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SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUPPLEMENT NO. 384




NEW YORK, MAY 12, 1883

Scientific American Supplement. Vol. XV., No. 384.

Scientific American established 1845

Scientific American Supplement, $5 a year.

Scientific American and Supplement, $7 a year.


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TABLE OF CONTENTS.

I.   ENGINEERING.--Locomotive for St. Gothard Railway.--Several
     figures.

     The Mersey Railway Tunnel.

     Dam Across the Ottawa River, and New Canal at Carillon,
     Quebec. Several figures and map.

II.  ARCHITECTURE.--Dwelling Houses.--Hints on building. By
     WILLIAM HENNAN.--Considerations necessary in order to have­
     thoroughly sweet homes.--Experiment illustrating the necessity
     of damp courses.--How to make dry walls and roofs.--Methods of
     heating.--Artificial lighting.--Refuse.--Cesspools.--Drainage

     House at Heaton.--Illustration.

     A Mansard Roof Dwelling. 2 figures.

III. ELECTRICITY.--The History of the Electric Telegraph.--Documents
     relating to the magnetic telegraph.--Apparatus of Comus
     and Alexandre.--Origin of the electric telegraph.--Apparatus of
     Lesage, Lemond, Reveroni, Saint Cyr, and others.--Several figures.

     Electrical Transmission and Storage.--By DR. C. WM. SIEMENS.

III. MEDICINE AND HYGIENE.--Malaria. By Dr. JAMES SALISBURY.--VII.
     Report on the cause of ague.--Studies of ague plants
     in their natural and unnatural habitats.--List of objects found in
     the Croton water.--Synopsis of the families of ague plants.--
     Several figures.

     Ichthyol.

     Autopsy Table. 1 figure.

     The Exciting Properties of Oats.

     Filaria Disease.

IV.  CHEMISTRY.--Preparation of Hydrogen Sulphide from Coal Gas.
     By J. TAYLOR. 1 figure.

     Setting of Gypsum.

V.   TECHNOLOGY.--On the Preparation of Gelatine Plates. By E.
     HOWARD FARMER.

     Pictures on Glass.

VI.  NATURAL HISTORY.--Survey of the Black Canon.

     The Ancient Mississippi and its Tributaries. By J. W. SPENCER.

VII. AGRICULTURE.--The Spectral Masdevallia.--Illustration.

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LOCOMOTIVE FOR ST. GOTHARD RAILWAY.


We give engravings of one of a type of eight-coupled locomotives
constructed for service on the St. Gothard Railway by Herr T.A. Maffei,
of Munich. As will be seen from our illustrations, the engine has
outside cylinders, these being 20.48 in. in diameter, with 24 in.
stroke, and as the diameter of the coupled wheels is 3 ft. 10 in.,
the tractive force which the engine is capable of exerting amounts to
(20.48² x 24) / 46 = 218.4 lb. for each pound of effective pressure per
square inch on the pistons. This is an enormous tractive force, as it
would require but a mean effective pressure of 102½ lb. per square inch
on the pistons to exert a pull of 10 tons. Inasmuch, however, as the
engine weighs 44 tons empty and 51 tons in working order, and as all
this weight is available for adhesion, this great cylinder power can be
utilized. The cylinders are 6 ft. 10 in. apart from center to center,
and they are well secured to the frames, as shown in Fig. 4. The frames
are deep and heavy, being 1 3/8 in. thick, and they are stayed by a
substantial box framing at the smokebox end, by a cast-iron footplate at
the rear end, and by the intermediate plate stays shown. The axle box
guides are all fitted with adjusting wedges. The axle bearings are all
alike, all being 7.87 in. in diameter by 9.45 in. long. The axles are
spaced at equal distances of 4 ft. 3.1 in. apart, the total wheel base
being thus 12 ft. 9.3 in. In the case of the 1st, 2d, and 3d axles, the
springs are arranged above the axle boxes in the ordinary way, those of
the 2d and 3d axles being coupled by compensating beams. In the case of
the trailing axle, however, a special arrangement is adopted. Thus, as
will be seen on reference to the longitudinal section and plan (Figs. 1
and 2, first page), each trailing axle box receives its load through the
horizontal arm of a strong bell-crank lever, the vertical arm of which
extends downward and has its lower end coupled to the adjoining end of a
strong transverse spring which is pivoted to a pair of transverse stays
extending from frame to frame below the ash pan. This arrangement
enables the spring for the trailing axle to be kept clear of the
firebox, thus allowing the latter to extend the full width between the
frames. The trailing wheels are fitted with a brake as shown.

[Illustration: LOCOMOTIVES FOR ST. GOTHARD RAILWAY.]

The valve motion is of the Gooch or stationary link type, the radius
rods being cranked to clear the leading axle, while the eccentric rods
are bent to clear the second axle. The piston rods are extended through
the front cylinder covers and are enlarged where they enter the
crossheads, the glands at the rear ends of cylinders being made in
halves. The arrangement of the motion generally will be clearly
understood on reference to Figs. 1 and 2 without further explanation.

The boiler, which is constructed for a working pressure of 147 lb. per
square inch, is unusually large, the barrel being 60.4 in. in diameter
inside the outside rings; it is composed of plates 0.65 in. thick. The
firebox spreads considerably in width toward the top, as shown in the
section, Fig. 5, and to enable it to be got in the back plate of the
firebox casing is flanged outward, instead of inward as usual, so as to
enable it to be riveted up after the firebox is in place. The inside
firebox is of copper and its crown is stayed directly to the crown
of the casing by vertical stays, as shown, strong transverse stays
extending across the boiler just above the firebox crown to resist the
spreading action caused by the arrangement of the crown stays. The
firegrate is 6 ft. 11.6 in. long by 3 ft. 4 in. wide.

[Illustration: ST. GOTHARD LOCOMOTIVES.]

The barrel contains 225 tubes 1.97 in. in diameter outside and 13 ft. 9½
in. long between tube plates. On the top of the barrel is a large dome
containing the regulator, as shown in Fig. 1, from which view the
arrangement of the gusset stays for the back plate of firebox casing and
for the smokebox tube plate will be seen. A grid is placed across the
smokebox just above the tubes, and provision is made, as shown in Figs.
1 and 4, for closing the top of the exhaust nozzle, and opening a
communication between the exhaust pipes and the external air when the
engine is run reversed. The chimney is 15¾ in. in diameter at its lower
end and 18.9 in. at the top. The chief proportions of the boiler are as
follows:

                           Sq. ft

  Heating surface: Tubes   1598.5
                   Firebox  102.5
                           ------
                           1701.0

  Firegrate area                                              23.3 [1]
  Sectional area through tubes (disregarding ferrules)         3.5
  Least sectional area of chimney.                             1.35
  Ratio of firegrate area to heating surface.                  1:73
  Ratio of flue area through tubes to firegrate area.          1:6.7
  Ratio of least sectional area of chimney to firegrate area.  1:17.26

[Transcribers note 1: Best guess, 2nd digit illegible]

The proportion of chimney area to grate is much smaller than in ordinary
locomotives, this proportion having no doubt been fixed upon to enable a
strong draught to be obtained with the engine running at a slow speed.
Of the general fittings of the engine we need give no description, as
their arrangement will be readily understood from our engravings, and
in conclusion we need only say that the locomotive under notice is
altogether a very interesting example of an engine designed for
specially heavy work.--_Engineering_.

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THE MERSEY RAILWAY TUNNEL.


The work of connecting Liverpool with Birkenhead by means of a railway
tunnel is now an almost certain success. It is probable that the entire
cost of the tunnel works will amount to about half a million sterling.
The first step was taken about three years ago, when shafts were sunk
simultaneously on both sides of the Mersey. The engineers intrusted
with the plans were Messrs. Brunlees & Fox, and they have now as their
resident representative Mr. A.H. Irvine, C.E. The contractor for the
entire work is Mr. John Waddell, and his lieutenant in charge at both
sides of the river is Mr. James Prentice. The post of mechanical
engineer at the works is filled by Mr. George Ginty. Under these chiefs,
a small army of nearly 700 workmen are now employed night and day at
both sides of the river in carrying out the tunnel to completion. On
the Birkenhead side, the landward excavations have reached a point
immediately under Hamilton Square, where Mr. John Laird's statue is
placed, and here there will be an underground station, the last before
crossing the river, the length of which will be about 400 feet, with up
and down platforms. Riverward on the Cheshire side, the excavators have
tunneled to a point considerably beyond the line of the Woodside Stage;
while the Lancashire portion of the subterranean work now extends to
St. George's Church, at the top of Lord street, on the one side, and
Merseyward to upward of 90 feet beyond the quay wall, and nearly to the
deepest part of the river.

When completed, the total length of the tunnel will be three miles one
furlong, the distance from wall to wall at each side of the Mersey being
about three-quarters of a mile. The underground terminus will be about
Church street and Waterloo place, in the immediate neighborhood of the
Central Station, and the tunnel will proceed from thence, in an almost
direct line, under Lord street and James street; while on the south side
of the river it will be constructed from a junction at Union street
between the London and Northwestern and Great Western Railways, under
Chamberlain street, Green lane, the Gas Works, Borough road, across the
Haymarket and Hamilton street, and Hamilton square.

Drainage headings, not of the same size of bore as the part of the
railway tunnel which will be in actual use, but indispensable as a means
of enabling the railway to be worked, will act as reservoirs into which
the water from the main tunnel will be drained and run off to both sides
of the Mersey, where gigantic pumps of great power and draught will
bring the accumulating water to the surface of the earth, from whence
it will be run off into the river. The excavations of these drainage
headings at the present time extend about one hundred yards beyond the
main tunnel works at each side of the river. The drainage shafts are
sunk to a depth of 180 feet, and are below the lowest point of the
tunnel, which is drained into them. Each drainage shaft is supplied
with two pumping sets, consisting of four pumps, viz., two of 20 in.
diameter, and two of 30 in. diameter. These pumps are capable of
discharging from the Liverpool shafts 6,100 gallons per minute, and from
the Birkenhead 5,040 gallons per minute; and as these pumps will be
required for the permanent draining of the tunnel, they are constructed
in the most solid and substantial manner. They are worked by compound
engines made by Hathorn, Davey & Co., of Leeds, and are supplied
with six steel boilers by Daniel Adamson & Co., of Dukinfield, near
Manchester.

In addition to the above, there is in course of construction still
more powerful pumps of 40 in. diameter, which will provide against
contingencies, and prevent delay in case of a breakdown such as occurred
lately on the Liverpool side of the works. The nature of the rock is
the new red sandstone, of a solid and compact character, favorable for
tunneling, and yielding only a moderate quantity of water. The engineers
have been enabled to arrange the levels to give a minimum thickness of
25 ft. and an average thickness of 30 ft. above the crown of the tunnel.

Barges are now employed in the river for the purpose of ascertaining the
depth of the water, and the nature of the bottom of the river. It is
satisfactory to find that the rock on the Liverpool side, as the heading
is advanced under the river, contains less and less water, and this the
engineers are inclined to attribute to the thick bed of stiff bowlder
clay which overlies the rock on this side, which acts as a kind of
"overcoat" to the "under garments." The depth of the water in one part
of the river is found to be about 72 ft.; in the middle about 90 ft.;
and as there is an intermediate depth of rock of about 27 ft., the
distance is upward of 100 ft. from the surface of low water to the top
of the tunnel.

It is expected that the work will shortly be pushed forward at a much
greater speed than has hitherto been the case, for in place of the
miner's pick and shovel, which advanced at the rate of about ten yards
per week, a machine known as the Beaumont boring machine will be brought
into requisition in the course of a day or two, and it is expected to
carry on the work at the rate of fifty yards per week, so that this year
it may be possible to walk through the drainage heading from Liverpool
to Birkenhead. The main tunnel works now in progress will probably be
completed and trains running in the course of 18 months or two years.

The workmen are taken down the shaft by which the debris is hoisted, ten
feet in diameter, and when the visitor arrives at the bottom he finds
himself in quite a bright light, thanks to the Hammond electric light,
worked by the Brush machine, which is now in use in the tunnel on both
sides of the river. The depth of the pumping shaft is 170 feet, and the
shaft communicates directly with the drainage heading. This circular
heading now has been advanced about 737 yards. The heading is 7 feet in
diameter, and the amount of it under the river is upward of 200 yards on
each side. The main tunnel, which is 26 feet wide and 21 feet high, has
also made considerable progress at both the Liverpool and Birkenhead
ends. From the Liverpool side the tunnel now extends over 430 yards, and
from the opposite shore about 590 yards. This includes the underground
stations, each of which is 400 feet long, 51 feet wide, and 32 feet
high. Although the main tunnel has not made quite the same progress
between the shafts as the drainage heading, it is only about 100 yards
behind it. When completed, the tunnel will be about a mile in length
from shaft to shaft. In the course of the excavations which have been so
far carried out, about 70 cubic yards of rock have been turned out for
every yard forward.

Ten horses are employed on the Birkenhead side for drawing wagons loaded
with debris to the shaft, which, on being hoisted, is tipped into the
carts and taken for deposit to various places, some of which are about
three miles distant. The tunnel is lined throughout with very solid
brickwork, some of which is, 18 inches thick (composed of two layers
of blue and two of red brick), and toward the river this brickwork is
increased to a thickness of six rings of bricks--three blue and three
red. A layer of Portland cement of considerable thickness also gives
increased stability to the brick lining and other portions of the
tunnel, and the whole of the flooring will be bricked. There are about
22 yards of brickwork in every yard forward. The work of excavation up
to the present time has been done by blasting (tonite being employed for
this purpose), and by the use of the pick and shovel. At every 45 ft.
on alternate sides niches of 18 in. depth are placed for the safety of
platelayers. The form of the tunnel is semicircular, the arch having a
13 ft. radius, the side walls a 25 ft. radius, and the base a 40 ft.
radius.

Fortunately not a single life has up to the present time been lost in
carrying out the exceedingly elaborate and gigantic work, and this
immunity from accident is largely owing to the care and skill which are
manifested by the heads of the various departments. The Mersey Tunnel
scheme may now be looked upon as an accomplished work, and there is
little doubt its value as a commercial medium will be speedily and fully
appreciated upon completion.

       *       *       *       *       *




DAM ACROSS THE OTTAWA RIVER AND NEW CANAL AT CARILLON QUE

By ANDREW BELL Resident Engineer


The natural navigation of the Ottawa River from the head of the Island
of Montreal to Ottawa City--a distance of nearly a hundred miles--is
interrupted between the villages of Carillon and Grenville which are
thirteen miles apart by three rapids, known as the Carillon, Chûte à
Blondeau, and Longue Sault Rapids, which are in that order from east to
west. The Carillon Rapid is two miles long and has, or had, a fall of 10
feet the Chûte à Blondeau a quarter of a mile with a fall of 4 feet and
the Longue Sault six miles and a fall of 46 feet. Between the Carillon
and Chûte à Blondeau there is or was a slack water reach of three and a
half miles, and between the latter and the foot of the Longue Sault a
similar reach of one and a quarter miles.

Small canals limited in capacity to the smaller locks on them which were
only 109 feet long 19 feet wide, and 5 to 6 feet of water on the sills,
were built by the Imperial Government as a military work around each of
the rapids. They were begun in 1819 and completed about 1832. They were
transferred to the Canadian Government in 1856. They are built on the
north shore of the river, and each canal is about the length of the
rapid it surmounts.

[Illustration: THE GREAT DAM ACROSS THE OTTAWA RIVER, AT CARILLON.]

The Grenville Canal (around the Longue Sault) with seven locks, and the
Chûte à Blondeau with one lock, are fed directly from Ottawa. But with
the Carillon that method was not followed as the nature of the banks
there would have in doing so, entailed an immense amount of rock
excavation--a serious matter in those days. The difficulty was overcome
by locking up at the upper or western end 13 feet and down 23 at lower
end, supplying the summit by a 'feeder from a small stream called the
North River, which empties into the Ottawa three or four miles below
Carillon, but is close to the main river opposite the canal.

In 1870-71 the Government of Canada determined to enlarge these canals
to admit of the passage of boats requiring locks 200 feet long, 45 feet
wide, and not less than 9 feet of water on the sills at the lowest
water. In the case of the Grenville Canal this was and is being done by
widening and deepening the old channel and building new locks along
side of the old ones. But to do that with the Carillon was found to be
inexpedient. The rapidly increasing traffic required more water than the
North River could supply in any case, and the clearing up of the country
to the north had materially reduced its waters in summer and fall, when
most needed. To deepen the old canal so as to enable it to take its
supply from the Ottawa would have caused the excavation of at least
1,250,000 cubic yards of rock, besides necessitating the enlargement of
the Chûte à Blondeau also.

It was therefore decided to adopt a modification of the plan proposed
by Mr. T.C. Clarke, of the present firm of Clarke Reeves & Co, several
years before when he made the preliminary surveys for the then proposed
"Ottawa Ship Canal," namely to build a dam across the river in the
Carillon Rapid but of a sufficient height to drown out the Chûte à
Blondeau, and also to give the required depth of water there.

During the summer and fall of 1872 the writer made the necessary surveys
of the river with that end in view. By gauging the river carefully in
high and low water, and making use of the records which had been kept by
the lock masters for twenty years back, it was found that the flow of
the river was in extreme low water 26,000 cubic feet per second, and
in highest water 190,000 cubic feet per second, in average years about
30,000 and 150,000 cubic feet respectively. The average flow in each
year would be nearly a mean between those quantities, namely, about
90,000 cubic feet per second. It was decided to locate the dam where it
is now built, namely, about the center of Carillon Rapid, and a mile
above the village of that name and to make it of a height sufficient to
raise the reach between the head of Carillon and Chûte à Blondeau about
six feet, and that above the latter two feet in ordinary water. At the
site chosen the river is 1,800 feet wide, the bed is solid limestone,
and more level or flat than is generally found in such places--the banks
high enough and also composed of limestone. It was also determined to
build a slide for the passage of timber near the south shore (see map),
and to locate the new canal on the north side.

Contracts for the whole works were given out in the spring of 1873, but
as the water remained high all the summer of that year very little could
be done in it at the dam. In 1874 a large portion of the foundation,
especially in the shallow water, was put in. 1875 and 1876 proved
unfavorable and not much could be done, when the works were stopped.
They were resumed in 1879, and the dam as also the slide successfully
completed, with the exception of graveling of the dam in the fall of
1881. The water was lower that summer than it had been for thirty five
years before. The canal was completed and opened for navigation the
following spring.


THE DAM

In building such a dam as this the difficulties to be contended against
were unusually great. It was required to make it as near perfectly tight
as possible and be, of course, always submerged. Allowing for water used
by canal and slide and the leakage there should be a depth on the crest
of the dam in low water of 2.50 feet and in high of about 10 feet.
These depths turned out ultimately to be correct. The river reaches
its highest about the middle of May, and its lowest in September. It
generally begins to rise again in November. Nothing could be done except
during the short low water season, and some years nothing at all. Even
at the most favorable time the amount of water to be controlled was
large. Then the depth at the site varied in depth from 2 to 14 feet, and
at one place was as much as 23 feet. The current was at the rate of from
10 to 12 miles an hour. Therefore, failures, losses, etc., could not be
avoided, and a great deal had to be learned as the work progressed. I
am not aware that a dam of the kind was ever built, or attempted to be
built across a river having such a large flow as the Ottawa.

The method of construction was as follows. Temporary structures of
various kinds suited to position, time, etc., were first placed
immediately above the site of the dam to break the current. This was
done in sections and the permanent dam proceeded with under that
protection.

In shallow water timber sills 36 feet long and 12 inches by 12 inches
were bolted to the lock up and down stream, having their tops a uniform
height, namely, 9.30 feet below the top of dam when finished. These
sills were, where the rock was high enough, scribed immediately to it,
but if not, they were 'made up' by other timbers scribed to the rock, as
shown by Figs 4 and 5. They were generally placed in pairs about 6 feet
apart, and each alternate space left open for the passage of water, to
be closed by gates as hereafter described. Each sill was fastened by
five 1½ in. bolts driven into pine plugs forced into holes drilled
from 18 inches to 24 inches into the rock. The temporary rock was then
removed as far as possible, to allow a free flow of the water.

In the channels of which there are three, having an aggregate width of
about 650 feet, cribs 46 feet wide up and down stream were sunk. In the
deepest water, where the rock was uneven, they covered the whole bottom
up to about five feet of the level of the silts, and on top of that
isolated cribs, 46 in. X 6 in. and of the necessary height were placed
seven feet apart, as shown at C Figs 2 and 3. At other places similar
narrow cribs were placed on the rock, as shown at D, Figs 2 and 3. The
tops of all were brought to about the same level as the before mentioned
sills. The rock bottom was cleaned by divers of all bowlders, gravel,
etc. The cribs were built in the usual manner, of 12 in. X 12 in. timber
generally hemlock, and carefully fitted to the rock on which they stand.
They were fastened to the rock by 1½ in. bolts, five on each side of a
crib, driven into pine plugs as mentioned for the sills. The drilling
was done by long runners from their tops. The upstream side of the cribs
were sheeted with 4 in. tamarack plank.

On top of these sills and cribs there was then placed all across river a
platform from 36 to 46 feet wide made up of sawed pine timber 12 in.
X 12 in., each piece being securely bolted to its neighbor and to the
sills and cribs below. It was also at intervals bolted through to the
rock.

On top of the "platform" there was next built a flat dam of the
sectional form shown by Fig 1. It was built of 12 in. X 12 in. sawed
pine timbers securely bolted at the crossings and to the platform, and
sheeted all over with tamarack 10 in. thick and the crest covered with
½ in. boiler plate 3 ft. wide. The whole structure was carefully filled
with stone--field stone, or "hard head" generally being used for the
purpose.

At this stage of the works, namely, in the fall of 1881 the structure
presented somewhat the appearance of a bridge with short spans. The
whole river--fortunately low--flowed through the sluices of which there
were 113 and also through a bulkhead which had been left alongside
of the slide with a water width of 60 ft. These openings had a total
sectional area of 4,400 sq. ft., and barely allowed the river to pass,
although, of course, somewhat assisted by leakage.

[Illustration: Fig. 1. CROSS SECTION IN DEEP WATER.]

It now only remained, to complete the dam, to close the openings. This
was done in a manner that can be readily understood by reference to
the cuts. Gates had been constructed with timber 10 in. thick, bolted
together. They were hung on strong wooden hinges and, before being
closed, laid back on the face of dam as shown at B, Figs. 1, 2, and 3.
They were all closed in a short time on the afternoon of 9th November,
1881. To do this it was simply necessary to turn them over, when the
strong current through the sluices carried them into their places, as
shown at A, Figs. 2 and 3 and by the dotted lines on Fig. 1. The closing
was a delicate as well as dangerous operation, but was as successfully
done as could be expected. No accident happened further than the
displacement of two or three of the gates. The openings thus left
were afterward filled up with timber and brushwood. The large opening
alongside of the slide was filled up by a crib built above and floated
into place.

The design contemplates the filling up with stone and gravel on
up-stream side of dam about the triangular space that would be formed by
the production of the line of face of flat dam till it struck the rock.
Part of that was done from the ice last winter; the balance is being put
in this winter.

Observations last summer showed that the calculations as to the raising
of the surface of the river were correct. When the depth on the crest
was 2.50 feet, the water at the foot of the Longue Sault was found to be
25 in. higher than if no dam existed. The intention was to raise it 24
in.

The timber slide was formed by binding parallel piers about 600 feet
long up and down stream, as shown on the map, and 28 ft. apart, with a
timber bottom, the top of which at upper end is 3 ft. below the crest
of dam. It has the necessary stop logs, with machinery to move them, to
control the water. The approach is formed by detached piers, connected
by guide booms, extending about half a mile up stream. See map.

Alongside of the south side of the slide a large bulkhead was built, 69
ft. wide, with a clear waterway of 60 ft. It was furnished with stop
logs and machinery to handle them. When not further required, it was
filled up by a crib as before mentioned.

The following table shows the materials used in the dam and slide, and
the cost:

  ______________________________________________________________________
                   |         |         |  Stone   |  Exca-  |          |
                   | Timber, |  Iron,  | filling, | vation, |   Cost.  |
                   | cu. ft. |   lb.   | cu. yds. | cu. yds.|          |
                   +---------+---------+----------+---------+----------+
   Temporary works | 134,500 |  92,000 |  11,400  |         |  $79,000 |
                   |         |         |          |         |          |
    Permanent dam  | 265,000 | 439,600 |  24,000  |  6,500  |  151,000 |
                   |         |         |          |         |          |
  Slide, including | 296,500 | 156,400 |  32,800  |         |  102,000 |
         apparatus |         |         |          |         |          |
                   +---------+---------+----------+---------+----------+
                   |         |         |          |         |          |
            Total  | 696,000 | 687,000 |  68,200  |  6,500  | $332,000 |
  -----------------+---------+---------+----------+---------+----------+

The above does not include cost of surveys, engineering, or
superintendence, which amounted to about ten per cent, of the above sum.

[Illustration: DETAILS OF THE OTTAWA RIVER DAM, AT CARILLON.]

The construction of the dam and slide was ably superintended by Horace
Merrill, Esq., late superintendent of the "Ottawa River Improvements,"
who has built nearly all the slides and other works on the Ottawa to
facilitate the passage of its immense timber productions.

The contractors were the well known firm of F.B. McNamee & Co., of
Montreal, and the successful completion of the work was in a large
degree due to the energy displayed by the working member of that
firm--Mr. A.G. Nish, formerly engineer of the Montreal harbor.


THE CANAL

The canal was formed by "fencing in" a portion of the river-bed by an
embankment built about a hundred feet out from the north shore and
deepening the intervening space where necessary. There are two
locks--one placed a little above the foot of the rapid (see map), and
the other at the end of the dam. Wooden piers are built at the upper and
lower ends--the former being 800 ft. long, and the latter 300 ft; both
are about 29 ft. high and 35 ft. wide.

The embankment is built, as shown by the cross section, Fig. 6. On the
canal side of it there is a wall of rubble masonry F, laid in hydraulic
cement, connecting the two locks, and backed by a puddle wall, E, three
feet thick; next the river there is crib work, G, from ten to twenty
feet wide and the space between brick-work and puddle filled with earth.
The outer slope is protected with riprap, composed of large bowlders.
This had to be made very strong to prevent the destruction of the bank
by the immense masses of moving ice in spring.

The distance between the locks is 3,300 feet.

In building the embankment the crib-work was first put in and followed
by a part (in width) of the earth-bank. From that to the shore temporary
cross-dams were built at convenient distances apart and the space pumped
out by sections, when the necessary excavation was done, and the walls
and embankments completed. The earth was put down in layers of not more
than a foot deep at a time, so that the bank, when completed, was solid.
The water at site of it varied in depth from 15 feet at lower end to 2
feet at upper.

The locks are 200 ft. long in the clear between the gates, and 45 ft
wide in the chamber at the bottom. The walls of the lower one are 29 ft.
high, and of the upper one 31 ft They are from 10 to 12 ft thick at the
bottom,

The locks are built similar to those on the new Lachine and Welland
canals, of the very best cut stone masonry, laid in hydraulic cement.
The gates are 24 in. thick, made of solid timber, somewhat similar to
those in use on the St. Lawrence canals. They are suspended from anchors
at the hollow quoins, and work very easily. The miter sills are made of
26 in. square oak. The bottom of the lower lock iis timbered throughout,
but the upper one only at the recesses, the rock there being good.

[Illustration: MAP OF THE OTTAWA RIVER AT CARILLON RAPIDS.

SECTION OF RIVER AT DAM. NOTE.--THE LOWEST DOTTED LINE IS LOW WATER
BEFORETHE DAM WAS BUILT. THEN THE LINE OF HIGH WATER WAS ABOUT A FOOT
ABOVE WHAT IS CREST OF DAM NOW.]

The rise to be overcome by the two locks is 16 ft., but except in medium
water, is not equally distributed. In high water nearly the whole lift
is on the upper lock, and in low water the lower one. In the very lowest
known stage of the river there will never be less than 9 ft. on the
miter sills.

As mentioned at the beginning of this article, four locks were required
on the old military canal to accomplish what is now done by two.

The canal was opened in May, 1882, and has been a great success, the
only drawback--although slight--being that in high water the current for
about three-quarters of a mile above the upper pier, and at what was
formerly the Chute a Biondeau, is rather strong. These difficulties can
be easily overcome--the former by building an embankment from the pier
to Brophy's Island, the latter by removing some of the natural dam of
rock which once formed the "Chute."

The following are, in round numbers, the quantities of the principal
materials used:

  Earth and puddle in embankment ...cub. yds. 148,500
  Rock excavation,                     "       38,000
  Riprap,                              "        6,600
  Lock masonry                         "       14,200
  Rubble masonry,                      "       16,600
  Timber in cribs, lock bottoms and gates "   368,000
  Wrought and cast iron, lb ................. 173,000
  Stone filling cu yds ......................  45,300
  Concrete        "                               830

The total cost to date has been about $570,000, not including surveys,
engineering, etc.

The contractors for the canal, locks, etc., were Messrs. R. P. Cooke &
Co., of Brockville, Ont., who have built some large works in the States,
and who are now engaged building other extensive works for the Canadian
Government. The work here reflects great credit on their skill.

On the enlarged Grenville Canal, now approaching completion, there
are five locks, taking the place of the seven small ones built by the
Imperial Government. It will be open for navigation all through in the
spring of 1884, when steamers somewhat larger than the largest now
navigating the St. Lawrence between Montreal and Hamilton can pass up to
Ottawa City.--_Engineering News_.

       *       *       *       *       *




DWELLING HOUSES--HINTS ON BUILDING--"HOME, SWEET HOME."

[Footnote: From a paper read before the Birmingham Architectural
Association, Jan 30, 1883]

By WILLIAM HENMAN, A.R.I.B.A.


My intention is to bring to your notice some of the many causes which
result in unhealthy dwellings, particularly those of the middle classes
of society. The same defects, it is true, are to be found in the palace
and the mansion, and also in the artisan's cottage; but in the former
cost is not so much a matter of consideration, and in the latter, the
requirements and appliances being less, the evils are minimized. It is
in the houses of the middle classes, I mean those of a rental at from
£50 to £150 per annum, that the evils of careless building and want
of sanitary precautions become most apparent. Until recently sanitary
science was but little studied, and many things were done a few years
since which even the self-interest of a speculative builder would not do
nowadays, nor would be permitted to do by the local sanitary authority.
Yet houses built in those times are still inhabited, and in many cases
sickness and even death are the result. But it is with shame I must
confess that, notwithstanding the advance which sanitary science has
made, and the excellent appliances to be obtained, many a house is now
built, not only by the speculative builder, but designed by professed
architects, and in spite of sanitary authorities and their by-laws,
which, in important particulars are far from perfect, are unhealthy, and
cannot be truly called sweet homes.

Architects and builders have much to contend with. The perverseness of
man and the powers of nature at times appear to combine for the express
purpose of frustrating their endeavors to attain sanitary perfection.
Successfully to combat these opposing forces, two things are above all
necessary, viz 1, a more perfect insight into the laws of nature, and a
judicious use of serviceable appliances on the part of the architect;
and, 2, greater knowledge, care, and trustworthiness on the part of
workmen employed. With the first there will be less of that blind
following of what has been done before by others, and by the latter the
architect who has carefully thought out the details of his sanitary work
will be enabled to have his ideas carried out in an intelligent manner.
Several cases have come under my notice, where, by reckless carelessness
or dense ignorance on the part of workmen, dwellings which might have
been sweet and comfortable if the architect's ideas and instructions had
been carried out, were in course of time proved to be in an unsanitary
condition. The defects, having been covered up out sight, were only made
known in some cases after illness or death had attacked members of the
household.

In order that we may have thoroughly sweet homes, we must consider the
localities in which they are to be situated, and the soil on which they
are to rest. It is an admitted fact that certain localities are more
generally healthy than others, yet circumstances often beyond their
control compel men to live in those less healthy. Something may, in
the course of time, be done to improve such districts by planting,
subdrainage, and the like. Then, as regards the soil; our earth has
been in existence many an age, generation after generation has come and
passed away, leaving behind accumulations of matter on its surface, both
animal and vegetable, and although natural causes are ever at the work
of purification, there is no doubt such accumulations are in many cases
highly injurious to health, not only in a general way, but particularly
if around, and worse still, under our dwellings. However healthy a
district is considered to be, it is never safe to leave the top soil
inclosed within the walls of our houses; and in many cases the subsoil
should be covered with a layer of cement concrete, and at times with
asphalt on the concrete. For if the subsoil be damp, moisture will rise;
if it be porous, offensive matter may percolate through. It is my belief
that much of the cold dampness felt in so many houses is caused by
moisture rising from the ground inclosed _within_ the outer walls.
Cellars are in many cases abominations. Up the cellar steps is a
favorite means of entrance for sickness and death. Light and air, which
are so essential for health and life, are shut out. If cellars are
necessary, they should be constructed with damp proof walls and floors;
light should be freely admitted; every part must be well ventilated,
and, above all, no drain of any description should be taken in. If they
be constructed so that water cannot find its way through either walls or
floors, where is the necessity of a drain? Surely the floors can be
kept clean by the use of so small an amount of water that it would be
ridiculous specially to provide a drain.

The next important but oft neglected precaution is to have a good damp
course over the _whole_ of the walls, internal as well as external. I
know that for the sake of saving a few pounds (most likely that they may
be frittered away in senseless, showy features) it often happens, that
if even a damp course is provided in the outer walls, it is dispensed
with in the interior walls. This can only be done with impunity on
really dry ground, but in too many cases damp finds its way up, and, to
say the least, disfigures the walls. Here I would pause to ask: What is
the primary reason for building houses? I would answer that, in this
country at least, it is in order to protect ourselves from wind and
weather. After going to great expense and trouble to exclude cold and
wet by means of walls and roofs, should we not take as much pains to
prevent them using from below and attacking us in a more insidious
manner? Various materials may be used as damp courses. Glazed
earthenware perforated slabs are perhaps the best, when expense is no
object. I generally employ a course of slates, breaking joint with a
good bed of cement above and below; it answers well, and is not very
expensive. If the ground is irregular, a layer of asphalt is more easily
applied. Gas tar and sand are sometimes used, but it deteriorates and
cannot be depended upon for any length of time. The damp course should
invariably be placed _above_ the level of the ground around the
building, and _below_ the ground floor joists. If a basement story is
necessary, the outer walls below the ground should be either built
hollow, or coated externally with some substance through which wet
cannot penetrate. Above the damp course, the walls of our houses must
be constructed of materials which will keep out wind and weather. Very
porous materials should be avoided, because, even if the wet does not
actually find its way through, so much is absorbed during rainy weather
that in the process of drying much cold is produced by evaporation. The
fact should be constantly remembered, viz., that evaporation causes
cold. It can easily be proved by dropping a little ether upon the bulb
of a thermometer, when it will be seen how quickly the mercury falls,
and the same effect takes place in a less degree by the evaporation of
water. Seeing, then, that evaporation from so small a surface can
lower temperature so many degrees, consider what must be the effect of
evaporation from the extensive surfaces of walls inclosing our houses.
This experiment (thermometer with bulb inclosed in linen) enables me as
well to illustrate that curious law of nature which necessitates the
introduction of a damp course in the walls of our buildings; it is known
as capillary or molecular attraction, and breaks through that more
powerful law of gravitation, which in a general way compels fluids to
find their own level. You will notice that the piece of linen over the
bulb of the thermometer, having been first moistened, continues moist,
although only its lower end is in water, the latter being drawn up by
capillary attraction; or we have here an illustration more to the point:
a brick which simply stands with its lower end in water, and you can
plainly see how the damp has risen.

From these illustrations you will see how necessary it is that the brick
and stone used for outer walls should be as far as possible impervious
to wet; but more than that, it is necessary the jointing should be
non-absorbent, and the less porous the stone or brick, the better able
must the jointing be to keep out wet, for this reason, that when rain is
beating against a wall, it either runs down or becomes absorbed. If both
brick and mortar, or stone and mortar be porous, it becomes absorbed; if
all are non-porous, it runs down until it finds a projection, and then
drops off; but if the brick or stone is non-porous, and the mortar
porous, the wet runs down the brick or stone until it arrives at the
joint, and is then sucked inward. It being almost impossible to obtain
materials quite waterproof, suitable for external walls, other means
must be employed for keeping our homes dry and comfortable. Well built
hollow walls are good. Stone walls, unless very thick, should be lined
with brick, a cavity being left between. A material called Hygeian Rock
Building Composition has lately been introduced, which will, I believe,
be found of great utility, and, if properly applied, should insure a dry
house. A cavity of one-half an inch is left between the outer and inner
portion of the wall, whether of brick or stone, which, as the building
rises, is run in with the material made liquid by heat; and not only is
the wall waterproofed thereby, but also greatly strengthened. It may
also be used as a damp course.

Good, dry walls are of little use without good roofs, and for a
comfortable house the roofs should not only be watertight and
weathertight, but also, if I may use the term, heat-tight. There can be
no doubt that many houses are cold and chilly, in consequence of the
rapid radiation of heat through the thin roofs, if not through thin and
badly constructed walls. Under both tiles and slates, but particularly
under the latter, there should be some non-conducting substance, such
as boarding, or felt, or pugging. Then, in cold weather heat will be
retained; in hot weather it will be excluded. Roofs should be of a
suitable pitch, so that neither rain nor snow can find its way in in
windy weather. Great care must be taken in laying gutters and flats.
With them it is important that the boarding should be well laid in
narrow widths, and in the direction of the fall; otherwise the boards
cockle and form ridges and furrows in which wet will rest, and in time
decay the metal.

After having secured a sound waterproof roof, proper provision must be
made for conveying therefrom the water which of necessity falls on it in
the form of rain. All eaves spouting should be of ample size, and the
rain water down pipes should be placed at frequent intervals and of
suitable diameter. The outlets from the eaves spouting should not be
contracted, although it is advisable to cover them with a wire grating
to prevent their becoming choked with dead leaves, otherwise the water
will overflow and probably find its way through the walls. All joints
to the eaves spouting, and particularly to the rain-water down pipes,
should be made watertight, or there is great danger, when they are
connected with the soil drains, that sewer gas will escape at the joints
and find its way into the house at windows and doors. There should be a
siphon trap at the bottom of each down pipe, unless it is employed as a
ventilator to the drains, and then the greatest care should be exercised
to insure perfect jointings, and that the outlet be well above all
windows. Eaves spouting and rain-water down pipes should be periodically
examined and cleaned out. They ought to be painted inside as well as
out, or else they will quickly decay, and if of iron they will rust,
flake off, and become stopped.

It is impossible to have a sweet home where there is continual dampness.
By its presence chemical action and decay are set up in many substances
which would remain in a quiescent state so long as they continued dry.
Wood will rot; so will wall papers, the paste used in hanging them,
and the size in distemper, however good they have been in the first
instance; then it is that injurious exhalations are thrown off, and the
evil is doubtless very greatly increased if the materials are bad in
themselves. Quickly grown and sappy timber, sour paste, stale size, and
wall papers containing injurious pigments are more easily attacked, and
far more likely to fill the house with bad smells and a subtile poison.
Plaster to ceilings and walls is quickly damaged by wet, and if improper
materials, such as road drift, be used in its composition, it may become
most unsavory and injurious to health. The materials for plaster cannot
be too carefully selected, for if organic matter be present, the result
is the formation of nitrates and the like, which combine with lime and
produce deliquescent salts, viz, those which attract moisture. Then,
however impervious to wet the walls, etc., may be, signs of dampness
will be noticed wherever there is a humid atmosphere, and similar evils
will result as if wet had penetrated from the exterior. Organic matter
coming into contact with plaster, and even the exhalations from human
beings and animals, will in time produce similar effects. Hence stables,
water closets, and rooms which are frequently crowded with people,
unless always properly ventilated, will show signs of dampness and
deterioration of the plaster work; wall paper will become detached from
the walls, paint will blister and peel off, and distemper will lose its
virtue. To avoid similar mishaps, sea sand, or sand containing salt,
should never be used either for plaster or mortar. In fact, it is
necessary that the materials for mortar should be as free from salts and
organic matter as those used for plaster, because the injurious effects
of their presence will be quickly communicated to the latter.

Unfortunately, it is not alone by taking precaution against the
possibility of having a damp house that we necessarily insure a "sweet
home." The watchful care of the architect is required from the cutting
of the first sod until the finishing touches are put on the house. He
must assure himself that all is done, and nothing left undone which is
likely to cause a nuisance, or worse still, jeopardize the health of
the occupiers. Yet, with all his care and the employment of the best
materials and apparatus at his command, complete success seems scarcely
possible of attainment. We have all much to learn, many things must
be accomplished and difficulties overcome, ere we can "rest and be
thankful."

It is impossible for the architect to attempt to solve all the problems
which surround this question. He must in many cases employ such
materials and such apparatus as can be obtained; nevertheless, it is his
duty carefully to test the value of such materials and apparatus as
may be obtainable, and by his experience and scientific knowledge to
determine which are best to be used under varying circumstances.

But to pass on to other matters which mar the sweetness of home. With
many, I hold that the method usually employed for warming our dwellings
is wasteful, dirty, and often injurious to health. The open fire,
although cheerful in appearance, is justly condemned. It is wasteful,
because so small a percentage of the value of the fuel employed is
utilized. It is dirty, because of the dust and soot which result
therefrom. It is unhealthy, because of the cold draughts which in its
simplest form are produced, and the stifling atmosphere which pervades
the house when the products of imperfect combustion insist, as they
often do, in not ascending the flues constructed for the express purpose
of carrying them off; and even when they take the desired course, they
blacken and poison the external atmosphere with their presence. Some of
the grates known as ventilating grates dispose of one of the evils of
the ordinary open fire, by reducing the amount of cold draught caused by
the rush of air up the flues. This is effected, as you probably know, by
admitting air direct from the outside of the house to the back of the
grate, where it is warmed, and then flows into the rooms to supply the
place of that which is drawn up the chimneys. Provided such grates act
properly and are well put together, so that there is no possibility of
smoke being drawn into the fresh air channels, and that the air to
be warmed is drawn from a pure source, they may be used with much
advantage; although by them we must not suppose perfection has been
attained. The utilization of a far greater percentage of heat and the
consumption of all smoke must be aimed at. It is a question if such can
be accomplished by means of an open fire, and it is a difficult matter
to devise a method suited in every respect to the warming of our
dwellings, which at the same time is equally cheering in appearance.
So long as we are obliged to employ coal in its crude form for heating
purposes, and are content with the waste and dirt of the open fire, we
must be thankful for the cheer it gives in many a home where there are
well constructed grates and flues, and make the best use we can of the
undoubted ventilating power it possesses.

A constant change of air in every part of our dwellings is absolutely
necessary that we may have a "sweet home," and the open fireplace with
its flue materially helps to that end; but unless in every other respect
the house is in a good sanitary condition, the open fire only adds to
the danger of residing in such a house, because it draws the impure air
from other parts into our living rooms, where it is respired. Closed
stoves are useful in some places, such as entrance halls. They are more
economical than the open fireplaces; but with them there is danger of
the atmosphere, or rather, the minute particles of organic matter always
floating in the air, becoming burnt and so charging the atmosphere with
carbonic acid. The recently introduced slow-combustion stoves obviate
this evil.

It is possible to warm our houses without having separate fireplaces in
each room, viz., by heated air, hot water, or steam; but there are
many difficulties and some dangers in connection therewith which I
can scarcely hope to see entirely overcome. In America steam has been
employed with some success, and there is this advantage in its use, that
it can be conveyed a considerable distance. It is therefore possible
to have the furnace and boilers for its production quite away from the
dwelling houses and to heat several dwellings from one source, while at
the same time it can be employed for cooking purposes. In steam, then,
we have a useful agent, which might with advantage be more generally
employed; but when either it or hot water be used for heating purposes,
special and adequate means of ventilation must be employed. Gas stoves
are made in many forms, and in a few cases can be employed with
advantage; but I believe they are more expensive than a coal fire, and
it is most difficult to prevent the products of combustion finding their
way into the dwellings. Gas is a useful agent in the kitchen for cooking
purposes, but I never remember entering a house where it was so employed
without at once detecting the unpleasant smell resulting. It is rare to
find any special means for carrying off the injurious fumes, and without
such I am sure gas cooking stoves cannot be healthy adjuncts to our
homes.

The next difficulty we have to deal with is artificial lighting.
Whether we employ candle, oil lamp, or gas, we may be certain that the
atmosphere of our rooms will become contaminated by the products of
combustion, and health must suffer. In order that such may be obviated,
it must be an earnest hope that ere long such improvements will be made
in electric lighting, that it may become generally used in our homes as
well as in all public buildings. Gas has certainly proved itself a very
useful and comparatively inexpensive illuminating power, but in many
ways it contaminates the atmosphere, is injurious to health, and
destructive to the furniture and fittings of our homes. Leakages from
the mains impregnate the soil with poisonous matter, and it rarely
happens that throughout a house there are no leakages. However small
they may be, the air becomes tainted. It is almost impossible, at times,
to detect the fault, or if detected, to make good without great injury
to other work, in consequence of the difficulty there is in getting at
the pipes, as they are generally embedded in plaster, etc. All gas pipes
should be laid in positions where they can be easily examined, and, if
necessary, repaired without much trouble. In France it is compulsory
that all gas pipes be left exposed to view, except where they must of
necessity pass through the thickness of a wall or floor, and it would be
a great benefit if such were required in this country.

The cooking processes which necessarily go on often result in unpleasant
odors pervading our homes. I cannot say they are immediately prejudicial
to health; but if they are of daily or frequent occurrence, it is more
than probable the volatile matters which are the cause of the odors
become condensed upon walls, ceiling, or furniture, and in time undergo
putrefaction, and so not only mar the sweetness of home, but in addition
affect the health of the inmates. Cooking ranges should therefore be
constructed so as to carry off the fumes of cooking, and kitchens must
be well ventilated and so placed that the fumes cannot find their way
into other parts of the dwelling. In some houses washing day is an
abomination. Steam and stife then permeate the building, and, to say the
least, banish sweetness and comfort from the home. It is a wonder that
people will, year after year, put up with such a nuisance.

If washing must be done home, the architect may do something to lessen
the evil by placing the washhouse in a suitable position disconnected
from the living part of the house, or by properly ventilating it and
providing a well constructed boiler and furnace, and a flue for carrying
off the steam.

There is daily a considerable amount of refuse found in every home, from
the kitchen, from the fire-grate, from the sweeping of rooms, etc., and
as a rule this is day after day deposited in the ash-pit, which but
too often is placed close to the house, and left uncovered. If it were
simply a receptacle for the ashes from the fire-grates, no harm would
result, but as all kinds of organic matter are cast in and often allowed
to remain for weeks to rot and putrefy, it becomes a regular pest box,
and to it often may be traced sickness and death. It would be a wise
sanitary measure if every constructed ash pit were abolished. In place
thereof I would substitute a galvanized iron covered receptacle of but
moderate size, mounted upon wheels, and it should be incumbent on the
local authorities to empty same every two or three days. Where there are
gardens all refuse is useful as manure, and a suitable place should be
provided for it at the greatest distance from the dwellings. Until the
very advisable reform I have just mentioned takes place, it would be
well if refuse were burnt as soon as possible. With care this may be
done in a close range, or even open fire without any unpleasant smells,
and certainly without injury to health. It must be much more wholesome
to dispose of organic matter in that way while fresh than to have it
rotting and festering under our very noses.

A greater evil yet is the privy. In the country, where there is no
complete system of drainage, it may be tolerated when placed at a
distance from the house; but in a crowded neighborhood it is an
abomination, and, unless frequently emptied and kept scrupulously clean,
cannot fail to be injurious to health. Where there is no system of
drainage, cesspools must at times be used, but they should be avoided as
much as possible. They should never be constructed near to dwellings,
and must always be well ventilated. Care should be taken to make them
watertight, otherwise the foul matter may percolate through the ground,
and is likely to contaminate the water supply. In some old houses
cesspools have been found actually under the living rooms.

I would here also condemn the placing of r. w. tanks under any portion
of the dwelling house, for many cases of sickness and death have been
traced to the fact of sewage having found its way through, either by
backing up the drains, or by the ignorant laying of new into old
drains. Earth closets, if carefully attended to, often emptied, and the
receptacles cleaned out, can be safely employed even within doors;
but in towns it is difficult to dispose of the refuse, and there must
necessarily be a system of drainage for the purpose of taking off the
surface water; it is thereupon found more economical to carry away all
drainage together, and the water closet being but little trouble, and,
if properly looked after, more cleanly in appearance, it is generally
preferred, notwithstanding the great risks which are daily run in
consequence of the chance of sewer-gas finding an entrance into the
house by its means. After all, it is scarcely fair to condemn outright
the water closet as the cause of so many of the ills to which flesh is
subject. It is true that many w. c. apparatus are obviously defective
in construction, and any architect or builder using such is to be
condemned. The old pan closet, for instance, should be banished. It is
known to be defective, and yet I see it is still made, sold, and fixed,
in dwelling houses, notwithstanding the fact that other closet pans far
more simple and effective can be obtained at less cost. The pan of the
closet should be large, and ought to retain a layer of water at the
bottom, which, with the refuse, should be swept out of the pan by the
rush of water from the service pipe. The outlet may be at the side
connected with a simple earthenware s-trap with a ventilating outlet at
the top, from which a pipe may be taken just through the wall. From the
S-trap I prefer to take the soil pipe immediately through the wall, and
connect with a strong 4 in. iron pipe, carefully jointed, watertight,
and continued of the same size to above the tops of all windows. This
pipe at its foot should be connected with a ventilating trap, so that
all air connection is cut off between the house and the drains. All
funnel-shaped w. c. pans are objectionable, because they are so liable
to catch and retain the dirt.

Wastes from baths, sinks, and urinals should also be ventilated and
disconnected from the drains as above, or else allowed to discharge
above a gulley trap. Excrement, etc., must be quickly removed from the
premises if we are to have "sweet homes," and the w.c. is perhaps the
most convenient apparatus, when properly constructed, which can be
employed. By taking due precaution no harm need be feared, or will
result from its use, provided that the drains and sewers are rightly
constructed and properly laid. It is then to the sewers, drains, and
their connections our attention must be specially directed, for in the
majority of cases they are the arch-offenders. The laying of main sewers
has in most cases been intrusted to the civil engineer, yet it often
happens architects are blamed, and unjustly so, for the defective
work over which they had no control. When the main sewers are badly
constructed, and, as a result, sewer gas is generated and allowed to
accumulate, ordinary precautions may be useless in preventing its
entrance by some means or other to our homes, and special means and
extra precautions must be adopted. But with well constructed and
properly ventilated sewers, every architect and builder should be able
to devise a suitable system of house drainage, which need cause no
fear of danger to health. The glazed stoneware pipe, now made of any
convenient size and shape, is an excellent article with which to
construct house-drains. The pipes should be selected, well burnt, well
glazed, and free from twist. Too much care cannot be exercised in
properly laying them. The trenches should be got out to proper falls,
and unless the ground is hard and firm, the pipes should be laid upon a
layer of concrete to prevent the chance of sinking. The jointing must be
carefully made, and should be of cement or of well tempered clay, care
being taken to wipe away all projecting portions from the inside of the
pipes. A clear passage-way is of the utmost importance. Foul drains are
the result of badly joined and irregularly laid pipes, wherein matter
accumulates, which in time ferments and produces sewer-gas. The common
system of laying drains with curved angles is not so good as laying them
in straight lines from point to point, and at every angle inserting
a man-hole or lamp-hole, This plan is now insisted upon by the Local
Government Board for all public buildings erected under their authority.
It might, with advantage, be adopted for all house-drains.

Now, in consequence of the trouble and expense attending the opening up
and examination of a drain, it may often happen that although defects
are suspected or even known to exist, they are not remedied until
illness or death is the result of neglect. But with drains laid in
straight lines, from point to point, with man holes or lamp holes at the
intersections, there is no reason why the whole system may not easily be
examined at any time and stoppages quickly removed. The man holes and
lamp-holes may, with advantage, be used as means for ventilating the
drains and also for flushing them. It is of importance that each house
drain should have a disconnecting trap just before it enters the main
sewer. It is bad enough to be poisoned by neglecting the drainage to
one's own property, but what if the poison be developed elsewhere, and
by neglect permitted to find its way to us. Such will surely happen
unless some effective means be employed for cutting off all air
connection between the house-drains and the main sewer. I am firmly
convinced that simply a smoky chimney, or the discovery of a fault in
drainage weighs far more, in the estimation of a client in forming his
opinion of the ability of an architect, than the successful carrying out
of an artistic design. By no means do I disparage a striving to attain
artistic effectiveness, but to the study of the artistic, in domestic
architecture at least, add a knowledge of sanitary science, and foster a
habit of careful observation of causes and effects. Comfort is demanded
in the home, and that cannot be secured unless dwellings are built and
maintained with perfect sanitary arrangements and appliances.--_The
Building News_.

       *       *       *       *       *




HOUSE AT HEATON


This house, which belongs to Mr J. N. D'Andrea, is built on the Basque
principle, under one roof, with covered balconies on the south side, the
northside being kept low to give the sun an opportunity of shining in
winter on the house and greenhouse adjacent, as well as to assist in the
more picturesque grouping of the two. On this side is placed, approached
by porch and lobby, the hall with a fireplace of the "olden time,"
lavatory, etc., butler's pantry, w. c., staircase, larder, kitchen,
scullery, stores, etc.

On the south side are two sitting rooms, opening into a conservatory.
There are six bedrooms, a dining-room, bath room, and housemaid's sink.

The walls are built of colored wall stones known as "insides," and
half-timbered brickwork covered with the Portland cement stucco,
finished Panan, and painted a cream-color.

All the interior woodwork is of selected pitch pine, the hall being
boarded throughout. Colored lead light glass is introduced in the upper
parts of the windows in every room, etc.

The architect is Mr. W. A. Herbert Martin, of Bradford.--_Architect_

[Illustration: HOUSE AT HEATON, BRADFORD.]

       *       *       *       *       *




A MANSARD ROOF DWELLING.


The principal floor of this design is elevated three feet above the
surface of the ground, and is approached by the front steps leading to
the platform. The height of the first floor is eleven feet, the second
ten feet, and the cellar six feet six inches in the clear. The porch is
so constructed that it can be put on either the front or side of the
house, as it may suit the owner. The rooms, eight in number, are airy
and of convenient size. The kitchen has a range, sink, and boiler, and
a large closet, to be used as a pantry. The windows leading out to the
porch will run to the floor, with heads running into the walls. In the
attic the chambers are 10x10 feet, 13x14 feet, 12x13 feet, 10x10½ feet,
and a hall 6 feet wide, with large closets and cupboards for each
chamber. The building is so constructed that an addition can be made
to the rear any time by using the present kitchen as a dining room and
building a new kitchen.

[Illustration: A MANSARD ROOF DWELLING. First Floor.]

[Illustration: A MANSARD ROOF DWELLING. Second Floor.]

These plans will prove suggestive to those contemplating the building
of a new house, even if radical changes are made in the accompanying
designs.--_American Cultivator_.

[Illustration: A MANSARD ROOF DWELLING. Front Elevation.]

       *       *       *       *       *




THE HISTORY OF THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.

[Footnote: Aug. Guerout in _La Lurmière Electrique_.]


An endeavor has often been made to carry the origin of the electric
telegraph back to a very remote epoch by a reliance on those more or
less fanciful descriptions of modes of communication based upon the
properties of the magnet.

It will prove not without interest before entering into the real history
of the telegraph to pass in review the various documents that relate to
the subject.

In continuation of the 21st chapter of his _Magia naturalis_, published
in 1553, J. B. Porta cites an experiment that had been made with the
magnet as a means of telegraphing. In 1616, Famiano Strada, in his
_Prolusiones Academicæ_, takes up this idea, and speaks of the
possibility of two persons communicating by the aid of two magnetized
needles influenced by each other at a distance. Galileo, in _Dialogo
intorno_, written between 1621 and 1632 and Nicolas Caboeus, of Ferrara,
in his _Philosophia magnetica_, both reproduce analogous descriptions,
not however without raising doubts as to the possibility of such a
system.

A document of the same kind, to which great importance has been attached
is found in the _Recreations mathematiques_ published at Rouen in 1628,
under the pseudonym of Van Elten, and reprinted several times since,
with the annotations and additions of Mydorge and Hamion and which must,
it appears, be attributed to the Jesuit Leurechon. In his chapter on the
magnet and the needles that are rubbed therewith, we find the following
passage.

"Some have pretended that, by means of a magnet or other like stone,
absent persons might speak with one another. For example, Claude being
at Paris, and John at Rome, if each had a needle that had been rubbed
with some stone, and whose virtue was such that in measure as one needle
moved at Paris the other would move just the same at Rome, and if Claude
and John each had an alphabet, and had agreed that they would converse
with each other every afternoon at 6 o'clock, and the needle having made
three and a half revolutions as a signal that Claude, and no other,
wished to speak to John, then Claude wishing to say to him that the king
is at Paris would cause his needle to move, and stop at T, then at H,
then at E, then at K, I, N, G and so on. Now, at the same time, John's
needle, according with Claude's, would begin to move and then stop at
the same letters, and consequently it would be easily able to write or
understand what the other desired to signify to it. The invention is
beautiful, but I do not think there can be found in the world a magnet
that has such a virtue. Neither is the thing expedient, for treason
would be too frequent and too covert."

The same idea was also indicated by Joseph Glanville in his _Scepsis
scientifica_, which appeared in 1665, by Father Le Brun, in his
_Histoire critique des pratiques superstitieuses_, and finally by the
Abbé Barthelemy in 1788.

The suggestion offered by Father Kircher, in his _Magnes sive de arte
magnetica_, is a little different from the preceding. The celebrated
Jesuit father seeks however, to do nothing more than to effect a
communication of thoughts between two rooms in the same building. He
places, at short distances from each other, two spherical vessels
carrying on their circumference the letters of the alphabet, and each
having suspended within it, from a vertical wire a magnetized figure. If
one of these latter he moved, all the others must follow its motions,
one after the other, and transmission will thus be effected from the
first vessel to the last. Father Kircher observes that it is necessary
that all the magnets shall be of the same strength, and that there shall
be a large number of them, which is something not within the reach
of everybody. This is why he points out another mode of transmitting
thought, and one which consists in supporting the figures upon vertical
revolving cylinders set in motion by one and the same cord hidden with
in the walls.

There is no need of very thoroughly examining all such systems of
magnetic telegraphy to understand that it was never possible for them to
have a practical reality, and that they were pure speculations which it
is erroneous to consider as the first ideas of the electric telegraph.

We shall make a like reserve with regard to certain apparatus that
have really existed, but that have been wrongly viewed as electric
telegraphs. Such are those of Comus and of Alexandre. The first of these
is indicated in a letter from Diderot to Mlle. Voland, dated July 12,
1762. It consisted of two dials whose hands followed each other at a
distance, without the apparent aid of any external agent. The fact
that Comus published some interesting researches on electricity in the
_Journal de Physique_ has been taken as a basis for the assertion that
his apparatus was a sort of electrical discharge telegraph in which the
communication between the two dials was made by insulated wires hidden
in the walls. But, if it be reflected how difficult it would have been
at that epoch to realize an apparatus of this kind, if it be remembered
that Comus, despite his researches on electricity, was in reality only a
professor of physics to amuse, and if the fact be recalled that cabinets
of physics in those days were filled with ingenious apparatus in which
the surprising effects were produced by skillfully concealed magnets, we
shall rather be led to class among such apparatus the so-called "Comus
electric telegraph."

We find, moreover, in Guyot's _Recreations physiques et
mathematiques_--a work whose first edition dates back to the time at
which Comus was exhibiting his apparatus--a description of certain
communicating dials that seem to be no other than those of the
celebrated physicist, and which at all events enables us to understand
how they worked.

Let one imagine to himself two contiguous chambers behind which ran
one and the same corridor. In each chamber, against the partition that
separated it from the corridor, there was a small bracket, and upon the
latter, and very near the wall, there was a wooden dial supported on a
standard, but in no wise permanently fixed upon the bracket. Each dial
carried a needle, and each circumference was inscribed with twenty-five
letters of the alphabet. The experiment that was performed with these
dials consisted in placing the needle upon a letter in one of the
chambers, when the needle of the other dial stopped at the same letter,
thus making it possible to transmit words and even sentences. As for the
means of communication between the two apparatus, that was very simple:
One of the two dials always served as a transmitter, and the other as a
receiver. The needle of the transmitter carried along in its motion
a pretty powerful magnet, which was concealed in the dial, and which
reacted through the partition upon a very light magnetized needle that
followed its motions, and indicated upon an auxiliary dial, to a person
hidden in the corridor, the letter on which the first needle had been
placed. This person at once stepped over to the partition corresponding
to the receiver, where another auxiliary dial permitted him to properly
direct at a distance the very movable needle of the receiver. Everything
depended, as will be seen, upon the use of the magnet, and upon a deceit
that perfectly accorded with Comus' profession. There is, then, little
thought in our opinion that if the latter's apparatus was not exactly
the one Guyot describes, it was based upon some analogous artifice.

Jean Alexandre's telegraph appears to have borne much analogy with
Comus'. Its inventor operated it in 1802 before the prefect of
Indre-et-Loire. As a consequence of a report addressed by the prefect of
Vienne to Chaptal, and in which, moreover, the apparatus in question was
compared to Comus', Alexandre was ordered to Paris. There he refused to
explain upon what principle his invention was based, and declared that
he would confide his secret only to the First Consul. But Bonaparte,
little disposed to occupy himself with such an affair, charged Delambre
to examine it and address a report to him. The illustrious astronomer,
despite the persistence with which Alexandre refused to give up his
secret to him, drew a report, the few following extracts from which
will, we think, suffice to edify the reader:

"The pieces that the First Consul charged me to examine did not contain
enough of detail to justify an opinion. Citizen Beauvais (friend and
associate of Alexandre) knows the inventor's secret, but has promised
him to communicate it to no one except the First Consul. This
circumstance might enable me to dispense with any report; for how judge
of a machine that one has not seen and does not know the agent of? All
that is known is that the _telegraphe intime_ consists of two like
boxes, each carrying a dial on whose circumference are marked the
letters of the alphabet. By means of a winch, the needle of one dial is
carried to all the letters that one has need to use, and at the same
instant the needle of the second box repeats, in the same order, all the
motions and indications of the first.

"When these two boxes are placed in two separate apartments, two persons
can write to and answer one another, without seeing or being seen by one
another, and without any one suspecting their correspondence. Neither
night nor fog can prevent the transmission of a dispatch.... The
inventor has made two experiments--one at Portiers and the other at
Tours--in the presence of the prefects and mayors, and the record shows
that they were fully successful. To-day, the inventor and his associate
ask that the First Consul be pleased to permit one of the boxes to be
placed in his apartment and the other at the house of Consul Cambaceres
in order to give the experiment all the _éclat_ and authenticity
possible; or that the First Consul accord a ten minutes' interview to
citizen Beauvais, who will communicate to him the secret, which is
so easy that the simple _expose_ of it would be equivalent to a
demonstration, and would take the place of an experiment.... If, as one
might be tempted to believe from a comparison with a bell arrangement,
the means adopted by the inventor consisted in wheels, movements,
and transmitting pieces, the invention would be none the less
astonishing.... If, on the contrary, as the Portier's account seems to
prove, the means of communication is a fluid, there would be the more
merit in his having mastered it to such a point as to produce so regular
and so infallible effects at such distances.... But citizen Beauvais
... desires principally to have the First Consul as a witness and
appreciator.... It is to be desired, then, that the First Consul shall
consent to hear him, and that he may find in the communication that will
be made to him reasons for giving the invention a good reception and for
properly rewarding the inventor."

But Bonaparte remained deaf, and Alexandre persisted in his silence, and
died at Angers, in 1832, in great poverty, without having revealed his
secret.

As, in 1802, Volta's pile was already invented, several authors have
supposed an application of it in Alexandre's apparatus. "Is it not
allowable to believe," exclaims one of these, "that the electric
telegraph was at that time discovered?" We do not hesitate to respond in
the negative. The pile had been invented for too short a time, and too
little was then known of the properties of the current, to allow a
man so destitute of scientific knowledge to so quickly invent all the
electrical parts necessary for the synchronic operation of the two
needles. In this _telegraphe intime_ we can only see an apparatus
analogous to the one described by Guyot, or rather a synchronism
obtained by means of cords, as in Kircher's arrangement. The fact that
Alexandre's two dials were placed on two different stories, and distant,
horizontally, fifteen meters, in nowise excludes this latter mode of
transmission. On another hand, the mystery in which Alexandre was
shrouded, his declaration relative to the use of a fluid, and the
assurance with which he promised to reveal his secret to the First
Consul, prove absolutely nothing, for too often have the most profoundly
ignorant people--the electric girl, for example--befooled learned bodies
by the aid of the grossest frauds. From the standpoint of the history
of the electric telegraph, there is no value, then, to be attributed to
this apparatus of Alexandre, any more than there is to that of Comus or
to _any_ of the dreams based upon the properties of the magnet.

The history of the electric telegraph really begins with 1753, the date
at which is found the first indication of a telegraph truly based upon
the use of electricity. This telegraph is described in a letter written
by Renfrew, dated Feb. 1, 1753, and signed with the initials "C.M.,"
which, in all probability, were those of a savant of the time--Charles
Marshall. A few extracts from this letter will give an idea of the
precision with which the author described his invention:

"Let us suppose a bundle of wires, in number equal to that of the
letters of the alphabet, stretched horizontally between two given
places, parallel with each other and distant from each other one inch.

"Let us admit that after every twenty yards the wires are connected to a
solid body by a juncture of glass or jeweler's cement, so as to prevent
their coming in contact with the earth or any conducting body, and so
as to help them to carry their own weight. The electric battery will be
placed at right angles to one of the extremities of the wires, and the
bundle of wires at each extremity will be carried by a solid piece of
glass. The portions of the wires that run from the glass support to the
machine have sufficient elasticity and stiffness to return to their
primitive position after having been brought into contact with the
battery. Very near to this same glass support, on the opposite side,
there descends a ball suspended from each wire, and at a sixth or a
tenth of an inch beneath each ball there is placed one of the letters of
the alphabet written upon small pieces of paper or other substance light
enough to be attracted and raised by the electrified ball. Besides this,
all necessary arrangements are taken so that each of these little papers
shall resume its place when the ball ceases to attract.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.--LESAGE'S TELEGRAPH.]

"All being arranged as above, and the minute at which the correspondence
is to begin having been fixed upon beforehand, I begin the conversation
with my friend at a distance in this way: I set the electric machine
in motion, and, if the word that I wish to transcribe is 'Sir,' for
example, I take, with a glass rod, or with any other body electric
through itself or insulating, the different ends of the wires
corresponding to the three letters that compose the word. Then I press
them in such a way as to put them in contact with the battery. At the
same instant, my correspondent sees these different letters carried in
the same order toward the electrified balls at the other extremity of
the wires. I continue to thus spell the words as long as I judge proper,
and my correspondent, that he may not forget them, writes down the
letters in measure as they rise. He then unites them and reads the
dispatch as often as he pleases. At a given signal, or when I desire it,
I stop the machine, and, taking a pen, write down what my friend sends
me from the other end of the line."

The author of this letter points out, besides, the possibility of
keeping, in the first place, all the springs in contact with the
battery, and, consequently, all the letters attracted, and of indicating
each letter by removing its wire from the battery, and consequently
making it fall. He even proposed to substitute bells of different sounds
for the balls, and to produce electric sparks upon them. The sound
produced by the spark would vary according to the bell, and the letters
might thus be heard.

Nothing, however, in this document authorizes the belief that Charles
Marshall ever realized his idea, so we must proceed to 1774 to find
Lesage, of Geneva, constructing a telegraph that was based upon the
principle indicated twenty years before in the letter of Renfrew.

The apparatus that Lesage devised (Fig. 1) was composed of 24 wires
insulated from one another by a non conducting material. Each of these
wires corresponded to a small pith ball suspended by a thread. On
putting an electric machine in communication with such or such a one of
these wires, the ball of the corresponding electrometer was repelled,
and the motion signaled the letter that it was desired to transmit. Not
content with having realized an electric telegraph upon a small scale,
Lesage thought of applying it to longer distances.

"Let us conceive," said he in a letter written June 22, 1782, to Mr.
Prevost, of Geneva, "a subterranean pipe of enameled clay, whose cavity
at about every six feet is separated by partitions of the same material,
or of glass, containing twenty-four apertures in order to give passage
to as many brass wires as these diaphragms are to sustain and keep
separated. At each extremity of this pipe are twenty-four wires that
deviate from one another horizontally, and that are arranged like the
keys of a clavichord; and, above this row of wire ends, are distinctly
traced the twenty-four letters of the alphabet, while beneath there is a
table covered with twenty-four small pieces of gold-leaf or other easily
attractable and quite visible bodies."

Lesage had thought of offering his secret to Frederick the Great; but
he did not do so, however, and his telegraph remained in the state of a
curious cabinet experiment. He had, nevertheless, opened the way, and,
dating from that epoch, we meet with a certain number of attempts at
electrostatic telegraphy. [1]

[Footnote 1: Advantage has been taken of a letter from Alexander Volta
to Prof. Barletti (dated 1777), indicating the possibility of firing his
electric pistol from a great distance, to attribute to him a part in the
invention of the telegraph. We have not shared in this opinion, which
appears to us erroneous, since Volta, while indicating the possibility
above stated, does not speak of applying such a fact to telegraphy.]

The first in date is that of Lemond, which is spoken of by Arthur Young
(October 16, 1787), in his _Voyage Agronomique en France_:

"In the evening," says he, "we are going to Mr. Lemond's, a very
ingenious mechanician, and one who has a genius for invention.... He has
made a remarkable discovery in electricity. You write two or three words
upon paper; he takes them with him into a room and revolves a machine
within a sheath at the top of which there is an electrometer--a pretty
little ball of feather pith. A brass wire is joined to a similar
cylinder, and electrified in a distant apartment, and his wife on
remarking the motions of the ball that corresponds, writes down the
words that they indicate; from whence it appears that he has formed an
alphabet of motions. As the length of the wire makes no difference in
the effect, a correspondence might be kept up from very far off, for
example with a besieged city, or for objects much more worthy of
attention. Whatever be the use that shall be made of it, the discovery
is an admirable one."

And, in fact, Lemond's telegraph was of the most interesting character,
for it was a single wire one, and we already find here an alphabet based
upon the combination of a few elementary signals.

The apparatus that next succeeds is the electric telegraph that Reveroni
Saint Cyr proposed in 1790, to announce lottery numbers, but as to the
construction of which we have no details. In 1794 Reusser, a German,
made a proposition a little different from the preceding systems, and
which is contained in the _Magazin für das Neueste aus der Physik und
Naturgeschichte_, published by Henri Voigt.

"I am at home," says Reusser, "before my electric machine, and I am
dictating to some one on the other side of the street a complete
letter that he is writing himself. On an ordinary table there is fixed
vertically a square board in which is inserted a pane of glass. To this
glass are glued strips of tinfoil cut out in such a way that the spark
shall be visible. Each strip is designated by a letter of the alphabet,
and from each of them starts a long wire. These wires are inclosed in
glass tubes which pass underground and run to the place whither the
dispatch is to be transmitted. The extremities of the wires reach a
similar plate of glass, which is likewise affixed to a table and
carries strips of tinfoil similar to the others. These strips are also
designated, by the same letters, and are connected by a return wire with
the table of him who wishes to dictate the message. If, now, he who is
dictating puts the external armature of a Leyden jar in contact with the
return wire, and the ball of this jar in contact with a metallic rod
touching that of the tinfoil strip which corresponds with the letter
which he wishes to dictate to the other, sparks will be produced upon
the nearest as well as upon the remotest strips, and the distant
correspondent, seeing such sparks, may immediately write down the letter
marked. Will an extended application of this system ever be made? That
is not the question; it is possible. It will be very expensive; but the
post hordes from Saint Petersburg to Lisbon are also very expensive,
and if any one should apply the idea on a large scale, I shall claim a
recompense."

Every letter, then, was signaled by one or several sparks that started
forth on the breaking of the strip; but we see nothing in this document
to authorize the opinion which has existed, that every tinfoil strip was
a sort of magic tablet upon which the sparks traced the very form of the
letter to be transmitted.

Voigt, the editor of the _Magazin_, adds, in continuation of Reusser's
communication: "Mr. Reusser should have proposed the addition to this
arrangement of a vessel filled with detonating gas which could be
exploded in the first place, by means of the electric spark, in order
to notify the one to whom something was to be dictated that he should
direct his attention to the strips of tinfoil."

This passage gives the first indication of the use of a special call for
the telegraph. The same year (1794), in a work entitled _Versuch über
Telegraphie und Telegraphen_, Boeckmann likewise proposed the use of the
pistol as a call signal, in conjunction with the use of a line composed
of two wires only, and of discharges in the air or a vacuum, grouped in
such a way as to form an alphabet.

Experiments like those indicated by Boeckmann, however, seem to have
been made previous to 1794, or at that epoch, at least, by Cavallo,
since the latter describes them in a _Treatise on Electricity_ written
in English, and a French translation of which was published in 1795.
In these experiments the length of the wires reached 250 English feet.
Cavallo likewise proposed to use as signals combustible or detonating
materials, and to employ as a call the noise made by the discharge of a
Leyden jar.

In 1796 occurred the experiments of Dr. Francisco Salva and of the
Infante D. Antonio. The following is what we may read on this subject in
the _Journal des Sciences_:

"Prince de la Paix, having learned that Dr. Francisco Salva had read
before the Royal Academy of Sciences of Barcelona a memoir on the
application of electricity to telegraphy, and that he had presented at
the same time an electric telegraph of his own invention, desired
to examine this machine in person. Satisfied as to the accuracy and
celerity with which we can converse with another by means of it, he
obtained for the inventor the honor of appearing before the king. Prince
de la Paix, in the presence of their majesties and of several lords,
caused the telegraph to converse to the satisfaction of the whole court.
The telegraph conversed some days afterward at the residence of the
Infante D. Antonio.

"His Highness expressed a desire to have a much completer one that
should have sufficient electrical power to communicate at great
distances on land and sea. The Infante therefore ordered the
construction of an electric machine whose plate should be more than
forty inches in diameter. With the aid of this machine His Highness
intends to undertake a series of useful and curious experiments that he
has proposed to Dr. D. Salva."

In 1797 or '98 (some authors say 1787), the Frenchman, Betancourt, put
up a line between Aranjuez and Madrid, and telegraphed through the
medium of discharges from a Leyden jar.

But the most interesting of the telegraphs based upon the use of static
electricity is without doubt that of Francis Ronalds, described by the
latter, in 1823, in a pamphlet entitled _Descriptions of an Electrical
Telegraph and of some other Electrical Apparatus_, but the construction
of which dates back to 1816.

What is peculiarly interesting in Ronalds' apparatus is that it presents
for the first time the use of two synchronous movements at the two
stations in correspondence.

The apparatus is represented in Fig. 2. It is based upon the
simultaneous working of two pith-ball electrometers, combined with the
synchronous running of two clock-work movements. At the two stations
there were identical clocks for whose second hand there had been
substituted a cardboard disk (Fig. 3), divided into twenty sectors. Each
of these latter contained one figure, one letter, and a conventional
word. Before each movable disk there was a screen, A (Fig. 2),
containing an aperture through which only one sector could, be seen at
a time. Finally, before each screen there was a pith-ball electrometer.
The two electrometers were connected together by means of a conductor
(C) passing under the earth, and which at either of its extremities
could be put in communication with either an electric machine or the
ground. A lever handle, J, interposed into the circuit a Volta's pistol,
F, that served as a call.

When one of the operators desired to send a dispatch to the other he
connected the conductor with the machine, and, setting the latter in
operation, discharged his correspondent's pistol as a signal. The call
effected, the first operator continued to revolve the machine so that
the balls of pith should diverge in the two electrometers. At the same
time the two clocks were set running. When the sender saw the word
"attention" pass before the slit in the screen he quickly discharged the
line, the balls of the two electrometers approached each other, and, if
the two clocks agreed perfectly, the correspondent necessarily saw in
the aperture in his screen the same word, "attention." If not, he moved
the screen in consequence, and the operation was performed over until
he could send, in his turn, the word "ready." Afterward, the sender
transmitted in the same way one of the three words, "letters,"
"figures," "dictionary," in order to indicate whether he wished to
transmit letters or figures, or whether the letters received, instead of
being taken in their true sense, were to be referred to a conventional
vocabulary got up in advance. It was after such preliminaries that the
actual transmission of the dispatch was begun. The pith balls, which
were kept constantly apart, approached each other at the moment the
letter to be transmitted passed before the aperture in the screen.

Ronalds, in his researches, busied himself most with the construction of
lines. He put up on the grounds near his dwelling an air line 8 miles
long; and, to do so, stretched fine iron wire in zigzag fashion between
two frames 18 meters apart. Each of these frames carried thirty-seven
hooks, to which the wire was attached through the intermedium of silk
cords. He laid, besides, a subterranean line of 525 feet at a depth of 4
feet. The wire was inclosed within thick glass tubes which were placed
in a trough of dry wood, of 2 inch section, coated internally and
externally with pitch. This trough was, moreover, filled full of pitch
and closed with a cover of wood. Ronalds preferred these subterranean
conductors to air lines. A portion of one of them that was laid by him
at Hammersmith figured at the Exhibition of 1881, and is shown in Fig.
4.

Nearly at the epoch at which Ronalds was experimenting in England,
a certain Harrisson Gray Dyar was also occupying himself with
electrostatic telegraphy in America. According to letters published only
in 1872 by American journals, Dyar constructed the first telegraph in
America. This line, which was put up on Long Island, was of iron wire
strung on poles carrying glass insulators, and, upon it, Dyar operated
with static electricity. Causing the spark to act upon a movable disk
covered with litmus paper, he produced by the discoloration of the
latter dots and dashes that formed an alphabet.

[Illustration: FIG. 2.]

These experiments, it seems, were so successful that Dyar and his
relatives resolved to construct a line from New York to Philadelphia;
but quarrels with his copartners, lawsuits, and other causes obliged him
to leave for Rhode Island, and finally for France in 1831. He did not
return to America till 1858.

Dyar, then, would seem to have been the first who combined an alphabet
composed of dots and dashes. On this point, priority has been claimed by
Swaim in a book that appeared at Philadelphia in 1829 under the title of
_The Mural Diagraph_, and in a communication inserted in the _Comptes
Rendus_ of the Academic des Sciences for Nov. 27, 1865.

[Illustration: FIG. 3.]

In 1828, likewise, Victor Triboaillet de Saint Amand proposed to
construct a telegraph line between Paris and Brussels. This line was to
be a subterranean one, the wire being covered with gum shellac, then
with silk, and finally with resin, and being last of all placed in glass
tubes. A strong battery was to act at a distance upon an electroscope,
and the dispatches were to be transmitted by the aid of a conventional
vocabulary based upon the number of the electroscope's motions.

Finally, in 1844, Henry Highton took out a patent in England for a
telegraph working through electricity of high tension, with the use of
a single line wire. A paper unrolled regularly between two points, and
each discharge made a small hole in it, But this hole was near one
or the other of the points according as the line was positively or
negatively charged. The combination of the holes thus traced upon two
parallel lines permitted of the formation of an alphabet. This telegraph
was tried successfully over a line ten miles long, on the London and
Northwestern Railway.

[Illustration: FIG. 4.]

We have followed electrostatic telegraphs up to an epoch at which
telegraphy had already entered upon a more practical road, and it now
remains for us to retrace our steps toward those apparatus that are
based upon the use of the voltaic current.

       *       *       *       *       *

Prof. Dolbear observes that if a galvanometer is placed between the
terminals of a circuit of homogeneous iron wire and heat is applied, no
electric effect will be observed; but if the structure of the wire
is altered by alternate bending or twisting into a helix, then the
galvanometer will indicate a current. The professor employs a helix
connected with a battery, and surrounding a portion of the wire in
circuit with the galvanometer. The current in the helix magnetizes the
circuit wire inclosed, and the galvanometer exhibits the presence of
electricity. The experiment helps to prove that magnetism is connected
with some molecular change of the magnetized metal.

       *       *       *       *       *




ELECTRICAL TRANSMISSION AND STORAGE.

[Footnote: From a recent lecture in London before the Institute of Civil
Engineers.]

By Dr. C. WILLIAM SIEMENS, F.R.S, Mem. Inst. C.E.


Dr. Siemens, in opening the discourse, adverted to the object the
Council had in view in organizing these occasional lectures, which were
not to be lectures upon general topics, but the outcome of such special
study and practical experience as members of the Institution had
exceptional opportunities of acquiring in the course of their
professional occupation. The subject to be dealt with during the present
session was that of electricity. Already telegraphy had been brought
forward by Mr. W. H. Preece, and telephonic communication by Sir
Frederick Bramwell.

Thus far electricity had been introduced as the swift and subtile agency
by which signals were produced either by mechanical means or by the
human voice, and flashed almost instantaneously to distances which were
limited, with regard to the former, by restrictions imposed by the
globe. To the speaker had been assigned the task of introducing to their
notice electric energy in a different aspect. Although still giving
evidence of swiftness and precision, the effects he should dwell upon
were no longer such as could be perceived only through the most delicate
instruments human ingenuity could contrive, but were capable of rivaling
the steam engine, compressed air, and the hydraulic accumulator in the
accomplishment of actual work.

In the early attempts at magneto electric machines, it was shown that,
so long as their effect depended upon the oxidation of zinc in a
battery, no commercially useful results could have been anticipated. The
thermo-battery, the discovery of Seebeck in 1822, was alluded to as a
means of converting heat into electric energy in the most direct manner;
but this conversion could not be an entire one, because the second law
of thermo-dynamics, which prevented the realization as mechanical force
of more than one seventh part of the heat energy produced in combustion
under the boiler, applied equally to the thermo-electric battery, in
which the heat, conducted from the hot points of juncture to the
cold, constituted a formidable loss. The electromotive force of each
thermo-electric element did not exceed 0.036 of a volt, and 1,800
elements were therefore necessary to work an incandescence lamp.

A most useful application of the thermo-electric battery for measuring
radiant heat, the thermo pile, was exhibited. By means of an ingenious
modification of the electrical pyrometer, named the bolometer, valuable
researches in measuring solar radiations had been made by Professor
Langley.

Faraday's great discovery of magneto-induction was next noticed, and the
original instrument by which he had elicited the first electric spark
before the members of the Royal Institution in 1831, was shown in
operation. It was proved that although the individual current produced
by magnetoinduction was exceedingly small and momentary in action, it
was capable of unlimited multiplication by mechanical arrangements of a
simple kind, and that by such multiplication the powerful effects of the
dynamo machine of the present day were built up. One of the means for
accomplishing such multiplication was the Siemens armature of 1856.
Another step of importance was that involved in the Pacinotti ring,
known in its practical application as the machine of Gramme. A third
step, that of the self exciting principle, was first communicated by Dr.
Werner Siemens to the Berlin Academy, on the 17th of January, 1867, and
by the lecturer to the Royal Society, on the 4th of the following
month. This was read on the 14th of February, when the late Sir Charles
Wheatstone also brought forward a paper embodying the same principle.
The lecturer's machine, which was then exhibited, and which might be
looked upon as the first of its kind, was shown in operation; it had
done useful work for many years as a means of exciting steel magnets.
A suggestion contained in Sir Charles Wheatstone's paper, that "a very
remarkable increase of all the effects, accompanied by a diminution in
the resistance of the machine, is observed when a cross wire is placed
so as to divert a great portion of the current from the electro-magnet,"
had led the lecturer to an investigation read before the Royal Society
on the 4th of March, 1880, in which it was shown that by augmenting the
resistance upon the electro-magnets 100 fold, valuable effects could be
realized, as illustrated graphically by means of a diagram. The most
important of these results consisted in this, that the electromotive
force produced in a "shunt-wound machine," as it was called, increased
with the external resistance, whereby the great fluctuations formerly
inseparable from electric arc lighting could be obviated, and thus,
by the double means of exciting the electro-magnets, still greater
uniformity of current was attainable.

The conditions upon which the working of a well conceived dynamo machine
must depend were next alluded to, and it was demonstrated that when
losses by unnecessary wire resistance, by Foucault currents, and by
induced currents in the rotating armature were avoided, as much as 90
per cent., or even more, of the power communicated to the machine was
realized in the form of electric energy, and that _vice versa_ the
reconversion of electric into mechanical energy could be accomplished
with similarly small loss. Thus, by means of two machines at a moderate
distance apart, nearly 80 per cent, of the power imparted to one machine
could be again yielded in the mechanical form by the second, leaving
out of consideration frictional losses, which latter need not be
great, considering that a dynamo machine had only one moving part
well balanced, and was acted upon along its entire circumference by
propelling force. Jacobi had proved, many years ago, that the maximum
efficiency of a magneto-electric engine was obtained when

e / E = w / W = ½

which law had been frequently construed, by Verdet (Theorie Mecanique
de la Chaleur) and others, to mean that one-half was the maximum
theoretical efficiency obtainable in electric transmission of power, and
that one half of the current must be necessarily wasted or turned into
heat. The lecturer could never be reconciled to a law necessitating such
a waste of energy, and had maintained, without disputing the accuracy of
Jacobi's law, that it had reference really to the condition of maximum
work accomplished with a given machine, whereas its efficiency must be
governed by the equation:

e / E = w / W = nearly 1

From this it followed that the maximum yield was obtained when two
dynamo machines (of similar construction) rotated nearly at the same
speed, but that under these conditions the amount of force transmitted
was a minimum. Practically the best condition of working consisted in
giving to the primary machine such proportions as to produce a current
of the same magnitude, but of 50 per cent, greater electromotive force
than the secondary; by adopting such an arrangement, as much as 50 per
cent, of the power imparted to the primary could be practically received
from the secondary machine at a distance of several miles. Professor
Silvanus Thompson, in his recent Cantor Lectures, had shown an ingenious
graphical method of proving these important fundamental laws.

The possibility of transmitting power electrically was so obvious that
suggestions to that effect had been frequently made since the days of
Volta, by Ritchie, Jacobi, Henry, Page, Hjorth, and others; but it
was only in recent years that such transmission had been rendered
practically feasible.

Just six years ago, when delivering his presidential address to the Iron
and Steel Institute, the lecturer had ventured to suggest that "time
will probably reveal to us effectual means of carrying power to great
distances, but I cannot refrain from alluding to one which is, in my
opinion, worthy of consideration, namely, the electrical conductor.
Suppose water power to be employed to give motion to a dynamo-electrical
machine, a very powerful electrical current will be the result, which
may be carried to a great distance, through a large metallic conductor,
and then be made to impart motion to electromagnetic engines, to ignite
the carbon points of electric lamps, or to effect the separation of
metals from their combinations. A copper rod 3 in. in diameter would
be capable of transmitting 1,000 horse power a distance of say thirty
miles, an amount sufficient to supply one-quarter of a million candle
power, which would suffice to illuminate a moderately-sized town." This
suggestion had been much criticised at the time, when it was still
thought that electricity was incapable of being massed so as to deal
with many horse power of effect, and the size of conductor he had
proposed was also considered wholly inadequate. It would be interesting
to test this early calculation by recent experience. Mr. Marcel Deprez
had, it was well known, lately succeeded in transmitting as much as
three horse power to a distance of 40 kilometers (25 miles) through
a pair of ordinary telegraph wires of 4 millimeters in diameter. The
results so obtained had been carefully noted by Mr. Tresca, and had been
communicated a fortnight ago to the French Academy of Sciences. Taking
the relative conductivity of iron wire employed by Deprez, and the 3
in. rod proposed by the lecturer, the amount of power that could be
transmitted through the latter would be about 4,000 horse power. But
Deprez had employed a motor-dynamo of 2,000 volts, and was contented
with a yield of 32 per cent. only of the energy imparted to the primary
machine, whereas he had calculated at the time upon an electromotive
force of 200 volts, and upon a return of at least 40 per cent. of the
energy imparted. In March, 1878, when delivering one of the Science
Lectures at Glasgow, he said that a 2 in. rod could be made to
accomplish the object proposed, because he had by that time conceived
the possibility of employing a current of at least 500 volts. Sir
William Thomson had at once accepted these views, and with the
conceptive ingenuity peculiar to himself, had gone far beyond him, in
showing before the Parliamentary Electric Light Committee of 1879, that
through a copper wire of only ½ in. diameter, 21,000 horse power might
be conveyed to a distance of 300 miles with a current of an intensity
of 80,000 volts. The time might come when such a current could be dealt
with, having a striking distance of about 12 ft. in air, but then,
probably, a very practical law enunciated by Sir William Thomson would
be infringed. This was to the effect that electricity was conveyed at
the cheapest rate through a conductor, the cost of which was such
that the annual interest upon the money expended equaled the annual
expenditure for lost effect in the conductor in producing the power to
be conveyed. It appeared that Mr. Deprez had not followed this law in
making his recent installations.

Sir William Armstrong was probably first to take practical, advantage of
these suggestions in lighting his house at Cragside during night time,
and working his lathe and saw bench during the day, by power transmitted
through a wire from a waterfall nearly a mile distant from his mansion.
The lecturer had also accomplished the several objects of pumping water,
cutting wood, hay, and swedes, of lighting his house, and of carrying on
experiments in electro-horticulture from a common center of steam power.
The results had been most satisfactory; the whole of the management
had been in the hands of a gardener and of laborers, who were without
previous knowledge of electricity, and the only repairs that had been
found necessary were one renewal of the commutators and an occasional
change of metallic contact brushes.

An interesting application of electric transmission to cranes, by Dr.
Hopkinson, was shown in operation.

Among the numerous other applications of the electrical transmission
of power, that to electrical railways, first exhibited by Dr. Werner
Siemens, at the Berlin Exhibition of 1879, had created more than
ordinary public attention. In it the current produced by the dynamo
machine, fixed at a convenient station and driven by a steam engine
or other motor, was conveyed to a dynamo placed upon the moving car,
through a central rail supported upon insulating blocks of wood, the two
working rails serving to convey the return current. The line was 900
yards long, of 2 ft gauge, and the moving car served its purpose of
carrying twenty visitors through the exhibition each trip. The success
of this experiment soon led to the laying of the Lichterfelde line, in
which both rails were placed upon insulating sleepers, so that the one
served for the conveyance of the current from the power station to the
moving car, and the other for completing the return circuit. This line
had a gauge of 3 ft. 3 in., was 2,500 yards in length, and was worked
by two dynamo machines, developing an aggregate current of 9,000 watts,
equal to 12 horse power. It had now been in constant operation since May
16, 1881, and had never failed in accomplishing its daily traffic.
A line half a kilometer in length, but of 4 ft. 8½ in. gauge was
established by the lecturer at Paris in connection with the Electric
Exhibition of 1881. In this case, two suspended conductors in the form
of hollow tubes with a longitudinal slit were adopted, the contact being
made by metallic bolts drawn through these slit tubes, and connected
with the dynamo machine on the moving car by copper ropes passing
through the roof. On this line 95,000 passengers were conveyed within
the short period of seven weeks.

An electric tramway, six miles in length, had just been completed,
connecting Portrush with Bush Mills, in the north of Ireland, in the
installation of which the lecturer was aided by Mr. Traill, as engineer
of the company by Mr. Alexander Siemens, and by Dr. E. Hopkinson,
representing his firm. In this instance the two rails, 3 ft. apart, were
not insulated from the ground, but were joined electrically by means of
copper staples and formed the return circuit, the current being conveyed
to the car through a T iron placed upon short standards, and insulated
by means of insulate caps. For the present the power was produced by
a steam engine at Portrush, giving motion to a shunt-wound dynamo of
15,000 watts=20 horse power, but arrangements were in progress to
utilize a waterfall of ample power near Bush Mills, by means of three
turbines of 40 horse power each, now in course of erection. The working
speed of this line was restricted by the Board of Trade to ten miles an
hour, which was readily obtained, although the gradients of the line
were decidedly unfavorable, including an incline of two miles in length
at a gradient of 1 in 38. It was intended to extend the line six miles
beyond Bush Mills, in order to join it at Dervock station with the north
of Ireland narrow gauge railway system.

The electric system of propulsion was, in the lecturer's opinion,
sufficiently advanced to assure practical success under suitable
circumstances--such as for suburban tramways, elevated lines, and
above all lines through tunnels; such as the Metropolitan and District
Railways. The advantages were that the weight, of the engine, so
destructive of power and of the plant itself in starting and stopping,
would be saved, and that perfect immunity from products of combustion
would be insured The experience at Lichterfelde, at Paris, and another
electric line of 765 yards in length, and 2 ft. 2 in. gauge, worked
in connection with the Zaukerode Colliery since October, 1882, were
extremely favorable to this mode of propulsion. The lecturer however
did not advocate its prospective application in competition with the
locomotive engine for main lines of railway. For tramways within
populous districts, the insulated conductor involved a serious
difficulty. It would be more advantageous under these circumstances to
resort to secondary batteries, forming a store of electrical energy
carried under the seats of the car itself, and working a dynamo machine
connected with the moving wheels by means of belts and chains.

The secondary battery was the only available means of propelling vessels
by electrical power, and considering that these batteries might be made
to serve the purpose of keel ballast, their weight, which was still
considerable, would not be objectionable. The secondary battery was not
an entirely new conception. The hydrogen gas battery suggested by Sir
Wm. Grove in 1841, and which was shown in operation, realized in the
most perfect manner the conception of storage, only that the power
obtained from it was exceedingly slight. The lecturer, in working upon
Sir Wm. Grove's conception, had twenty-five years ago constructed
a battery of considerable power in substituting porous carbon for
platinum, impregnating the same with a precipitate of lead peroxidized
by a charging current. At that time little practical importance attached
however to the object, and even when Plante, in 1860, produced his
secondary battery, composed of lead plates peroxidized by a charging
current, little more than scientific curiosity was excited. It was
only since the dynamo machine had become an accomplished fact that
the importance of this mode of storing energy had become of practical
importance, and great credit was due to Faure, to Sellon, and to
Volckmar for putting this valuable addition to practical science into
available forms. A question of great interest in connection with the
secondary battery had reference to its permanence. A fear had been
expressed by many that local action would soon destroy the fabric of
which it was composed, and that the active surfaces would become coated
with sulphate of lead, preventing further action. It had, however,
lately been proved in a paper read by Dr. Frankland before the Royal
Society, corroborated by simultaneous investigations by Dr. Gladstone
and Mr. Tribe, that the action of the secondary battery depended
essentially upon the alternative composition and decomposition of
sulphate of lead, which was therefore not an enemy, but the best friend
to its continued action.

In conclusion, the lecturer referred to electric nomenclature, and to
the means for measuring and recording the passage of electric energy.
When he addressed the British Association at Southampton, he had
ventured to suggest two electrical units additional to those established
at the Electrical Congress in 1881, viz.: the watt and the joule,
in order to complete the chain of units connecting electrical with
mechanical energy and with the unit quantity of heat. He was glad to
find that this suggestion had met with a favorable reception, especially
that of the watt, which was convenient for expressing in an intelligible
manner the effective power of a dynamo machine, and for giving a precise
idea of the number of lights or effective power to be realized by its
current, as well as of the engine power necessary to drive it; 746 watts
represented 1 horse-power.

Finally, the watt meter, an instrument recently developed by his firm,
was shown in operation. This consisted simply of a coil of thick
conductor suspended by a torsion wire, and opposed laterally to a fixed
coil of wire of high resistance. The current to be measured flowed
through both coils in parallel circuit, the one representing its
quantity expressible in amperes, and the other its potential expressible
in volts. Their joint attractive action expressed therefore volt-amperes
or watts, which were read off upon a scale of equal divisions.

The lecture was illustrated by experiments, and by numerous diagrams and
tables of results. Measuring instruments by Professors Ayrton and Perry,
by Mr. Edison and by Mr. Boys, were also exhibited.

       *       *       *       *       *




ON THE PREPARATION OF GELATINE PLATES.

[Footnote: Being an abstract of the introductory lecture to a course on
photography at the Polytechnic Institute, November 11.]

By E. HOWARD FARMER, F.C.S.


Since the first announcement of these lectures, our Secretary has asked
me to give a free introductory lecture, so that all who are interested
in the subject may come and gather a better idea as to them than they
can possibly do by simply leading a prospectus. This evening, therefore,
I propose to give first a typical lecture of the course, and secondly,
at its conclusion, to say a few words as to our principal object. As the
subject for this evening's lecture I have chosen, "The Preparation of
Gelatine Plates," as it is probably one of very general interest to
photographers.

Before preparing our emulsion, we must first decide upon the particular
materials we are going to use, and of these the first requisite is
nitrate of silver. Nitrate of silver is supplied by chemists in three
principal conditions:

1. The ordinary crystallized salt, prepared by dissolving silver in
nitric acid, and evaporating the solution until the salt crystallizes
out. This sample usually presents the appearance of imperfect crystals,
having a faint yellowish tinge, and a strong odor of nitrous fumes, and
contains, as might be expected, a considerable amount of free acid.

2. Fused nitrate, or "lunar caustic," prepared by fusing the
crystallized salt and casting it into sticks. Lunar caustic is usually
alkaline to test paper.

3. Recrystallized silver nitrate, prepared by redissolving the ordinary
salt in distilled water, and again evaporating to the crystallizing
point. By this means the impurities and free acid are removed.

I have a specimen of this on the table, and it consists, as you observe,
of fine crystals which are perfectly colorless and transparent; it is
also perfectly neutral to test paper. No doubt either of these samples
can be used with success in preparing emulsions, but to those who are
inexperienced, I recommend that the recrystallized salt be employed. We
make, then, a solution of recrystallized silver nitrate in distilled
water, containing in every 12 ounces of solution 1¼ ounces of the salt.

The next material we require is a soluble bromide. I have here specimens
of various bromides which can be employed, such as ammonium, potassium,
barium, and zinc bromides; as a rule, however, either the ammonium or
potassium salt is used, and I should like to say a few words respecting
the relative efficiency of these two salts.

1. As to ammonium bromide. This substance is a highly unstable salt.
A sample of ammonium bromide which is perfectly neutral when first
prepared will, on keeping, be found to become decidedly acid in
character. Moreover, during this decomposition, the percentage of
bromine does not remain constant; as a rule, it will be found to contain
more than the theoretical amount of bromine. Finally, all ammonium salts
have a most destructive action on gelatine; if gelatine, which has
been boiled for a short time with either ammonium bromide or ammonium
nitrate, be added to an emulsion, it will be found to produce pink
fog--and probably frilling--on plates prepared with the emulsion. For
these reasons, I venture to say that ammonium bromide, which figures so
largely in formulæ for gelatine emulsions, is one of the worst bromides
that can be employed for that purpose, and is, indeed, a frequent source
of pink fog and frilling.

2. As to potassium bromide. This is a perfectly stable substance, can be
readily obtained pure, and is constant in composition; neither has it
(nor the nitrate) any appreciable destructive action on gelatine. We
prepare, then, a solution of potassium bromide in water containing in
every 12 ounces of solution 1 ounce of the salt. On testing it with
litmus paper, the solution may be either slightly alkaline or neutral;
in either case, it should be faintly acidified with hydrochloric acid.

The last material we require is the gelatine, one of the most important,
and at the same time the most difficult substance to obtain of good
quality. I have various samples here--notably Nelson's No. 1 and "X
opaque;" Coignet's gold medal; Heinrich's; the Autotype Company's; and
Russian isinglass.

The only method I know of securing a uniform quality of gelatine is to
purchase several small samples, make a trial emulsion with each, and buy
a stock of the sample which gives the best results. To those who do not
care to go to this trouble, equal quantities of Nelson's No. 1 and
X opaque, as recommended by Captain Abney, can be employed. Having
selected the gelatine, 1¼ ounces should be allowed to soak in water, and
then melted, when it will be found to have a bulk of about 6 ounces.

In order to prepare our emulsion, I take equal bulks of the silver
nitrate and potassium bromide solutions in beakers, and place them in
the water bath to get hot. I also take an equal bulk of hot water in a
large beaker, and add to it one-half an ounce of the gelatine solution
to every 12 ounces of water. Having raised all these to about 180° F., I
add (as you observe) to the large beaker containing the dilute gelatine
a little of the bromide, then, through a funnel having a fine orifice,
a little of the silver, swirling the liquid round during the operation;
then again some bromide and silver, and so on until all is added.

When this is completed, a little of the emulsion is poured on a glass
plate, and examined by transmitted light; if the mixing be efficient,
the light will appear--as it does here--of an orange or orange red
color.

It will be observed that we keep the bromide in excess while mixing. I
must not forget to mention that to those experienced in mixing, by
far the best method is that described by Captain Abney in his Cantor
lectures, of keeping the silver in excess.

The emulsion, being properly mixed, has now to be placed in the water
bath, and kept at the boiling point for forty-five minutes. As,
obviously, I cannot keep you waiting while this is done, I propose to
divide our emulsion into two portions, allowing one portion to stew, and
to proceed with the next operation with the remainder.

Supposing, then, this emulsion has been boiled, it is placed in cold
water to cool. While it is cooling, let us consider for a moment what
takes place during the boiling. It is found that during this time the
emulsion undergoes two remarkable changes:

1. The molecules of silver bromide gradually aggregate together, forming
larger and larger particles.

2. The emulsion increases rapidly in sensitiveness. Now what is the
cause, in the first place, of this aggregation of molecules: and, in the
second place, of the increase of sensitiveness? We know that the two
invariably go together, so that we are right in concluding that the same
cause produces both.

It might be thought that heat is the cause, but the same changes take
place more slowly in the cold, so we can only say that heat accelerates
the action, and hence must conclude that the prime cause is one of the
materials in the emulsion itself.

Now, besides the silver bromide, we have in the emulsion water,
gelatine, potassium nitrate, and a small excess of potassium bromide;
and in order to find which of these is the cause, we must make different
emulsions, omitting in succession each of these materials. Suppose we
take an emulsion which has just been mixed, and, instead of boiling
it, we precipitate the gelatine and silver bromide with alcohol; on
redissolving the pellicle in the same quantity of water, we have an
emulsion the same as previously, with the exception that the niter and
excess of potassium bromide are absent. If such an emulsion be boiled,
we shall find the remarkable fact that, however long it be boiled, the
silver bromide undergoes no change, neither does the emulsion become
any more sensitive. We therefore conclude, that either the niter or the
small excess of potassium bromide, or both together, produce the change.

Now take portions of a similarly washed emulsion, and add to one portion
some niter, and to another some potassium bromide; on boiling these
we find that the one containing niter does not change, while that
containing the potassium bromide rapidly undergoes the changes
mentioned.

Here, then, by a direct appeal to experiment, we prove that to all
appearance comparatively useless excess of potassium bromide is really
one of the most important constituents of the emulsion.

The following table gives some interesting results respecting this
action of potassium bromide:

  __________________________________________________________
  Excess of potash bromide. |   Time to acquire maximum    |
                            |       sensitiveness.         |
  --------------------------+------------------------------+
   0.2 grain per ounce      | no increase after six hours. |
   2.0   "      "           | about one-half an hour.      |
  20.0   "      "           | seven minutes.               |
  --------------------------+------------------------------+

I must here leave the _rationale_ of the process for the present, and
proceed with the next operation.

Our emulsion being cold, I add to it, for every 6 ounces of mixed
emulsion, 1 ounce of a saturated cold solution of potassium bichromate;
then, gently swirling the mixture round, a few drops of a dilute (1 to
8) solution of hydrochloric acid, and place it on one side for a minute
or two.

When hydrochloric acid is added to bichromate of potash, chromic acid is
liberated. Now, chromic acid has the property of precipitating gelatine,
so that what I hope to have done is to have precipitated the gelatine in
this emulsion, and which will carry down the silver bromide as well. You
see here I can pour off the supernatant liquid clear, leaving our silver
and gelatine as a clot at the bottom of the vessel.

Another action of chromic acid is, that it destroys the action of light
on silver bromide, so that up to this point operations can be carried on
in broad daylight.

The precipitated emulsion is now taken into the dark room and washed
until the wash water shows no trace of color; if there be a large
quantity, this is best done on a fine muslin filter; if a small
quantity, by decantation.

Having been thoroughly washed, I dissolve the pellicle in water by
immersing the beaker containing it in the water bath. I then add the
remaining gelatine, and make up the whole with 3 ounces of alcohol and
water to 30 ounces for the quantities given. I pass the emulsion through
a funnel containing a pellet of cotton wool in order to filter it, and
it is ready for coating the plates.

To coat a plate, I place it on this small block of leveled wood, and
pour on down a glass rod a small quantity of the emulsion, and by means
of the rod held horizontally, spread it over the plate. I then transfer
the plate to this leveled slab of plate glass, in order that the
emulsion on it may set. As soon as set, it is placed in the drying box.

This process, as here described, does not give plates of the highest
degree of sensitiveness, to attain which a further operation is
necessary; they are, however, of exceedingly good quality, and very
suitable for landscape work.--_Photo. News_.

       *       *       *       *       *




PICTURES ON GLASS.


The invention of M. E. Godard, of Paris, has for its object the
reproduction of images and drawings, by means of vitrifiable colors on
glass, wood, stone, on canvas or paper prepared for oil-painting and on
other substances having polished surfaces, e. g., earthenware, copper,
etc. The original drawings or images should be well executed, and drawn
on white, or preferably bluish paper, similar to paper used for ordinary
drawings. In the patterns for glass painting, by this process, the place
to be occupied is marked by the lead, before cutting the glass to suit
the various shades which compose the color of a panel, as is usually
done in this kind of work; the operation changes only when the glass
cutter hands these sheets over to the man who undertakes the painting.
The sheets of glass are cut according to the lines of the drawing, and
after being well cleaned, they are placed on the paper on the places for
which they have been cut out. If the window to be stained is of large
size and consists of several panels, only one panel is proceeded with
at a time. The glass is laid on the reverse side of the paper (the side
opposite to the drawing), the latter having been made transparent by
saturating it with petroleum. This operation also serves to fix the
outlines of the drawing more distinctly, and to give more vigor to the
dark tone of the paper. When the paper is thus prepared, and the sheets
of glass each in its place, they are coated by means of a brush with
a sensitizing solution on the side which comes into contact with the
paper. This coating should be as thin and as uniform as possible on
the surface of the glass. For more perfectly equalizing the coating, a
second brush is used.

The sensitizing solution which serves to produce the verifiable image is
prepared as follows: Bichromate of ammonia is dissolved in water till
the latter is saturated; five grammes of powdered dextrin or glucose are
then dissolved in 100 grammes of water; to either of these solutions
is added 10 per cent. of the solution of bichromate, and the mixture
filtered.

The coating of the glass takes place immediately afterward in a dark
room; the coated sheets are then subjected to a heat of 50° or 60° C.
(120° to 140° Fahr.) in a small hot chamber, where they are laid one
after the other on a wire grating situated 35 centimeters above the
bottom. Care should be taken not to introduce the glass under treatment
into the hot chamber before the required degree of heat has been
obtained. A few seconds are sufficient to dry each sheet, and the wire
grating should be large enough to allow of the dried glass being laid in
rows, on one side where the heat is less intense. For the reproduction
of the pictures or images a photographic copying frame of the size of
the original is used. A stained glass window being for greater security
generally divided into different panels, the size of one panel is seldom
more than one square meter. If the picture to be reproduced should be
larger in size than any available copying frame, the prepared glass
sheets are laid between two large sheets of plate-glass, and part after
part is proceeded with, by sliding the original between the two sheets.
A photographic copying frame, however, is always preferable, as it
presses the glass sheets better against the original. The original
drawing is laid fiat on the glass of the frame. The lines where the lead
is to connect the respective sheets of glass are marked on the drawing
with blue or red pencil. The prepared sheets of glass are then placed
one after the other on the original in their respective places, so that
the coated side comes in contact with the original. The frame is then
closed. It should be borne in mind that the latter operations must be
performed in the dark room. The closed frame is now exposed to light. If
the operations are performed outdoors, the frame is laid flat, so that
the light falls directly on it; if indoors, the frame is placed inclined
behind a window, so that it may receive the light in front. The time
necessary for exposing the frame depends upon the light and the
temperature; for instance, if the weather is fine and cloudless and the
temperature from 16° to 18° C. (60° to 64° Fahr.), it will require from
12 to 15 minutes.

It will be observed that the time of exposure also depends on the
thickness of the paper used for the original. If, however, the weather
is dark, it requires from 30 to 50 minutes for the exposure. It will be
observed that if the temperature is above 25° C. (about 80° Fahr.), the
sheets of glass should be kept very cool and be less dried; otherwise,
when exposed the sheets are instantly metallized, and the reproduction
cannot take place. The same inconvenience takes place if the temperature
is beneath 5° C. (41° Fahr.). In this case the sheets should be kept
warm, and care should be taken not to expose the frame to the open air,
but always behind a glass window at a temperature of from 14° to 18°
C. (about 60° Fahr.). The time necessary for the exposure can be
ascertained by taking out one of the many pieces of glass, applying to
the sensitive surface a vitrifiable color, and observing whether the
color adheres well. If the color adheres but slightly to the dark, shady
portions of the image, the exposure has been too long, and the process
must be recommenced; if, on the contrary, the color adheres too well,
the exposure has not been sufficient, the frames must be closed again,
and the exposure continued. When the frame has been sufficiently
exposed, it is taken into the dark room, the sensitized pieces of glass
laid on a plate of glass or marble with the sensitive surface turned
upward, and the previously prepared vitrifiable color strewed over it by
means of a few light strokes of a brush. This powder does not adhere to
the parts of the picture fully exposed to light, but adheres only to the
more or less shady portions of the picture. This operation develops
on the glass the image as it is on the paper. Thirty to 40 grammes
of nitric acid are added to 1,000 grammes of wood-spirit, such as is
generally used in photography, and the prepared pieces of glass are
dipped into the bath, leaving them afterward to dry. If the bath becomes
of a yellowish color, it must be renewed. This bath has for its object
to remove the coating of bichromate, so as to allow the color to adhere
to the glass, from which it has been separated by the layer of glucose
and bichromate, which would prevent the vitrification. The bath has also
for its object to render the light parts of the picture perfectly
pure and capable of being easily retouched or painted by hand. The
application of variously colored enamels and the heating are then
effected as in ordinary glass painting. The same process may be applied
to marble, wood, stone, lava, canvas prepared for oil painting,
earthenware, pure or enameled iron. The result is the same in all cases,
and the process is the same as with glass, with the difference only that
the above named materials are not dipped into the bath, but the liquid
is poured over the objects after the latter have been placed in an
inclined position.

       *       *       *       *       *




PREPARATION OF HYDROGEN SULPHIDE FROM COAL-GAS.

By I. TAYLOR, B.A., Science Master at Christ College, Brecon.


Hydrogen sulphide may be prepared very easily, and sufficiently pure
for ordinary analytical purposes, by passing coal-gas through boiling
sulphur. Coal-gas contains 40 to 50 per cent, of hydrogen, nearly the
whole of which may, by means of a suitable arrangement, be converted
into sulphureted hydrogen. The other constituents of coal-gas--methane,
carbon monoxide, olefines, etc.--are not affected by passing through
boiling sulphur, and for ordinary laboratory work their removal is quite
unnecessary, as they do not in any way interfere with the precipitation
of metallic sulphides.

[Illustration: PREPARATION OF HYDROGEN SULPHIDE FROM COAL-GAS.]

A convenient apparatus for the preparation of hydrogen sulphide from
coal-gas, such as we have at present in use in the Christ College
laboratory, consists of a retort, R, in which sulphur is placed.
Through the tubulure of the retort there passes a bent glass-tube, T E,
perforated near the closed end, F, with a number of small holes. (The
perforations are easily made by piercing the partially softened glass
with a white-hot steel needle; an ordinary crotchet needle, the hook
having been removed and the end sharpened, answers the purpose very
well.) The end, T, of the glass tube is connected by caoutchouc tubing
with the coal-gas supply, the perforated end dipping into the sulphur.
The neck of the retort, inclined slightly upward to allow the condensed
sulpur, as it remelts, to flow back, is connected with awash bottle, B,
to which is attached the flask, F, containing the solution through which
it is required to pass the hydrogen sulphide; F is connected with an
aspirator, A.

About one pound of sulphur having been introduced into the retort and
heated to the boiling-point, the tap of the aspirator is turned on and
a current of coal-gas drawn through the boiling sulphur; the hydrogen
sulphide formed is washed by the water contained in B, passes on into
F, and finally into the aspirator. The speed of the current may be
regulated by the tap, and as the aspirator itself acts as a receptacle
for excess of gas, very little as a rule escapes into the room, and
consequently unpleasant smells are avoided.

This method of preparing sulphureted hydrogen will, I think, be found
useful in the laboratory. It is cleanly, much cheaper than the ordinary
method, and very convenient. During laboratory work, a burner is placed
under the retort and the sulphur kept hot, so that its temperature may
be quickly raised to the boiling-point when the gas is required. From
time to time it is necessary to replenish the retort with sulphur and to
remove the condensed portions from the neck.--_Chem. News_.

       *       *       *       *       *

"SETTING" OF GYPSUM.--This setting is the result of two distinct, though
simultaneous, phenomena. On the one hand, portions of anhydrous calcium
sulphate, when moistened with water, dissolve as they are hydrated,
forming a supersaturated solution. On the other hand, this same solution
deposits crystals of the hydrated sulphate, gradually augment in bulk,
and unite together.--_H. Le Chatellier_.

       *       *       *       *       *

[Continued from SUPPLEMENT No. 383, page 6118.]




MALARIA.

By JAMES H. SALISBURY, A.M., M.D.

PRIZE ESSAY OF THE ALBANY MEDICAL COLLEGE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION, FEB.,
1882.

VII.


I have made careful microscopic examinations of the blood in several
cases of Panama fever I have treated, and find in all severe cases many
of the colorless corpuscles filled more or less with spores of ague
vegetation and the serum quite full of the same spores (see Fig. N,
Plate VIII.).

Mr. John Thomas. Panama fever. Vegetation in blood and colorless
corpuscles. (Fig N, Plate VIII.) Vegetation, spores of, in the colorless
corpuscles of the blood. Spores in serum of blood adhering to fibrin
filaments.

Mr. Thomas has charge of the bridge building on the Tehuantepec
Railroad. Went there about one year ago. Was taken down with the fever
last October. Returned home in February last, all broken down. Put him
under treatment March 15, 1882. Gained rapidly (after washing him out
with hot water, and getting his urine clear and bowels open every day)
on two grains of quinia every day, two hours, till sixteen doses were
taken. After an interval of seven days, repeated the quinia, and so on.
This fever prevails on all the low lands, as soon as the fresh soil
is exposed to the drying rays of the sun. The vegetation grows on the
drying soil, and the spores rise in the night air, and fall after
sunrise. All who are exposed to the night air, which is loaded with the
spores, suffer with the disease. The natives of the country suffer about
as badly as foreigners. Nearly half of the workmen die of the disease.
The fever is a congestive intermittent of a severe type.

Henry Thoman. Leucocythæmia. Spleen 11 inches in diameter, two white
globules to one red. German. Thirty-six years of age. Weight, 180
pounds. Colorless corpuscles very large and varying much in size, as
seen at N. Corpuscles filled--many of them--with the spores of ague
vegetation. Also spores swimming in serum.

This man has been a gardener back of Hoboken on ague lands, and has had
ague for two years preceding this disease.

I will now introduce a communication made to me by a medical gentleman
who has followed somewhat my researches for many years, and has taken
great pains of time and expense to see if my researches are correct.


REPORT ON THE CAUSE OF AGUE.--BY DR. EPHRAIM CUTTER, TO THE WRITER

At your request I give the evidence on which I base my opinion that your
plan in relation to ague is true.

From my very start into the medical profession, I had a natural intense
interest in the causes of disease, which was also fostered by my father,
the late Dr. Cutter, who honored his profession nearly forty years.
Hence, I read your paper on ague with enthusiasm, and wrote to you for
some of the plants of which you spoke. You sent me six boxes containing
soil, which you said was full of the gemiasmas. You gave some drawings,
so that I should know the plants when I saw them, and directed me to
moisten the soil with water and expose to air and sunlight. In the
course of a few days I was to proceed to collect. I faithfully followed
the instructions, but without any success. I could detect no plants
whatever,

This result would have settled the case ordinarily, and I would have
said that you were mistaken, as the material submitted by yourself
failed as evidence. But I thought that there was too much internal
evidence of the truth of your story, and having been for many years
an observer in natural history, I had learned that it is often very
difficult for one to acquire the art of properly making examinations,
even though the procedures are of the simplest description. So I
distrusted, not you, but myself, and hence, you may remember, I forsook
all and fled many hundred miles to you from my home with the boxes you
had sent me. In three minutes after my arrival you showed me how to
collect the plants in abundance from the very soil in the boxes that had
traveled so far backward and forward, from the very specimens on which I
had failed to do so.

The trouble was with me--that I went too deep with my needle. You showed
me it was simply necessary to remove the slightest possible amount on
the point of a cambric needle; deposit this in a drop of clean water on
a slide cover with, a covering glass and put it under your elegant 1/5
inch objective, and there were the gemiasmas just as you had described.

I have always felt humbled by this teaching, and I at the time rejoiced
that instead of denouncing you as a cheat and fraud (as some did at that
time), I did not do anything as to the formation of an opinion until I
had known more and more accurately about the subject.

I found all the varieties of the palmellæ you described in the boxes,
and I kept them for several years and demonstrated them as I had
opportunity. You also showed me on this visit the following experiments
that I regarded as crucial:

1st. I saw you scrape from the skin of an ague patient sweat and
epithelium with the spores and the full grown plants of the Gemiasma
verdans.

2d. I saw you take the sputa of a ague patient and demonstrate the
spores and sporangia of the Gemiasma verdans.

3d. I saw you take the urine of a female patient suffering from ague
(though from motives of delicacy I did not see the urine voided--still I
believe that she did pass the urine, as I did not think it necessary to
insult the patient), and you demonstrated to me beautiful specimens of
Gemiasma rubra. You said it was not common to find the full development
in the urine of such cases, but only in the urine of the old severe
cases. This was a mild case.

4th. I saw you take the blood from the forearm of an ague patient, and
under the microscope I saw you demonstrate the gemiasma, white and
bleached in the blood. You said that the coloring matter did not develop
in the blood, that it was a difficult task to demonstrate the plants in
the blood, that it required usually a long and careful search of hours
sometimes, and at other times the plants would be obtained at once.

When I had fully comprehended the significance of the experiments I was
filled with joy, and like the converts in apostolic times I desired to
go about and promulgate the news to the profession. I did so in many
places, notably in New York city, where I satisfactorily demonstrated
the plants to many eminent physicians at my room at the Fifth Avenue
Hotel; also before a medical society where more than one hundred persons
were present. I did all that I could, but such was the preoccupation of
the medical gentlemen that a respectful hearing was all I got. This is
not to be wondered at, as it was a subject, now, after the lapse of
nearly a decade and a half, quite unstudied and unknown. After this I
studied the plants as I had opportunity, and in 1877 made a special
journey to Long Island, N.Y., for the purpose of studying the plants in
their natural habitat, when they were in a state of maturity. I have
also examined moist soils in localities where ague is occasionally
known, with other localities where it prevails during the warm months.

Below I give the results, which from convenience I divide into two
parts: 1st. Studies of the ague plants in their natural habitat. 2d.
Studies of the ague plants in their unnatural habitat (parasitic). I
think one should know the first before attempting the second.

_First_--Studies to find in their natural habitat the palmellæ described
as the Gemiasma rubra, Gemiasma verdans, Gemiasma plumba, Gemiasma alba,
Protuberans lamella.

_Second_--_Outfit_.--Glass slides, covers, needles, toothpicks, bottle
of water, white paper and handkerchief, portable microscope with a good
Tolles one inch eyepiece, and one-quarter inch objective.

Wherever there was found on low, marshy soil a white incrustation like
dried salt, a very minute portion was removed by needle or toothpick,
deposited on a slide, moistened with a drop of water, rubbed up with a
needle or toothpick into a uniformly diffused cloud in and through the
water. The cover was put on, and the excess of water removed by touching
with a handkerchief the edge of the cover. Then the capillary attraction
held the cover in place, as is well known. The handkerchief or white
paper was spread on the ground at my feet, and the observation conducted
at once after the collection and on the very habitat. It is possible
thus to conduct observations with the microscope besides in boats on
ponds or sea, and adding a good kerosene light in bed or bunk or on
lounge.

August 11, 1877.--Excursion to College Point, Flushing, Long Island:

Observation 1. 1:50 P.M. Sun excessively hot. Gathered some of the white
incrustation on sand in a marsh west of Long Island Railroad depot.
Found some Gemiasma verdans, G. rubra; the latter were dry and not good
specimens, but the field swarmed with the automobile spores. The full
developed plant is termed sporangia, and seeds are called spores.

Observation 2. Another specimen from same locality, not good; that is,
forms were seen but they were not decisive and characteristic.

Observation 3. Earth from Wallabout, near Naval Hospital, Brooklyn, Rich
in spores (A) with automobile protoplasmic motions, (B) Gemiasma rubra,
(C) G. verdans, very beautiful indeed. Plants very abundant.

Observation 4. Walking up the track east of L. I. R.R. depot, I took an
incrustation near creek; not much found but dirt and moving spores.

Observation 5. Seated on long marsh grass I scraped carefully from the
stalks near the roots of the grass where the plants were protected from
the action of the sunlight and wind. Found a great abundance of mature
Gemiasma verdans very beautiful in appearance.

_Notes_.--The time of my visit was most unfavorable. The best time is
when the morning has just dawned and the dew is on the grass. One then
can find an abundance, while after the sun is up and the air is hot the
plants disappear; probably burst and scatter the spores in billions,
which, as night comes on and passes, develop into the mature plants,
when they may be found in vast numbers. It would seem from this that the
life epoch of a gemiasma is one day under such circumstances, but I have
known them to be present for weeks under a cover on a slide, when the
slide was surrounded with a bandage wet with water, or kept in a culture
box. The plants may be cultivated any time in a glass with a water
joint. A, Goblet inverted over a saucer; B, filled with water; C, D,
specimen of earth with ague plants.

Observation 6. Some Gemiasma verdaus; good specimens, but scanty.
Innumerable mobile spores. Dried.

Observation 7. Red dust on gray soil. Innumerable mobile spores. Dried
red sporangia of G. rubra.

Observation 8. White incrustation. Innumerable mobile spores. No plants.

Observation 9. White incrustation. Many minute algæ, but two sporangia
of a pale pink color; another variety of color of gemiasma. Innumerable
mobile spores.

Observation 10. Gemiasma verdans and G. rubra in small quantities.
Innumerable mobile spores.

Observation 11. Specimen taken from under the shade of short marsh
grass. Gemiasma exceedingly rich and beautiful. Innumerable mobile
spores.

Observation 12. Good specimens of Gemiasma rubra. Innumerable spores
present in all specimens.

Observation 13. Very good specimens of Protuberans lamella.

Observation 14. The same.

Observation 15. Dead Gemiasma verdans and rubra.

Observation 16. Collection very unpromising by macroscopy, but by
microscopy showed many spores, mature specimens of Gemiasma rubra and
verdans. One empty specimen with double walls.

Observation 17. Dry land by the side of railroad. Protuberans not
abundant.

Observation 18. From side of ditch. Filled with mature Geraiasma
verdans.

Observation 19. Moist earth near a rejected timber of the railroad
bridge. Abundance of Gemiasma verdans, Sphærotheca Diatoms.

Observation 20. Scrapings on earth under high grass. Large mature
specimens of Gemiasma rubra and verdans. Many small.

Observation 21. Same locality. Gemiasma rubra and verdans; good
specimens.

Observation 22. A dry stem of a last year's annual plant lay in the
ditch not submerged, that appeared as if painted red with iron rust.
This redness evidently made up of Gemiasma rubra dried.

Observation 23. A twig submerged in a ditch was scraped. Gemiasma
verdans found abundantly with many other things, which if rehearsed
would cloud this story.

Observation 24. Scrapings from the dirty end of the stick (23) gave
specimens of the beautiful double wall palmellæ and some empty G.
verdans.

Observation 25. Stirred up the littoral margins of the ditch with stick
found in the path, and the drip showed Gemiasma rubra and verdans mixed
in with dirt, debris, other algae, fungi, infusoria, especially diatoms.

Observation 26. I was myself seized with sneezing and discharge running
from nostrils during these examinations. Some of the contents of
the right nostril were blown on a slide, covered, and examined
morphologically. Several oval bodies, round algae, were found with the
characteristics of G. verdans and rubra. Also some colorless sporangia,
and spores abundantly present. These were in addition to the normal
morphological elements found in the excretions.

Observation 27. Dried clay on margin of the river showed dry G. verdans.

Observation 28. Saline dust on earth that had been thrown out during the
setting of a new post in the railroad bridge showed some Gemiasma alba.

Observation 29. The dry white incrustation found on fresh earth near
railroad track entirely away from water, where it appeared as if
white sugar or sand had been sprinkled over in a fine dust, showed
an abundance of automobile spores and dry sporangia of G. rubra and
verdans. It was not made up of salts from evaporation.

Observation 30. Some very thick, long, green, matted marsh grass was
carefully separated apart like the parting of thick hair on the head. A
little earth was taken from the crack, and the Protuberans lamella, the
Gemiasma rubra and verdans found were beautiful and well developed.

Observation 31. Brooklyn Naval Hospital, August 12, 1877, 4 A.M. Called
up by the Quartermaster. With Surgeon C. W. White, U.S.N., took (A) one
five inch glass beaker, bottomless, (B) three clean glass slides, (C)
chloride of calcium solution, [symbol: dra(ch)m] i to [symbol: ounce] i
water. We went, as near as I could judge in the darkness, to about that
portion of the wall that lies west of the hospital, southeast corner
(now all filled up), where on the 10th of August previously I had found
some actively growing specimens of the Gemiasma verdans, rubra, and
protuberans. The chloride of calcium solution was poured into a glass
tumbler, then rubbed over the inside and outside of the beaker. It was
then placed on the ground, the rim of the mouth coming on the soil and
the bottom elevated on an old tin pan, so that the beaker stood inclined
at an angle of about forty-five degrees with the horizon. The slides
were moistened, one was laid on a stone, one on a clod, and a third on
the grass. Returned to bed, not having been gone over ten minutes.

At 6 A.M. collected and examined for specimens the drops of dew
deposited. Results: In every one of the five instances collected
the automobile spores, and the sporangia of the gemiasmas and the
protuberans on both sides of slides and beaker. There were also spores
and mycelial filaments of fungi, dirt, and zoospores. The drops of dew
were collected with capillary tubes such as were used in Edinburgh for
vaccine virus. The fluid was then preserved and examined in the naval
laboratory. In a few hours the spores disappeared.

Observation 32. Some of the earth near the site of the exposure referred
to in Observation 31, was examined and found to contain abundantly the
Gemiasma verdans, rubra, Protuberans lamella, confirmed by three more
observations.

Observation 33. In company with Surgeon F. M. Dearborne, U.S.N., in
charge of Naval Hospital, the same day later explored the wall about
marsh west of hospital. Found the area abundantly supplied with
palmellæ, Gemiasma rubra, verdans, and Protuberans lamella, even where
there was no incrustation or green mould. Made very many examinations,
always finding the plants and spores, giving up only when both of us
were overcome with the heat.

Observation 34. August, 1881. Visited the Wallabout; found it filled up
with earth. August 17. Visited the Flushing district; examined for the
gemiasma the same localities above named, but found only a few dried up
plants and plenty of spores. With sticks dug up the earth in various
places near by. Early in September revisited the same, but found nothing
more; the incrustation, not even so much as before. The weather was
continuously for a long time very dry, so much so that vegetables and
milk were scarce.

The grass and grounds were all dried up and cracked with fissures.

There must be some moisture for the development of the plants. Perhaps
if I had been able to visit the spots in the early morning, it would
have been much better, as about the same time I was studying the same
vegetation on 165th Street and 10th Avenue, New York, and found an
abundance of the plants in the morning, but none scarcely in the
afternoon.

Should any care to repeat these observations, these limits should be
observed and the old adage about "the early bird catching the worm,"
etc. Some may object to this directness of report, and say that we
should report all the forms of life seen. To this I would say that
the position I occupy is much different from yours, which is that of
discoverer. When a detective is sent out to catch a rogue, he tumbles
himself but little with people or things that have no resemblance to the
rogue. Suppose he should return with a report as to the houses, plants,
animals, etc., he encountered in his search; the report might be very
interesting as a matter of general information, but rather out of place
for the parties who desire the rogue caught. So in my search I made a
special work of catching the gemiasmas and not caring for anything else.
Still, to remove from your mind any anxiety that I may possibly not have
understood how to conduct my work, I will introduce here a report
of search to find out how many forms of life and substances I could
recognize in the water of a hydrant fed by Croton water (two specimens
only), during the present winter (1881 and 1882) I beg leave to subjoin
the following list of species, not individuals, I was able to recognize.
In this list you will see the Gemiasma verdans distinguished from its
associate objects. I think I can in no other way more clearly show my
right to have my honest opinion respected in relation to the subject in
question.

[Illustration: MALARIA PLANTS COLLECTED SEPT. 10, 1882, AT WASHINGTON
HEIGHTS, 176TH STREET, NEAR 10TH AVENUE, NEW YORK CITY, ETC.

PLATE VIII.--A, B, C, Large plants of Gemiasma verdans. A, Mature plant.
B, Mature plant discharging spores and spermatia through a small opening
in the cell wall. C, A plant nearly emptied. D, Gemiasma rubra; mature
plant filled with microspores. E, Ripe plant discharging contents. F,
Ripe plant, contents nearly discharged; a few active spermatia left
behind and escaping. G, nearly empty plant. H, Vegetation in the SWEAT
of ague cases during the paroxysm of sweating. I, Vegetation in the
BLOOD of ague. J, Vegetation in the urine of ague during paroxysm. K, L,
M, Vegetation in the urine of chronic cases of severe congestive type.
N, Vegetation in BLOOD of Panama fever; white corpuscles distended with
spores of Gemiasma. O, Gemiasma alba. P, Gemiasma rubra. Q, Gemiasma
verdans. R, Gemiasma alba. O, P, Q, R, Found June 28,1867, in profusion
between Euclid and Superior Streets, near Hudson, Cleveland, O. S,
Sporangia of Protuberans.]

List of objects found in the Croton water, winter of 1881 and 1882. The
specimens obtained by filtering about one barrel of water:

    1. Acineta tuberosa.
    2. Actinophrys sol.
    3. Amoeba proteus.
    4.   "    radiosa.
    5.   "    verrucosa.
    6. Anabaina subtularia.
    7. Ankistrodesmus falcatus.
    8. Anurea longispinis.
    9.   "    monostylus.
   10. Anguillula fluviatilis.
   11. Arcella mitrata.
   12.    "    vulgaris.
   13. Argulus.
   14. Arthrodesmus convergens.
   15. Arthrodesmus divergens.
   16. Astrionella formosa.
   17. Bacteria.
   18. Bosmina.
   19. Botryiococcus.
   20. Branchippus stagnalis.
   21. Castor.
   22. Centropyxis.
   23. Chetochilis.
   24. Chilomonads.
   25. Chlorococcus.
   26. Chydorus.
   27. Chytridium.
   28. Clatbrocystis æruginosa.
   29. Closterium lunula.
   30.      "     didymotocum.
   31.      "     moniliferum.
   32. Coelastrum sphericum.
   33. Cosmarium binoculatum.
   34. Cyclops quad.
   35. Cyphroderia amp.
   36. Cypris tristriata.
   37. Daphnia pulex.
   38. Diaptomas castor.
   39.     "     sull.
   40. Diatoma vulgaris.
   41. Difflugia cratera.
   42.     "     globosa.
   43. Dinobryina sertularia.
   44. Dinocharis pocillum.
   45. Dirt.
   46. Eggs of polyp.
   47.    "    entomostraca.
   48.    "    plumatella.
   49.    "    bryozoa.
   50. Enchylis pupa.
   51. Eosphora aurita.
   52. Epithelia, animal.
   53.     "      vegetable.
   54. Euastrum.
   55. Euglenia viridis.
   56. Euglypha.
   57. Eurycercus lamellatus.
   58. Exuvia of some insect.
   59. Feather barbs.
   60. Floscularia.
   61. Feathers of butterfly.
   62. Fungu, red water.
   63. Fragillaria.
   64. Gemiasma verdans.
   65. Gomphospheria.
   66. Gonium.
   67. Gromia.
   68. Humus.
   69. Hyalosphenia tinctad.
   70. Hydra viridis.
   71. Leptothrix.
   72. Melosira.
   73. Meresmopedia.
   74. Monactina.
   75. Monads.
   76. Naviculæ.
   77. Nitzschia.
   78. Nostoc communis.
   79. OEdogonium.
   80. Oscillatoriaceæ.
   81. Ovaries of entomostraca.
   82. Pandorina morum.
   83. Paramecium aurelium.
   84. Pediastrum boryanum.
   85.      "     incisum.
   86.      "     perforatum.
   87.      "     pertusum.
   88.      "     quadratum.
   89. Pelomyxa.
   90. Penium.
   91. Peredinium candelabrum.
   92. Peredinium cinc.
   93. Pleurosigma angulatum.
   94. Plumatella.
   95. Plagiophrys.
   96. Playtiptera polyarthra.
   97. Polycoccus.
   98. Pollen of pine.
   99. Polyhedra tetraëtzica.
  100.    "      triangularis.
  101. Polyphema.
  102. Protococcus.
  103. Radiophrys alba.
  104. Raphidium duplex.
  105. Rotifer ascus.
  106.    "    vulgaris.
  107. Silica.
  108. Saprolegnia.
  109. Scenedesmus acutus.
  110.      "      obliquus.
  111.      "      obtusum.
  112.      "      quadricauda.
  113. Sheath of tubelaria.
  114. Sphærotheca spores.
  115. Spirogyra.
  116. Spicules of sponge.
  117. Starch.
  118. Staurastrum furcigerum.
  119.      "      gracile.
  120. Staurogenum quadratum.
  121. Surirella.
  122. Synchoeta.
  123. Synhedra.
  124. Tabellaria.
  125. Tetraspore.
  126. Trachelomonas.
  127. Trichodiscus.
  128. Uvella.
  129. Volvox globator.
  130.    "   sull.
  131. Vorticel.
  132. Worm fluke.
  133. Worm, two tailed.
  134. Yeast.

More forms were found, but could not be determined by me. This list will
give an idea of the variety of forms to be met with in the hunt for ague
plants; still, they are as well marked in their physical characters as a
potato is among the objects of nature. Although I know you are perfectly
familiar with algæ, still, to make my report more complete, in case you
should see fit to have it pass out of your hands to others, allow me
to give a short account of the Order Three of Algæ, namely, the
Chlorosporeæ or Confervoid Algæ, derived from the Micrographic
Dictionary, this being an accessible authority.

Algae form a class of the thallophytes or cellular plants in which the
physiological functions of the plant are delegated most completely to
the individual cell. That is to say, the marked difference of purpose
seen in the leaves, stamens, seeds, etc., of the phanerogams or
flowering plants is absent here, and the structures carrying on the
operations of nutrition and those of reproduction are so commingled,
conjoined, and in some cases identified, that a knowledge of the
microscopic anatomy is indispensable even to the roughest conception of
the natural history of these plants; besides, we find these plants
so simple that we can see through and through them while living in a
natural condition, and by means of the microscope penetrate to mysteries
of organism, either altogether inaccessible, or only to be attained by
disturbing and destructive dissection, in the so called higher forms of
vegetation. We say "so-called" advisedly, for in the Algæ are included
the largest forms of plant life.

The Macrocystis pyrifera, an Algæ, is the largest of all known plants.
It is a sea weed that floats free and unattached in the ocean. Covers
the area of two square miles, and is 300 feet in depth (Reinsch). At the
same time its structure on examination shows it to belong to the same
class of plants as the minute palmellæ which we have been studying.
Algæ are found everywhere in streams, ditches, ponds, even the smallest
accumulations of water standing for any time in the open air, and
commonly on walls or the ground, in all permanently damp situations.
They are peculiarly interesting in regard to morphological conditions
alone, as their great variety of conditions of organization are all
variations, as it were, on the theme of the simple vegetable cell
produced by change of form, number, and arrangement.

The Algæ comprehend a vast variety of plants, exhibiting a wonderful
multiplicity of forms, colors, sizes, and degrees of complexity of
structure, but algologists consider them to belong to three orders: 1.
Red spored Algæ, called Rhodosporeæ or florideæ. 2. The dark or black
spored Algæ, or Melanosporeæ or Fucoideæ. 3. The green spored Algæ,
or Chlorosporeæ or Confervoideæ. The first two classes embrace the
sea-weeds. The third class, marine and aquatic plants, most of which
when viewed singly are microscopic. Of course some naturalists do not
agree to these views. It is with order three, Confervoideæ, that we are
interested. These are plants growing in sea or fresh water, or on damp
surfaces, with a filamentous, or more rarely a leaf-like pulverulent
or gelatinous thallus; the last two forms essentially microscopic.
Consisting frequently of definitely arranged groups of distinct
cells, either of ordinary structure or with their membrane
silicified--Diatomaceæ. We note three forms of fructification: 1.
Resting spores produced after fertilization either by conjugation or
impregnation. 2. Spermatozoids. 3. Zeospores; 2, 4, or multiciliated
active automobile cells--gonidia--discharged from the mother cells or
plants without impregnation, and germinating directly. There is also
another increase by cell division.


SYNOPSIS OF THE FAMILIES.

1. _Lemaneæ_.--Frond filamentous, inarticulate, cartilaginous, leathery,
hollow, furnished at irregular distances with whorls or warts, or
necklace shaped. Fructification: tufted, simple or branched, necklace
shaped filaments attached to the inner surface of the tubular frond, and
finally breaking up into elliptical spores. Aquatic.

2. _Batrachospermeæ_--Plants filamentous, articulated, invested with
gelatine. Frond composed of aggregated, articulated, longitudinal cells,
whorled at intervals with short, horizontal, cylindrical or beaded,
jointed ramuli. Fructification: ovate spores and tufts of antheridial
cells attached to the lateral ramuli, which consist of minute,
radiating, dichotomous beaded filaments. Aquatic.

3. _Chaetophoraceæ_.--Plants growing in the sea or fresh water, coated
by gelatinous substance; either filiform or a number of filaments being
connected together constituting gelatinous, definitely formed, or
shapeless fronds or masses. Filaments jointed, bearing bristle-like
processes. Fructification: zoospores produced from the cell contents of
the filaments; resting spores formed from the contents of particular
cells after impregnation by ciliated spermatozoids produced in distinct
antheridial cells. Coleochætæ.

4. _Confervaceæ_.--Plants growing in the sea or in fresh water,
filamentous, jointed, without evident gelatine (forming merely a
delicate coat around the separate filaments) Filaments very variable in
appearance, simple or branched; the cells constituting the articulations
of the filaments more or less filled with green, or very rarely brown or
purple granular matter; sometimes arranged in peculiar patterns on the
walls, and convertible into spores or zoospores. Not conjugating.

5. _Zygnemaceæ_.--Aquatic filamentous plants, without evident gelatine,
composed of series of cylindrical cells, straight or curved. Cell
contents often arranged in elegant patterns on the walls. Reproduction
resulting from conjugation, followed by the development of a true spore,
in some genera dividing into four sporules before germinating.

6. _OEdogoniaceæ_.--Simple or branched aquatic filamentous plants
attached without gelatine. Cell contents uniform, dense, cell division
accompanied by circumscissile debiscence of the parent cell, producing
rings on the filaments. Reproduction by zoospores formed of the whole
contents of a cell, with a crown of numerous cilia; resting spores
formed in sporangial cells after fecundation by ciliated spermatozoids
formed in antheridial cells.

7. _Siphonaceæ_--Plants found in the sea, fresh water, or on damp
ground; of a membranous or horny byaline substance, filled with green
or colorless granular matter. Fronds consisting of continuous tubular
filaments, either free or collected into spongy masses of various
shapes. Crustaceous, globular, cylindrical, or flat. Fructification: by
zoospores, either single or very numerous, and by resting spores formed
in sporangial cells after the contents have been impregnated by the
contents of autheridial cells of different forms.

8 _Oscillatoriaceæ_.--Plants growing either in the sea, fresh water, or
on damp ground, of a gelatinous substance and filamentous structure.
Filaments very slender, tubular, continuous, filled with colored,
granular, transversely striated substance; seldom blanched, though often
cohering together so as to appear branched; usually massed together
in broad floating or sessile strata, of a very gelatinous nature;
occasionally erect and tufted, and still more rarely collected into
radiating series bound together by firm gelatine and then forming
globose lobed or flat crustaceous fronds. Fructification: the internal
mass or contents separating into roundish or lenticular gonidia.

9. _Nostochacæ_.--Gelatinous plants growing in fresh water, or in damp
situations among mosses, etc.; of soft or almost leathery substance,
consisting of variously curled or twisted necklace-shaped filaments,
colorless or green, composed of simple, or in some stages double rows
of cells, contained in a gelatinous matrix of definite form, or heaped
together without order in a gelatinous mass. Some of the cells enlarged,
and then forming either vesicular empty cells or densely filled
sporangial cells. Reproduction: by the breaking up of the filaments, and
by resting spores formed singly in the sporanges.

10. _Ulvaceæ_.--Marine or aquatic algae consisting of membranous, flat,
and expanded tubular or saccate fronds composed of polygonal cells
firmly joined together by their sides.

Reproduced by zoospores formed from the cell contents and breaking
out from the surface, or by motionless spores formed from the whole
contents.

11. _Palmellaceæ_.--Plants forming gelatinous or pulverulent crusts on
damp surfaces of stone, wood, earth, mud, swampy districts, or more
or less regular masses of gelatinous substance or delicate
pseudo-membranous expansion or fronds, of flat, globular, or tubular
form, in fresh water or on damp ground; composed of one or many,
sometimes innumerable, cells, with green, red, or yellowish contents,
spherical or elliptical form, the simplest being isolated cells found in
groups of two, four, eight, etc., in course of multiplication. Others
permanently formed of some multiple of four; the highest forms made up
of compact, numerous, more or less closely joined cells. Reproduction:
by cell division, by the conversion of the cell contents into zoospores,
and by resting spores, formed sometimes after conjugation; in other
cases, probably, by fecundation by spermatozoids. All the unicellular
algæ are included under this head.

12. _Desmidiaceæ_.--Microscopic gelatinous plants, of a screen color,
growing in fresh water, composed of cells devoid of a silicious coat,
of peculiar forms such as oval, crescentic, shortly cylindrical,
cylindrical, oblong, etc., with variously formed rays or lobes, giving
a more or less stellate form, presenting a bilateral symmetry, the
junction of the halves being marked by a division of the green contents;
the individual cells being free, or arranged in linear series, collected
into fagot-like bundles or in elegant star like groups which are
embedded in a common gelatinous coat. Reproduced by division and by
resting spores produced in sporangia formed after the conjugation of
two cells and union of their contents, and by zoospores formed in the
vegetative cells or in the germinating resting spores.

13. _Diatomaceæ_.--Microscopic cellular bodies, growing in fresh,
brackish, and sea water: free or attached, single, or embedded in
gelatinous tubes, the individual cells (frustules) with yellowish or
brown contents, and provided with a silicious coat composed of two
usually symmetrical valves variously marked, with a connecting band or
hoop at the suture. Multiplied by division and by the formation of new
larger individuals out of the contents of individual conjugated cells;
perhaps also by spores and zoospores.

14. _Volvocineæ_.--Microscopic cellular fresh water plants, composed of
groups of bodies resembling zoospores connected into a definite form
by their enveloping membranes. The families are formed either of
assemblages of coated zoospores united in a definite form by the
cohesion of their membranes, or assemblages of naked zoospores inclosed
in a common investing membrane. The individual zoospore-like bodies,
with two cilia throughout life, perforating the membranous coats, and by
their conjoined action causing a free co-operative movement of the whole
group. Reproduction by division, or by single cells being converted into
new families; and by resting spores formed from some of the cells after
impregnation by spermatozoids formed from the contents of other cells of
the same family.

[Illustration: MALARIA PLANTS COLLECTED AT 165TH STREET, EAST OF 10TH
AVENUE, OCT., 1881.

Plate IX.--Large group of malaria plants, Gemiasma verdans, collected at
165th Street, east of 10th Avenue, New York, in October, 1881, by Dr.
Ephraim Cutter, and projected by him with a solar microscope. Dr.
Cuzner--the artist--outlined the group on the screen and made the
finished drawing from the sketch. He well preserved the grouping and
relative sizes. The pond hole whence they came was drained in the spring
of 1882, and in August was covered with coarse grass and weeds. No
plants were found there in satisfactory quantity, but those figured
on Plate VIII. were found half a mile beyond. This shows how draining
removes the malaria plants.]

From the description I think you have placed your plants in the right
family. And evidently they come in the genera named, but at present
there is in the authorities at my command so much confusion as to the
genera, as given by the most eminent authorities, like Nageli, Kutzing,
Braun Rabenht, Cohn, etc., that I think it would be quite unwise for
me to settle here, or try to settle here, questions that baffle the
naturalists who are entirely devoted to this specialty. We can safely
leave this to them. Meantime let us look at the matter as physicians
who desire the practical advantages of the discovery you have made.
To illustrate this position let us take a familiar case. A boy going
through the fields picks and eats an inedible mushroom. He is poisoned
and dies. Now, what is the important part of history here from a
physician's point of view? Is it not that the mushroom poisoned the
child? Next comes the nomenclature. What kind of agaricus was it? Or was
it one of the gasteromycetes, the coniomycetes, the hyphomycetes, the
ascomycetes, or one of the physomycetes? Suppose that the fungologists
are at swords' points with each other about the name of the particular
fungus that killed the boy? Would the physicians feel justified to sit
down and wait till the whole crowd of naturalists were satisfied, and
the true name had been settled satisfactorily to all? I trow not; they
would warn the family about eating any more; and if the case had not yet
perished, they would let the nomenclature go and try all the means that
history, research, and instructed common sense would suggest for the
recovery.

This leads me here to say that physicians trust too much to the simple
dicta of men who may be very eminent in some department of natural
history, and yet ignorant in the very department about which, being
called upon, they have given an opinion. All everywhere have so much
to learn that we should be very careful how we reject new truths,
especially when they come from one of our number educated in our own
medical schools, studied under our own masters. If the subject is
one about which we know nothing, we had better say so when asked our
opinion, and we should receive with respect what is respectfully offered
by a man whom we know to be honest, a hard worker, eminent in his
department by long and tedious labors. If he asks us to look over his
evidence, do so in a kindly spirit, and not open the denunciations of
bar room vocabularies upon the presenter, simply because we don't see
his point. In other words, we should all be receptive, but careful in
our assimilation, remembering that some of the great operations in
surgery, for example, came from laymen in low life, as the operation for
stone, and even the operation of spaying came from a swineherd.

It is my desire, however, to have this settled as far as can be among
scientists, but for the practical uses of practicing physicians I say
that far more evidence has been adduced by you in support of the cause
of intermittent fever than we have in the etiology of many other
diseases. I take the position that so long as no one presents a better
history of the etiology of intermittent fever by facts and observations,
your theory must stand. This, too, notwithstanding what may be said to
the contrary.

Certainly you are to be commended for having done as you have in this
matter. It is one of the great rights of the profession, and duties
also, that if a physician has or thinks he has anything that is new and
valuable, to communicate it, and so long as he observes the rules of
good society the profession are to give him a respectful hearing,
even though he may have made a mistake. I do not think you had a fair
hearing, and hence so far as I myself am concerned I indorse your
position, and shall do so till some one comes along and gives a better
demonstration. Allow me also to proceed with more evidence.

Observation at West Falmouth, Mass., Sept 1, 1877. I made five
observations in like manner about the marshes and bogs of this town,
which is, as it were, situated on the tendo achillis of Cape Cod, Mass.
In only one of these observations did I find any palmellæ like the ague
plants, and they were not characteristic.

Chelsea, Mass., near the Naval Hospital, September 5, 1877. Three sets
of observations. In all spores were found and some sporangia, but
they were not the genuine plants as far as I could judge. They were
Protococcaceæ. It is not necessary to add that there are no cases of
intermittent fever regarded as originating on the localities named.
Still, the ancient history of New England contains some accounts of ague
occurring there, but they are not regarded as entirely authentic.

Observation. Lexington, Mass, September 6, 1877. Observation made in
a meadow. There was no saline incrustation, and no palmellæ found. No
local malaria.

Observation. Cambridge, Mass. Water works on the shore of Fresh Pond.
Found a few palmellæ analogous to, but not the ague palmellæ.

Observation. Woburn, Mass, September 27, 1877, with Dr. J. M. Moore.
Found some palmellæ, but scanty. Abundance of spores of cryptogams.

Observation. Stonington, Conn., August 15, 1877. Examined a pond hole
nearly opposite the railroad station on the New York Shore Line. Found
abundantly the white incrustation on the surface of the soil. Here I
found the spores and the sporangias of the gemiasmas verdans and rubra.

Observation 2. Repetition of the last.

Observation 3. I examined some of an incrustation that was copiously
deposited in the same locality, which was not white or frosty, but dark
brown and a dirty green. Here the spores were very abundant, and a few
sporangias of the Gemiasma rubra. Ague has of late years been noted in
Connecticut and Rhode Island.

Observations in Connecticut. Middlefield near Middletown, summer of
1878. Being in this locality, I heard that intermittent fever was
advancing eastward at the rate of ten miles a year. It had been observed
in Middlefield. I was much interested to see if I could find the
gemiasmas there. On examining the dripping of some bog moss, I found a
plenty of them.

Observations in Connecticut. New Haven. Early in the summer of 1881 I
visited this city. One object of my visit was to ascertain the truth
of the presence of intermittent fever there, which I had understood
prevailed to such an extent that my patient, a consumptive, was afraid
to return to his home in New Haven. At this time I examined the hydrant
water of the city water works, and also the east shore of the West
River, which seemed to be too full of sewage. I found a plenty of the
Oscillatoreaceæ, but no Palmellæ.

In September I revisited the city, taking with me a medical gentleman
who, residing in the South, had had a larger experience with the disease
than I. From the macroscopical examination he pronounced a case we
examined to be ague, but I was not able to detect the plants either in
the urine or blood. This might have been that I did not examine long
enough. But a little later I revisited the city and explored the soil
about the Whitney Water Works, whence the city gets its supply of
water, and I had no difficulty in finding a good many of the plants
you describe as found by you in ague cases. At a still later period my
patient, whom I had set to use the microscope and instructed how to
collect the ague plants, set to work himself. One day his mother brought
in a film from off an ash pile that lay in the shade, and this her son
found was made up of an abundance of the ague plants. By simply winding
a wet bandage around the slide, Mr. A. was enabled to keep the plants
in good condition until the time of my next visit, when I examined and
pronounced them to be genuine plants.

I should here remark that I had in examining the sputa of this patient
sent to me, found some of the ague plants. He said that he had been
riding near the Whitney Pond, and perceived a different odor, and
thought he must have inhaled the miasm. I told him he was correct in his
supposition, as no one could mistake the plants; indeed, Prof. Nunn, of
Savannah, Ga., my pupil recognized it at once.

This relation, though short, is to me of great importance. So long as I
could not detect the gemiasmas in New Haven, I was very skeptical as to
the presence of malaria in New Haven, as I thought there must be some
mistake, it being a very good cloak to hide under (malaria). There is no
doubt but that the name has covered lesions not belonging to it. But now
the positive demonstrations above so briefly related show to my mind
that the local profession have not been mistaken, and have sustained
their high reputation.

I should say that I have examined a great deal of sputa, but, with the
exception of cases that were malarious, I have not encountered the
mature plants before. Of course I have found them as you did, in my own
excretions as I was traveling over ague bogs.

[_To be continued_.]

       *       *       *       *       *




ICHTHYOL.


DR. P.G. UNNA, of Hamburg, has lately been experimenting on the dermato
therapeutic uses of a substance called ichthyol, obtained by Herr
Rudolph Schroter by the distillation of bituminous substances and
treatment with condensed sulphuric acid. This body, though tar-like in
appearance, and with a peculiar and disagreeable smell of its own, does
not resemble any known wood or coal tar in its chemical and physical
properties. It has a consistence like vaseline, and its emulsion with
water is easily washed off the skin. It is partly soluble in alcohol,
partly in ether with a changing and lessening of the smell, and totally
dissolves in a mixture of both. It may be mixed with vaseline, lard,
or oil in any proportions. Its chemical constitution is not well
established, but it contains sulphur, oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and also
phosphorus in vanishing proportions, and it may be considered comparable
with a 10 per cent, sulphur salve. Over ordinary sulphur preparations
it has this advantage, that the sulphur is in very intimate and stable
union, so that ichthyol can be united with lead and mercury preparations
without decomposition. Ichthyol when rubbed undiluted on the normal skin
does not set up dermatitis, yet it is a resolvent, and in a high degree
a soother of pain and itching. In psoriasis it is a fairly good remedy,
but inferior to crysarobin in P. inveterata. It is useful also locally
in rheumatic affections as a resolvent and anodyne, in acne, and as a
parasiticide. The most remarkable effects, however, were met with in
eczema, which was cured in a surprisingly short time. From an experience
in the treatment of thirty cases of different kinds--viz., obstinate
circumscribed moist patches on the hands and arms, intensely itching
papular eczema of the flexures and face, infantile moist eczemas,
etc.--he recommends the following procedure. As with sulphur
preparations, he begins with a moderately strong preparation, and as
he proceeds reduces the strength of the application. For moist eczema
weaker preparations (20 to 30 per cent. decreased to 10 per cent.) must
be used than for the papular condition (50 per cent. reduced to 20 per
cent.), and the hand, for example, will require a stronger application
than the face, and children a weaker one than adults; but ichthyol may
be used in any strength from a 5 per cent. to a 40 to 50 per cent.
application or undiluted. For obstinate eczema of the hands the
following formula is given as very efficacious: R. Lithargyri 10.0;
coq.c. aceti, 30.0; ad reman. 20.0; adde olei olivar., adipis, aa 10.0;
ichthyol 10.0, M. ft. ung. Until its internal effects are better known,
caution is advised as to its very widespread application, although
Herr Schroter has taken a gramme with only some apparent increase of
peristalsis and appetite.--_Lancet_.

       *       *       *       *       *




AUTOPSY TABLE.


The illustration represents an autopsy table placed in the Coroner's
Department of the New York Hospital, designed by George B. Post and
Frederick C. Merry.

An amphitheater, fitted up for the convenience of the jury and those
interested when inquests are held, surrounds the table, which is placed
in the center of the floor, thus enabling the subject to be viewed by
the coroner's jury and other officials who may be present.

The mechanical construction of this table will be readily understood by
the following explanation:

The top, indicated by letter, A, is made of thick, heavy, cast glass,
concaved in the direction of the strainer, as shown. It is about eight
feet long and two feet and six inches wide, in one piece, an opening
being left in the center to receive the strainer, so as to allow the
fluid matter of the body, as well as the water with which it is washed,
to find its way to the waste pipe below the table, and thus avoid
soiling or staining the floor,

The strainer is quite large, with a downward draught which passes
through a large flue, as shown by letter, F, connected above the water
seal of the waste trap and trunk of the table to the chimney of the
boiler house, as indicated by the arrows, carrying down all offensive
odors from the body, thereby preventing the permeating of the air in the
room.

[Illustration: IMPROVED AUTOPSY TABLE.]

The base of the table, indicated by letter, B, represents a ground
swinging attachment, which enables the turning of the table in any
direction.

D represents the cold water supply cock and handle, intersecting with
letter, E, which is the hot water cock, below the base, as shown, and
then upward to a swing or ball joint, C, then crossing under the plate
glass top to the right with a hose attachment for the use of the
operator. Here a small hose pipe is secured, for use as may be required
in washing off all matter, to insure the clean exposure of the parts to
be dissected. The ball swing, C, enables the turning of the table in any
direction without disturbing the water connections. This apparatus has
been in operation since the building of the hospital in 1876, and has
met all the requirements in connection with its uses.--_Hydraulic
Plumber_.

       *       *       *       *       *




THE EXCITING PROPERTIES OF OATS.


Experiments have been recently made by Mr. Sanson with a view to
settling the question whether oats have or have not the excitant
property that has been attributed to them. The nervous and muscular
excitability of horses was carefully observed with the aid of graduated
electrical apparatus before and after they had eaten a given quantity
of oats, or received a little of a certain principle which Mr. Sanson
succeeded in isolating from oats. The chief results of the inquiry are
as follows: The pericarp of the fruit of oats contains a substance
soluble in alcohol and capable of exciting the motor cells of the
nervous system. This substance is not (as some have thought) vanilline
or the odorous principle of vanilla, nor at all like it. It is a
nitrogenized matter which seems to belong to the group of alkaloids; is
uncrystallizable, finely granular, and brown in mass. The author calls
it "avenine." All varieties of cultivated oats seem to elaborate it, but
they do so in very different degrees. The elaborated substance is the
same in all varieties. The differences in quantity depend not only on
the variety of the plant but also on the place of cultivation. Oats of
the white variety have much less than those of the dark, but for some
of the former, in Sweden, the difference is small; while for others, in
Russia, it is considerable. Less than 0.9 of the excitant principle per
cent. of air-dried oats, the dose is insufficient to certainly affect
the excitability of horses, but above this proportion the excitant
action is certain. While some light-colored oats certainly have
considerable excitant power, some dark oats have little. Determination
of the amount of the principle present is the only sure basis of
appreciation, though (as already stated) white oats are likely to
be less exciting than dark. Crushing or grinding the grain weakens
considerably the excitant property, probably by altering the substance
to which it is due; the excitant action is more prompt, but much less
strong and durable. The action, which is immediate and more intense
with the isolated principle, does not appear for some minutes after the
eating of oats; in both cases it increases to a certain point, then
diminishes and disappears. The total duration of the effect is stated to
be an hour per kilogramme of oats ingested.

       *       *       *       *       *




FILARIA DISEASE.


The rapid strides which our knowledge has made during the past few years
in the subject of the filaria parasite have been mainly owing to the
diligent researches of Dr. Patrick Manson, who continues to work at the
question. In the last number of the _Medical Reports for China_, Dr.
Manson deals with the phenomenon known as "filarial periodicity," and
with the fate of embryo parasites not removed from the blood. The
intimate pathology of the disease, and the subject of abscess caused
by the death of the parent filaria, also receive further attention.
An endeavor to explain the phenomenon of "filarial periodicity" by an
appeal to the logical "method of concomitant variations" takes Manson
into an interesting excursion which is not productive of any positive
results; nor is any more certain conclusion come to with regard to the
fate of the embryos which disappear from the blood during the day time.
Manson does not incline to the view that there is a diurnal intermittent
reproduction of embryos with a corresponding destruction. An original
and important speculation is made with respect to the intimate pathology
of elephantiasis, chyluria, and lymph scrotum, which is thoroughly
worthy of consideration. Our readers are probably aware that the parent
filaria and the filaria sanguinis hominis may exist in the human body
without entailing any apparent disturbance. The diameter of an
embryo filaria is about the same as that of a red blood disk, one
three-thousandth of an inch. The dimensions of an ovum are one
seven-hundred-and-fiftieth by one five-hundredth of an inch. If we
imagine the parent filaria located in a distal lymphatic vessel to abort
and give birth to ova instead of embryos, it may be understood that the
ova might be unable to pass such narrow passages as the embryo could,
and this is really the hypothesis which Manson has put forward on the
strength of observations made on two cases. The true pathology of the
elephantoid diseases may thus be briefly summarized: A parent filaria in
a distant lymphatic prematurely expels her ova; these act as emboli
to the nearest lymphatic glands, whence ensues stasis of lymph,
regurgitation of lymph, and partial compensation by anastomoses of
lymphatic vessels; this brings about hypertrophy of tissues, and may go
on to lymphorrhoea or chyluria, according to the site of the obstructed
lymphatics. It may be objected that too much is assumed in supposing
that the parent worm is liable to miscarry. But as Manson had sufficient
evidence in two cases that such abortions had happened, he thinks it is
not too much to expect their more frequent occurrence. The explanation
given of the manner in which elephantoid disease is produced applies to
most, if not all, diseases, with one exception, which result from the
presence of the parasite in the human body. The death of the parent
parasite in the afferent lymphatic may give rise to an abscess, and the
frequency with which abscess of the scrotum or thigh is met with in
Chinese practice is, in Manson's opinion, attributable to this. Dr.
Manson's report closes with an account of a case of abscess of the
thigh, with varicose inguinal glands, in which fragments of a mature
worm were discovered in the contents of the abscess.--_Lancet_.

       *       *       *       *       *




THE SPECTRAL MASDEVALLIA.

(_M. chimæra_.)


Of all orchids no genus we can just now call to mind is more distinct or
is composed of species more widely divergent in size, form, structure,
and color than is this one of Masdevallia. It was founded well nigh a
century ago by Ruiz and Pavon on a species from Mexico, M. uniflora.
which, so far as I know, is nearly if not quite unknown to present day
cultivators. When Lindley wrote his "Genera and Species" in 1836, three
species of Masdevallias only were known to botanists but twenty-five
years later, when he prepared his "Folio Orchidaceæ," nearly forty
species were; known in herbaria, and to-day perhaps fully a hundred
kinds are grown in our gardens, while travelers tell us of all the
gorgeous beauties which are known to exist high up on the cloud-swept
sides of the Andes and Cordilleras of the New World. The Masdevallia
is confined to the Western hemisphere alone, and as in bird and animal
distribution, so in the case of many orchids we find that when any genus
is confined to one hemisphere, those who look for another representative
genus in the other are rarely disappointed. Thus hornbills in the East
are represented by toucans in the West, and the humming bird of the West
by the sunbird of the East, and so also in the Malayan archipelago.
Notably in Borneo we find bolbophyls without pseudo bulbs, and with
solitary or few flowered scapes and other traits singularly suggestive
at first sight of the Western Masdevallia. Thus some bolbophyl, for
example, have caudal appendages to their sepals, as in Masdevallias,
and on the other hand some Masdevallias have their labellums hinged
and oscillatory, which is so commonly the case as to be "almost
characteristic" in the genus Bolbophyllum or Sarcopodium. Speaking
generally, Masdevallias, coming as most of them do from high altitudes,
lend themselves to what is now well known as "cool treatment," and
cultivators find it equally necessary to offer them moisture in
abundance both at the root and in the atmosphere, also seeing that when
at home in cloud-land they are often and well nigh continually drenched
by heavy dews and copious showers.

Of all the cultivated Masdevallias, none are so weirdly strange and
fascinating as is the species M. chimæra, which is so well illustrated
in the accompany engraving. This singular plant was discovered by
Benedict Roezl, and about 1872 or 1873 I remember M. Lucien Linden
calling upon me one day, and among other rarities showing me a dried
flower of this species. I remember I took up a pen and rapidly made a
sketch of the flower, which soon after appeared (1873, p. 3) in _The
Florist_, and was perhaps the first published figure of the plant. It
was named by Professor Reichenbach, who could find for it no better
name than that of the mythical monster Chimæra, than which, as an old
historian tells us, no stranger bogy ever came out of the earth's
inside. Our engraving shows the plant about natural size, and indicates
the form and local coloring pretty accurately. The ground color is
yellowish, blotched with lurid brownish crimson, the long pendent tails
being blood color, and the interior of the sepals are almost shaggy.
The spectral appearance of the flower is considerably heightened by the
smooth, white, slipper-like lip, which contrasts so forcibly in color
and texture with the lurid shagginess around it. Sir J. D. Hooker, in
describing this species in the _Botanical Magazine_, t. 6, 152, says
that the aspect of the curved scape as it bears aloft its buds and hairy
flowers is very suggestive of the head and body of a viper about to
strike. Dr. Haughton, F.R.S., told me long ago that Darlingtonia
californica always reminds him of a cobra when raised and puffed out in
a rage, and certainly the likeness is a close one.

Grown in shallow teak wood baskets, suspended near the roof in a
partially shaded structure, all the chimæroid section of Masdevallia
succeed even better than when grown in pots or pans, as they have a
Stanhopea-like habit of pushing out their flowers at all sorts of
deflected angles. A close glance at the engraving will show that for
convenience sake the artist has propped up the flower with a stick, this
much arrangement being a necessity, so as to enable the tails to lie
diagonally across the picture. From tip to tip the flower represented is
9 inches, or not so much by 7 inches as the flower measured in Messrs.
Backhouse's nursery at York.--_The Garden_.

[Illustration: THE SPECTRAL MASDEVALLIA.--MASDEVALLIA CHIMÆRA (Natural
Size)]

       *       *       *       *       *




SURVEY OF THE BLACK CAÑON.


It is rumored again that a survey is soon to be made through the
heaviest portion of the Black Canon of the Gunnison. For a long distance
the walls of syenite rise to the stupendous height of 3,000 feet, and
for 1,800 feet the walls of the cañon are arched not many feet from the
bed of the river. If the survey is successful, and the Denver and Rio
Grande is built through the cañon, it will undoubtedly be the grandest
piece of engineering on the American continent. The river is very swift,
and it is proposed to build a boat at the western end, and provision
it for a length of time, allowing it to float with the stream, but
controlled by ropes. If the boat goes, the chances are that the baby
road goes, too.--_Gunnison (Colo.) Review_.

       *       *       *       *       *




THE ANCIENT MISSISSIPPI AND ITS TRIBUTARIES.

[Footnote: This lecture was delivered in the Chapel of the State
University, at Columbia, as an inaugural address on January 10, 1883,
and illustrated by projections. The author has purposely avoided the
very lengthy details of scientific observation by which the conclusions
have been arrived at relating to the former wonderful condition of
the Mississippi, and the subsequent changes to its present form: as a
consideration of them would not only cause him to go beyond the allotted
time, but might, perhaps, prove tiresome.]

By J. W. SPENCER, B.A.Sc., Ph.D., F.G.S., Professor of Geology in the
State University of Missouri.


Physical geology is the science which deals with the past changes of
the earth's crust, and the causes which have produced the present
geographical features, everywhere seen about us. The subject of the
present address must therefore be considered as one of geology rather
than of geography, and I propose to trace for you the early history of
the great Mississippi River, of which we have only a diminished remnant
of the mightiest river that ever flowed over any terrestrial continent.

By way of introduction, I wish you each to look at the map of our great
river, with its tributaries as we now see it, draining half of the
central portion of the continent, but which formerly drained, in
addition, at least two of our great lakes, and many of the great rivers
at the present time emptying into the colder Arctic Sea.

Let us go back, in time, to the genesis of our continent. There was once
a time in the history of the earth when all the rocks were in a molten
condition, and the waters of our great oceans in a state of vapor,
surrounding the fiery ball. Space is intensely cold. In course of time
the earth cooled off, and on the cold, solid crust geological agencies
began to work. It is now conceded by the most accomplished physicists
that the location of the great continents and seas was determined by
the original contraction and cooling of the earth's crust; though very
greatly modified by a long succession of changes, produced by the
agencies of "water, air, heat, and cold," through probably a hundred
million of years, until the original rock surface of the earth has been
worked over to a depth of thirty or forty miles.

Like human history, the events of these long _æons_ are divided into
periods. The geologist divides the past history of the earth and its
inhabitants into five Great Times; and these, again, into ages, periods,
epochs, and eras.

At the close of the first Great Time--called Archæan--the continent
south of the region of the great lakes, excepting a few islands, was
still submerged beneath a shallow sea, and therefore no portion of the
Mississippi was yet in existence. At the close of the second great
geological Time--the Palæozoic--the American continent had emerged
sufficiently from the ocean bed to permit the flow of the Ohio, and of
the Mississippi, above the mouth of the former river, although they were
not yet united.

Throughout the third great geological Time--the Mesozoic--these rivers
grew in importance, and the lowest portions of the Missouri began to
form a tributary of some size. Still the Ohio had not united with the
Mississippi, and both of these rivers emptied into an arm of the Mexican
Gulf, which then reached to a short distance above what is now their
junction.

In point of time, the Ohio is probably older than the Mississippi, but
the latter river grew and eventually absorbed the Ohio as a tributary.

In the early part of the fourth great geological Time--the
Cenozoic--nearly the whole continent was above water. Still the Gulf of
Mexico covered a considerable portion of the extreme Southern States,
and one of its bays extended as far north as the mouth of the Ohio,
which had not yet become a tributary of the Mississippi. The Missouri
throughout its entire length was at this time a flowing river.

I told you that the earth's crust had been worked over to a depth of
many miles since geological time first commenced. Subsequently, I have
referred to the growth of the continent in different geological periods.
All of our continents are being gradually worn down by the action of
rains, rills, rivulets, and rivers, and being deposited along the sea
margins, just as the Mississippi is gradually stretching out into the
Gulf, by the deposition of the muds of the delta. This encroachment on
the Gulf of Mexico may continue, yea, doubtless will, until that deep
body of water shall have been filled up by the remains of the continent,
borne down by the rivers; for the Mississippi alone carries annually 268
cubic miles of mud into the Gulf, according to Humphreys and Abbot. This
represents the valley of the Mississippi losing one foot off its whole
surface in 6,000 years. And were this to continue without any elevation
of the land, the continent would all be buried beneath the sea in a
period of about four and a half million years. But though this wasting
is going on, the continent will not disappear, for the relative
positions of the land and water are constantly changing; in some cases
the land is undergoing elevation, in others, subsidence. Prof. Hilgard
has succeeded in measuring known changes of level, in the lower
Mississippi Valley, and records the continent as having been at least
450 feet higher than at present (and if we take the coast survey
soundings, it seems as if we might substitute 3,000 feet as the
elevation), and subsequently at more than 450 feet lower, and then the
change back to the present elevation.

Let us now study the history of the great river in the last days of the
Cenozoic Time, and early days of the fifth and last great Geological
Time, in which we are now living--the Quaternary, or Age of Man--an
epoch which I have called _the "Great River Age_."

It is to the condition of the Mississippi during this period and its
subsequent changes to its present form that I wish particularly to call
your attention. During the Great River age we know that the eastern
coast of the continent stood at least 1,200 feet higher than at present.
The region of the Lower Mississippi was also many hundred feet higher
above the sea level than now. Although we have not the figures for
knowing the exact elevation of the Upper Mississippi, yet we have the
data for knowing that it was very much higher than at the present day.

_The Lower Mississippi_, from the Gulf to the mouth of the Ohio River,
was of enormous size flowing through a valley with an average width of
about fifty miles, though varying from about twenty-five to seventy
miles.

In magnitude, we can have some idea, when we observe the size of the
lower three or four hundred miles of the Amazon River, which has a width
of about fifty miles. But its depth was great, for the waters not only
filled a channel now buried to a depth of from three to five hundred
feet, but stood at an elevation much higher than the broad bottom lands
which now constitute those fertile alluvial flats of the Mississippi
Valley, so liable to be overflowed.

From the western side, our great river received three principal
tributaries--the Red River of the South, the Washita, and the Arkansas,
each flowing in valleys from two to ten miles in width, but now
represented only by the depauperated streams meandering from side to
side, over the flat bottom lands, generally bounded by bluffs.

The Mississippi from the east received no important tributaries south
of the Ohio; such rivers as the Yazoo being purely modern and wandering
about in the ancient filled-up valley as does the modern Mississippi
itself.

So far we find that the Mississippi below the mouth of the Ohio differed
from the modern river in its enormous magnitude and direct course.

From the mouth of the Ohio to that of the Minnesota River, at Fort
Snelling, the characteristics of the Mississippi Valley differ entirely
from those of the lower sections. It generally varies from two to ten
miles in width, and is bounded almost everywhere by bluffs, which
vary in height from 150 to 500 feet, cut through by the entrances of
occasional tributaries.

The bottom of the ancient channel is often 100 feet or more below the
present river, which wanders about, from side to side, over the "bottom
lands" of the old valley, now partly filled with debris, brought down by
the waters themselves, and deposited since the time when the pitch of
the river began to be diminished. There are two places where the river
flows over hard rock. These are at the rapids near the mouth of the Des
Moines River, and a little farther up, at Rock Island. These portions of
the river do not represent the ancient courses, for subsequent to the
Great River Age, according to General Warren, the old channels became
closed, and the modern river, being deflected, was unable to reopen its
old bed.

The Missouri River is now the only important tributary of this section
of the Mississippi from the west. Like the western tributaries, farther
south, it meanders over broad bottom lands, which in some places reach a
width of ten miles or more, bounded by bluffs. During the period of the
culmination, it probably discharged nearly as much water as the Upper
Mississippi. At that time there were several other tributaries of no
mean size, such as the Des Moines, which filled valleys, one or two
miles wide, but now represented only by shrunken streams.

The most interesting portion of our study refers to the ancient eastern
tributaries, and the head waters of the great river.

The greater portion of the Ohio River flows over bottom lands, less
extensive than those of the west, although bounded by high bluffs.
The bed of the ancient valley is now buried to a depth of sometimes a
hundred feet or more. However, at Louisville, Ky., the river flows over
hard rock, the ancient valley having been filled with river deposits on
which that city is built, as shown first by Dr. Newberry, similar to the
closing of the old courses of the Mississippi, at Des Moines Rapids and
Rock Island. However, the most wonderful changes in the course of the
Ohio are further up the river. Mr. Carll, of Pennsylvania, in 1880,
discovered that the Upper Alleghany formerly emptied into Lake Erie, and
the following year I pointed out that not only the Upper Alleghany, but
the whole Upper Ohio, formerly emptied into Lake Erie, by the Beaver and
Mahoning Valleys (reversed), and the Grand River (of Ohio). Therefore,
only that portion of the Ohio River from about the Pennsylvania-Ohio
State line sent its waters to the Mexican Gulf, during the Great River
Age.

Other important differences in the river geology of our country were
Lake Superior emptying directly into the northern end of Lake Michigan,
and Lake Michigan discharging itself, somewhere east of Chicago, into an
upper tributary of the Illinois River. Even now, by removing rock to a
depth of ten feet, some of the waters of Lake Michigan have been made to
flow into the Illinois, which was formerly a vastly greater river than
at present, for the ancient valley was from two to ten miles wide, and
very deep, though now largely filled with drift.

_The study of the Upper Ancient Mississippi_ is the most important of
this address. The principal discoveries were made only a few years
since, by General G.K. Warren, of the Corps of Engineers, U.S.A. At Ft.
Snelling, a short distance above St. Paul, the modern Minnesota River
empties into the Mississippi, but the ancient condition was the
converse. At Ft. Snelling, the valleys form one continuous nearly
straight course, about a mile wide, bounded by bluffs 150 feet high. The
valley of the Minnesota is large, but the modern river is small. The
uppermost valley of the Mississippi enters this common valley at nearly
right angles, and is only a quarter of a mile wide and is completely
filled by the river. Though this body of water is now the more
important, yet in former days it was relatively a small tributary.

The character of the Minnesota Valley is similar to that of the
Mississippi below Ft. Snelling, in being bounded by high bluffs and
having a width of one or two miles, or more, all the way to the height
of land, between Big Stone Lake and Traverse Lake, the former of which
drains to the south, from an elevation of 992 feet above the sea, and
the latter only half a dozen miles distant (and eight feet higher)
empties, by the Red River of the North, into Lake Winnipeg. During
freshets, the swamps between these two lakes discharge waters both ways.
The valley of the Red River is really the bed of an immense dried-up
lake. The lacustrine character of the valley was recognized by early
explorers, but all honor to the name of General Warren, who, in
observing that the ancient enormous Lake Winnipeg formerly sent its
waters southward to the Mexican Gulf, made the most important discovery
in fluviatile geology--a discovery which will cause his name to be
honored in the scientific world long after his professional successes
have been forgotten.

General Warren considered that the valley of Lake Winnipeg only belonged
to the Mississippi since the "Ice Age," and explained the changes of
drainage of the great north by the theory of the local elevation of the
land. Facts which settle this question have recently been collected in
Minnesota State by Mr. Upham, although differently explained by that
geologist. However, he did not go far enough back in time, for doubtless
the Winnipeg Valley discharged southward before the last days of the
"Ice Age," and the great changes in the river courses were not entirely
produced by local elevation, but also by the filling of the old water
channels with drift deposits and sediments. Throughout the bottom of the
Red River Valley a large number of wells have been sunk to great depths,
and these show the absence of hard rock to levels below that of Lake
Winnipeg; but some portions of the Minnesota River flow over hard rock
at levels somewhat higher. Whether the presence of these somewhat higher
rocks is due entirely to the local elevation, which we know took place,
or to the change in the course of the old river, remains to be seen.

Mr. Upham has also shown that there is a valley connecting the Minnesota
River, at Great Bend at Mankato, with the head waters of the Des Moines
River, as I predicted to General Warren a few months before his death.
At the time when Lake Winnipeg was swollen to its greatest size,
extending southward into Minnesota, as far as Traverse Lake, it had a
length of more than 600 miles and a breadth of 250 miles.

Its greatest tributary was the Saskatchewan--a river nearly as large as
the Missouri. It flowed in a deep broad cañon now partly filled with
drift deposits, in some places, to two hundred feet or more in depth.

Another tributary, but of a little less size, was the Assiniboine, now
emptying into the Red River, at the city of Winnipeg. Following up
this river, in a westerly direction, one passes into the Qu'Appelle
Valley--the upper portion of which is now filled with drift, as first
shown by Prof. H. Y. Hind. This portion of the valley is interesting,
for through it, before being filled with drift, the south branch of the
Saskatchewan River formerly flowed, and constituted an enormous river.
But subsequent to the Great River Age, when choked with drift, it sent
its waters to the North Saskatchewan as now seen. There were many other
changes in the course of the ancient rivers to the north, but I cannot
here record them.

As we have seen, the ancient Mississippi and its tributaries were vastly
larger rivers than their modern representatives. At the close of the
Great River Age, the whole continent subsided to many hundred feet below
its present level, or some portions to even thousands of feet. During
this subsidence, the Mississippi States north of the Ozark Mountains
formed the bed of an immense lake, into the quiet waters of which were
deposited soils washed down by the various rivers from the northwestern
and north central States and the northern territories of Canada. These
sediments, brought here from the north, constitute the bluff formation
of the State, and are the source of the extraordinary fertility of our
lands, on which the future greatness of our State depends. However, time
will not permit me to enter into the application of the facts brought
forward to agricultural interests. But although this address is intended
to be in the realm of pure science, I cannot refrain from saying a word
to our engineering students as to the application of knowledge of river
geology to their future work. The subject of river geology is yet in its
infancy, and I have known of much money being squandered for want of
its knowledge. In one case, I saved a company several thousand dollars,
though I should have been willing to give a good subscription to see the
work carried out from the scientific point of view.

I will briefly indicate a few interesting points to the engineer.
Sometimes in making railway cuttings it is possible to find an adjacent
buried valley through which excavations can be made without cutting hard
rock. In bridge building especially, in the western country, a knowledge
of the buried valleys is of the utmost importance. Again, in sinking for
coal do not begin your work from the bed of a valley, unless it be of
hard rock, else you may have to go through an indefinite amount of drift
and gravel; and once more, in boring for artesian wells, it sometimes
happens that good water can be obtained in the loose drift filling these
ancient valleys; but when you wish to sink into harder rock, do not
select your site of operations on an old buried valley, for the cost of
sinking through gravel is greater than through ordinary rock.

In closing, let us consider to what the name Mississippi should be
given. In point of antiquity, the Ohio and Upper Mississippi are of
about the same age, but since the time when ingrowing southward they
united, the latter river has been the larger. The Missouri River,
though longer than the Mississippi, is both smaller and geographically
newer--the upper portion much newer.

Above Ft. Snelling, the modern Mississippi, though the larger body of
water, should be considered as a tributary to that now called Minnesota,
while the Minnesota Valley is really a portion of the older Mississippi
Valley--both together forming the parent river, which when swollen to
the greatest volume had the Saskatchewan River for a tributary,
and formed the grandest and mightiest river of which we have any
record.--_Kansas City Review_.

       *       *       *       *       *

A catalogue, containing brief notices of many important scientific
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Any person who has made a new discovery or invention can ascertain, free
of charge, whether a patent can probably be obtained, by writing to MUNN
& Co.

We also send free our Hand Book about the Patent Laws, Patents, Caveats.
Trade Marks, their costs, and how procured. Address

MUNN & CO., 261 BROADWAY, NEW YORK.

Branch Office, cor. P and 7th Sts., Washington, D. C.