394 Effects of an excessive use of Sulphur. 
and further, that it cuts more ina given time in winter than 
jt does in summer. The owners, from being accustomed 
to the motion and tone of the saw in the course of the 
day, say they can readily perceive an increase of strokes 
and a greater force in the saw, at night; but how to ac- 
count for it they know not. It has become matter of much 
speculation and dispute among the mechanics, workmen, 
and floaters of lumber on the Susquehannah.—A gentle- 
man, who deals largely in lumber, and who sometimes at- 
fends to the floating of rafts himself, states, that a raft 
will float nearly a third faster in the night, than in the day. 
The two facts are probably referable to the same cause ; 
and the discovery of that cause is desirable. 
Respectfully your Obedient Servant. 
SAMUEL WAGNER. 
REMARK. 
No other explanation of the facts stated above occurs 
than that which is implied in the title given to this frag- 
ment. It would be interesting to know, whether other 
persons have noticedthe same facts, and whether the mills 
have been observed to move more slowly as the water ap- 
proaches the freezing point, which ought to be the fact, as 
between 40° and 32° water grows lighter, although grow- 
ing colder, according to a remarkable, but now well es- 
tablished exception in the case of this fluid.— Ed. 
3. Dreadful Effects of an Excessive Use of Sulphur. 
Professor Olmsted, in a geological excursion in the 
county of Wake, North-Carolina, met with the following 
fact, which we present in his own words: ‘ At Mrs. Thom- 
son’s, where l dined, 1 saw a fellow-creature whose suffer- 
ings made me truly thankful even for my own imperfect 
health. He was a son of Mrs. T. and nearly filly years of 
age. WhenI came into the porch, he was sitting before 
the entrance in an elbow chair, surrounded with pillows, 
with no clothing but a frock of linen, that came half way 
down his knees. The ghastly image of death was imprint- 
ed on every part of his emaciated frame. The bones of 
his arms and legs were hardly covered with flesh, and the - 
joints of the knees, and the largest joints of the fingers, were 
