USES OF THE TELEGRAPH. 



steamers, often from 2000 to 8000 words are reported. On some 

 occasions of market excitement, the private messages are nearly 

 doubled. 



Debates of Congress are received at an average of about 4500 

 words per day, and transmitted at the rate of 1600 words per hour. 



On the assembly of the Legislature of the State of New York at 

 Albany, in 1847, the governor's message, consisting of 25000 

 letters, was transmitted to New York, 150 miles, and printed by 

 the telegraph itself in two hours and a half. 



257. In his reports to Congress, Mr. Morse has supplied various 

 examples of the use made of the telegraph by all classes of persons. 

 During the Philadelphia riots of 1844, the mayor of that city sent 

 an express by railway, to the President of the United States at 

 Washington. On the arrival of the train at Baltimore, the con- 

 tents of the express transpired, and the telegraph, which was then 

 just put in operation between Baltimore and "Washington, not 

 being yet established elsewhere in the States, sent on the substance 

 of the despatch. The President held a cabinet council while the 

 despatch itself was coming, and had his answer prepared 

 and delivered to the messenger who brought the despatch at 

 the moment of his arrival, who returned with it instantly to 

 Philadelphia. 



258. Nothing is more frequent in the United States than electric 

 medical consultations. A patient in or near a country village 

 desifes to consult a leading medical practitioner in a chief city, 

 such as New York or Philadelphia, at four or five hundred miles 

 distant. With the aid of the local apothecary, or without it, he 

 draws up a short statement of his case, sends it along the wires, 

 and in an hour or two receives the advice he geeks, and a 

 prescription. Cases are recorded in wliich electric marriages have 

 been contracted between parties separated one from another by 

 many degrees of latitude. A correspondent of the author of a 

 paper in Chambers' s Collection states, that in the United States, 

 "The telegraph is used by all classes, except the very poorest 

 the same as the mail. A man leaves his family for a week or a 

 month ; he telegraphs them of his health and whereabouts from 

 time to time. If returning home, on reaching Albany or 

 Philadelphia, he sends word of the hour that he will arrive. In the 

 towns about New York the most ordinary messages are sent in 

 this way : a joke, an invitation to a party, an inquiry about 

 health, &c. In our business we use it continually. The other 

 day two different men from Montreal wanted credit, and had no 

 references; we said: <Yery well; look out the goods, and we 

 will B ee at;vu* if.' Meanwhile we asked our friends in 



1 Are Pump and Proser good lor one nundred dollars eac 



