f Mr. Phillips--the agent used being a mixture of gas and vapor. A
public experiment was made with it, at which a compartment of a large
open building, quite twenty feet high inside, was fitted up with
partitions and temporary joisting of light wood, well soaked with pitch
and turpentine, and overhung besides with rags and shavings soaked in
the like manner. The torch was applied to this erection, and the flames,
which ascended immediately, at length roared with a vehemence which
drove the spectators back to a distance of forty feet, and were already
beyond the power of water. The inventor then brought forward one of his
hand machines, and threw out a volume of gaseous vapor, which in half a
minute entirely suppressed all flame and combustion; and to show that
the vapor which now filled the space was quite innoxious, Mr. Phillips
mounted into the loft, and passed and repassed through the midst of it
with a lighted candle in his hand. The machine with which this effect
was accomplished, was rather larger than a good sized coffee-pot, and
consisted of three tin cases, one within another, and mutually
communicating. There was a small quantity of water in the bottom of the
machine, and in the centre case was a composite cake, of the size and
color of peat, containing in the middle of it a phial of sulphuric acid
and chlorate of potash. In order to put the machine into action this
phial is broken, and a gaseous vapor is generated so rapidly and in such
quantity that it immediately rushes out from a lateral spout with great
impetuosity Mr. Phillips explained that a machine of any size could be
made according to the purpose for which it was intended.

Some recent experiments on light, in Paris, have attracted a good deal
of attention in the scientific circles. M. Foucault is said to have
practically demonstrated that light travels less rapidly through water
than through air, though he made his experiments with instruments
devised by M. Arago, and mainly under his direction. The importance of
the discovery may be judged of from the fact that for the last twelve
years M. Arago has been pondering over it, and on the means of effecting
it.

Experiments have been made on the means of protecting the hands against
molten metal. M. Corne, in a paper submitted to the Academy of Sciences,
thus details them:

"Having determined on investigating the question, whether the employment
of liquid sulphurous acid for moistening the hands woul