British Association for the Advancement of Science. 35 



" This return is further confirmed by the fact, that in the year 

 preceding the inquiry, there were apprehended 1,000 females of a 

 particular description. 



" Another return has been placed before me, which, though not 

 absolutely bearing on the subject, is not without interest. Of 419 

 individuals now in the gaol, 216 profess the religious creed of 

 Church Protestants, 174 Roman Catholics, 8 are Methodists, 17 

 are Presbyterians, 2 are Unitarians, 1 Baptist, and 1 Independent. 

 141 can neither read nor write, 59 read imperfectly, 38 read well, 

 127 read and write imperfectly, and 56 read and write well." 

 Amount of property stolen, about one million sterling annually. 



Keels of Ships. — Mr. Lang addressed the Section on his improve- 

 ments in Ship-building. He fills up the floor perfectly solid, puts 

 in a kelson and a keel in the usual way, bolting them well to- 

 gether, and caulking all up. On each side of this keel he fixes 

 another broad and flat one, and over these another, all secured in 

 a peculiar way, by dovetailing, but so as one may come off" with- 

 out bringing off" the other, and the whole without damaging the 

 floor ; over all he puts a false keel. The depth from the inside 

 of the floor to the bottom of the false keel is about twice the depth 

 of the kelson, and the breadth of the three keels under the floor 

 a little more than the depth from the top of the kelson to the bot- 

 tom of the false keel. He caulks with Borrodaile's felt, observing 

 that, when the seam is caulked in the usual way, outside and 

 inside, the oakum does not reach the centre, but leaves a hollow, 

 where damp lodges, to the destruction of the timbers. This 

 plan has, it appeared, been adopted by the English and by foreign 

 governments. It was, Mr. Lang admitted, rather more expensive 

 than that usually adopted in building merchant-ships. 



Safety of Steam Vessels. — Mr. Williams then offered gome ob- 

 servations, as a practical man merely, on a method for preventing 

 accidents from the collision of steam vessels, which was in prac- 

 tice in the vessels belonging to the city of Dublin St#am Packet 

 Company. The danger at present arose from this, — that a local 

 injury, as in the late instance of the Apollo, admitted the water 

 through the whole body of the vessel. The improvement would 

 confine the water to the section in which the injury took place. 

 It consisted in dividing the vessel into five water-tight compart- 

 ments, by iron divisions or bulk-heads, the only objection with 

 respect to which arose from the difliculty of fixing them in a 



