tested after the precipitation of the silica for iron, unattended by its detection, even in the minutest trace. The volatile product was therefore considered as terchlorid of silicon.

But the charge in the tube which had suffered combustion, was found to be swollen to three times its original bulk; and was for the most part in beautifully perfect hexagonal crystals of a blood-red color, like the minute forms of volcanic hematite. These crystals were found to possess very remarkable properties, a few of which may here be mentioned.

The tube in which they were formed was carefully corked, so as to exclude the air. On allowing a few of them to fall into a dry test-tube, and held in the sun's rays, they turned a deep yellow with a tinge of green, and quickly coiled up and shrivelled,at the same time, emitting a peculiar ethereal odor.

In the process of sealing hermetically the tube in which the crystals had been formed, a considerable jet of vapor issued from the heated end, and burned with a bright light, attended by a white smoke. As all moisture had not been excluded from the powder, it appeared probable that this combustion was partly to be ascribed to siliciuretted hydrogen; and the smoke was attributed to silicic acid.

The red crystals in the air, out of the sun's rays, deliquesce rapidly, forming a blood-red solution; and are soluble in ether and in water: ammonia throws down from either solution, a mixture of silicic acid and peroxyd of iron.

On heating the contents of the sealed tube to between 250° and 300°, the red crystals are speedily volatilized, and condense as quickly on cooler portions of the tube immediately contiguous, -the precipitated crystals filling the cavity of the tube, and per. forming the most extraordinary movements, like the gyrations of falling snow-flakes.

When the red crystals are heated in a tube with considerable access of air, they turn yellow, giving rise to a pale yellow vapor. This on cooling, leads to a greyish white coating on the glass, and the formation of a voluminous greyish powder, which on being treated with warm water partly dissolves, leaving silicic acid behind. The solution is precipitated by ammonia, of a bluish green color at first, but afterward turns to red brown. I am therefore led to regard the red crystals, as a compound of sesquichlorid of iron and chlorid of silicon; and suppose that the presence of air (aided by heat) changes it to one, of the protochlorids of iron and chlorid of silicon, with formation of silicic acid,-possibly to a compound of protochlorid of iron and silicic acid only.

The unusual results obtained rendered me desirous of communicating them for correction and advice, to Prof. Wöhler of Göttingen, a chemist who had especially occupied himself not only

with the analysis of meteorites, but with the study of silicon and its more difficult compounds. I accordingly forwarded to him an outline of my results, accompanied by a few grammes of the iron, and solicited his opinion upon the subject. He had the goodness to have an analysis performed for me under his eye, and to engage in some experiments himself upon the material

Of which he remarks, that without claiming for it the most rigorous exactness, it is sufficiently accurate to show, that the composition of the mass is essentially a compound of Fe Si, or one of

Iron,
Silicon,

(Silicic acid being assumed Si O3).

88.80
11.20

He then observes, that it subsequently occurred to him to examine the precipitated peroxyd of iron for phosphoric acid; and that he detected therein, a strongly pronounced proof of its existThis discovery induced him further to say, that the presence of phosphorus points to its meteoric origin, notwithstanding the absence of nickel in the mass.

ence.

I have since made a determination of the phosphorus, and found it to amount to 1312 p. c.; and combining the numbers of the calculated result upon the iron as being composed of Fe Si, and employing therewith Wöhler's determination of the carbon and my own of the phosphorus, the present statement is believed to be a close approximation to the composition of the Rutherfordton mass:

We recur once more to the question of its origin. It is admitted that it was found in a region containing iron ores, and that the manufacture of this metal had been carried on, though to a very limited extent, at the distance of ten or fifteen miles from the place of its discovery. It is with difficulty supposable that so considerable a mass of a compound before unknown in

chemistry or metallurgy should have originated in such a source. Karsten, the highest authority perhaps upon the products of iron furnaces, says, that the greatest quantity of silicon he ever found in raw iron (pig-metal) was 3.46 p. c.; and that this large proportion occurred under very rare circumstances. Stromeyer who studied the modes of combining iron in silicon with much care, succeeded in uniting them in proportions between 2.25 and 93 p. c. of silicon; but in the cases of the higher proportions of silicon, he found the carbon increased also steadily in the compound, to a very high per centage. It would hence appear, that the trifling amount of carbon in the Rutherford mineral, militates against the view of its furnace formation: nor is it probable that it originated in a refinery; for Karsten distinctly asserts, that in that process, the silicon is mostly separated and slagged off. Can it be a natural, terrestrial product, originating after the manner of a fulgurite? Heat enough has perhaps been produced, during the most powerful discharges of lightning to melt a mass of this size; but it remains for us to conceive of the electrolytic action, which should unlose and bring together from any rocks or minerals within our knowledge, such elements as are here found. As bearing upon its meteoric origin, however, we may adduce its peculiarity of shape and structure, the presence of phosphorus, silicon and magnesium,—all of which, as here combined, are eminently meteoric constituents. But as no body has been seen to fall from the skies possessing a similar constitution with the Rutherfordton mass, we are obliged for the present to admit, that the proof of an extra-terrestrial origin remains incomplete; though we may perhaps be allowed to claim, that the evidence already preponderates in this direction.

In a report on meteorites submitted by me to the American Association in 1848, I proposed an order of brittle, metallic meteorites, to provide a place for several examples then regarded by me as meteoric, viz: one from Randolph county North Carolina, another from Bedford county Pennsylvania, together with a third from Otsego county, New York, this last differing from the first two in important respects as to composition, and which I placed in a section by itself, under the order. The two first mentioned agreed in not containing either of the substances then supposed to be characteristic of true meteors; while that from Otsego, possessed those constituents in the fullest manner. For these reasons, I have thought proper in my later printed catalogues of meteorites, to place the Randolph and Bedford localities among the doubtful meteoric irons, where their number has unexpectedly been augmented by the discovery in Montgomery, Vermont, of a third, possessing the same general properties. I may now add, that the Rutherfordton iron approaches much more nearly to each of the three, than to any other kind of matter with

which I am acquainted. Still I cannot pronounce them identical, though my very imperfect examination had enabled me to indicate silicon from the first, as a constituent of the Randolph specimen. They were each found under circumstances equally favorable as in the case of the Rutherford iron, to the idea of their being natural productions. But unfortunately, the size of the specimens was so small as to render their full elucidation difficult. Nevertheless, I hope very soon to subject them anew to examination; and I think I may add, with every probability of establishing the real existence of the group of meteoric irons originally proposed, but which has temporarily been withdrawn from my classification.

As a convenient name for the Rutherfordton species of matter, I would propose that of Ferrosilicine.

ART. XXXIII.-On a Shooting Meteor, seen to fall at Charleston, South Carolina, on the evening of November 16th, 1857, with notices of other supposed shooting meteors; by CHARLES UPHAM SHEPARD.

IN calling attention to the matter of a shooting meteor, I am conscious, that the evidence of its genuineness is not absolutely perfect; nevertheless, it falls so little short of entire satisfactoriness, as to make it fully worthy of notice. No instance of the kind at least, has yet been recorded, entitled to so much confidence. In detailing the circumstances, I shall aim to present every particular, precisely as it came to my knowledge.

Mr. Sparkman R. Scriven, aged about 17, and clerk in the dry goods store of Messrs. Browning & Ketchum of King street, Charleston, a young man of excellent character, was the principal observer of the phenomenon. He had just returned, at half past 8 in the evening of Nov. 16th, 1857, to the residence of his father (Mr. J. M. Scriven) in Morris street, three doors west of King, and having occasion to step into the portico, he saw a red, fiery ball of the size and shape of an orange, slowly descending through a distance apparently of 20 or 30 feet, to the ground. Its fall was scarcely more rapid than that of a soap bubble, giving him time to call his sister, a little girl, to see it strike a high wooden fence, distant about fifty or sixty feet from the portico, and which separated the door-yard from a church enclosure adjoining. It seemed to adhere for an instant to the board against which it struck, and then separated into three parts and disappeared. The evening was dark, it having followed a rainy afternoon, though at the time of the fall, it had ceased to rain and become very foggy.

Nothing further would probably have been heard of the phenomenon but for the accidental reading, by an elder sister the next day at the breakfast table, of a paragraph from the newspaper, relating to a meteoric fall, where the specimens picked up were said to have possessed a strong odor of sulphur. This induced young Scriven, who had never before heard of meteoric falls, at once to examine the fence against which the ball had struck. The fence was eight feet high, and formed of long strips of horizontally disposed boards. It was near the extremity of an uppermost board, that had been detached and bent around so as to present its flat side uppermost, that the body had been seen to impinge. And here it was, that he discovered adhering, a small bristling mass of black fibres. These he detached and carried into the house. As it had rained again during the night, he was led to suppose that the rest of the matter had been washed away. He searched the ground among the dead grass, but not until after the second night, when much more rain had fallen. He could find no more of the same material, though he gathered up numerous small fragments, which proved to be ordinary charcoal.

Mr. Scriven (the father) was so much struck with the appearance of the black fibres, together with the circumstances under which they had been found, that he requested his son to call on Dr. Wm. Pettigrew, the family physician, and describe to him what had happened. Two days however elapsed, before Dr. Pettigrew heard of the case. He immediately repaired to the house, where he was informed of the particulars as above described, and shown a mere pinch of the matter that had been detached from the fence,-the principal portion of it having unfortunately been given to a young man of the neighborhood, an engineer at the depot of the Northwestern railroad, who wished to exhibit it to his friends.

Dr. Pettigrew immediately called to acquaint me of the case; but not finding me at home, we did not meet until the forenoon of the 20th, when he presented me the specimen gathered by Scriven, and took me to the spot.

I heard the statements repeated from the different members of the family, corroborative of those above presented, and examined the place upon the board, from whence the fibres had been gathered. It presented no discoloration or appearance of having been heated or charred, though for many inches on either side, it was slightly blackened in spots. This perhaps was not strange, as heavy rains had fallen since the occurrence; and it might fairly be presumed, that all foreign matter would have been effectually detached. I examined the grass and soil on both sides of the fence, without finding anything beyond little fragments of charcoal, which are common enough in most places about the