With the importance of light in the ritual of the church it is not surprising that the extinction of lights is a part of the ceremony of excommunication. Such a ceremony is described in an early writing thus: "Twelve priests should stand about the bishop, holding in their hands lighted torches, which at the conclusion of the anathema or excommunication they should cast down and trample under foot." When the excommunicant is reinstated, a lighted candle is placed in his hands as a symbol of reconciliation. These and many other ceremonial uses of light have been and are practised, but they are not always mandatory. Furthermore, the customs have varied from time to time, but the few which have been touched upon illustrate the impressive part that light has played in religious services. During the Reformation the ceremonial use of lights was greatly altered and was abolished in the Protestant churches as a relic of superstition and papal authority. In the Lutheran churches ceremonial lights were largely retained, in the Church of England they have been subjected to many changes largely through the edicts of the rulers. In the latter church many controversies were waged over ceremonial lights and their use has been among the indictments of a number of officials of the church in impeachment cases before the House of Commons. Many uses of light in religious ceremonies were revived in cathedrals after the Restoration and they became wide-spread in England in the nineteenth century. As late as 1889 the Archbishop of Canterbury ruled that certain ceremonial candles were lawful according to the Prayer-Book of Edward VI, but the whole question was left open and unsettled. These byways of artificial light are complex and fascinating because their study leads into many channels and far into the obscurity of the childhood of the human race. A glimpse of them is important in a survey of the influence of artificial light upon the progress of civilization because in these usages the innate and acquired impressiveness of light is encountered. Although many ceremonial uses of light remain, it is doubtful if their significance and especially their origin are appreciated by most persons. Nevertheless, no more interesting phase of artificial light is encountered than this, which reaches to the foundation of civilization. V OIL-LAMPS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY