from Mazapil, Mexico. 65 



not tliomselves visible, because the s})ecti'oscoi)c will not show 

 bodies near the sun which shine with all the spectral colors (as 

 such bodies would), but only those which shine with a few spe- 

 cial tints (as the glowing hydrogen along the track of such bo- 

 dies would shine).-' 



''Nor need we wonder that bodies ejected from the sun's inte- 

 rior are solid even from the time of their exit, when we remem- 

 ber how the expansion of the com2:)ressed vapors driven forcibly 

 ui)ward from a solar volcano (far below the visible surface) 

 would result in a very rapid cooling, by which a portion of the 

 vapor would necessarily condense into the solid form. In fact 

 this is the very process which Sorby recognized as indicated by 

 the microscopic structure of meteorites. 



" It may doubtless be the case that of ejected meteoric bodies 

 far the greater number return to the sunlike orb ejecting them. 

 But if only one flight, consisting perhaps of thousands of small 

 bodies, escapes from our sun in a year, of how many millions of 

 such flights has he been the parent ! His hundreds of millions 

 of fellow suns have been doing and are doing like work ; the 

 thousands of millions of planets have done similar work in the 

 past ; each flight would be a comet, each com^oonent body a me- 

 teor, and all that is known of comets and meteors would be ex- 

 plained by this account of their origin." 



I cannot close this already too long paper without exi)ressing 

 my heartfelt obligation to Professor Bonilla for the interesting 

 data concerning this meteorite, and for the gift of the meteorite 

 itself, and to Mr. Mackintosh also, for his kind interest in making 

 the chemical analvsis. 



