542 Royal Society : — 



numbers or radiant ; but the more newly determined period for 

 December 10-12 has been exceedingly well-defined, and the 

 radiant point, both for last year and for the present one, per- 

 fectly referable to a part of the heavens halfway between 

 /3 Auriga and a Gemini. 



Manchester, 12th December. 



Note on Bluish Meteorites. 



There seems good reason for believing that the class of bluish 

 meteorites, of which the Barbotan stone may be considered the 

 type, differs from the whitish meteorites, represented by the 

 Chateau-Renard stone, chiefly by reason of the stony portion 

 containing a smaller proportion of soluble silicate in the shape 

 of olivine, and a larger proportion of minerals of the augitic and 

 felspathic class, which are insoluble in acids. There is also more 

 lime in the Barbotan stone than in the Chateau-Renard stone; 

 and this lime evidently belongs to the felspathic element, rather 

 than to the olivine. Perhaps the amount of lime and alumina 

 contained in a meteoric stone may fairly be considered as an 

 index or exponent of the relative quantities of these two minerals 

 present, and especially of the felspar as compared with the 

 olivine. We have, moreover, a regular gradation, as it were, in 

 meteorites — that is, as regards their non-magnetic constituents — 

 from the Chassigny stone, almost entirely composed of olivine, 

 through mixed stones of the Chateau-Renard and Barbotan class 

 (containing also an admixture of particles of nickeliferous iron), 

 up to stones of the Juvenas and Stannern class, which contain 

 no olivine, but consist principally of augite (anthophyllite) and 

 felspar (anorthite), with no metallic iron. 



LXXIV. Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



ROYAL SOCIETY. 

 [Continued from p, 491.] 



Feb 13 '■' r\N Magnetic Calms and Earth-Currents." By 

 1862. ' ^ Charles V. "Walker, Esq., F.R.S., F.R.A.S. &e. 



■p e k # 20. "On the Dicynodont Reptilia, with a Description of 



some Fossil Remains brought byH.R.H. Prince Alfred from South 

 Africa, in November 1860." By Professor R. Owen, F.R.S. &c. 



February 27. — Major- General Sabine, President, in the Chair. 



The following communications were read : — 



"Notices of some Conclusions derived from the Photographic 

 Records of the Kew Declinometer, in the years 1858, 1859, 1860, 

 and 1861." By Major-General Edward Sabine, P.R.S. 



The discussion of the magnetic observations which have been 

 made in different parts of the globe may now be considered to have 



