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the society, by burning ten grains of magnesium wire, the 
light lasting for 59 seconds. It is expected that the quantity 
of wire necessary for taking a photographic portrait can he 
sold at the cost of a very few pence. 
Mr. G. C. Lowe described a meteor seen by him on 
Sunday, Feb. 7th, at 6h. 11m. p.m. Greenwich mean time. 
It was first seen just below the constellation Cassiopeia, and 
was in full view throughout its entire passage, which occupied 
about four seconds. It descended towards the horizon at an 
angle of about 40°, passing between the two stars rj Pegasi 
and Scheat, and disappeared without breaking up when at 
the altitude of a Pegasi. It was of an elongated pear shape, 
and was followed by a short train of sparks of a dull red 
colour, the meteor itself being a very pale blue, somewhat 
less than a diameter of the moon in apparent length, and 
about six or eight times brighter than the planet J upiter. 
This meteor was also seen by Mr. Wylde, Mr. Parry, and 
Mr. Pochin, who all described it as one of great brilliancy. 
Mr. Sidebotham exhibited a copy by photo-lithography 
of one of the earliest editions of Shakespere, which he believed 
to be the first published work in which that process was 
employed. 
Mr. Brockbank exhibited a bead-like fossil body which 
had been found in a sandstone near Stainmoor, and had been 
traced to full four feet in length. 
The President said that a similar fossil had been 
described by Mr. George Tate, F.G.S., of Alnwick, in the 
Transactions of the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club for 1858, 
