246 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
He was the first English Farmer who ad¬ 
vocated to its fullest extent, the decided ad¬ 
vantages of constantly pulverizing and stir¬ 
ring the soil, to illustrate which, almost all 
his experiments were directed. He carried 
this theory so far that he denied the advan¬ 
tage of manure,and with unflinching consist¬ 
ence, ridiculed the use of vegetables grown 
with manure as vulgar and unsavory. He 
says, “ It is a wonder how delicate palates 
can put up with eating their own and their 
beasts ordure, but a little more putrefied and 
evaporated, together will all sorts of filth and 
nastiness, a tincture of which those roots 
must unavoidably recieve, that grow among 
it. Indeed I do not admire, that learned 
palates, accustomed to the gout of Silphium, 
garlic, and mortified venison, equalling the 
stench and rankness of this sort of city 
muck, should relish and approve of plants 
that are fed and fattened by its immediate 
contact. Dung not only spoils the fine flavor 
ofthese our eatables, but it spoils good liquor. 
The dunged vineyards of Languedoc pro¬ 
duce nauseous wines, from whence there 
is a proverb in that country, “ that poor peo¬ 
ple’s wine is best, because they carry no 
dung to their vineyards.” 
Tull undoubtedly suspected, if he did not 
see at a later period, that he carried this 
theory too far, but he would not admit it, 
and asserted that the office of manure was, 
not to furnish food directly to plants but 
simply to pulverize the earth and to prepare 
food for them. 
Out of this central doctrine in his system, 
all his improvements grew. Admitting the 
advantage of thorough tillage, it became a 
matter of prime importance to have the crops 
sown in such a manner that they could be 
cultivated, while growing. He constructed 
a drfll for sowing sanfoin, and other seeds. 
The drill system now so common in Eng¬ 
lish husbandry is indebted to Tull, for its 
origin. All the grain crops were to be dril¬ 
led, so that the horse hoe could be constant¬ 
ly employed between the rows. 
His inventions were mainly directed to 
the thorough pulverization of the soil, and to 
its scarification during the summer. In the 
plows which are figured, in his Treatise on 
Horse-Hoe Husbandry, the intelligent reader 
will recognize many of the principles of the 
improved plows of our own time. He in¬ 
vented several varieties of hand and horse 
hoes. 
The treatise above mentioned is his great 
work, and though his opinion of its merits 
was modest enough, there are passages in it 
of terse and vigorous English, that would do 
credit to Dean Swift, of whose style and 
taste the reader of the English classics will 
be reminded in the passages we have quoted. 
Tull was a worthy example for our rural 
improvers, and there is no difficulty they 
meet with in their labors, that he did not 
meet and overcome. If his soil is thin and 
hungry so was that of Prosperous. If he 
lives in a desolate region, remote from mar¬ 
ket, so did Jethro Tull. If he is sick and 
continually thwarted in his plans by obsti¬ 
nate laborers he may remember that the 
great farmer of Shalborn, contended suc¬ 
cessfully with these difficulties. If he is 
laughed at as a book farmer and a fool, he 
may congratulate himself that the same thing 
happened a century and a half ago, to one 
whom the British public are now proud to ac¬ 
knowledge as a benefactor to their husbana- 
ry.-[ED. 
SOMETHING ABOUT BBEATHING—RESTOR¬ 
ING THE DROWNED OR STRANGLED, 40. 
Nothing alarms one more than to see a 
child or a grown person, struggling to re¬ 
gain respiration suspended by drowning or 
strangling. Every one has witnessed the 
consternation and fright of all present when 
a child from any cause stops breathing for a 
minute or two, and its countenance begins 
to turn “ purple.” It is therefore quite de¬ 
sirable that all should, in their cooler mo¬ 
ments, study the causes of strangling, its 
nature, and the best remedies. 
Asphyxia or suspended animation is pro¬ 
duced by sudden contraction of the glottis, 
that is the upper part of the trachea or 
“ windpipe.” Those who have examined 
the anatomy of the throat understand that 
the trachea lies in front, and the esophagus, 
or food pipe lies back of this. Food, then, 
in going from the mouth to the stomach, 
must pass directly over the top of the breath¬ 
ing tube. To prevent its falling into the glot¬ 
tis, or upper part of the windpipe, a little 
protector is placed there called the epiglot¬ 
tis, which signifies a cover upon the glot¬ 
tis. 
Respiration'or breathing, consists of in¬ 
spiration or drawing air into the lungs, and 
expiration or sending it out. In either in¬ 
spiration or expiration, the cover or epiglot¬ 
tis rises like the valve of a pump. Of course 
the epiglottis must be closed in swallowing, 
and for this reason the two operations of 
breathing and swallowing can not go 
on at the same time. It is by a volun¬ 
tary or involuntary attempt to do both, at 
once, that food sometimes gets into the 
glottis, and produces irritation. The air in 
going to or from the trachea or windpipe, 
passes through the mouth if that be open, 
if not it goes through the nasal organs or 
nose, the back opening of which is behind 
the mouth over the epiglottis at the base of 
the tongue. 
The underside of the epiglottis is very 
sensitive, as is also the glottis or upper 
windpipe, so that any substance other than 
air, coming in contact with either of them 
produces a sudden contraction or closing, 
and of course suspends breathing. The 
substance entering is usually suddenly eject¬ 
ed by the natural effort of coughing, which 
consists of a sudden contraction of the lungs 
that forcibly throws out a volume of air to 
clear the windpipe. When medicines are 
forced down children,in their resisting strug¬ 
gles they often draw some of the medicines 
into the glottis, and if it be of a strong pun¬ 
gent nature, it will keep the organ closed 
for a considerable length of time, to the great 
alarm of all inexperienced persons. It may 
be a relief to such to know that there are no 
recorded instances of death or permanent 
injury from such a cause. 
| Suffocation, or closing of the air passage 
to the lungs, may be produced by several 
causes—by outward pressure as when a 
cord is drawn tightly around the neck in 
front; by choking, that is when a large body 
gets into the esophogus or meat pipe, and 
presses against the windpipe from behind, 
so as to close it; by drowning, that is the 
entrance of a small quantity of water into 
the glottis itself, so as to close it up; and 
by the entrance of any irritating substance 
which cannot be expelled by coughing. In 
animals, by the lodgement of hard food such 
as a turnip, potato, &c., the windpipe is not 
closed directly, as is usually supposed, but 
the substance remaining in the “ gullet” 
produces inflammation and swelling, which, 
if continued, will in the end stop the air pas¬ 
sage. 
In the natural process of respiration or 
breathing, the air enters the lungs, and comes 
in contact with the blood through their thin 
coating or lining membrane. Here it 
gives up a portion of its oygen and becomes 
partially loaded with, a gas called carbonic 
acid. This is the same gas that is produced 
by burning charcoal, and indeed in all cases 
of ordinary combustion. If this gas is re¬ 
tained in the lungs by a temporary closing 
of the external air passage, it is absorbed 
into the blood and goes into the system, and 
immediately produces poisonous effects, 
which will result in speedy death if the ob¬ 
struction be not removed. When one 
breathes the impure air of a close room 
where an open fire or a number of lamps, or 
gas-lights are burning, more or less of this 
gas is breathed and absorbed into the sys¬ 
tem, and partial poisoning is the result. In 
a closely crowded school-room or church— 
where a number of persons are constantly 
emitting into the room at every breath, a 
considerable quantity of carbonic acid gas. 
with no proper facilities for its escape and 
the admission of fresh air from without, the 
atmosphere soon becomes loaded, and every 
one in the room feels its effect. The poison 
is at work upon the system, and every one 
knows by experience what a stupor it pro¬ 
duces. A fall or sudden shock sometimes 
brings on a temporary paralysis of the whole 
system, and especially of the respiratory or 
breathing organs. 
The most^common'cause of total suspen¬ 
sion of respiration is from drowning or the 
admission of water into the top of the wind¬ 
pipe. As hinted above, the quantity is usu¬ 
ally very small, since the first teaspoonful 
that passes the epiglottis effectually closes 
that organ, and prevents any further influx. 
The presence of the water keeps up so great 
a contraction that the lungs are unable to 
throw it out. From time immemorial it has 
been the common opinion that the lungs 
wer e filled with water, and hence the useless, 
injurious custom of rolling a drowned person 
over a barrel, or suspending him head down¬ 
wards to pour out the water. 
Dr. Marshall Hall, the eminent London 
Physiologist, has recently published the re¬ 
sults of a series of highly valuable experi¬ 
ments, the substance of which we give in a 
condensed form. We hope every one will 
make themselves familiar with what follows, 
