Nashville Union And American

Dr. Smith, an eminent London physician, has lately been making some experiments with a view to test the correctness of the common opinion that the great rate at which an express train runs produces an injurious effect upon the mind. The plan he adopted was to determine the effect of railway traveling upon the respiration and pulsation, on the principle that the wear of the system will be in proportion to the activity of those functions. Dr. Smith, therefore, traveled repeatedly in each of the three classes of English railway carriages, and upon the engine, and at various rates of speed, and the influence on the quantity of air breathed was ascertained by the use of a spirometer. The greater part of the experiments were made upon the broad gauge, but some were prosecuted on the narrow gauge. The result of seventy-three series of experiments went to show that the greatest wear on the system occurred whilst sitting upon the engine. The precise average increase of air inspired was about 250 cubic inches per minute on the engine, 200 cubic inches in the second class, and 150 cubic inches in the first class.