292 . 
MARTIN’S PLAN OF A SAFETY LAMP. 
We shall esteem it a favor if any of our 
brethren will enable us to comply with this 
request. Dr. Smith has promised to return 
similar preparations — minerals, shells, &c. 
and thus become the medium of scientific 
communication between scientific men in 
America and India. 
MR. ROYLE. — We cannot but lament 
over the loss which science has sustained in 
India by the retirement of that distinguish- 
ed individual Mr. Royle. Is the mere 
professorship of materia medica at the 
London University sufficient to wean Mr. 
Royle from the H. C. Service, who had only 
a few years to serve for his pension. Really 
this must, we should think, convince the 
home authorities as to the present state of 
their medical service in India, and deter- 
mine them to do something to induce men 
of scientific acquirements to remain in it. 
A QUARTERLY MEETING OF THE 
MEDICAL RETIRING FUND took 
place at the Secretary’s quarters on the 
10th. A report which will be published was 
read and adopted, when the feasibility of 
carrying our proposition of extending pay- 
ment of arrears for 3 years was discussed, 
and it was decided that the meeting approve 
of the indulgence already granted by the com- 
mittee of management for extending the pay- 
ment of arrears, which of course authorized its 
continuance at the discretion of the committee 
of management rendering the distinct resolution 
made by us no longer necessary. Sixty new sub- 
scribers are recorded as having been added to 
the fund since the last Quarterly Meeting, and 
three anuities were to be at once declared. 
PROGRESS OF SCIENCE, 
AS APPLICABLE TO THE ARTS AND MANUFACTURES; TO COMMERCE 
AND TO AGRICULTURE. 
MARTIN’S SAFETY-LAMP. 
Fig. 2. Fig. l. 
Sir, — Mr, John Martin, the eminent 
artist, submitted to the late Committee of the 
House of Commons on Mines, a plan of a 
safety-lamp, which, though it is not noticed 
in their Report, and was not alluded to in the 
trial at the London University, seems to me 
to be possessed of considerable merit. Fig. 
1, of the accompanying sketches, is a sec- 
tional view of this lamp : and the better to show 
its superiority to the common Davy-lamp, an 
engraving of the latter (fig. 2) is placed by 
the side of it. a represents the wick, which 
should never be raised so high as to cause 
the flame to smoke ; b is the oil chamber ; c are 
grooved cylinders (shown more clearly in fig.3) , 
which are of such diameters as only to admit 
air enough to support the flame. The advan- 
tage which these grooves (the master-feature 
of invention) have over wire-gauze or thin 
perforated plates, is, that the air has to pass 
through a body of metal ; a principle the safe- 
ty of which will be at once acknowledged by 
your scientifle readers, d is a copper top, with 
an opening of the same size as that round the 
