82 PROCEEDINGS. 



in the year 1855 by Mr. O'Brien in Latitude 34° 10' S ; Longitude 

 147° 43' East, which is a point on the Narraburra Creek about 

 twelve miles east of Temora. When found it was on a hard and 

 stony surface, but I have been unable to obtain any other par- 

 ticulars, as the finder has long since passed away to the majority. 

 Mr. O'Brien gave the meteor to Mr. Patrick Harrold of Mount 

 Hope, near Cootamundra, and it has been in his keeping ever since, 

 until the 30 March 1890 when he was induced by Mr. William 

 R. Eury, Inspector under the State Children's Relief Branch, to 

 send it to me. Mr. Eury as soon as he saw the meteor pointed 

 out to Mr. Harrold the great scientific interest attaching to it, 

 and that undoubtedly the proper place for it was in the Observatory 

 where a collection of these so called shooting stars is being made, 

 and upon this Mr. Harrold sent it to me. I am very much 

 indebted to both of these gentlemen for enriching the Observatory 

 collection by this most interesting specimen of a metallic meteor. 

 In appearance this meteor is like rusty iron, and it has a very 

 irregular outline, which seems to have resulted from the oxidation 

 or solution of rounded masses, which had solidified with the iron 

 and formed cavities in it. Two of these are so placed that they 

 look like the orbits in an ox's skull, a suggestion borne out by the 

 general outline, which is not unlike the bone in question. In one 

 place a hole nearly an inch in diameter, and 1^ in. deep, has been 

 made straight into the solid iron ; and there seems to be little 

 •doubt that when the iron originally cooled down from its gaseous 

 state it did so in the presence of these rounded and cylindrical 

 masses, which impressed their form on the plastic iron as it 

 solidified. These, as I have already suggested, have no doubt 

 been removed since they reached the earth's atmosphere. A meteor 

 which fell in New England in November last was seen to have a 

 .spiral motion, emitting steam or smoke in jets. Looking at the 

 holes in this meteor one can see at once that if, when it reached 

 the atmosphere, they were charged with some substance that 

 would burn freely in the oxygen of the air. It requires no great 

 stretch of the imagination to see how this solid mass of iron would 

 have twisted about under the influence of the many gas jets from 

 the burning masses in its sides. I find its specific gravity is 7*57 

 •and its weight is 70 lbs. 14 oz.. Meteoric iron is, I think, never 

 ^quite pure, and masses of it vary considerably in specific gravity. 

 Taking five at random which fell on different parts of the earth, 

 it varies in them from 7 '38 to 7*82, and the mean happens to 

 •be 7 '62, almost exactly the same as the one before us. 



Prof. Anderson Stuart, m.d., demonstrated the working of the 

 valves of the heart through circular plate glass windows tied into 

 ^openings in the walls of the right auricle and ventricle. 



The thanks of the Society were accorded to the various exhibitors. 



