January 17, 1895J 



NATURE 



269 



of human life, and of the misery and destitution that 

 followed it, asked their fellows if this ought to be part of 

 the price to be paid for coal, and the answer was given 

 in no uncertain tones. Government inspection was in- 

 sisted upon, and, in spite of persistent opposition, even- 

 tually obtained. In the outset, the character of the 

 mspection was not always jwhat it should be ; but, little 

 by little, this has improved. We have a better trained 

 class of men sent out by the Home Office now than 

 formerly, and their hands have been gradually strength- 

 ened by the Legislature, although, perhaps, not to the 

 extent that is desirable. 



Statistics show that this intelligent inspection is gradu- 

 ally making its influence felt. Tested by the ratio of 

 fatalities to number of men employed, and to amount of 

 material raised, there is a slow but decided iinprove- 

 ment. Of course, even under the most ideal system of 

 inspection, coal-mining will continue to be a hazardous 

 occupation ; but this at least we may hope, that the steady 

 sacrifice of looo victims a year, which that ruthless 

 potentate, Old King Coal, seems to demand, shall not 

 continue to be augmented by catastrophes tha* ought to 

 be considered as preventable. 



Mr. Stuart's book is to be welcomed, therefore, as 

 adding one more link to the chain of evidence which 

 establishes the fact that coal-dust may be the most 

 important and, at times, even the only agent in bringing 

 about a colliery explosion. About a year ago an explo- 

 sion occurred at the Camerton Collieries in Somerset- 

 shire, the significant feature of which .was that it took 

 place in a mine wholly free from fire-damp. All the 

 circumstances connected with this explosion were 

 brought to the knowledge of Mr. Chamberlain's Com- 

 mission by Mr. Garthwaite, the general manager, and 

 were fully inquired into by H.M.'s inspectors. Mr. 

 Stuarts examination was made independently of the 

 official investigation, and it is satisfactory to note that as 

 regards the main conclusion there is absolute unanimity 

 on all sides. There can be no possible doubt, therefore, 

 that the explosion of November 14, 1S93, at the New 

 Collieries, Camerton Court, was due to coal-dust, and to 

 coal-dust alone, initiated by a gunpowder shot, and 

 most probably by what is technically known as a " blown- 

 out shot." Mr. Stuart's examination showed that there 

 were no "extraordinary circumstances'' present; the j 

 shot-firing was an ordinary operation, the presence of \ 

 coal-dust was a normal circumstance, and the work was 

 being done by a competent man. "The angle and 

 declivity of the hole were such, that if the gunpowder 

 were expelled, it would directly strike the dust ; but it 

 was so placed in the judgment of an experienced miner. 

 ... In the presence of this explosion, therefore, conjec- 

 ture upon the supposed innocuousness of a gunpowder ' 

 shot in a dry and dusty non-gaseous mine is at an end." 

 Whilst we wholly agree with Mr. Stuart in this con- 

 clusion, we are not altogether at one with him in regard 

 to his explanation of the chemical process of a coal-dust 

 explosion. Mr. Stuart appears to be of opinion that a 

 coal-dust explosion is in reality only another form of a 

 gas explosion. The action of the heated products of the 

 exploded gunpowder is, he assumes, to cause the dust to 

 experience a kind of destructive distillation whereby 

 NO. 1316, VOL. 51] 



hydrogen and gaseous hydrocarbons are formed, which 

 at the high temperature combine explosively with the 

 oxygen of the air of the mine. Whether there is any 

 necessity to invoke this distillatory process as an ex- 

 planation of the phenomena, is extremely doubtfuL 

 Without expressing any final ;opinion on this point, it 

 may be pointed out that no definite relation between the 

 bituminous character of the dust andjits " sensitiveness " 

 as an explosive agent has been established. The dry 

 mines of South Wales, where some of the most formid- 

 able explosions of recent times have occurred, 'yield a 

 dust which is relatively rich in carbon, and which affords 

 no very large quantity of gas on distillation. 



We would commend this book to the thoughtful at- 

 tention of every colliery manager, with, however, the 

 reservation that Mr. Stuart's theories are not to be ac- 

 cepted as of the same value as his facts. So long as he 

 confines himself to the orderly arrangement and}analysis 

 of these facts he is on perfectly safe ground. The 

 weakest portion of the book is that in which the author 

 seeks to elucidate the chemical and physical phenomena 

 of a coal-dust explosion, by the application of imperfect 

 thermal data and of irrelevant chemical observations. 



THE MODE OF LIFE OF MARINE ANIMALS. 



Die Lebensweise tier Meeresthiere. Beobachtungen uber 

 das Leben der geologischwichtigen Thicre. Von 

 Johannes Walther. Zweiter Theil einer Einleitung in 

 die Geologic als historische Wissenschaft. (Jena : 

 Gustav Fischer, 1S93.) 



THIS is the second part of Prof. Walther's projected 

 extensive geological treatise, the first part of which 

 — on the Bionomy of the .Sea — appeared some time ago. 

 Of the three titles given, the second, or subsidiary one, 

 seems best to describe the scope of the present book. 

 It is not. as might be supposed from the primary title, 

 a treatise on the physiology of marine animals — would 

 that it were I that is still a great desideratum in biology 

 — but is rather some observations on certain points in the 

 life-relations, or mode of occurrence, of certain marine 

 animals, viz. those which are of importance to the geo- 

 logist [and no less to the biologist] as being the present- 

 day representatives of former animals now preserved as 

 fossils. Walther's idea is that we must study the rela- 

 tions of organisms to their environment at the present 

 day, before drawing deductions from fossil remains"as to 

 the physical conditions of past geological periods. His 

 object is to lay a sound foundation of fact, as to the mode 

 of occurrence of particular sets of animals, upon which 

 to base an account of the history or development of the 

 events chronicled in the rocks. The idea is a sound 

 enough one, if not very original — it must surely have been 

 present, consciously or not, in the minds of various geo- 

 logical and biological writers — and the conclusions 

 arrived at, if really based upon a sufficiently large ac- 

 cumulation of statistics, will no doubt be a valuable 

 guide to the geologist in forming his opinions. The 

 book, if very complete in its series of facts, would also 

 be a useful reference work to the zoologist ; but it may 

 be doubted, on an examination of the lists given by 



