Alexandria Gazette

[Communicated.]

An enquiry mentioned in the London Lancet, for November, is causing considerable interest in England. This is The use of arsenic by the London manufacturers in the composition of the Sperm aceti candles. Made in this manner, they have a whiter appearance, and burn with greater brilliancy.

Hence the great danger of the practice being carried to excess: Each endeavoring to excel in the elegance of his article, by increasing the proportion of the poison. At a late meeting of the Westminster Medical Society, it was stated by one of the members, that he had authority from one of the most extensive factors in the metropolis, to say, that one pound of arsenic to twenty-eight of stearine was the proportion used by them—being perhaps upwards of a half a drachm to a moderate sized candle.

Few are unacquainted with the deleterious effects exerted on the system, when exposed to the action of arsenious acid in the state of sublimation.

We have every reason to hope, however, that this most unpardonable practice has not found its way among us.