Prof. Maskelyne and Dr. Lang's Mineralogical Notes, 47 



plete as possible, not only in the numbers of the different 

 falls they represent, but also as regards the modes in which the 

 specimens are prepared for exhibition. These remarkable bodies 

 will always command a general interest, from the fact that in them 

 we see matter foreign in its origin and history to our own world, 

 and handle, in them, the only tangible substances that belong 

 to the space beyond our atmosphere. But the special interest 

 attaching to a collection of them arises from the fact that, while 

 they exhibit features of marked similarity, they withal, both as 

 regards their constituent minerals, and the manner in which 

 those minerals are mixed with each other, possess almost every 

 one of them a very distinct individuality. Moreover, every day 

 that the collection of specimens representing the older meteoric 

 falls is deferred, adds to the difficulty of forming a complete 

 series of them. It was on these accounts that the small but 

 valuable collection that three years ago existed in the British 

 Museum, has since that period been very largely increased. 

 Towards the furthering of this object most valuable assistance 

 has been rendered by Governors of Colonies and Indian Presi- 

 dencies, who have exerted their authority with a liberality that 

 has been in one case indeed rivalled by the patriotism of a valuable 

 and learned body, the Asiatic Society of Calcutta. The result 

 of this and of the considerable acquisitions made by purchase, 

 has been that the aerolitic collection, which is an appanage to 

 the Mineral Department in the British Museum, has now risen 

 in point of material into the foremost place among such collec-* 

 tions in the world *. 



To accumulate so great a material is, however, but one step 

 towards the end which should be held in view in the formation 

 of a scientific collection. The next step consists in making that 

 material available for the uses of science, partly by a proper pre* 

 paration and exhibition of the specimens, partly by a complete 

 description of them. I propose in this and subsequent papers 

 to contribute something towards the last of these objects. 



Yet when one approaches the subject with a view to undertake 



* Every great collection has its own characteristic merits. If I may 

 speak of that in the British Museum as the richest in material, taking the 

 mass of the specimens as well as their numbers into consideration, it is 

 with cordial pleasure that I express the highest admiration and respect 

 for what I will not call a rival collection at Vienna. That collection is a 

 classical one. Its specimens have been gradually collected, well described, 

 and admirably exhibited. That aerolitics exists at all as a scientific sub- 

 ject is probably due to the existence of, and the care bestowed on, that 

 collection. In the cause of science it is to be hoped that persons in 

 authority in Vienna may not feel any jealousy of the rising collection in 

 London, but may be ready to exchange, to the mutual advantage of both 

 collections, duplicate specimens of aerolites not common to the two, 



