60 Dr. Walter Flight—On Meteorites. 
They showed no polarity beyond that due to the action of the 
earth. The underside of each mass was strongly south magnetic, 
and on the upper side north magnetic. The longer axis of the 
Bruce meteorite, the larger mass, is about 5 English feet, and it 
lay exactly in the magnetic meridian of the place. 
Neumayer made a number of determinations of the specific gravity 
of the nickel-iron of the smaller mass, in the possession of Mr. Abel, 
ranging from 7:12 to 7°6, the crust being 3-66. This block was 
sent to the International Exhibition in London in 1862. The larger 
was brought down to Melbourne and placed in the University 
Grounds there, near the shore, and unfortunately exposed to the 
action of the sea-water. Hfforts were made to delay the shipment 
of the Bruce meteorite to England, but eventually the smaller block 
was bought by the Trustees of the British Museum for £300, and it 
was presented to the Colonial Museum; the Bruce meteorite was 
then sent to this country. When it reached the British Museum, 
some holes were drilled into its under surface, and it was fixed on a 
turntable in the first room of the Mineral Gallery. It was found to 
decay to a considerable extent; fragments oxidised and crumbled off, 
and drops of iron chloride exuded here and there. This, however, 
was stopped to a very great extent by injecting it with clear shellac 
varnish, and keeping it in a glass case provided with trays contain- 
ing caustic lime. By this means the destruction has been reduced 
toa minimum. It was noticed that the part of the meteorite which 
was so rapidly decaying presented a very marked crystalline charac- 
ter: that the tetrahedral structure broke up into plates, and between 
them were very thin plates of another constituent, which less readily 
underwent change. The action of moisture on these series of plates 
was like the exciting liquid of a galvanic cell, and caused the oxida- 
tion to proceed very rapidly. Many of the fragments which came 
off at this time were selected and reduced again to the firm solid 
original condition and present beautiful structure. Of this I shall 
have more to say later on. 
It was at once noticed that the meteorite consisted entirely of 
metallic minerals, that it contained no rocky matter whatever. One 
of the first experiments which suggested itself was to determine 
whether the iron was alloyed with nickel, cobalt, copper, etc., or 
whether it contained combined carbon. A weighed portion was 
suspended by a platinum wire, carefully covered up in caoutchouc, 
in a solution of recrystallized salt, and connected with a Bunsen cell. 
The positive cell was kept slightly acid from time to time as it grew 
alkaline. Nickel-iron weighing 5:9989 grms. was dissolved in this 
way, and the greater part of the insoluble ingredients was found to 
consist of very minute bright apparently square prisms, which per- 
vade all the nickel-iron, and apparently constitute nearly 1 per cent. 
of its mass. These prisms are acted upon slowly and with consider- 
able difficulty by hydrogen chloride, but go readily in hydrogen 
nitrate. But I shall return to the consideration of the characters 
and composition of the prisms later on. The absence of all combined 
