matters referred to them, and make report at the next meeting of Councils. On motion of Dr. Huston, cil, in reference to changing the name of South Alley to The consideration of the resolution from Select Coun. Commerce street, was, after some debate, in which Dr. Huston, and Messrs. Chandler, Haines, Smith, Aken, and Maitland, took part, postponed for the present. On motion of Mr. Lapsley, The Select Council was informed that the Common Council was in waiting to receive the members of Se lect Council, for the purpose of proceeding to the elec. tion of a Trustee of the Girard College, in the place of John C. Stocker, Esq. deceased. The Select Council being introduced, the President, Joseph R. Ingersoll, Esq. took the chair. Messrs. J. P. Wetherill of the Select Council, and Joseph Smith, of the Common Council, were appointed tellers, and an election for Trustees of the Girard College was entered upon by ballot. The result of the first balloting was reported by Mr. Wetherill, as follows Alexander Bache, Josiah Randall, Nathan Bunker, R. E. Griffith, James S. Smith, 9 votes. 5 do. 3 do. 1 do. 1 do 19 Neither of the candidates having received a majority of the whole number of votes, the President declared there was no election. A second ballot was entered upon, which resulted in the choice of Alexander Bache, Esq. to wit Alexander Bache, Whereupon Councils adjourned. 10 votes. 4 do. 2 do. 1 do. 1 do. 1 do 19 PITTSBURG AND HER COAL SMOKE. The opinion that the sulphur, disengaged by the consumption of stone coal, serves a valuable purpose in checking the progress of disease among us, is by no means a new one, got up to prepare our citizens to meet with confidence, the advance of the Asiatic Cholera. In 1826, Mr. Samuel Jones prepared a Directory of this city, and Dr. W. H. Denny, furnished him a communication upon the salubrity of this place, from which we make the following extracts, which will probably be interesting to many. What was then theory, or at least founded on a more limited experience, has, we think, been recently strongly substantiated. We believe if the Doctor had said there is no ague and fever," in stead of "scarcely any," he would have more precisely expressed the truth. It does seem, to us, that a case of ague and fever has not occurred here within the range of our recollection, which is by no means short.-Pittsburg Gazette. Of all the great western towns, Pittsburg is the farthest removed from the baneful exhalations of the swampy margin of the Mississippi, and accordingly enjoys a greater exemption from those diseases, which, during the summer and autumn, prevail even as high up as Cincinnati. Surrounded, too, by hills and cultivated lands, and free from stagnant water, there are no local sources of disease. The smoke of bituminous coal is antimiasmatic. It is sulphurous and antiseptic, and hence it is, perhaps, that no putrid disease has ever been known to spread in the place. Strangers, with a great noise, and the Archbishop of Belloi excommu. nicated the young ecclesiastic, who had dared to speak his mind on such a delicate subject. In a few days the Reverend Prelate was obliged to fly his country. The subject of this sketch now determined to make medicine a profession, and on becoming acquainted with a surgeon of the army, he went with him to Port au Prince. weak lungs, for a while find their coughs aggravated by the smoke, but nevertheless, asthmatic patients have found relief in breathing it. The prevailing complaints are those which characterize the healthiest situations of the same latitude elsewhere in America-in winter, pneumonia and sore throat, and in summer, billious affections. The goitre, or swelled neck, has disappear ed; the few cases which formerly excited the apprehensions of the stranger, no longer exist to gratify his curiosity. In comparison with the eastern cities, there is much less pulmonary consumption; less scrofula and less disease of the skin. There is scarcely any ague and fever, and no yellow fever. In comparison with western cities, including Cincinnati, there is less bilious fever, less ague and fever, and less cholera infantum, or the summer complaint of children. We are the intermediate link of disease, as well as of commerce. We have less hepatic disease than the west, and less pulmo-here he was suspected and underwent a rigid exami nic disease than the east. In this place he became known, and was engaged by Boyer and Chanlatte as a commissioner to repair to France to solicit aid for the whites and mulattoes against the insurgent slaves. The commissioners arrived at Paris just two months before the arrest of the King. They were introduced to the Assembly, but soon the flood of Jacobinism overwhelmed every thing, and Pascalis thought himself fortunate in effecting his escape to London, and from thence he sailed to Jamaica; nation which resulted in his release and honour. The "The abundance, cheapness, and consequent general governor, understanding his whole course, found him a and even profuse use of the best fuel, is certainly one passage to the United States in an English brig. The great cause of our superior healthfulness. The low war was raging between England and France. On his fevers so prevalent in the large cities, among the poor, voyage, as he came near the American shores, the brig during a hard winter, and the ague so common in wet was chased by a French Republican frigate, and believ seasons, in the eastern counties of the state, where wooding it impossible to escape from her, he and several is scarce, are here in a great degree avoided by the passengers stepped into an open boat, with a few artiuniversal practice of keeping good coal fires late in the cles of clothing and food, and left the brig. spring and early in the autumn, and indeed at all seasons when the weather is damp or inclement. "Our exemption from the ague, and epidemic dysenteries, in comparison with the settlements in the lower counties, and the eastern vallies, may be accounted for also, in part, by the scarcity of mill dams and stagnant water, in a country where in the summer, milling for the most part, is done by steam, and where the mill streams generally dry up at the season most likely to produce She was taken, but the next day the adventurers in the boat arrived at Philadelphia, or its vicinity. When he left the English brig he destroyed his papers and changed his paternal to his maternal name which he has ever since retained. This was in the year 1793. He had letters of recommendation to President Washington from several French gentlemen of distinction, and soon became acquainted with the medical faculty of that city, who have long been distinguished for their learning. In about two months after the Doctor's arrival, the yel In the whole, with regard to the health of Pittsburg, low fever broke out in Philadelphia and spread death and indeed, of the whole western section of Pennsylva-and terror through the land. Pascalis had become acnia, it may be said, that no part of the United States is more healthy, and that the greater part will bear no comparison with it in point of salubrity." disease. From the New York Commercial Advertiser. Felix Alexander Ouviere Pascalis, M. D., &c., whose death was recently mentioned in this paper, was born at the town of Aix, in Ancient Provence, in 1762, and was educated in the excellent schools of that place until he was prepared to enter the University of that city. When he graduated, he took the first prize of honour, which distinction introduced him to the celebrated Professor Darluc, a botanist and professor of Natural History, who lost his life in a tour to the Alps in making some experiments on electricity. Although at this time inclined to the study of medicine, Mr. Pascalis accepted a clerical benefice which was then in the gift of his family. After this he studied divinity three years, on a foundation established by the Archbishop of that department; still his partiality for medicine and natural philosophy was so strong, that his mind was occupied with the thoughts of this science while he was on a tour through France and Italy. He was now licenced to preach, and delivered several eulogiums and charity discourses; but he was drawn, however, from his clerical pursuits, by attending his older brother's lectures on physical science. He was indulging in the pursuits of general knowledge, and making himself a physician, when the revolution of 1789 broke out in the South of France. His brother was decidedly attached to the royal party--but the subject of this sketch was an advocate of liberal principles, and with youthful ardour joined the democracy of the country. His active mind could never be quiet, and he dashed out into the literary world, in a work, on the celibacy of the clergy. The essay made quainted with Dr. Deveze, who had fled from St. Domingo, and who had the reputation of being skilful in cases of the yellow fever, having practised many years at Cape Francaise. The hospital was put under his care and Dr. Pascalis was made an associate, for he was deeply read in the history and nature of the disease, as it had appeared in different ages and countries. He had satisfied himself that the yellow fever was not contagious, and he wrote several essays upon the subject which did much towards allaying the fears of the peo. ple; and such was the effect of the writings of Pascalis and others, that the Legislature of Pennsylvania, in 1802, altered their quarantine law, a majority of that body having become non-contagionists. In 1805, Doctor Pascalis was sent by Mr. Jefferson, in the United States' ship John Adams, to Spain, to get further light upon the yellow fever. How much infor mation he derived from this medical voyage, the writer is unable to say, but on such a mind as his, nothing could be lost. On his return in 1806, Doctor Pascalis took up his residence in New York. The next year he was made physician to the public charities. In 1812, he became one of the three editors of the Medical Repository, and continued his labours for five years. This work is too well known to the public to require any observations on its merits in this place. Doctor Pascalis received the two prizes from medical institutions, in this country, offered for the best essays on given subjects; one from Yale College, and the other from the University of Pennsylvania, which, in both instances, were followed by honorary degrees from those highly respectable institutions. For several years past, Dr. Pascalis has been indefatigable in introducing into this country the Chinese mulberry tree, and in giving the public the most extensive information on the proper methods of feeding the silk-worm, and winding the silk. His thoughts were occupied upon the subject until the hour of his death, even when his senses had fled. He was a man of genius-fruitful in suggestions, and persevering in research. He left but few subject untouched, and it will be confessed by all, that he threw much light on many obscure matters. He loved his profession to enthusiasm, and pursued it every day of his existence. He considered it as embracing all the laws of matter and mind, and he thought that a physician should interrogate nature at noon-day and at midnight, and faithfully record her responses, however startling they might seem to the timid, or however much opposed to professional dogmas. NOTES OF A TOUR. To the Editors of the Philadelphia Gazette. BLAIRSVILLE, June 18th, 1833. Gentlemen,-I address you now from a town, which as you see it marked on the map, is a place of minor consideration, but which in reality, considered as a point in the chain of public improvements which connects the eastern and western parts of the state, is of vast importance. Blairsville, a few years since, consisted of a solitary public house, at which the traveller across the mountains might stop to refresh himself and his beastnow it contains a large number of substantially built and handsome brick edifices-several churches-a market and school house, and not less than four or five well kept hotels. It has sprung up suddenly, but its duration will not be the less permanent. Blairsville stands on the western bank of the Conemaugh river, a stream flowing into the Alleghany river, about thirty miles from Pittsburg, and is distant from that city by land forty miles, by the course of the river seventy. This river is one of most beautiful and romantic streams in the west. I have passed along its banks for some distance, and been strongly reminded of our favorite Schuylkill, which in some respects, it strongly resembles. Its course is meandering and irregular. Along this river a canal has been made, east of Johnstown, and west to Pittsburg, forming the western division of the Pennsylvania canal. That portion between Blairsville and Johnstown is but little used, and will not be, until the completion of the Portage rail road; but the section leading to Pittsburg is in constant and successful operation. Blairsville derives importance from being the depot of merchandize brought from the east and west. That from Pittsburg is here landed from the canal boats, and conveyed in teams to Hollidaysburg, where it is again placed in boats and taken on to Philadelphia. That from the cast is landed here from wagons, and passed down the canal to the western metropolis. A boat starts daily from each place, at five o'clock in the evening. The passage consumes about thirty hours. From Hollidaysburg to Johnstown, you will recollect, a rail road is now being made, designed to connect the two canals. This is an important work, but it is to be regretted that the plan was not arranged so as to connect Hollidaysburg with Blairsville, instead of Johnstown. The necessity of this continuation seems to be now generally conceded, and it is probable it will, in time, be made. This completed, the means of inland transportation between Philadelphia and Pittsburg will be perfected. A dam in the Conemaugh, at this place, has been made to feed the canal. There is also a dam about nine miles below, where the canal passes through a tunnel of eight hundred feet in length. The scenery at this place is peculiarly romantic. Between Johnstown and Blairsville there are three dams. The Conemaugh, which is here about one hundred yards wide, is crossed by a bridge, of single span, which connects Blairs ville, with a small village on the western shore, called Bairdstown, containing a store, two taverns, and a number of neat dwellings and farm houses. The society at Blairsville is remarkable for its intelligence. I say this not to deteriorate from the respecta bility of other western towns, but because from personal intercourse and observation, I have had abundant opportunities to ascertain this fact. We of the east do not properly estimate the worth of character which exists in the west. We are too apt to fancy that the wellinformed-the statesman-the philosopher-the man of breeding, is only to be found in large cities. This is a great mistake as applied to western Pennsylvania. With the most of those to whom I have been introduced across the mountains, my acquaintance has been extremely pleasant, and the kindness and attentions of the Blairsville people I shall never forget. The Record, published at this place, is an ably conducted newspaper and well supported. Manufactures of several kinds, are carried on in this place, to some extent. Bituminous coal of excellent quality is found in great abundance, in all the adjacent hills. On the Kiskeminetas, below this place, there are several extensive salt works. The land in the vicinity,is fertile and capable of producing all our staple articles of agriculture. Blairsville is a port of entry. The collector, Major Thomas Johnston, is a gentleman of free and sociable manners, worth and intelligence, with whose conversation and society the visiter will be delighted. From the Commercial Herald. HUNTINGDON COUNTY, PA. Gentlemen,-Before we leave the borough of Huntingdon it may be well to remark, that except the usual trades carried on in villages, there is nothing in or about the place which deserves the name of a manufacturing es tablishment. There is adequate waterpower, great fa cilities of transportation, abundance of materiel, and sufficient capital; but those who have the cash are gene. rally advanced in years-fond of a quiet life, and suffer it to remain unemployed, except occasionally in some usurious or petty speculation. The groups of chubby urchins met at every corner of the streets indicate a due deference on the part of the inhabitants to the injunc tion laid on our first parents "crescete et multiplicamine." They may also be denominated a religious, at least a church going-people, if we may judge from the number of houses of public worship-with a population little exceeding twelve hundred, they have no less than six churches. But to proceed On leaving Huntingdon, the traveller has a choice of routes to Alexandria by the turnpike road over the Warrior ridge, or by the way of Petersburg. On the former nothing is to be seen worthy of notice, except the Pulpit rocks, so called from their resemblance to a preacher's desk. They are composed of huge detached masses of sand stone, piled one upon another, and bear the appearance of having been, at some remote period, embedded in earth, their summit ranging pretty much with the surface of the adjoining hills. The stone is valuable for furnace hearths. By the other route along the canal and slack water, the road is highly pic turesque. Five miles from Huntingdon you pass Juniata Forge, belonging to Dr. Shanberger. Here the proprietor laid the foundation of his immense estate in iron works. Immediately beyond is Petersburg at the mouth of Sharen's creek, which gives name to a rich valley through which it runs. The Little Juniata, or Little river, as it is sometimes called, unites with the main branch about a mile above Petersburg and the same distance from Alexandria. At or near this junction the county town should have been located. In pursuing the route up the Little river, the first object of interest is Barre Forge-the first erected in the county. It be longs to the Dorsey family, and is still in successful operation. Passing on through a craggy defile about four miles, you reach the mouth of Spruce creek. On this small stream are six Forges in the space of about as many miles, and a little further up the valley is Pennsylvania Furnace on Centre county line. The mine them banks in this region are reputed the richest in the state and the best adapted to the manufacture of bar iron. On a branch of the creek, called Warrior Mark run, stands Huntingdon Furnace, esteemed, in connexion with the other works attached to it, the most productive Iron establishment in the county. It is owned by Lyon, Shanberger and others. Up the Little river, a short distance above its junction with Spruce creek, you reach Union Furnace at the mouth of Sinking valley. This is confessedly the best valley of land in Huntingdon county. It derives its name from a considerable stream of water which sinks near the centre of it and suddenly disappears-where it re-issues from the earth has not been satisfactorily ascertained. About four or five miles further up the Little river are the Tyrone Works, consisting of two Forges, Rolling and Slitting Mills, Nail Factory, &c. These belong to the proprietors, or some of them, of Huntingdon Furnace. Still further up, in Logan's valley, commonly called Tuckahoe, are a Forge and Furnace; and a short distance north on Bald Eagle are two Furnaces. The "Phillipsburg and Juniata Rail Road" now being located from the former to the mouth of the Little river where it meets the Pennsylvania Canal, passes through this region of country, and will doubtless be highly beneficial, by increasing the facilities of transportation. The road opens a passage to the richest beds of bituminous coal perhaps in the United States, most admirably adapted to manu. facturing uses. The stock in this Company can scarcely fail to become valubale. Having partially explored the upper part of the coun ty, we now return to Alexandria, a handsome village on the main branch of the river, but like Huntingdon, its trade is cut off by the diffuse avenues of commerce afforded by the Canal. Two miles above is Water street, so called, from the circumstance of the road passing through a gap in the mountain, literally in a stream of water, in early days. The iron works in this quarter are not so numerous, but are highly valuable-Etna Furnace and Forge, belonging to Mr. Spang, are situate, off the main road, near the river, some four or five miles above Water street. Next above on the river, is Cove Forge, the property of Royer and Schmucker; two miles below the village of Williamsburg, and about the same distance, at the mouth of Piney creek is Frunklin Forge. All these works are favorably situated, on or near the Canal, and have the additional advantage of the trade of Morrison's Cove, an extremely fertile valley which extends southward into Bedford county. In this quarter ore and timber are abundant, and there are three or four Furnaces in the Cove; the net profits of one of them "last blast," was something like fifteen thousand dollars. I omitted to mention, that south of Huntingdom on the Raystown branch, there is abundance of stone coal, and a Furnace which has produced a large quantity of metal, but not of so good a quality either for castings or iron. Returning to the Juniata, and pursuing our tour westward through some "rugged ways," we soon reach Frankstown, a small village on the canal, containing three or four stores, as many taverns, a smith shop or two, with the usual appurtenances of a little town. Here again the first object that meets the eye is a large Foundry, which gathers up the "spare pigs" and casts them into all the beautiful forms required for agricultural, architectural, and culinary purposes. Two miles beyond is Hollidaysburg, at the termination of the canal, east of the mountains-a beautiful situation, and should not the water fail to supply the basin, as is feared by many, it will doubtless "float down the tide of time" with considerable eclat. ed to "the works," by the farming interest, exceed one From the Pennsylvania Inquirer. EXTRACT TO THE EDITOR, DATED Holmesburg, Aug. 5, 1833. Within eight years past, complaints have been made in different quarters of the neighborhood of Philadelphia, of diseases among horses, and horned cattle particularly, which, upon several farms, proved speedily fatal, in the manner described by your correspondent near Frankford. In almost all the instances I am acquainted with, this occurred on farms where cattle had been pastured for many years upon the same field, Cleanliness, pure air, and varieties of wholesome food, are required by animals of an active character, and are instinctively sought by them in a wild state, as is exhibited by their frequent extensive migrations. Among domestic cattle, an inattention to the natural laws or principles, which are apparent and control their condition, will lead to a less perfect state of health; the continuance of the neglect of these causes may induce epidemics. Cattle sometimes are very much restrained, until after harvest, in the use of green food; their natural instincts become perverted; and they are known not to select with sufficient discrimination, but often greedily consume poisonous weeds, which attain their noxious qualities in mid-summer. The free use of salt will assist to correct the depravation, or control the effects of nauseous plants, and regulate the condition of the stomach to excite selections. It often happens that cattle choose litter in a barn yard, instead of clean fodder, for the saline qualities which the former contains; and, in some instances, drink the barn yard water, in preference to a purer fluid, on the same account. We know one instance, in which a healthy young cow died from this indulgence; and a pig who ate some portion of the dung which came from the cow, also died very promptly although in perfect health previously. In their case, death was attributed to the infusion of some rank poisonous plants, which had been carted into a barn yard with potato tops, and adulterated the water with their deadly juices. Upon examination after death, very little appearance of disease was noticed; and it is supposed the action was principally communicated through the nervous system, and the brains; but a very slight inflammatory appearance in the stomach was apparent in the instances I mention. The desire for salt is almost universal among grass and grain eating animals; and their instigations of the stomach should always be attended to. The wa ter, at this season, should also be pure; for although vegetable poisons may not affect it, various animal and insect deposits may prove equally injurious. Old pasture fields seem spontaneously to abound in many poisonous plants, which horses and cows cannot devour with impunity; although they do not prove prejudicial to some other cattle, as sheep and goats, for instance, who can eat and digest articles which kill other animals. These old pasture grounds also become very foul, from the constant droppings of the cattle, and deleteIn conclusion, according to a statement furnished by a rious exhalations may arise, which are injurious to anivery intelligent iron master, it appears that the differ- mal life, particularly at this season, when the activity of ent establishments in the county employ over 2,500 vegetation upon such fields is feeble; for vegetables hands, who support families amounting in the whole to live by imbibing gases which are deleterious to animal more than ten thousand persons and about 20,000 existence. If such old pastures as cannot conveniently horses. The annual consumption of produce furnish-be ploughed up and limed, had lime scattered over them-say 25 bushels per acre-during the winter, or were sown with 1, 2, or 3 bushels of salt per acre, in the spring or summer, they would, I think, be rendered more healthful. If the cattle were taken from them, until the grass grew up a few inches, the action of the leaves of the grass would purify them somewhat One of the celebrated surgeons, Larrey, who accompanied Bonaparte into Italy in 1793, mentions an epidemic among the cattle near the Adriatic, which made great ravages, and finally attacked the inhabitants of the district. He had a hospital established for the cat le, to try various plans of relief- but lost all the animals on which the disease had made much progress. He caused many of them to be opened in his presence, and generally found their stomachs filled with indigested herbs. The disease became finally contagious, and he observed upon some farms, that oxen, cows, sheep, and fowls, were all infected. the development of the plant, or that its influences were solely through the stomachs of the animals, 1 am not prepared to explain-but the fact was stated by one upon whom I have full reliance. When Linnæus visited Tornea, the inhabitants com. plained of a distemper which killed multitudes of their cattle, especially during spring, when first turned out into a meadow in the neighborhood. He soon traced the disorder to the water hemlock, which grew plentifully in the place, and which the cattle in the spring did not know how to avoid, having been closely confined during winter. Dr. Flemming, in his Philosophy of Zoology, men tions that in Orkney many goslins die when first turned out into the hills to pasture, in consequence of eating the leaves of fox glove. The sudden death of the cattle, described as taking place recently in Philadelphia and Montgomery coun A particular farm in the neighborhood of some sul ties, appears something like the effect of a violent veg. phuro-feruginous springs, escaped contagion-and per-etable poison-and the mystery may be solved by some haps the pasture was better there, Larrey observes. He of the intelligent medical gentlemen who are acquaintalso remarks: "The principal causes of this epidemic ed with botany. were the bad quality of the forage-the swampy state of Peculiar seasons seem to induce the growth of pecu the pasture grounds-and excessive and long continued liar plants. Almost every year we notice that certain heats, succeeding to a cold, rainy spring." Larrey re- grain or root crops exceeds others. This summer it commended that the skins should not be taken off, nor was remarked that cherries and blackberries were unu. the flesh permitted to be eaten by other domestic ani- sually abundant. So, the character of the preceding or mals, of such as were affected by the disease-but present season may increase the especial growth of that they should be speedily buried and covered with some noxious plants, which are not commonally abun quicklime. dant, or so active, in their properties Bleeding and scarification of the gums and palate, and purges were recommended in the early stages; and that the whole body should be washed with warm water and vinegar, and the horns to be bored near their base; a seton was also passed through the dewlap. If a mark ed crisis appeared before the ninth day, the animal was saved; after that period mild nourishment, bruised corn, barley, &c. parboiled, mixed with a little salt, and softened with warm water-good forage and tonic decoctions were employed to assist recovery. It was strongly recommended to cleanse and purify the stables and sheep folds. The account of this disease will be found in the first volume of Larrey's Memoirs of Military surgery, &c. translated by Dr. Hall, page 84. I have not recently seen any of the cases of disease mentioned by your correspondent, and know not the peculiar causes or symptoms, but I refer your correspondent to the eminent French surgeon, from whom he may derive some satisfactory assistance. EXTRACT TO THE EDITOR, DATED Near Holmesburg, Philad. co. Dear Sir: Several years ago, the well known bota- be the best remedies. A gentleman who had a farm on the banks of the Schuylkill, told me that he sowed a pasture field with two or three bushels of salt to the acre, which corrected this evil, although horses turned into the next field "slobbered," and had previously been so affected in the one sown with salt. Whether this salt acted as a preventive of the nauseating effects, or interrupted Sometimes the second crop of hay is found to "slob. ber" horses-but at other seasons it has not this effectprobably because the plants which cause the "slob. bers" (for I do not attribute the effects to clover alone) do not arrive at maturity before the second crop grasses are cut. Whatever may be the mystery in the sudden deaths of the cattle, it will be found connected with some natural cause, to discover which, exertions of a character Ikely to succeed should be made. The peculiarities of food, drink, or air, are those most likely to affect animals, and it would be well to guard against them by appropriate precautions. PHILADELPHIA SAVING INSTITUTION. Statement of the affairs of the Philadelphia Saving In- In coming forward thus early with a statement of the The principal object in establishing an Institution of this kind, was to give facilities to those who can afford There are certain plants which require a peculiar preparation for the germination of their seeds; thus the soil in which alone the healthful little plant called Monilia Glauca makes its appearance, in the surface of putrid fruit; while the small animal termed Vibrio Aceti, requires for its growth vinegar which has been sometime exposed to the air."-Philosophy of Zoology, 1. 25. |