1820.] Harlem Philosophical Society. 463 



1 . "Is it true, as has been asserted, that our indigenous iron 

 is inferior to that of Sweden, or any other country, and that it 

 would be impossible to employ it for many purposes for which 

 foreign iron is now used ? If this be really the case, to what is 

 this defect to be attributed ? Are we to look for it in the metal 

 itself, or in the method of preparing it ? Supposing the latter to 

 te the case, might not this iron be carried to such a degree of 

 perfection as to rival foreign iron, and what method is hkely to 

 be most effectual for this purpose ? " 



2. Although a general introduction of vaccination has almost 

 every where put a stop to the epideiBic small-pox, yet within 

 these few years past, that disease has reappeared both here and 

 elsewhere, and as a species of variol pustules (termed by the 

 English modifioided small-pox) have recently shown themselves 

 in those who had been vaccinated, it is inquired, " 1. Of what 

 description are these pustules ? In what do they differ from the 

 real small-pox ? Is it the latter that is produced in those indivi- 

 duals who have been previously vaccinated ? Does it arise from 

 constitution, from indisposition, from the matter employed in 

 vaccination, or from other circumstances, and what is the method 

 of preventing it? 2. What can be safely asserted with regard to 

 the duration of the preservative virtue of vaccination ? Would it 

 prove of any service to re-vaccinate on the re-appearance of the 

 disease ? Are the methods employed by us for the encourage- 

 ment of vaccination sufficient, and do they tend to cause the 

 entire disappearance of the small-pox. In case they are not^ 

 what more efficacious ones could be adopted ?" 



3. " What is the cause, owing to which oysters are occasion- 

 ally, as was particularly the case last year, so prejudicial to 

 health ? Is it in consequence of a small worm that is found in 

 them ? In this case, of what species is it, and whereabouts is it 

 more easily detected ? Are oysters subject to it only at certain 

 times of the year ? Has the venom of oysters any analogy with 

 that which from time to time renders muscles poisonous and 

 unwholesome ? What are the disorders occasioned by such oys- 

 ters and muscles, and what are the most efficacious remedies 

 either for arresting the evil, or for removing it ?" 



4. " To what is it owing that shrimps are sometimes perni- 

 cious ? How are such shrimps to be distinguished ? What kind 

 of disorders do they occasion, and what are the remedies to 

 which, in such cases, recourse ought to be had ? " 



5. " As extensive hot-houses are now heated by steam in 

 England, might not this method be adopted among us for small 

 hot-houses, and what would be the most proper apparatus for 

 such a purpose? " 



6. " What information has been obtained respecting the 

 nature, habits, and production, of those little insects which are 

 so injurious to plants cultivated in hot-houses, and what method 



