1869.] Chemistry. 279 



At the meeting on November 19, 1868, Dr. Warren De la Eue, 

 F.E.S., the President, in introducing the business of the meeting, 

 observed that their object on the present occasion was to discuss cer- 

 tain proposed alterations in the bye-laws, by which a greater number 

 of Fellows would be admitted to a share in the government of the 

 Society. The Council had long felt anxious to effect this object ; 

 and finding that the Charter did not permit them to increase the 

 number of the Council, they now proposed to raise the number of 

 Vice-Presidents, who had not filled the chair, from four to six. 

 This alteration would, it was felt, infuse some new blood into the 

 governing body. 



Formal alterations in the bye-laws, to provide for the proposed 

 change, were then carried unanimously. 



Mr. W. H. Perkin then made a communication " On the Action 

 of Chloride of Lime on Aniline." — In this paper the author points 

 out the difierence between Eunge's blue and aniline purple, and 

 shows that the blue can be changed into the purple when decom- 

 posed by heat. 



Professor Church gave an analysis of a meteorite from South 

 Africa. 



The meteor in question was seen by a native to fall at Daniel's 

 Kuil, a place about two days' journey N.N.E. of Griqua Town. 

 The native said it was warm, and smelt of sulphur, when he picked 

 it up. He ofiered it to the Eev. James Good, a missionary in 

 Griqua Town, who declined it, and recommended him to take it 

 back to the place where he found it ! Instead of doing so, he gave 

 it to Captain Nicolas Waterboer, and from his hands it passed into 

 those of Mr. J. E. Gregory, of Eussell Street, Covent Garden, then 

 at the Cape, and is now in the British Museum. 



It was small in size, of an irregular oblong form, weighing 

 2 lbs. 5 oz. It was covered with a dark-grey crust, speckled here 

 and there with reddish-brown spots, these spots arising from a 

 partial oxidation of the ferruginous materials of the stone. Its 

 density was rather low, namely, 3 ' 657 and 3 • 678, as found in two 

 determinations. The following was given as the analysis of the 

 meteorite : — 



Nickel-iron (containing 5 ■ 18 per cent, nickel), 29 • 72 ; Troilite, 

 6 • 02 ; Schreibersite, 1 • 59 ; Sihca and Silicates, chiefly olivine 

 and labradorite, 61*53. Carbon, oxygen, other constituents, and 

 loss, 1 • 14. 



A paper on the " Action of Salt on Chessylite " then followed 

 by the same author. 



At the meeting of the Chemical Society, on December 3rd, the 

 President announced that the Council had that evening adopted a 



u 2 



