throw their heads hack, and grate their teeth as if mj 
pain. After lying a few minutes they would get up: 
again, although with difficulty; and their manner of 
walking in this stage of the disease very much resem 
bled a horse laboring under inflamed laminae. When, 
the disease had been allowed to run on to this height 
the sheep often became affected with spontaneous diar¬ 
rhoea, the faeces appearing to come away involuntarily.! 
Those that did not purge, usually voided much mucuS: 
encoating the dung. 
After this they quickly became worse: they would lie, 
perfectly still, as far as the limbs were concerned, but 
they continued to grate their teeth, and a rattling noise; 
was heard in the windpipe, accompanied by a frothy] 
discharge from the mouth and nose, and an occasional: 
cough. To this death succeeded in a few hours. 
The post-mortem appearances were very unsatisfactory 
as no particular part appeared to be more aflected than 
another by the disease. On examining the windpipei 
the lining membrane was found to be slightly inflamed ; 
the bronchi contained a frothy kind of fluid; the sub¬ 
stance of the lungs was a little engorged, but this was 
not invariably the case; the lining membrane of the' 
chest was also sometimes a little tinged, and most al-j 
tered in character about the sternum and cartilages ofj 
the ribs; the heart appeared quite healthy, as did the] 
abdominal viscera, except the perjjjjp»°al and mucous^ 
coats of the small intestines, which were now and then 
tinted with an inflammatory blush. 
Generally speaking, if any part more than another 
could be said to have taken on active inflammation, itjj 
was the kidneys, these organs being not uncommonly! 
found discoloured in their emulgent portion, but noth-j 
ing like approaching mortification. The tubular part 
was also a little darker than natural, and easily broken 
down by the fingers; but the pelvis had not undergone 
any structural disorganization. The urine appeared tO| 
have been naturally secreted, arid the coats of the blad¬ 
der were healthy; but sometimes this viscus was dis 
tended more than is usually found. The brain presented 
no abnormal appearance. Such were the lesions obser-j 
vable on the examination of several of them. 
The treatment I pursued with those which could notj 
stand, was first to place them under a shed, with plenty 
of dry straw to lie upon. To those aflected with diar-| 
rhosa, astringents were administered, such as catechu,; 
chalk, &c. combining them with an aromatic tonic and! 
the spiritus etheris nitrici: while to others that were 
constipatedin the bowels I gave a gentle laxative, fol 
lowing it up with a vegetable tonic. This course of] 
procedure appeared to be attended with benefit; for, out 
of the eight that could not stand, four recovered, and 
were able to provide for themselves in two or three| 
days. After the exhibition of the medicine to the dis¬ 
eased, the remainder of the flock was removed into asj 
sheltered a situatibn as could be found; or sheds were| 
erected for them, with plenty of dry straw to lie upon.! 
A liberal diet of oats and hay was allowed, while theirj 
general comfort was as much attended to as possible.] 
To many that gave indications of the approach of an 
attack of the malady, a laxative and a tonic combined 
w'as given. 
On April 21st, the sheep were not only looking better,] 
hut had very materially improved. The above-men 
tioned treatment was continued, with occasional varia¬ 
tions, according to the circumstances of each case; and 
in five or six days they were all out of danger. I am 
happy to be enabled to say, that after this there were 
not more than two or three sheep out of the flock in 
which the prostration of strength became so great as to 
render them unable to stand; and I would add, lhat I 
never knew one case to recover without the aid of medi¬ 
cine, after the disease had existed so long as to produce 
this loss of power. I am, &c. 
Vegetation —( Concluded.) 
The sap ascends to the leaves, where it undergoes 
certain alterations, and is converted into the peculiar 
juices, which like the blood in animals, are afterwards 
employed in forming the various substances found in 
plants. Great part of the sap when arrived at the 
leaves, is thrown off by evaporation, by means of par¬ 
ticular organs. What remains must be very different in 
its proportions from the sap. It is performed chiefly by 
the upper surfaces of leaves. 
Leaves have also the property of absorbing carbonic] 
acid gas from the atmosphere, and have been supposed 
to exhale much pure air. Hence they have been uni-] 
versally deemed highly useful, when planted near a 
house, but though useful as a source of shade, yet the] 
following observations will shew that their benefit does: 
not depend upon the supposed addition of pure air, de-j 
rived from them, to the atmosphere. 
The air of the atmosphere, according to the most] 
celebrated chemists, is composed of twenty-two parts ofj 
oxigenous gas or air, and seventy-eight parts of azotic gas. 
There is a constant consumption of theoxigenousportion 
of this air, by the burning of combustible bodies; by 
the respiration of animals; by the fermentation and pu¬ 
trefaction of vegetable and animal substances; and by 
the calcination of metals. The oxigenous gas, decom¬ 
posed by respiration and combustion only, in the city of. 
London, is supposed to amount to the enormous quan-' 
tity of five millions cubic feet an hour. (Nicholson’s 
Philosophical Journal, vol. v. p. 184.) 
The atmospheric air of Great Britain, France, of] 
parts of Africa, and of America, has been examined by] 
philosophers, and has been found to be exactly of th 
same degree of purity. 
THE CULTI VATOR. 
The oxigenous gas contained in it, is in the same pro¬ 
portion, at all times and in all places, in rainy or in dry 
weather, in depth of winter, and in the middle of sum¬ 
mer, on the land and on the ocean, in the crowded city 
and remote village. 
In consequence of a most valuable discovery, made 
by the illustrious Dr. Priestley, that growing vegetables 
under certain circumstances, exposed to the light of the 
sun, yield oxigenous gas: an opinion has been adopted 
that they are the sources of the oxigenous part of com¬ 
mon air. 
This sentiment has been adopted by the chemists of 
all nations, but has been controverted by Dr. James 
Woodhotjse, formerly professor of chemistry in the 
University of Pennsylvania. (Nicholson’s Philoso¬ 
phical Journal, June, 1802.) 
The Doctor reasons in the following manner. 
1st. He says, whenever oxigenous gas has been ob¬ 
tained from vegetables, carbonic acid, (or fixed air,) 
has been present. Upon reviewing the experiments of 
Dr. Priestley, he finds that this circumstance has ac¬ 
tually taken place. The Dr. exposed plants to the in¬ 
fluence of light, in atmospheric air, in which spirit of 
wine, and wax and tallow candles, had burned out; to 
air which had been vitiated by the death or putrefaction 
of mice and fishes; and to air which had been fre¬ 
quently taken into his lungs; and found that the purity 
of the air, was in every instance restored. Priestley 
on Air, vol. iii. p. 247 to 347. 
In all these cases carbonic acid, (which is composed 
of carbon and oxygen) was formed; the vegetable de¬ 
voured its coal for food, by which means its oxygen es¬ 
caped, in the form of pure air. 
2dly. The seeds of Zea mayz (Indian corn,) of apium 
petroselinum or parsley, of lactuca sativa or lettuce, of 
cucurbita citrullus or the water-melon, of phaseolus sa- 
tivus or beans, and of raphanus sativus or radishes, were 
planted in earth, and made to vegetate in atmospheric 
air, confined over water in vessels of white glass, and ex¬ 
posed to the action of solar light. This air, when examin¬ 
ed at various times, was found to be reduced in purity, 
and when its oxigenous portion was completely absorbed 
the plants died. Its oxygen united to the coal of the 
cotyledons of the seeds, or to that of some animal or 
vegetable matter contained in the earth, in which they 
were planted, or to that of some decayed portion of the 
living leaves, and formed carbonic acid, quicker than the 
living plant could decompose it. To these experiments, 
we may add that the celebrated and accurate Scheele 
observed that beans growing in atmospheric air, always 
rendered it impure. 
3dly. Young plants of datura stramonium or James¬ 
town weed, of phytolacca decandra or the poke, of Zea 
mayz or Indian corn, &c. growing in earth, were ex¬ 
posed to solar light in from forty to eighty ounce mea¬ 
sures of atmospheric air, which was examined at vari¬ 
ous times, from one hour to thirty days after the plants 
had been placed in it. Carbonic acid gas was generally 
formed, and whenever this circumstance happened, the 
purity of the air was diminished. 
When a plant in perfect health, growing in a soil 
which contains little vegetable or animal matter, is con-E 
jjjfined in atmospheric air, it will live a long time with-; 
lout producing any change in it. Many of the vegeta-l 
jbles which were the subjects of these experiments, did] 
jnot affect the air in five days; some diminished its pu-j 
Irity in three hours, and others altered it in a most slow! 
land gradual manner, causing little change in it, in 20| 
jdays. 
4lhly. Many of the same kind of vegetables were also] 
confined in forty ounce measures of oxigenous gas, 
which had been well washed in lime water, and the pu-f 
rity of this air was very generally lessened, carbonicj 
acid being formed. 
5thly. A small handful of the healthy leaves of a va-j 
riety of plants, containing no decayed parts, were ex¬ 
posed during four, six, and eight hours to the influence 
of the light of the sun, in atmospheric air confined by 
water, and its purity was found to be neither increased 
nor diminished. 
6 thly. The leaves of various vegetables gathered pro- 
I miscuously, exposed in the same manner, generally di-| 
minished the purity of atmospheric air, several de¬ 
grees. 
7thly. A handful of the leaves of several hundred! 
fdifferent plants, among which may be mentioned, those! 
water, impregnated with four quarts of the water, sa¬ 
turated with carbonic acid, from the carbonate of lime 
and the sulphuric acid -: and 77 drachm measures of oxi¬ 
genous air of a very high degree of purity, were ob¬ 
tained. 
lOthly. No oxigenous air could be procured by expos¬ 
ing vegetable leaves in boiled, distilled, rain, or lime 
water; a proof that they do not decompose water. 
llthly. Atmospheric air was impregnated with carbo¬ 
nic acid gas, and a handful of the leaves of nine diffe¬ 
rent vegetables were separately exposed in it, to light, 
seven hours. The fixed air disappeared, and the at¬ 
mospheric air was greatly increased in purity. 
12thly. Thelimbs of trees covered with healthy leaves, 
and some vigorous evergreens growing in their natural 
soil, were confined from one day to a month in atmos¬ 
pheric air, over water, and exposedto light, and its purity 
was never found to be increased, but was generally con¬ 
siderably diminished. 
These experiments incontestibly prove, that when¬ 
ever oxygen gas has been obtained from vegetables, by 
exposing them to the influence of solar light, carbonic 
acid has been present, and that it is from the decompo¬ 
sition of this gas, that the pure air is obtained. 
As it is acknowledged that the leaves of plants sepa¬ 
rate the oxygen from carbonic acid, it may be said, that 
the oxygenous portion of atmospheric air is supplied by 
the decomposition of gas, as it is always found in the 
atmosphere. The quantity of carbonic acid, acciden¬ 
tally diffused in atmospheric air, (for it is not of its com¬ 
ponent parts) is reckoned to be about one part in an hun¬ 
dred. It must however vary in different places. We 
would expect to find the most of it in cities, where it is 
formed by combustion, respiration, fermentation and 
putrefaction. If one measure of the air of any great 
city, be passed up over lime-water, in an eudiometer, 
no carbonate of lime will be formed ; so that the quan¬ 
tity of carbonate acid in this air, must be extremely 
small. As this gas is also seized upon by alkalies, earths 
a and metals, and absorbed by water, the proportion of it 
in the atmosphere, may be less than one partin ten thou¬ 
sand. 
When we consider likewise that the oxygen is never 
separated from the carbonic acid by leaves, but when 
they are exposed in contact with it to the light of the 
sun, and that every perforation made in a living leaf, 
however minute, by an insect, causes the part to decay, 
and absorb oxygen by day and by night; and that in the 
autumn, in some countries, all leaves fall on the ground, 
ferment and putrify, and thus diminish the purity of 
|common air, and that the petals and fruit of vegetables 
have the same effect, we must pronounce, that the oxy¬ 
genous portion of atmospheric air cannot be supplied 
by vegetation .—Domestic Encyclopedia. 
Bees. 
[ From, the New-England Farmer .] 
Mr. Colman. —We wonder every body does not keep 
bees, such active beings as they are and so liberal in 
dispensing “ the sweets of life.” Yet we are glad they 
do not, for if they did, even though they had a ‘'small 
beginning,” they would at length become so numerous 
thatsadconsequencesmightresult. This we have found 
to be the case to our cost, for in the spring of 1833, we 
established a colony, which, as there were none about 
us, did very well, and our success excited others to em¬ 
bark in the same enterprise, so that in two years they 
were “ as thick as bees” through the neighborhood and 
town. The consequence was, all the bee pasture in the 
community was overstocked, and the long, severe win¬ 
ter which followed put an end to all our anticipated 
sweets^ inasmuch as that there was scarcely a hive re¬ 
maining in the circle of our acquaintance, whose inhabi¬ 
tants could be numbered among the living. We might 
have saved ours in a way which we shall speak of soon, 
but they had a usual supply of honey and we did not ex¬ 
pect an unusual winter. 
Last spring, we obtained a hive and began again.— 
Maugre the cold wet May and June, we have obtained 
three swarms from it, the hives of two of which are 
very heavy and the third in quite a winterable condition. 
Our first swarm came off about the middle of May, and 
lit on a current bush, consequently we had no trouble in 
hiving it, but the second which came off only a few days 
later, displayed an obstinacy worthy of the human spe- 
of the apple, pear, peach, poplar, fringe, and persi-|Jcies, for they lit on the body of a beautiful maple on 
mon trees, were separately exposed during severalpone side of our yard, just at the place where the lower 
hours in glass vessels to solar light, in forty ounce mea-j|jbranches put out. We tried almost as many devices to 
sures of pump water, and from five to nineteen drachmflget them off as the “old man” did to drive “the rude 
measures of oxygen air were produced in each vessel.^boy” from his apple tree and with no better success- 
Upon analyzing the water, it was found to contain car-llwe jarred the tree, but we could not jar them off- we 
bonic acid, with which it had been impregnated from agf tried to brush them down, but to this they objected • we 
confined a hive to the tree, and wound a cloth around it 
necessary, which stood within a yard of the pump. 
8 thly. The leaves of 13 different plants were sepa-| 
Irately exposed in the usual manner, in forty ounce mea-1 
|sures of the water of the river Schuylkill, and about! 
ten drachm measures of air were procured, the princi- % 
|palpartof which was azotic gas, which was disengagedp 
rom the water. No carbonic acid could be detected ini 
the water of this river. 
There are three wooden bridges erected over the 
Schuylkill, which rest upon large wooden logs, upon 
ivhich great quantities of a species of conferva grow, 
and which is covered by the water. Upon viewing this 
vegetable when the sun shone upon it, for several hours, 
at different times, for several years, no air could be 
seen to form upon it, or to rise through the water. 
9thly. The leaves of the same vegetables were ex¬ 
posed to light, in the same manner, in the same river 
and them, hoping to lure them to a domicil in this way, 
but they had no more ambition to climb, than propen¬ 
sity to descend. We however secured them where they 
were in this way, for that day and the coming night, 
which brought the elements to our aid in the form of a 
“hoarse north easter” cold with wind and tolerably 
charged with rain, which two qualities united so be¬ 
numbed the physical faculties of our truant friends, that 
we could dispose of them as we pleased; we accordingly 
with all care took them down and placed those which 
possessed animation in the hive, while the remainder we 
protected from the storm, and on the first sunny day 
laid them out to dry. Most of them revived and joined 
their family, but their tranquility was of short duration, 
jfor in consequence of their exposure, a dysentery at¬ 
tacked some of the community, and those in health, in- 
