Dr. ~W alter Flight — History of Meteorites. 371 



1838, July 22nd. — Montlivault, Dep. Loir-et-Cher, France. 1 



Daubree gives a brief description of this meteorite, which has 

 recently been acquired for the Paris Collection. It has been pre- 

 served almost entire, and is roughly shaped like a three-sided 

 pyramid. It is finely granular, has a white colour, and weighs 510 

 grammes. The ground-mass of the stone, consisting apparently of 

 an intimate mixture of olivine with an augitic mineral, encloses small 

 grains of nickel-iron and magnetic pyrites. The meteorite belongs to 

 the group, now a large one, of meteorites to winch the name luceite 

 has been given. 



1840. — Szlanicza, Arva, Hungary. 2 



For his investigation by means of the spectroscope of the gases 

 occluded by meteoric iron, Wright examined those from the Eed Eiver, 

 Texas, and Tazewell Co., Tennessee (which see). 



The amount of carbon present in the former iron was found on 

 chemical examination to be very small ; in the latter none was 

 detected. A series of experiments were therefore made with the 

 above iron, which according to Lowe 3 contains a larger amount of 

 carbon. While it was an easy task to remove fragments of the above- 

 mentioned irons, great difficulties were experienced in the present case, 

 the metal having nearly the hardness of steel. When the tube contain- 

 ing fragments of this iron was exhausted, and before heat was applied 

 to it, the spectroscope indicated the presence in the " vacuum-tube " 

 of both hydrogen and carbon gases ; the lines of the former element 

 were very brilliant, and the first, second, and third bands of the latter, 

 counting from the red end, were visible. The application of a heat 

 hardly sufficient to pain the hand caused an entire change in the ap- 

 pearance of the vacuum-tube ; the broad part took a greenish hue, while 

 in the spectroscope the carbon bands shone quite brightly. When 

 the heat was raised to a temperature considerably short of redness, 

 the only change noticed in the spectrum was a greater intensity of 

 the carbon bands ; the gas collected at this stage of the operation was 

 found on analysis to consist of hydrogen, carbonic oxide, and carbonic 

 acid, the latter amounting to three or four per cent. 



In some experiments on artificial soft iron the author obtained a 

 spectrum in every way similar to that of the meteoric metals ; the 

 hydrogen lines, however, did not appear so early, nor were they so 

 bright as in the latter instances. 



The iron of this meteorite, which by its great hardness was 

 separated in the state of fine powder, yielded, when heated at dif- 

 ferent temperatures up to low redness, 44 times its volume of gas. 

 While it seems not improbable that some portion of what has been 

 regarded as occluded gas may have been air, the yield is so unusually 

 large that it suggests the question, May not the more perfect removal 



1 G. A. Daubree. Compt. rend. 1873, 10th Feb. Der Naturforscher, 1873, 26th 

 April. 



3 A. W. "Wright. Amer. Jour. Sc. 1875, ix. 294. 

 3 A. Lowe. Amer. Jour. Sc. [2], yiii. 439. 



