216 MAGNETIC MASK. 



springs, to enable him to eat without raising it; but people 

 supposing the mask to be made entirely of iron, gave its 

 unfortunate wearer the appellation of the Iron Mask, by 

 which he is commonly designated.* 



ESTHER. 



Now that we are on the subject of masks, let me read you 

 an account of the magnetic mask which I met with yester- 

 day.f 



"In needle manufactories, the workmen who point the 

 needles are constantly exposed to excessively minute parti- 

 cles of steel, which fly from the grindstones, and mix, though 

 imperceptible to the eye, as the finest dust in the air, and are 

 inhaled with their breath. The effect, though imperceptible 

 on a short exposure, yet, being constantly repeated from day 

 to day, produces a constitutional irritation, dependent on the 

 tonic properties of steel, which is sure to terminate in pulmo- 

 nary consumption; insomuch, that persons employed in this 

 kind of work used scarcely ever to attain the age of forty 

 years. In vain was it attempted to purify the air before its 

 entry into the lungs by gauzes or linen guards; the dust was 

 too fine and penetrating to be obstructed by such coarse ex- 

 pedients, till some ingenious person bethought him of that 

 wonderful power which every child who searches for its 

 mother's needle with a magnet, or admires the motions and 

 arrangements of a few steel filings on a sheet of paper held 

 above it, sees in exercise. Masks of magnetised steel wire 

 are now constructed and adapted to the faces of the workmen. 

 By these the air is not merely strained but searched in its pas- 

 sage through them, and each obnoxious atom arrested and 

 removed." 



MRS. F. 



A happy instance of how a knowledge of the laws of 

 nature enables us to improve our condition, and to remedy 



* Biographic Universelle, Siecle de Louis XIV, &c. Mr. Ellis has 

 also written the " History of the Iron Mask." 

 t Herschel's Discourse. 



