the 

 writer believes that the meteoric material, reaching the earth, was thrown 

 from some one or more of these condensing bodies, formed from this cosmi- 

 cal matter during its liquid or partially solid state. He holds that of these 

 bodies, the most probable one serving as the source of meteorites is the sun, 

 as suggested by Sorby — they either being thrown from it now, or in past 

 time, through eruptive agencies, whose action can now be seen upon its sur- 

 face. It is of course possible that any of the celestial bodies, when in the 

 incandescent condition, while eruptive forces were sufficiently active, might 

 be the originator of meteorites ; but before any meteorites are attributed to 

 them, it is necessary that it should be shown that their probable constitu- 

 tion corresponds to that of the meteorites in question. 



The number of elements common both to the sun and meteorites lends 

 some support to their relation as advocated here. These elements are iron, 

 titanium, calcium, manganese, nickel, cobalt, chromium, sodium, magnesium, 



* Science for All, iv. 31. 



