358 



NATURE 



\_Feb. 20, 1879 



exhausting machine. As to ourselves, we thought the 

 idea chimerical when it was first brought under our 

 notice ; but after reading a pamphlet on the subject by 

 M. Francis Laur, of Saint- Etienne, we were forced to 

 change our mind. The kind of safety-lamps that ought to 

 be employed will form a subject of warm debate, but we 

 can confidently assure the Commission that if they sepa- 

 rate without recommending the universal adoption of 

 lamps that will not continue to burn in an explosive 

 atmosphere, and of more perfect locks than the present 

 ones, they will have failed to satisfy one of the most 

 important requirements of the time. We say this with- 

 out prejudice to the means that may be thought best for 

 examining the workings for accumulations of gas : we 

 refer to the lamps supplied to the common workmen. 

 The employment of explosive agents in getting the 

 mineral, and other particulars relating to mines and 

 mining operations include, we think, the most important 

 of all the questions that will come before the Commis- 

 sioners. What is coal-dust? and what bearing has 

 it on the subject ? If the presence of coal-dust is, after 

 all, the cause of all these great explosions, and if, as has 

 been once before asserted in these pages, great ex- 

 plosions never happen in damp or wet mines, but 

 always in dry ones containing coal-dust, then surely 

 the Commissioners would be but dallying with the 

 subject if they omitted to carefully weigh all the 

 facts that have been adduced in favour of this 

 hypothesis. They will have to turn to other sources, 

 however, than the reports of the inspectors of mines for 

 information ; and they might do worse than consult the 

 report drawn out by M. Haton de la Goupilliere of the 

 doings of a similar commission appointed by the French 

 Government in 1878, under the title of Role des Pous- 

 silres de Charhon, in which they will find it alluded to, 

 and an historical account given of the steps that have led 

 to our present knowledge regarding it. Otherwise the 

 literature of our own country is not quite so sterile in this 

 respect as it was three years ago ; but doubtless the 

 Commissioners will provide themselves with all the most 

 recent information. 



The dangers due to the use of explosives in mines are 

 of three kinds : firstly, the shot may ignite an accumula- 

 tion of gas directly ; secondly, it may effect the same 

 thing indirectly by driving the flame of a safety-lamp 

 burning in the accumulation through the meshes of its 

 wire gauze cylinder ; thirdly, the sudden rush of flame 

 and the violent disturbance of the air caused by a blown- 

 out shot (that is to say, one which expels its tamping 

 without bi;inging down or even breaking the rock) may 

 raise and ignite the coal-dust in front of it, and more 

 especially if it is directed towards ox parallel with and 

 near to the floor. In the last case the^ flame has been 

 often known to extend to a distance of thirty, forty, and 

 even eighty yards from its origin, and such a disturbance 

 taking place under favourable conditions is quite sufficient 

 to initiate explosions such as those of Blantyre, Haydock^ 

 Abercarne, and Dinas, in which close upon a thousand 

 lives have been lost ^within the last eighteen months. 

 When we add that each of these mines was very dry and 

 contained plenty of coal-dust, and was not known to 

 contain more than insignificant accumulations of fire- 

 damp, quite insufficient to account for a tithe of the 



extent and violence of the explosions, we have said enough, 

 we think, to make it apparent how pressing is this matter. 

 Blasting operations can be safely carried out in any 

 mine if the shots are not fired near explosive accumula- 

 tions, if the lamps are of such a construction that they 

 cannot burn in an explosive atmosphere, and if the mine 

 is a damp one. It is easy enough to provide the two first 

 requirements, and it is obvious that by plentifully watering 

 the roadways we can turn a naturally dry mine into a 

 damp one and avoid danger such as we have described 

 from blasting, as well as localise explosions of fire-damp. 

 We have seen it stated in a footnote at p. 661 of the last 

 number of the Bulletin de la Societe de VIndustrie 

 Minerale that dusty mines, which are at the same time 

 well ventilated, may be watered frequently without 'ob- 

 taining permanent humidity. Fortunately, however, we 

 are in a position to point to an example which has come 

 under our own immediate notice, of an extensive mine 

 in which the workings are kept damp throughout their 

 whole extent by a constant application of water. In the 

 case to which we refer the daily output of coal is 800 

 tons, the temperature of the workings is between 70" 

 and 80° Fahr., and the amount of air passing into and 

 out of the mine is between 80,000 and 90,000 cubic feet 



\ per minute. 



' In conclusion we are eminently satisfied that science is 

 so well represented on the Commission ; and if its various 

 members will pull together like a well-balanced team, we 

 anticipate the happiest results from its researches and 

 labours. 



KINGZETTS ANIMAL CHEMISTRY 



Animal Chetnistryj or, The Relations of Chemistry to 

 Physiology and Pathology. A Ma7iual for Medical 

 Men and Scientific Chemists. By Charles Thomas 

 Kingzett, F.C.S. (London: Longmans, Green, and 

 Co.) 



FOR many years the want of a good manual of physio- 

 logical chemistry or animal chemistry in the 

 English language has been a standing reproach to 

 English science. The causes of this want are not far to 

 seek. Physiology has not many votaries in England, and 

 physiological chemistry, being in interest one step farther 

 than physiology from the verge of medical practice, has 

 still fewer followers. The number of possible writers of 

 a text-book of animal chemistry has, therefore, been 

 small; and, among them, the number of men whose 

 capability and opportunities for such an undertaking 

 might justly have led them to hope for a successful issue 

 to their labours has, it is needless to say, been smaller 

 still. The qualifications to be looked for in one who 

 attempts the task of writing such a manual are indeed 

 not slight. He must be a thoroughly trained chemist 

 whose judgment has been much exercised in the apprecia- 

 tion of chemical questions; he must be a physiologist with 

 a sound and direct knowledge of most of the practical 

 methods of physiology ; he must be an anatomist who is 

 fairly well acquainted with the microscopic. structure of 

 animal tissues ; and he should have some insight, exact 

 if not special, into morbid processes and pathological 

 states. We need not wonder, then, that the labourers 

 have been few. 



