The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-08-22 00:00:00

HEALTH OF THE TOWN.—Dr. Lyon Playfair arrived
in Liverpool last week, for the purpose of commencing his
inquiries into the causes of the high rate of mortality in
Liverpool. He has already sent to numerous partie. lists
of questions which he wishes to have answered.
ATTEMPTED SUICIDE.—Hannah Watson, who had
been placed in Bridewell on the preceding evening, in a
state of intoxication, appeared before the magistrates on
Friday. A scream was heard to issue from the place
where she was, and on entering, the prisoner was disco-
vered attempting to strang!e herself with a garter. She
was ordered to be discharged.
INQUEST.--An inquest was held yesterday tefore Mr
Curry, on view of the body of Henry Moore, a shipwerht.
aged 26 years. It appeared that the decea,ed w at
work, on Friday week last, on a vessel in the Car.,:ng
Graving Dock, on a stage with some others. He had oc-
casion to go from one part of the stage to another. and in
doing so took hold of the top of a pole that rested on the
stage, but did not form any support or part of it; and
whilst in the act of striding over it, the heel of it slipped
in the dock and fell, and he fell along with it against the
side of the dock. Deceased fell under the pole, which
struck him on the head ; and he after wards fell down to
the bottom of the dock, where he was taken up insensi-
ble, and bleeding from both ears. He was conveyed to
the Southern Hospital, where he died on the Friday fol-
lowing, from the injuries he had received in the head And
elsewhere.—Verdict, " Accidental death."
CASE OF STABBING.—Ad adjourned case, in
whim—a
well-dressed young man named Williams, was charged
with cutting and stabbing a man of the same name, was
yesterday disposed in the Police Court. It appeared (as
stated in our last), that the prisoner had on Sunday night,
the 13th instant, stabbed with a clasp knife, and
,severely
injured his namesake; without, it is said, any provocation.
Some further evidence was yesterday brought forward, to
the effect that he had knocked off Williams's hat, and
afterwards stabbed him. The surgeon who had attet:dera
the wounded man, said that Iv, had found four incise
wounds ; and that the patient had suffered much front
effubion of blood, but was not in a dangerous state. The
prisoner declined to say anything in his defence, and was
committed for trial at the present assizes—the winPsses
being bound over in £lOO each. The prisoner had before
stated, in his defence, that the man had that attacked
him.

STEALING CORN FROM A WAREHOUSE..--ATI old man,
named Peter Duffy, wa. -ternay charged at the Police-
court with breaking into warehouse, and stealing a
quantity of wheat. John vi-ait,v.i'ight, a cooper, stated
that he was in the service of his father, who let ofr ware-
houses in Charlotte-street. At nine o'clock on Satur-
day morning he found the lock of the warehouse, No. 4,
broken, and got it immediately repaired and replaced.
Ile gave information, and the pt •e
-officer Eaton re-
mained on the look out, and about (,; c o'clork saw the
prisoner leave the warehouse with a ,small bag, and
stopped him. The bag contained wheat, and some of the
same kind of grain was also found in his hat and pockets
—in all about 151 b. It was found that the lock had been
in the interim a second time forced, and a chisel was
found which corresponded with the marks on the wood-
work. The wheat belonged to Mr. Wm. Lowe, lrn-
merchant, and about three bushels, of a quantity s• filar
to that found on the prisoner, were missing. lie was
committed for trial.

GOOD FORTUNE.—Many of our readers will, probably,
recollect the following paragraph which appeared in the
local papers a short time back :—"GOOD NEWS FOR SOME
BODY.—It may be important to some worthy family in
Ireland, to learn that Mr. Michael Rice, an Irishman,
aged fifty or sixty, lately died in this city, worth 80,000
(1r 11ars. lie has no relative in the United States, though
he made his fortune here; it is said that he has a sister in
Ireland, who is poor."—(Philadelphia Correspondent of
the Morning Chronicle.)—We 11.. v- since ascertained that
Mr. Forsyth, one of the bridewell keepers at the south
dock station, in this town, happened to take home one of
the papers in which this paragraph appeared ; and that his
wife, on reading the news, saw the intimation, and felt no •
doubt that the gtn'letnan named was her brother. As
soon as the disemery was made, turatis were at once
adoptad for obtaining posession of the property. A mer-
chant in this town has taken the matter in band, and no
doubt the heir-at-law will soon be in possession of the
effects of her deceased brother.
LECTURES AT THE COLLEGIATE INSTITUTION.—OrI
Tuesday last Dr. Brett delivered his third lecture " on
Heat and Combustion," commencing with some observa-
tions (in cantinuation) on latent beat,—showing that when
liquids dissolve into vapours, more heat is absorbed that
in the case of solids becoming liquified. He demonstrated, .
by an experiment, that sulphate of magnesia in a liquid
state, when mixed with spiris of wine, became solid.
Ether passed rapidly into vapour, and was, therefore, me-
dically applied to produce a sensation of cold. If the
finger were plunged into boiling water, the immediate ap-
plication of spirits of wine would allay the pain. He
made several experiments, showing the effect of ether in
vaporizaiion in reducing the temperature. When a vapour
became liquid considerable heat was evolved. Thus, 1 lb.
of steam, at v temperature of 212 degrees, would pass into
8 lb. of water of a heat of 87 degrees. He then explained
the principles of ebulition in vacuo, the boiling point in
liquids, the condition of high and low pressure steam as
regarded latent heat, &c. The elacticity of vapours in-
creased with their temperature, anti the latent heat of
steam increased at low, and decreased at high, tempera-
tures. He next atuded to the analogy between gasses and
vapours; the liqu faction of the former; their law of diffu-
sion, which was in proportion to their relative lightness,
&c., illustrating this branch of the subject by some expe-
riq":ents. Professional men differed in opinion as to the
laws of beat ; some assuming that it had material pro-
perties; others that it had not, but depended on the mo-
tion of matter, and others that, likt- light, it was produced
by the undulation of a subtile eti.er,—to which last view
of the subject he was himself fut,ourubita. With thin ho
concluded the subj, ct of heat, and should, in his next lec-
ture, proceed to consider the laws of courbustion.—On...
Friday evening Dr. Brett ably ct.:Dmeeced the second lec- •.
tare of his subject—" Combustion," some of the early
opinions entertained on which we:, remarkable, not to say
ridiculous theories. Same chemists in former times thought
that combustion was pro lueeil by particles being thrown
i nto. a state of vibration or agitation, and that in conse-
quence light and beat were developed. It was sup-
posed by others, that when a substance—such, for •
instance, as metal—l:eel= in a state of combustion,
it parted with some principle or element constitutins,
in its new form, light and heat. But it was found,
on the contrary, that such substances, in place of
losing weight by the action of comb,ustion, actually gained
an accession of it. Others, therefore, supposed that the
metal imbibed a certain principle of the atmosphere; and
this was in reality a sbrd,towing forth of the fact, as had
been proved by the exj,-.1. ,ents of Boyle, Who found that
as the atmosphere decr: ased from a vessel in which com-
bustion was going on. the burning or combustion propor-
tionately decreased and finally -sed. A remarkable
theory was entertained by a anistf(Stahl), who
supposed that combustible matt. . steel of a substance
of a phosphoric nature, called 3ton. Thus, when
phosphorus was burnt, it left a bo,i, supposed to be de-
prived of its phlogiston. It might have been supposed,
from what had been discovered by Hook, that this theory
would not have held its ground, which, however, it did
for a long time. It was found that substances burnt
brighter in oxygen than in other mediums ; and this prin-
ciple existed not only in the atmosphere, but was con-
tained in nitre and some other bodies. Lavoisier went
further, and found that certain substances in a state of
combustion took up a part of the atmosphere, and when
it ceased to be supplied the combustion ceased. Oxygen
was necessary fur combustion; but when it was going on
there were many grades of heat,—some, indeed, so lieht
that we had not instruments sufficiently delicate to detect
it, and others intense and accompanied by light. Some
substances were supporters of combustion, others were
non-conductors of it. In ordinary cases, oxygc vr is its
chief supporter, but it did not follow that in all cases a
development of heat and light should be dependent on
the presence of oxygen. He showed by experiment
_that
a taper put into a jar of oxygen gas burned much bri ter,
and that when immersed in nitrogen it was extingii ed.
Combustion might be very slow, in flammable substaiic. :
such as phosphorus, when exposed to tile atmospheric
air. whilst the chemical change of spipts of wine in
making it into vinegar was a simple process of com-
bustion. Every one was acquainted with the rust of
iron, but few would conjecture that iron in its progress•
to oxydation was actually in a slow state of combustion..
If the temperature of iron be greatly raised it burns; but
metals, though really combustible, did not burn rapidly as
wood. Charcoal was decidedly combustible, but a more
energetic substance, as regarded conibustion axposed
to oxxygen, was to be found in phosphorus. This lie
moret
hesam brightlye
jar but
produced
by heating a piece of charcoal to a dull red heat at
a lamp. When put into a jar of oxygen it burned much
plunged
ited
into
filled the jar with light so intense that on its being extin-
guished the theatre appeared fore few moments compara-
tively dark. Chlorine gas, as well as oxygen, was a sup-
porter of combustion. This he showed by putting a bit of
paper, dipped in spirits of turpentine, into that gas, when
it caught fire and was instantly burned, filling the jar with
a quantity of black smoke—the carbon and the hydrogen
of the turpentine having so much energy in this gas as to
cause combustion. If a portion of sulphur and copper, hi
a laminated state, were placed, as he showed, in a glass
vessel, and the glass were exposed to the heat of a lamp,
the two substances would so act upon each other as to be-
come red hot. Potassium and iodine, mixed, and subjected
to a slight heat, emitted flame as they combined. He
then took a piece of iron wire, with a small piece of com-
bustible at its extremity, which he lighted, and put into a
jar of oxygen. When the combustible was consumed, the
wire also took fire. and blazed and burned to the top.
This experiment excited much applause. Substances sub-
jected to combustion were not annihilated, 'nit merely
underwent a chemical change. On the subje :t of flame-
he stated that all' substances that emitted it combined in
them more or less'of hydrogen. Common coed contained
carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and generally a small quantity
of sulphur. He explained its combustion in a connuon
grate, but when bound in a close chamber or retort, its
products were different—it evolved a great number of
gasses, &c. in distillation. He next noticed olefiant gas,
and its properties,.and exhibited it in combustion, also
spirits of wine and ether. Naptha and camphor were also
explained as regards their qualities of burning.
lec-
turer, who was frequently loudly applauded, ob_snrfiaed.
.eg
conclusion, that he should resume .
the subject f
in his next lecture.

,i4p, • Wl'.

hora filet ler return,
1,1"
petitioniov,
are supporters r. siel andorveecret eteltAa
pre_
seated
with those agents. by way of fright-
eningsell"' against t't'oners out of its prosecution, ti
the Pe ' . 'el have
caused Lord Dungannon s agents
fur the bribery theu practised. at the election
ding the last to be served with writs tc re prece-
a alarmed
Y , however, be
not the smallest
•
connection
CoisnoaSponep
janoa