Dr. Walter Flight — History of Meteorites. 17 



siderolite. The bearing of the study of meteorites on our know- 

 ledge of cosmical physics and geology will be readily acknowleged. 



It is proposed to deal with the subject under the following four 

 divisions : — 



I. To present seriatim a description of all meteoric bodies that 

 have been known to fall, or that may have been found, since the 

 above date (1st January, 1869), including an account of all import- 

 ant phenomena attending their descent, and a description of their 

 physical and chemical characters, or those of their ingredient 

 minerals as far as they have yet been determined. In the examina- 

 tion of the analyses, it will be shown that the hypothetical silicate 

 shepardite, which at the present time is supposed by many miner- 

 alogists and geologists l to form a constituent of meteorites (although 

 it has never been isolated), not only need not be assumed to be present, 

 but that the analytical results of these observers indicate the presence 

 in the aerolite of such silicates only as have on some occasion or 

 other been observed to occur as distinct species in a meteorite. 



II. To produce a similar digest of work done from 1869 — 1874 

 on meteorites which had fallen, or had been found, at an earlier date, 

 giving such results as correct earlier analyses. 



III. To prepare an exhaustive notice of papers published from 

 1869 — 1874 on meteorites : 



(1). In their relations to astronomical questions; their probable 

 orbits ; the phenomena attending their fall ; their distribution 

 on the earth's surface ; spectroscopic examination, etc. 

 (2). In respect to better methods of analysis; new catalogues 

 of collections ; and the bibliography of this branch of miner- 

 alogy. 

 TV. To examine cases of doubtful falls, pseudo-aerolites, etc., 

 which have been placed on record during the above interval. 



Pakt I. 

 1869, January 1st, 12h. 20m. p.m. — Hessle, near TJpsala. 2 



This is the first meteoric fall recorded to have taken place in 

 Sweden. The sky was cloudy, and, though apparently unobserved 

 at Hessle, a luminous meteor was noticed by observers at a distance. 

 The noise accompanying the fall resembled heavy peals of thunder, 

 followed by a rattling noise as of waggons at a gallop, and ending 

 first with a note like an organ tone, and then a hissing sound. The 

 stones were strewn over a line of country lying 30° E. of S. towards 

 30° W. of N. Some of them fell within a few yards of a number of 



1 In his address "Ueber die Entwickelung der Geologie in den letzten 50 Jahreri," 

 delivered before the German Naturalists' Association at Leipzig in 1872, Von Dechen 

 alluded to shepardite (anderthalbfach kieselsaure Magnesia) as a characteristic 

 meteoric mineral. 



2 0. Fahnehjelm. Meteorfallet i Fittja socken af TJpsala Ian d. 1 Januari, 1869, 

 Oefversigt Vet. Akad. Ford. 1869, No. 1, 59.— A. E. Nordenskjold. Kongl. Svenska. 

 Vetensk. Akad. FEandl. viii. No. 9 ; Fogg. Ann. cxxi., 205. — G. Lindstrom. 

 Kemisk Undersokning af Meteorstenarne Iran Hessle. Kongl. Svenska Vetensk. 

 Akad. Ford., 1869, No. 8.— K. A. Fredholm. Om Meteorstensfallet vid Hessle. 

 Leipzig: Fritsch. — G. A. Daubree. Compt. rend., lxviii., 363. 



DECADE II. VOL. II. NO. I. 2 



