244  PHOSPHORUS  AND  MATCH  MANUFACTURES. 
highly  poisonous,  and  several  instances  are  upon  record  where 
children  have  been  killed  through  sucking  the  composition  from 
the  ends  of  matches.  It  might  be  also  used  for  intentional 
poisoning,  especially  as  phosphorus  exists  naturally  to  a  large 
amount  in  the  tissues  of  the  human  body  ;  and  phosphorus  in- 
troduced into  the  stomach  becomes  gradually  converted  into 
phosphoric  acid,  which  cannot  readily  be  distinguished  from 
that  naturally  present.  The  amorphous  variety  could  not  pro- 
duce poisoning  either  by  accident  or  intention,  for  Dr.  De  Vry, 
of  Rotterdam,  has  administered  it  in  various  doses  to  animals 
without  producing  any  ill  effects. 
Conflagrations  have  also  frequently  resulted  from  ordinary 
phosphorus  matches,  which  could  not  possibly  have  occurred  with 
the  matches  made  with  amorphous  phosphorus  under  the  patent 
of  M.  Lundstrom,  already  mentioned.  In  the  records  of  fire  in- 
surance, we  find  that  calamitous  fires  have  been  produced  by 
cats  knocking  down  boxes  of  matches,  and  by  rats  gnawing  the 
ends  of  matches. 
Let  us  endeavor  to  draw  a  useful  lesson  from  the  facts  we 
have  recorded, — not  to  despise  or  think  lightly  of  the  abstract 
facts  or  "small  beginnings"  of  philosophers,  but  rather  to 
foster  them;  sooner  or  later,  they  may  become  of  value  to  our- 
selves or  our  successors.  Who  would  have  thought  that  the 
curious,  stinking,  unctuous,  luminous  wax  of  Master  Brandt 
would  ever  have  become  so  important  and  universal  an  agent  of 
civilization  ?  That  great  modern  innovator,  the  scientific  faculty 
of  man,  has,  by  the  certain  process  of  experiment  and  induction, 
so  immensely  improved  the  means  of  producing  phosphorus,  and 
so  marvellously  adapted  its  properties  to  the  uses  and  require- 
ments of  domestic  and  general  life,  that  it  has  extended  the 
civilizing  and  ameliorating  influence  of  the  lucifer  match  to  the 
uttermost  ends  of  the  earth.  The  matches  of  London,  Man- 
chester, and  Vienna,  are  to  be  seen  in  the  wigwam  of  the  far- 
west  Indian,  the  bush  dwelling  of  the  Australian,  the  habitation 
of  the  Mussulman,  the  frozen  hut  of  the  Greenlander,  the  hovel 
of  the  peasant,  and  the  palace  of  the  Emperor.  Everywhere,  as 
commerce  extends  its  boundaries  into  newly-discovered  regions, 
it  is  one  of  the  first  articles  of  civilization  which  is  introduced. 
—  Chem.  News,  London,  Aug.  17,  1861. 
