256 CONVALLARIA MAIALIS. 



COOPER, PETER. 



sioners show that 2,971 licenses were issued 

 during the year, the total receipts from which 

 amounted to $263,073.94. There is more pop- 

 ular contentment now than ever with the gen- 

 eral provisions of the law relating to the manu- 

 facture and sale of intoxicating liquors. 



Election. On the 6th of November there 

 were elected twelve State Senators, a full 

 House of Representatives, and eight sheriffs. 

 A sheriff in each county was chosen, and 

 Senators in the odd districts. Five Republi- 

 can sheriffs were elected (Hartford, New Ha- 

 ven, Middlesex, New London, and Windham 

 counties) and three Democrats (Tolland, Fair- 

 field, and Litchfield counties). Ten Republi- 

 can and two Democratic Senators were elect- 

 ed. The legislature of 1884 will be consti- 

 tuted as follows : 



CONVALLARIA MAIALIS. Recent experiments 

 with this drug seem to have established the fol- 

 lowing points : Its use is especially indicated in 

 organic disease of the heart, with feeble pulse 

 and decrease in the energy of its action ; to 

 lower the temperature of the body, to dimin- 

 ish the hyperasmia of the nervous centers, in- 

 crease arterial tension, promote the action of 

 the kidneys, and lessen the reflex action of the 

 nerves. It is contraindicated in cases of gas- 

 tric and intestinal derangement, in acute affec- 

 tions of the liver, kidneys, or spleen, in preg- 

 nancy, and in fatty degeneration of the heart. 

 Its physiological actions, as tested upon ani- 

 mals, are as follow : On the brain it causes a 

 tendency to somnolence, resulting from anemia 

 of the nerve-centers. On the kidneys it causes 

 marked increase in function. Placed in direct 

 contact with muscular tissue it completely de- 

 stroys its contractility. By its action on the 

 alimentary canal in large doses it causes sali- 

 vation, vomiting, and increase in the natural 

 muscular movements. It first causes a slight 

 increase, and then a more decided decrease, in 

 the animal temperature. On the respiration 

 it has a somewhat analogous effect, first in- 

 creasing the frequency, then causing a de- 

 crease, .and finally complete cessation. 



COOPER, Peter, an American philanthropist 

 and merchant, born in the city of New York, 

 Feb. 12, 1791 ; died there, April 4, 1883. On 

 his father's side he was of English origin. 

 Both his grandfather and his father were sol- 

 diers in the Revolution. His maternal grand- 

 father. John Campbell, a successful potter in 

 New York, did good service in the Board of 

 Aldermen, and gave liberally of his means in the 

 interests of his native land. The father of Peter 

 Cooper was a hatter, and on the return of peace, 

 in 1783, resumed his business in New York. 

 Peter was the fifth of nine children, having six 

 brothers and two sisters. As his father's means 

 were limited, the lad received but few advan- 



tages in the way of schooling. At the age of 

 seventeen he became an apprentice in a car- 

 riage-factory, and served his full time. He 

 manifested a talent for inventions, and also 

 adopted as a maxim for his future course, 

 never to be in debt. The next two years of 

 his life he spent in a woolen-factory at Hemp- 

 stead, Long Island, where he invented an in- 

 genious machine for shearing the nap from 

 cloth. It had a rapid sale during the war 

 of 1812, and yielded the inventor a large 

 profit. 



In 1813 he married Miss Sarah Bedel, of 

 Hempstead. For a time he was engaged in 

 cabinet-making; then he opened a grocery, and 

 next purchased a glue and isinglass manu- 

 factory. This last business, in his hands, be- 

 came very profitable, and was continued by 

 him for half a century. Mr. Cooper's atten- 

 tion was early directed to the vast resources 

 of the United States for the manufacture of 

 iron, and in 1830 he erected extensive works 

 at Canton, near Baltimore. Subsequently, he 

 built a rolling and wire mill in the city of New 

 York, where he first successfully applied an- 

 thracite coal to the puddling of iron. While 

 in Baltimore he built, after his own designs, 

 the first locomotive-engine constructed on this 

 continent, and it was used successfully on the 

 Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. In 1845 he re- 

 moved the machinery to Trenton, N. J., and 

 erected the largest rolling-mill at that time in 

 the United States. In these works he was the 

 first to roll wrought-iron beams for fire-proof 

 buildings, and he used them afterward in his 



freat monument, the Cooper Union in New 

 r ork. He took into partnership with him his 

 son Edward, and his son-in-law, Hon. Abram 

 S. Hewitt, and the firm subsequently embraced 

 in its operations large mines of ore and coal, 

 quarries, forges, blast-furnaces, wire and roll- 

 ing-mills, chain, horseshoe, and open-hearth 

 steel works. 



In the development and putting to practical 

 use this great element in our national progress, 

 as well as in the progress of the human family, 

 Peter Cooper took a large share, and his name 

 will be long honorably remembered in connec- 

 tion with the iron and coal industry. 



The laying of the Atlantic cable was planned 

 by him, and accomplished by his persistent 

 efforts, even when his associates were discour- 

 aged and ready to give up in despair. ^Ten or 

 twelve years of toil under difficulties which few 

 men are able to overcome, of public ridicule, 

 of refusal of capitalists to invest anything in it, 

 of heavy outlays, and of apparent failure at 

 the last, when the cable parted and sank to the 

 bottom of the Atlantic ten such years show 

 the stuff of which Peter Cooper was made. 

 In due time he reaped his reward. ^ The same 

 courageous and hopeful spirit was displayed in 

 various other ways when Mr. Cooper was a 

 member of the New York Common Council, 

 when he urged the construction of the Croton 

 Aqueduct, and when acting as a trustee of the 



