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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
being placed on the glass slide in a drop of water, another drop of the above 
mixture is added to it, and it is placed aside, secure from dust, to evaporate 
till nearly all the fluid is gone. A second drop is then added, and so on, until 
a sufficient quantity of the non-drying material is left to cover the object. 
The glass cover should not be put on until all the evaporable part is gone. 
In this way M. Reinicke has succeeded in retaining the natural form, colour , 
and structure of delicate filamentous algae, fungi, and animalcules ; and 
objects taken in the act of fission, conjugation, &c., remain unchanged, and 
as useful as living subjects. 
MINERALOGY, METALLURGY, AND MINING. 
MINERALOGY. 
T HE composition of Meteorites is a subject which is interesting, on 
the ground that they are generally supposed to have their origin 
independently of the Earth. We are always curious to obtain any infor- 
mation which shall throw light upon the constitution of the various 
members of the solar system ; we wish to know whether the other worlds 
are like our own. With the exception of the recently discovered spectrum 
analysis, we have few means of obtaining such information beyond the 
examination of fragments, such as meteorites, which have strayed out of 
their course, and come under the influence of the Earth’s attraction. 
Here, if anywhere, we may expect to find elementary substances not to 
be found in terrestrial nature. So far, however, no such discovery has 
been made ; the same elements, and frequently the same compounds, are 
found in these strange visitors, as those with which we are already familiar. 
On the 1st May, 1860, a meteoric stone fell at Guernsey, Ohio ; which was 
subsequently examined by Dr. J. Lawrence Smith, Professor of Chemistry 
in the University of Louisville, Kentucky. Lie states that there were 
three or four explosions, like the firing of cannon, at intervals of a second 
or two, then sounds like musketry, and finally a rumbling. Above thirty 
stones fell, the largest weighing 103 lb. All the stones had a black coating, 
l-30th to l-40th of an inch in thickness. On being broken, they showed 
a grey mass, with particles of nickel iferous iron. Ten minutes after the 
fall they felt as warm as if they had been lying in the sun ; and he con- 
cludes that their temperature on falling must have been short of redness, 
and may have been less than 200°. On analysis they furnished 11 per cent, 
of nickeliferous iron, and 89 per cent, of earthy matter. The latter he 
concluded to be in the main a mixture of olivine and pyroxene. His con- 
clusions regarding meteorites he sums up thus : — 1. The light emitted by 
meteorites is not from their incandescence, but from electricity or some 
other cause. 2. The noise they produce is not from the explosion of a 
solid, but from their rapid motion, or in part from electrical discharge. 
3. Meteoric showers do not result from the rupture of one mass, but 
from a separation of distinct meteorites, which have entered the atmo- 
sphere in groups. 4. Their black coating is already formed when they 
enter the atmosphere. 
