?.j6 



SCIENCE. 



resembling to the Favosztes Goldfussi * from the Siluri- 

 an Grauwacke,' another is compared to the Calamopora 

 Naumanni from the same strata. 



The structure of these corals is excellently preserved ; 

 the columnar structure, the stomata, the rays in the cells, 

 indicating the partitions between the columns in cross- 

 sections, in short, all the various parts can be perfectly 

 well demonstrated. 



Of Spongiae Dr. "Weinland has already determined 

 three different genera, Of a peculiar bluish-colored 

 sponge he says he could draw a perfect picture, so num- 

 erous are the various longitudinal and cross-sections in 

 which it occurs, it would be as easy as it would be to 

 draw it from a living sponge. 



Alga? have also been recognized as foiming part of 

 this intricate network of fossils. Dr. Weinland has deter- 

 mined several as belonging to the Cocconeis, while Prof. 

 Karsten describes others belonging to the genera, Lep- 

 tothrix, Leptomitus and Hysterophymd. (The latter 

 gentleman reminds the reader of the fact, that Reinsch 

 has lately demonstrated the existence of these and other 

 Algae in coal, some of his specimens ccntaining as much 

 as twenty per cent of such organisms. 



But what is the most interesting feature of all the or- 

 ganisms thus ingeniously and unexpectedly brought to 

 light in meteorites is their Lilliputian size. The coral- 

 tree, above referred to as a Favosztes, presents itsell to 

 the naked eye as a white spot on the section, not larger 

 than a pin's head. Its greatest diameter measures nine- 

 tenths of a millimeter, and the single cells not more than 

 about five one-hundreths of a millimeter. All the other 

 organisms detected show the same pygmean propor- 

 tions, the spiculae' of sponges, for instance, being abso- 

 lutely indefinable to the naked eye. 



The origin and formation of these celestial foss'ls could 

 not possibly have been different from what we know it 

 to be with our terrestrial specimens. They tell us of a 

 planet, on which aquatic life was sufficiently developed 

 to produce them and to preserve them after death by a 

 process of infiltration with silicious material, which dis- 

 solved the lime of which these structures must have con- 

 sisted as far as their inorganic constituents are con- 

 cerned, and supplanted it by the various kinds of silicious 

 minerals, filling up also the interstices and openings 

 which had formerly contained organic substance. This 

 planet, therefore, must have had a comparatively long 

 period of existence; it must have had an atmosphere and 

 its surface must in whole, or in part, have been covered 

 by water. What the cause has been of its destruction 

 and its utter disintegration we are, certainly, unable to 

 tell ; but the meteoric stones ^which formed part of it 

 have happily crossed the orbit of our planet and thus en- 

 abled us to divine its history, at least in part. 



In connection with this subject, it may not be amiss to 

 give a short synopsis of the history of our knowledge of 

 organic constituents in meteoric stones. 



The first to detect the existence of organic substance 

 in meteorites was the great Woehler. In the meteorite 

 which fell on April 17th, 1857, near Kaba in Hungaria, 

 he found unmistakable traces— while analyzing it — of a 

 combination of Carbon and Hydrogen. Then the fact 

 was remembered that on Oct. 13th, 1835, a fire ball had 

 exploded in the neighborhood of Bokkeveld, Cape Col- 

 ony, scattering a great number of soft, black stones over 

 the fields, weighing, as far as could be judged, several 

 hundred pounds. These stones emitted a strong am- 

 moniacal smell and were found to be impregnated with 

 water and bitumen. Woehier obtained one of these 

 meteoric stones and found that it contained, besides one 

 and two-thirds per cent of carbon, a quaiter of one per 

 cent of organic matter proper. 



* A drawing of this IofsiI ccral is given by .Dana in his Textbook on 

 Geology, on page'm. (Ed. 1868.) 



Referring to this discovery, Friedrich Mohr* wrote, 

 sixteen years ago : 



" This is sufficient proof that there was present in this 

 meteorite a carbo-hydrate similar to our ozocerite, idria- 

 lite, seberrerite, mineral wax, etc. According to our ter- 

 restrial experience we must therefore conclude that on 

 the planet of which they formed part, there must have 

 existed organisms, at least plants, which are the real 

 cause of the many deoxidized combinations which we 

 find in meteorites. The existence of plants would evi- 

 dently condition the presence of free oxygen, which does 

 not speak against the presence of these products of de- 

 oxidation, since the plants themselves require oxygen for 

 completing their cycle, in so far as they are ultimately 

 (by decomposition), re-transformed into carbonic acid, 

 without which condition a long, unbroken chain of veg- 

 etable life would be inconceivable. But the water must 

 be liquid in order to act, and this implies that this planet 

 must have had a certain size to enable it to be sufficiently 

 warmed by the sun. The small meteorites, as they come 

 to us, must in spite of their being exposed to the sun's 

 rays, have the temperature of cosmic space, since they 

 are, just as are high mountain peaks, too insignificant to 

 become heated by insolation alone. Only an enlarge- 

 ment of size enables a celestial body to develop heat 

 enough to produce a warm atmosphere. This circum- 

 stance supports strongly the view, that meteorites have 

 not been formed independently, but that they have 

 formed part of a larger body, on which processes, sim- 

 ilar to those obtained on cur planet, have been going 

 cn." 



This is certainly interesting reading to-day, knowing 

 as we do that the planet in question has also been an 

 abode of animal life. 



Other meteorites containing organic substances have 

 been recorded since then. Thus at Orgueil, France, 

 1864 ; atKnyahinya, Hungary, June 9, 1866. This phe- 

 nomenon is the most important since very many of the 

 most convincing specimens, prepared by Dr. Hahn, have 

 been obtained from a stone weighing 27 lbs., which 

 formed part of the 600 lbs. that fell in that particular 

 locality on that day. 



The most curious meteoric shower, however, was ob- 

 served in 1870 in Sweden. Black pieces, consisting al- 

 most exclusively of mold, descended on a snow-field, and 

 could thus be easily collected. Mold is always the result 

 of some organic process, and living particles play the effi- 

 cient part in its production. 



Since bacteria are known to be able to withstand a tem- 

 perature of — ioo° C, without losing vitality, the Thomp- 

 son-Richter hypothesis of the propagation of life through 

 the universe in this manner becomes almost a tangible 

 reality. But, we forbear! The perspective opened by 

 Dr. Hahn's discovery is too grand to be discussed in the 

 brief space, allowed this notice. It is only to be regretted 

 that the favored discoverer seems inclined to tamper with 

 his good fortune in so far as he draws conclusions from 

 his newly established facts which few will be willing to 

 admit. He thinks. it possible that the formation of living 

 matter may have begun in cosmic space, that cells were 

 developed from Chaos and a certain vegetative process 

 could have gone on in the gaseous and liquid masses supr 

 posed to have been the formative matter of our sola- 

 system, etc. Prof. Karsten is even of the opinion that 

 meteorites might form in the upper strata of our atmos- 

 phere. As proof he adduces the few recorded showers of 

 polygonal hail-stones and especially the two cases of ice- 

 meteorites. On May 28th, 1802, there fell near Puztem- 

 ischel, Hungary, a block of ice weighing 1 2oolbs. and Hayne 

 in his " Tracts historical and statistical on India " reports 

 the fact that near Seringapatam a mass of ice fell from 

 heaven, as large as an elephant, which took, in spite of 

 the tremendous heat, over two days to melt. 



*Geschichle der Erde, 1866, p. 500. 



