Morning journal and courier., 1880-02-20


 far and did very much burn his neck and shoulders. From the moment he had vio- lent internal sensation, and imagined that quantity of this lead had passed his throat and got in to his body"
 or course Surgeon Dr. Spry," who was kind, and pooh-pooh-ed his violent internal sensations" However, the man died for all that, and when Surgeon Dr. Spry" found in his stomach seven ounce lump of lead, he changed his mind, and sent an account of his marvellous case to the Royal Society at Lon- don That learned body, of course, promptly refused to believe Dr. Spry-did not believe that an old man 94 years of age was killed by such trihe as seven ounce lump of lead in his stomach, especially when they considered that Dr. Spry had all the resources of the pharmacopnIa at his command, and even hint ed at the value of veraeity among the various other accomplishments of scientific gent" 7" Whereupon, Dr. S., to prove his veracity, proceeded to pour melted lead down the throats of dogs and fowls, who immediately, promptly, and very laudably, without single exception, died with the most praiseworthy celerity. o. E. D. Dr. Spry, having thus brilliantly demonstrated that melted lead, in troduced into the stomach in sufficient quanti- ties, is generally, sooner or later, fatal to the owner of said stomach, the society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of those days sharpened up some of their sharpest sticks and went for him, and made it exceed ingly lively for Dr. Spry. As Smeaton naive ly remarks, Though the authenticity of this wonderful and Gill this instance, unheard of capacity of animal bodies was thus investiga- ted, yet Dr. Spry was still so unfortunate as to fall under censure of different kind, that of cruelty to animals. For my own part" he goes on, q cannot but think that Dr. Spry was somewhat hardly used. He attempted no experiments on other animals till he found 1iuha1iaund hu kha nf of his profession. His character then and future prospects in life were endangered, he being then young gentleman of some ex- pectations. What, therefore, was the com- parison between the lives of a few dogs and poultry to the loss of character of man bred to profession, upon his success in which, as depending upon the good opinion of others, must depend likewise that benefit and utility which he might be to his fellow men," Not withstanding this ingenious bit of special pleading, had he lived in these days and cared as much for his character, I scarcely think that young man would have poured that lead. The quality of mercy is not strained, and our power over 4'dogs and poultry" and other beasts dependent on our care brings with 1t some responsibilities as well. The s. P. for O. A. of these days, under the leadership of MT. Bergh, would, think, not be backward in imitation of their predecessors.
 We have left all this while, our rock, again
 
 ing with no obstacle. Again fresh attempt has been made and this time John Smeaton leads the attack.
 The lecturer then gave some account of Smeatons life and character and continued as follows
 He started out with stroke of genius. He boldly proclaimed that the new light should be of stone We can scarcely comprehend today what an innovation this was. We should probably say, why of course it should be of stone! Of what else would you buildit2 What is so durable, so substantial, so reliable, so solid? Has not one wooden structure been destroyed already by fire, and another by storm? Would you repeat these disasters But stone though durable is brittle. Though solid in the mass, it is weak in detail. F'How bind the blocks together so that they may sustain such mighty shocks as they will be ex- posed to /? Neither mortar nor cement can be relied upon for this, as we well know, and how else can they be fastened? I fear the project is impracticable. It is rash. We have no precedent to guide us." All of which was quite true. But just here was Smeaton's originality shown, for the results of which we have to thank him to-day. He treated his brittle, stubborn material with all the ease and freedom of wood. He notched it and grooved it, and fitted it, and wedged it, and under his treatment it proved plastic and tractable. Smeaton was the first man to erect stone lighthouse in such an exposed position, and to show how the thing should be done. To any one who knows the tenacity with which artisans hold to old methods and rules, especially the capacity in that direction of the British workmen-a capacity equalled only by that of the American mule-the fact that Smeaton actually carried through his novel ideas to full completion will be considered not the least of his great achievements and the strongest testimonials to his strength of will and force of character. His originality shows strongly in his treatment of his stubborn ma terial. He had no precedents to guide him. Every step was new. skilled workman him. self-another instance of unconscious prepa- ration for great work-he trusted the execu- tion of his ideas to no one, but with his own hands he made his model, cutting and cary ing every part of it himself. Concerning his actions in this respect he remarks: ssThose of my readers who are not in the practice of handling mechanical tools themselves, but are under the necessity of applying to the manual operations of others, will undoubtedly conclude that I might have saved much time by employing the hands of others in this mat ter, and on the idea of the design being al- ready fixed and fully and accurately as we'll as distinctly made out, that is, supposing the thing done that was wanted to be done, it certainly would have been so, and had want ed duplicate of any part or of the whole, when done, should certainly have had re- course to the hands of others. But such of IQY reaO6rS as are III GlO uS6 UT uAQO10R IOOlS, for the purpose of contrivancs and invention, will clearly see that, provided I could work with as much facility and dispatch as those might happen to meet with and employ, should save all the time and difficulty, and often vexation, mistakes and disappointments, that arise from communication of ones own ideas to others and that when steps of in vention are to follow one another in success sion and dependence on what preceded, under such circumstances it is not eligible to make use of the hands of others"
 This was one great secret of his success He put his own ideas into tangible shape him self. The stones of each course were ingen- iously locked to each other and to those above and below, very much like the blocks in a Chinese puzzle. Thus, however great the force of the waves, no stone could be displac- ed or dislodged. The whole was 8 solid mon- olith-sold as if cut from single block of stone-durabEe as the rock upon which it rested. Such handling of stone was never seen before. With caution and infinite pains and thoroughness he went slowly along, su- perintending every smallest detail in person, trusting nothing to chance or to others that he could do himself, leaving no weak spots, taking nothing for granted. Every stone was cut and fitted and numbered on shore and set in it's place, before it went out to the rock. Thus, if it met with disaster.'on the way, it could easily be replaced. For the shape of his tower he chose the curve of the bole of an oak tree as his model, shape fashioned through centuries of storm and stress by the very elements he combated. He gave additional frmness to the stones dove tailed into the foundation rock, by means of oak wedges and cement inserted between each. In addition to this, couple of holes were bored through every stone and oak-tree rails driven through and mads fast, so that, says Smeaton, ''no sssignabls force less than would by main stress pull these tree rails in two, could lift one of these stones from their beds when so fixed, as all agitation was pre- vented by the lateral wedges" In the same careful, thorough manner, every course was laid, and on the 18th of October, 1759, those who still persisted that no building erected of stone could possibly stand on the Eddystone, might have seen shining through the night a light which from that day to the present time has never failed.
 Smeaton followed up this fine performance by another quite as fine in it's way, and one which seems to have taxed his powers quite as much. He did what every engineer who completes 8 novel work of magnitude owes it to his profession to do,-he wrote an account of his work.
 Prof. Du Bois now briefly considered Smea- toms remarks in the preface of his book, as to the difficulty of writing well, which almost tempted him to subscribe to MT. Popes sen