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Ordinary Meeting, January 8tli, 1878. 
E. W. Binney, F.RS., F.G.S., President, in the Chair. 
The President said that on the 31st of December last, 
at about 5.30 p.m., he was walking from Ainsworth to Bury, 
and he observed a large meteor which started from the star 
Pollux, and after making a slight curve upwards disappeared 
near the star Beta in Taurus. It seemed larger than the 
planet Venus, then brightly shining, and was of a yellowish- 
white colour, and disappeared without breaking. It left a 
luminous track of its entire course for a short time after it 
had passed. 
“Note on the Decomposition of Water by Iron-pyrites,” 
by C. A. Burghardt, Ph.D. 
I have recently endeavoured to ascertain what part iron- 
pyrites plays in the formation of the natural sulphides of 
other metals, such as copper-glance, copper-pyrites, &c. 
These and other sulphides are supposed to arise through the 
reduction of the corresponding sulphates of those metals by 
organic matter. Bischoff, in his " Chemical and Physical 
Geology,” voL iii., p. 551, says, “The production of sulphides 
presupposes the existence of sulphates ; and the elimination 
of sulphur from sulphates, either in combination with 
hydrogen, or with the metals of the alkalies, or alkaline 
earths, presupposes the existence of organic life, since that 
Peoceedings— Lit. & Phil. Soc.— Vol. XVII.— No. 6— Session 1877-8. 
