1879O National Scientific Appointments. 723 
Certain writers suggest that the imperishable wicks may 
have been made of asbestos, or “ salamander’s wool ” as it 
was called, but they encounter great difficulty in the matter 
of the “ indestructible aliment.” Vigneul-Marville ascribes 
the flames to the “ fat and gross vapours engendered by the 
corruption of dead bodies and enkindled by the torches used 
in opening a tomb.” Dr. Robert Plot, “ Director of Expe- 
riments to the Philosophical Society of Oxford,” read a 
paper before the Society, in 1684, in which he narrates 
experiments made to test the value of asbestos for lamp- 
wicks. He concludes that this material may have been used 
in the sepulchral lamps, and to account for the inexhaustible 
oil discourses on a spring of liquid bitumen, or naphtha, 
such as occurs in Shropshire : a similar suggestion was made 
by Athanasius Kircher as early as 1665 (“ Mundus Subt.,” 
loc. cit.). Other writers conjecture that the lights found in 
the tombs were of phosphorus — meaning thereby not the 
modern chemical element of this name, but the so-called 
“ Bologna stone,” which shines in the dark. The elder 
Disraeli briefly notices these remarkable legends in his 
“ Curiosities of Literature,” and points out the necessity of 
the oxygen of the atmosphere to ordinary combustion ; he 
considers this faCt in itself a sufficient refutation of these 
singular traditions. 
II. NATIONAL SCIENTIFIC APPOINTMENTS. 
ANY well-informed people, including not a few of 
those who hover round the outskirts of the scien- 
tific world, have but very vague notions concerning 
the manner in which many of our scientific officials are 
selected. We have heard the question asked whether ap- 
pointments of this nature were obtained by influence, by 
examination, or, rebus gestis , by discoveries made and re- 
searches carried out. In consideration of our national 
cram-worship, it need scarcely have been doubted that we 
should, with rare exceptions, hold fast to the worst of all 
possible methods, that of competitive examination — a system 
which is year by year lowering our national position in the 
scientific world. 
