137 
minster in 1854, the circumstances under which Mr. Young 
first became acquainted with the petroleum at Biddings were 
given to the public. Of course when the Americans saw 
the report of that trial they ceased to import high priced Bog- 
head coal from Scotland, upon which they had to pay a patent 
right for the manufacture of paraffine oil, and immediately 
resorted to petroleum, which had been running to waste for 
ages — the only use previously made of it having been by 
the red Indians for rubbing their bodies as a cure for rheu- 
matism. The trade had been started in Europe by the 
introduction of paraffine oil and paraffine lamps, and it only 
remained for the Americans to be told that petroleum was 
as good as paraffine oil to cause the wonderful increase 
which has taken place. 
“ On Sulphurous Acid in the Air of Manchester/’ by Peter 
Spence, Esq., F.C.S. 
Believing, as I do, that the evils of our town smoke are 
in a much larger degree due to the gases which result from 
our coal consumption than to the black smoke which is the 
one thing generally complained of and legislated against— 
it occurred to me that one of these gases, which has a most 
pernicious influence upon vegetation, and which can hardly 
be favourable as a constant breathing medium to animal 
life, could be made visible in its effects to the eye. This is 
Sulphurous Acid Gas, a very considerable product of the 
combustion of coal containing 2 per cent. Sulphur on an 
average. 
The experiments I have made have been repeated some 
15 to 20 times, and in two localities; the results are evident, 
and are now before the Society. I used litmus papers, 
exposing one series of slips in the middle of the lawn at my 
house at Smedley, about 2 miles nearly due north from the 
centre of the town, so that any wind between west, south- 
west, and east-south-east covers us with the smoke of a 
