MODERN MYSTICISM AND MODERN SCIENCE. 281 



us come nearer home, and treat of matters that have a present 

 import. 



Nearly one thousand coal-miners are lost to the country 

 year by year ; killed by explosions of fire-damp. But Davy 

 invented a safety-lamp : the instrument won him much of 

 his' fame. Mining statistics record the fact that fire-damp 

 explosions have been far more fatal since the use of Davy's 

 lamp than previously. This is a significant revelation. That 

 it has not been practically recognised seems referable to the 

 paralysing influence of Davy's great name. As is common, 

 the public attribute to the Davy lamp a greater power of 

 safety than Davy himself attributed. It is commonly as- 

 sumed that a Davy lamp, in good order and untampered with, 

 cannot explode such gaseous mixtures as occur in coal-mines. 

 Davy himself knew better. He knew of at least one con- 

 dition under which the safety-lamp, on his construction, was 

 no longer safe ; namely, the condition of currents. Nay, he 

 positively, in his book on flame, enjoins the miner, armed 

 with his lamp, and coming near one of those emanations of 

 inflammable gas termed ' blowers,' to ward-off the current by 

 sheltering the lamp under a hat. The truth of the case is, 

 that, even under the best of circumstances, Davy's lamp is 

 only safe when in a perfectly tranquil atmosphere. Given 

 a current of sufficient velocity, it may be caused to explode 

 at once. Explosion may also be determined by the deposition 

 of coal-dust on the wire-gauze jacket; and under various 

 other contingencies, too numerous here for indication. 



It is a characteristic of the true scientific mind, never 

 to yield allegiance thus blindly to the authority of a name. 

 Here, again, care is required, lest needless objections be 

 raised, merely to demonstrate the possibility of raising them. 

 Experiment is always better than testimony: but in this, 

 again, honesty of judgment is needed, to satisfy each ques- 

 tioner for himself the query : * To what extent am I quali- 

 fied as an experimenter?' 



