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ancient settlement, and the rapid extension of steam navigation has created a demand for engineers far beyond the possibility of supplying it by men of the necessary intelligence and expe

rience.

For ourselves, we can say, that we embark in a steamboat on any of the rivers or bays of the Atlantic coast, with less feeling of insecurity than we enter into a stage coach on a turnpike road, and are satisfied that the chance of accident to life or limb is less in the former than in the latter case. The great means of security from danger in steam navigation is, we apprehend, to be found: first, in a rigid inspection of the qualities of the vessel, engine, and boiler, such as has been prescribed by law; and, second, in the skill, intelligence, and sobriety of the engineer. It is not, however, to be doubted, that it would be possible to render the duty of the engineer less laborious by self-acting apparatus, which shall prevent the risk of the metal of the boiler being exposed naked to the fire. The feeding apparatus, whether for navigation or locomotion, is a force-pump, worked by the engine. As it is necessary that this shall supply the greatest quantity of water which can be evaporated under any circumstances, its action is always in excess and hence it must, from time to time, be thrown into or out of gear, according to the indications of the water-gauge. This will, of course, require unwearied attention on the part of the engineer. The pump is, also, entirely useless at the time the engine is not at work, while the evaporation in the boiler continues undiminished. If, therefore, the delay at a landing exceed the time which may have been anticipated, the water in the boiler may fall until the flues become bare, unless a supply be forced in by hand.

Self-acting apparatus have, however, been invented, and among these, is one by Mr. Boyden, which has received the approbation of a commission, nominated in compliance with a law passed in 1838. We may confidently recommend this, as promising to remedy much of the risk which attends the unforeseen stoppage or unexpected delay of steamboats, and it is evident from the records which we have given, that it is at the instant of starting the engine that by far the greater part of the accidents, fatal to life, have occurred.

We might also cite Hall's condenser, and the feeding apparatus connected therewith, as valuable in meeting this cause of danger in part; for the feeding apparatus may be kept in continued action without risk of overcharging the boiler with water. But this fails, in the case where the risk is the greatest, namely,

during the stoppage of the engine. Hall's condenser has another important merit, for it will render the condensing engine available on the Mississippi, where, in consequence of the muddiness of the water, it has hitherto been rejected.

Those, however, who are of opinion that any safety apparatus whatever can be a substitute for skill and attention in the engineer, err. It ought, therefore, to be the object of all legislation on the subject, to provide a sufficient supply of educated and intelligent men for the purpose. This can only be done by making it the duty of all steamboat owners to employ none but those who are competent, and the rarity of the necessary qualifications will speedily make the emolument of the occupation, together with its more elevated respectability, an inducement to intelligent and well educated young men to devote themselves to the pursuit.

Besides the report before us, which was called for by a resolution of congress, passed in 1838, a law to which we have referred was passed the same year, directing the appointment of a board of commissioners to examine and report upon apparatus intended to prevent the explosion of steam boilers. To this board were submitted a number of plans of great ingenuity, as well as others, which almost seemed to indicate a monomania on the part of the projectors. With all due regard to the ingenuity of many of the plans, and with approbation of the value of some of them, especially that of Mr. Boyden, to which we have referred, the board were compelled to conclude that no one of them, nor even all united, offered any certain security against explosion.

One of the letters which forms a part of the report before us, proposes that the Smithsonian legacy be devoted to the education of steam engineers. We should think this would be to give to that bequest a limitation which the testator was far from intending; but there is little doubt that the instruction in the physical sciences, which must form the prominent object in such an institution, would be a valuable preparation for this service. But the education of any school, however well conducted, can never supply the practical skill which actual apprenticeship alone can give.

The first steamboat which was successfully used, was that of Fulton, on the Hudson, in 1807. Such is the extent to which this useful invention has been carried in the short interval of thirty years, which has elapsed since his experiment was com

pleted, that, as we are informed by the report before us, one thousand three hundred steamboats have been built in the United States; of these, five hundred have been lost or worn out, leaving eight hundred in actual service at the date of the communication of the secretary. Of these eight hundred, one hundred and forty are owned in the state of New York alone, and four hundred are now believed to be running on the Mississippi and its branches.

The extent to which the general use of the steam engine has been carried, is even more remarkable. At the beginning of the present century, the corporation of the city of Philadelphia had already erected two pumping engines for the purpose of supplying that city with water. About the same time, the Manhattan company imported an engine from England, for a similar purpose, and Evans built a dredging machine, to be worked by steam, on the Delaware. Of other engines constructed for manufacturing purposes, or for the abortive attempts at steam navigation, the whole had been laid aside. At the date of the report of the secretary of the treasury, he estimates that three thousand and ten engines are in use in the United States, allowing only one to each steamboat and locomotive; now, as many of the former, and all of the latter, are propelled by two engines, it will not be an excessive allowance to carry the number reported to three thousand seven hundred and fifty. At the average of ten horse powers to each engine, these machines are nominally capable of exerting the force of two hundred and sixty thousand men ; but where they are worked in the improved manner in which our best boat engines are now used, the actual work they can easily perform, is fully equal to that of a million of men in the prime of their vigor. The use of steam, therefore, adds as much to the productive industry of our country as an increase in our population of five millions of different ages and sexes. Such is the triumph of this mighty agent achieved in a space of thirty years. What the next half century may produce, it is impossible to predict; but it does not require the eye of a prophet to foresee, that when the vast beds of mineral coal, which are now about to be explored and brought into use, shall have been applied, as they speedily will, to the aliment of the steam engine, the ratio in which it will add to our national wealth and efficient strength will be much accelerated.

1839.]

Hosack's Theory and Practice of Physic.

485

ART. XII-CRITICAL NOTICES.

1. Lectures on the Theory and Practice of Physic, delivered in the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the University of the state of New York. By the late DAVID HOSACK, M. D., LL.D., F. R. S. Professor of the Theory and Practice, &c. and of Clinical Medicine in that Institution. With an introductory Letter by NATHANIEL CHAPMAN, M. D. Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine in the University of Pennsylvania, &c. Edited by his friend and former pupil, HENRY W. DUCACHET, D. D. Rector of St. Stephen's Church, Philadelphia. Philadelphia: 1838. Herman Hooker. 8vo. pp. 699.

THE lectures on the practice of physic, delivered for a period of nearly twenty years in the medical school of New York, by the late Dr. Hosack, are here, for the first time, presented to the public in a printed form. The distinguished renown which so long accompanied the professional career of the able practitioner, whose oral disquisitions are embraced in this volume, arising from his close observation of the phenomena of disease, his admirable diagnostic skill, his graphic powers in delineation, and his vast clinical experience, both in the circle of private practice, and in the exercise of his duties many years in our public charities, will suffer no diminution by the work before us. Within the compass of a single volume, we are not aware that there is elsewhere brought together more important monographs on many of the leading disorders to which the human body is liable, and we shall look in vain for more prompt, sound, and effective therapeutical indications, than are here expressed. As the editor remarks, the present publication contains only the lectures on fevers and the phlegmasia; but in the perusal of these alone, it will be perceived that Dr. Hosack has treated these great and interesting subjects with characteristic sagacity, and with that degree of attention which their formidable nature and every day occurrence demand.

Following the discourses, two in number, on nosology and the general classification of diseases - we have those on fevers in general, on typhus fevers, miasma, contagion, and its laws, and the several types of fevers, as intermittents, remittents, and continued fevers, including yellow fever. These great and practical topics are treated, in the abstracts here given, with much judgment and discrimination, and constitute thirty-one lectures, occupying rather more than one half of the present work. The remaining twenty-six lectures

are devoted to the phlegmasiæ, and their most frequent and various locations in the system. In the descriptive details which Dr. Hosack has recorded of the causes which predispose, and of those which excite to disordered action, may be found the evidence of his admirable talents, as an acute observer, while his history of disease, and his remedial measures, no less evince his rare and excellent judgment, and profound practical sagacity. Dr. Ducachet observes, that the intelligent reader cannot fail to discover that Dr. Hosack was considerably in advance of his own times. “He lived,” says he "to have the satisfaction of seeing many of the views and principles for which he had contended almost single-handed, adopted extensively in Europe and in his native country, and had he lived a few years more, his triumph, no doubt, would have been still greater." So far as relates to the views which the late eloquent teacher imparted on the vexed doctrines, associated with the theory of the humoral pathology, the enlightened editor is unquestionably correct. At an early day, Dr. Hosack was accustomed to consider the human body as one entire whole, and ever considered disease, as equally disturbing the functional harmony of every part of the system: an exclusive theory, therefore, whether of solidism or of fluidism, was, in his medical philosophy, equally untenable and inadmissible. It is undeniable that the severer observation of the present day, grounded upon nicer reasoning and the recent truths unfolded by animal chemistry, give additional countenance to that pathology which does not overlook the importance of the fluids, in modifying the various morbid affections or derangements of the constitution. Nor would we withhold our assent to the soundness of the declaration, that the expositions which these lectures contain on the subject of fevers, both general and particular, and embodying a mass of well authenticated facts and reasonings, are eminently calculated, if properly considered, to promote a wide range of philosophical investigation, and lead to a more liberal and salutary code of medical prescription. Many of our inhabitants still well remember the zeal and intrepidity with which Dr. Hosack discharged the laborious and responsible duties of physician, during the several visitations in New York, of the malignant yellow fever, which prevailed at different periods in this city, since 1791; and all have heard of his numerous publications on the nature and treatment of that dreaded pestilence. The book before us contains rich materials on the nature of this peculiar disease, and many interesting reminiscences may here be found, of its several appearances in the United States and in this city, powerfully calculated to awaken the curiosity of the general, as well as of the professional student.

The group of inflammations, technically denominated the phlegmasiæ, are next considered: they include a list of many of the most serious affections, to which physical organization is vulnerable. Conspicuous among this catalogue of ills which flesh is heir to, we

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