394 J. L. Smith — Carbon Corn-pounds in Meteorites. 



solid residue exhaled a peculiar odor of an aromatic character, 

 somewhat alliaceous. The quantity of these crystals was small, 

 not exceedinor 15 milligrams from two grams of the graphite. 

 Heated on a piece of platinum foil they fuse at about 120° C. 

 Heated in a small tube closed at oae end, they first melt and 

 then volatilize, condensing in yellow drops that soon solidify 

 leaving a carbonaceous residue. They are not soluble in 

 alcohol, but very soluble in sulphide of carbon. Fuming nitric 

 acid oxidizes the material, and gives, as one of the products, 

 sulphuric acid. The quantity was too small to admit an ulti- 

 mate analysis, but it was very evident that sulphur was the 

 Eredominating constituent, the remainder being carbon and 

 ydrogen. These three elements may be combined, forming a 

 peculiar sulph-hydrocarbon, which in a previous note I called 

 celestialite, or it may be sulphur containing a minute quantity 

 of a hydrocarbon that gives the peculiar odor and determines 

 the somewhat singular form of crystallization of the sulphur ;' 

 for these acicular crystals may be only elongated rhombohe- 



Be the compound what it may, it is a matter of chemical and 

 astronomical interest that a solid graphite nodule thus encased 

 in iron should contain a sulph-hydrocarbon, or free sulphur 

 and a hydrocarbon. 



The graphite powder, after treatment with ether, was then 

 treated with bi-sulphide of carbon (which was re distilled just 

 before use) and after standing two or three hours was thrown 

 on a filter; the filtrate was evaporated to dryness, and the resi- 

 due was a yellow sohd ; in this instance, as in the last, the 

 quantity was small. This, when heated in the open air on 

 platinum foil to a red dull heat, first melts at about the temper- 

 ature that sulphur melts, and finally the sulphur is burnt off, 

 leaving a carbonaceous residue. When heated in a tube, it 

 sublimes, leaving a black residue. 



To all appearances this is the same substance, or mixture of 

 substances, that was extracted by the ether, the ether not hav- 

 ing exhausted the graphite in the first treatment. 



The graphite nodules of the DeKalb and of the Cranbourne 

 irons, on treatment with ether and sulphide of carbon, gave sim- 

 ilar results. In the case of the Cranbourne graphite I had less 

 than one hundred milligrams of the material to operate with, 

 and I hardly hoped to obtain satisfactory results, but I did 

 succeed, however, in obtaining such without the acicular 

 crystals, for the whole residue was less than one milli- 

 gram ; h\it I had enough to recognize the peculiar odor, and 

 also the minute quantity that could be scraped off the vessel in 

 which the evaporation took place furnished the marked reaction 

 by heat of volatilization in part and condensation of the same 



