280 Chronicles of Science. [April, 



9. MINERALOGY. 



From the days when Montezuma presented Cortez with four Chal- 

 chihuitls, on his landing at San Juan de TIlua, it has been matter 

 of dispute among mineralogists what was the true nature of the 

 ornamental stone designated by this Mexican name. That it was 

 held in the highest esteem is well known from many passages in the 

 old chroniclers. It appears to have been worn only by the chiefs, 

 and on the death of a great dignitary a chalchihuitl was placed in 

 the mouth of the corpse. Indeed, the name of the stone became 

 synonymous with all that was most valued ; and according to one 

 tradition, Quetzalcoatl — the law-giver, priest, and instructor of the 

 Mexicans — was begotten by one of these stones, which the goddess, 

 Chimalma had placed in her bosom. In recently laying before the 

 Lyceum of Natural History of New York a fine collection of carved 

 chalchihuitls, Mr. Squier took occasion to bring forward a body of 

 evidence tending to identify the stone.* Molina, in 1571, defines 

 the word as signifying esmeralda baja — an inferior emerald. Saha- 

 gun describes it as "'a jasper of very green colour, or a common 

 emerald." Montolina, in 1555, in enumerating the riches of Mexico, 

 after speaking of gold, silver, and all metals and stones, refers to the 

 chalchihuitls, and concludes by saying, " Las finas de estas son esme- 

 raldas." Professor Blake has sought to identify it with the turquoise, 

 but the author considers this not to be the true stone of the Mexi- 

 cans and Central Americans. " The weight of evidence, in my opi- 

 nion," says Mr. Squier, " goes to show that the stone, properly called 

 chalchihuitl, is that which Molina defines to be ' baja esmeralda,' 

 or possibly nephrite, ' a jasper of very green colour,' as Sahagun, 

 already quoted, avers." 



Two Indian meteorites have been subjected to an exhaustive 

 examination by Professor Xevil Story Maskelyne, the Keeper of the 

 Collection of Minerals in the British Museum — a collection which 

 vies with Vienna and Calcutta in the number and variety of its me- 

 teoric specimens. One of the stones fell at Busti, between Goruck- 

 poor and Fyzabad, on the 2nd Dec, 1852 ; and the other fell at 

 Manegaum, in Khandeish, on the 26th July, 1843.f The Busti 

 meteorite consists for the most part of enstatite, a silicate of mag- 

 nesia, in which are imbedded small spherules of Oldhamite. This 

 mineral is composed mainly of sulphide of calcium ; and the presence 

 of such a compound would seem to indicate that the conditions under 

 which the ingredients of the meteorite were formed must have been 

 very different from those met with on the surface of our globe. 



* ' Observations on the Chalchihuitl of Mexico and Central America.' By 

 E. G. Squier, M.A. New York, 1869. 



f ' Proceedings of the Eoyal Society,' Jan. 13, 1870, p. 146. 



