[en] Peripheral reactions of ²⁸Si with ¹¹²Sn and ¹²⁴Sn at 30, 40, and 50 MeV/nucleon were used to elucidate the effect of the neutron content of the target on the process of projectile fragmentation. It is demonstrated that the fragments that result from these projectile fragmentation reactions can be divided into those which are the result of statistical emission of the quasiprojectile and those that are part of a direct component. The statistical part is independent of the target whereas the isotopic composition of fragments from the direct component is dependent on the neutron content of the target. copyright 1999 The American Physical Society