The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-30 00:00:00

G_UARDIAIV FIRE AND LIFE ASSURANCE
COMPANY,
No. 11, Lombard-street, London, E.C.
Established 1821.
Subscribed Capital, Two Millions.
DIRECTORS.
CHARLES WILLIAM CURTIS, Esq., Chairman.
CIIARLES F. D E VAS, Esq., Deputy Chairman.
henry Hulse Berens, Esq., ,G. J Shaw Lefevre, Esq.,3ll'.
Ilenry Bonham Carter, Esq. i John Martin, Esq.
Francis Hart Dyke, Esq. Rowland Mitchell, Esq.
.Minto Farquhar, 8t..,,..M.1VA, James Morris-, Esq.
Sir Walter R. Farquhar, Bart. ' Henry Norman, Esq.
Tames Goodson, Esq. Henry R. Reynolds, Esq.
Ihomson Hankey, Esq., M.P Abraham J. Robarts, Esq.
!-ohn G. Hubbard, Esq., M.P. William Steven, Esq.
Fredk. H. Janson, Esq. Henry Vigne, Esq.
AUDITORS.
Lewis Loyd, Esq. I Henry Sykes Thornton, Esq.
Cornelius Paine, jun., Esq. Noel Whiting, Esq.
Thos. Tallemach, Esq., Secretary Sanil. Brown, Esq., Actuary

LIFE DEPARTMENT.—UNDER THE PROVISIONS OF AN
ACT OF PARLIAMENT, this Company now offers to new In-
urers EIGHTY PER CENT. of the Profits, at Quinquennial
:Thrisions, or a Low Rate of Premium without participation of
Crofts.

Since the establishment of the Company in 1521, the
k mount of Profits allotted to the Assured has exceeded in
ash value £660,000, which represents equivalent Reversionary
Bonuses of £1,058,000.

After the Division of Profits at Christmas, 1859, the Life
Assurances in force, with existing Bonuses thereon,
amounted to upwards of £4,730,000, the Income from the Life
branch £207,000 per annum, and the Life Assurance Fund,
ndependent of the capital, exceeded £1,618,000.
FIRE DEPARTMENT.—lnsurances are effected upon
every description of property at home and abroad at mode-
rate rates.

No expense is incurred in effecting a new Insurance be-
yond the payment of the Annual Premium and Duty, when
the Premium amounts to ss.

Claims liberally and promptly settled.
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, that FIRE Policies
which expire at Christmas must be renewed within 'fifteen
days at this Office, or with Mr. SAMS, No. 1, St. James's-
street, corner of Pall-Mall ; or with the Company's Agents
throughout the Kingdom, otherwise they become void.
Application for Prospectuses and Agencies to be made to
the Secretary.

Christmas Lectures at the Royal

Institution.

Yesterday afternoon Dr Frankland delivered the
second of his Christmas course of lectures, " On the
chemistry of coal." Reverting to the properties of
carbonic acid, which formed the subject of the
previous lecture, and to its power of extinguishing
flame, he mentioned, as a striking instance of that
property, that a coal mine which had been burning
for upwards of 30 years was extinguished by Mr
Goldworthy H. Garney in the course of a month
by directing a current of carbonic acid through the
passages of the mine. Though carbonic acid does
not support combustion under ordinary circum-
stances, it supports the combustion of potassium,
which substance, when ignited in a glass tube
fiiled with carbonic acid, continued to burn; and a
quantity of carbon arising from the decomposition
of the carbonic acid was deposited in the tube.
The three forms in which carbon is known are—
carbon, graphite, and diamond, which, in chemical
composition, are exactly alike, though so different
in their mechanical aggregation ; and each of them
when burned yields carbonic acid. The combustion
of diamond was effected with great brilliancy in a
jar of oxygen gas, after the gem had been ignited
by a voltaic battery,and the product of the combus-
tion was shown to be carbonic acid by its rendering
bary ta water turbid, in the same manner as gaseous
product of the combustion of carbon and graphite.
The principal part of yesterday's lecture was
eccupied with the exemplification of the properties
of oxygen and hydrogen gases, which are the con•
stituents of water, eight-ninths of the weight of
water consisting of oxygen. Though oxygen gas
is the principal supporter of combustion, it does not
itself burn. It constitutes about one-fifth of the
bulk of atmospheric air, and, when in an unadul-
terated form, combustible bodies burn in it with
great energy. The constitution of water was shown
first by burning a piece of sodium in water, by
which process the oxygen of the water was ab-
stracted to support the combustion, and the hydro-
gen was left in the vessel, and in the second place
by the decomposition of water by voltaic electri-
city, the products of the decomposition being col-
lected in two separate tubes, in one of which the
oxygen was collected, and in the other the hydro-
gen, which occupied double the space. The oppo-
site properties of the two geseous products were
shown by the burning of hydrogen and the bril-
liant ignition of a taper in oxygen. Hydrogen
gas, though very inflammable, extinguishes flame;
as was shown by setting fire to hydrogen contained
is an inverted glass. It inflamed round the edge of
the vessel, where it was in contact with the atmo-
sphere, but it extinguished a lighted taper. Thas,
as Dr Frankland observed, water and carbonic acid,
from which coal is formed, extinguish flame, and
when those compound substances are resolved into
their elements, one element is highly inflammable,
and the other, though not inflammable, is the prin.
cipal supporter of all combustion. Haying shown