400 
rOPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
The combustible ingredient appears to have the composition 
n C 9 H 4 0 2 . It was noticed on this occasion that the stones 
found in the same district with the carbonaceous substance, were, 
as a rule, quite round and covered on all sides with a black, 
dull, and often almost sponge-like, crust. The iron particles on 
the surface of the smaller stones were usually quite bright and 
unoxidized, as though the stone had been heated in a reducing 
atmosphere. Nordenskjold, who examined them, expresses the 
belief that this carbon compound frequently, perhaps invariably, 
occurs in association with the meteorites, and he attributes its 
preservation in this case to the fall of the stones on snow-covered 
ground. 
1870. — During this year the Swedish Arctic Expedition 
discovered in the basalt of Ovifak, near Grodhavn, Island of 
Disko, Greenland, some enormous metallic masses which are 
generally regarded as blocks of meteoric iron. Like meteoric 
irou, they contain nickel and cobalt, but, unlike that iron, they 
are but slightly attacked by hydrochloric acid. The metal, 
moreover, when heated evolves more than 100 times its 
volume of a gas which burns with a pale blue flame, and is car- 
bonic oxide mixed with a little carbonic acid ; after this treat- 
ment the substance dissolves in acid, leaving a carbonaceous 
residue. The composition of this remarkable “iron,” if we 
may call it by that name, has been found by Wohler to be as 
follows : — 
Iron . 
80-64 
Nickel 
1-19 
Cobalt 
0*49 
Phosphorus 
0-15 
Sulphur . 
2-82 
Carbon . 
3-67 
Oxygen 
11-09 
100-05 
It appears to be a mixture of about 40 per cent, of magnetite 
with metallic iron, its carbide, sulphide, and phosphide, and its 
alloys of nickel and cobalt, as well as some pure carbon in 
isolated particles. 
From all this we see though there is not a particle of evi- 
dence to prove the persistence of living germs on meteorites 
during their passage through our atmosphere, it is quite clear 
that the cosmical bodies, whatever they may have been, from 
which our meteorites were derived, may very probably have 
borne on their surface some forms of organized beings. 
One objection which appears to have been raised to Sir 
William Thomson’s theory was to the effect that germs could 
not exist without air; another that the low temperature to 
