362 THE EOYAL SOCIETY OF VICTORIA. 



labelled for the national museum. Besides the strategrapliical arrangement of 

 these specimens, each is labelled with numbers and letters, indicating its locality 

 and the map to which it belongs. Considerable additions to the geological 

 sketch-map of the colony have also been made b}^ the director from his recon- 

 noissance surveys in various districts. The department, however, has been singu- 

 larly crippled during the past year, owing to the absence of some of the officers 

 on leave, and the sickness of others. The survey has, nevertheless, made con- 

 siderable progress, especially in the districts of south Ballarat and north of Cres- 

 wick and Clunes. It appears that a party has been engaged in the first-named 

 locality on a research into the course and limits of " deep leads " of the Ballarat 

 gold-field, which has already ]'esulted in Mr. Murray, the gentleman engaged iu 

 this portion of the survey, being enabled to indicate the existence of payable 

 gold deposits in a locality where, though frequently traversed by miners, no 

 W'orkings had been established. 



In contemj)lating the more interesting facts that have marked the progress of 

 science in Europe, our attention is attracted by a recent discovery of paramount 

 significance. 



In the spectra of many of the fixed stars the lines proper to hydrogen have 

 been ftbserved, and in the outburst of the light of the star T-Coronse, some time 

 ago, the development of these lines was so conspicuous as to lead to the inference 

 that an outburst of hydrogen, of the nature of a general volcanic eruption, had 

 taken place in this star. Singularly in agreement with these observations are 

 certain results detennined by I)r. Graham during his researches on the occlusion 

 of gases by metals. 



This exact chemist has shown that the different metals have properties of their 

 own of condensing the various gases, and concealing or occluding them within 

 their substance. In the case of meteoric iron, he has found that it is not only 

 charged with occluded gases, but that the gases thus enclosed are different in 

 kind from those concealed in iron of telluric origin. Common iron bears the 

 impress of the mode by which it has been manufactured in the large proportion 

 of carbonic oxide and carbonic acid as constituents of the gases stored between 

 its particles, whereas, on the other hand, the iron of the Lenarto meteorite has 

 yielded abundance of hydrogen gas almost entirely free from gaseous carbon 

 compounds. 



On these results Dr. Graham remarks, " The iron of Lenarto has, no doubt, 

 come from an atmosphere in which hydrogen greatly prevailed. The meteorite 

 may V)e looked upon as holding imprisoned within it, and bearing to us, hydrogen 

 from the stars." Speaking of the amount of gas given lip by this meteoric iron 

 being three times the amount found in iron of telluric origin, he further says, 

 ''The inference is that this meteorite has been extruded from a dense atmosphere 

 of hydrogen gas, for which we must look bej'ond the light cometary matter 

 floating about within the limits of the solar system." 



A few years ago results of this kind would have been deemed almost beyond 

 the hopes of even the most sanguine philosophers. Dr. Graham presents to us 

 in a tangible form the hydrogen brought from remote regions of space to which 

 possibly our most powerful telescopes have yet failed to reach. He demonstrates 

 that it unist have come from a dense atmosphere of the gas found ; and, what is 

 of still higher interest, his experiments conduce towards the view that the so- 

 called chemical elements of our world are so framed as to adapt them to uses 

 throughout the entire scheme of nature. 



In conclusion, I will for a moment return to the affairs of the society. There 

 seems to be every prospect of steady progress. I am rejoiced to see the mem- 

 bers earnestly following up the objects for which this institution was intended. 

 Our efforts, whether they have for their aim the investigation of the laws of nature, 

 the development of our natural resources, or the alleviation of the sufferings of 

 our fellow-creatures, although, perhaps, crowned with only partial success, have 



