ON THE EQUIVALENCY OF STARCH AND SUGAR IX FOOD. 421 
small vacancy which would otherwise be left in the cylinder on the closing 
of the admission port. About four years ago I constructed four hydraulic 
engines upon this principle at Mr. Beaumont’s lead mines in Northumber¬ 
land, at the instance of Mr. Sopwith, Mr. Beaumont’s well-known agent, and 
t»u more have recently been added at the same place. They are used for 
crushing ore, for hoisting materials from the mines, for pumping Avater, and 
for driving a circular saw and other machinery. 
If in progress of time railways should bo generally extended into moun¬ 
tainous districts, so as to render them accessible for manufacturing purposes, 
tile rapid streams which abound in such localities will probably become 
valuable sources of motive power, ami a wider field may then be afforded for 
the application of water-pressure engines to natural falls. 
The object, however, which I have chiefly had in view since I first gave 
attention to this subject, has been to provide, in substitution of manual labour, 
method of working a multiplicity of machines, intermittent in their action, 
I extending over a large area, by means of transmitted power produced 
- v a steam-engine and accumulated at one central point. The common 
roode of communicating power by shafting could only be applied in cases where 
. ® n,| tehincs were collected within a small compass, anil where the accunm- 
°f power necessary to meet varying resistance did not exceed that 
" "cli a fly-wheel would afford. Compressed or exhausted atr was almost 
equally inapplicable to the purposes 1 contemplated, in consequence of the 
any objections which its elasticity involves, as well as the liability to leakage, 
V '? 1 an extended system of pipes and machines, requiting a multitude 
li J »°T ts ’ Vfdve8 >and fitting surfaces, would form an insurmountable difficulty. 
“the use of water as a medium of'transmission is free from all these ob- 
j atld fitness for the purpose intended is now thoroughly established 
) m results which have been obtained. 
,'liin»° . IU ° St recen t specimen to be seen in Liverpool of water-pressure ma* 
n'!/’ !IS a Pl'h e d t° cranage ami hoisting purposes, is that which is now 
Iat( ,> c °™Pleted at. the Stanley Dock, where the magnificent warehouses 
anin L I,lls lcd » a,, d in which this machinery is being fixed, will in themselves 
y re P a y a visit of inspection. 
AWES, 
t,te Equivalency of Starch and Sugar in Food. By J- B. hi 
F.C.S. ; and J. II. Gilbert, P/t.D., F.C.S. 
“On tL A I- eting ? f tl,e Association held at Belfast, we gave, a Paper 
Animak” . 0n) l 10 . s ‘ t ‘ un of l'oods in relation to Respiration and the Feeding o 
that as n, ln W |ich lt was illustrated by reference to numerous experiments, 
digestif,]!? 1 Ulllt ; n * ; food-stuffs go, it was the amounts they supplied of tie 
'vliic-l, ® «o«*nitrcgenous, rather than those of the nitrogenous constituents, 
* c 'tfht <,r l J lS P, ar il >us measured both the quantity consumed by a given 
fro, “a • J"" ia ! within a given time, and the amount of increase obtained 
too by rii. " °* Ble dry substance of the food. It was demonstrated 
animil bnH,?!. 8 adduct 'd, that much more fat might be stored up in the 
°bvioi Js ijJ. !an ex ‘ 5tc d as fatty matter in dm food consumed, and it seemeu 
farchy ami ® n y fate the chief source of this produced fat must be the 
file invest: SaC - C ^ a ” UG mBier than the nitrogenous constituents of the food. 
cl °sc-lv alli«. # i^ tl0n now to be recorded might therefore be considered as 
P°int*partip„i °1 or rat her in continuation of the former line of inquiry, ie 
ar y to be illustrated being, the comparative respiratory an 
