jan. — mar. 1857.] Supposed Aerolite in a tree. 243 



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 

 they 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 which 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, I 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 



