TRANSLATIONS AND NOTICES 



OF 



GEOLOGICAL MEMOIRS. 



On Meteorites. By Director W. Hatdinger. 

 [Proceed. Imp. Acad. Vienna, 1 ' April 19, I860.] 



Director HAiDEsroER read a paper on the external form of meteoric 

 stones, prepared long ago for publication, and essentially connected 

 with a lecture on the same subject lately delivered by Prof. Kenngott 

 before the ' Scientific Society ' of Zurich (Oct. 31, 1859). The paper 

 was illustrated by drawings of two meteoric stones ; one from Stan- 

 nern (May 22, 1808), the other from Gross-Divina (July 24, 1837). 

 The shape of these two specimens and the nature of their crust are 

 such as to lead to inductions concerning the direction they may have 

 followed when rushing through the atmosphere. The bright crust 

 of the Stannern meteorite seems to show all over the effect of an 

 atmospheric current, which has formed along the whole outline of 

 the mass a roll-like pad, prominent backwards. The crust of the 

 Gross-Divina stone is rough on the hinder side, smooth on the front, 

 showing the well-known rounded impressions, which Dir. Haidinger 

 supposes to be the effects of fusion, undergone in a rare medium or 

 in a vacuum, protected from the influence of the atmosphere. 



The author distinguished two well-defined and consecutive periods 

 between the formation of a meteorite and the moment at which it 

 touches the terrestrial surface. During the first, or cosmieal, period, 

 the igneous globe is formed under the influence of resisting air, its 

 end being marked by an explosion, indicating a sudden intrusion of 

 atmospheric air into the imperfect vacuum existing within the slowly 

 moving igneous globe. During the second, or telluric, period, the 

 meteoric mass simply falls, exactly as any other body woidd, subject 

 to the law of gravitation. 



Meteorites wholly covered with a crust must have reached the 

 circuit of terrestrial atmosphere as isolated individuals : they cannot 

 be supposed to be fragments of a mass whose explosion took place 

 at the moment when the igneous globe disappeared. The meteor of 

 Gross-Divina produced but one single mass ; -while that of Stannern 

 may be said to have been followed by a rain of meteorites. 



VOL. XVI. PART II. E 



