Henry Woodivard — Address to the Geologists' Association. 531 



remarkable bodies called "meteorites." Many of these have come 

 to us as entire asteroids from Stellar space, through which — small as 

 they are — they held their independent courses ; and only succumbed 

 (as our own planet may in its turn be obliged some day to do) to 

 the superior attraction of a larger orb than its own. 



The majority, it would seem, however, probably from unequal 

 expansion and friction, caused by contact with our earth's atmo- 

 sphere, not only become enormously heated, so as to fuse the exterior 

 into a vitreous glaze, but not uncommonly burst into many fragments 

 before reaching the ground. 



These bodies have been found in nearly every quarter of the 

 earth's surface : and as they are known to fall at all times, over land 

 and over sea, their actual number in each year must in reality be 

 very considerable. 



Some are only of the size of dust or small gravel ; others, like the 

 Cranbourne meteorite, weighing 4|- tons; or that discovered in Siberia 

 by the naturalist Pallas, in 1777, weighing 1500 lbs. ; or the one at 

 Bahia in Brazil, Aveighing nearly 7 tons ; another at Chaco, also in 

 South America, estimated at 13 tons; and the largest of all known 

 meteorites, brought from Ovifak in Greenland by the Swedish Arctic 

 Expedition, about 22 tons in weight. 



The mineral species which have been found in meteorites are 

 about twenty-six in number, viz.: — Sulphur; Carbon (amorphous 

 and graphitic) and a crystallizable Hydro-carbon ; Osbornite 

 Enstatite ; Bronzite ; Augite ; Olivine ; Anorthite ; Labradorite ? 

 Astnanite ; Chromite ; Magnetite ; Cassiterite ; Titanoferrite ? 

 Troilite ; Pyrrhotine ; Qldhamite ; Schreibersite ; Metallic Iron con- 

 taining Carbon, called Campbellite and Calypite (by Meunier), and 

 the alloys of Iron with Nickel, to which the names Tsenite, Kamacite, 

 Plessite, and Octibbehite have been given. 



A review of the chemistry of meteorites teaches us that they 

 yield only those elements which we know to exist on our earth, and 

 as they have not afforded us a single new element, we may justly con- 

 clude that the most distant regions in stellar space contain only a 

 repetition, in varying proportions and combinations, of the same 

 elementary substances. 



This discovery of the Continuity of Matter throughout the Universe 

 may justly be looked upon as among the greatest results of intel- 

 lectual effort, and one of the grandest generalizations of modern 

 science. 



" Of these elements (in all sixty-four), nineteen have been proved 

 to occur in meteorites, which consist of six non-metallic bodies : 

 Silicon, Carbon, Sulphur, Phosphorus, Oxygen, and Hydrogen ; five 

 metals of the alkalies and earths — Potassium, Sodium, Calcium, 

 Magnesium, and Aluminium; and eight other metals — Iron, Nickel, 

 Cobalt, Manganese, Chromium, Coj)per, Tin, and Titanium, 



" Traces of seven more have been reported, but may be regarded 

 as doubtful, viz. Chlorine, Antimony, Arsenic, Lead, Glucinium, 

 Yttrium, and Zirconium. An idea of the general per-centage com- 

 position of aerolites will be best obtained by a glance at the figures 



