Polytechnic Association Proceedings. 349 



present suburbs — will contain more than three million of inhabi- 

 tants, one-third of them residing on the east side of the East river. 

 Will those citizens consent to be delayed on either shore by the 

 passage of vessels which might be compelled to navigate the East 

 river during the night, or the new channel to the sound during the 

 day? Every improvement made for the navigation of the East 

 river only aggravates the evil now complained of, and makes still 

 wider the barrier between New York and Brooklyn. The mass of 

 our business men cannot reside in Westchester county. They must 

 be accommodated wath dwellings in Brooklyn, or they will go to 

 Jersey city, which has already the advantage of embracing the 

 termini of the great Southern and Western railways and the docks 

 of the most important lines of ocean steamers. 



It is possible that a single suspension bridge in connection with 

 the present ferries may satisfy the wants of Brooklyn for a few 

 years, but the time is surely coming when the great crowd of busi- 

 ness men cannot be accommodated by these channels. Free bridges, 

 with markets on either side, will eventually be made. The tonnage 

 of our Metropolis, even as far back as 1860, exceeded that of any 

 other port in the world. New York will very soon be the finan- 

 cial as well as the commercial center. True foresight must favor a 

 scheme which makas more accessible fifty square miles of land, 

 giving to the most distant parts a valuable water front, and pro- 

 viding for the expanding Metropolis ample room and verge enough 

 for the next half century. 



HAIR DYE, 



Prof. Vanderweyde said the time has come to protest against the 

 use of pernicious hair dyes. All those preparations which claim that 

 they color the hair by long use, and yet are not technically hair dyes, 

 contain, as far as he had examined, lead in some form. Any pre- 

 paration of lead, with which the head is wet, must be followed 

 aooner or later with painful results. In some cases the effect is felt 

 immediately, in others long use is required to produce injury. 

 Cases of neuralgia, and even paralysis, are now quite common, the 

 cause of which can only be traced to the use of lead preparations. 

 White lead (carbonate of lead) was formerly used to whiten paper 

 collars, but after its evils were made known, the carbonate of 

 barata was substituted. It is not long since a child died in Penn- 

 sylvania from eating a portion of a paper collar. He had found 

 on analyzing a common visiting card that it contained acetate of lead. 



Dr. N. H. Barbour read the following paper: 



[Inst.] 54 



