﻿258 Chevalier W. von Haidinger on the Luminous, Thermal, 



may begin, at first where the larger separate portions of the 

 whole are pressing on each other. Vein-like strata, occasionally 

 with sliding laminae of iron (the first beginning of iron-veins), 

 form. In another paper* Professor Daubree insists again on 

 the possibility of a meteoric body, after the fall of a comparatively 

 minute portion of its substance, continuing its course from the 

 terrestrial atmosphere into cosmical space. The altitude of the 

 Orgueil meteor at the moment it entered the atmosphere is said 

 (loc. cit.) to have been about 65 kiloms. ; while according to the 

 geographical distance, communicated by M. Lajous and pub- 

 lished by Professor Daubree (see above, p. 255), it cannot have ex- 

 ceeded 2Q-49 kiloms. Professor Daubree says, further (p. 2), 

 that the fall of meteorites is immediately preceded by their 

 "nearly horizontal''' course. In fact the inclination towards 

 the horizon was observed to be about 11° 26' for the meteorite 

 of Orgueil, 44° (according to Professor Galle) for that of Pul- 

 tusk, and 84° for that of Knyahynia (according to von Hai- 

 dinger). 



7. The Professors of Casale. — MM. Goiran, Zannetti, Ber- 

 tolio, and Musso, in their report on the fall or* Villanova and 

 Motta dei Contif, admit, as an undoubted fact, the fall " of a 

 whole group " of meteorites (p. 33). In a further passage J the 

 existence of a single body, broken into larger and smaller frag- 

 ments by " one or more explosions attended with a detonation," 

 is asserted. This explosion is explained, without any further 

 proof, by admitting an " elevation of temperature, imparting to 

 the large proportion of gaseous substances included in these 

 bodies an amount of elastic power sufficient to produce an ex- 

 plosion" (p. 66). The authors § admit the entrance of a 

 " group " of meteorites into the terrestrial atmosphere, as the 

 formation of a complete crust could not be accounted for by any 

 other supposition. 



8. M. Leymerie. — In a letter dated from Toulouse, June 10, 

 communicated by Professor Daubree to the Academy of Paris in 

 the Meeting of May 30, 1864, M. Leymerie says, " Allow me 

 to insist on the circumstance that all the separate pieces (ten in 

 number) which I had occasion to see offered a distinct form 

 and were wholly covered with ' vernice' (enamelled crust). It is 

 evident to me that all these pieces, agglomerated closely to each 

 other, formed but one whole, a ' swarm/ to use M. 'Haidinger's 

 term. Alter the explosion they were separated and dispersed, 

 no fracture having taken place." 



* Nouvelles Archives du Museum, torn. iii. p. 1 (1866). 

 t Bolletino deW Osservatorio Meteorol. di Moncalieri, vol. iii. Nos. 3, 4, 

 6, and 8, Suppl. 



X No. 7, p. 65. § No. 8, Suppl. p. 90. 



