VII.—Supplement to a Chapter in the History of Meteorites

Extract

At the end of the year 1880, Dr. O. Hahn, of Reutlingen, a lawyer by calling, published a big work entitled Die Metcoriten (Chondrite) und ihre Organismen mit 32 Tafeln photographischer Abbildungen (1880, Tubingen: H. Laupp), by which he claimed to have shown the presence in meteoric rocks of sponges, corals, and crinoids. A statement of his views was read before a meeting of the Geological Society the same summer. Early this year Dr. D. F. Weinland published a paper in support of these views, Ueber die in Meteoriten entdeekten Thierreste. Illustrated with two woodcuts (1882, Esslingen: G. Fröhner). The question was thoroughly gone into in a scientific way by Prof. Carl Vogt, of Geneva, and the conclusions at which he arrived are contained in a paper entitled Les prétendus Organismes des Météorites, published 1882, Genéve: H. Georg. It is shown that Dr. Hahn had no foundation for his conclusions; that all the pretended organic structures are purely inorganic; and that in no single case do they present the microscopic structure of the organisms for which they have been mistaken — such as crinoids, corals, and sponges. See also Dr. Laurence Smith on the subject in the Amer. Jour. Sc. 1882, February, 156.