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Art. VI. Observations on the Project of taking down 

 and rebuilding London Bridge. 



[By a Correspondent.] 

 It is a matter certainly of great interest to men of science, to 

 know what effect the removal of a dam producing a fall of 

 water westward at high water sometimes of two feet, and east- 

 ward at low water sometimes of nine feet, from a great river 

 like the Thames, would have westward and eastward of that 

 dam in respect to the bed and shores of such a river; and whe- 

 ther a more frequent inundation and saturation with water of 

 the low lands will cause miasms and pestilential diseases again 

 to prevail, should the means of stopping such inundations 

 or of quickly draining oiF the water not be immediately ob- 

 tained. They look forward with great anxiety to the expe- 

 riment ; and the knowledge that this dam has existed many cen- 

 turies, that the river passes through a dense population, that 

 the estates of individuals have been regulated by it, that the 

 levels of the lowest floors of houses and those of the streets in 

 the low lands adjacent, have reference to this habit of the river, 

 adds much to the excitement ; for the intenseness of the interest 

 always increases with the hazard of the throw. The complaints 

 of the inhabitants on the banks of the river, like those of the 

 dumb creature subject to the knife of the surgeon, are not 

 heard in the eager pursuit of knowledge, and in the speculation 

 of future amelioration. There are others who have great 

 influence, and are urgent for the demolition of London Bridge, 

 looking to their own gain in the erection of a new one. 

 A mathematician, like to him of Laputa, has brought his im- 

 plements to the question, and, without sections, without levels, 

 and ignorant of the soil over which the river flows, or against 

 which it impinges at its sinuosities, knowing neither what may 

 be overflowed, nor what may be sapped, has, by a kind of 

 intuitive philosophical tact, determined that, after the removal 

 of the dam, the stream will flow on as harmless and obedient 

 as heretofore*. Presuming there may be some of your readers 



, • See Dr. Hutton's Answers, App. 4th Report, 1821. 



