148 Scientific Intelligence. 



but the coarsely crystalline structure, and the broken appear- 

 ance of the pieces which are characteristic of this fall, will 

 at once identify them. 



The late Judge M. J. Ferguson, while residing at Louisa, 

 Ky., communicated to Mr. S. Floyd Hoard, that one summer 

 about five years ago, at about 1 A. M., he witnessed a meteor 

 of wonderful brilliancy falling in the direction of the spot 

 where these fragments have since been found; and that ho 

 predicted at the time that one would probably be found in 

 that vicinity. The windows facing that way were open, and 

 the curtains drawn back. The light was as brilliant as noon- 

 day, and of sufficient duration for him to step to the window 

 and see the meteorite fall, as he thought a short distance away, 

 and surely within the limits of Wayne County. 



There is, therefore, a strong probablity that the pieces now 

 being described are fragments of the identical meteorite which 

 startled Judge Ferguson on that night. The fact that these 

 masses of meteoric iron were found in water, and that all the 

 branches of the creeks in this county are subject to strong 

 floods of a few hours' duration, but while they last, suffi- 

 cient to float logs, may account for the finding of these three 

 pieces (evidently fragments of one piece of very friable iron), 

 scattered as they were, and also for the oxidation of the crust 

 of the iron, which might have remained intact for a much 

 longer period, had the meteorite buried itself in the earth. Of 

 the twenty-six or twenty-seven pounds which were found, only 

 about two pounds have been preserved. I am under obliga- 

 tions to Major Delafield Du Bois, S. Floyd Hoard, and Dr. 

 John N. Tilden, for obtaining information and material. 



SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. 



I. Chemistky and Physics. 



1. On the Separation of Liquefied Atmospheric Air into two 

 layers. — In his first paper on the liquefaction of air, Wroblewski 

 noted the fact that the phenomena observed were not those of a 

 simple gas, but resembled more nearly those of a mixture, the 

 components of which had different laws of liquefaction. The 

 critical point so-called, of air for example, arises only from the 

 fact that the tension-curves for oxygen and nitrogen agree so 

 closely; the pressure lying between 37 and 41*3 atmospheres, and 

 the temperature between — 140°"8and — 143°. In the present paper 

 the author shows that when air is liquefied under high pressures 

 and then exposed to a pressure of only one atmosphere, the o il 

 ing point rises gradually from — 19i'4° to —187°, owing to a 



