40 
EASTMAN. 
In 1889, Antonio del Castillo, director of the School of 
Mines of Mexico, published a descriptive catalogue of me¬ 
teorites.* 
In addition to the information announced in the title of 
this catalogue, the author gives the weight and the present 
location of many of the masses found in Mexico. 
This catalogue was followed in 1890 by a very important 
paper f by L. Fletcher, F. It. S., keeper of minerals in the 
British Museum, “ On the Mexican Meteorites, with especial 
regard to the supposed occurrence of wide-spread meteoric 
showers.” This paper was accompanied by two maps of the 
principal localities mentioned. The title fully sets forth the 
character of the paper, but it necessarily fails to give an 
adequate idea of the immense amount of research involved 
or of the careful manner in which it was carried out. It is 
well known that the opinion was held by Professor J. Law¬ 
rence Smith, and accepted by many other writers on the sub¬ 
ject, that masses belonging to a single meteor were scattered 
over many hundreds of square miles of territory in northern 
Mexico. It was found that immense fragments of meteoric 
iron, separated by hundreds of miles, presented almost exactly 
similar chemical characteristics, and this was accepted as 
strong evidence of a common origin in a single meteorite 
which, by successive explosions while in motion, distributed 
its fragments over areas equal to those of the largest Mexican 
states. 
Mr. Fletcher has spared no pains in examining all the 
available evidence, and concludes that there is no good 
reason for supposing that any very wide-spread dispersion 
has resulted from a single meteorite. He thinks it probable, 
however, that a large shower of masses with limited disper¬ 
sion did occur in the valley of Toluca, a similar one in the 
state of Coahuila, and one in the state of Chihuahua. In the 
* “ Catalogue Descriptif des Meteorites (Fers et Pierres Meteoriques) 
du Mexique, avec Vindication des localites dans lesquelles ces met4orites 
sont tombes ou ont ete decouverts.” Par Antonio del Castillo, pp. 15. 
Paris. 1889. 
f Williams & Strahan, 7 Lawrence Lane, Cheapside, London. 
