160 Dr. Walter Flight — History of Meteorites. 



Hail, which fell at Stockholm in the autumn of 1873, was found 

 by Nordenskjold to contain grey metallic particles that reduced cop- 

 per from its sulphate. Although the roofs of the buildings surround- 

 ing the Academy, in the courtyard of which these hailstones fell, are 

 of iron, the grains were rounded, and of light colour, instead of a 

 reddish-brown, and the observation is of sufficient interest to allow 

 of its being placed on record. 



It has been shown that small quantities of a cosmical dust, 

 containing iron, cobalt, nickel, phosphorus, and carbonaceous sub- 

 stances, fall with other atmospheric precipitates on the earth's surface. 

 Nordenskjold, in his paper, alludes to the theory, already advanced, 

 we believe, by Haidinger, that this deposit may play an important 

 part in the economy of nature in supplying phosphorus to soils 

 already exhausted by the growth of crops. His observations, more- 

 over, are of value through the light they throw on the theories of 

 star-showers, auroras, etc. The small but continuous increase of the 

 mass of our planet which appears to take place may lead students of 

 geology to modify the view at present held, that from the time of 

 the first aj)pearance of vegetable and animal life upon our planet it 

 has undergone no change, in a quantitative sense — in other words, 

 that the geological changes which have occurred have been confined 

 to a difference in the distribution of material, and not to the intro- 

 duction of new material from without. 



When the instances of the fall of soot-like particles, blood-rain, 

 sulphur-showers, etc., which have from time to time been described, 

 are considered, the view pronounced by Chladni, that these pheno- 

 mena are due to the precipitation of large quantities of cosmical dust, 

 appears of great import. The black carbonaceous substances which fell 

 with the Hessle meteorites, and coated some of them, may be quoted 

 as an illustration. Some meteorites, moreover, are so loose and fri- 

 able in texture that they are very readily reduced to powder, as the 

 Ornans meteorite (1868, July 11th), while that which fell at 

 Orgeuil (1864, May 14th) breaks up when placed in water. If this 

 stone had not fallen on a day when the atmosphere was dry, portions, 

 if not the whole of it, would probably have reached the earth's sur- 

 face in the form of powder. These atmospheric deposits may have a 

 very varied composition. The dust which fell in Calabria, in 1817, 1 

 contained chromium. The red rain that fell at Blankenberg, in 

 Flanders, 2 in 1819, owed its colour to the presence of cobalt chloride. 



In 1872 three papers were published in the Comptes rendus, 3 on the 

 origin of polar auroras, which called forth one from Baumhauer, 4 

 where he refers to a theory as to their origin propounded in his 

 thesis De ortu lapidum meteoricorum (Utrecht, 1844). After having 

 shown the connexion which apparently exists between the planets, 



1 L. Sementini. AM rtella Seale Acad, delle Scienze, 1819, i. 285. Gilbert's 

 Ann., lxiv. 327- 



2 Meyer and Van Stoop. Gilbert's Ann., lxiv. 335. 



3 Le Mare'chal Vaillant. Compt. rend., lxxiv. 510 and 701. — J. Silbermann. 

 Compt. rend., lxxiv. 553, 638, 959, and 1182. — H. Tarry. Compt rend., lxxiv. 549. 



4 E. H. Von Baumhauer. Compt rend., lxxiv. 678. 



