290 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 
routes are of small quantity and high intensity ; hence a slight defect 
i lo 
of insulation in a submerged wire would be productive of a great 
some and true American spirit. It does not appear in any way Im- 
practicable to stretch a wire from the American continent to England ; 
and in the waveless depths of the interminable waters, the wire would be 
more secure from depredation than on terra firma. From its weight it 
would sink beneath the realms of the living monsters, and lie far out of 
decomposition when exposed to air and moisture, and some cases of its 
entire destruction when in thin sheets. I have been recently informed 
a c i 
transferring and holding even strong nitric acid. It may not be ou of 
place here to mention its‘unfitness, when in very thin sheets, for models 
of patented inventions. During the past year a patent was granted for 
a surgical instrument, an essential part of which was a sac of gutta 
percha. In the course of a few months the entire sac had disappeared, 
having crumbled into powder. ; 
American Indicating Disc Telegraph—An instrument under this 
are indicated by the figures 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, these being the only sy mbols 
used. These stand for the vowels, and the remaining letters are repre- 
