402 Miscellanies. 



resembled phosphate of iron, but were too small to be detached. 

 I had no doubt on first seeing the mass, of its extra-terrestrial origin, 

 which opinion was confirmed by the following analysis performed in 

 my laboratory by Mr. C. H. Rockwell, one of my pupils. 



It dissolved quickly and completely in pure nitric acid, with the ap- 

 plication of a gentle heat. The solution tested with nitrate of silver gave 

 no cloudiness, showing the absence of chlorine. Still farther to settle 

 the question, of the presence of chlorine, the mass was put in a clean 

 capsule and placed over a water bath, covered on the plate of an air 

 pump by an air-tight jar. After exposure to this humid atmosphere for 

 a week, it was taken out and washed with pure water into the capsule, 

 which contained also water of condensation from the mass. These 

 washings, tested with nitrate of silver, remained quite unclouded. After 

 the heat to which the mass had been subjected in the smith's forge, it 

 could hardly be expected that we should find any traces of chlorine, if 

 it ever existed. The solution of the iron in nitric acid yielded, with 

 the usual process for separating iron from nickel, 



Metallic iron, 92-291 



Do. nickel, - 8-146 



100.437 



No traces of other substances could be detected in the iron* Specific 

 gravity 7-501. 



With a view to obtain all the information possible in relation to this 

 interesting meteoric iron, Mr. Herrick addressed a letter of inquiry to 

 Dr. Pierce, which brought the following particulars. He says : " In 

 the year 1819, I procured some two or three masses of native iron 

 (as it appeared to be) from the farmer who first turned it over with 

 his plow, in a field near the north line of the town of Burlington, 

 Otsego Co., N. Y. These consisted of remnants of an entire mass 

 originally supposed to weigh between one and two hundred pounds, 

 and found several years before. Before I had any knowledge of 

 its existence, it had been in the forge of a country blacksmith, and 

 the whole heated in order to enable him to cut off portions for the 

 manufacture of such articles as the farmer most needed. The smith 

 assured me that he never worked stronger, tougher, or purer iron ; 

 that it made the best horse-shoe nails. All the fragments that re- 

 mained I immediately secured, and presented them to Prof. Hadley, 

 whose lectures I was then attending. These were in two or three irreg- 

 ular masses, in all some eight to twelve pounds, with the marks of the 

 chisel used in cutting while in a heated state. In conversation with the 

 farmer who found the original mass, I could only learn that in plowing 

 the field he found a stone very heavy, rusty on the top, which lay above 



