384 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



magnesia, of nickel and potash, of nickel and zinc, of potash and 

 magnesia, and of copper and potash. After the meeting, Mr. Willis 

 exhibited a machine constructed for the purpose of illustrating the 

 motions of the particles of a fluid in which undulations of various 

 kinds are singly or jointly propagated. 



April 18. The very Rev. the Dean of Peterborough, the Pre- 

 sident, in the chair. The first part of a paper by Professor 

 Whewell was read, containing A mathematical exposition of some 

 of the leading doctrines of Mr. Ricardo's " Principles of Political 

 Economy and Taxation." There was also read, by Professor Airy, 

 A description of an apparatus constructed under his direction, and 

 of the properties of elliptically-polarized light exhibited by means 

 of it ; it was stated that the phenomena had been found to agree 

 in the most precise manner with the results previously obtained by 

 calculation. After the meeting, Professor Henslow exhibited a 

 number of the appearances of what have been called * spectral 

 wheels/' produced by the rotation of two wheels, one behind the 

 other. 



LVIII. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



FALL OF THE BROUGHTON SUSPENSION BRIDGE, NEAR MAN- 

 CHESTER. 



WE have been favoured by an esteemed correspondent at Man- 

 chester, with some extracts from the Manchester Chronicle 

 and Manchester Guardian newspapers, of April 16th, respecting 

 the giving way of a suspension bridge over the river Trwell, at 

 Broughton, about two miles from Manchester. Our correspondent 

 informs us that the editors of both papers have been at great pains 

 to investigate the circumstances. Both give the same account, sub- 

 stantially, of the accident and of its causes. The following particu- 

 lars are chiefly extracted from the Manchester Guardian, with some 

 additions from the Manchester Chronicle. 



A very serious and alarming accident occurred on Tuesday, April 

 12th, in the fall of the Broughton suspension bridge, erected a few 

 years ago by John Fitzgerald, Esq., whilst a company of the 60th Rifles 

 were passing over it; and, although fortunately no lives were lost, 

 several of the soldiers received serious personal injuries, and damage 

 was done to the structure, which will require a long time and a very 

 considerable expense to repair. 



It appears that, on the day when this accident happened, the 

 60th regiment had had a field-day on Kersall Moor, and about 

 12 o'clock were on their way back to their quarters. The greater 

 part of the regiment is stationed in the temporary barracks in 

 Dyche-street, St. George's Road, and took the route through 

 Strangeways; but one company, commanded, as it happened sin- 

 gularly enough, by Lieut. P. S. Fitzgerald, the son of the proprietor 

 of the bridge, being stationed at the Salford barracks, took the 

 road over the suspension bridge, intending to go through Pendleton 



to 



