The Sun.
London, England, 1845-09-29 00:00:00

YORK, SEPT. 26.

—5%
310a1
, Os j

75341:

la4s6dll

- The Directors have entered into an arrangement with the
Great Grimsby and Sheffield Junction Railway Company for
extending this line of railway from the point of junction with
the London to York line at Askern to Brigg, in Lincolnshire,
there to join the Great Grimsby and Sheffield Railway. The
capital for this extension is to be provided by the two Com-
panies, in the proportion of two-thirds by the Grimsby and
Sheffield, and one-third by this Company. The scrip for this
extension will be issued immediately, and will be provided
amongst the proprietors in this Company in the proportion of
one 201. share for every original share in this Company."
After the report was read, the CHAIRMAN proposed tlfb fol-
- lowing resolution, viz. :—" That the report of the Directors
now read be adopted and approved, and also printed and cir-
- culated among the Shareholders." Without entering into a
minute detail of account, he might say that the report gave
a general idea of the distribution of their money, and what
—a% they might expect from their product. They were aware
that the capital of this Company amounted to 365,0001., in
7,300 shares of 501. each. Their Methley and Askem
branches would cost 200,000/., and 7,300 shares of 25/. each
would amount to 182,500/., leaving 700 shares, or 17,500/.,
for landowners and other expenses. The Grimsby Exten-
_
/non would cost 640,0004.; one-sixth, or 100,0001., they pro-
posed to give landowners; one-third to the Wakefield,
Pontefract, and Goole Company ; and the other portion to
Iste" the Sheffield and Grimsby Extension ; thus affording a 20/.
extension share to each original, and making 451. new stock
to every original 504. share. They were not in a position to
give a correct financial statement, in consequence of some of
the bills remaining unpaid ; but with some few exceptions
all the bills have been paid.
a, . ram movpri tha
" That the able and satisfactory manner in which the Pro-
- visional Committee have conducted the affairs of this Com-
- pany to a successful termination in Parliament, entitles
them to the best thanks of this meeting, and that 150 of the
new extension shares be appropriated to the Provisional
Committee, as some return for their arduous services."
Mr. WAKE, of Goole, seconded the resolution, which was
- carried unanimously.
- RALPH CREYKR, Esq., in a complimentary speech, moved
a vote of thanks to the chairman. which was seconded by J.
Aunus, Esq., and carried.
The CHAIRMAN then returned thanks, and the meeting
- separated.

7 __ DOES RAILWAY TRAVELLING
-5% INDUCE APOPLEXY ?
_ _

(From the Medical Times.)
In our leader of last week, we adverted, in general terms,
to the subject of apoplexy induced by railway travelling.
We now proceed to treat the matter more in detail, and to
offer some further and concluding observations. And we do
this the more willingly, because of the interest which the
public and the profession naturally feel in this important
topic, and because, as there is truth to be arrived at, it is
desirable that such truth should be elucidated and made ge-
nerally known.
It is fitting that we should take occasion, a priori,
to state, that the notion of railway travelling having a ten-
_
dency to produce apoplexy in persons predisposed to that
ailment, is not the offspring of any idle speculation or con-
- oeit, but is indebted for its origin and pitmulgation to certain
matters of fact. These consist of curious and seemingly in-
_
71
4, explicable instances of apoplexy, occurring to apparently
healthy individuals, during, or shortly after, railway travel-
- ling. Almost without an exception, the sufferers were in to-
— lerable health before commencing their journeys, or at least
neither complained of nor exhibited any symptoms of
cerebral disturbance. This fact, coupled with another
- of equal importance, namely, that of the sudden
- deaths (not arising from external injury) of railway tra-
-- yellers, the ascertained cause has almost invariably
been apoplexy, will remove the anticipated objec-
t tions, that, what would appear to be consequences are merely
coincidences—that the individuals might have died at the
same time, and of the same disease, had they been placed
- under other circumstances—and that apoplexy only shares,
with other pathological conditions, as an agent of death in
the instances in question. The removal of the last objection
is a matter of much importance, and, indeed, essential to
the whole weight and bearing of the arguments about to be
- offered. Sudden death, from various causes, we know to be
one of the common heritages of humanity, and the wonder
of its occurrence ceases with advancing pathological know-
-
ledge. Apart from relative considerations, it is not more singular that people should suddenly die in railway carriages
than in other places, and did the instances of death so hap-
-
pening prevent a variety, instead of preservinga uniformity of
cause, they would be no matter of surprise, but would be con-
- sidered as belonging to the common category of calamity
"that flesh is heir to." But when, on the contrary, indi-
viduals, seemingly healthy, are observed to die under parti-
_
solar circumstances, and almost constantly of a particular
disease, we naturally enough connect these things together
in the relation of cause and consequence.
- It is not necessary to our purpose that we should give a
history of the apoplectic deaths that have occurred during
railway travelling—most of our readers, we presume, are fa-
miliar with the chief of them ; but to such as may not be,
we may observe, that one of the earliest of these melancholy
events is memorable from Sir Henry Halford, in his delicacy
'— of etiquette, leaving his friend at a lonely station to be bled
by any chance surgeon, rather than delay a dinner-party an
hour, by himself staying to render the extreme services of
. humanity and professional skill. More recently, Viscount
Canterbury and Lord Bateman have died under these pecu-
- liar circumstances, and to their names might be added many
of people in more humble life, who have suffered in like man-
_
ner from a like cause.
Before proceeding with a further explanation of these
_ -
things, we must remind our readers that, in treating this
subject last week, we premised the probability of a predis-
- position to apoplexy on the part of those who had fallen vic-
tims to it on railroads. It is only upon people so constituted
that we can suppose trifling moral or physical causes to ope-
rate with any degree of force in the production of this ail-
-
ment. Now, we know that in such people, whether owing
their peculiarity of condition to birth, to accident, or to dis-
- ease, the slightest deviations from their ordinary habits and
mndes of life suffice to place them in jeopardy. Examples
of these deviations we shall find, abundantly enough, in
railway travelling. For convenience sake we will divide
them into moral and physical.
- We should say that fear deserves a prominent place in the
first division. It is not necessary that we should quote from
the many cases on record which prove the influence of this
emotion upon the functions of the human organism. We
3% know it to be capable of arresting the heart's action in fatal
2 fainting, or of terminating life more slowly, but as surely, by
- an impression upon the brain. Nor do we think it impro-
" bable, that amongst the cases of apoplexy which have hap-
' pened upon the railroad, some may have been due to this
condition of the mind It has occurred to us, on many
occasions, to witness an agonising fear on the part of travellers
who have coupled a terrific pace of the engine, or a passage
through a tunnel, with a reflection upon the destiny to which
either event might tend. Nor should we be inclined to pay a
cot_hrompulgimhent to the sensibility of any man whose mind would. be
unaffected by a journey in an express train, or by a transit
fda:yey thatth eownNee_
ewaotefi
rbteahltoe
arsaevaaefwl
iftnungleginr excavations which typify to one's
athvee.aamlteweaasrriaognelywitthhea otherlad
unutterable we approached a tunnel, buried her face,
an agony of apprehension, in her husband's ap,
in
and could scarcely be roused from her silent dread until long
saafteyrththate osubjeehct
an
nof a Illnear
nt terror r
ao
fr
fear, a been passed. Who can
in a system less able
to resist it, might not have been
apoplexy !productive of nervous
There are some people, again, in whom the mind is
atrogly affected by certaineiteraal Qbjecta or yin .

STOCK Excnaffor..—The sales are—Eastern Union Ex-
tension, s—Newcastle and Darlington Junction, New
(Brandling), 54—North British (Carlisles), WA—York
and North Midland, 116—Ditto, Extension, 301—Coven-
try, Nuneaton, Birmingham, and Leicester,, 3%—Direct
Northern, 4—Grand Union, 4N—Leicester and Bedford, 4
—London and York, 67/B—Manchester, Buxton, &c., 10%—
Newcastle and Berwick, 201,/a—Welsh Midlands, 41/.2.

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.
WAKEFIELD, PONTEFRACT, AND GOOLE.
On Wednesday last, great interest and rejoicings were ex-
cited in the borough of Pontefract, in consequence of the pro-
- ceedings connected with the firstgeneral meeting of the Share-
- holders of the above Company, which was held at the New
Elephant Hotel, Dr. Buchanan, the Chairman of the Company,

presiding. A brief notice of this meeting appeared in The Sim
of yesterday. Amongst the Directors and Shareholders present
were—Captain Laws, James Audus, Esq., of Headingley ;
William Moxon, Esq., of Pontefract; J. B. Faviell, of
9% Featherstone Hall ; Edward Harper, Esq., of York ; Henry
Heuldsworth, Esq., Chairman of the Manchester and Leeds
" Railway Company; Ralph Creyke, Esq., of Rawcliffe
71% Hall; Captain Binstead, of Wakefield; G. Leeman, Esq.,
and W. F. Clark, Esq., solicitors to the Company; Captain
Bentham, Richard Lee, Esq., of Grove Hall ; James Meek,
jun., Esq., of York ; Dr. Rawdon, of York; W. S. Gibson,
Esq., of 'York ; Winn, Esq., of York ; William Smith, jun.,
Esq., of York ; Mr. James Walker, of York ; air. Chap- ,
man, of York ; Mr. Glaisby, of York ; &c. ; also Richard
Lee, Esq., of Grove Hall ; John Lister, Esq., of Goole ;
Daniel Cass, Esq., of Goole ; John Wilson, Esq., of Goole ;
Michael Mitton, Esq., of Pontefract ; Robert Farrar, Esq.,
of Stillington ; Matthias Whitehead, Esq., of Selby ;
Wake, Esq., of Goole ; W. Oldfield, Esq., of York ; J. Old-
- field, Esq., of York, &c.
The CHAIRMAN having briefly opened the proceedings,
GEORGE LEEMAN, Esq., read an elaborate report from
the Directors. They said they had great pleasure, after a
Img and very arduous conflict, in now meeting the Pro-
_
prietors, and laying before them the Act of Parliament for
the construction of this important railway. After adverting
to different subjects of minor importance, they proceeded
to say :
' " Your Directors have given instructions for applying in the
next session for the branch line from Methley to Pontefract,
as directed by Parliament, and they have also determined to
recommend to this Company to continue such branch from
Knottingley to join the London and York Railway at or
near Askern, which will thus make the shortest line from
London to Leeds. The project is most favourably received
by the landowners along that branch, and will not only form
a very valuable adjunct to this Company's main line of rail-
- way, but will be of great local benefit to the owners of the
lime fields which it will traverse. In addition to thisbranch,
your Directors also propose to form a short branch to join
the Midland Railways at the south side of the Oakenshaw
station, and which is necessary for giving a complete commu-
nication from Wakefield to the Midland Railway. For the
purpose of making these extensions, your Directors propose
to issae new shares to the holders of stock in this Company,
, in the proportion of one new 251. share for every original
2-6 I share.