CANDLE-Bombs, a name given to small glass bubbles, having a neck about an inch long, with a very slender bore, by means of which a small quantity of water is introduced into them, and the orifice afterwards closed up. This stalk being put through the wick of a burning candle, the vicinity of the flame soon rarefies the water into steam, by the elasticity of which the glass is broken with a loud crack.
CANDLE is also a term of medicine, and is reckoned among the instruments of surgery. Thus the candela fumalis, or the candela pro suffitu odorata, is a mass of an oblong form, consisting of odoriferous powders, mixed up with a third or more of the charcoal of willow or lime tree, and reduced to a proper consistency with a mucilage of gum tragacanth, labdanum, or turpentine. It is intended to excite a grateful smell without any flame, to correct the air, to fortify the brain, and to excite the spirits.