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VOL. 1. 



RHH PER, NOV. 30, 133!. 



Vi>. '.7. 



Pl'BLISHFE BY I-. TUCKER & CO. 



At tile Office of the Daily Adierliser. 

 Terms— S2, 50 per annum « r 



$2,00 if paid ill advance. 



N. GOOnSKl.L, KD1TOR. 



TENACITY OF VEGETAB E LIFE 

 "Mr. Houlton produced a bulbous root to the 

 Medico Botanical Sock-.;. , which was discovered 

 in the hand of an Egyptian Mummy: in which 

 it had probably remaine for two thousand years. 

 It germinated on exposure to the atmosphere; 

 •when placed in earth it git w with great rapidity.'' 

 — Silliman's Journal. 



.We can hardly conceive that any thing com 

 wising or belonging to the vegetable kingdom 

 could resist decomposition, and retain the princi- 

 ple of life and revivification for such a length of 

 time; but, yet, it may be possible. The sarco- 

 phagus or coffins, which contain these mummies 

 of antiquity, are generally made from the Plane- 

 lice or Button- wood, of the forests; and when ex- 

 humed from their resting places, together with 

 the paintings of flowers and hierogliphics, are as 

 fresh and plain as if endowed with incorruptibili- 

 ty, and appear to have been completed but yes- 

 terday. There is no doubt but an egg, if hermet- 

 ically sealed by involving it in a cake of wax, 

 perfecdy impervious to the air, and kept at a tem- 

 perature that would ensure tomidity to its awa 

 kening energies, would at an equally distant pe- 

 riod, be capable of hatching ami producing a per- 

 fect animal; and we see no good reason why a 

 frozen fish, or any of the torpid hybernating ani- 

 mals, if kept at . he requisite degree of cold, would 

 not become as immortal as time itself. It is no 

 uncommon occurrence to find frogs, loads and liz- 

 ards, enclosed in solid rocks, which, on being re- 

 leased from their prison houses, retain perfect life, 

 and all its energies; a situation they must have 

 taken at a time coeval with the formation of our 

 secondary rock, and prior to the formation of man : 

 or, at any rate, immediately after the general del- 

 uge, and before the great waters hud found their 

 beds, and left the surface of the earth in the state 

 we now find it. From tins, we may conceive that 

 a nut, or the seeds of plants, if properly secured, 

 and under proper ciroumstances, might vegetate, 

 even if taken from the primeval Garden of Eden; 

 then why may not a bulb, which is the germ of 

 the future plant, be endowed with the same vital 

 powers, although taken from the catacombs of 

 Thebes, which was destroyed more than two thou- 

 sand years ago. Let us suppose a more familiar 

 subject: an onion, which is a perfect bulbous root, 

 retains its life without the aid of roots, leaves, 

 light, air or moisture during the fall and winter 

 months ; and would no doubt continue its vitality 

 forever, if it could be kept dry and at a tempera- 

 ture that should delay and imprison its resuscita- 

 ting powers : and to refine the subject to a more fa- 

 miliar point still, and fc show the indestructability 

 of the vegetable fibre, we have no doubt that a 

 simple rod of any sound timber, kept dry and 

 from the inroads of insects, would resist the all- 

 devouring tooth of time, and in enduiance, outdo 

 the pyramids of Egypt, or the temple of Jupiter 

 Amnion. Its existence would only cease with the 

 great globe itself. 



SMOKY CHIMNEYS. 

 At this season of the year, many complaints 

 are made about smoky chimneys, and from the 

 long use of 'an old adage, that " smoky chimney; 

 make scolding wives," few things are more dread 

 ed. Now we grant it is very difficult to give any 

 rule to enable masons at all times so to construct 

 chimneys, as to conduct off all the smoke, wheth 

 er the fire is large or small, made high or low from 

 the hearth : yet, at the same time there may be 

 great improvements. This subject has been ex 

 tensively written upon, by men more learned than 

 ourselves; and yet, if we can communicate any 

 thing which will have the least tendency to les- 

 sen this evil, which is said to be the cause of the 

 other still greater, we shall feel satisfied that our 

 time has been well spent. It will be found that 

 the more ignorant any class of mechanics are, the 

 more difficult it will be to persuade them that they 

 are wrong; therefore, the surest way to improve 

 chimneys, is, to encourage information among the 

 operative mechanics. Although we often meet 

 with smoky chimneys in America, yet, generally, 

 they are of much better construction than they are 

 in France, where the celebrated Rumford has at- 

 tempted to distribute the results of his researches; 

 as the mechanics are ignorant, the fire places are 

 tile worst we ever saw; and as wood in haris, is 

 worth from $12 to $18 per cord, Ve should sup- 

 pose the inducement would be great to have them 

 of the most perfect construction ; and no other 

 reason can be given for their imperfections, but 

 the want of information among those who con 

 struct them. The following is the measurement 

 of a fire place winch was in on. of the rooms we 

 occupied in Paris, and seemed to be after the com- 

 mon construction, viz : Depth of jambs, two feet, 

 and at right angles from the back ; breadth, three 

 feet three inches; height, two feet nine inches 

 size of throat, three feet three inches by one foot 

 eight inches. From the size of the chimney a 

 bove, and at the throat, it would appear that there 

 was plenty of room for the smoke from a small 

 fire to pass off; and yet, in the case referred to. 

 much of it found its way into the room. To have 

 room enough for the smoke to pass off, is essen- 

 tial; but to have too much is a fault.and many smo 

 ky chimneys can be altered by contracting them at 

 one or both ends. 



We have heard masons talk much about the 

 draught of their chimneys — how they could con- 

 struct them that would carry up shavings before 

 any fire was made in them. Now, we hav» nev- 

 er been so fortunate as to witness any such ope- 

 rations, and only mention them to show that such 

 mechanics, are ignorant of the principle which 

 should govern them in building chimneys. We 

 consider the reason why smoke ascends into the 

 chimney, to be the difference in the specific grav- 

 ity of it, and the surrounding atmosphere; and the 

 grand desideratum is so to proportion the chim- 

 ney, ae to have it pass off with the least obstruc- 

 tion. 



Two causes may be given why the air above a 

 fire should ascend: First, it is known that heat 

 expands all bodies, and according to its expan- 

 sion, so will its specific gravity alter, or it will 

 beuome lighter. Hence, a body of heated air in- 



clines upward until it arrives at that point at 

 which the weight of the atmosphere is the same 

 Another cause for the ascent of such air is thai 

 coming in contact with the process of combustion, 

 much of the oxygen is separated from it, leaving 

 the hydrogen which is the lighter part, to find its 

 equilibrium; hence, the more heated the air which 

 passes into the chimney, the more rapid will be 



the ascent, if it meets with no obstructions. 



From this it would appear, that if the mantle was 

 made sufficiently low, there would be no danger 

 of a chimney's smoking ; and so is the fact. But 

 here economy interferes. The object is to have 

 the smoke ascend with the least quantity of heat ■ 

 and in order to have the assent even, there should 

 be a corresponding quantity. Now this would be 

 very difficult in the common method of making 

 fire places, as sometimes there will be a greater 

 quantity of fire than at others, and the greater the 

 fire, the more heat would pass into the chimney. 

 Again, it happens that most chimneys have more 

 than one fire place, which, whether they have fire 

 in them or not, have a sensible effect upon the as- 

 cending current, as when double the quantity 

 of air enters the chimney, it is evident that it re- 

 quires double the orifice to let it out. As most of 

 our chimneys are built of bricks which are hut 

 imperfect or slow conductors of caloric, nearly as 

 much passes out of the top, as enters at the fire 

 place ; hence, there should be a correspondence in 

 the size of the apertures. Now as the quantity 

 of heat entering chimneys is continually chan- 

 ging by having more or less fires burning at the 

 same time, and more or less wood upon them at 

 different times, it appears to us, that were chim- 

 neys so constructed, that their apertures nii°-ht be 

 opened or closed according to existing circumstan- 

 ces, much of the inconvenience now experienced 

 might be avoided. This, we think, might be done 

 icing i.i each fire place at the throat, a sheet 

 iron valve, turning upon pivots which would open 

 or close the space or aperture according to cir- 

 cumstances. These would, if close I when there 

 was no fire in the place, act as safety valves to 

 prevent fire from falling into empty rooms, by 

 which many houses havebeen burnt. It is known 

 to most people who have attended to the subject 

 that the tops of chimneys are larger than neces- 

 sary for the emission of smoke; thsee might also 

 be constructed in the same way, and the valve 

 might be governed by wires passing down the 

 body of the chimney. To confirm us in our the- 

 ory, we would mention a case which came under 

 our observation, within a few days. A chimney 

 smoked very bad — two thirds of the throat was 

 closed, when it ceased to smoke ; and, as might be 

 expected, the women stopped scolding. 



IfJrDoMESTics. — Export of Domestic Cotton 

 Goods from the United States, for 



1826, amounting to $'1,13S,12."> 



1827, do 1,159,414 



1828, do 1,(110,232 



1829, do 1,259,457 



1830, do 1,343,183 

 — besides the goous which have been consumed 

 in the IN 

 Canada. 



