The cost of light equivalent to that of seven mould candles (six to the pound) is in coal-gas three farthings per hour, in an Argand oil-lamp 3_d._ per hour, in mould candles 3½_d._ per hour, and in wax candles 1_s._ 2_d._ per hour. Gas has also been manufactured from oil, rosin and other substances. Oil-gas is procured abundantly by the decomposition of oil, trickled into a red-hot retort, half-filled with coke or brick. It contains no sulphuretted hydrogen, requires no purification, and is much richer in carburetted hydrogen than coal-gas. Its expense has however led nearly to the entire disuse of this kind of gas. In London there are eighteen public gas establishments and twelve companies; the capital invested in works and apparatus is estimated at 3,000,000_l._] FOOTNOTES [432] Athen. Deipn. vi. 8. p. 236. [433] Joh. Meursii Opera, ex recensione Joannis Lami. Florent. 1745, fol. v. p. 635. [434] Pet. cap. lxxix. That the author here speaks of Naples, I conclude from cap. lxxxi., where the city is called _Græca urbs_. Others, however, with less probability, are of opinion that _Capua_ is meant. [435] Libanii Opera, Lutet. 1627, fol. ii. p. 387. [436] Ib. 526. [437] See vol. ii. p. 170. [438] Valesius informs us, in his observations on Ammianus Marcellinus, that to denote public sorrow, on occasions of great misfortune, it was customary not to light the streets; and in proof of this assertion he quotes a passage of Libanius, where it is said that the people of Antioch, in order to mitigate the anger of the emperor, bethought themselves of lighting either no lamps or a very small number. [439] Assemani Bibliotheca Orientalis. Romæ, 1719, fol. i. p. 281. [440] It was called by the Greeks λυχνοκαία. [441] Herodot. lib. ii. cap. 62. [442] Suet. Vita Calig. c. 18. [443] Euseb. lib. iv. De Vita Constantini, cap. 22. Compare with the above Greg. Naz. Orat. 19, and Orat. 2, where the author alludes to the festival of Easter. [444] Tertuliian. de Idololatria, cap. xv. p. 523. See also his Apologet. cap. 35, p. 178. In both places La Cerda quotes similar passages from other writers. In Concilio Eliberitano, cap. 37, it was decreed “prohibendum etiam ne lucernas publice accendant.” See also Joh. Ciampini Vetera Monumenta, in quibus musiva opera illustrantur. Romæ, 1690, 2 vols. fol. i. p. 90, where, on a piece of mosaic work, said to be of the fifth century, some lamps are represented hanging over a door. [445] J. Lipsii Electa, lib. ii. cap. 3. [446] This order may be seen in that large and elegant work, entitled Histoire de la Ville de Paris, Felibien, revue, augmentée par Lobineau, Paris, 1725, 5 vols. folio. See vol. ii. pp. 951, 977, and vol. iv. pp. 648, 676, 764. [447] Paris, 1770, x. p. 265. [448] Essai sur les Lanternes. A Dole, 1775. [449] History of London. London, 1756, 2 vols. fol. i. p. 186.