295 



If the estimate were made upon three hours instead of two per 

 day, it is evident that the comparison would be still more in favour 

 of the gas lights, since the interest of capital would be the same, 

 and the wear and tear not much greater ; so that the annual cost 

 might be about 650/. instead of 30001. 



The introduction of the gas lights into this manufactory has been 

 gradual : at first some inconvenience was experienced from the smell; 

 but this objection has been wholly removed by improved methods of 

 purifying the gas, and it is now much approved by the work-people 

 for the perfect steadiness of the light ; and it is wholly free from the 

 inconvenience of snuffing, and from the danger occasioned by sparks 

 that fall from candles. 



In addition to the foregoing statement of comparative economy, 

 the author conceives it may be interesting to the Society to be in- 

 formed of the original application of this gas, as a substitute for oil 

 and tallow, which he states to have put in practice nearly sixteen 

 years, in consequence of experiments which he was at that time con- 

 ducting at Redruth, in Cornwall, upon the distillation of various 

 mineral and vegetable substances. 



It was not, however, till the year 1798, that he removed from 

 Cornwall to the manufactory of Messrs. Boulton and Watt, at the 

 Soho foundery, and there constructed an apparatus on a large scale, 

 for the purpose of lighting their principal building. Since that pe- 

 riod it has been extended to the greatest part of their manufactory, 

 to the exclusion of other artificial light ; but Mr. Murdoch has pre- 

 ferred collecting his estimate from the apparatus of Messrs. Philips 

 and Lee, on account of the greater extent and greater uniformity of 

 the lights. 



Although the author did not derive his information concerning the 

 inflammability of this gas from any source but his own experiments, 

 he has since learned that " the inflammable spirit of coals " is men- 

 tioned by Dr. Clayton in the forty-first volume of the Philosophical 

 Transactions, so long since as the year 1739 ; and he is informed 

 that the current of gas escaping from Lord Dundonald's tar-ovens 

 had been frequently set on fire previous to the date of his experi- 

 ments : but he thinks himself entitled to claim the original idea of 

 applying it as an economical substitute for oils and tallow for the 

 purpose of illumination. 



Further Experiments on the Spleen. By Everard Home, Esq. F.R.S. 

 Read February 25, 1808. [Phil. Trans. 1808, p. 133.] 



The author having established by the experiments which he lately 

 communicated to the Society, that when the pylorus is closed by a 

 ligature, fluids pass from the stomach into the circulation through the 

 medium of the spleen, has since that time conducted a new course of 

 experiments to determine whether there is the same passage also in 

 the natural state of these parts. 



Six asses were the subjects of as many experiments, To the three 



