1864. | Sanatory Science. 167 
under 2s. This sum of 2s., at the present rates of prices for food, ap- 
pears to be the dividing line between sufficiency and insufficiency, as 
by an expenditure below that sum, health cannot be maintained. There 
is also much interesting information on the comparative digestibility 
of certain foods, and on the influence which they exercise both on the 
secretions and excretions. This report of Dr. Edward Smith’s we 
look upon as a valuable contribution to the study of dietetics, and one 
which ought to be carefully perused by all who take an interest in 
providing economically a due quantity and variety of nutritious food 
for the poor and destitute. 
The effect produced by the pursuit of certain occupations, on the 
health of the employed, has for some years past excited much attention. 
The prevalence of phthisis amongst file-makers, the tendency to 
bronchitic disorders exhibited by coal-miners, the paralytic affections 
and attacks of colic so frequent amongst workers in lead and its com- 
pounds, the diseases of the nervous system which attack looking- 
glass silverers, watch gilders, and others exposed to mercurial emana- 
tions, have long been subjects of discussion, and many ingenious plans, 
mechanical and otherwise, have been devised for warding off the per- 
nicious effects resulting from the pursuit of such occupations. The 
increase which has of late years taken place in the industrial appli- 
cations of phosphorus, and of the compound of arsenic called emerald 
green, or Scheele’s green, and the cases in which injurious, nay fatal, 
effects have been produced on those employed in their manufacture 
and use, induced Mr. Simon to request Dr. Bristowe and Dr. Guy to 
make inquiries and report thereon. From the careful examination 
which Dr. Bristowe has conducted into the methods employed in lucifer 
match-making—the chief industrial application of phosphorus,—he 
concludes that the disease of the jaw-bone, to which match-makers are 
especially liable, might be altogether avoided if amorphous instead of 
common phosphorus were employed, and that this form of match would 
possess the additional advantage of not being spontaneously combus- 
tible, and therefore not so liable to cause fires. There are, indeed, 
certain difficulties in the way of carrying out the application of the 
amorphous phosphorus. But it is the opinion of Mr, Albright, one 
of the largest manufacturers of phosphorus, ‘that if the use of the 
common form were prohibited, the end would be attained completely 
in six months, to the satisfaction of the manufacturers and the public 
advantage.” 
The recent extensive employment of emerald green in the manu- 
facture of wall papers, coloured ornaments of confectionery, artificial 
leaves and flowers, green tarlatans for dresses, children’s toys, &e., 
has aiforded Dr. Guy abundant material for the preparation of his in- 
teresting report. He makes many suggestions as to methods which 
might be adopted to prevent or diminish the risk of poisoning by 
this pigment, and we recommend all those who may be connected 
with the different branches of industry in which this brilliant green 
is employed, to attend carefully to the conclusions to which he has 
arrived. 
At those two great scientific Congresses, the British Association for 
