Short Papers and Notes. 87 
oil lamps used in lighthouses, and also with the electric light, 
which was also in operation. Mr. Wigham also explained several 
new inventions of his connected with lighthouse illumination, 
which presented features of much interest. One of these was for 
a light of equal intensity to the electric light, but combining great 
volume with its intensity, and, furthermore, having in itself that 
predominance of red and yellow rays which renders it suitable for 
penetrating fog. Mr. Wigham also exhibited a perfectly new 
method of illuminating lighthouses which he called a fourth 
illuminant. ‘This plan consists of supplying air under pressure to 
lighthouse lamps, so as to surround the flame with a cylinder of 
air and do away with chimney glasses, and thus avoid a serious 
element of expense and danger.—Zglish Mechanic. 
The Lick Observatory. 
Our American contemporary, the Zronx Age, states that serious 
defects in the construction of this observatory will delay the 
time for fully demonstrating the power of the great telescope. 
The most serious is the mounting of the telescope ona hollow 
iron pier 30 feet high, with extra elevation, it is claimed, was not 
needed on a mountain 4,000 feet above the level of the sea. 
Owing to its extremely great power, the telescope is so sensitive 
that the placing of a man’s hand on the hollow iron pier is 
sufficient to throw the star entirely out of the field. This can only 
be obviated by the removal of the present pier, and the building 
of a solid one of brick or stone, or else placing the base of the 
instrument directly upon the summit of the mountain. Another 
serious fault is the removable floor for the great dome. Expe- 
rience has demonstrated that instead of five it requires fifty 
minutes to effect the desired change of position of the floor, by 
which time the object of observation would, necessarily, be in a 
different place in the heavens. 
Medicinal Qualities of Ontons. 
The free use of onions for the table has always been con- 
sidered by most people a healthy and desirable vegetable, and but 
for their odour, which is objectionable to many, they would be 
found more generally on our dining-tables. For a cold on the 
chest there is no better specific, for most persons, than well-boiled 
or roasted onions. They may not agree with everyone, but to 
persons with good digestion they will not only be found to be a 
most excellent remedy for a cough and the clogging of the bron- 
chial tubes, which is usually the cause of the cough, but if eaten 
freely at the outset of a cold they will usually break up what 
