SUSPENSION-BRIDGE.

cables of each opening are firmly secured in masses of masonry resting near the points of construction. IT has been thought by many that one of the A hanging-bridge, upon the construction as above greatest obstacles to the rapid and permanent growth roughly suggested, (with all the necessary details of the city of New York, existed in the fact that carried out,) it is ascertained from experiments there is at present no certain and rapid mode of made, would have a surplus of upward of twelve communication with the adjoining country.. To be hundred tons remaining, denoting the strength of sure the different ferries by which the inhabitants the bridge; a weight that beyond probability would of this splendid city are able in the spring and sum-never be upon the bridge at one point of time. The mer months to enjoy the society of their neighbours, expense of constructing this bridge, would vary from might at first view, seem to render that objection five hundred to eight hundred thousand dollars.” futile; but when we consider the great expense of ferriage, and the uncertainty of the length of passage in the winter season, when the rivers are frequently obstructed with ice, it will be apparent to every one that if bridges could be thrown over the North and East rivers, they would certainly be a publick benefit, and contribute very much to the prosperity and comfort of the people.

We are therefore not a little gratified at being able to present our readers in the present number of the Family Magazine, with a beautiful plan of a suspension-bridge, designed by Mr. Graves, and to be built of iron. We hope in the course of a few years, to have the pleasure of walking over this bridge, which if erected in accordance with the plan offered to the publick, will be highly honourable to the country, and to all concerned.

"MR. Graves' plan for an iron hanging-bridge over the east and west channels of the East river, from between sixty-fifth and seventy-fifth streets on the city of New York side, across the northern part of Blackwell's island to a feasible point on Long island opposite.

THE HUMAN BODY.

THE ultimate elements of which the human body is composed, are azote, or nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen; (gaseous fluids ;) and carbon, phosphorus, calcium, sulphur, sodium, potassium, magnesium, and iron, (solid substances.) These bodies are called elementary and ultimate, because they cannot be resolved by any known process into more simple substances.

substances with each other are called PROXIMATE PRINCIPLES.

Each proximate principle constitutes a distinct form of animal matter, of which the most important are named gelatin, albumen, fibrin, oily or fatty matter, mucus, urea, pichromel, osmazome, resin, and sugar.

These elementary bodies unite with each other in different proportions, and thus form compound substances. A certain proportion of azote uniting with a certain proportion of oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon, forms a compound substance possessing certain properties. Another proportion of azote uniting with a different proportion of oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon, forms another compound substance possessing properties different from the former. Oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon, uniting in still different proportions without any admixture of azote, form a The distance from point to point on a feasible third compound possessing properties different from line of construction may be stated as follows :— either of the preceding. The compounds thus formFrom New York to Blackwell's island, eight hun-ed by the primary combinations of the elementary dred and fifteen feet; across Blackwell's island, six hundred and ten feet; and from Blackwell's island to Long island, six hundred and eighty-three feet; making a total distance of two thousand one hundred and eight feet. The bridge to have three openings of seven hundred feet each between the points of suspension, with abutments of arched masonry on either side of the channels, and spanning Blackwell's island with three connecting arches. Height of road-bed above high water, one hundred and twenty feet; to spring of side arches, ninety feet; from road-bed to summit of the suspending piers, fifty-eight feet; span of smaller arches, one hundred and fifty feet; centre arch, two hundred and fifty feet, with corresponding spring; each of main piers to be sixty feet wide at high water level, sloping upward in proportion. The breadth of the bridge forty-five feet, with (at each opening) ten ribs of twenty pieces each, connected by a cross grated plate, and cross braces, the whole further secured by two horizontal diagonal cables, connect- Again, albumen consists of azote 15,705, oxygen ed at the centre point of crossing and at the piers; 23,872, hydrogen 75406, carbon 5200 parts. The The roadway passes through arched openings in the elementary bodies uniting in these different proporsuspension-piers, to have two carriage-tracks with a tions, there results a second proximate principle, an foot-path intervening; suspended from four catena-adhesive fluid, transparent, destitute of smell and rian lines of malleable iron chains or cables, (of taste, miscible in water, but when subjected to a four cables each) by perpendicular lines of iron rods temperature of about 1650, converted into a solid alternating from the four suspension cables, spread-substance no longer capable of being dissolved in ing five feet apart horizontally with each side of the water. This conversion of albumen from a fluid, road-way, framed of iron lattice, left deep and simi- which is its natural state, into a solid, by the applilarly latticed below the road-bed. The suspension-cation of heat, is called coagulation. It is a process

By chymical analysis it is ascertained that all the proximate principles of the body, however they may differ from each other in appearance and in properties, are composed of the same ultimate elements. Gelatin, for example, consists (in 100 parts) of azote 16,9880 1000, Oxygen 27-207, hydrogen 7,914, carbon 47-881 To parts. The elementary bodies uniting in the above proportions form an animal substance, soft, tremulous, solid, soluble in water, especially when heated, and on cooling, which may be considered as its distinctive property, separating from its solution in water into the same solid substance, without undergoing any change in its chymical constitution.

1000'

familiar to every one. The white of an egg is nearly | increase in the proportion of its solid matter : hence pure albumen, naturally a glairy and adhesive fluid: the softness and roundness of the body in youth; its by boiling, it is coagulated into a white and firm solid. hard, unequal, and angular surface in advance life; In like manner, fibrin consists of azote 191000, 934 its progressively increasing fixedness and immobiloxygen 1968, hydrogen 702, carbon 5330ity in old age, and ultimate inevitable death. parts, forming a solid substance of a pale whitish colour and firm consistence, the peculiar character of which is its disposition to arrange itself into minute threads or fibres.

On the other hand, fat or oil, which is a fluid substance of a whitish yellow colour, inodorous, nearly insipid, unctuous, insoluble in water and burning with rapidity, consists of a larger proportion of hydrogen, a small proportion of oxygen, and a still smaller proportion of carbon, without any admixture of azote.

From this account of the composition of the proximate principles, which it is not necessary to extend farther, it is manifest that all of them consist of the same ultimate elements, and that they derive their different properties from the different proportions in which their elements are combined.

The ultimate elements that compose the body are never found in a separate or gaseous state, but always in combination in the form of one or other of the proximate principles.

In like manner, the proximate principles never exist in a distinct and pure state, but each is combined with one or more of the others. No part consists wholly of pure albumen, gelatin, or mucus, but albumen is mixed with gelatin, or both with mucus. Simple or combined, every proximate principle assumes the form either of a fluid or of a solid, and hence the most general and obvious division of the body is into fluids and solids. But the terms fluid and solid are relative, not positive; they merely express the fact that some of the substances in the body are soft and liquid compared with others which are fixed and hard; for there is no fluid, however thin, which does not hold in solution some solid matter, and no solid, however dense, which does not contain some fluid.

The fluids are not only more abundant than the solids, but they are also more important, as they afford the immediate material of the organization of the body; the media by which both its composition and its decomposition are effected. They bear nourishment to every part, and by them are carried out of the system its noxious and useless matters. In the brain they lay down the soft and delicate cerebral substance; in the bone, the hard and compact osseous matter; and the worn-out particles of both are removed by their instrumentality. Every part of the body is a laboratory in which complicated and transforming changes go on every instant; the fluids are the materials on which these changes are wrought; chymistry is the agent by which they are affected, and life is the governing power under whose control they take place.

The fluids, composed principally of water holding solid matter in solution, or in a state of mechanical division, either contribute to the formation of the blood, or constitute the blood, or are derived from the blood; and after having served some special office in a particular part of the system, are returned to the blood; and according to the nature and proportion of the substances they contain, are either aqueous, albuminous, mucous, gelatinous, fibrinous, oleaginous, resinous, or saline.

When the analysis of the different kinds of animal matter that enter into the composition of the body has been carried to its ultimate point, i appears to be resolvable into two primitive forms: first, a substance capable of coagulation, but posses sing no determinate figure and secondly, a substance having a determinate figure and consisting of rounded particles. The coagulable substance is capable of existing by itself; the rounded particles are never found alone, but are invariably combined with Fluids and solids are essentially the same in na-coagulated or coagulable matter. Alone or combinture; they differ merely in their mode of aggrega-ed with the rounded particles, the coagulable matter tion; hence the easy and rapid transition from the forms when liquid, the fluids, when coagulated, the one to the other which incessantly takes place in solids. the living body, in which no fluid long remains a fluid, and no solid a solid, but the fluid is constantly passing into the solid, and the solid into the fluid.

When solid, the coagulable substance is disposed in one of two forms, either in that of minute threads or fibres, or in that of minute plates or laminæ ; hence every solid of the body is said to be either fibrous or laminated. The fibres or laminæ are variously interwoven and interlaced, so as to form a net-work or mesh; and the interspaces between the fibres or laminæ are commonly denominated areolæ or cells.

The relative proportion of the fluids in the human body is always much greater than that of the solids; hence its soft consistence and rounded form. The excess, according to the lowest estimate, is as 6 to 1, and according to the highest, as 10 to 1. But the proportion is never constant; it varies according to age and to the state of the health. The younger This concrete substance, fibrous or laminated, is the age, the greater the preponderance of the fluids. variously modified either alone or in combination The human embryo, when first perceptible, is al- with the rounded particles. These different modmost wholly fluid: solid substances are gradually ifications and combinations constitute different kinds but slowly superadded, and even after birth the pre-of organick substance. When so distinct as obviponderance is strictly according to age; for in the ously to possess a peculiar structure and peculiar infant, the fluids abound more than in the child; in properties, each of these modifications is considered the child, more than in the youth; in the youth, as a separate form of organized matter, and is called more than in the adolescent; in the adolescent, more a PRIMARY TISSUE. than in the adult; and in the adult, more than in the aged. Thus, among the changes that take place in the physical constitution of the body in the progress of life, one of the most remarkable is the successive

He who refuses to do justice to the defenceless, will often be found making unreasonable concessions to the powerful.

the base toward the eyes, all of which are black. A large protuberance, also of a deep black, surmounts the base of the bill; the iris is brown; and the legs black, with a tinge of red. All the plumage, without exception, in the adult bird, is of the purest white.

five feet, and more than eight in the expanse of its wings, which reach, when closed, along two thirds of the tail. Its weight is usually about twenty pounds, but it sometimes attains five and twenty or even thirty; and those which inhabit the southern coast of the Caspian are said to reach a still more enormous size. The female is rather smaller than the male; her bill is surmounted by a smaller protuberance and her neck is somewhat more slender. When first hatched the young are of a dusky gray, with lead-coloured bill and legs; in the second year their plumage becomes lighter, and their bill and legs assume a yellowish tinge; in the third year they put on the adult plumage and colouring of the naked parts.

:

Of the characters by which the Swans are distinguished from the rest of the family to which they belong, the most remarkable are the extreme length of their necks; the oval shape of their nostrils, which are placed about the middle of their bill; the naked-In length the full grown male measures upward of ness of their cheeks; the equal breadth of their bills throughout; the great depth of that organ at the base, where the vertical considerably exceeds the transverse diameter; and the position of their legs behind the centre of gravity. They are by far the largest species of the family; and there are very few birds that exceed them in magnitude. They live almost constantly on the water, preferring the larger streams and open lakes; and feed chiefly on aquatick plants, the roots of which they are enabled to reach by means of their long necks, for they rarely if ever plunge the whole of their bodies beneath the surface. They also devour frogs and insects, and occasionally, it is said, even fishes; but this last assertion is contradicted by almost every observer who has attended particularly to their habits, and seems quite at variance with the fact that the fish-ponds to which they are sometimes confined do not appear to suffer the smallest diminution in the number of their inhabitants from the presence of these inoffensive birds. We are moreover informed by Mr. Yarrell that he has never found in the stomachs of any of the numerous individuals dissected by him the least vestige of such a diet. In their habits they are as peaceable as they are majestick in form, elegant in attitude, graceful in their motions, and, in the two species that are most commonly known to us, unsullied in the purity of their white and glossy plumage.

The distinguishing characteristicks of the tame Swan, are found chiefly in its bill, which is throughout of an orange red, with the exception of the edges of the mandibles, the slight hook at the extremity, the nostrils, and the naked spaces extending from

The females choose for their nesting-place the least frequented situations on the banks of the rivers or lakes which they inhabit, and build their nests in the rudest manner of twigs and reeds, lined with a comfortable coating of their breast feathers. They lay six or eight grayish eggs, and sit for five weeks, generally in April and May. As soon as the young birds are hatched, they are carried by both parents to the water, and for two or three weeks afterwards are borne upon their backs, or placed for shelter and warmth beneath their wings. The attentions of the parent birds are continued until the next pairing season, when the old males drive the young from their society, and compel them to shift for themselves. To prevent the tame ones from flying away, it is necessary every year to clip their quill-feathers; and this mutilation seems to deprive them not only of the power, but also of the desire, to regain their liberty.

casteaux in search of La Pérouse, has given a more particular description, together with a tolerable figure.

They accustom themselves with ease to the society | which their "rara avis" would be found in as great of man, and seem even to become attached to him, abundance as the common wild swan upon the lakes probably in consequence of the kindness with which of Europe. Such, however, has been one of the they are everywhere treated, and the peculiar privi- least singular among the many strange and unexpectleges which they enjoy at his hands. Besides their ed results of the discovery of the great southern connatural food, consisting of plants, insects, snails, and tinent of New Holland. Scarcely a traveller who similar productions, they eagerly devour bread and has visited its shores omits to mention this remarkall kinds of grain, and in winter are chiefly kept on able bird. An early notice of its transmission to these substances, and the same kind of provender Europe occurs in a letter from Witsen to Dr. Martin that is given to ducks and geese. Lister, printed in the twentieth volume of the PhiloAlthough naturally one of the most gentle and in-sophical Transactions; and Valentyn published in offensive of birds, the large size and great muscular 1726 an account of two living specimens brought to power of the swan, render it a formidable enemy Batavia. Cook, Vancouver, Philip, and White, menwhen driven to extremity, and compelled to act on ion it incidentally in their voyages; and Labillar the defensive. In such a case it is said to give bat-dière, in his narrative of the expedition of D'Entretle to the eagle, and frequently even to repel his attack, forcing him to seek his safety in flight. It never attempts to molest any of the smaller waterfowl that inhabit its domains; but in the season of its amours it will not suffer a rival to approach its place of retreat without a sanguinary struggle, in which one or the other is generally destroyed. It is said to attain a very great age, thirty years being commonly spoken of as the term of its existence. It is even asserted that in Alkmar, a town in the north of Holland, there died, in the year 1672, a swan belonging to the municipality, which bore on its collar the date of 1573, and must consequently have been a century old; and several other instances of a similar nature have been related by authors. We must confess, however, that we entertain strong doubts of the authenticity of such statements, founded merely on popular tradition and unsupported by any positive evidence.

So much for the white swan. We must now give a few remarks in regard to the black swan figured in

our cut.

When the classical writers of antiquity spoke of the black swan as a proverbial rarity, so improbable as almost to be deemed impossible, little did they imagine that in these latter days a region would be discovered, nearly equal in extent to the Roman empire even at the proudest period of its greatness, in

Since this period many living individuals have been brought to England, where they thrive equally well with the Emeus, the Kanguroos, and other Australian animals, insomuch that they can now scarcely be regarded as rarities even in that country. They are precisely similar in form and somewhat inferiour in size to the wild and tame swans, but are perfectly black in every part of their plumage, with the exception of the primary and a few of the secondary quill-feathers, which are white. Their bill is of a bright red above, and is surmounted at the base in the male by a slight protuberance, which is wanting in the female. Towards its anteriour part it is crossed by a whitish band. The under part of the bill is of a grayish white; and the legs and feet are of a dull ash-colour. In every other respect, except in the mode of convolution of its trachea, this bird corresponds perfectly with its well known congeners.

The black swans are found as well in Van Diemen's Land as in New South Wales and on the western coast of New Holland. They are generally seen in flocks of eight or nine together, floating on a lake; and when disturbed, flying off like wild geese in a direct line one after the other. They are said to be extremely shy, so as to render it difficult to approach within gunshot of them.