in treating of the alimentary system, so principal a part of the process cannot be omitted.

Of the gastric juice, the immediate agent by which that change which food undergoes in our stomach is effected, we shall take our account from the numerous, careful, and varied experiments of the Abbe Spallanzani.

1. It is not a simple diluent, but a real solvent. A quarter of an ounce of beef had scarcely touched the stomach of a crow, when the solution began.

2. It has not the nature of saliva; it has not the nature of bile; but is distinct from both. By experiment out of the body it appears that neither of these secretions acts upon alimentary substances, in the same manner as the gastric juice acts.

3. Digestion is not putrefaction: for the digesting fluid resists putrefaction most pertinaciously; nay, not only checks its further progress, but restores putrid substances.

4. It is not a fermentative process: for the solution begins at the surface, and proceeds towards the centre, contrary to the order in which fermentation acts and spreads.

5. It is not the digestion of heat: for the cold maw of a cod or sturgeon will dissolve the shells of crabs or lobsters, harder than the sides of the stomach which contains them.

In a word, animal digestion carries about it the marks of being a power and a process completely sui generis; distinct from every other; at least from every chymical process with which we are acquainted. And the most wonderful thing about it is its approximation; its subserviency to the particular economy of each animal. The gastric juice of an ow!, falcon, or kite, will not touch grain; no not even to finish the macerated and half-digested pulse which is left in the crops of the sparrows that the bird devours. In poultry, the trituration of the gizzard, and the gastric juice, conspire in the work of digestion. The gastric juice will not dissolve the grain whilst it is whole. Entire grains of barley, inclosed in tubes or spherules, are not affected by it. But if the same grain be by any means broken or ground, the gastric juice immediately lays hold of it. Here then is wanted, and here we find, a combination of mechanism and chymistry. For the preparatory grinding, the gizzard lends its mill. And as the mill-work should be strong, its structure is so, beyond that of any other muscle belonging to the animal. The internal coat also, or lining of the gizzard, is, for the same purpose, hard and cartilaginous. But, forasmuch as this is not the sort of animal substance suited for the reception of glands, or for secretion, the gastric juice, in this family, is not supplied, as in membraneous stomachs, by the stomach itself, but by the gullet, in which the feeding of glands are placed, and from which it trickles down into the stomach.

In sheep, the gastric fluid has no effect in digesting plants, unless they have been previously masticated. It only produces a slight maceration; nearly such as common water would produce, in a degree of heat somewhat exceeding the medium temperature of the atmosphere. But provided that the plant has been reduced to pieces by chewing, the gastric juice then proceeds with it, first by softening its substance; next by destroying its natural consistency; and, lastly, by dissolving it so completely, as not even to spare the toughest and most stringy parts, such as the nerves of the leaves.

So far our accurate and indefatigable Abbe, Dr. Stevens, of Edinburgh, in 1777, found, by experiments tried with perforated balls, that the gastric juice of the sheep and the ox speedily dissolved vegetables, but made no impression on beef, mutton, and other animal bodies. Dr. Hunter discovered a property of this fluid, of a most curious kind; viz. that, in the stomachs of animals which feed upon flesh, irresistibly as this fluid acts upon. animal substances, it is only upon the dead substance that it operates at all. The living fibre suffers no injury from lying in contact with it. Worms and insects are found alive in the stomachs of such animals. The coats of the human stomach, in a healthy state, are insensible to its presence; yet, in cases of sudden death, (wherein the gastric juice, not having been weakened by disease retains its activity,) it has been known to eat a hole through the bowel which contains it. How nice is this discrimination of action, yet how necessary! (To be continued.)

THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD ASSERTED.

WONDERFUL PRESERVATION.

We have transcribed the following account from the COURIER of December 2d, 1815.

THE following are the interesting particulars of a late shipwreck, wherein the sufferings and privations of the survivors are almost without a parallel in the chequered details of the dangers to which seamen are exposed. On the 4th of September, the brig Friendship, Captain N. F. Carder, sailed from Miramichi, New Brsunswick, with a cargo of timber, for Biddeford. On the Lorning of the 18th, she sprung a leak; and, on the 22d, (the unremitting efforts of the crew at the pumps proving unavailing to keep her free,) she was full of water. In this deplorable condition, without the possibility of getting below, and distant, by VOL. XXXIX. FEBRUARY, 1816.

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their calculation, about 347 leagues from the coast of Ireland, they kept the vessel before the wind, under an easy sail, in the forlorn hope of being able to make the land; but unhappily, on the 28th, (when, by supposition, they were within 170 leagues of Cape Clear,) a sudden squall coming on, she broached to, and overset. By this melancholy disaster, two persons were washed overboard and drowned, and the whole of the provisions and water they had collected on deck, with both boats, and every moveable article, were swept away. The rest of the crew, consisting of the captain, mate, three men, and four boys, with difficulty supported themselves on the side of the ship; when, after remaining in this awful situation about forty minutes, having in the meantime carried away her foremast, bowsprit, and main-topmast, she righted. From the condition the vessel was in, however, she had gradually settled abaft, and from midship forward was the only part of the deck left above water, upon which the miserable survivors could obtain an insecure footing, every suc ceeding wave threatening to hurl them into the dreadful abyss. For six tedious days and nights did these devoted sufferers remain in this wretched and hopeless state, without a morsel of bread to sustain the cravings of nature! All of them very thinly clothed, several without shoes, stockings, or hats; and the few garments they wore constantly wet, owing to the rain that fell, and the sea that broke over them. From the former, however, they derived some sustenance; for, during rain, they suspended a bedquilt in the remnant of the rigging, and when completely saturared, by carefully squeezing it, they obtained three pints of water at cach trial; with this, and a small quantity of rum, the only necessary saved, but so much impregnated with salt-water, that Captain C. to prevent its being used in a raw state, frequently threatened to throw it overboard; they made weak grog, which was sparingly served out to them in the heel of an old shoe, the best substitute they could find for a glass. The ship had been much infested with rats; and after these vermin were driven from their lurking places below by water, they took refuge in those places which were left dry, and openly ran about among the people on the forecastle. From this station the captain would not permit them to be driven, lest, in the extremity of their distress, should no friendly sail appear in view, they might ultimately be compelled to have recourse to these troublesome guests, as a temporary respite to expiring nature!-But the rats were a terrible annoyance to the almost exhausted sufferers; as the vermin fell a prey to want, they devoured each other; nay, they even attacked the naked feet of the scamen while asleep, and, when brushed away by their hands, fastened on their fingers !-With a view of keeping hope alive in his almost dying companions, the captain offered two dollars, which he found in his pocket, as a

premium to the man who should descry relief; but faith and vigilance at last centred in himself alone; and, on the evening of the sixth day, (4th of October, in lat. 50 deg. 30 min. long, 14 deg.) he providentially espied a sail, which he did not, however, announce for ten minutes, lest the stranger should not steer in their course. When all doubt on the momentous point was removed, he ordered the friendly bed-quilt (which had before been so serviceable, and was the only signal they could then muster,) to be hoisted; and the harbinger of their joy proved to be the Sachem, of Boston, Captain Howland, from Liverpool to America, who, immediately, on perceiving the wreck, bore down, and rescued the sufferers, at a moment when despair had apparently reduced the whole of them to the last stage of existence. After being all safely removed from the wreck, Captain Howland, with genuine Christian benevolence, treated them with the tenderness of a parent, administering to them simple food, in limited quantities; and, by similar judicious means, their dormant facul ties were soon re-animated, and they were all speedily restored to the use of their limbs. Two days afterwards, they fell in with the John, Captain Brassey, from Africa to Liverpool; to which vessel they were transferred, and, after again experiencing the humane and feeling regard due to their pitiable state, were safely landed in Liverpool, on the 15th of October. Their deliverance was most providential, as a gale of wind and heavy sea came on the following day, which must have swept every soul off the wreck. On the 11th, seven days after they were picked up, the vessel was fallen in with, in lat. 50 deg. 57 min. long 12 deg. 30 min. drifting at the mercy of the waves, by the William, arrived at Liverpool from New York.

We have been careful to detail the particulars of this singular escape, having obtained the information from one of the survivors; and were at the same time anxious to record so striking an example of the benefit to be derived, in similar circumstances, from that pious resignation, coolness, and intrepidity, by which the conduct of Captain Carder was so eminently distinguished throughout the whole of this very trying and appalling scene.

SIR,

To the Editor of the Methodist Magazine.

On reading the memoir of Mrs. Sarah Thorp, of Buckingham, in the June Magazine for 1810, I felt myself somewhat ci-appointed in finding no account of her, previous to her joining the Methodist Society, which I thought an interesting part of her experience. On mentioning this to a friend, I was advised to write some further account and send to you, Sir, for insertion in the Magazine; but, as many years had elapsed, I was fearful * P*2 *

I should not give a perfect statement; but her grand-daughter called on me a few days since, and, in conversation about her grandmother, the following circumstance was mentioned; she said it was perfectly correct, that she had heard her grandmother repeat it more than once; and begged I would transmit the same to you.-I, Sir, you judge it proper to give it a place, in addition to the former narrative, it will oblige many of her friends and relatives.

London, November 27, 1815.

A. CORDEUX.

Mrs. Thorp was left a widow with four small children, with nothing to support herself and them but the profits of a small chandler's shop, and an annuity of £10 per year, left to poor widows; she also made a little lace when she had time. While in this state, a Mr. Cooper, a faithful minister, came into the church; he sounded an alarm to formal professors, moralists, and profane; and I am happy to say, an almost general reformation took place, which has been increasing ever since. Mrs. Thorp was soon convinced of the impropriety of keeping her shop open on the Lord's day. Nature and grace struggled for some time, at last grace prevailed: she determined, at all events, to shut up her shop, and told her customers, in the week preceding, of her intention, and begged of them to come for what they wanted on the Saturday. At first, they took very little notice of it, but went on Sunday as usual; but Mrs. Thorp shut herself in a back room, and would pay no attention to the door; the ensuing week they came again, and were very much displeased at their usage on Sunday, saying, they must have victuals on Sundays as well as other days; and, if they could not be served by her, they would go where they could. She said she should be sorry to lose their custom; but she had served on the Lord's day too long. Many of her customers made good their word, and, for a time, she was much straitened in her circumstances; but this did not continue, the Lord returned her business with increase, .so that, in a little while, she took the house adjoining to her own, keeping the shop for her.increasing stock, as before this she had lived in the shop. Finding her business still increase, she was now enabled to send to London for some goods, which she had hitherto took of a superior shop in the town. After this, she went to the gentleman of whom she received her annuity, and told him the Lord had so blessed her in her circumstances, that she had now no need of the annuity; she acknowledged the obligation she had been under for it, but begged he would now confer it on some one who stood in greater need. The Lord still continued to bless her, both in her basket and store. She at length bought the house and shop, and lived comfortably in them the remainder of her days. Mr. Cooper did not continue long at Buckingham,