PREFACE: 

The care with which meteorites are treasured and the value 
they have assumed in the hands of collectors renders it desirable 
that as full information as possible should be available regarding the 
whereabouts of each specimen. To furnish this information in re- 
gard to the collection of meteorites of the Field Columbian Museum 
has been the principal object in issuing this publication. . 
It is also hoped, however, that a more thorough study of the col- 
lection will be facilitated by the Catalogue and that that portion of 
the work called the Handbook, when used in connection with the 
specimens, will enable any one not previously acquainted with the 
subject to gain some knowledge of the principal characters of 
meteorites. 
Many of the statements of this portion of the work, for which it 
has not been practicable to give specific credit,have been drawn from 
authors whose works are mentioned at the end of the Handbook. 
Prof. L. Fletcher’s work, An /nutroduction to the Study of Meteor- 
ites, edition of 1890, has been found especially helpful and its plan of 
arrangement is so excellent that it has been largely followed by the 
author. 
In the difficult matter of names of meteorites and the dates of 
their fall or find, the data given in Huntington’s catalogue have, in 
the main, been accepted as correct. _ 
No attempt at a plan of elaborate classification has been made, - 
as none of the present systems seem to have gained sufficient accept- 
ance to make them authoritative. 
The divisions proposed by Maskelyne however, of aerosiderites, 
aerosiderolites and aerotztes have been found to form so convenient a 
grouping that they have been followed throughout. 
Grateful acknowledgments are due Dr. C. F. Millspaugh of this 
Museum for the generous aid he has given in preparing the photo- 
graphs.for the illustrations of the work, also to Prof. H. A. Newton 
and Dr, O. W. Huntington for information kindly furnished. 
July 15, 1895. OLIVER C. FARRINGTON, 
