Here and there, facts have been observed which
would seem to indicate a fusion together of the meteoric fragments; but, in
general, the character of the aggregate mass, the absence of compression by
the fall, and the inconsiderable degree of heat possessed by these bodies
when they reach the earth, are all opposed to the hypothesis of the interior
being in a state of fusion during their short passage from the boundary of
the atmosphere to our Earth.
The chemical elements of which these meteoric masses consist, and on which
Berzelius has thrown so much light, are the same as those distributed
throughout the earth's crust, and are fifteen in number, namely, iron,
nickel, cobalt, manganese, chromium, copper, arsenic, zinc, potash, soda,
sulphur, phosphorus, and carbon, constituting altogether nearly one third of
all the known simple bodies. Notwithstanding this similarity with the
primary elements into which inorganic bodies are chemically reducible, the
aspect of a?‘rolites, owing to the mode in which their constituent parts are
compounded, presents, generally, some features foreign to our telluric rocks
and minerals. The pure native iron, which is almost always
p 131
found incorporated with a?‘rolites, imparts to them a peculiar, but not
consequently, a 'selenic' character; for in other regions of space, and in
other cosmical bodies besides our Moon, water may be wholly absent, and
processes of oxydation of rare occurence.
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