50 PROCEEDINGS OF THE WASHINGTON MEETING 



CHEMICAL AND MINERALOQICAL COMPOSITION OF METEORITES 

 BY GEORGE P. MERRILL 



(Abstract) 



The paper gives a brief resume of researches on the subject indicated by 

 the title, which were made with especial reference to the reported occurrences 

 of minor constituents. No traces were found in the stones and irons examined 

 of antimony, arsenic, barium, gold, lead, strontium, tin, tungsten, uranium, 

 zinc, or zirconium. On the other hand, the presence was shown, beyond an 

 apparent reasonable doubt, of the rarer elements iridium, platinum, palladium, 

 ruthenium, and vanadium. Comparisons are made between the meteorites and 

 terrestrial rocks, consideration being given to the efficacy of the former as 

 world-forming materials. A continuation of work, preliminary reports and 

 abstracts of which have been published in the American Journal of Science and 

 the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and final results of which 

 are to appear in one of the memoirs of the Academy. 



Bead in abstract from notes. 



Discussion 



Prof. O. G. Farrixgton remarked that the long series of investigations on 

 meteorites which Doctor Merrill had made had yielded many valuable results 

 and were likely to yield more. To the list of elements found in meteorites 

 given by Doctor Merrill it seems certain that radium can be added, since it 

 has been found in one stone meteorite by an English analyst and is indicated 

 by some unpublished results obtained in this country of which I had been 

 notified. It has, so far, not been found in any iron meteorites. In comparing 

 stony meteorites with the crust of the earth, I urged that the general average 

 of stony meteorites could not properly be used, since most stony meteorites 

 were of higher specific gravity than the rocks of the earth's crust. For the 

 purpose of comparison, the class of stony meteorites known as eukrites should 

 be used, since meteorites of this class most nearly resemble the rocks of the 

 earth's crust in specific gravity and are composed of feldspars and pyroxenes, 

 which are the dominant minerals in the earth's crustal rocks. 



Doctor Merrill replied briefly to Professor Farrington's remarks. 



IMPORTANCE OF WATER AS A MAGMATIC CONSTITUENT 

 BY GEORGE W. MOREY * 



(Abstract) 



That water is an original constituent of the magma is now generally ad- 

 mitted, but the importance of its effects has not received adequate recognition. 

 The erroneous assumption is often met with that, since the critical tempera- 

 ture of pure water is about 370°, it can exist, at temperatures higher than 

 this, only in the gaseous state, no matter how great the pressure to which it 



1 Introduced by Henry S. Washington. 



