THE TECHNOLOGIST. [June 1, 1865. 



494 ON MAGNESIUM. 



grandeur of its size and the beauty of its proportions. This effect, so 

 admirably complete, too, as it is, and perfect in its way, probably results 

 from, the extraordinary intensity of the light, apart from its useful 

 photographic property, for, side by side with the magnesium light, the 

 wax candle-flame looked not much brighter than the red granite of the 

 walls of the room. There come parties— often many parties — of 

 visitors to see the Pyramid every day without fail, and they come 

 amply provided, too, with all sorts of means and appliances to enjoy 

 the sight, i. e., with everything but the needful maguesium wire ; and 

 one waistcoat-pocket of that woidd be worth a whole donkey-load of 

 what they do bring up to enable their souls to realize the ancient 

 glories of the internal scene. 



" I remain, yours very truly, 



" C. Piazzi Smyth. 



"John Spiller, Esq., Chemical Department, 

 Royal Arsenal, Woolwich." 



M. Nadar is said to be engaged on a series of photographs of the 

 Catacombs of Paris ; various artists are busy practising on monuments in 

 obscure recesses of Continental churches ; and Mr. Brothers, we believe, 

 contemplates undertaking the caves of Derbyshire. The crypt of St. 

 Stephen's Palace of Westminster, recently restored and decorated under 

 the direction of Mr. E. M. Barry, has been lighted up for an hour and a 

 half with the magnesium lamp, and the exquisite elaboration of its 

 moulded and carved doorways and the bosses of the groyning displayed 

 in vivid detail. By the same means the vast recesses of the Outfall 

 Sewer "Works at Crossness have been illuminated. 



In surgery the magnesium light is now freely used in examinations 

 with the speculum. In a recent number of " Galignani " we read — 



"This powerful light has just received a new application in connec- 

 tion with the laryngoscope, a small apparatus consisting of two mirrors 

 by means of which the lower parts of the larynx may be conveniently 

 brought to view. M. Maisonneuve, being desirous of showing his 

 students the manner of using this apparatus, requested Dr. Fournie, the 

 inventor of the improvement we are about to describe, to attend a late 

 clinical lecture of his. Dr. Fournie did so, bringing a patient with him 

 who was suffering from a polypus situated deep in the throat. This 

 tumour, of the size of a filbert, not only impeded the free articulation of 

 sound, but might in the end, by its growth, have rendered respiration 

 impossible, and consequently caused death by suffocation. In order to 

 render this pathological phenomenon visible to the students and physi- 

 cians who crowded the lecture-room, M. Fournie made use cf the mag- 

 nesium light. By means of M. Mathieu-Plessy's lamp, especially con- 

 structed for the magnesium light, strong luminous rays were projected 

 on the mirror placed at the furthest end of the fauces, andthence reflected 

 into the larynx and the trachea. These parts being thus powerfully 

 illuminated, were visibly depicted on the mirror; but the image was 



