01T THE SOCIAL BENEFITS OF PARAFFINE. 121 



illuminators of the whole civilized world, superseding the crude 

 tallow candle and the antique olive-oil lamp, while, at the same 

 time, the tallow candle is gradually being replaced by the 

 beautiful sperm-like paraffine candle ; and, in addition to this, 

 the greedy engines that have consumed so much of the olive 

 oil and the tallow are learning to be satisfied with lubricators 

 made from minerals kindred to themselves. 



The peasants of the sunny South will feed upon salads made 

 doubly unctuous and nutritious by the abundant oil ; their 

 fried meats, their pastry, omelettes, and sauces will be so 

 much richer and better than heretofore, and the Russian will 

 enjoy more freely his well-beloved and necessary tallow, when 

 the candle is made and the engine lubricated with the fat 

 extracted from coals and stones which no human stomach can 

 envy. I might travel on to China and tell of the work that' 

 paraffine and paraffine oils have yet to do among the many mill- 

 ions there and in other countries of the East. The great wave 

 of mineral light has not yet fairly broken upon their shores ; 

 but when it has once burst through the outer barriers, it will, 

 without doubt, advance with great rapidity, and with an influ- 

 ence whose beneficence can scarcely be exaggerated. 



(The above was written in the early days of paraffine lamps, 

 and while the writer was engaged in the distillation of paraffine 

 oils, etc. from the Leeswood cannel. These are now practically 

 superseded by American petroleum of similar composition, but 

 distilled in Nature's oil-works. The anticipations that appeared 

 Utopian at the time of writing have since been fully realized, 

 or even exceeded, as the wholesale price of mineral oil has 

 fallen from two shillings per gallon to an average of about 

 eightpence, and lamps have been greatly improved. At this 

 price the cost of maintaining a light of given power in an ordi- 

 nary lamp is about equal to that of ordinary London gas, if it 

 were supplied at one shilling per thousand cubic feet. The 

 mineral oil, being a fine hydrocarbon, does far less mischief 

 than gas by its combustion, as may be proved by warming a 

 conservatory with a paraffine stove and another with a gas stove. 

 In the latter all the delicate plants will be killed ; in the first 

 they scarcely suffer at all. If these facts were generally under- 

 stood we should be in~a better position for battle with the gas 

 monopolies. The importation of petroleum to the United 

 Kingdom during the first five months of 1882 amounted to 

 26,297,346 gallons.) 



