49 
“The immense quantity of arsenic, and corrosive sublimate, necessary for their 
preservation requires imperatively that very great caution should be observed, and 
that the handling and arrangements should be under either the immediate inspection 
or personal attention of one fully adequate to all the details connected with this 
subject. 
“In the hands of inexperienced persons death might be the result. 
“W. McGUIGAN, 
“ Curator , P. M. Q. 
“Philadelphia, February 6, 1841.” 
The following letter from Captain George W. Hughes, of 
the corps of Topographical Engineers, has been received: 
Brussels, January , 1841. 
To Francis Markoe, Jr. Esq., Corresponding Secretary of the National Insti¬ 
tution for the Promotion of Science, Washington. 
Sin: Availing mysfelf of a season of comparative leisure, I have transcribed, for 
the National Institution, that portion of my journal which relates to a tour through 
South Wales; which will be followed in a few days, by a copy of the notes taken 
in Devon and Cornwall, with some general remarks on the working of the tin and 
copper mines, and the preparation of the ores for market. 
You will perceive that the journal is not in continuation of that previously trans¬ 
mitted, but, if I should find leisure before the season for travelling opens, I may 
attempt to supply the omission by papers on several subjects of scientific and 
practical interest. 
I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant 
GEORGE W. HUGHES. 
December 3d, 1840.—-Left London by the twelve o’clock train for Bristol on the 
“ Great Western railway,” intending to visit the mineral and manufacturing regions 
of Wales, Devon, and Cornwall. The great western is open from London to 
Worton Bassett, 60 miles, and also from Bath to Bristol, 12 miles—the interme¬ 
diate distance being travelled in post coaches owned by the railway company. The 
gage or distance between the rails is 7 feet; the gage of the other railways being 
4 feet 8£ inches. This is admitted to be one of the best constructed roads of the 
kind in the world, and nothing can be more smooth, easy, and rapid, than the 
transit of the carriages over it. As this railway is peculiar in many respects, I may 
make it the subject of a special communication at some future period. Mr. S. K. 
Brunei!, the chief engineer, has laid a wager, I am informed, to run an engine over 
the entire line when finished (112 miles) in two hours , which it is believed he will 
accomplish, as engines have been run on the road at quite as high a velocity/ 
Some lime since a train conveyed Prince Albert from Windsor to the Paddington 
Terminus at so frightful a rate, that he was “ graciously pleased,” as the newspapers 
state, “to command that they should notin future carry him at a greater speed than 
25 miles an hour.” Much amusement was excited at the time by a remark of George 
the third, ( before railways were ,) that he was not fond of rapid travelling; 16 
miles the. hour was fast enough foi him or any other reasonable person. 
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