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ARTS AND SCIENCES.

ARTESIAN WELL AT SOUTHAMPTON. We have the satisfaction to announce that this great undertaking is rapidly progressing towards a successful completion. The shaft is now sunk to the depth of 500 feet, being 40 feet in the chalk, and within 60 feet of the extreme depth required by the contract to be attained. By dint of great exertion on the part of the contractors, engineer, and workmen, the shaft has been sunk no less than 20 feet during the past week. As the work proceeds, the water, percolating through the flint strata, fast increases, and is found to be of the purest quality. Both engines are kept constantly employed raising the water from the entire depth. The brick lining was discontinued at the depth of 465 feet; as the chalk was found to be sufficiently firm and solid to be capable of sustaining the superincumbent weight, and the brick-work therefore became unnecessary. Should no unforeseen difficulty arise to retard the progress of the work, there is no doubt that the well will be completed about Christmas, and a never-failing supply of the purest water be thenceforward secured to the town.

(HANTS INDEPENDENT )

CAST-IRON ORNaments of BerlIN.-The raw metal of which they are manufactured does not cost more than 1s. 6d. (1r. 80cop.) per cwt.; but wrought into ear-rings, the value becomes 2,7341. 2s. 6d. (66,619 r.) per cwt., and made into shirt-buttons, about 3,0001. (72,000 r.) per cwt. It would not be easy to point out any other metal in which art can increase the value of the raw material, 40,000-fold.

(MECHANICS' MAGAZINE.)

THE LAST CENSUS.- The total population of England, according to the census just completed, is 7,321,875 males, 7,673,633 females-total, 14,995,508: that of Wales, 447,533 males, 463,788 femalestotal 911,321 that of Scotland, 1,246,427 males, 1,382,530 femalestotal, 2,628,957; and that of the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alder

:

ney, Sark, Herm, Jethon, and Man 57,598 males, €6.481 females— total 194,079. These numbers, including 4,003 males and 893 females, ascertained to have been travelling by railways and canals on the night of 6th June, make the grand total 9,077,436 males, and 9,587,325 females. The population therefore of Great Britain amounts to 18,664,761 persons: the returns include only such part of the army, navy and merchant seamen, as were, at the time of the census, within the kingdom on shore. The increase of the population, as compared with the returns of 1831, is at the rate of 14. 5 per cent for England; 13 per cent for Wales; for Scotland 11. 1; for the islands of the British Seas 19. 6; making the increase for the whole of Great Britain 14 per cent, being less than that of the ten years ending 1831, which was 15 per cent.-In 1811, the increase during the previous ten years in England was 14 '/, per cent. In 1821, the increase for England was 17, per cent; and for Scotland 16 per cent. In 1831, the increase was for England 16 per cent; for Wales, 12 per cent; for Scotland, 13 per cent; and for the islands in the British Seas 15. 8 per cent. The number of houses in England; is, inhabited, 2,758,295; uninhabited, 162,756; building, 25,882. The number in Wales, inhabited, 188,196 uninhabited, 24,307; building, 2,760. In the islands of the British Seas, 19,150 inhabited; 865 uninhabited; and 220 building. Grand totals for the whole of Great Britain, 3,464,007 inhabited, 196,061 uninhabited, 30,631 buildingaltogether 3,682,629 houses. In 1831, the number of inhabited houses was 2,866,595; uninhabited 133,331; building 27,553; total 3,027,479 houses. (TIMES.)

INSTITUTION OF Civil Engineers.-Amongst the papers read was the following:

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Description of the great aqueduct at Lisbon, over the valley of Alcantra,» by Samuel Clegg Jun.

This aqueduct was founded by king John the Fifth in 1713, and completed by the Marquis of Pombal, in 1755. It resisted uninjured the shocks of the great earthquake in that year, although it was observed to oscillate considerably. The most conspicuous part of the work is that which crosses the valley of Alcantra; it consists of thirty-two arches, with spans varying from 50 to 105 feet; the crown of the centre arch is 225 feet from the ground. The length of this portion is 3,000 feet. The sources from which the supply of water is derived, are situated in the high ground in the neighbourhood of Cintra and of Bella. They are eighteen in number; one of these tributaries is conveyed by a culvert from a distance of 15 miles. The main duct into which the tributary streams empty themselves, forms a tunnel of six feet wide, and seven feet high, ventilated by vertical shafts,

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ARTS AND SCIENCES..

191 at distances of a quarter of a mile apart. After passing over the great aqueduct, the main duct runs under ground for half a mile, is carried across the «Estrada do arco Cavalho on seven arches of 40 feet span each, on the south side of which it continues beneath the surface, until it reaches the aqueduct of « Agua Livres» in Lisbon, and empties itself into the reservoir at its termination. This reservoir is 60 feet long, by 54 feet wide, and 27 feet deep. The quantity of water contained in it when the author took the measurements was 64,800 cubic feet. He was unable to obtain sections of the retaining-walls, but supposed them to be about 23 feet in thickness. The pipes through which the water is distributed to the neighbouring fountains, are of earthen-ware and stone, set in mortar. The velocity of its flow through the main duct is 75 feet per minute. The quantity discharged is about 73,000 gallons in 24 hours, during the winter months. Particulars were then given, relating to the construction of the aqueduct, translated from the documents preserved at the office of public works in Lisbon. From these it appeared, that no mechanical contrivances were used for hoisting the blocks of marble, but they were slung upon poles from men's shoulders, and carried up a series of inclined planes to the height required, though some of these blocks weighed upwards of three tons; and the cost of the entire aqueduct, which was about 21 miles long, with all the immediate and collateral works, and including the reservoir, was two millions and a half sterling. (ATHENÆUM.)

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EMIGRATION. The following is a statement of emigrant departures from the port of Liverpool, between the 1st January and 31st October British colonies of North America, 3,870; United States of America, 34,908; Sydney, New South Wales, 5,648; Port Philip, 1,439; Swan River, 117: giving a total of 46,072.

(LIVERPOOL ALBION.)

IRON STEAM-BOATS.-I had the pleasure, at breakfast, of sitting next Mr. Babbage, whose name is so well known among us as the inventor of the self-calculating machine. He has a most remarkable eye, that looks as if it might penetrate science, or anything else he chose to look into. He described the iron steamer now building; which has a larger tonnage than any merchant-ship in the world; and expressed an opinion that iron ships would soon supersede all others; and another opinion that much concerns us, and which, I trust, will soon be verified-that in a few years these iron steamers will go to America in seven days.

(Miss Sedgwick's Letters, quoted in the PENNY Magazine.) INTERESTING ANATOMICAL EXAMINATION. --In July last, a very fine

pair of chimpanzees was purchased by the committee of the Bristol Zoological Gardens, they having been brought direct from Africa to this port. The female died on the 5th inst., though not (as it has subsequently been found) of the usual disease, consumption, but of dysentery, to which she had been subject on her voyage, and to suffer from it till her death. Indeed, there was no remedy, for it was found impossible to administer any medicine. The keeper was in the habit of masticating her food, and feeding her from his mouth; but the moment any kind of medicine was attempted to be introduced, she rejected it, and even after it had been forced down her throat, she would throw it off her stomach. The body having been presented to the Bristol Philosophic Institution, was opened by Dr. Fairbrother, in the presence of some of the members. On being anatomically examined, its great similarity to the human frame was surprisingly apparent. The brain, lungs, heart, stomach, liver spleen, kidneys, intestines, &c., were in form and shape almost exactly the counterpart of those in a human being; the heart in particular presented a peculiarity never found in any other of the monkey tribe; that is, it had nearly the same obliquity, and rested on the midriff in the same manner as in the human body: indeed, the only striking exception was in the organs of the voice, there being on the upper part of the ventricles of the laryux two small membranous bags or sacs, into which part of the air must pass from the lungs during respiration, so that the column of air is divided and diminished, and consequently the vibrations produced by its passage through the glottis are weakened, and the voice becomes inarticulate. If it were not for this singular provision, it is supposed that the chimpanzee would be capable of giving utterance to its feelings and wants in the same manner that man does.

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Printed at the Office of the Journal de St.-Petersbourg, »

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ENGLISH LITERATURE.

No. II.

ON THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

We are not to seek for the elements of the language now spoken in England, amongst the Ancient Britons, the first inhabitants of the British Isles of whom we have any records, but rather in those of the different nations to which a considerable part of the country successively became a prey.

So early as the year 55 before the birth of Jesus Christ, Julius Cæsar landed in England, and, after a fierce struggle, and repeated invasions, the barbarous inhabitants were obliged to give way to the superior discipline of the Romans, and the greater part of the island was subdued. The conquerors were not however in sufficient numbers to have any great influence on the language of the people; and even if any change really did take place, it was doomed to be completely effaced by the horrors, to which the wretched natives were exposed, after the British possessions had been abandoned by the Ro

mans.

The Angles and Saxons now flocked into the country in numerous bodies, overspreading the island, and carrying death

VOL. I.

25

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