Spirit of Philosophical Diseovery. 3^9 



the usual way. It is sent di»y, 1o ic-consi(lcr ami cspcriiiicnt 



1824.J 



tlic anciior 



said, that more than twenty of these 



auchor laiiiiclies are already in use in 



the Royal Navy. In heaving or taking 



up the anchor, these launches may, 



in m<)uy circumstauccs, prove eminently 



useful. 



A water-setting cement from chalk, 

 may be prepared, according to the ob- 

 servations of jMr. James Frost, of 

 Finchley, provided the chalk be heated 

 to that degree in whicii cast-iron begins 

 to soften, and then cooled without tlie 

 access of atmospheric air or moisture: 

 for the construction of furnaces and 

 air-tight coolers, for cfl'ecting the above 

 operations on any calcareous sub- 

 stances, or natural or artificial admix- 

 tures thereof, with other earths or 

 oxyds, for the making of cement, Mr. 

 Frost has obtained a patent. lieper- 

 tory. No. 260. 



Steam-Packets from Ireland. — In the 

 years 1822 and 1823, the post-officc 

 stoam-vessels between Holyhead, in 

 Wales, and Howtli, near Dublin, have 

 made 712 trips; the aveiage time of go- 

 ing to Ireland has been 8h. 30^m., while 

 the average time spent in the returns to 

 Wales, have been only 7h. 44m. — Query, 

 is this difference of 26^in. or almost 

 1.19th part of the voyage out, to be as- 

 cribed wholly to the prevalence of west- 

 erly winds? or, how far do currents con- 

 Iribute thereto? The four packets em- 

 ployed, are named Vixen, Sovereign, 

 Meteor, and Ivanhoe ; the total first 

 cost of which vessels and their ma- 

 chinery, was 36,598/., and they have 

 since cost in repairs and improvements, 

 the sum of 15,000/. In these two years, 

 the gross postage of letters these packets 

 have carried, was 16,488/.; the num- 

 ber of passengers have been 33,897 per- 

 sons, together with 803 horses, and 

 1,473 carriages. 



'I'he ticinkting of the fixed slurs, has 

 invariably, it would seem, been ac- 

 counted lor by modern astronomers, by 

 supposing certain opake bodies to be 

 incessantly lloating in the air, which by 

 interposing themselves belwecn the 

 eye and the mere luminous points, 

 which the apparent magnitudes of the 

 stars exhibit, motiientarily eclipse them. 

 A correspondent in No. 11, of Professor 

 ijillirnan's American Journal of Scienne, 

 very properly objects, that the exis- 

 tence of any such opake floating 

 .sul>^t;i)ices in the air is unpro\cd, and 

 iinpnibiiblc ; and tlicrcfore he calls on 

 ;l^tlo|l(lnll•rs :uid oplicians of the pie- 

 MoMiiLV ]Mao, No. J'.'i, 



on the matter. In liojics of (jHcring an 

 explanation, more accordant with mo- 

 dern science. 



In Sweden, a sulstitute fur coffee 

 has been found, in the berries of the 

 astragalus laltivus of Linnaeus ; Doctor 

 Bayrhammor, of Wurlzburg, who lias 

 exerted himself in the promoti'ju of 

 this culture, offered some time ago 

 to send gratuitously, 100 perfect seeds 

 of this plant to any person, who would 

 undertake to cultivate it according to 

 the accompanying instructions, and to 

 communicate the result. He says, it 

 will not suffer from intense frost, and 

 produce from 600 to 100 fold. Its 

 decoction is economical, requiring only 

 the fifth-part of the sugar geucrally 

 used with coffee. 



The strticture and function of the 

 lungs in human subjects, has long been 

 a chief study of Dr. Majendic.of Paris, 

 and by very numerous dissections of 

 this organ, in its ordinary and also in 

 its phthisically diseased state, he has 

 ascertained, that the tissues or cellular 

 coats of the lungs are almost entirely 

 composed of the minute branchings of 

 blood vessels, of the pulmonary arte- 

 ries and veins, anastomising or eon- 

 necting with each other. That the cells 

 of the lungs diminish in number, but 

 increa?e in size with considerable re- 

 gularity, from childhood to old age, 

 the increased size being greatest, wiicre 

 a cough has attended the individual. 

 That on the whole, aged people con- 

 sume much less oxygen, and conse- 

 quently have less animal heat, and are 

 less able to resist cold, than the young. 

 Dr. Magendie has found, that the 

 beginning of phthisis, or consumption, 

 is owing to the small parieties of the 

 pulmonary blood-vessels secreting a 

 greyish yellow matter, in one or more 

 of the cells of the lungs ; this, ill some 

 cases, is moveable, and the patient 

 coughs it up, and recovers ; Imt much 

 too frequently it increases, adheres to 

 the small vessels, gradually obliterates 

 them, and the whole lobe at length 

 becomes tuberculous, or formed of this 

 greyish yellow matter. Considering 

 thus the commencement of consump- 

 tion as only an alteration in the habi- 

 tual secretion of the vascular tissue of 

 the lungs. Dr. M. employs sedatives, 

 and particularly the hydro cyanic acid, 

 in the two first stages of the disease, 

 with the ha|>piest ellect. 



Auiidst an abundance of discovciiti 

 3 A justly 



