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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEAV. 
then volatilizes, condensing in yellow drops, and leaving a carbo- 
naceous residue. Dr. Lawrence Smith believes that the three 
elements, carbon, hydrogen, and sulphur, which they contain, may 
be in combination, and he has named the meteoric sulphohydro- 
carbon “ celestialite.” 
1857. April 1 5th, 10.11 p.m. — A brilliant detonating me- 
teor was observed at this hour over Kaba, S.W. of Debreczin, 
Hungary, and a meteorite weighing 4 kilogr. was found on the 
following morning imbedded in the hard surface of a road close 
by. The crust is black, and the mass of the stone dark grey ; 
throughout the structure black portions of the size of peas lie 
scattered, giving the stone a porpliyritic character. Wohler 
treated the stone with alcohol, which removed a white, ap- 
parently crystalline, substance possessing a peculiar aromatic 
odour. With ether it broke up into oily drops, and appeared to 
be decomposed into an insoluble fluid body and a soluble solid 
portion. The solid substance was obtained in a distinctly crys- 
talline condition on driving off the ether. It volatilizes in air, 
fuses in a closed tube, and is decomposed when greater heat is 
applied, a fatty odour being observed, and a black residue left. 
The hydrocarbon is believed by Wohler to be allied to ozocerite 
or scheererite. When the powdered stone is heated in oxygen it 
turns of a cinnamon-brown colour. This meteorite contains 
0*58 per cent, of carbon. 
1861. — The huge mass of meteoric iron discovered at Cran- 
boune, near Melbourne, Australia, in 1861, encloses more or less 
rounded masses of carbon. They are pronounced by Berthelot, 
who has submitted some of the material to the most powerful 
oxidizing reagents, to resemble the form of carbon which sepa- 
rates from cast-iron on cooling rather than native graphite. 
1864. May 14 th, 8 p.m. — On this occasion more than twenty 
stones fell at Montauban, Tarn et Graronne, France, some of 
them being as large as a human head, and most of them smaller 
than a fist. The appearance which this meteorite exhibits closely 
resembles that of a dull-coloured earthy lignite. The masses are 
black and very friable, and fall to powder when placed in water ; 
this is due to the removal of the soluble salts which cement the 
ingredients together. A shower of rain would have destroyed 
them. One hundred parts of this stone contain 5*92 parts of 
carbon itself, partly as a constituent of one organic compound, 
which Cloez found to possess the following composition : — 
Carbon 63*45 
Hydrogen 5*98 
Oxygen 30*57 
10000 
Berthelot endeavoured to reconstruct the body of which 
this is a decomposed product by means of hydriodic acid, and 
