Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles, 327 



ON THE METEORITE OF ALBARETO IX THE MODENESE. 

 BY DR. W. HAIDIXGER*. 



This meteorite, and the pamphlet by the Jesuit Dominico Troili 

 describing it, have been mentioned by Chladni (1798 and 1819), by 

 Ende (1804), and by Sir D. Brewster (Edinburgh Journal of Science, 

 1819). Chladni, whose careful inquiries at Modena in 1819 could 

 not make out any trace of this stone, thought it definitively lost. But 

 lately a specimen of it was found to exist in the University Museum 

 of Modena ; and of this, Dr. Homes, kindly assisted by Messrs. 

 Greg, Senoner, Bianconi, and Bombici, obtained for the Imperial 

 Museum of Vienna a fragment of 13" 31 grammes in weight. It is 

 tufaceous in aspect, dark grey, with numerous globular concretions — 

 some greenish grey (as the Piddingtonite of Skalka, or the Chladnite 

 of Bishopville), others dark grey or black, one of them conspicuous 

 for its less density, yellowish-grey tint, dark-brown crust, and atoms 

 of native iron disseminated through it. The particles of native and 

 protosulphuretted iron irregularly distributed through the whole mass 

 are sometimes discernible to the unaided eye ; in one place two 

 brownish-black globules are united by metallic iron in such a way 

 as to allow us to suppose the group to be a fragment of a larger 

 piece of native iron including globules of silicates, like the Hima- 

 layan iron. The globules are easily detached from the surrounding 

 mass. The outer surface, offering the impressions common to all 

 meteorites, is covered, on a surface of about 25 square lines, with a 

 blackish-brown, nearly opake crust. In general aspect the Albareto 

 meteorite stands next to those of Benares, Trenzano, and Weston. 

 Its density, at 15° R., is 3*344. The sulphuretted iron of the me- 

 teorites, generally passing under the denomination of magnetic iron- 

 pyrites, is, according to Prof. Rammelsberg, a mechanical compound 

 of protosulphuretted iron (75*37 percent.), sulphuretted copper (0*71 

 per cent.), chromate of iron (2*83 per cent.), and nickeliferous iron 

 (19*83 per cent.), of 4*787 density, yellowish brown, soluble in acids 

 without residuous sulphur, and magnetic in consequence of the 

 nickel contained in it. The sulphuretted iron, in its state of purity, 

 as it occurs in the Garnallee meteorite, in grains of the size of a pea, 

 is, according to Prof. Wohler, a combination of 1 atom of iron with 

 I atom of sulphur (Fe S or iron 63*64, sulphur 36*36). For this 

 sulphuret, hitherto not known to exist among the minerals compo- 

 sing the terrestrial crust, Dr. Haidinger proposes the denomination 

 of Troilite (commemorative of the first describer of the Albareto 

 meteorite), and the following mineralogical characters: — amor- 

 phous, in minute particles, disseminated through the lithoid sub- 

 stance of meteorites, metallic brightness, bronze-brown, streak 

 black, hardness 4, density 4*5-4*6; chemical formula, Fe S. Ac- 

 cording to Troili's pamphlet (Modena, 1766), the meteorite in ques- 

 tion may have originally had a weight of about 25 lbs. It fell in 

 the middle of July 1766, 5 h p.m., the sky being serene, but covered 

 westward with heavy clouds, with frequent thunder and lightning. 

 Witnesses assert its fall to have been preceded by a sound resem- 



* Communicated by Count Marschall. 



