306 Fusion- Struchtres in Meteorites. 



oft'ered show the fallacy of this statement — to elucidate which 

 still more, a glance at my drawings will suffice. 



Figures 1 and 2, Plate XIX, represent a structure I found in 

 a section of the meteorite that fell at Weston, Conn., Decem- 

 ber, 1807. Fig. 1 is magnified 300 D. Fig. 2 is the left upper 

 portion of Fig. 1, magnified 1500 D. The drawing will serve 

 to indicate the appearance presented ; the impression produced 

 under the latter power was like that of seeing a terrestrial 

 trap-formation, entirely doing away with any consideration that 

 might have been entertained of its possible organic origin, — the 

 dots and points that might possibly, under a lower power, have 

 been construed to be channels and tubular openings, resolving 

 themselves into lines of fracture, the columns assuming a prism- 

 lilve shape. 



Figs. 4, 5 and 6, same Plate, will show Avhat a perfect system 

 of angular radiation from different centre-lines, some of these 

 structures possess. 



As to the statement*: "Rarely, indeed, Small places occur 

 with true crystals, but in a manner which does not in the slight- 

 est {durcliaus nicht) affect the value of proof of these facts," I 

 must observe that it has been my experience to meet with these 

 i:)laces quite frequently, and that moreover, in my Judgment, 

 they form a very valuable clue indicative of the method of 

 formation of these structures. 



The most curious argument (?), however, advanced to sup- 

 port the assertion that these structxires are of organic origin, is 

 the following :f 



"Finally, attention must be called to a contradiction in' 

 which science becomes involved, if the structure of chondrites 

 is to be explained by the mineral property. 'J'his is the optical 

 behavior of these inclosures. 



"If they were crystals, and if the lamellar fracture (5/«Y^er- 

 hrucli) [olivine has none, and yet structures are found in the so- 

 called olivine spheres, hence lamellar fracture !] were the cause 

 of the structure, the mineral would of necessity have to refract 

 light. With most of these inclosures, however, no light-refrac- 



* Dr. 0. Hahn, oj). cit., p. 21. 

 t Ibid., p. 23. 



