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Monday , 17 th January 1859. 
Professor CHRISTISON, Vice-President, in the Chair. 
The following Communications were read : — 
1. Notice of a Shower of “ a Sulphurous Substance” (so- 
called), which fell in Inverness-shire in June 1858. By 
John Davy, M.D., F.R.S., London and Edinburgh, &c. 
This shower took place about the 10th of June. The following 
account of it is from the Inverness Courier; and, as showing the 
interest the phenomenon excited, it was republished in most of the 
English papers. The copy I give is from the Spectator of the 3d 
J uly. 
“ After the late thunder-storm, a deposit resembling sulphur was 
observed in several places in this neighbourhood (Inverness). At 
Freeburn it lay on the road and grass in some places to a depth of 
nearly half an inch. At Craigton Cottage, near Kissock, the deposit 
was observed on the top of water caught in a cask from the roof of the 
house, like a thick cream. The sulphurous substance was skimmed 
off, and dried in a piece of flannel. When dry it was a fine powder, 
and when thrown into the fire ignited exactly like gunpowder, 
making a slight fizzing noise. Unfortunately none was preserved 
beyond what was experimented on in this way. A boat at Craigton 
was powdered all over with the same substance ; and a countryman 
living on the heights near Kiimuir, says, that near his house, in the 
space of what an ordinary washing-tub would cover, he could lift 
the powder with a spoon. The heavy rains have since washed it all 
away.” 
This account, so far as mere appearances are concerned, I believe 
to be trustworthy ; I can in part confirm it, as it happened that on 
the very day, the 10th of June, I was en route for Inverness by 
the mail, proceeding by the upper Highland road. Just after cross- 
ing the Spey at Kingussie, the substance in question was seen, both 
on the road and by the road-side. It was in such abundance that 
the guard had no difficulty in collecting a quantity of it during the 
few seconds that the coach was stopped for the purpose. Of what 
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