98 Mr Carter on coverhig Hotises with Plates of cast Iron. 



think you will be satisfied of the impossibility of forcing any wa- 

 ter over the corner of the lower plate. 



In point of taste, nothing can be worse than the roofs of our 

 modem dwellings, which, with what are termed hips and val- 

 leys, present a series of irregular pyramidal forms, intersecting 

 each other in a most incongruous variety, indescribably disa* 

 greeable to the eye. The valleys also causing, in many cases, 

 the nuisance of smoky chimneys, and sometimes an inundation 

 of the dwelling, upon the breaking up of snow. 



In the application of this project to the covering of dwelling- 

 houses, the upper parts of which are usually divided into rooms 

 of moderate dimensions, it will be found that no trussing is re- 

 quired, and consequently there is a considerable saving in timber 

 and labour, the partitions being sufficient support for the raft- 

 ers whereon this covering is laid. I am, &c. 



Notice regarding some extraordinary Lusus Natures in the 

 East Indies. Communicated by Lieutenant James Edward 

 Alexander, 16th Lancers, M. R. A. S. Cor. Mem. S. A. E. 

 &c. With a Plate. 



It has often been remarked by travellers, that, in eastern 

 countries, deformed individuals are seldom or never met with. 

 This circumstance is attributed to a variety of causes, as par- 

 turition being less difficult between the Tropics, the temperate 

 habits of the people, &c. ; but, if those who assign these reasons 

 for abortions being of unfrequent occurrence in the East, were 

 to inquire a little more carefully, they would find that imper- 

 fectly formed beings occur as often in eastern countries as in our 

 own. Why, then, it will be asked, are they not met with "^ The 

 answer to this is short. They are destroyed immediately after 

 birth by their unnatural mothers, and commonly by placing a 

 small opium pill in the mouth of the infant. Some of these 

 unhappy beings, however, are occasionally preserved ; and, as it 

 fell to my lot, during my peregrinations in the East, to meet 

 with several singular instances of Lusus Naturae, I now pro- 

 pose shortly to describe some of the most remarkable. 



I. During a march from Jaulnah to Arcot, I halted one day 

 at the town of Rachootee, in the Ballaghat ceded districts. I 



