6io 



NATURE 



\Oct. lo, 1878 



from 12 to IS cents. Edison will soon give a public 

 exhibition of his new invention." 



So much for the New York Stin. Although a student 

 of science will hare little difficulty in 'associating the 

 results promised with the discovery of perpetual motion, 

 it is quite probable that Mr. Edison has "actually suc- 

 ceeded in doing what he states he has done in his tele- 

 gram : " I have just solved the problem of the sub-divi- 

 sion of the electric light indefinitely." What we wish to 

 point out is that it is one thing to do this and another thing 

 to produce an electric light for ordinary house and street 

 use. Once put the molecules of solid carbon in motion, 

 and just because a solid is in question, the light must be 

 excessive' and the expenditure of energy must be con- 

 siderable. 



While it is easy to believe that the future may produce 

 a means of illumination mid-way between the electric 

 light and gas, it is equally easy to see that the thing is 

 impossible without great waste, and therefore cost, with 

 dynamo-electric machines and carbon poles. So long 

 as carbon is employed we shall have much light 

 which, perhaps, can be increased and steadied if various 

 gases and pressures are tried. But streets and rooms full 

 of such suns as these would be unbearable unless we 

 sacrifice much of the light after we have got it. Split 

 up the currrent in the manner so cheerfully described by 

 the New York paper, and the carbon will refuse to flow 

 altogether if an engine of 5,000,000 horse-power be em- 

 ployed instead of the modest one of 500 which is to 

 light the south part of the island. If Mr. Edison has 

 succeeded in replacing carbon he may have turned the 

 flank of the difficulty to a certain extent. 



Although, however, we may pity the ignorance of 

 those who act upon such statements as those made 

 by the imaginative New York Sun, gas companies 

 may well begin to feel uneasy at the general attention 

 which is being drawn to the electric light as a substitute 

 for gas if they are prepared to let things alone. That 

 in one form or other it is likely to be partially adopted in 

 all large cities and at extensive public works seems most 

 likely. It will be one of the lights of the future, but not 

 to the excluding or superseding of gas-light. 



Our own columns have repeatedly borne testimony to 

 the success which has attended its introduction into Paris, 

 where it is to be met with at almost every corner, and at 

 one or more of the railway stations. The general testi- 

 mony of those who are unprejudiced is that at least for 

 wide streets, squares, and open places, its lighting eflect 

 is all that could be desired. Every Londoner is familiar 

 with the effect of the display which the enterprising Mr. 

 Holiingshead has placed in front of the Gaiety Theatre, 

 and the glowing contrast presented to the miserable 

 yellow flames of the neighbouring street-lamps ; but 

 this contrast exists because the gas is bad and dear. Mr. 

 Holiingshead, in a letter to the Daily News, corrects the 

 view of the gas companies, that the electric light must 

 necessarily cost more to produce than gas. His own 

 display, necessarily wasteful, costs four-fifths what gas 

 would, and he is probably correct in saying that with 

 proper management it need not cost more than one half. 

 Moreover, in yesterday's Times, Mr. E. J. Reed refers 

 to the case of M. E. Manchon, a large manufacturer at 

 Rouen, who has gone to considerable expense to alter his 



premises to suit the electric light, and who, even with 

 hired engine power, finds that there is an annual saving 

 of 22-6 per cent, over gas, with infinitely better light and 

 a wholesome atmosphere. Mr. Reed is of opinion that 

 even if the electric light cost more than gas, its advan- 

 tages are so great, that for the lighting of public places, 

 museums, art galleries, manufactories, &c., he would ad- 

 vocate its general introduction. Even Madrid, one of 

 the most backward cities in Europe, has introduced the 

 light, one great benefit of which, especially in theatres 

 and other much frequented places, is that the heat gene- 

 rated and the contamination of the air is greatly less 

 than in the case of gas. 



Let the directors of gas companies do all they can to 

 improve their gas. They may be certain that it will 

 never cease to be required ; a considerable splitting up of 

 the electric current is impossible, while the brilliant light 

 that we shall always get when electricity is employed 

 will gradually so raise the pitch of illumination that more 

 gas than ever will be used. 



THE MEDICAL FACULTIES 

 n^HE opening addresses of the various London 

 medical schools always form an interesting episode 

 in the scientific year, and this session they have been even 

 more interesting and have attracted more attention than 

 usual. This is especially the case with the vigorous 

 and trenchant address (published in full in the British 

 Medical Journal of October S) of Prof Ray Lankester. 

 On another page we reprint a remarkable article from the 

 Lancet, in which it is plainly stated that without endow- 

 ment of research the progress of medicine must soon 

 become impossible in this country ; that the work of 

 scientific investigation demands practically the whole 

 energies of a competent man and is incompatible with 

 the necessity of earning a living in any other direction. 

 It is somewhat remarkable that such an article should 

 be published simultaneously with the outspoken address 

 of Prof. Lankester, who aimed to show that the great Uni- 

 versities of this country are faithless to their duty and 

 to the end for which they were established, in not pro- 

 viding for the pursuit of scientific research, in so far 

 at least as that bears on the healing art. 



" The work of the medical profession — its function in the 

 community " — he showed, " is to bring into practical use 

 an immense mass of accurate knowledge with regard to 

 the conditions affecting the healthy working of the human 

 body. Accordingly, two distinct kinds of activity — one 

 dependent on the other, one as important as the other — 

 are to be recognised as essential to the business of the 

 medical profession. The one consists in the accumulating 

 of knowledge relating to the human body and to the con- 

 ditions affecting its health, the sifting of false from true 

 knowledge, the producing of new knowledge ; the other 

 consists in the appHcation of this knowledge to particular 

 cases of disease or danger in such a way that action may 

 be taken, avoiding the disease or danger, or alleviating 

 the suffering which results from them. 



"There is a most mischievous notion current at 

 the present time," Mr. Lankester went on, "that the 

 first of these lines of work is 'theoretical,' and 

 that the second is 'practical;' and it is not unusual to 

 separate the 'theoretical' from the 'practical' man, 



