New-York tribune., 1918-01-20

comets head or some of its Fragments
Numbers of times already we have ira
vcrsed clouds of meteors that must be
considered parts or fragments of
comets, as on November 27, 1872. and
November 27, 1885, when crossing the
remains Of Biela's comet. But moth
ing happened except beautiful rain
Us even when passing through the
densest part of a comet. but our globe,
as a whole, would be as little affected
bv it as flying cannon ball by a
scrap of paper that crosses its way.
Within historical times no meteorites
large enough to cause considerable
damage have ever fallen before eye
witnesses. Thus in the great stone
rain of lAigle Of 1903 the largest me-
tt orite weighed but nine Kilograms;
of that at Molina, in Spain. in 1858
the total weight of the falling me-
teorites was 1143 kilograms. At New
Concord. Ohio, in 1860 the weight of
the heaviest meteorite was but 1e9
Kilograms; at Pultusk (Poland) in
1868 POI Kilograms; at Amana, Iowa,
in 1875 2O4 Kilograms; at Noes (Tran-
sylvania) in 1882 1856 Kilograms; at
N'gavi (Java) in 1884 161 Kilograms,
and, finally, at Forest City, Iowa, in
1890 1863 kilograms.
Largest Fell in Greenland
There are meteorites of much more
considerable dimensions than those
mentioned, but their falling had not
been observed by witnesses. Thus, at
Porto Allegro, in Southern Brazil, an
iron meteorite was discovered not less
than twenty-six metres in height and
seventeen metres in its base. shortly
ho9 u
over the town. on February ~, 1900
Lieutenant Peary, the we'll known ex-
plorer, in 1894 discovered in Gron-
land "the iron mountain" of which al
ready John Ross had been told by the
Greenland EsQuimaus.
1t consists of three stones, the
largest weighing about $4,000 kilo-
grams and the smallest one $4,000
Kilograms.
1t was also in Greenland that Nor
denskjold, in 1870, discovered i'm
mense blocks Of pure iron, the largest
Of which, 25,OuO Kilograms in weight
is at present to be seen in the Museum
of Natural History of Copenhagen
Even more powerful meteorites that
did mot" fall TO the earth have been
established by calculation.
Thus Won Niessi found the diameter
of several meteors observed from 1887
to 1892 to be from 100 to 1000 metres,
and HALEY gives the diameter Of the
meteor of March 19, 1918, as 2,4OO
metres. But any apprehension of the
falling upon the earth of a very large
body is unfounded, for the simple rea-
son that almost all meteors, before
coming to earth, burst in the higher
regions through sudden ignition.
Since men have been writing history
that is, for about 5000 years-a
comet or meteor has at least never
caused any considerable damage, and
there are only a few isolated cases IN
which human beings have been killed
by cosmic stones, or houses destroyed
by fire.
All this goes to show that there Is
no cause whatever to dread a collision
Of our globe with a comet or any of its
fragments, as there occurs neither Il
shock nor an Inflammation of the at
mosphere, nor q destruction of the
world
Incidentally, there is noy for the near
future even the least prospect of a
large rain of meteorites, as there is no
comet known to cross the orbit of our
globe at point in which the earth
happens to be at the same time.