for the year 1867. Vil 
nugget, which may explain why the interior and exterior 
do not differ upon assay ; the second being, that gold in 
pyrites exists as metallic gold, not as sulphide. At the same 
meeting, Mr. H. A. Thompson read a valuable paper “ On the 
Extraction of Gold from Pyrites.” This communication 
was most deservedly received with great interest by your 
members, for the question of the economic separation of 
gold from the metallic sulphides, with which it is so largely 
associated in many of our reefs, is one of immense im- 
portance. It is, indeed, well known that very large — 
quantities of gold are now lost to us, simply because of the 
difficulty, or almost impossibility, of separating it from 
pyrites by any economic method. A means whereby the 
pyrites could be made to yield anything near its assay value 
would, as Mr. Thompson has stated, soon raise our annual 
gold returns by a million sterling. Mr. Thompson, in this 
paper, describes the method which he has devised towards 
this important end as consisting in a first mechanical separa- 
tion of the pyrites from the quartz or other matrix by his 
peculiar form of percussion-table ; after which the pyrites 
is to be treated by a more refined method than could be 
adopted with economy without the first separation. 
The two last meetings of the session were occupied with 
« A new form of Ear-trumpet” by Mr. C. Wilkinson, which, by 
means of a double tube, the outer one insulating the inner 
one from the touch of the hand, is regarded as possessing a 
greater conductive power for the sound ; papers on “New 
Australian Coleoptera,’ communicated by that distinguished 
naturalist, Count Castelnau ; on “ An undescribed species of 
Senecio, from South Africa,” by Dr. Mueller; and a com- 
munication from Mr. Shiress, of Sandhurst, “On a New 
Method of Decomposing Pyrites.” 
It will be seen that the session has been one of ¢on- 
siderable activity. Most of the papers, I feel assured, will 
