by Mr. John N. Tilden.

1887: Djati-Pengilon: by the Government of the Netherlands.

1887, 1906: Albuquerque: by Dr. Richard Pearce.

1889: Bhagur and Kalambi: by the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.

1890: Bendegó River: by the Director of the National Museum, Rio de Janeiro.

1891: Dundrum: by the Board of Trinity College, Dublin.

1891: Farmington: by Dr. G. F. Kunz.

1891-1903: Barratta and Thunda: by Prof. A. Liversidge, F.R.S.

1894: Makariwa: by Prof. G. H. F. Ulrich.

1894: Bherai: by the Nawab of Junagadh, India.

1895: Concepcion: by Mr. W. Taylor.

1896: Madrid: by Don Miguel Merino of Madrid.

1897: Cold Bokkeveld: by Mrs. Whitwell.

1899, 1906: Caperr: by the Director of the La Plata Museum.

1899: El Ranchito (Bacubirito): by Mr. O. H. Howarth.

1899: Kokstad: by the Trustees of the South African Museum.

1899: Zomba: by Sir A. Sharpe, C.B., K.C.M.G., Mr. J. F. Cunningham, and Mr. J. McClounie.

1901: Ness City: by Dr. H. A. Ward.

1903: Caratash: by His Highness Kiamil Pasha.

1904: Narraburra: by Mr. H. C. Russell, C.M.G., F.R.S.

1905: Fukutomi, Oshima, Tanakami and Yonõzu: by Dr. C. Ishikowa.

1905: Kota-Kota: by Mr. A. J. Swann.

1907: Kangra: by Prof. W. N. Hartley, F.R.S.

1908: Uwet: by the Governor of Southern Nigeria.

Since the same year (1863) meteoritic exchanges have been made with the museums of Belgrade, Berlin, Blömfontein, Breslau, Calcutta, Calne, Cambridge, Chicago (Field Columbian Museum), Christiania, Debreczin, Dresden, Fremantle, Göttingen, Helsingfors, Munich, Odessa, Paris, Pau, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, St. Petersburg (Institute of Mines), South Africa, Stockholm, Sydney, Transylvania, Troyes, Utrecht, Vienna, Washington, Wisconsin University, and Yale College; and also with the following:—Dr. Abich of Dorpat, Dr. J. Auerbach of Moscow, Mr. S. C. H. Bailey of Cortlandt-on-Hudson, U.S.A., Prof. Baumhauer of Haarlem, Mr. C. S. Bement of Philadelphia, U.S.A., Dr. Breithaupt of Freiberg, Dr. A. Brezina of Vienna, Mr. J. B. Gregory of London, Prof. C. T. Jackson of Boston, U.S.A., Mr. Henry Ludlam of London, Prof. W. Mallet of Virginia, U.S.A., Prof. Vom Rath of Bonn, Prof. C. U. Shepard of New Haven, U.S.A., His Excellency Julien de Siemachko of St. Petersburg, Prof. Lawrence Smith of Louisville, U.S.A., Mr. J. N. Tilden of New York, U.S.A., and Dr. Henry A. Ward of Chicago, U.S.A.

In this way, by the generosity and self-denial of donors, by the somewhat difficult method of exchange, and by purchase, it has been possible to get together the fine representative collection of meteorites now in the British Museum.

AN INTRODUCTION

TO THE

STUDY OF METEORITES.

Most of the specimens here referred to are in Case 4 in the Pavilion at the end of the Mineral Gallery.

1. Till the beginning of the nineteenth century, the fall of stones from the sky was an event, the actuality of which neither men of science nor people in general could be brought to credit. Yet such falls have been recorded from the earliest times, and the records have occasionally been received as authentic by a whole nation. In most cases, however, the witnesses of such an event have been treated with the disrespect usually shown to reporters of the extraordinary, and have been laughed at for their supposed delusions: this is less to be wondered at when we remember that the witnesses of the arrival of a stone from the sky have usually been few in number, unaccustomed to exact observation, frightened both by what they saw and by what they heard, and have had a common tendency towards exaggeration and superstition.

2. De Guignes in his Travels states that, according to old Chinese manuscripts, falls of stones have again and again been observed in China; the earliest mentioned is one which happened about 644 B.C.

A stone, famous through long ages,1 fell in Phrygia and was preserved there for many generations. About 204 B.C. it was demanded from King Attalus and taken with great ceremony to Rome. It is described as "a black stone, in the figure of a cone, circular below and ending in an apex above."

In his History of Rome, Livy tells of a shower of stones on the Alban Mount, about 652 B.C., which so impressed the Senate that a nine days' solemn festival was decreed; as the shower lasted for two days, it was doubtless the result of volcanic action; other instances of the "rain of stones" in Italy, mentioned by the same author, had possibly a similar origin.

Plutarch relates the fall of a stone in Thrace about 470 B.C., during the time of Pindar, and according to Pliny, the stone was still preserved in his day, 500 years afterwards. The latter records two other falls, one in Asia Minor, the other in Macedonia.

3. These falls from the sky, when credited at all, have been deemed prodigies or miracles, and the stones have been regarded as objects for reverence and worship. It has even been conjectured that the worship of such stones was the earliest form of idolatry. The Phrygian stone, mentioned above, was worshipped at Pessinus by the Phrygians and Phœnicians as Cybele, "the mother of the gods," and its transference to Rome followed the announcement by an oracle that possession of the stone would secure to the State a continual increase of prosperity. Similarly, the Diana of the Ephesians, "which fell down from Jupiter," and the image of Venus at Cyprus, appear to have been, not statues, but conical or pyramidal stones. A stone, of which the history goes back far beyond the seventh century, is still revered by the Moslems as one of their holiest relics, and is preserved at Mecca built into the northeastern corner of the Kaaba. The late Paul Partsch,2 for many years