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oS - Miscellanies. 
viously vaccinated had suffered severely, it had been a matter of so- 
licitude with many medical practitioners to revert to the original source 
for vaccine virus. Mr. Estlin, of Bristol, having succeeded in obtain- 
ing some lymph from a cow laboring under cow-pox, inserted it in the 
arm of a young lady, in August last, and from her the disease was 
subsequently propagated. Some of the virus, obtained at ten removes, 
was sent to Dr. Dunglison by Messrs. Estlin and Carpenter of Bristol. 
This has been used in several cases, and the disease produced by it 
appeared to him to be more satisfactory than that which results from 
the old virus. 
Dr. Dunglison stated that there was reason to believe that a sufli- 
cient supply of the new virus would soon be obtained for distribution 
through the country. 
Professor A. D. Bache stated to the Society that observations had 
been made on‘ the night of the 12th—13th of November last, by Pro- 
fessor Henry, at Princeton, Professor W. B. Rogers, at the University 
of Virginia, and Professor R. P. Smith, at Kenyon College, Ohio» 
neither of whom had noted an unusual number of the meteors com- 
monly called ‘shooting star 
January 18, 1839. Pate A. D. Bache made a verbal eommu- 
nication relative to an extraordinary instance of the rapid corrosion 
of a chain cable in sea-water, reported to him by Lieutenant George 
M. Bache, of the U.S. Navy, and showed the Society a link from 4 
portion of the cable. 
The chain cable, of which this was a part, was used to anchor the 
Light-boat off Bartlett’s reef, near New-London, Connecticut. The 
portion between the hawse-hole and the bridle of the anchors, about 
eleven fathoms in length, is particularly exposed to corrosion. In@ 
few months the links, or the keys of the shackles attaching the chain to 
the bridle, become so much oxidated as to lose the requisite tenacity. 
The link, presented as a sample of the chain, is irregularly oxidated — 
_ and worn, presenting semi-spheroidal cavities, and the fibrous structure 
of the iron is very distinctly developed. While this is the case with 
the wrought iron part of the link, the cast iron stud which strengthens 
it isnot materially actedon. The raised letters upon the stud are per 
fect. 
The circumstances in which this chain is differently situated from 
others, used in similar situations, result from the peculiar construct of 
of the Light-boat, by which the copper sheathing rises above, 4 and is 
in contact with, the cast-iron hawse-pipe, throngh which the cable 
passes. This cast-iron pipe has on its exterior a lead pipe. The ©P 
per sheathing is bright. 
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