NOTES FROM " CORRESPONDENCE SCIENTIFlQUEy 301 



"Zoological Exploration of the Mediterranean." Giving latest results 

 achieved by the Scientific Commission on board the national vessel " Travail- 

 leur," then in the Gulf of Lyons. Among other things the drag has discovered 

 large Gorgons of the genus Isis, of an unknown species taken at a depth of 650 

 yards which offered to the explorers a marvelous spectacle ; they emitted from 

 their entire bodies, a green phosphorescent light of such intensity that when the 

 animals were disturbed they seemed to produce a shower of fire. In the middle 

 of one of the darkest nights it was possible to read by it {ainsi) very fine print. 



"A Manufactory of Prehistoric Flints." Translated below. , 



" Dangers o'f Celluloid." In which it is stated th3,t this product at first 

 made from "camphor with an inexplosible cotton powder," is since made from 

 compressed paper and mineral oil and has become inflammable and dangerous^ 

 and has already caused a great number of accidents. 



"Pictures (Scenic?) of the Grand Opera." The celebrated work of a dis- 

 tinguished artist, Paul Bandry, observed to be obscured by the products of the 

 combustion of gas used for illumination ; it has been decided by the Minister of 

 Public Works to substitute the electric light. 



"Detective Ballot-Box." Describing a new style of glass ballot-box, pro- 

 posed to be adopted in a law under discussion by the General Assembly. By 

 means of special mechanism it permits an absolute check upon the number of 

 ballots deposited, and renders easy to everybody to verify the number of votes 

 cast at every moment of the day. 



HYGIENIC PROPERTIES OF ELECTRIC ILLUMINATION. 



The question of the hygiene of illumination in closed apartments, having 

 lately been discussed by the Society of Natural Sciences, of Brunswick, Prof. 

 Plasius and Doctor Hoppe have expressed their opinions upon the hygienic 

 qualities of electric illumination. 



After our contemporary " La Lumire Electrique," from whom we borrow the 

 following details. Prof. Plasius remarked upon the advantages of electric illumin- 

 ation in respect to freedom from the injurious products of combustion, and that 

 it does not offer as does gas, danger of explosion. In electric illumination, 

 though there is combustion of carbon, the quantity of carbonic acid produced is 

 excessively low, besides which, it produces no other deleterious gas. 



Dr. Hoppe afterward gave account of his experiments upon variations of 

 visual accuracy and the (comparative) facility of perception of colors under influ- 

 ence of different modes of illumination. It results from this study that in general 

 visual sharpness is greater under gas than under daylight (?) and still more so 

 under the electric light. With the latter illumination one recognizes red, green, 

 blue and, above all, yellow, at much greater distance than by daylight. By gas- 

 light colors are distinguished more easily than by day, but less easily than hj 

 electric light ; yellow only being less visible under gas than under daylight. 



