53 1< Mr. R. P. Greg on some Meteorites 



and so on. Developing (13), (14), (15), we have 



u +b=/3, (16) 



u* + 2bu + c=y, (17) 



w 3 + 3Z>w 2 + 3cw + d=S; (18) 



and, eliminating u between (16) and (17), 



. . . • i*-rc=£ 8 -y . (19) 



Again, multiplying (16) into w 2 , subtracting the product from 

 18), and eliminating u 2 and u from the difference by means of 

 (17) and (id) respectively, we find, by the aid of (19), 



2b s -3bc + d=2/3 3 -3{3y + 8', . . . (20) 



and indeed the forms of the two systems of equations indicate 

 that, if we suppose b, c, . . j3, y, &c. to be constant, the critical 

 differential becomes the critical algebraical function. 



3. In the last February Number I deduced, from one symbo- 

 lical decomposition,, the trigonometrical and (through logarithmic 

 forms) the algebraical solution of a cubic. This may suggest 

 the inquiry whether, by modifying the decomposition of the 

 differential resolvent, we may not pass in other cases (and even 

 where every solution is transcendental) from a more to a less 

 restricted form of solution*. 



Goldsmith Building, Temple, London, 

 November 8, 1862. 



LXXIII. On some Meteorites in the British Museum, fyc. 

 By R. P. Greg, Esq., F.G.S.f 



N consequence of a recent article in Poggendorff s Annalen, 

 No. cxvi. p. 637, by Dr. Otto Buchner, of Giessen, com- 

 paring the national collections of meteorites at Vienna and 

 London, I am reminded of the desirability of publishing a few 

 details concerning some of the specimens in the British Museum, 

 with which I happen to have had to do at various times. Dr. 

 Buchner only takes into consideration the relative contents of 

 the two collections at the beginning of last year ; and if even on 

 those data we admit that he has quite impartially decided in 

 favour of the superior merits of the Vienna collection, and is 



* I take this opportunity of referring to a paper " On the Theory of the 

 Transcendental" Solution of Algebraic Equations," by the Rev. Robert 

 Harley, F.R.A.S. &c, printed at pp. 337-360 of the current 'Quarterly 

 Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics' (No. 20, October 1862, vol. v.), 

 and also to a paper " On the Theory of Quintics, Part IL," by the same 

 mathematician, which appears at pp. 248-260 of the same volume of that 

 Journal (see No. 19, June 1862). 



t Communicated by the Author. 



