90 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



solves the texture of almost every thing that 

 comes in its way. The flesh of perhaps all ani- 

 mals ; the seeds and fruits of the greatest number 

 of plants ; the roots and stalks, and leaves of 

 many, hard and tough as they are, yield to its 

 powerful pervasion. The change wrought by it 

 is different from any chemical solution which we 

 can produce, or with which we are acquainted, 

 in this respect as well as many others, that, in our 

 chemistry, particular menstrua act only upon par- 

 ticular substances. Consider, moreover, that this 

 fluid, stronger in its operation than a caustic alkali, 

 or miineral acid, than red precipitate or aqua-fortis 

 itself, is nevertheless as mild, and bland, and in- 

 oflfensive to the touch or taste as saliva or gum- 

 water, wdiich it much resembles. Consider, I say, 

 these several properties of the digestive organ, 

 and of the juice w^ith w hich it is supplied, or rather 

 w^ith which it is made to supply itself, and you 

 will confess it to be entitled to a name which it 

 has sometimes received, that of " the chemical 

 wonder of animal nature." 



Still w^e are ignorant of the composition of this 

 fluid, and of the mode of its action ; by which is 

 meant, that we are not capable, as we are in the 

 mechanical part of our frame, of collating it with 

 the operations of art. And this I call the imper- 

 fection of our chemistry ; for, should the time ever 

 arrive, which is not, perhaps, to be despaired of, 

 when w^e can compound ingredients so as to form 

 a solvent which will act in the manner in which 



