902 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVIII. No. 730 



enee and later combined in all available 

 ways as they met appropriate elements at 

 the various lower temperatures through 

 which they passed in the course of their 

 cooling. 



Meteorites contain a very suggestive 

 series of compounds of the essential ele- 

 ments, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, 

 sulphur and phosphorus. Among these 

 compounds it is especially interesting to 

 note that several are unstable under the 

 usual conditions that prevail at the surface 

 of the earth. Among these are the phos- 

 phide, schreibersite, the sulphides, troilite, 

 daubreelite and oldhamite, the carbide, 

 eohenite and the chloride, lawrencite. 

 These unstable compounds are sometimes 

 intergrown or otherwise closely associated 

 with one another, so that the products of 

 any reactions that may grow out of their 

 instability are favorably located for reac- 

 tion upon one another, and such reaction 

 is liable to arise when the celestial equi- 

 librium is disturbed by terrestrial condi- 

 tions. There is also present a form of 

 graphite which oxidizes more rapidly than 

 terrestrial graphite. Such graphite, as 

 well as amorphous carbon, is intergrown 

 with the unstable sulphide, troilite, and the 

 unstable phosphide, schreibersite. The 

 readily oxidizable graphite sometimes con- 

 tains within itself sulphur and hydrocar- 

 bons. Roscoe extracted from a meteorite 

 a hydrocarbon which contained sulphur.* 

 Cloez and Pisani found in the Orgueil 

 meteorite matter of the organic type which 

 had a composition closely similar to ter- 

 restrial humus, viz., C, 63.45 ; H, 5.98 ; 0, 

 30.57.^ Lawrence Smith also extracted 

 hydrocarbons from meteorites, among 

 which was a compound of carbon, hydro- 

 gen and sulphur having approximately the 

 composition of CjHjS^; also one which he 



*Proo. Phil. Soc. Mon., 1862. 



= Compt. rend., Vol. 59, 1864, pp. 37, 132. 



formulated as CiHaSj." Ansdell and 

 Dewar favor the view that the hydro- 

 carbons had their origin in carbides, a 

 view supported by the observed presence of 

 carbide in meteorites. 



It may be assumed that the graphite resulted 

 from the action of water, gases and other agents, 

 on the carbides of the metals, and that during the 

 chemical interactions which took place, a portion 

 of the carbon became transformed into organic 

 compounds.' 



The hydrocarbons in meteorites embrace, 

 according to Cohen, compounds of carbon 

 and sulphur ; of carbon, hydrogen and sul- 

 phur; and of carbon, hydrogen and 

 oxygen, respectively. The hydrocarbons 

 sometimes have a resinous or waxy aspect, 

 and on decomposition may give an oil of 

 bituminous or fatty odor. The com- 

 pounds of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen 

 afford extracts resembling peat, humus or 

 lignite. All the alkalis, and all the earthy 

 and metallic constituents which are essen- 

 tial to plant life are present in meteorites 

 in variety and abundance. Besides the 

 solid minerals, the gases carbon dioxide, 

 carbon monoxide, methane, hydrogen, ni- 

 trogen and sulphuretted hydrogen are 

 either present or are susceptible of de- 

 velopment by moderate heat such as the 

 infalls would inevitably produce.^ It will 

 be noted that these embrace the more com- 

 mon gases associated with ultimate organic 

 reactions. 



The chief point of interest here is not 

 simply the presence, but the close inter- 

 growth, of compounds of the organic ele- 

 ments in states of combination which, while 

 stable in the cosmic regions surrounding 

 the earth from which the planetesimal 

 material was gathered, are pronouncedly 



'Am. Jour. Sci., 1876, pp. 388-95, also 433-42. 

 Many suggestive aetails. 



^ Proc. Roy. Inst., Vol. XI., 1884-6, p. 549. 



° For details see " The Gases in Eocks," R. T. 

 Chamberlin, Carnegie publication No. 106, Wash- 

 ington, 1908. 



