an object the size of a hogshead could be hit nine times in ten, at a distance of half a mile.

The gun being loaded, the first thing was to ascertain the precise distance of the object to be fired at, this being done by means of an instrument, constructed upon trigonometrical principles, the scale on which indicated the distance at a glance. The next thing was to give the gun the proper elevation. This was done by means of a self-acting lock, on an arm of which was a scale that indicated the precise elevation necessary to reach a given distance with the ball. A spring on top of the lock was then brought up to the point indicated, the hammer pulled back, and, at the very point of time when,

by the ship's motion, the gun reached that point, and not before nor afterward, the gun was of itself discharged.

The weight of the 'Peacemaker' was ten tons; its length, fifteen feet; with a bore of twelve inches. It had been tested with a charge of forty-nine pounds of powder; had frequently been fired with thirty; it exploded with twenty-five.

A few days before the exhibition of the ordnance to the presidential party, there was an interesting trial of the gun,-its manner of working and its powersattended with most satisfactory results. All the preparation for firing, with the

| exception simply of putting the powder and ball into the gun, was made by Commodore Stockton personally. By means of a tackle fixed to the breech, a motion was given to the gun similar to that imparted by a heavy swell, and when it reached the point indicated it was discharged. The ball in this case traveled about two miles before it hit the water, and then bounded several times. The Princeton went down the river as far as Mount Vernon. In going down, the 'Peacemaker' was discharged three times, and, in returning, twice. On the fourth fire, the ball struck on the land, and its effect was lost sight of by those on board -so that the party demanded another fire, and respectfully requested the cap

tain to put in a little more powder this time. Before firing for the fifth and last time, the captain Isaid he should take the sense of the company. "All those in favor of another fire will say, aye." The air resounded with "aye!" "All those op

posed to another fire will say, no." Not a solitary voice. "The ayes have it," said the captain; "I have the assent of congress, and I'll go ahead." Probably fifty pounds of powder went into the

| 'Peacemaker' this time. As before, the gun was fired by the captain himself. The ball went, probably, four miles before it struck. It bounded fifteen times on the ice, in the course of which it performed a half circle.

Stockton was one of those persevering and enlightened experimenters who, like James, Rodman, Wade, Dahlgren, Ames, Sawyer, Parrott, Hotchkiss, Gillmore, are an honor to the cause of military science. It was in 1839, while in England, that his attention was attracted to the extraordinary and important improvements there introduced in the manufacture of large

masses of wrought iron for objects requiring great strength, and he was thus led to consider the question how far the same material might be employed in the construction of cannon of large caliber. Singular enough, when Commodore Stockton applied to a manufacturer to do the job, he-the manufacturer-declared that

it could not be done; and it was not until Commodore Stockton had promised to pay all the expense of an attempt out of his own pocket, that the manufacturer would consent to make a trial. In a short time, the manufacturer, seeing that it was perfectly practicable, became as great an enthusiast in the matter as Stockton himself.

Numberless instances have there been, too, of women-mothers-who, for their kindred, have been at any time ready to sacrifice their lives, by watching and privation, in loathsome and tainted chambers of infectious disease, but, when themselves became victims of that which they knew required a surgical operation, and which, without this, they were well assured must miserably consume them away, even these noble minds, resolute in the prospect

was loose in principle, as well as weak in science, and no doubt, most deservedly, had many roughnesses in life which he could wish to rub away. could wish to rub away. His mode was this: Obtaining an ounce or two of ether, he leisurely sniffed up its vapor, sitting softly the while, and manifestly enjoying a time of calmness and repose, greatly to his liking. Indeed, on being interrogated, he was in the habit of blandly answering, "soothing, sir, sooth

of surgical suffering; they have studiously concealed their malady from their nearest friends, and deliberately preferred the misery of a fatal, and unchecked, and gnawing cancer, to the apprehended torture of an operation, temporary though it be. This feeling has been universal, in all ages, among the victims of keen physical suffering.

From time immemorial, means have been sought, and with partial success, to relieve and even to destroy pain, during the manipulations of practical surgery. For this purpose, opium, Indian hemp, mesmerism, and nitrous oxide gas and alcohol, have been employed, and all in their turn abandoned, except that opium in many cases, and mesmerism in a few, still continued to be used with imperfect success, and almost always with the subsequent disadvantage of headache, feverishness, or other general disorder.

It was reserved for the simple inhalation of a certain gas-pure sulphuric ether to achieve in surgery that for which surgeons had for centuries labored, and labored in vain!

This was in 1846. A certain old gentleman, however,- —as the case is narrated, was not altogether a stranger to the comforting effects of this same anodyne process, some forty years previously. He had discovered that the fumes of ether could lull him into forgetfulness of the pains and disquietude of a bustling and checkered life. He was a man of research in his way; curious in beds, baths, and professing to understand disease and its cure better by far than his fellows. But he

oblivion to the disgusting harassments of life, he was in the habit of indulging many times a day. He had curiously discovered that the fumes of ether could relieve, temporarily, from the pains of a mind ill at ease; but he was not to know that it could still more wonderfully assuage the body's worst suffering.

The divulgement of this most beneficent boon to the world since man's moral redemption-by which the most dreaded of surgical operations can be performed during a happy unconsciousness of the patient

not merely with little suffering, but absolutely with none-is due to three Americans, namely, Drs. Morton, Jackson, and Wells; but to which of these is due the priority or chief merit of the discovery, is a question long and bitterly discussed, and still undecided. Certainly, however, the proceedings of each of these gentlemen, in connection with the discovery, show undoubted scientific acuteness, ingenuity, zeal and perseverance.

The enthusiasm with which the announcement of this marvelous discovery was received may well be described as unbounded. Wafted across the Atlantic, it was at once hailed with rapturous exultation in England, and speedily adopted in most of the large hospitals throughout the kingdom-also, in the vast hospitals of Paris, and in the numerous institutions of like character in Germany, including those so celebrated at Vienna and Berlin.

Still, there were not wanting those who regarded the discovery with distrust, and some of the public medical institutions barred their doors against the new alle