396 POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
behind, which was felt to he far and away the funniest thing 
of all. Some of the Associates, however — men who had not yet 
learned to know the length and depth of scientific “ wit ” — 
began to feel uneasy ; and although a gallant effort appears at 
this juncture to have been made to win back their confidence by 
assuring them that meteorites really do not contain organic 
matter of any kind, the Section was not to be comforted till the 
telephone was set a-going But to return. 
Nothing bearing the semblance of a plant or even of its seed 
has as yet been met with in a meteorite ; nor have any of the 
masses which have fallen on our planet shown anything ap- 
proaching the structure which distinguishes sedimentary rocks 
from those of a purely plutonic character. The occurrence, 
however, in them, or with them, of organic compounds, of com- 
pounds of carbon and hydrogen, which it is hard to suppose could 
owe their existence to any other agency than that of life itself, 
and which represent the final stage previous to their final destruc- 
tion, has now been so frequently noticed that I have put 
together in chronological order what information in this direction 
from a “ world ayont ” the meteorites have brought to us. 
1806. March 15th, 5 p.m. — Two stones, weighing together 
six kilogr., fell at Alais, Dep. du Gard, France. They have 
the appearance of an earthy variety of coal ; the colour of the 
crust is a dull brownish-black, so is that of the interior. The 
structure is very soft and friable. When heated it emits a 
faint bituminous odour. It was examined at the time of its 
fall by Thenard and a Commission appointed by the Insti- 
tute of France. The French observers found it to contain 
2*5 percent, of carbon ; while Berzelius, in 1834 estimated 
the amount of carbon present to be 3*05 per cent. In 1862 
Roscoe submitted this meteorite to a very thorough investiga- 
tion. He found the carbon present to amount to 3*36 per cent. 
Ether dissolved 1*94 per cent, of the stone; the solution on 
evaporation left crystals which have an aromatic odour, and a 
fusing-point of 114° C., and which sublime on the application 
of heat, leaving a slight carbonaceous residue. The crystals 
really appear to be of two kinds : acicular crystals, which are 
sparingly soluble in absolute alcohol, but are readily taken up 
by ether, carbon disulphide, turpentine, and cold nitric acid, 
and dissolve in cold sulphuric acid, striking a brown colour ; 
and rhombic crystals, which dissolve in ether and carbon disul- 
phide, but are unaffected by cold nitric acid, sulphuric acid, or 
turpentine. An analysis of 0*0078 gramme of the crystals 
soluble in alcohol gave the following numbers : — 
Sulphurous acid . 0.010 Sulphur . . . 0-005 
Carbonic acid . . 0-008 Carbon . . . 0 0022 
Water . . . 0 003 Hydrogen . . 0-0003 
