194 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [MAY 7, 
command of the Academy, he had issued a call for the members: 
of the Academy who were interested in mineralogy to meet 
after adjournment of the Academy, April 16th, for the purpose 
of organizing a section cf mineralogy. Such meeting was held, 
and a Mineralogical Section organized. Sixteen names were af- 
fixed to the roll, and Mr. George F. Kunz was elected Chair- 
man of the Section, and Mr. John H. Caswell, Secretary. 
Mr. ALBerT R. LEDOUX exhibited a meteorite from near 
Pike Creek, thirty-five miles southwest of San Antonio, Texas. 
Its weight, when found, was thirty pounds. It contained fifty- 
seven per cent iron, and nine per cent silica. 
The PreEsIpENT exhibited azurite, with rosette crystalliza- 
tion, from the Copper Queen Mine, Clifton, Arizona. Also 
garnets from New York Island, of beautiful form, dodecahedral 
(I.), the edges replaced with trapezahedral face (33), like the 
garnets from Alaska. 
The PRESIDENT announced letters in acceptance of honorary 
membership from Louis Pasteur and John Tyndall, and of cor- 
responding membership from La Princesse Héléne Koltzoff- 
Massalsky. 
The PRESIDENT placed upon the blackboard a sketch of the 
fossil shark Cladodus Keplert, which was described in the paper 
read by title at the previous meeting, and remarked upon the 
remarkable character of the fossil. 
Dr. H. CARRINGTON BOLTON read a paper on 
THE LUNAR SOCIETY, OR THE FESTIVE PHILOSOPHERS OF 
BIRMINGHAM ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO. 
The Lunar Society was an informal club or association of 
scientific men which flourished in Birmingham for nearly forty 
years. It was founded about the year 1766, by Matthew Boul- 
ton, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, Dr. William Small and their friends; 
they do not seem to have numbered more than eight or ten at 
any one time, and they met at each other’s houses for dinner every 
month near the full moon, ‘‘inorder,” says J)r. Priestley, ‘‘ to 
have the benefit of its light in returning home.” Hence the name 
Lunar Society. The members were accustomed to sit down to 
dinner at two o’clock, and did not part until eight, exchanging 
