Coffee and boiling water are put into the vase, and some hot water into the globe. The two are then connected with the tube, and under the globe is placed a spirit-lamp. Presently the water in the globe boils, expelling the air and filling the globe with steam. The lamp is then removed, and the steam in the globe is condensed, leaving a vacuum. The pressure of the atmosphere then comes to bear upon the coffee in the vase, which is forced through the tube into the globe, producing beautifully clear and well-flavoured coffee. * * * * * SURGERY employs the weight of the atmosphere in the operation called “Cupping,” now rarely employed, but formerly in such constant use that scarcely any man who had attained middle age had not undergone it. The operation was intended for the purpose of removing the blood from some definite spot. Persons, for example, who appeared to have a tendency to apoplexy were regularly cupped between the shoulders twice a year, _i.e._ in the spring and autumn. The mode of performing the operation is as follows:--A vase-shaped glass vessel called a cupping-glass is placed close to the skin. The flame of a spirit-lamp is then introduced for a moment in the glass so as to expel the air, and the glass is rapidly placed with its mouth downwards on the skin. If this be done with sufficient rapidity, the partial vacuum in the cupping-glass causes it to adhere to the skin, which is forced into it by atmospheric pressure, as shown in the illustration. The blood is, of course, drawn towards the surface by the same means. The glass is then quickly removed, and a little brass instrument applied, which, at the touching of a spring, sends out a number of small lancet-blades so formed as to make very slight cuts. The glass is again applied, and rapidly becomes filled with blood from the cuts, the air having forced it in exactly as it forces the coffee in Napier’s machine. * * * * * IN the upper right-hand corner of the illustration is shown the Pneumatic Peg, a comparatively recent invention, and useful in cases where much strength is not required. The base of the peg is fitted with a sort of cup made of india-rubber. When this base is pressed against a smooth and flat surface, such as a pane of glass, the air is forced out of the cup, and a vacuum formed. The pressure of the atmosphere then causes the cup to adhere to the glass with sufficient force to enable objects to be suspended from it.