VOL. Xl. NO. 29. 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



227 



flie other. It is like iiuiking drunktnness excuse 

 thcfl. 



By the way, t!ic subject of neatness, taste and 

 iitility in family gardens, deserves a fuller notice, 

 and shall ere long have a full chapter. In the 

 mean time let us improve tlie Iqisure of this win- 

 ter in preparing to make all our enclosures sub- 

 stantial and secure before the vernal planting 

 comes about. 



tempeRjVKce in the navy. 



The following letter from the Secretary of the 

 Navy to the Corresponding Secretary of the Mas- 

 sachusetts society for the Suppression of Intem- 

 perance, contains information which will be inter- 

 esting to the friends of the Society. 



JVai'i/ Department, Vlth June, 1832. 



Dear Sir: — I have received two copies of Mr. 

 Sullivan's able Address " before the Massachu- 

 setts Society for the Suppression of Intemper- 

 ance." In it I find a friendly notice of an order 

 from this department on the subject of the spirit 

 part of the rations, and in the Appendix, a vote 

 of thanks to myself by the Society. 



Allow me, through you, to make my acknowl- 

 edgements to both him and the Society for these 

 kind civilities. It gives me great pleasure to state 

 that the Pacific, as well as Mediterranean Si^uad- 

 ron, has almost entirely abandoned the usB of ar- 

 dent spirits, and that the subsequent improwment 

 in health and conduct among the crew (if the 

 former squadron has become a topic of reraaik by 

 both the surgeons and other officers. The schoon- 

 er Experiment, now on our own coast, had iliost 

 if not all of her men selected with a view to a fur- 

 ther and full experiment on this interesting sub- 

 ject; and by perseverance in holding out induce- 

 ments, or a voluntary abandonment of the use of 

 daily poison, I trust the waste of life, and the fre- 

 quency and severity of punishments, will not only 

 be lessened, but a great moral revolution will in 

 time be permanently established among a class of 

 men, who have hitherto been to often considered 

 irreclaimable. Respectfully yours, 



Levi Woodbort. 

 Rev. Hosea Hildreth, Cor. Sec. of the Mass. 

 Society for the Sup. of Intcmp., Boston, Mass. 



ITEMS OP ECONOMY, ARTS, &c. 



Preserved Ice. One of our exchange papers, 

 (and we cannot say which, having inadvertently 

 cut out the paragraph, without noting the tit!e of 

 the paper in which it was printed,) informs 'hat 

 " Any body may have an ice-house without ex- 

 pense, by heaping a large cone of well pounded 

 ice or snow in the winter, and causing it to be 

 thatched with barley straw about twice the thick- 

 ness usually laid upon a stack of oats. In this 

 way ice may be preserved for three years.'' A 

 better way still might be to pack ice in a ccllir in 

 a wooden vessel and surround it with chafli", straw, 

 or other non-conductor of heat. 



Hydrostatic Bed. This is said in Dr. Jjrr oil's 

 Elements of Physics to be one of those happ/ in- 

 ventions that have sprung from the practical ampli- 

 cation of science to the wants of life. It not only 

 delights us by its ingenious novelty and great sim- 

 plicity, but commands a still deeper interest vhcn 

 we consider the relief which it will afford ir in- 



numerable cases of protracted suffering, where 

 hitherto the patient has been considered in a great 

 measure beyond the power of the physician. 



The bed is constructed in the following man- 

 ner : — A trough, six feet long, two feet six (or nine) 

 inches broad, and one foot deep, is filled the depth 

 of six or seven inches with water, and a sheet of 

 water proof India rubber cloth placed u])on it. It is 

 fixed and firmly cemented at the upper part of the 

 trough, being of such a size as to hang down 

 loosely in the inside, and floating on the surface 

 of the water, which admits therefore of the most 

 perfect freedom of motion. A light hair mattrass 

 is placed upon the water proof cloth, upon which 

 the pillow and bed clothes are to be laid. When 

 the patient rests upon it, he at once experiences 

 the surpassing softness of the hydrostatic bed ; he 

 is placed nearly in the same condition as when 

 floating in water, the fluid support being prevented 

 from touching him, however, by the peculiar man- 

 ner in which it is sealed hermetically, as it were 

 within the water proof cloth, and by the interven- 

 ing mattrass. 



A lady, who had suffered much from prema- 

 ture confinement, from a combination and succes- 

 sion of low fever, jaundice, &c. and whose back 

 had sloughed (mortified) in several places, was at 

 length so much exhausted in consequence of the 

 latter, that she was considered in the most immi- 

 nent danger ; she generally fainted when the 

 wounds in her back were dressed, and was pass- 

 ing days and nights in uninterrupted suflering, as 

 the pressure even of an air pillow had occasioned 

 mortification. Dr. Arnott reflected "that the sup- 

 port of water to a floating body is so universally 

 diffused that every thousandth part of an inch of 

 the inferior surface has as it were its own separate 

 liquid pillar, and no one part bears the load of its 

 neighbor — that a person resting in a bath is near- 

 ly thus supported, ordered a bed to be made on 

 this plan, and the patient placed in it. She was 

 instantly relieved in a remarkable degree, and en- 

 joyed a long and tranquil sleep — awoke refreshed. 

 She passed the next night much better than usual, 

 and on the following day her physician found that 

 the sores had assumed a healthy appearance ; the 

 healing from that time went on rapidly, and no 

 new sloughs were formed." 



The hydrostatic bed will be useful, not merely 

 in extreme cases, such as the above, but also in 

 every instance, where there is restlessness or wawf 

 of sleep, from the irksome feeling communicated 

 by the inequality of pressure which is necessarily 

 perceived in every conmion bed, and to which the 

 body becomes so remarkably sensible when fatigued 

 or enfeebled or when suffering from disease. 



The sensation, which is experienced by a person 

 reclining on a hydrostatic bed, is uncommonly 

 pleasing* It is easy to change the position with a 

 very feeble effort. The patient can always take a 

 little exercise at pleasure with the slightest exer- 



tion, from the facility with which the water can be 

 moved — a circumstance which will prove highly 

 grateful to those who have been long confined ia 

 bed. 



CURING HAMS. 



The best way of curing hams that we know of 

 is, as soon as they are separated from the body of 

 the animal, they are to be closely packed in a 

 clean, common sized barrel ; and to a full barrel, 

 add a pickle by dissolving eight quarts of Liver- 

 pool salt and four ounces of saltpetre, in a sufli- 

 cient quantity of rain or brook water, to cover the 

 whole. In this situation they are to remain until 

 removed to the smoke-house, which should be 

 from eight to twelve weeks. The smoking pro- 

 cess is to be conducted altogether with the wood 

 of the sugar maple, or hickory, the former prefer- 

 red. And when sufficiently smoked, those that 

 are intended for immediate use, may be hung up 

 in a dark garret, or if the weather is cool, in the 

 cellar; as freezing, particularly, if often repeated is 

 very injurious. Those that are intended for sum- 

 mer use, are to be well whitewashed with lime, 

 and when dry wrapped in paper and packed away 

 in new dry house-ashes, and then set in a cool 

 place in the cellar. Particular care is requisite to 

 prevent its becoming heated too much while in 

 the smoke-house, as this is very destructive to its 

 fine flavor. — Southern Paper. 



ARTIFICIAL, HUMAN EARS. 



Never say a word about Yankee Ingenuity 

 after this. Wooden nutmegs, wooden pumpkin- 

 seeds, wooden axes, wooden hams, avaunt. Wc 

 have a little man in our city who has beat the 

 whole of our eastern ' artists' — no one more nor 

 less than Dr. Scudder, the Oculist, the same who 

 is so celebrated in inserting artificial human eyes 

 — and by the bye, one whose inventive genius 

 will, when put on the test, effect almost any thing, 

 — but to the point. Dr. Scudder has recently suc- 

 ceeded in making an artificial Ear, and to give to 

 our readers an idea of it, we subjoin the following 

 description : — A mould of a real ear is made of 

 Plaster of Paris, in which is cast an artificial one of 

 fluid Gum Elastic or India Rubber, which by ex- 

 posure to the air becomes of the proper consisten- 

 cy. The ear is fastened on by a spring passing 

 over the head, under the hair, and the place of 

 jointure is not easily seen, particularly if the wear- 

 er be blessed with a goodly pair of whiskers. 

 The artilirial ear is then coloured to suit the com- 

 plexion of the wearer, and is of the same elasticity 

 as the real ear. On the whole it is very ingeni- 

 ous, and no one but Dr. Scudder would ever have 

 thought of such a thing. Gentlemen who have 

 been "cropped or gouged" can now have both de- 

 ficiencies remedied, by applying to the Doctor, 

 who we verily believe will yet undertake to build 

 an artificial man. The case we mention of the 

 artifici.il ear is the third Dr. S. has fitted. — JV*. Y. 

 Mvocate. 



Secession. Sir, said a distinguished 'praetical 

 man "a State has no more right to secede from th« 

 Union than a stave has to secede from a cask."— 

 This Mr. Editor seems to me a very good illustra- 

 tion of the good Jhr-nothingness of the doctrine of 

 nullification and disunion, and I beg you will lay 

 it before your numerous readers, for further spe»- 

 ulatiou and notice. — JV. Y. Standard. 



Tom CopriH.. 



