FOREIGN OOnBESPONDENCE. 
85 
analysis it appears to consist principally of olivine, aiigite, a mineral 
analogous to Felspar, pure iron, and sulphuret of iron. 
The first discovery of minerals in meteoric stones, or aerolites, is 
due, we believe, to Gustav Rose and Professor Rammelsberg. This 
eminent German chemist has endeavoured to show in a memoir, pub- 
lished in Poggeudorff's Anualen (Ix. 130), that the residuum which 
remains insoluble after aerolites have been boiled in acid consists of 
a mixture of minerals such as are generally found in volcanic rocks on 
the surface of the earth. Thus, for instance, the rocky parts of the 
meteoi'ic stone which fell at Chateau-Reuard (Provence), and which 
was analysed by Dufreuoy, consists of a mixture of albite and an)phi- 
bolite ; and in the aerolites which fell at Blausko and at Chantounay, 
a mixture of amphibolite and labradorite was discovered. 
According to Gustav Rose* (Poggend. Ann. for 1825, 173 and 192), 
a meteoric stone found at Juvenas (D^partement de I'Ardeche) is com- 
posed of a finely gi-anular tissue of olivine, augite, and labradorite, 
blended together so as to resemble dolerite. Berzelius and Rammels- 
berg af&rm that in the well-known Siberian mass of meteoric iron, 
investigated by Pallas, the olivine only differs from common olivine 
by the absence of nickel, which is replaced by oxide of tin. As 
meteoric olivine, like our basalt, contains from forty-seven to forty- 
nine per cent, of magnesia, constituting, according to Berzelius, almost 
the half of the earthy constituents of meteoric stones, we cannot be 
surprised at the great quantity of silicate of magnesia found in these 
cosmical bodies. f A meteoric stone may be grey, earthy, or metallic 
inside ; but its outside is invariably covered by a black shiny crust or 
rind, a few tenths of a line in thickness. This peculiarity at once 
characterizes an aerolite. The black crust is doubtlessly produced by 
a fusion of the elements of the meteorite ; but, as Humboldt has 
justly remarked, the greatest heat of our porcelain ovens would be 
insufficient to produce anything similar to the crust of meteoric 
stones, the interiors of which remain wholly unchanged. 
Whilst some aerolites contain as much as ninety-six per cent, of 
iron, others will be found to contain bai-ely two per cent. The inde- 
fatigable researches of Berzelius have shown that fifteen elements may 
be sought for with success in meteoric stones. They are : iron, nickel, 
cobalt, manganese, chromium, copper, arsenic, zinc, potassium, sodium, 
sulphur, phosphorus, carbon, silicium, and magnesium. To these we 
may add tin and calcium, from what has been already stated above. 
Olbers has remarked that it is a curious, but hitherto unregarded 
fact, that while shells, &c. are found in secondary and tertiary for- 
mations, no fossil meteoric stones have as yet been discovered. " May 
we conclude from this circumstance," says he, " that previous to the 
present and last modification of the earth's surface no meteoi'ic stones 
* See also Rammelsberg, Handworterbuch der Mineralogie (first supplement, 
1843, p. 102). 
t Berzelius, Jahi'csber. vol. XV. 217 and 231 ; also Humboldt, Cosmos, vol. I. 
p. 119 el seq. . , _ 
