2o() 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECFS JOURNAL. 



[Aug f ST, 



ill many instances, by the examination of a fragment of a tootli,) oilier nli- 

 .s(>rvt-r3 have been sliiiiulated lo |iiir«ue the same minute inquiries into the 

 iliversilies of siructure of the tissues of other organs. Such inquiries, fur 

 example, lia>e been most ably and successfully pursued by Dr. Carpenter, 

 in refereure to the microscopic structure of recent and fossil shells ; and 

 the anatomist, lli>- naturalist, and the pala'on'olonisl arealike ind.bted to UK- 

 zeal and the skill of that eminent physiulogist : "liile, in anolher sense, all 

 are indebted lu the liritisli Assouialiim f.ir aidin;; and stiniiilaliii;; his in- 

 cjuiries, and for the illustrations with rthicli the publication of Dr. C'ar- 

 (cntei's Iteport has been accompanied in the Transactions of the Associa- 

 lion. 



Capillary Attraction. — Motion or Fn'ius in TtiiiES. 



The hairs o! the different mammalian animals ofT^r to the microscopical 

 anatomist a field of observation as richly and remarkably developed as the 

 Irelh, which formed the subject of Professor Owen's communication in 

 IS38, and as the external coverings of ihe teslacious nuillusca, whicli 

 funned the subject of Dr. Carpentfi's communication in ls4li. The stru'-- 

 iiire of the softer tissues of the animal frame has not been less successfully 

 iiiveslipated by microscopic observers. One of the lU'ist exlraordirary, 

 perhaps, of the recent iliscoveries by the microsc"pe is that which is due 

 rldefly to i'uikin;;c and Valentin, and which in this country has been well 

 e-tabii^hcd by Dr. Sliarpey, relative to the important part in the molion of 

 tluids on intern.il surfaces, performed by the vibralile action of myriads of 

 extremely minute hairs or cilia which beset those surfaces. Tlie.-e ciliary 

 movements, fur exam|de, raise the mucus of the wind-pipe to the throat 

 a.;ainst gravity. 'I hey h.ive been detected in the ventricles of the brain, 

 as well as many other parts. 



The beaulil'ul discoveries of Sir David Brewster have been carefully con- 

 lirnied ; and many inlire-ting varieties have been noticed in the siructure 

 of 'the crystalline lens of the eyes of different species of animals. 



The most brilliant result, perhaps, of microscopic anatomical research 

 has been the a. tual observation of the tI■an^lt of llie blood from the arteries 

 lo Ihe veins ; Ihe last fact rei|uired — if, indeed, such an expression be 

 allowable— for tlie full jirouf of Harvey's dnctrine of ihe circulation of the 

 blood. Malpi^hi hrst observed the transit in the large capillaries of the | 

 frog's web. It has since been observed in most olher tissues, and in many 

 oihir animals. | 



No part of the animal body has been the subject of more, or of more 

 successful, researches than the blood itself. 



MoLHIiCS. 



In no department of the living works of the Creator has progress been 

 more manifested than in ihat Ipimble and. therelore, herelofoie much ne- 

 t;lccted, class of the molluscous or gelatinous animals which people Ihe seas 

 around our island. Among ihe naturalists who have rescued this branch 

 o/ zoology from neglect, the name of Edward Forbes de:,erves early and 

 honourable mention. 



Steam Navigation and Botany. 

 Id the diffusion of the riches of Ihe vegetable world, steam navigation 

 has obviously been a most favourable auxiliary ; so that "even cuttings of 

 plants" are now " actually sent successfully to Calcutta, Ceylon, Ixc." In 

 speaking of the exports from Kew, it is not unliilmg to aild, that '• between 

 lour and five thousand plants of the famous Tussac grass have been dis- 

 ueraed from the Koyal Gardens at Kew during the past year." 

 Fecundation. 

 In Vegetable Physiology, microscopic observers have of late been much 

 occupied in investigating Ihe plienomena of fecundalion, and especially as 

 lo Ihe mode of action of Ihe pollen. On this sul.je.M, bulanisls are still 

 <livided. Several experienced observers ailopt the theory lately advanced 

 find ingeniously supported by Prof. Sclileiden, of IJerlin ; while others of 

 geat eluinence deny the eorreclness on which this theory is founded. 

 Anion" these the celebrated microscopic observer, Prof. Amici, of Florence, 

 very recently in an e^say — cominunicaled to the Scientitic IMecling held in 

 1840 at Genoa— has endeavoureil by a minute examination of several spe- 

 cies of Orchis to prove tlie existence of Ihe essential pari of the embryo 

 anterior to the application of the pull-n, which, according lo him, acts as 

 the specific stimulus to its development. 



This view receives great support from some singular exceptions to the 

 ''eneral law of lecundation. Of these, llie most striking occurs in a New 

 Holland shrub, which his been culiivated several years in the Botanic 

 (iarden at Kew ; and which, lliough producing female tioweri only, has 

 conslanlly ripened seeds from which plants have been raised perfectly re- 

 semblin" the parent : — while yet there is no suspicion either of ihe pre>euce 

 of malellowers in the same plaui,or of ininule stamina in the female flo.ver 

 itself nor of fecunilation l)y any related plant cultivated along with it. 

 This plant has been figured and descril)ed in a recent volume oi the Linnean 

 Society's " I'ransactions," under Ihe name of Cakbogiiiit' ilui/uliu, by .Mr. 

 .1. Smith, the intelligent curator of the Kew (iarden, — by whom, indeed, 

 this remarkable fact was Urst noiiced. It is not Ihe least curious part of 

 the history of the fcfleioA'!/'"; that male flowers have lately been discovered 

 in New Holland iiiiqueslioiiably of the same species. Prof. Gaspariiii, of 

 Naples, has more recently coniinuuicaled to the scientific meeting In Id in 

 that ciV\ in 1S4.5 his observations and experiments on the ciiliivaled fig,— 

 which, though entirely destilute of male Mowers, proiluccd seeds having a 

 perfectly de'veloped embryo, independent of fecundation: access to the 



pollen of the wild fig, generally supposed to be carried by insects, being 

 in his experiments, prevented by the early and complete shutting up of the 

 only channel in the fig by which it could be introduced. 



Political and Social Influence op the Electric Telegraph. 

 Distance is time; and when by steam, whether on water or on land, 

 personal communication is facilitated, and when armies can be trausporled 

 wiihout fatigue in as many hours as days were fornieily required, and 

 when orders are conveyed from one extremity of an empire lo another, al- 

 most like a flash of lightning, the facility of governing a large stale be- 

 comes almost equal to Ihe facilily of governing the smallest. 1 remember, 

 many years a;;o, in the .S'co*.«m/n, an ingenious and able article showing 

 how Engl.ind could be governed as easily as .Mlica under Pericles ; and I 

 believe the same conclusion was deduced by VVillJam Cobbelt from the same 

 illustration. 



The system is daily extending. It was, however, in the United Slates 

 of America that it was first adopted on a great scale, by Prof. IMorse in 

 l"i44 ; and it is there Ihat it is now already develojied most extensively. 

 Lines for above 1,300 miles are in action ; and connect those Stales with 

 Her Majesty's Canadian provinces; and it is in a course of develoumeiil 

 so rapid, ihat in Ihe words of the Report of Mr. Wilkinson lo Sir \V. E. 

 Colebrooke, the Governor of New Brunswick, " Noscliedule of telegraphic 

 lines can now be relied upon for a month in succession, as hundreds of 

 miles may be ailded in that space of time. So easy of attainment does such 

 a result appear to be, and so lively is the interest felt in its accomplishment, 

 that it is scarcely doubtful that Ihe whole of the populous pans of the Cniled 

 Stales will, within two or three years, be covered with a telegraphic Let- 

 work like a spider's web, suspending its principal threads upou important 

 points along the seaboard of the Atlantic on one side, and upou similar 

 points along Ihe Lake Frontier on the oiher." — I am indebted to the same 

 Report for another fact, which I think the Association will regard with 

 equal interest : *'The confidence in the efiiciency of telegraphic communi- 

 calion has now become so established, that the most important coinn.ercial 

 transactions daily transpire, by its means, between co^re^pondents several 

 hundred miles apart. Ocular evidence of this was afforded me by a com- 

 munication a few minutes old between a merchant in Toronto and his cor- 

 respondent in New York, distant about G32 miles." I am anxious to call 

 yiiur attention lo the advantages which olher classes also may experience 

 from this mode of coramnnicatioo, as I find it in the same Heport. A\'heu 

 the Htlmniii steamer arrived in Boston, in January 1847, with the news of 

 the scarcity in Great Britain, Ireland, and other parts of Europe, and with 

 heavy orders for agricultural produce, the farmers, in the interior of the 

 Slates of New York, — uiformed of the stale of things by the Magnetic 

 Telegraph — were thronging the streets of Albany with mniimerdble team- 

 loads of grain almost as quickly after Ihe arrival of the steamer at Boston 

 as the news of that arrival could oriiinarily have reached them — I may 

 add, that, irrespectively of all its advantages to the ginerai coniiniinitv , 

 the system appears to give already a fair return of interest to the indivi- 

 duals or companies who have invested their capital in its applicaiion. 



The larger number of the members of this Association have probably 

 already seeu in Loudon an exhibition of a Patent Telegraph which prints 

 alphahctii id letters as it works. Mr. Brett, one of the luoprielurs, oblig- 

 ingly showed it to me ; and stated that he hoped to carry it into effect on 

 the greatest scale ever yet imagined on the American Continent. Proi'. 

 Morse, however, does not acknowledge that this system is susceptible of 

 equality with his ttlegr(ti>hic alphabet for the purpose of rapid couiinunica- 

 tiun ; and he conceives that there is an increased risk of derangement iu 

 the mechmism employed. 



I cannot refer to the extent of the lines of the electric telegraph in America 

 without an increased feeling of regret that in our own country this great 

 discovery has been so inadequately adopted. 



In England, indeed, we have learnt the value of the electric telegraph as 

 a measure of police in more than one remarkable case : as a measure of 

 government it is not less important ; — from the illustration which I have 

 drawn from America, it is equally useful in commerce; but as a measuie 

 almost of social intercourse in the discharge of public business it is not 

 without its uses also. But a few days since, 1 had an opporlunity uf 

 examining the telegraph in the lobby of Ihe House of Commons, by vvliicli 

 coniinunicalinns are made lo and from some distant coniinitlee room. As a 

 specimen of the iuformaliou convened from the House is the following; — 

 " Coinmiltce has permission to sit until five o'clock ;" and among the 

 questions sent down from Ihe Committee are the following: — " U hat is 

 before the House?" " W ho is speaking?" "How long before the House 

 divides ?"' 



SiMELTING BY ELECTRICITY. 



For that process, T believe, a patent has been recently taken out. As 

 yet, pel baps, siiBicient lime has not elapsed to lest its full value. M'e all 

 know that an experiment succeeds perfectly in the case of a model, or in a 

 laboratory, vvliich may not succeed so perfectly when the miniature steam 

 engine, for example, is extended lo its ordinary size in a manufactory, or 

 when Ihe operation is transferred from ounces to tons. But it the hopes, 

 expectations, and confidence of the discoverers be realised, their plan will 

 be of the greatest value to this country, and of even greater proportionate 

 value to some of Ihe Queen's most impuriani colonies. It has been said Ihat 

 10 000 t ms of copper ore were sent last year from Australia to be smeltid 

 in Engl.ind; and ilial they produced no more than l,(>00 tons of copper. 

 It is evident, therefore, that, if by this process of smeltinj by electricity, 



