incipient stages of an investigation, when information is necessarily both limited and defective. Such must ever be the case, when, as in the present inquiry, the only way to truth is by the observance of facts; for anterior to experience, analysis or chemical laws can never determine the effect of substances on the tissues of the living body. Our acquaintance consequently with details, can only become clear and definite, as facts, which are the result of careful and extensive observation, shall throw their light upon the subject.

Whilst the inquiry, therefore, especially invites the attention of medical men, from whom, as the constituted guardians of public health, much is naturally expected, yet neither is our farther knowledge of the subject, nor the extirpation of the evils to which such knowledge refers, necessarily limited either to their investigations or exertions. The whole matter is so accessible to ordinary observation and influence, that the humble and unpretending may contribute to the stock of information, and aid in consummating the anticipated reform. All, indeed, who desire and expect the ultimate removal of the woes which afflict and debase the world, by their alliance with others for the extermination of this flagitious form of evil, will assuredly advance not only their own immediate good and that of the community around them, but happily become instrumental in preparing the way for the advent of that promised era of primeval purity and peace, so long foretold in prophecy, and invoked in sacred song.

APPENDIX.

THE following letter from the Honorable SAMUEL STEVENS, not being received in time to be inserted in its appropriate place, as it contains suggestions which appear too valuable to be omitted, it is here introduced.

DEAR SIR:

TO R. M. HARTLEY, ESQ.

New-York, December 30, 1841.

The time you loaned me the sheets of your "Work on Milk," has only allowed me cursorily to peruse them; and although, when I commenced doing so, I confess I did not see how you would extend your subject so as to make so considerable a volume, I am now convinced that the subject should excite in our city, at least, great and universal attention.

To so much of your subject as relates to the incredible mortality of children in our city under five years, my attention was long since called when a member of the Common Council; and with a view to more correct statements on this subject, I spent considerable time in maturing a plan for the registration of births.—We have now only statements, showing an approximate result, of infantile mortal

ity—that is, we can now only compare the mortality of children with the mortality of the whole population of the city.

The difficulty in carrying out any plan of registration, was so great that I could not digest one which appeared practicable, although on various humane accounts it was very much to be desired, particularly with a view to judge and determine if the infanticides occurring in our city did not justify the establishment of a Foundling Hospital, even at the hazard of encouraging crime of a less heinous character.

This was nearly twenty years ago; and your tables now disclose the wonderful fact, that, as compared with the deaths of adults, the deaths of children under five years have since that time nearly doubled.

I know no cause to attribute this to, unless that brought before the public by the temperance reformation, (and now so fully and amply discussed by yourself,) deleterious milk.

Parents should ponder on the truths told them in your treatise, and should awaken to the unusual hazard of life, (heretofore, entirely, as far as I am informed, unaccounted for,) in which their offspring live, far exceeding that of London or Paris, and while too, adults in our city live longer and are not so liable to death as those of the European cities.

Your position, that bad milk is the cause, is rendered the more probable by the universal opinion, that children almost immediately recover from sickness when removed to the country, and again by the opinion that the second is the trying year. Then it is that this deleterious milk is the general food of the infant, the quality of which is entirely changed when infants leave the city.

There is one subject, not foreign from the object and design of your work, which I beg to allude to. You present the evil in bold relief, relying on the consciences and duty of all our citizens, to apply the remedy, and to refrain from purchasing distillery milk. Now this is a work of time and difficulty. The remedy I fear can only be completely effected, by the humane adopting some plan, by which wholesome milk can be had at a cheap rate.

I am aware that rail-roads and steam-boats will assist to bring good milk to the city; but we shall probably always have extensive stables of milch cows, in and near our city.

My suggestion is to encourage the manufacture of sugar from the beet-root. The books assert that seventy tons have been raised from an acre. The "Cultivator" states 2500 bushels as having been raised on the acre.

Our country is admirably suited to the cultivation of this vegetable, which yields ten per cent. of sugar, under the best process of manufacture.

The residuum is left in cakes, not dissimilar from the flaxseed cake, pressed by steam power, and is said to be, and I have no doubt is, an excellent food for milch cows, and being in cakes, is convenient for transportation.

In France a very large quantity of sugar is manufactured, and so successful has been the manufactory that a duty has either been imposed on the making of sugar, or it has been proposed in the Chamber of Deputies.

This manufacture was a favorite of Buonaparte's, as rendering France more independent; but his subjects laughed at him, in caricature representing his son sucking a beet-root, with the words," Father says there is sugar in it." The result shows the foresight of Napoleon.

The manufacture of this article can be commenced and

now carried on with little loss, and probably before long may be sustained with profit.

It would not only help to give good milk, but would afford employment to northern laborers, and would, so far as it succeeded, diminish the necessity of increased labor in the cultivation of the sugar-cane, which it is urged will (or can only) be cultivated by slaves.

Wishing that society may realize all the good which you anticipate, and that your work may have general circulation,

I remain, respectfully, your ob't serv't,

SAMUEL STEVENS,

No. 42 Warren-street.

The value of the sugar-beet root (beta vulgaris) as food for dairy cows, is most probably not overrated by Mr. Stevens, and his suggestions, we trust, will receive as they deserve the attention of the producers of milk and other practical men. The beet when eaten freely is said to be injurious to the human stomach, but we have not heard this objection urged against it as food for ruminant animals. But being unacquainted with the particular condition in which the residuum of the root is fed, and also of the quality of the milk thereby produced, we are incompetent from personal knowledge to express an opinion on the subject. As the saccharine principle of this succulent vegetable constitutes, however, but a little more than one half of its nutritive properties, we may safely infer that, in connection with a suitable proportion of gramineous food, it will be found both healthy and nourishing. To show that these conclusions are fully sustained by experiment, and therefore deserve the serious consideration of dairymen, we subjoin an extract from a communication on the subject by