Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 58.djvu/441

Rh meteorites to be material ejected at some past period from the earth's volcanoes; some have regarded them of solar origin and still others as fragments of a shattered planet. All of these theories may be said to have been proved fallacious. The discovery reported by Hahn in 1880 of remains of sponges, corals and plants in meteorites excited for a time eager inquiries into the possibilities of proving by the study of meteorites the existence of life outside our own globe. No satisfactory evidence of the existence of extra-terrestrial life has, however, as yet been obtained from meteorites. The most positive and enduring results of the century's study may, therefore, perhaps be summed up as the establishment of the fact of the fall of solid cosmic matter to the earth and a sufficient knowledge of its nature to distinguish it from matter of terrestrial origin. Satisfactory conclusions as to the origin of this matter and its relations to the visible bodies of the great outlying universe remain yet to be drawn.