JAN. — MAR. 1857.] Supposed Aerolite in a tree. 
US 
and something like a definite place in science through the studies 
of Howard, as shown in his memoir published in the Philosophical 
Transactions. 
" Vauquelin, Klaproth, and other distinguished chemists, in- 
cluding Berzelius and Rammelsberg, have successively analysed 
these bodies, and the result of their labours, as ably brought to- 
gether in the work of the last-mentioned author, is, that whilst 
ihey have a great general resemblance and are distinguishable on 
the whole by their composition from any bodies found in the crust 
of the earth, each of their component substances is individually 
found in our planet. They are also peculiarly marked by the small 
number of minerals whic*h have collectively been detected in any 
one of them ; nickel and cobalt, in certain relations to iron, being 
the chief characteristics of the metallic meteorites. 
" Of the various theories propounded to account for the origin of 
these singular bodies, it would indeed ill become a geologist like 
myself to speak ; and referring in the sequel to some of the various 
works in which the subject has been brought within formula, I 
will at once detail the facts connected with the discovery of this 
metalliferous body in the heart of a tree, as now placed before the 
Members of our Society, feeling assured that, whatever be their 
ultimate decision, my contemporaries will approve of the efforts 
that have been made to account for this singular and mysterious 
phenomenon. 
" On the 2nd of June, a timber merchant, residing at North Brix- 
ton, named Clement Poole, brought the specimen now exhibited to 
the Museum of Practical Geology, when it occurred to Mr. Tren- 
ham Reeks, our Curator, that it might be a meteorite, and on in- 
specting its position in the mass of wood, and having heard all the 
evidence connected with it, T was disposed to form the same conclu- 
sion. On submitting a small portion of the metallic part to a qua- 
litative test in the metallurgical laboratory of our establishment, 
the presence of nickel, cobalt and manganese was detected in the 
iron included in the mass, and as the surface was scorified, indent- 
ed, uneven, and partially coated with a peculiar substance, the 
surmise as to the meteoric nature of the imbedded material seemed 
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