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Artificial Ventilation-Preservation of Health.

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are of ten to those who use them. Many the temperature could receive any modimillions worth of real estate, both in fication desired. A spiral tube passing town and country, would be doubled in through the water at the bottom of a value, could they be made secure against the annual and occasional visitations of epidemics engendered by bad air. One tenth of the sums paid by those living in such infected districts, for their annual migrations in search of salubrious air, would bring it to their permanent homes. For want of a few mouthfuls of pure air, large tracts of the most fertile portions of the globe now lie waste under the viewless poison that broods over their teeming surfaces.

Artificial ventilation would protect, not only against periodical contaminations of the air, but those epidemics which run to and fro the earth on the trackless air, with woe and desolation in their train, might often be defied. Surrounded by the pure air brought from above, on the distant hills, the prudent citizen could, like Noah in his ark, be in security, while consternation reigned without.

Besides the general preservation of health, the use of air in the way above indicated, might be made for other purposes hardly less valuable.

It might be made a most efficient agent in the restoration, as well as preservation of health. In the way directly noticed, a patient could have his room, in summer as well as winter, of any desired temperature, could have a dry or moist atmosphere, and for the cure of many diseases, foreign particles might be added, carrying healing on its wings to diseased humanity. Dr. Cartwright, in the last December number of this Review, tells us how important the vapor of sugar boilers is in some fatal diseases. Instead of sending invalids thousands of miles from their comfortable homes to inhale the saccharine vapor amidst the discomforts of a sugar-house, a few canes, sent even to the coldest latitudes, with a very simple contrivance, added to the ventilating pipes before mentioned,might be made to infuse their healing particles, in graduated quantities, through the most luxurious apartments.

It is manifest, this forced ventilation might be made to minister greatly to the comfort, nay, the luxury of our race. The ventilating pipes should be laid so deep in the earth as to obtain an equable temperature winter and summer. By passing them through proper mediums

well, with ice added, if necessary, would lower it, or through fire or other warm medium, raise it sufficiently for all purposes of comfort or health. The same fire might warm as well as expel the air from an apartment. This kind of ventilation would be most used in warm latitudes where insects are so annoying and sometimes dangerous to existence. The air-tight sleeping apartments necessary to exclude impure air would cut off these troublesome intruders.

Science would also come in for its share of benefits. It would test the power of various fluids to disinfect the air in its passage through them. By experience we could soon know to what height the air is usually contaminated with impurities, what pestilence walketh in darkness, and the destruction that wasteth at noonday, and many other secrets of the viewless and mysterious air.

There can be no doubt but that more than half the ills which flesh is heir to are born of adulterations of the inoderous air. There is a plan by which this great source of human calamity may be greatly mitigated if not entirely exterminated; and though new, it does not rest on speculation. That air can be, and is moved from one place to another, is as certain as that water can be made to change its position; that it can be moved without being contaminated by the surrounding impure air is equally certain; and, I apprehend, no one will doubt that, whether breathed in a bedroom, on the hills, or two or three hundred feet from the earth, it is equally inoffensive to our lungs, and healthy to our systems.

We form large companies with heavy capitals to supply our cities with gas, to send to the hills for pure water and distribute them through pipe to our houses. With much less expense the more necessary air might be brought to our rooms to be used like water by the turn of a faucet. We bore the solid earth many hundred feet for water of a quality to suit our fancy, and by tubes conduct it uncontaminated through intervening currents to our dwellings. With half the expense, and to half the number of feet, we might tube the empty air to those regions which would furnish a

those who went to deride remained to admire the facility with which the Clermont started on the first steam voyage up the Hudson river; how rail-roads, even after many miles, in the United States, had been put in operation, were pronounced failures by the croaking public, and how the theories of almost all projectors have, in the end, fallen short of practical results, no plausible improvement should be abandoned without a fair trial.

fluid whose purity is of as much, if not more importance, to our healthy existence, than unadulterated meat and drink. But the tell-tale impurities of food and drink usually give warning to the senses, the taint of corruption or adulteration is made manifest in their use, while the subtle poison may lurk concealed in the invisible and inodorous air, as the unconscious subject regularly, as the pulsations of his heart, inhales disease and death. We no doubt appreciate meat and drink the more because their use gives a sensible enjoyment or pain, while the tasteless air gives no indication of its quality. Knowing how most discoveries and improvements have surpassed the expectations of the most sanguine; how the propulsion of water-craft by steam power was considered a humbug from the time of Watt to the 7th of August, 1807,when of which our philosophy has not dreamed.

I believe it was Theodore Hook who, when asked, on entering a university, if he was prepared to subscribe the thirtynine articles, replied, "Forty, if you please." So it seems we would be nearer right to expect more from the improvements of the day than what is required of us. For there is much yet to be known

ART. III-THE CITY OF LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY.

As incidents in the history of individual life form the basis of observational philosophy, so the histories of particular cities become the groundwork of the most accurate general system of mercantile investigation, or, as Saunderson expresses it, of "Merchandry."

produced commercial wants-commercial wants, a city.

The

The city of Louisville, in the State of Kentucky, is situated on the Ohio River, opposite the falls of the river, on a plain well suited to the purpose, about seventy feet above the level of the river, lon. 85° 30' west; lat. 38° 3' north. soil is sandy, extremely fertile, and resting upon a substratum of rich clay. It is laid out with considerable regularity, the principal streets running parallel with the river, and being intersected by others at right angles. It has a present population of 51,726 :—

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The cities of America are distinguished in a remarkable particular, in connection with the light they throw upon the philosophy of trade and commerce, from the cities of Europe, growing out of the fact, that they are, almost without exception, the children of commercial necessity. Cities in Europe have frequently grown up from other causes. The residence of kings, the salubrity of certain localities, and other romantic considerations, enter into the elements, and of course form a part of the history of European towns. But the history of The first owners of the lands at the an American city is a legible line in the falls were John Campbell and John Conhistory of trade. An American city, as ally. They were patented to them proa general rule, receives its birth, its con- bably as bounty lands. But the first tinual growth and advancing prosperity settlement having anything like a perfrom the one and common parent of manent character was made in 1778, by commerce. To this general observation the city of Louisville is no exception. It became a town because of the falls. Clark's instructions came from the ceThe falls in the Ohio river arrested the lebrated Patrick Henry, the Gov. of course of navigation, and made a stop- Virginia, and are dated Virginia-Sct. page there necessary. This stoppage In council, Williamsburg, Jan. 22, 1778.

Col. G. R. Clark, a name of some distinction in the early history of Kentucky.

Early Character of Kentucky-Virginia Enactment.

213

A few families were located by him upon acre each, with convenient streets, and Corn Island, opposite Louisville. Some public lots, which shall be, and the same conception of the nature of the danger and is hereby established a town by the name singular hardihood of the early settlers of of Louisville." Thus, we perceive, the this state may be derived from the fact, city of Louisville in the county of Kenthat these few families were removed into tucky became a town by authority of the heart of an Indian territory, several the General Assembly of the State of Virhundred miles from the nearest point of ginia. The statute proceeds further to protection from their countrymen, and enact "that after the said lands shall be when the intervening country was filled laid off into lots and streets, the said truswith a savage foe. tees, or any four of them, shall proceed to There is probably no country in the sell the said lots, or so many of them as world where the lovers of local or indivi- they shall judge expedient, at public aucdual adventure-the contests of man tion, for the best price that can be had, with his savage brother in the fierce ex- the time and place of sale being advercitement of the individual death struggle, tised two months at the court-house of with all its thrilling but minute particu- adjacent counties; the purchasers respeclars, can be gratified to the same extent, tively to hold their said lots subject to the both in the number and excitement of condition of building on each a dwellingthe incidents, as in the State of Kentucky. house, sixteen feet by twenty at least, The early settlement of the country was with a brick or stone chimney, to be characterized by conflicts between indi- finished within two years from the day of vidual members of the two distinct sale." The statute proceeded to grant races, or by small parties of each, rather the amount of sale of lots over thirty dolthan by any one general decisive engagement by which wars are usually terminated. But the Kentucky war was a war of extermination, more properly carried on by the individual members of the two races, than by any decisive settlement of subsisting disagreements in a general fight. It was a war ever beginning, and never ending. In no country in the world probably have human beings shot down human beings with a more evident gusto and more complete absence of remorseful visitings of conscience.

The following passages from an enactment of the General Assembly ofVirginia, passed in May, 1780, for "establishing the town of Louisville at the falls of Ohio," may not be without interest.

lars per acre to purposes of public improvement in the town, and to vest in the trustees the judicial power "to settle and determine all disputes concerning the bounds of the said lots; to settle such rules and orders for the regular building thereon as to them shall seem best and most convenient."

An important feature of the early geography of Louisville, was the many ponds of standing water, that so materially contributed to give the place the cognomen of the grave-yard. The first and most conspicuous, commencing at the present corner of Market-street, ran to Sixteenth-street. The next in size was known as Grayson's Pond, beginning on Centre-street, and running towards Seventh-street. The fish within this "Whereas sundry inhabitants of the pond, its clear water, its edges covered county of Kentucky have, at a great ex- with firm grassy turf, the many relipense and hazard, settled themselves gious services of baptism performed upon certain lands at the falls of Ohio, in it, and the many promenades around said to be the property (thus reads the act) it, evening and morning, by the élite of of John Conally, and have laid off a con- the city, made it quite a favorite; but it siderable part thereof into half-acre lots has given way in the progress of the for a town, and having settled thereon, city's wealth, and is now obliterated. have preferred petitions to this general Besides these, there were others of less assembly to establish the said town. Be magnitude scattered over the face of the it therefore enacted, that one thousand country, that would well entitle the city, acres of land, being the forfeited property in the language of Mr. Cassedy, to be of said John Conally, adjoining to the lands of John Campbell and Richard Taylor, be and the same is hereby vested in (sundry trustees) to be by them, or any four of them, laid off into lots of half an

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called an "archipelago, a sea full of little islands." These "have all been carefully drained, or filled up, and now the city will stand a favorable comparison in this regard, so closely connected

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In May, 1780, the General Assembly of Virginia divided the county of Kentucky into three counties respectively, the counties of Fayette, Lincoln, and Jefferson. In the latter county Louisville was situated. In the month of July, 1790, the convention of Kentucky met, and determined to accede to the offers of Virginia, with respect to the emancipation of the counties of Kentucky and their elevation to the position of an independent state. On the 14th of February, 1791, the act of Independence was passed by Congress. The new constitution for the new state was prepared in 1792. About this time terminated the hostilities of the Indians. The assessment of the town in 1809 was about $991.

In 1799, Louisville was declared by act of Congress to be a port of entry. This put an end to much smuggling, the city of New-Orleans then being in a foreign country.

Under the protection of the legislature of Kentucky, the town of Louisville was placed upon much more efficient police regulations than formerly, and many wise and salutary enactments were passed for the improvement of the town, the building public edifices, and a new survey and plot of the town were made out by legislative authority.

The town of Shippingport at one time threatened to rival Louisville in point of commercial importance.

But its geographical position and the start which Louisville had already taken, were of themselves sufficient to defeat the very strenuous efforts that were made by private individuals, at great sacrifices, to build up this town. It is one of the many proofs that there is an under current regulating the business of city-making, that private wealth and enterprise cannot always govern or control.

The very interesting sketches of Louisville, published by Dr. McMurtrie, in 1819, gives us the following character

istic account of this Bois de Boulogne of Louisville :

"This important place," says he, with that directness of detail so peculiar to the worthy Doctor, "is situated two miles below Louisville, immediately at the foot of the rapids, and is built upon the beautiful plain or bottom which commences at the mouth of Beargrass Creek, through which, under the brow of the second bank, the contemplated canal will in all probability be cut. The town originally consisted of forty-five acres, but it has since received considerable additions. The lots are 75 by 144 feet, the average price of which (1819) is from forty to fifty dollars per foot, according to the advantages of its situation. streets are all laid out at right angles; those that run parallel to the river, or nearly so, are eight in number, and vary from 30 to 90 feet in width. These are all intersected by 12-feet alleys running parallel to them, and by fifteen crossstreets at right angles, each sixty feet wide. The population of Shippingport may be estimated at 600 souls, including strangers." It has greatly faded from its original promise, and is now little more than the faubourg of the city of Louisville. The canal spoken of by Dr. McMurtrie has been since completed.

The

The Louisville and Portland canal is about two miles in extent. The fall to be overcome is computed to be about twenty-four feet, produced by masses of lime-rock, through which the entire bed of the canal is excavated, a part of it to the depth of 12 feet overlaid with earth. The following description of this work, begun in 1826, and prepared for navigation in 1830, and costing $750,000, is taken from the Encyclopædia Americanaarticle, Louisville. It corresponds also precisely with a description given by Mr. Ben Casseday :

"There is one guard and three lift locks combined, all of which have their foundation on the rock. There are two bridges, one of stone, 240 feet long, with an elevation of 68 feet to the top of the parapet wall, and three arches, the centre one of which is semi-elliptical, with a transverse diameter of 66, and a semiconjugate diameter of 22 feet; the two side arches are segments of 40 feet span, the other is a pivot bridge, built over the head of the guard lock, and is of wood, 100 feet long, with a span of 52 feet, intended to open in time of high water as

McMurtrie's and Casseday's Sketches-Louisville Canal. 215

boats are passing through the canal. The guard lock is 190 feet long in the clear, with semi-circular heads of 26 feet in diameter, is 50 feet wide, and 42 feet high. The solid contents of this lock are equal to those of 15 common locks, such as are built on the Ohio and NewYork canals. The lift locks are of the same width with the guard lock, 20 feet high and 183 feet long in the clear. The entire length of the walls, from the head of the guard lock, to the end of the outlet lock, is 921 feet. There are three culverts to drain off the water from the adjacent lands, the mason-work of which, when added to the locks and bridge, gives the whole amount of mason-work 41,989 perches, equal to about 30 common canal locks. The cross section of the canal is 200 feet at the top of the banks, 50 feet at the bottom, and 42 feet high, having a capacity equal to that of 25 common canals.

"The Louisville and Portland canal was completed and put in partial operation on the 1st of January, 1831, from which time up to June 1st of the same year, 505 boats of different descriptions passed its locks. A bank of mud at its mouth, which could not be removed last .winter, from the too sudden rise of the water, will be removed at the ensuing period of low water, when the canal can be navigated at all times by all such vessels as navigate the Ohio. The Ohio, when the water is lowest, is not more than two feet deep in many places above and below the falls, and rises 36 feet perpendicular above the falls, opposite to the city, and 60 feet perpendicular rises have been known at the foot of the falls. An appropriation of $150,000 by the United States was made last winter (1830), by which the low places in the river are to be improved so as to give four feet of water, in low water, from its mouth to Pittsburgh.

"Louisville has been allowed by travelers and strangers," this same account continues, "to be one of the greatest thoroughfares in the Union. At least 50,000 passengers arrive here annually from below, and it is reasonable to conclude half that number pass through it descending. Great bodies of emigrants from the east and north pass through it, and it is not uncommon in the autumn to see the streets filled for days together with continued processions of movers, as they are called, going to the Great West."

Recurring again to the canal, it may be interesting to the curious to know that in excavating it there were found bodies of trees in a state of partial decay, many human skeletons in an astonishing condition of preservation, many implements of stone, and indeed some of wood, some of iron, are indicative of some advancement in the mechanic arts-some trees of cedar, not found anywhere in that region, together with fire-places and charred wood, or carbon. In a particular locality there were found many hundreds of flint arrow-heads, constructed by the Indians for purposes of hunting or defence.

Mr. Mann Butler informs us that many mineral springs, some of them possessing the invaluable ingredient of iron so much prized in cases of debility of the digestive apparatus, presented themselves in more places than one, during the excavation.-13,776 steamboats and 4,700 flats and keels had passed through the canal in 1843, the tolls of which amounted to $1,227,625 50.

Louisville became a city by an act of the Kentucky Legislature, passed 13th Feb., 1828.

Mr. Casseday informs us that "a writer in the Focus for January 20, 1829, gives an idea of the commerce of Louisville in regard to certain leading articles at this period." He says, that "from the 1st January, 1828, to 1st January, 1829, there were received and sold in this place 4,144 hogsheads of sugar and 8,607 bags and barrels of coffee, amounting in value to $584,681. He also fixes the inspections of tobacco in Louisville at 2,050 hhds. for 1826, 4,354 hhds. for 1827, and 4,075 hds. for 1828. The average price of these was-for 1826, $2 67, for 1827, $2 59, and for 1828, $1 98%. The whole value of these for the three years was $468,672 88. 1.140 of these were shipped to Pittsburgh, 3,048 to NewOrleans, 320 manufactured here, and 458 were stemmed.

A writer in the Kentucky Reporter also adds to this information the following statement: "The store-rooms of the principal wholesale merchants are larger and better adapted to business purposes than any to be found in the commercial cities of the East. Not a few of them are from 100 to 130 feet in depth by 30 wide, and from three to four stories high, and furnished with fireproof vaults for the preservation of books

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