ANALYSES OF IRON METEORITES 
COMPILED AND CLASSIFIED 
BY 
OLIVER CUMMINGS FARRINGTON 
Chemical analyses may be collected and grouped for purposes of 
record and of comparison. For the first purpose it is desirable that 
all known analyses of the substances under consideration be collected; 
for the second, only those known to be complete and reliable are 
needed. A combination of these two purposes may perhaps be gained, 
however, by collecting all analyses and leaving to the judgment of the 
investigator the selection of those suited for the study of any par- 
ticular phase of the subject. This plan is practically that which has 
been adopted in presenting the analyses here collected. In many 
cases obviously incomplete analyses are given because they represent 
all that is known of the chemical constitution of the meteorite in | 
question, or because they mark a stage in its study. On the other 
hand, analyses which amount to little more than a qualitative deter- 
mination of the presence of iron and nickel, or whose connection with 
a particular meteorite is uncertain, are omitted. About three hundred 
and sixty analyses are here included, and it is believed that they com- 
prise practically all of importance that have been made of iron 
meteorites. When more than one analysis of a metecrite is given, 
the analyses have been arranged chronologically. For the most part 
the later analyses are the most complete and reliable ones,. though 
this is not always the case. Thus those by J. Lawrence Smith, 
although made thirty and in some cases forty years ago, accord well with 
what is known of the constitution of the iron meteorites at the present 
day and may be considered generally accurate and reliable. The 
same is true of analyses by Jackson, Berzelius, Damour, and others. 
As shown later, the relations between structure and composition 
brought out by the analyses as here grouped are so definite that at 
the present time a knowledge of the structure of a meteorite will give 
“a more accurate idea of its composition than inferior chemical 
analyses. The general plan of arrangement which has been adopted 
59 
