1857. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



41 



resembling the fibrous root of some vegetable. 

 When seen through a magnifying glass, the hair 

 snake presents an almost exact resemblance to the 

 lamprey eel. 



A lady of our acquaintance found a hair snake in 

 her teakettle, one morning, a few years since. It 

 had been standing where a cricket might have 

 crawled in by the spout ; but she is hardly willing to 

 give up the theory of her girlhood, that it was a 

 viviSed horse-hair. 



For the Nezc England Fanner. 



POISOHmG WITH LEAD. 



Who shall decide when doctors disagree ? is no 

 new question, and it has meaning. Doctors have 

 not always agreed; doctors in law, medicine, or 

 theology. Nor are they agreed even now ; happy 

 is it when they can agree to differ. I am not aware, 

 however, that doctors of medicine — to whom the 

 above inquiry is most frequently applied — have 

 more points of disagreement than doctors of theol- 

 ogy. 



On one point, however, if on no other, medical 

 men of all schools are very nearly agreed. I refer 

 to the efiects of lead ; or, as the chemists say, had 

 salts, when introduced into the human system. — 

 No one, at the present day, will deny that these 

 salts are always, at best, unsafe ; especially to tliose 

 who are, from any reason whatever, more or less en- 

 feebled. The diseases to which they peculiarly 

 dispose a person are colic and paralysis. 



One of the most striking cases of this species of 

 poisoning occurred somewhat recently at West 

 Newton. A full statement of the facts cannot but 

 be instructive, and serve lo aid in putting the pub- 

 lic on their guard against a result, which, in one 

 form and degree or another, is of almost daily oc- 

 currence ; and is sometimes fatal. 



Capt. Jonathan Hallett, about thirtj-four years of 

 age, of excellent constitution and good general hab- 

 its, was, in the autumn of 185o, afflicted several weeks 

 with typhoid fever ; and after partial recovery, ex- 

 perienced one or two relapses. About the time of 

 his first recovery he removed with his family into a 

 new, or newly repaired building, where the water 

 intended to be used by the family, and otherwise 

 excellent, was brought about sixty feet through 

 lead pipe. 



During much of the time in the following year, 

 he was severely afflicted with colic, which at times 

 became very severe and unendurable. Although, 

 however, it in some good measure passed away ; 

 but left behind a most troublesome and unmanage- 

 able costiveness. Late in August, he began to be 

 affected with paralysis, first in his hands, and af- 

 terwards in his feet and lower limbs. Both at length 

 became so useless that he could neither raise the 

 former to his head, nor bear a pound's weight on 

 the latter. There was also great insensibility about 

 the hips and abdominal region, both externally 

 and internally, with an entire loss of sensation in 

 his lower limbs, and a continuance of the costive- 

 ness. 



About the first of the present month, November. 

 Dr. Brown, of West Newton, and Dr. Hosmer, of 

 Watertown, under the full conviction that the use 

 of lead had something to do in the case, advised 

 him to repair at once to an "Electro-Chemical Es- 



tablishment." lie was accordingly brought to this 

 city, and placed under the care of Dr. J. Silas 

 Brown, and Dr. Wm. A. Alcott, his associate, at 

 their Electro-Chemical and Hygienic Institute, No. 

 20, La Grange Place, where he remained three 

 weeks. 



The examination of Drs. Brown and Alcott, as 

 well as an examination by Dr. E. H. Clarke, Pro- 

 fessor of Materia Medica in Harvard Medical Col- 

 lege, confirmed the suspicions of Drs. Brown and 

 Hosmer, as did also an analysis of some of the 

 contents of the well from which Capt. Hallett had 

 drank, by Dr. A. A. Hayes, the city assayist. The 

 latter pronounced it to be so much impregnated 

 with lead salts, as to be unfit for culinary use. 



The first bath, which was taken at La Grange 

 Place, so hx restored Capt. H. to the use of his 

 lim.bs that he could not only raise his hands, but 

 could actually walk from the bath to his bed, a dis- 

 tance of fifteen or twenty feet. Another bath two 

 days afterward, accompanied by a rigid diet, almost 

 gave him the full use of his limbs again ; and he 

 was forthwith walking about the house ; and during 

 the third week of his remaining there, he could 

 help himself, and even walk about the city with 

 a good deal of energy. 



It is also worthy of remark that within a few 

 hours after receiving the first bath, his costiveness, 

 which had been troublesome for years, and so ex- 

 ceedingly obstinate for more than one year, as to 

 yield only to medicine, entirely left him, and a reg- 

 ular daily movement has been as certain as the re- 

 currence of day and night, from that time to the 

 present. He left this city for Yarmouth on a visit 

 to his friends, on the 22d. There will probabty be 

 no want of good cheer in the festivities of the 27th, 

 so far as the circle of friends to which Capt. Hal- 

 lett belongs is concerned. A more sudden and 

 unexpected recovery, under circumstances so try- 

 ing, has seldom been known ; and calls, if aught 

 can do it, for the most devout gratitude and thank- 

 fulness, w. A. A. 



For the JNew England Farmer. 



FARM IMPLEMEHTS. 



Having read the remarks of farmers and others 

 at different times in your journal, I have come to 

 the conclusion that something more should be said 

 about the plow. Some one, I observe, thinks there 

 has not been much improvement in the plow, 

 though there has been many changes. I think 

 there is much gain for the last twenty years or 

 more, in the material of which the plow is made, 

 but in the shape something more is needed. Near- 

 ly or quite forty years ago, my father planned a 

 plow that would run up and down the side of a 

 strip of land, that was twenty-five rods in length 

 and keep its proper position around the end, with- 

 oui any person to hold it. The beam Avas of con- 

 venient length, the mould-board was comparative- 

 ly long, the plow itself was very narrow, the han- 

 dle much shorter than those of the present day, 

 and though almost entirely made of wood — the 

 mould-board being wood, covered with strips of 

 old iron — yet it performed its work beautifully, 

 laping the furrows as level as the planks of a barn- 

 floor ; and required but a moderate share of 

 strength to draw it. In those days we had no 

 wheel, no cattle, no centre-draft rod, none of tlie 

 numerous fixing of the present day, but in their 



