244 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



traction, &c., like Boydell, and probably more effective; and the 

 advantage of the larmer and his family riding under coach cover 

 over the broad acres, overseeing its work ; engineer and con- 

 ductor also under cover ; and also all the machinery attached to 

 it to do all milling, threshing, cutting and sawing required at 

 any spot on the farm or off of it if let to neighbors; so that it will 

 take the place of all water falls and stationary engines. 



Mr. James K. Fisher of New York — The Secretary gives me a 

 kind reception. He is right in stating my devotion to the cause 

 of constructing mechanical oxen, or elephants, or mammoths as 

 substitutes for horses. I am ardent in the belief that it can be 

 perfectly done, and I regret that my limited capital prevents me 

 from going immediately into the adaptation of my steam carriage 

 to all the agricultural and mechanical purposes indicated. I in- 

 cline to think that Mr. Boydell's walking apparatus — what may 

 be termed his endless plank road — may not be wanted; but may 

 be supplied better, by great breadth of tire. 



Dr. Smith again resumed the subject of light eating and drink- 

 ing, and adverted to the Secretary as an example; he being active 

 at nearly eighty years of age. 



Mr. Meigs .observed that Dr. Smith had given just views of the 

 great unkrioum and unpracticed art denominated by wise French- 

 men, the '■'■savoir-vivre''' — the knowing how to live. For the last 

 70 years, I have got to bed as soon as possible; at curfew of old, 

 9 of p. m., and get up at day light in summer, and \\ hours before 

 in winter; one common dish of tea at supper, one of coffee at 

 breakfast, a rule nearly unexceptionable; I partake of every thing, 

 but take care as to the " ne quid nimis^^ the nothing too much ; 

 one peach, or pear, or apple, or orange per day, &c., &c. I was 

 born a subject of George 3d.; I was a member of the procession 

 celebrating the adoption of the Constitution of the United States 

 in '89, with my Erasmus under my arm and his witty Diluculum 

 and Naufragium in my head; and the lesson of the Diluculum was 

 fixed there. That is " get up early in the morning, for then the 

 Divine Spirit of the air breathes,'' or as he has it, (and I have not 

 read it for sixty years,) " in Tnatutijiis horis dum Divina Spiritus 

 Jiurce Spirat^ 



John T. Addams of Plattsburgh, New- York, writes to the Club 

 that he succeeds in ridding his currant bushes of a destructive 

 worm three-quarters of an inch long and thickness of a knitting 

 needle,by holding a broad tin pan under the bushes and then beating 

 them with a small stick which shakes the worms off into the pan; 

 he then burns the worms. 



