So it appears that the willingness of the people to eat artificial butter, and the progress in schemes for internal improvement, such as the De Lesseps Canal, for instance, to say nothing of the European revolutionists, are responsible to a great extent for the scarcity of an important article of pharmaceutical use. On the other hand, while there is a notable increase in the demand for the article, there is a gradual but very sure and noticeable falling off in the production. At present the supply for the whole world comes from the candlemakers of Europe--chiefly France and Germany--and, as improved methods of illumination push candles out of the drawing rooms of the wealthier as well as the cabins of the poor, and consequently out of the markets, the production of glycerine naturally grows less. In France, for instance, candles are coming to be regarded among the wealthy chiefly as articles of luxury, and are lighted only for display at festivals of especial magnificence and ceremony, while among the poor the kerosene lamp is coming into almost as universal use as here. To be sure, the inexorable inn-keeper still keeps up, we believe, the inevitable _bougie_, but even that is fast becoming more of a fiction than ever. Even in the churches, it is said, the use of candles is gradually falling off. To these causes must be attributed the decreasing supply of the crude material, but it may be doubted whether this decrease would be sufficient to materially affect the price for some time to come were it not for the increased demand for the two industries to which we have alluded. Obviously, there must be found eventually some substitute for glycerine, or else some new source from which it may be procured. The natural place to look for this would be in the waste lye from the soapmakers' boilers, but so far no one has succeeded in obtaining from this substance the glycerine it undoubtedly contains by any process sufficiently cheap to allow of its profitable employment.