A. W. Wright— Gases contained in Meteorites. 261 



ture as 350°, there is reason for believing that it is really 

 one of the constituents of the meteoritic gases. The 

 determinations made both by absorption of the carbonic oxide 

 with cuprous chloride, and by the production of carbon di-oxide 

 after the explosion with oxygen, agreed very well, and the 

 analyses in each case were best satisfied by the assumption of 

 the amounts of marsh gas indicated in the table. The Ohio 

 meteorite was also examined at a number of different tempera- 

 tures, the different portions of gas having the following pro- 

 portions of carbon di-oxide : at 100°, 95-92 ; at 250^ 86-36 ; at 

 500°, 82-28; at incipient red heat, 33-55; at red heat, 19*16, 

 showing a progressive decrease similar to that observed in the 

 case of the Iowa meteorite. 



On comparing the results given in the two tables a marked 

 difference is at once evident. Not only do the stony meteorites 

 give off a much larger volume of gas at low temperatures, but 

 the composition of it is in all the cases examined quite distinct 

 from that of the gas evolved from the irons. In no case among 

 the results obtained from the latter is the amount oi carbon 

 di-oxide greater than 20 per cent at 500°, nor than 15 per cent 

 from the whole quantity evolved, while in every case but one 

 the volume of carbonic oxide is considerably larger. In the 

 chondrites, on the other hand, the percentage of the latter gas is 

 conspicuously small, while the carbon di-oxide 



not much less, especially if we reject the numbers in the last 

 column above, for the amount obtained by a second and long- 

 continued application of red heat. At a temperature of about 

 350°, it constitutes from 80 to 90 per cent of the gaseous pro- 

 ducts, in all cases, while at the heat of 100° C. it forms sotne- 

 what more than 95 per cent of the gas evolved in the only two 

 cases examined in this respect. The hydrogen, on the other 

 hand, progressively increases in quantity with the rise in the 

 temperature of evolution, and in the last portions given off at 

 red heat is generally the most important constituent. Its propor- 

 tion in the total percentage would, no doubt, be considerably 

 increased if the heat were greatly intensified, " ' - '^ 



carried to a point approaching whiteness, but the results ob- 

 tained in such a way would be entirely unreliable, from the 

 action of the metallic iron and the oxide of iron on the carbon 

 compounds, or upon the hydrogen itself 



In the examination of the Parnallee, Pultusk and Weston 

 meteorites, a small quantity of the moisture given off at a high 

 temperature was collected in a glass tube attached to the pump 

 and surrounded with a freezing mixture. This, when tested, 

 gave distinct traces of chlorine for the Parnallee and Weston 



