SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
247 
METEOROLOGY. 
An Aeronautical Society , for the encouragement of balloon ascents and 
meteorological experiments, has been formed under the presidency of the 
Duke of Argyll ; the Duke of Sutherland and Lord Richard Grosvenor are 
the vice-presidents, and Mr. James Glaisher is the Secretary. The sub- 
scription for members is to be £l. Is. annually, and it is proposed to purchase 
grounds and apparatus. Subscribers will be furnished with tickets of ad- 
mission to the grounds on public days. It is also proposed to issue tickets 
for a seat in the balloon car on certain days, and to have a balloon always 
inflated and ready for ascent. 
The Constitution of Meteorites. — A number of interesting inquiries upon 
the composition of these curious bodies have been conducted by M. Daubree. 
He has endeavoured to produce artificial meteorites, by combining together 
certain materials. His first experiments were made with ferruginous meteor- 
ites, which he divides into three classes — (1) native iron alone, (2) iron with 
globules of peridote, (3) iron associated with silicates, peridote, and pyroxene. 
All meteorites are covered with a black crystalline crust, formed by 
the fusion of the exterior layer in the passage of the stone through the 
atmosphere. All the components of stone are also of an eminently crystal- 
lizable nature. It might have been expected, therefore, that, after fusing a 
meteorite, a crystalline surface, would have been obtained on cooling. No- 
thing of the sort, however, happens. When a meteorite is fused, the mass 
separates into two parts very different from each other ; the earthy substances 
and the metallic part solidify separately. The manner in which these residues 
crystallize is altogether different, owing probably to the rapidity of cooling. 
The crystals obtained by the fusion of meteorites resemble the long 
needles water forms on freezing slowly, while the granular semi-crystalline 
structure of natural meteorites resembles hoar-frost or snow, formed 
by the sudden passage of water from the state of vapour to the solid 
state. M. Daubree proceeds to point out the analogies, chemical and mineralo- 
gical, of meteorites with terrestrial rocks, observing that as yet nothing 
has been found in those bodies which is not a common constituent of the 
surface of our globe. He remarks, however, that one essential chemical 
difference is the state of oxidation of the iron, stating that the protoxide, so 
common in our basic silicate rocks, is almost entirely wanting in meteoric 
stone, being apparently replaced by native iron. The masses, therefore, he 
believes to have been originally identical, but have been modified by different 
actions. — Yide Comptes Bendus , Jan. 29. 
The Meteorological Character of the Month of January. — In an interesting 
little periodical, the Meteorological Magazine, we find some useful statistics 
concerning the above. The most general characteristics of the month were 
its mildness, windiness, and wetness. In so large an area as the whole of 
the British isles, exceptions always occur. In January the stations whose 
records were exceptional were the North Midland, and the East of Scotland 
and Ireland. The south-east of England had the greatest excess, much of 
