THE 



LONDON, EDINBURGH, and DUBLIN 



PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE 



AND 



JOUENAL OF SCIENCE. 



SUPPLEMENT to YOL. I. FIFTH SERIES. 



LIX. The Formation of Meteorites, and Volcanic Agency. 

 By Prof. Gr. Tschermak, Director of the Imperial Miner a- 

 logical Museum of Vienna *. 



nnHE researches of Howard, Klaproth, Vauquelin, and 

 J- Berzelius on the elementary composition of many speci- 

 mens of meteorites proved that the matter of which they are 

 constituted is, generally speaking, such as occurs in greater 

 abundance in the crust of our globe. Before then Chladni 

 bad established the planetary nature of these remarkable 

 masses. 



From these results taken together it may be assumed that 

 he other heavenly bodies are built up of the same materials 

 as those composing our globe. But this assumption has be- 

 some a certainty, as regards the central body of our system, 

 Tom the spectroscopic investigation of the light of the sun, 

 nitiated by Kirchhoff and Bunsen, while the observations of 

 Secchi, Huggins, and Miller on the spectra of the fixed stars 

 •ender it highly probable that the universe is formed of 

 similar elementary materials. 



Our conception of the material nature of the heavenly 

 todies is founded on the analysis of meteorites ; and accord- 

 ngly a study of the form of meteorites is likely to afford some 

 nsight as regards the antecedents of the star-masses whence 

 ;hey are derived, and the changes which they have undergone. 



The external form of meteorites is remarkable in many 

 •espects. Hitherto but little attention has been directed to 

 he very curious fact that meteorites reach us in the shape of 

 ragments. It is well known that any one who has merely 



* Translated from tlie Sitzungsber. der k. Akademie der Wissenschaften, 

 7o\. lxxi. p. 661, by Dr. Walter Flight, of the Mineral Department, 

 British Museum. 



Phil. Mag. S. 5. No. 7. Suppl. Vol. 1. 2 L 



