1854.] 



MISCELLANEA. 



G9 



What is tbe cause of this error of judgment ? It is tliat tlie eyes 

 having seen seven or eight red pieces in succession, are in the same 

 condition as if they had regarded iixedly during the same period of 

 time a single piece of red stuff; they have then a tendency to see the 

 complementary of Red, that is to say. Green. Tliis tendency goes of 

 necessity to enfeeble the brilliancy of the red of the pieces seen later. 

 In order that the merchant may not be the sufferer 15^ this fatigue of 

 the eyes of his customer, he must take care, after having shown the 

 latter seven pieces of red, to present to him some pieces of green stuff, 

 to restore the eyes to their normal state. If the sight of the green be 

 sufficiently prolonged to exceed the normal state, the eyes will acquire 

 a tendency to see red ; tlien tho last seven red pieces will appear more 

 beautiful than tho others." 



Mr. Sheriff Ruttan's ventilating Car is acquiring favorable notice 

 in the States. At the request of the passengers in the ventilated car 

 on tho Now York end Erie Railroad, the subjoined expression of 

 their approval was drawn up, and unanimously signed : 



"We, the undersigned, now riding in one of the cars of the New York 

 and Erie Railroad, ventilated by Henry Ptuttan, Esq., of Cobourg, Ca- 

 nada, are highly delighted with the results of tho experiment, and have 

 never before travelled so comfortably and pleasantly, at this season of 

 the year, upon this, or any other Raih-oad. This day, August 24th, 

 is excessively hot and dusty, the entire train being enveloped in one 

 continuous cloud of dust ; aod yet, in this car, so admirably does the 

 ventilator perform its work, that the atmosphere .about us is entirely 

 free from dust and oppression, while we are continually breathing a pure 

 and invigorating air. We unite, most heartily in urging upon Rail- 

 road Companies everywhere to adopt in their cars this method of ven- 

 tilation, which is superior in every respect to anj' other mode which we 

 ever experienced or heard of." 



The production of Cotton in Southern States of the American Union, 

 has wonderfully increased during the last few years ; we take from a 

 Philadelphia paper, tbe following notice of this remarkable progress : — 



The earliest record of an export of cotton from the counti-y (CS) is 

 dated 1747, when seven bags were shipped from Charleston. Thus 

 then, in less than one hundred years the trade has increased to mil- 

 lions of bales per annum. A curious feature in the history of this fa- 

 bric is, that in 1784, or little more than half a csntui-y ago, a shipjnent 

 of 71 bags of cotton was made from the country to England, and on 

 its arrival it was seized by the authorities, on the ground that America 

 could not produce a quantity so great. — The average annual yield for 

 the last five years ending 183.5, was estimated at 1,000,0.5.5, bales. The 

 average yield for the same period ending in 1840, was 1,440,000 bales; 

 and the average annual yield for the like period, which tei-minated in 

 18-50, was 2,270,000 bales. The total product of 1853, was 3,263,882 

 bales. In this connection the following comparative statement of the 

 growth will be regarded with interest : — ■ 



1824, 5fi0,249 bales. 



1834, ...1,254,328 " 



1844, 2,.304,503 " 



18-53, 3,202,882 " 



The consumption for the last year named may be thus divided : 



E.xport to Great Britain, .' 1,730,860 bales. 



" France 426,728 " 



■' North of Europe 171,170 " 



" Other foreign ports, 193,630 " 



Retained for homo use 071,000 " 



The Montreal Filet says, — " On the 24tli July last we received an 

 invitation to the laying of tho first stone in the bed of the river, for 

 the construction of tlie first pier of the bridge, and now, on tho 14th 

 Septembei', when we write, pier No. 1 has arisen several feet above 

 the level of the river, and the process of l)inding the blocks may be 

 seen and understood. Each stone of the structure is clamped to its 

 fellow by bauds of iron, and the interstices are filled with molten lead 

 and the strongest Roman cement. The result will be the construction 

 of masonry as durable as that of the CoUisseum or the Appian Ways, 

 which have stood the wear and tear of time and of traffic for more than 

 2,000 years, and which still continue to exist as monuments of the skill 

 and industry of man. It is a thing worthy of note, tliat in a new and 

 rising country, only known to civilized men for two or three hundred 

 years, monuments should arise to mark the progress of the age, and to 

 compete in the world's esteem, with similar works constructeil two or 

 three thousand years ago ; and if the rapid and mighty St. Lawrence 



is mastered by such works, then indeed is the achievement one 

 worthy to be chronicled." 



T/ie State of Maine in an article on the same structure informs us, 

 that : " Each of the tubes will be 19 feet in height at the end, whence 

 they will gradually increase to 22 feet 6 inches in the centre. The 

 width of each tube will be 15 feet, or 9 feet 6 inches wider than the 

 rail track. The total weight of iron in the tubes will be 10,400 tons, 

 and they will be bound and'riveted together precisely in the same 

 manner and with similar machinery, to that employed in the Britannia 

 Bridge. The principal part of the stone used iu the construction of 

 the piers and abutments is a dense, blue lime stone found at Point 

 Claire, on the Ottawa river abont 18 miles above Montreal, about 8 

 above the confluence of that river with the St. Lawrence. A large 

 village has suddenly sprung up at the place, for during the last twelve 

 months, upwards of 500 quarrymen, stone masons, and laborers, have 

 been employed there. Every contrivance that could be adopted to 

 'save manual labor, has been applied, and its extent will be judged from 

 the fact that the machinery at the Quarry and at tbe adjacent 

 jetty bas(including the cost of tbe jetty) involved an outlay of £150,000. 

 Three powerful steam Tugs and 35 barges cajjable of carr3"ing 200 tons 

 of stone, have been specially built for the work, at a cost of about 

 •5120,000. There are used for the conveyance of the stone to the piers, 

 and by the end of September next, a Railway on tbe permanent line of 

 the Grand Trunk track, will be laid down from the quarry (close to 

 which tbe permanent line will pass,) to tbe north shore of the St. 

 Lawrence, so as to convey along it, the stone required for the North 

 embankment and for the northern abutment. 



" The piers close to the abutments will each contain about 6,000 tons 

 of masoirry. Scarcely a block used in the construction of the piers wiU 

 be less than 7 tons of weight, and many of them, especially those ex- 

 posed to the force of the current, and to the breaking up of the ice in 

 spring, will weigh fully 10 tons each. As the construction of "Pier 

 No 1" is already several feet above tbe bed of tbe river, the process of 

 binding tbe blocks together can now be seen and appreciated. In 

 addition to tbe abundant use of the best water cement, each stone is 

 clamped to its neighbors in several places by iron rivets, and the in- 

 terstices between the rivets and the blocks are filled \ip with molten 

 lead. If the mighty St. Lawrence conquers these combined appliances, 

 then indeed is there an end to all mechanical resistances. 



"In consequence of the increased height and width of the piers con- 

 verging towards the centre, tbe weight of stone in those that will bear 

 the centre tube will be about 8,000 tons each. The total amount of 

 masonry in the piers will be 27,500,000 cubic feet, which at 13J feet 

 to the ton, gives a total weight of .about 205,000 tons." 



The London Daily News publishes the following result of tbe an- 

 alysis of reports from 134 correspondents, spread over the 40 English 

 counties: " Wheat^ — Very good, excellent, average, 31; good, full 

 average, full crop, &c., 49 ; .average, pretty good, &c., 32 ; near 

 average, 4; under average, thin, &c., 12: middling, doubtful, or vari- 

 ous 6. Totals — Favourable, 112; unfavourable, 12; neuter, 10. 

 Barley — 127 reports resolved themselves into : Very good, over aver- 

 age, abundant, &c., 33; good, full average, full crop, &c., 40; 

 average, pretty good, &c., 20; short, light, indifferent, &c., 12; vari- 

 ous, irregular, &c., 12. Totals — Favourable, 103; unfavourable, 12; 

 neuter, 12. Oats — 128 reports given; Excellent, over average, very 

 good, &c., 25; good, full average, &c., 46; average, fair, pretty good, 

 &c., 33; near average, tolerable, middling, various, cite., 11; under 

 average, short, light &c., 13. Totals — Favourable, 104; unfavoura- 

 ble, 13: neuter, 11." Partial inquiries made in tho Irish, Scotch and 

 AVelsh counties give similar favoura'^le results. 



In Dr. Carpenter's new edition of bis Comparative Physiology many 

 genei'alizations possessing peculi.ar interest are to be met with. 

 Chapter I. is ' On the general plan of org.anic structure and develop- 

 ment.' After a survey of the Vegetable and Animal kingdom, it 

 illustrates the progress from General to Special in development, and 

 closes with a notice of the 'Geological succession of Organic Life.' 

 of which we present a short extract exemplifying tho reasoning of the 

 author. " 'Thus the earliest species of PahBotherium (a herbivorous 

 quadruped having some affinity with the Tapir, but more with tho 

 Horse of the present epoch,) had the complete typical dentition, with 

 three well developed toes on each foot ; but a later species approaclied 

 the horse more closely, in the reduction of the outer and inner toes, 

 leaving tbe central one much larger in proportion : and in a still later 

 species, the outer and inner toes are much more reduced, and tlio 

 form and proportions of tho rest of the skeleton and tooth arc hrouglit 



