1875.] Physics. AI3 
glass promises to supersede porcelain and similar wares, and to add a real and 
permanent value to glass utensils of every kind. It will probably supersede 
enamel on culinary utensils, and in other similar directions. It might be 
thought that this invention would prove a disadvantage to the glass trade, but 
the widely-increased use of glass for purposes which its brittleness has hitherto 
unfitted it should be a sufficient answer to any such objectors. If there were 
any such, they would naturally be those connected with the glass trade. But 
I do not find them there. On the contrary, some of our most eminent glass 
manufacturers are now negotiating with M. de la Bastie’s agents for licenses to 
work the patent in England. I may observe, that it is not at all improbable 
that the invention will receive its first practical application in the Aquarium 
now in course of erection within a short walk of the house wherein we are now 
assembled. Such, then, is one of the most notable inventions of modern times, 
an invention so remarkable, so unique, and apparently so fraught with import 
to the arts, sciences, and manufactures, as to render it probable that the name 
of De la Bastie will one day occupy no mean position amongst those of men 
by whose genius science has been enriched, and the nations practically 
benefitted. 
