Dr. Walter Flight — History of Meteorites. 363 



fabulous, a desire had arisen among the curious to collect and preserve 

 them, and even to submit to careful study these strange mineral 

 masses, to which an atmospheric origin was attributed. It was at 

 this time that Howard and De Bournon made a careful examination 

 of the stones reputed to have fallen from the sky, which were con- 

 tained in the mineral collection of Greville ; and, after observing 

 them to possess certain characters in common, as well as others which 

 distinguished them from terrestrial matter, they were led, in the Philo- 

 sophical Transactions of 1802, to give their support to the views, then 

 regarded as purely fantastic, which Chladni had propounded in 1794 

 in his remarkable memoir Ueber den Ur sprung cler von Pallas und 

 anderer ihr ahnlicher Eisenmassen. The new view had in fact found 

 little favour among scientific men, especially in France, and De Bour- 

 non and the French savant Patrin were engaged in a controversy 

 on the subject at the beginning of 1803, when the celebrated fall at 

 L'Aigle, of from two to three thousand stones, took place. The first 

 news which reached Paris was received with a smile of incredulity ; 

 the illustrious Biot, however, was deputed by the Ministre de Vln- 

 terieur to proceed to L'Aigle and institute a full inquiry, which 

 lasted many days ; and his exhaustive report, which appeared in the 

 Memoir es de la classe des Sciences math, et phys. de VInstitut national 

 de France, finally set the question at rest, and established the fact 

 that the stones were of cosmical origin, and the truth of Chladni's 

 theory. 



These meteorites were analysed by Thenard, who found in them 

 silica, iron oxide, magnesia, nickel, and sulphur, amounting in all to 

 108 per cent. ; and afterwards by Fourcroy and Yauquelin, who de- 

 tected the presence of the same ingredients and lime in addition, the 

 total amounting to 104 per cent. The excess of course was due to 

 the fact of the metal present as such in the meteorite being accounted 

 oxide in their calculation. 



In consideration of the past historical importance of this fall, it 

 occurred to von Baumhauer to submit the L'Aigle meteorite to analy- 

 sis by the new and elegant methods which he has devised and em- 

 ployed with so much success on other meteorites. His results are 

 given below. The specific gravity of the stone is 8-607, and the 

 total composition is as follows : — 



Nickel-iron 8-0 



Iron sulphide , 1*8 



Chromite 0-6 



Olivine 45 3 



Silicate unacted upon by acid 44-3 



Lime sulphate trace 



100-00 

 After the removal of the nickel-iron, the treatment with acid and 

 sodium carbonate brought about a separation of the varieties of sili- 

 cates, which had the following composition : — 



Si0 2 FeO MnO A1 2 3 CaO MgO K 2 Na 2 



A. Soluble 35-16 30-39 trace 0-18 6-16 26-51 0-85 0-75 = 100-00 



B. Insoluble ... 57-16 1256 trace 5-19 4-08 17-91 2-02 1-07 = 99-99 



