270 
NATURE 
[May 16, 1912 
entre les mains pendant la durée du siége qu’il fut 
impossible de le réparer et que les intentions presque 
testamentaires de Le Verrier n’ont pu recevoir aucune 
exécution. W. DE FONVIELLE. 
St. Broing, 23 avril. 
The Ammonia Flame. 
Ir is generally recognised that Strutt’s discovery of 
an active form of nitrogen is one of the most interest- 
ing results of recent investigations: it may be oppor- 
tune, then, to direct attention to a phenomenon which 
seems to have some connection with active nitrogen. 
The colour of the flame of ammonia burning in 
oxygen is yellow, and of the same tint as the nitrogen 
glow in Strutt’s experiment; the spectrum of the 
light emitted is similar. The structure of the flame 
is also exceptionally interesting; it consists of an 
inner bright yellow cone and an outer, almost non- 
luminous, flame. It would seem that the ammonia 
is first of all split up into nitrogen and hydrogen, 
and that the light of the inner cone is due to the 
combination of nitrogen atoms to nitrogen molecules, 
as is suggested in the case of the nitrogen glow, while in 
the outer flame hydrogen burns to water and some 
nitrogen combines with oxygen to give nitric oxide. 
An analysis of the products of combustion showed 
that nitrogen and water were the main resulting sub- 
stances, but that nitrogen peroxide was also produced 
in considerable quantity. 
There are one or two other points which support 
this view of the combustion. The shape of the flame 
is interesting; most flames which are due to the com- 
bination of substances have a pointed cone with more 
or less inflected sides, when the gases issue from 
a circular orifice; but in the ammonia flame the 
inner cone always asumes a rounded apex like a 
thimble, the outer flame being similar to the usual 
inflected pointed type of flame. The explanation of 
the difference in the structure of the flames appears 
to me to be plain, if in the inner cone a simple decom- 
position is occurring at a distance from the orifice 
depending on the velocity of the issuing stream of 
ammonia, while in the outer cone a combination is 
occurring with oxygen which is being drawn up along 
with the flame, as in an ordinary combustion. 
Another point about the combustion which seems 
to support this view of the actions occurring in the 
flame is that it is difficult apparently to make oxygen 
burn in an atmosphere of ammonia or to get mixed 
oxygen and ammonia to burn, though such a mixture 
may explode if in correct proportions. I think, then, 
the above view of the cause of the luminosity is pre- 
ferable to that which would ascribe it to the produc- 
tion of nitric oxide. ALFRED C. EGERTON. 
R.M.A., Woolwich. 
REPORT OF THE TUBERCULOSIS 
COMMITTEE. 
iia a report just issued, the Departmental Com- 
mittee on Tuberculosis, appointed in February 
by the Chancellor of the Exchequer “to report at 
an early date upon the considerations of general 
policy in respect of the problem of tuberculosis 
in the United Kingdom in its preventive, curative, 
and other aspects, which should guide the Govern- 
ment and local bodies in making or aiding provi- 
sion for the treatment of tuberculosis in sanatoria 
or other institutions or otherwise,” has made a 
pronouncement the importance of which will be 
realised only as the advice followed in that report 
NO. 2220, VOL. 89] 
comes to be followed and its suggested provisions 
put into force. 
Up to a recent date the treatment of tuberculosis 
has been left, to a very large extent, to voluntary 
effort, and whilst excellent work has been done by 
the various associations that have undertaken this 
work, aided later by municipal and other health 
authorities, and eventually by Government and 
the Local Government Board, there has been a sad 
lack of coordination and want of organisation. 
This has militated seriously against the success of 
the campaign undertaken against the white plague. 
In the report now before us we have the “opinion” 
of a body of experts who have considered the 
question of the prevention and treatment of tuber- 
culosis on what may be described as a national 
scale. These experts have already been engaged 
in some department or other of the crusade. 
Legislators, administrators, heads of institutions 
specially designed for the treatment of tuber- 
culosis, medical officers of health, and other 
members of the medical profession, each in turn 
has brought some special knowledge and experi- 
ence to bear, with the result that we have no 
pressing forward of incomplete or ill-considered 
schemes, no exaggerated claim for any special 
method of treatment, and no presentation of a 
panacea for all cases of tuberculosis. 
The committee has taken its duties and respon- 
sibilities very seriously, and is evidently impressed 
with a sense of the importance of its functions. 
It has looked beyond those who are already in 
an advanced stage of tuberculosis, and has 
brought within its purview the measures that 
must be adopted to prevent the affection of those 
who are still sound or who suffer but slightly. 
Further than this, however, it is in full accord 
with the framers of the Act that much of what is 
now being contemplated is based on the know- 
ledge that has been gained by research, in the 
ward to some extent, but primarily in the labora- 
tory. It is impossible, of course, to affirm that in 
time we might not have reached our present view- 
point as regards the general treatment of tuber- 
culosis in its various forms by a careful clinical 
study of the disease and a prolonged study, by 
rule-of-thumb methods, of the various drugs and 
certain of the modes of treatment; but it may be 
affirmed, and that most strongly, that this could 
not have been during the life of the present 
generation, and probably for several of those suc- 
ceeding. Experimental investigations carried on 
by Villemin and Chauveau, by Burdon Sander- 
son, by Cohnheim and Salomonsen, and finally by 
Robert Koch, brought us, however, by a “short 
cut”? to a point from which the rate of advance 
along the above and other lines has been pheno- 
menally rapid; of this we have evidence in the 
report now before us. 
The first aim under the Insurance Act is to find 
out tuberculous patients, and this, it is suggested 
by the Committee, is to be done through the 
“dispensary ”’; the second is to prevent the spread 
of the disease by the administrative work of 
our public health departments and our hospitals: 
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