18G1 .] ■ 
Report on the SJialtca, fyc. Meteorites. 
129 
Report on the Shal/ca, Futtehpore , Pegu, Assam, and Segowlee, Mete- 
orites sent from the Asiatic Society of Bengal, ( Calcutta ) to the 
Imperial Museum of Vienna, by Dr. W. Haidihgeb, Director of the 
Imperial Geological Institute, (Vienna). 
(Read before the Imperial Academy of Vienna, July 19 th, 1860.J 
Before I transmitted these meteorites to the Imperial Museum, to 
he incorporated there into the general collection of meteoric stones 
and irons, I took care to have them cut for the better examination of 
their intimate structure, and to take from each of them small frag- 
ments which were entrusted to Mr. Ch. de Hauer for chemical analysis. 
As far as my information goes, no larger European collection pos- 
sesses a specimen of any of the meteorites in question, and even their 
existence is scarcely mentioned in any scientific publication in Europe. 
They are, however, the more instructive as they exhibit within *a 
small number of specimens, nearly all of the most important cha- 
racters hitherto observed in stony meteorites. The order adopted 
here for their individual discussion is the same as established in 
Baron Reichenbach’s “ Anordnung und Eintheilung der Meteoriten” 
(Poggendorjf's Annalen, 1859. 'No. 5, Vol. CVII. p. 155.) This 
disposition is founded on the affinities which the late Paetsch 
established, and for which the late Ch. de Schneibers* has pro- 
posed the denomination of “ Families” ( Sippscliaften ) previously 
used by him in his report on the meteoric fall of Stannern. ( Gilbert’s 
Chem. 1808). Baron Beichenbach admits two degrees of division, 
“ Families” and “ Groups” for systematic arrangement of 99 stony- 
and 60 iron-meteorites submitted by him to scrupulous examina- 
tion, and comparison, without, however, using a special nomenclature 
for these divisions and subdivisions. Professor Shepardf has given 
denomination to his classes, orders, sections, sub-sections, and localities, 
hut as he applied his principles of division in way of exemplification 
only to 9 American and 4 extra-American localities, his classification 
may be considered as inadequate to our present state of knowledge 
about meteorites. 
The Shalka meteorite (as described by me at the meeting of the 
Imperial Academy, June 8th 1860) may rank undoubtedly among 
* Beitrage sur Geschichte und Kenntniss meteorischen Stein und Metall 
massen, und der Erscheinungen, &e Ac. Vienna, 1820, fol. p. 4. 
t Silliman’s American Journal, 1810, II. Ser. Vol. 2, p. 390. 
