i879-J 
Notes. 
455 
life. He findsthat bacteria are incapable of living in the arteries 
of animals. Continued motion for twenty four hours hinders the 
multiplication of Bacterium termo and of the Bacillus of Cohn, 
whilst if left in absolute repose they increase rapidly. [This 
conclusion does not hold good universally ; certain low vegetable 
forms, known familiarly as sewage fungus, seem to flourish best 
in waters which move swiftly, and are scarcely to be detected in 
the same waters when perfectly at rest.] 
Physics. 
From a Report on the Electric Light on the Thames Embank- 
ment, which has been submitted to the Metropolitan Board oi 
Works by Sir Joseph Bazalgette and Mr. Keates, we learn that 
the total cost of twenty lamps per night, of five and a half hours, 
was about 5*73 pence per lamp per hour. With regard to the 
value of the light, it is found that with opal shades not less than 
59 per cent of the whole light produced was wasted, while with 
shades made of frosted glass the loss only amounted to 29*9 per 
cent. Comparing the light produced from gas with the electric 
light, it is shown that the cost of gas equivalent in power to the 
electric light is not much over one-half the cost of the latter. 
At a recent meeting of the Academy of Sciences M. Jamin 
submitted a new eledtric burner, which he also recommended to 
chemists and physicists as a blowpipe. Two carbons are sup- 
ported vertically abreast, hinged below, and drawn together at 
the top by a spring. A current is sent up one (a), down the 
other (b), then round a redtangular circuit inclosing the two, and 
passing first round a by current attraction the carbons are drawn 
apart, and the arc appears at the top and descends gradually, 
consuming one or both carbons. When the action of the rect- 
angle is sufficient, the arc driven beyond the points is like a gas- 
flame, and M. Jamin receives it on a piece of lime, magnesium, 
or zirconium, getting intense light. It is also so hot as to fuse 
the lime. For the electric light this burner has considerable ad- 
vantages — such as simplicity, since it requires no mechanism and 
requires no preliminary preparation beyond a support and the 
coke points ; mechanical economy, since the number of flames 
is almost doubled ; augmentation of light, since each of the new 
foci is almost twice as powerful as those of the old construction ; 
quality of the light, which is whiter ; more advantageous ar- 
rangement of the foci, which direct their greatest quantity of 
light downwards, where it is wanted, instead of up into the air, 
where it is useless; and, lastly, economy of combustible ma- 
terial. 
M. Boudet de Paris has communicated to the Academy a paper 
“ On the Electrical Inscription of Words.” The transmitting 
apparatus is a very sensitive microphonic speaker, the carbons 
of which, instead of being pressed by a spring, are simply main- 
