1823. J 



and so unsatisfactory In their results, 

 as those connected with animal phy- 

 siology : it is almost impossible, in any 

 instance, to devise an experimentum 

 criicis. I have myself in time past 

 paid some attention to the subject ; 

 but I must confess that I was unphi- 

 losopjiical enough to retire from it 

 hopeless, — to quit it in despair. I am 

 an example of the truth of Lord 

 Bacon's remark, that "lovge maximum 

 pi'ogressibus scientiarum ohslaculum de- 

 prehenditur in desperatione hominttm, 

 et suppositione impossihilis." Should, 

 however, any of your readers, pos- 

 sessed of greater hardiliood than my- 

 self, be now pursuing these enquiries, 

 I beg to offer to them, with diffidence, 

 the following suggestions: — 



1st. The solid parts of healthy blood 

 are cliemical compounds, consisting of de- 

 finite proportions of the elementary atoms 

 of which they are composed. 



2d. All solid matter is not converted 

 into nutii:nent ; for the elementary parti- 

 cles of which it is composed are selected 

 and combined in tliat proportion only 

 which forms blood. 



3d. Those substances are therefore the 

 most nutritious whose composition ap- 

 proaches nearest to that of blood ; there 

 being, of course, fewer particles which 

 cannot be assimilated. 



4tli. Flesh is therefore more nourishing 

 than any other kind of food. Berzelius,inhis 

 " Animal Chemistry," observes that there 

 is scarcely any difference between the flesh 

 and blood of bullocks, and of human be- 

 ings. Animal food has only to be dissolved 

 in the stomach, for the atoms are already 

 combined in the proper proportion to form 

 blood ; but a small proportion, therefore, 

 is ejected. That flesh is more nourishing 

 than vegetable food, is confirmed by the 

 fact, that carnivorous animals require a 

 much less weight of solid food than herbi- 

 vorous animals of the same weight. 



I will just illustrate the above hypo- 

 thesis by an example: — 121..599 parts 

 of starch consist of 52,883 carbon, 

 60,125 oxygen, 8,591 hydrogen. Now 

 albumen, which is the principal con- 

 stituent of blood, contains in 100 parts 

 —52,883 carbon, 23,872 oxygen, 7,540 

 hydrogen, 15,705 azote. The 121 

 parts of starch, by conversion into 

 albumen, will lose as under : — 



Carbon. Oxygen. Hydrogen. Arote. 

 .Starch ••••52,88.} 60,125 8,591 

 Albumen.. 52,883 23,872 7,540 15,705 



contained in Potatoes 



S97 



It appears to me that the above 

 theory is necessary : if it be correct, it 

 leads to many very important conclu- 

 sions; which, however, must be so 

 obvious to the investigating mind, that 

 I may well spare myself the task of 

 detailing, and your readers the labour 

 of perusing them. J. TiiiMAs. 



Coventry ; April 1 . 



To the Editor of ike Monthly Magazine. 



SIR, 



ANOTHER miraculous cure, simi- 

 lar to the one related in your 

 Magazine for 1817, as being performed 

 at Holywell, has been recently wrought 

 at Chelmsford on the person of Mis» 

 Barbara O'Connor ; and Dr. Baderly, 

 the physician of that place, has pub- 

 lished a concise account of it. The 

 patient (to be brief,) was cured of an 

 incurable disease, in one moment, by 

 the prayers of Prince Hohenlohe, con- 

 joined with her own : of which the 

 doctor's pamphlet, published in Febru- 

 ary last, by Whitaker, Ave Maria lane, 

 contain the particulars. He therein 

 ascribes the cure to faith, on the same 

 principle as you have done in the 

 cure of Winifred White at Holjwell. 

 This circumstance has induced me 

 to send you the following paper, which 

 I wrote sometime ago on miracles, for 

 insertion in your Magazine. 



3Iarch 17, 1823. V. A. 



Loss by conversion 36,253 1,051 

 Leaving the necessary quantity of 

 azote to be produced from that portion 

 of food which containi it. 



Old and New Miracles. 

 In order to estimate the tone of 

 argument in favour of any particular 

 doctrine, we should examine, also, 

 those which are adduced in opposition 

 to it. Hume's argument against the 

 probability of miracles should be con- 

 fronted with the evidence in their fa- 

 vour, instead of being banished, as if 

 they were too convincing to be tole- 

 rated. The Protestants, affecting to 

 sec some absurdity in the modern 

 Catholic miracles, imagine that, by 

 rejecting them, they purify, as it were, 

 their belief in those of ancient days. 

 Instead, however, of doing this, they 

 really weaken the arguments for mi- 

 racles altogether. For, in the first 

 place, it must he allowed that, cateris 

 parabus, the probability of any record- 

 ed event being true, varies inversely 

 as the distance of tunc and place in 

 which it is said to have happened. 

 Now if the modern miracles, attested 

 as Ihey are frequently by fifty or more 

 respectable persons, and subjected to 

 the scrutiny of seventy or eijfhty cardi- 



nalt 



