the wonders of modern London, is 300 acres in extent. The capital of the Company amounts to nearly eleven million pounds sterling. The present annual make of gas is 17,000 million cubic feet, from a consumption of 1,630,000 tons of coal. The residuals arising in the manufacture of gas in this country are of considerable importance and value. These, in their raw or crude state, are estimated at the present low prices to which they have recently fallen, to amount in value to about £3,000,000 for the produce of twelve months. The ammoniacal liquor of gas-works is the chief source of carbonate, muriate and sulphate of ammonia; these are all extensively used in the arts, and the latter valuable salt is widely employed, especially on the continent of Europe, for manurial purposes in competition with nitrate of soda and the natural guano of Peru. Cyanogen is another substance obtained from the liquor; this, in combination with iron, forms Prussian blue; and in union with ammonium sulphide it produces sulpho-cyanide of ammonium, a compound used by photographers, and in the preparation of the constituent of the dangerously poisonous toys known as Pharaoh's Serpents.' Of the derivatives of coal tar it is impossible to present a complete summary in the limited space at our disposal. The substances extracted from tar to the present time exceed 130 in number, and fresh products are constantly being obtained. Perhaps the most important substance yielded by the tar is Benzole. This is remarkable for its solvent power for caoutchouc, gutta percha, resins and fats. It is used also for preparing varnishes, for removing grease spots, and cleaning soiled white kid gloves. Treated with nitric acid it yields nitro-benzole or essence of mirbane, having an odour resembling oil of bitter almonds, and used to perfume soaps and flavour confectionery. Aniline is also derived from it, this substance being the base of all the rich and beautiful dyes bearing the name of Aniline Colours.' Coal tar is also the chief, if not now the only, source of Anthracene, from which Alizarine, the colouring principle of madder, is derived. Since the discovery of this substance in coal tar, the cultivation of the madder root in eastern countries has been entirely discontinued, and thus, as a distinguished savant has declared, an appreciable addition has been made to the surface of the globe! Creosote in large quantity is obtained in the distillation of coal tar. This is used for the preservation of timber in contact with the ground, notably the wood sleepers of railways. It is also an excellent liquid fuel, and in combination with caustic soda and tallow is valuable as a dip for washing sheep. Green oil, one of the distillates of coal tar, mixed with resin and oil is used for making railway grease; lamp black, from which printer's ink is prepared, is also made from it. Carbolic acid, one of the most valuable antiseptics and disinfectants, is obtained from coal tar. The two most recent coal tar derivatives are, Antipyrine discovered by Herr Ludwig D'Erlanger, and regarded by physicians as the most powerful agent known for reducing temperature in fevers; and Saccharin, discovered by Dr. Constantine Fahlberg in the United States. The taste of this substance is so extraordinarily sweet that a solution of 1 in 70,000 of water is perceptible. The solid deposit upon the interior surface of gas retorts is almost. pure carbon, and is employed in the construction of the Bunsen Galvanic Battery, and for the carbon points of candles used in the Arc Electric Lamp. Sulphuric acid and flowers of sulphur are largely produced from the spent oxide of iron used in the purification of coal gas. The spent lime of the purifiers is applied as a compost to rough land, and the valuable coke which is drawn as a residue from the retorts after the gascous products have been expelled is extensively burnt in domestic fires and for trade purposes. It would be travelling beyond the scope of the present article to go at length into the question which at times disturbs timid. gas proprietors, of the relative value or desirability of electricity and gas as illuminating agents. If both agents were equally available to the public, there might be reason for entertaining the fear that lighting by gas was in jeopardy-though even in such a case it would be easy to show the contrary. In the writer's opinion all fear or hope of the general displacement of gas, even for lighting purposes-not to mention its other uses-may be dismissed as groundless. It must be admitted by even the strongest partisans that electric lighting is far from satisfactory. In iso lated buildings, where perfect insulation for the conducting wires can be insured, it answers fairly well, provided that cost and occasional, not to say frequent, extinguishment, are treated as merely secondary matters; but to suppose that electricity will ever be able to compete with Gas in the endless ramifications of town lighting, public and private, is an assumption which only the liveliest imagination could seriously entertain. It is evident from the very nature of things that gas must continue to be produced, not only on account of its illuminating and heating qualities, but also for the sake of the bye products arising from its manufacture; and however rapid may be the progress of electric lighting towards perfection, there is every reason to believe that the Gas Industry is destined to grow and prosper. THOMAS NEWBIGGING, C.E. ART. V. THOMAS OF ERCELDOUNE. 1. The Romance and Prophecies of Thomas of Erceldoune. Printed from five MSS., with illustrations from the Prophetic Literature of 15th and 16th Centuries. Edited with Introduction and Notes by JAMES A. H. MURRAY, LLD. (Early English Text Society). London: 1875. 2. Thomas of Erceldoune. Herausgegeben von ALOIS BRANDL. Berlin: 1880. A MONG the many good works Dr. Murray has done in connection with the literature and language of the country, few are more meritorious than the one whose title we have placed first in our list. Unfortunately it is a society publication, and on that account is probably much less widely known than it deserves to be. Though comparatively slight in appearance, to the student of early English and Scottish literature it cannot fail to prove a work of palmary importance, deserving a place side by side with its author's excellent edition of the Complaynt of Scotland. For the general reader it possesses the merit of to us. opening up to him certain peculiar characteristics in the past life of the country, and of leading him along lines of thought and imagination which are now rarely followed. Its principal feature is, of course, the texts of the five MSS. in which the Romance and Prophecies of Thomas of Erceldoune has come down The transcripts of these, as it is hardly necessary to say, have been made with commendable, if not always perfect, accuracy. The only complaint they suggest is that Dr. Murray has not carried on and completed his work by constructing for us what he considers the best obtainable text of one of the best examples of a most curious and interesting species of composition now completely, and happily, neglected. Next in value to the texts is Dr. Murray's exceedingly elaborate introduction, rich in literary and historical information, and, though exception may be taken to several of the assertions it contains, in every way worthy of its author's reputation. The notes explanatory of the poem are for the most part excellent, and leave but few passages in uncertainty. Of the remaining contents of the volume, we need refer here only to the illustrations drawn from the prophetic literature of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries. The first is Waldegrave's text of the Prophecie of Thomas Rymour, collated with that published twelve years later, 1615, by Andro Hart. The second is an English prophecy entitled The Prophesies of Rymour, Beid, and Marlyng; and the third, an English Prophecy of Gladsmoor, Sandisford, and Seyton and the Seye predicted in 1553. Altogether, the work is out of all comparison the best that has yet appeared in English in connection with the Rhymer and the Romance and Prophecies so long associated with him as its author. Dr. Brandl's work may be regarded as forming a supplement, and a very admirable one, to Dr. Murray's. Over most of the points touched upon or discussed by Dr. Murray, he designedly passes, and brings forward a large amount of additional information, all having a distinct bearing upon the authorship and interpretation of the poem, and exhibiting a remarkably minute acquaintance with the prophetical literature of England and Scotland. His introduction, though less histo rical than Dr. Murray's, is more technical, and discusses several topics which in the earlier volume were either passed over in silence, or only slightly touched upon. Generally speaking the two editors are in agreement with each other, but on one or two points of importance they differ. In a number of instances Dr. Brandl's reading of the MSS. differs from Dr. Murray's. Several phrases also which the latter had left obscure, Dr. Brandl has cleared up. The least satisfactory part of the work is the text of the Romance and Prophecies. This Dr. Brandl has attempted to restore, but in so doing he has, as it seems to us, paid too little attention to the Thornton text, and made alterations and omissions that are scarcely warranted. On these points, however, we cannot here dwell. It must suffice to say that all through Dr. Brandl assumes that his readers are acquainted with the earlier work, and that the two together contain almost all that can be said about the poem to which they are devoted. In the following pages we have no intention of following our authors through the interpretations they have given of the various predictions contained in the prophetical part of the Romance and Prophecies. Here and there we shall have occasion to avail ourselves of their learned labours and suggestions; but the task we propose to ourselves is to deal with certain questions concerning the reputed author of the poem, and with certain points connected with its origin and character. In the introduction we have already referred to Dr. Murray makes the very apposite remark that Thomas of Erceldoune occupies a much more important position in the legendary history of Scotland than he does in its authentic annals. To our own mind the Thomas the Rhymer of tradition is for the most part a purely mythical figure. Many of the things attributed to him are entirely fictitious, and could not have had the slightest possible connection with him. For generations and centuries his name was used as a convenient peg on which to hang a variety of popular tales and fancies. His reputation flourished when 'No natural exhalation in the sky, No scape of nature, no distempered day, |