is "unsupported by any of those sound arguments which we most generally find used by the supporters of speculations in other branches of science." We have already said that good logical powers are very common with educated men, compared with genius, which is a rare possession. That the first is an acquisition, an art, which must, it is true, be founded on good common sense to become distinguished, but which may be respectable if engrafted on ordinary minds; while the last is a gift, which art can only prune, chasten, or direct, but never bestow. It is for this reason we find so many sound arguments predicated on false premises, in the superstructure of which not a gap can be discovered, while the whole fabric will fall in ruins by the slightest touch of its foundation. The middle age abounds with authors and disputants of this description, and "The Vestiges of Creation" is no bad modern example. We wish we could say the same of Dr. Prichard's Natural History of Man. Our present limits will not permit us to discuss this branch of the subject as fully as we intended. We therefore postpone it to a future paper, when, in conjunction with it, we expect to show, that the doctrine of the unity of the human species is, in the nature of the arguments necessarily used to sustain it, as well as in the conclusions to which it necessarily leads, anti-scriptural. We then expect to show that Lawrence has been severely censured, anathematized, for avowing openly, the same things for which Dr. Prichard receives unqualified praise for avowing covertly. In the meantime, however, we refer the reader to the extracts in this article from Van Amringe's history, which prove that the alleged changes produced by domestication in animals, are supposititious, mere speculations, incapable of proof; and that if true, these animals are not analogues for each other, much less for man, who has suffered no change in color or structure, since the period of sacred, civil, and monumental history.

INTERNAL TRANSPORTATION.

THE progress of means of transportation in the United States in the past twenty years has been very extraordinary. In 1830, the inhabitants numbered 12,000,000; in 1840, 17,000,000; and in 1850 they will probably reach 23,000,000-having nearly doubled by natural increase and immigration in that period. These 11,000,000 of increase have spread over an immense surface of land, made available by means of transport, to an extent perhaps never witnessed in any other country. The amount of money and labor expended upon these works seems almost incrediblehaving been three times the value of the works that were in existence in 1830, when railroads may be said to have taken date. As a guide to the progress in this direction, we have compiled a table of five modes of communication and transport,-viz., railroads, canals, post-roads, steamboats, and sailingvessels, employed in coasting and inland trade. In 1830, there may be said to have been no railroads for passenger traffic. There are now in operation in all sections of the Union, 8,000 miles, which have cost in round numbers $250,000,000. In 1830, there were about 2,000 miles of canal in operation, at a cost of some $60,000,000; these have been extended to $7,000 miles, at an expense of $150,000,000 additional. The steam tonnage owned in the United States, was 54,036 tons in 1839, and is 441,524 tons in 1849. The coasting tonnage was 534,321 tons, and is now 1,329,851 tons. The river steamers built in New-York during the past season cost $150 per ton, and the sailing vessels $30. This is much less than the same class of vessels could have been built for in 1830; but if we estimate the tonnage built during the whole period at that rate, it will bring the expenditure much within the mark. The length of roads for ordinary travel that has been constructed in the several states, cannot be exactly estimated. We have taken, for comparison, the length of post routes at the two periods, and estimate the cost at one thousand dollars per mile. This is much under the mark. In Ohio, for instance, there have been constructed 695 miles of turnpike, at a cost of $4,040,096— which averages $5,813 per mile. An allowance of $1,000 per mile for the cost of ordinary roads in labor and money will be much within the mark. It is to be remarked, however, that this length of post-roads is by no means the whole length of roads that have been constructed at expense of labor and money in the Union; but there are no data by which to arrive at even an approximate knowledge of the whole quantity. In Great Britain, an account is kept, and recent returns show for England and Wales, 2,868 miles of paved streets, 16,696 miles of turnpike, and 96,991 miles of ordinary roads-making 119,527 miles of roads, or more than the whole length of post-roads in the United States in 1830. The English roads cost £1,267,848, or $6,000,000 per annum to keep them in repair, and this is raised mostly by local taxation in money-the whole having a general direction from the central government; whereas in the United States almost every locality has its peculiar mode, always falling upon the labor and time, which is money of the inhabitants.

From the data here presented, results the following table of means of transportation in the United States:

Total.......

A sum equal to more than six hundred millions of dollars has therefore been expended in the last twenty years upon means of transportation; and each and all of these steamers, vessels, canals, turnpikes, and railroads, are in the aggregate profitable investments, yielding dividends upon the capital so employed. Not less than $50,000,000 of profit is derived annually, and directly from this outlay.: thus making an active and profitable capital of the money so expended. That profit is however derived from the business and wealth called into being by the action of these means of communication. The power of transportation cheaply and promptly confers upon the joint produce of land and labor a value, which, without that power, it would not possess. A farmer, who in the interior of the country raises a surplus beyond what can be consumed on the spot, suffers a loss unless it may be conveyed to market by some means sufficiently cheap to place it within the means of consumers.

In a commercial city the profits of its commerce and the attending local mechanical arts, must supply its citizens with rent, food and fuel. These aggregate profits are held in check by the competition of rival cities, and the distributive net profits must depend in some measure upon the terms on which these necessaries mentioned can be procured. In relation to dwellings, it is of importance that they should be within a convenient distance of the places of business, and the convenience of the distance depends upon the time and money consumed in passing from one to the other. The business portion of the city is necessarily crowded within a small space, because mercantile economy of time requires that all the places to which merchants and dealers are called many times each day, in the course of their business, should be readily accessible. The exchange, the custom-house, the banks, brokers, shipping, warehouses, and other dealers, all require to be within reach, and the country merchants seeking to make up a stock of assorted goods, cannot spend much time in traveling from one source of supply to another. Each and all desire to get through as much business as possible in a day. Therefore, time and distance must be economized, and most merchants find it cheaper to pay high rents within the busiest circle, than a lower one at a locality more remote. Where the means of travel between these localities and dwellings are few and costly, the utmost economy of room is practised. In European cities, lofty buildings without yards, in narrow streets, contain the family above, and the office below, and until about twenty years since, New-York was cramped in a similar manner. that time the omnibus system commenced running. By that plan coaches pass every five minutes through the principal avenues, carrying business men to their homes at night, and to their offices in the morning. This immediately permitted an expansion of the surface occupied by dwellings, and houses multiplied rapidly in the upper part of the city, which spreads

At

from the business section in a fan-like form over the island. The competition of this omnibus business soon reduced the fare, say from 12 to 64 cents per trip. That is to say, if a person rides down and up each day the fares fell from $100 to $50 per annum; and 500 such coaches employing 5,000 horses and 3,000 persons, now transport daily 70,000 persons, or 20,000,000 per annum. The Harlem Railroad, also constructed in 1832, running the length of the island, affords cheap and prompt conveyance to great numbers of citizens.

The effect of this improved means of conveyance, has been to enhance the supply of land suitable for city use, dwellings are removed from the lower part of the city, devoting it almost entirely to stores, without imposing loss of time and labor in traveling to and fro, and while the individual rents as well for business as for dwellings have thus been diminished, the number of persons who pay the rents has increased, so that the aggregate real estate of the island pays a higher income than ever; at the same time the beauty of the city, the style, convenience and salubrity of the dwellings, and consequently, the general health of the citizens, have been immensely improved.

While the omnibus system has thus expanded the city surface, steam has greatly reduced the cost of fuel and food. The former is almost exclusively derived from the Pennsylvania mines, and its cost counts ninety per cent. in transportation. Anthracite coal was introduced as fuel in 1826, from Pennsylvania, and until 1841 was delivered in Philadelphia by canals constructed for the purpose; at the mines the coal cost fifty cents per ton, and was transported one hundred miles by canal to Philadelphia at $3 25 per ton exclusive of cartage, making the cost $3 75 in the city. Messrs. Stockton and Stephens then adopted a plan of sending it direct to New-York by the Rarriton Canal. This route occupied sixteen days, at a cost of $3 75 per ton, and it was then sold to consumers at $8 50 and $9 per ton. În 1841, the Reading Railroad which cost some $12,000,000 commenced running from the mines one hundred miles to Philadelphia, carried coal at a rate which enabled it to be sold in New York at $550 and $6 per ton, and the quantity delivered from the mines has increased from one to three millions tons per annum. That is to say, the consumers by the improved conveyance, save, on the present consumption of coal, $7,000,000 per annum, while the miners obtain more per ton. It is obvious, that, if miners and consumers were to contribute and rebuild the entire road every three years, they would save money by it.

The operation of railroads upon supplies of food, particularly, the more perishable articles, are also of vast importance. They enable the perishable fruits and vegetables of summer to reach the market from considerable distances, and by so doing not only place within the reach of citizens, fresh and cheap garden stuffs, but they confer on a larger number of farmers the profits of garden culture. The article of milk, as an instance, requires to be placed within the reach of the consumers in a very brief period from the time of its yield, necessarily, the circle of country which supports cows for the supply of city milk, must be very contracted; all cities have seriously felt the inconvenience of this fact. New-York dairies were established, in which swill-fed cows, diseased through constant confinement and unnatural food, yielded an abundant but deleterious fluid, having none of the properties of milk,

although sold as such to the deluded citizens. The railroads now bring fresh milk every morning from a distance of sixty miles in time for use, and consequently the proportion of healthy milk used, has much increased, while the price at which it is afforded to citizens has been proportionally reduced. It is estimated, that the average quantity used daily is two quarts per family, which gives a consumption of 60,000,000 quarts per annum, and the reduction in price gives a saving of $1,200,000 per annum on this single item. It is estimated, that the cows of butter dairies in England under high feeding and breeding give one hundred and seventy pounds each per year; and that each cow gives 3,200 quarts of milk per annum. At that rate of yield in the neighborhood of New York, the butter sold fresh at twenty cents, would be worth $34 per cow per annum, while the milk sold at four cents per quart would yield $132: thus while the citizens save largely in the purchase of milk, the neighboring counties gain immensely by selling the product of the cows in the liquid state, and the supplies of butter and cheese are derived from other and more distant counties. The number of milch cows in Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess Counties per the State census of 1845, was 46,221. There were made 4,066,792 pounds of butter, and 218,084 of cheese. The cheese at a rate of two and a half cwt. per cow would require 800 cows, and with the butter 24,700 cows, leaving 21,500 to supply milk which at the rate of eight quarts per day would give 64,000,000 quarts per annum, of which the 115,960 inhabitants of these counties would require 20,000,000 yearly. But the census returns are not to be depended upon; as thus in Seneca County, the cheese and butter returns are equal to 116 pounds of butter per cow per annum; deducting the milk consumed in the county; in Broome county, 100 pounds; in Chenango, 140 pounds; in Oneida, the largest dairy counts 134 pounds per cow,. In Orange county, however, in the year of the census 1845, 5,685,232 quarts of milk were sent down by the Erie Railroad. This at 3,000 quarts each was the product of 1,900 cows, the inhabitants of the county numbering 52,227, consumed probably as much more, making 3,800 cows, and as the census gave 42,000 in that county for the year, there remained 38,200 cows to produce the 4,108,840 pounds of butter returned as made in that county: This would give 108 pounds of butter per head. It may be supposed that the cows of the three counties firstnamed, and which are now traversed by the Harlem and Hudson Railroads averaged as much butter per head as Orange county. This would have required 39,000 cows to produce the reported number of pounds of butter, leaving, 7,221 cows to furnish milk for the counties and for the city by railroad. These would give 21,663,000 quarts, leaving but 1,663,000 under the estimates for use of the city. Since then, however, the Harlem Railroad and the Hudson have extended beyond Westchester, and changed the nature of the dairy business. It follows, that if one half the milk formerly turned into butter in Orange, Westchester, Putnam and Duchess counties, is sold as milk at four cents per quart, it realizes $3,000,000 against $839,000 obtained for it as butter at twenty cents per pound, thus the citizens save $1,200,000, and the farmers obtain $2,000,000 more making a mutual benefit of $3,200,000 in this single article through the operation of three railroads. But the higher farm profits growing out of this availability of fresh articles of food, produces a greater demand from the country for supplies of goods as well manufac tured as imported.