Morning journal and courier., 1883-01-23

surmountable one," continued Mir. Schultz
 "then that is easily settled.''
 "As I understand it." interposed MT Dowd, 'prior to 1842 there was nothing else
 than salt water used here in extinguishine l fires ?''
 "Yes, sir, you are right. That was before
 Croton water was introduced. The system
 which propose can be adopted within two years and all your fires can be put out. Ii costs the city nothing, and at once affords relief from any great confagration. In fact
 you can begin it in six months, one year or two years With regard to your plan of duplication of aqueducts or reservoirs, you say 1t can be accomplished in three or four years My opinion is that it would take all of eight or ten years"
 "Where would you place your tanks ?'' asked Mayor Edson.
 Say one above Twenty third street and another still higher up. The probable cost would be about $2, O0O, ,0OO each but even suppose they cost $4 ,OO0, ,OOO, what is that ? All we ask IS an absolute franchise empower ing us to tear up the streets, and we will take the chances of getting our money back. The objection to this cleaning of the streets is raised by the department of docks. Now 1t costs $1 per cubic yard to remove the street refuse and twenty-iv cents per cubic yard for dredging purposes. If we clean your streets for nothing, surely the dock depart ment can afford to remove the refuse. We S-AS what, according to statistics, amounts to about 700, 900 cubic yards. It is stated that there are ninety taree gallons of water used daily by each man, woman and child. I say we don't use it. Fifteen or twenty gallons IS enough. This bug gaboo of the duplication of the waterworks don't believe in, and I want you to give my suggestions some thought"
 MT. Potter said that he liked the plan, and would be willing to take $1O0, ,OO0 of the stock He would do anything he could to aid in getting the scheme through the common council or furthering it in any other way After MT. Schultz had gone out, Mir. Potter, addressing the other members of the com mission, said that 1t was question whether 1t would not be better to raise the present Croton dam fifteen or twenty feet or build 8 large and higher dam near the pre- ent one There was no doubt that the city's wat ter supply should be increased. He believed that the child had been born that would see New York city of 6,00O,0O0 or 1000, 900 Inhabitants. When that time arrived the city would have to draw part of its water supply from Lake George and the Adiron oacks. The new aqueduct should be of large capacity so as to accommodate the increased supply that would be called for in the future. some Personal Experiences in Falling.
 Arthur Stradling in London Fields
 few months ago I was engaged in some investigations concerning the modes of train Ing employed by professional acrobats and gymnasts In educating children to take part In their performance, with view to elu- cldatlng certain point of considerable medi- cal interest, Gin no way connected with the present question: and learned incidental ly that, since the precaution of net has been insisted upon for the prevention of accidents ln lofty tumbling, many gymnasts now make 8 "terifc decent" Cor aerial dive" special feature of their entertain ment. Drops of 60, 80, or 100 feet sheer, or even more. are not uncommon A mem- Der of the Hanlon-Volta troupe has diyed from height of no less than 12O feet above the net, where circumstances have permitted of It, and declares that not only is he free rom all inconvenience in the descent, which IS made head formost, but that he would be willing to fall from much greater elevation due extension of the capacity, elasticity, &c, of the net being provided. The extraordi- nary spill" made by one of the Hanlon Lees, formerly belonging to the above troupe, ln the third act of "Le Voyage en Suisse,'' will be remembered by most of your readers, though 1t Is remarkable rather for the arrest than the duration of motion. On being as- sured by the proprietor of some newly in- vented mechanism, applied to 8 novel feat of aerial gymnastics which he had taken up to the roof of building to inspect, that there
  scent of about fifty feet. Sixty feet was the extent of fall claimed by the gymnast him self. but imagined that this would include the elevation of the highest point of the arc obtained by the oscillation of his trapeze, as well as the depression caused by his weight upon the net, and therefore calculate it to have been about ten or twelve feet less from the situation of my body, as hung at arms length from motionless bar with my legs drawn up in sitting posture, to the point where l impinged fiat upon my back upon the cushions. l WAS conscious of no phvsi cal embarrassment while coming down, though must confess that my mind was too much occupied with the possibilities contin gent on arrival to admit of any very accurate analysis of my respiratory sensations in tran sit. The idea that the act of falling s'stops the breath" so that the person who falls is dead before he reaches the ground is a very common one, and it would be interesting to know the testimony, if any exists, on which It IS based. Nobody complains of suffoca- ting In violent agitation of the air, such as that produced by 8 hurricane travelling at the rate of one hundred miles an hour Of course, asphyxlatlon means more than an impeachment to breathing, and a man falling from great height might attain speed ex- ceeding one hundred miles per hour but I am not acquainted with the records of any post mortem examinations which bear out the asphyxiation theory. No matter what other lesions are found, the indications of this ought to be patent enough. Even more conclusive, to my mind, than the cases ad- in disproof by your contemporary are those innumerable of people who have fallen from lofty places, and, though sustain ng fatal injury, have not expired immediate y. Nor mast it be forgotten that nervous shocks alone may have sufficed to kill where no physical lesions of such gravity as to &C., count for death can be detected