118 Chronicles of Science. [Jan., 



M. Tschermak, and one by M. Knopp " On the Tendency to Kecom- 

 position in Micas and Felspars." This last paper bears importantly 

 upon the formation of our kaolins or porcelain clays. 



M. Hautefeuille, working under the direction of M. H. Sainte 

 Claire Deville, has communicated to the Academy of Sciences of Paris 

 a note on " The Artificial Production of Sphene and Perowskite." For 

 some years past, the laboratory of M. Sainte Claire Deville has been 

 devoted to investigations of this class, and many of the rare pro- 

 ductions of Nature have been reproduced, thus explaining some of the 

 most complicated actions which interest us in the inorganic world. 

 The artificial crystals had the following composition : — 



Sphdne. Perowskite. 



Silica 30*9 ... — 



Titanic acid ... 41-3 ... 59'0 



Lime 27*8 . . . 39-0 



Loss — ... 2-0 



The density of the artificial sphene is 3*45, that of the natural 

 crystals 3'6. The density of the artificial ptrowskite is 4'0, the 

 natural being 4*02. At a yet more recent meeting, M. St. Claire 

 Deville communicated the results of the continued researches of M. 

 Hautefeuille, on the titanates and some silicates. 



M. Haidinger has communicated to the Academy of Sciences of 

 Vienna a description of a meteroic mass, which fell at Trebizonde in 

 December last, and a note upon a specimen of native iron, recently found 

 amongst the collections of the Museum of the University of Zurich. 

 The meteoric character of the former appears to be, according to 

 M. Haidinger, open to doubt ; the latter specimen, which was 

 labelled Native Iron — very rare, from. Styria, possesses all the 

 characteristics of genuine aerolites. 



M. Daubre announces that M. Descloiseaux has discovered 

 crystallized carbonate of soda in the meteorite of Argueil. This is 

 the first time that alkaline carbonates have been found in bodies of 

 meteoric origin.* 



The chladnite of the Bishopville meteoric stone is proved to be a 

 magnesian pyroxene, by J. Lawrence Smith, Professor of Chemistry, 

 Medical Department, University of Louisville. In 1846, Professor 

 C. U. Shepard published an account of this exceedingly interesting 

 meteoric stone, that fell at Bishopville, South Carolina, in 1843, 

 differing in its external character from other meteoric stones, the 

 fractured mass being exceedingly white, except where metallic iron 

 and other associate minerals occurred. The composition of the snow- 

 white mineral (constituting about 90 per cent, of the entire mass), as 

 given by Professor Shepard, is : — 



Silica • . 70-41 



Magnesia 28'25 



Soda 1-39 



From the results of this analysis, he considered it a tersilicate of 



* 'LTnstitut/No. 1606. 



