DK. W. FLIGHT GREENLAND METEORITEF. 453 



These numbers yield no satisfactory atomic ratios, and it is not 

 improbable that the carbon is present in two allotropic modifica- 

 tions, as well as a constituent of a complex organic compound. 



In 1872 two interesting papers were published by Wohler on 

 the results of his examination of this iron, especially that from 

 the ridge. The specimen he chose for examination came from it 

 vein of metal, several inches wide and some feet in length, which 

 was inclosed in a rock " that presents a marked difference in 

 " composition from the basalt-breccia whence it protrudes." He 

 describes this iron as bearing a close resemblance to grey cast 

 iron ; it has a bright lustre, is very hard, is quite unalterable 

 in air, and has a specific gravity=5'82. Nordenskjold, as we 

 have seen, extracted gas from the metal of the larger masses by 

 heating it. Wohler finds that the iron of the vein evolves more 

 than one hundred times its volume of a gas that burns with a 

 pale blue flame, and is carbonic oxide, mixed with a little carbonic 

 acid. The " iron," in fact, contains a considerable amount of car- 

 bon, as well as a compound of oxygen ; and, according to Wohler 

 can at no time have been exposed to a high temperature. After 

 it has been heated, the iron becomes brighter, and, though more 

 soluble in acid, it still leaves a carbonaceous residue. A fragment 

 heated in dry hydrogen, with a view to determine the amount of 

 oxygen present, formed a quantity of water, and lost 11 "09 per 

 cent, of its weight. "It contained, in other words, 11-09 per 

 " cent, of oxygen." It is not stated whether the water corre- 

 sponded in weight to that amount of oxygen. Hydrochloric acid 

 acts but slowly and imperfectly on this metal, evolving first 

 sulphuretted hydrogen, and then hydrogen possessing the odour of 

 a hydrocarbon ; and leaves a black granular magnetic powder, 

 which, though insoluble in cold acid, generates, on the application 

 of heat, a gas with a strong odour of a hydrocarbon, leaving a 

 residue of amorphous sooty carbon and slightly lustrous graphitic 

 particles. In iron-chloride the "iron" dissolves without evolution 

 of gas ; about 30 per cent, of a black residue remaining, which, 

 after having been dried at 200" C, lost by ignition in hydrogen 

 19 per cent, of its weight, water being produced. It is now very 

 readily attacked by acid, evolves sulphuretted hydrogen, and 

 gives a residue of nearly pure carbon in powder or in graphitic 

 scales. Iron-chloride and acid appear, therefore, in the main, to 

 remove the free metal only, and to be without action on the com- 

 })ounds with sulphur and oxygen. The ultimate composition of 

 the specimen he analysed is as follows : — 



Iron - - 80-64 Sulphur - - 2*82 



- 3-69 



- 11*09 



Nickel - 



- 1-19 



Carbon 



Cobalt 



- 0-47 



Oxygen 



Phosphorus 



- 0-15 





100 -05 



Wohler Avas disposed to regnrd the oxygen, constituting so 

 considerable a portion of an apparently metallic mass, as present 

 in the form of a diferrous oxide, FcgO, were it not that, according 

 to this view, there would be no iron provided for combination 

 with the sulphur and carbon. As, however, Nordenr^kjold found 



