of wheat flour, from Port Byron, N. Y., will show the relative proportion of the various principles in flour : Professor B. analyzed some flour from Kubanka wheat, imported from Odessa, and found it to contain 15.25 per cent. of gluten, which exceeds the amount in any specimen of United States flour. Professor Beck, in the course of his report, also mentions many other interesting facts, which he has either observed himself, or collected from various sources. To show the advantage of drying the wheat properly, he states that in Poland, where the ventilation and drying are continued for some time, wheat has been preserved sound and good for half a century; its age never does it injury, and such wheat yields handsomer and better flour than that obtained from the grain more recently harvested. Dantzic the preparation for keeping wheat continues for a year, and even longer, after which it is often kept for seven years in the large granaries of that place, perfectly sound. In One of the best methods of determining the real value of wheat and other flours is to examine the bread made from them. The process of making brings out all their defects, and thus affords a good standard of comparison of the various kinds. But it should be remembered that bread is often adulterated for the very purpose of enabling the manufacturer to use poorer kinds of flour. Thus in Belgium and France blue vitriol is often introduced into the dough, so that not only poorer flour can be employed, but less labor is required, and a larger quantity of water is absorbed. Alum also answers the same purpose. The alkaline carbonates, the carbonate of magnesia, chalk, pipe-clay, and plaster of Paris, have all been used, either to correct the acidity of damaged flour, to preserve the moisture, or to increase the weight and whiteness of the bread. All these substances, except, perhaps, the alkaline carbonates in small quantities, render the bread unwholesome. Potato starch, buckwheat, rice, &c., are often mixed with wheat flour. Professor Beck recommends Mr. J. R. Stafford's process for drying grain, by which "the grain or flour is brought into contact with a surface of metal heated by steam, and a due degree of ventilation, so important to the completion of the drying, is secured. As the heat is not raised above that of boiling water, there is no danger of injuring the quality, color, or flavor of the substances subjected to its action. The heat is uniform, and the expense is said to be less than that of the mode of drying heretofore generally adopted. By Mr. Stafford's apparatus, 16 or 17 pounds of water are expelled from each barrel of flour, which reduces the proportion of water to 4 or 5 per cent., an amount too small to be productive of injury. Absolute dryness cannot be easily attained, except by a long exposure of the flour to the heat, and it is not necessary for its preservation, a reduction of the water to a small percentage answering all purposes." Professor Beck says,-"I cannot, in my opinion, render a more important service to dealers in breadstuffs, than to recommend strongly the employment of this or a similar process of drying." Mr. Stafford's process of drying corn is in full operation at the mills of the Atlantic Dock Co., in Brooklyn. These works, which have been erected at great expense, at the same time dry the grain and manufacture a fine and beautiful flour, which is put up and sent to every part of the world, and warranted to retain its quality and flavor for several years in any climate. MORTALITY OF CITIES. The conditions which affect health and life are among the most important subjects of human inquiry. It has been one of the principal objects of recent statistical investigations. Much light has been thrown upon it; and it is the highest evidence of the really great advance of civilization-that the average length of life has been actually increased. Still, the average life of man is yet very far short of that which was "appointed" unto him; and that fact (perhaps more than any other), demonstrates both the need and the possibility of far higher advances than we have ever made. The natural elements of light-pure water-fresh air—nourishing food, and exercise, both moral and physical, are now admitted elements of natural health, without which, all the art of medicine, and all the wealth of life fail of any salutary end. As there are multitudes, however, compelled to live in cities, or confined to shops, where some of these elements are either wanting or diminished, it is important to know in what situation, and under what circumstances, the health of cities may be improved. We have already referred to some of the police regulations which our city requires. We will now point out some of the great differences in health, which are found in American cities under different moral and physical conditions. From a multitude of facts which have been collected on this subject, we select a few in relation to the average mortality of different cities.* 1. Boston. The tables for twenty-five years in Boston, from 1821 to 1845 (excluding the stillborn) show the following result: Average Population Annually. 1821 to 1825 1825 to 1830 1830 to 1835 1835 to 1845 Average Deaths Annually. 1,205 1,089 1,532 2,073 Ratio Annually. Thus we see that the average mortality of Boston is about one to forty-six during a period of twenty-five years, and this may be taken as a fair average of the mortality of Boston during a long period of time. The average mortality in New York, therefore, is one in thirty four. 3. Philadelphia.-Our tables are not complete for Philadel phia; but some idea of its mortality may be gathered from two years: The accuracy of this statement is doubtful, from the difficulty of ascertaining the true population of the city from that of the county. The returns of the late census will furnish the data for a more accurate statement. The citizens of Philadelphia claim that it is among the most healthy, if not the most healthy, of the cities of the Union. 4. Baltimore. The following are the returns of mortality for Baltimore, during ten years. In 1839 1840 1841 Deaths. 2,260 2,045 2,247 * The tables for the American cities are on the authority of the Cincinnati Gazette. The average of the ratio is one to forty-three. 140,457 1 to 36 5. Cincinnati. No really correct returns have ever been kept in Cincinnati, but several years since, an ordinance required the sextons to make returns, and in two or three years, a tolerable degree of accuracy was arrived at. The following results serve merely to give a general idea of the variation of the health of Cincinnati: This gives an average of about one in thirty-five, and if we take the twenty years from 1830 to 1850 inclusive, which includes five years of cholera, we think that it is about the average. If we were to exclude the cholera years, and take the range from 1820 to 1850, it would probably be one in forty. 6. New Orleans.-Dr. Barton, of New Orleans, has published an elaborate report on the sanitary condition of New Orleans. The following is the range of the mortality of eight years from 1841 to 1848, inclusive: Average population, Average deaths, Average ratio, 100,028 5,177 1 to 19 This is the result too, after deducting a reasonable portion of the population for strangers. In one of these years the mortality was reduced to one in thirty-three, but on the other hand, there were years in which the mortality was as great as one to ten. In 1833, the principal cholera year, New Orleans was more than decimated. In fact, the great mortality of New Orleans is occasioned by pestilences, the yellow fever, cholera, &c., which sweep off tens of thousands beyond the common mortality of other cities. If we take now the averages of returns of mortality during the series of years, in the six cities, mentioned above, we have the following results of mortality: These are certainly great differences and there must be great differences in the sanitary condition of these cities. New Orleans, for example, in a series of twenty years, has double the mortality of Boston-New York and Cincinnati have a larger portion than either Boston, Philadelphia, or Baltimore. We can only here mention three essential differences in the condition of these cities. 1. Climate makes some differences-the northern latitudes, within the temperate zone, being most favorable to the longevity of the Anglo-Saxon race. Whether it is, or would be to other races, is a different question. Probably not. 2. The floating, unacclimated population of New York, Cincinnati and New Orleans, is much greater than in Boston, Philadelphia, or Baltimore, and specially is it greater in New Orleans. 3. The cleanliness of Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore is decidedly greater, and their police more thorough and effective. MORTALITY OF LONDON, from the reports of the Registrar General. The relative salubrity of the summer season of the ten years, 838 to 1847, is displayed in the subjoined table : Deaths registered in the September quarters of ten years. 34,752 Deaths which would have 1838 36,332 349 From the annexed table of the deaths returned in each quarter since 1838, it will be seen that a small rise in the mortality |