120 Br. Walter Flight— History of Meteorites. 



II., after digestion with double chloride of copper and sodium, and 

 iron chloride, and found, when a quantity of ash is deducted, that it 

 is composed of : 



Carbon 63-59 63-64 



Hydrogen 3-26 3-55 



Oxygen (by difference) 33-15 32-81 



100-00 100-00 



These numbers yield no satisfactory atomic ratios, and it is not 

 improbable that the carbon is present in two allotropic modifications, 

 as well as a constituent of a complex organic compound. 



In 1872 two interesting papers were published by Wohler on the 

 results of his examination of this iron, especially that from the ridge. 

 The specimen he chose for examination came from a vein of metal 

 several inches wide and some feet in length, which was inclosed in 

 a rock " that presents a marked difference in composition from the 

 basalt breccia whence it protrudes." He describes this iron as 

 bearing a close resemblance to grey cast iron ; it has a bright lustre, 

 is very hard, is quite unalterable in air, and has a specific gravity= 

 5'82. Nordenskjold, as we have seen, extracted gas from the metal 

 of the larger masses by heating it. Wohler finds that the iron 

 of the vein evolves more than one hundred times its volume of a gas 

 that burns with a pale blue flame, and is carbonic oxide, mixed with 

 a little carbonic acid. The " iron," in fact, contains a considerable 

 amount of carbon, as well as a compound of oxygen ; and, according 

 to Wohler, can at no time have been exposed to a high temperature. 

 After it has been heated, the iron becomes brighter, and, though more 

 soluble in acid, it still leaves a carbonaceous residue. A fragment 

 heated in dry hydrogen, with a view to determine the amount of 

 oxygen present, formed a quantity of water, and lost 11 "09 per cent. 

 of its weight. " It contained, in other words, 11*09 per cent, of 

 oxygen." It is not stated whether the water corresponded in weight 

 to that amount of oxygen. Hydrochloric acid acts but slowly and 

 imperfectly on this metal, evolving first sulphuretted hydrogen, and 

 then hydrogen possessing the odour of a hydrocarbon, and leaves a 

 black granular magnetic powder, which, though insoluble in cold 

 acid, generates on the application of heat a gas with a strong odour 

 of a hydrocarbon, leaving a residue of amorphous sooty carbon and 

 slightly lustrous graphitic particles. In iron chloride the " iron " 

 dissolves without evolution of gas, about 30 per cent, of a black 

 residue remaining, which, after having been dried at 200° C, lost by 

 ignition in hydrogen 19 per cent, of its weight, water being pro- 

 duced. It is now very readily attacked by acid, evolves sulphuretted 

 hydrogen, and gives a residue of nearly pure carbon in powder or in 

 graphitic scales. Iron chloride and acid appear, therefore, in the 

 main, to remove the free metal only, and to be without action on 

 the compounds with sulphur and oxygen. The ultimate composi- 

 tion of the specimen he analysed is as follows : 



Iron 80-64 



Nickel 1-19 



Cobalt 0-47 



Phosphorus ... 0-15 



Sulphur 2-82 



Carbon 3-69 



Oxygen 11-09 



100-05 



