The total number of persons who died in the United Kingdom from burns and scalds during the year 1858, was _three thousand one hundred and twenty-five_. Of these no small proportion consisted of ladies and children, who met their deaths through their clothes catching fire. Neither number nor rank is wanting to emphasise the precautions suggested by sad calamities arising from the habitual employment of light and combustible attire. One of the most recent victims was the Countess St. Marsault, lady of honour to the Princess Clotilde, who died at Paris from the effects of burns which she had received while endeavouring to save another lady, whose dress had ignited at a ball. Even royalty has not escaped these perils; and the severe burns some time since suffered by the Princess Frederick William of Prussia, owing to the ignition of her dress while she was in the act of sealing a letter, led to the institution of the latest and most successful inquiries into means for preventing the ignition of light textile fabrics. Her Majesty has taken interest in the subject, and experiments have been made at her express command. Messrs. Kersmann & Oppenheim recommend the employment of a solution of tungstate of soda; but this salt, in the state in which it is ordinarily supplied to the public, produces a slight discoloration of the fabric—a fatal objection to its use by ladies who are scrupulously particular upon the appearance of their vestures. Messrs. Johnson & Sons, of 18A, Basinghall Street, have experimented upon the tungstate of soda, and succeeded in producing a refined preparation of it, which may be employed without the slightest risk of injury to the whiteness, texture, or colours of the fabric. At a recent _conversazione_ of the Medical Society of London, Messrs. Johnson exhibited pieces of muslin which had been prepared with a solution of the tungstate of soda, and other portions free from such preparation. Strips of these were submitted to the action of fire, and it was found that the prepared muslin merely charred slowly, while the unprepared burst immediately into flame. Similar experiments were recently exhibited at Guy’s Hospital, upon various materials, with the most perfect success.