premises of houses. We then took pains to find the individual to whom had been given the principal portion of the fibrous matter obtained from the fence; but had the mortification to discover, that having worn it in a paper wrapper for several days in his vest pocket, he had finally mislaid or lost it. Thus little more than a microscopically visible specimen of the shooting star remained for study and examination. Its entire weight is probably less than one-tenth of a grain. When viewed by a single pocketlens, it seems to be a confused aggregate of short clippings of the finest black hair, varying in length from one-tenth to onethird of an inch. Each portion is straight or only slightly curved. Except in color, they remind one most of that variety of pumice stone from the Sandwich Islands, known as volcanic hair, or as "Pele's hair." They do not seem very prone to break in handling, and appear slightly elastic.

They have been examined under compound microscopes of high power by several persons accustomed to the use of this instrument; but hitherto no one has ventured to suggest a relationship in their properties, to any known form of organic or inorganic matter. The following description is from a note, handed to me by my friend, Dr. F. W. Porcher of Charleston. "Black elongated bodies, perfectly opaque, round and solid; amorphous, not properly smooth, surfaces often furnished with warty dots or projections; rather glossy."

In fig. 1, I have enlarged Dr. Porcher's drawings of a few of the forms about four times, as they presented themselves to him, through a one-third inch object-glass. A few of the bodies are subspinose, and one or two decidedly bifurcate; others are cancellated, and seem capable of separation into smaller fibres. The surfaces are not always perfectly round.

I could spare only a few of them for a chemical trial. These were introduced into a small glass test-tube (previously well dried), and heated by contact of the flame of the blowpipe. They suddenly glowed with a brilliant light, at the same time emitting an odor most nearly resembling the bituminous. A distinct greyish skeleton of each fibre was left adhering to the glass. Barytic water being thrown into the tube was instantly rendered milky, thereby proving the existence of carbonic acid; and the subsequent addition of hydrochloric acid slowly caused the separation of the skeletons from the glass, which led me to infer the presence of silica as a part of the earthy residuum. little bodies however were not annihilated by the process; but greatly to my surprise were easily seen, by the aid of a single lens, still floating through the clear liquid, preserving in a great measure their original form, with the exception only, of being rendered here and there transparent, as if about one-half of the black

The

1.

matter had been eaten out and dissolved, leaving the remainder sufficiently connected to maintain the original figure of the body. This honeycomb appearance is also represented in three of the drawings (fig. 2) made by Dr. Porcher.

This is all that I have been able to ascertain concerning the origin, structure, and chemical composition of these singular bodies. They appear to be inorganic, though composed in part of carbon. A large proportion of earthy matter also, enters into their composition.

It will be remembered perhaps, in this connexion, that Berzelius detected what appeared to him to be an organic residuum (resembling burnt hay) in the French meteoric stone of Alais that fell March 15, 1806; and bearing more distinctly still upon our subject, are the highly interesting results recently obtained by Prof. Wöhler on the unknown substance of an organic nature (resinous) in the meteoric stone of Kaba, Hungary, that fell April 15, 1857, and those again arrived at by Prof. E. P. Harris in the Göttingen laboratory concerning the carbonaceous matter in the stone that fell Oct. 13, 1838, at Cape of Good Hope, - a meteorite originally described by Sir John Herschell and Prof. Faraday. Prof. Harris states in his valuable thesis on meteorites (Göttingen, 1859), that he

2.

finds a quarter per cent of bituminous matter in the Cape stone, which is soluble both in alcohol and ether, and fusible in a glass tube over a spirit lamp. It finally burns with a bituminous odor and the deposition of carbon.

SECOND SERIES, VOL. XXVIII, No. 83,-SEPT., 1859.

Is the matter of the Charleston shooting-star analogous to that of the Alais and the Cape meteoric stones? And if so, may the more complete combustion of its carbonaceous ingredient have been prevented by the humid state of the atmosphere at the time of its fall? These are questions that naturally suggest themselves, but to which we are not in a condition to return satisfactory replies at present.*

It is reasonable perhaps to suppose that many aggregates of me. teoric matter, such for example as those made up wholly of one or more of the following meteoric elements: carbon, phosphorus and sulphur would, owing to their easy combustibility burn out, even in the upper regions of the atmosphere, and being resolved into gaseous compounds, fail of transmitting to the earth's surface any material proof of their existence. Others again may not be recognized at the surface of the earth, owing to the dispersion of their oxyds in the condition of an impalpable dust, or in solution in water. But however this may be, the facts seem thickening about us of the occasional arrival out of the air, of anomalous earthy bodies, whose descent is unaccompanied by the explosions belonging to the true meteorites, and the precipitated matter is uncharacterized also, by the possession of a thin, well fused coating or crust.

The study of these pseudo or doubtful meteorites, as they have been called, is worthy of a much closer attention than has hitherto been devoted to them; and it is to be regretted, that they continue still to be treated much as the true stones and iron masses were, prior to the time of Chaldni and Howard. Their study seems to be regarded as a field, exterior to the domain of legitimate science, a region for the reception of all that is vague and contradictory. Much time and labor will no doubt be requisite to disentangle what is really entitled to scientific regard; but this desirable result will be yet longer postponed, if naturalists continue to dismiss as unworthy of investigation, every reported meteoric fall that is unattended with the stereotyped accompaniments, of the descent of the black encrusted stone and iron-mass, the frequency of whose arrival has now so multiplied, as to make the recital of their apparition almost monotonous.

Without here referring to many of the doubtful meteorites, of which I have from time to time given notices, I will venture to call attention to a few other instances, of which no scientific mention has yet been made,--not claiming for them however,

* As having possibly a close connexion with the subject in hand, may be mentioned, two instances recorded in Chladni's list of ancient meteorites. The first of these refers to the fall at Rockhausen near Erfort, July 5, 1582, during a frightful tempest, of a large quantity of a fibrous substance, similar to hair. The second occurred March 23, 1665 at a place near Lancha, not far from Naumburg, in which case, the matter that fell was likewise fibrous, and resembled a bluish silk. It was also abundant.

any other character than that of mere hints, intended to awaken regard to a fuller investigation of analogous cases, as they may from time to time present themselves.

It was not far from the month of August, 1834, that the newspapers announced the fall of a blazing meteor in the night, in the town of Norwich, Conn. Its descent was unaccompa nied by any report, and the mass of matter in its course, came near falling upon the roof of a house, missing it only by the space of about two feet, and nearly burying itself in the rather soft earth of the door-yard. The phenomenon occasioned much fright to the occupants of the house, who were only females. It was seen however, by others. The mass of matter occupying the cavity was of a flattened form, and nearly as large over as a man's head. It had the appearance (in the words of a neighbor who saw it and who described it to me a few weeks after) of a mass of earth, stuck together by the infiltration of tarry matter. And such he took it to be, supposing that some mischievous persons had prepared a fire-ball, and projected it on fire into the air, with the intention of alarming the inmates of the house. I was shown the cavity said to have been produced by the ball; but the specimen had been given to a medical student, who had sent it to his preceptor, residing in or near Albany, N. Y. The circumstances were on the whole so discouraging to the idea of its being a genuine meteorite, that I gave the subject no further consideration. It may not be too late, to recover further information respecting its character.

On the evening of the 23d of April, 1855, at Ochtertyre House, Crieff, in Perthshire (Scotland), a young woman saw from the third story, a shooting star or meteorite, falling with a brilliant light. It struck the gravel walk near to the house. She instantly called two other females, "who saw as it were, a bright object on the gravel, like the sun shining on a large diamond." Two of them ran out of the house and round a court-yard to the spot, taking matches and a candle with them. As soon as they got to the spot, one of them picked up two cindery fragments, which were too hot to hold, and which emitted a strong sulphurous smell. The other felt something hot under her foot, which she also picked up. It had a similar character with the other fragments. At first it was believed that these masses had actually fallen from the heavens; but a closer investigation into their character left little doubt that they were merely fragments of ordinary cinder, derived from a neighboring furnace, situated upon a stream, whence gravel had been obtained for dressing the walks. Being at Sheffield in England, when the subject was undergoing investigation, I was favored by Sir William Keith Murray, at whose residence the occurrence took place, with an inspection of one of the specimens, and was satisfied that a correct general view had been taken of their character. Nevertheless, as

the confidence of the gentleman referred to, was full and entire in the integrity of the witnesses of the phenomenon, it would seem to be an instance, in which the sulphurous matter of a shooting star was not completely consumed before reaching the ground, and that much of the residuum suffered oxydation after it struck upon the cinder of the walk.*

My meteoric cabinet has contained for many years, a few grains of a mixture of carbonaceous and earthy matter in a pulverulent state, sent to me in 1845 by Mr. Black, of Elizabethtown, Essex county, N. Y., (then a member of the Legislature of New York), as having fallen in his wood-yard during the winter of 1844 and 1845.

As an appendix to this unsatisfactory list of supposed meteorites may be added a statement concerning a specimen, the half of which is in my possession, so puzzling in its properties as to leave me in great doubt, whether to arrange it among terrestrial or celestial productions. Its history is briefly as follows. It was brought to Dr. Gibbs of Columbia, S. C., by a poor woman resident in the vicinity, under the impression I believe, of its having fallen from the skies; and as such, was presented to me by Dr. Gibbs. Its size is about that of an ordinary fig, which fruit in a compressed state, it somewhat resembles in figure. Its surface was nearly black, rough and without a glaze. It seemed hollow, and reminded me of an impure, brown iron-stone cetite. On breaking it open, it presented an irregularly shaped cavity, holding nearly a thimble full of silicious sand, and had upon its interior walls, little pellets (half the size of a mustard seed) of pure lead, almost exactly resembling those found in the Hemalga (Chili) meteoric iron.

SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE.

I. CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS.

1. On Ammonia-Chromium bases.-FRÉMY has discovered a class of ammonia-chromium bases, analogous to those formed by cobalt, iridium and rhodium. The author, who appears to be ignorant of what has already been written upon the subject, distinguishes two isomeric modifications of the sesquioxyd of chromium, one of which he terms "chromoxyd" and the other "metachromoxyd," the latter being the soluble and the former the insoluble modification. When metachromoxyd is treated with ammonia in the presence of a salt of ammonium it dissolves completely, forming compounds which are distinguished by their beautiful violet rose red color: alcohol precipitates from these solutions beautiful violet substances, which the author terms amido-chrom compounds, but the analyses of which are not given. These substances are easily decomIt was found by Dr. Heddle of Edinburg, that the cinder still retains distinct traces of sulphur.