The heart, then, is a large hollow muscle, internally divided into four cavities.

In the mammalia it is situated in the chest, between the lungs, and enfolded in a membranous bag, technically called the pericardium. In birds, there is no chest properly so called, and the lungs are not loose, but attached to the vertebræ and ribs, filling up the hollows between the ribs; the heart, therefore, in this order, is not placed exactly in the same relative situation as in the mammalia, and it further differs also in one or two points of structure. Our purpose, however, is not to enter into minutiæ, but to generalize as much as possible.

The four cavities of the heart are as follows a right auricle, and a right ventricle, a left auricle, and a left ventricle.

The auricles are small hollow earlike appendages, with their muscular walls, possessing little strength, or power: they seem, indeed, to be rather dilatations of the veins which terminate in them, than separate and distinct cavities. In our sketch above, they are marked as follows:-n. the right, r. the left. The ventricles constitute the great mass of this organ; their walls are thick and muscular, but not in an equal ratio; the parietes of the right ventricle (which has only to send the blood to the lungs) being the weakest, while those of the left ventricle (whence the blood is sent to the uttermost parts of the body) are of enormous strength and thickness. The ventricles are not separated externally, in so distinct a manner as are the auricles, but the boundary line between them is marked by veins and arteries, which may be observed running down the heart to its point or apex. The ventricles are marked as follows:-b. the right, a. the left.

The remainder of the parts to be noticed in the sketch of this organ are as follows: c. e. f. The aorta, arising from left ven

tricle.

q. Descending vena cava bringing back blood from upper parts of body, into right auricle n.

The reader will refer as he proceeds to our engraving.

There is no direct communication, in the mature condition of mammalia, between the right and the left cavities of the heart, the blood having to pass through the lungs, from the right, before it can reach the left portion of the heart; hence such a heart is said to be double, in reference to what we find it to be in the lower orders of animals. The right portion is called the pulmonic, because from thence the blood received from the body is carried to the lungs; the left, the systemic, because the blood returned from the lungs, is thence sent out to the body at large, for its nutriment, and the maintenance of its organic functions. This, however, will be better understood when we shall have described the cavities of the heart a little more in detail, and followed the course of the circulating fluid through the arteries and the veins. M.

MEDICAL PROPERTIES OF ARALIACEOUS PLANTS AND SHRUBS.

The Aralia, or angelica-tree, the type or representative of this order of plants and shrubs, received its latter name from the resemblance which its round clusters (umbels) have to those of the angelica. The fruit, however, is not a twin seed, as in the angelica, but a five celled berry, which is striped or marked with indented lines, and, being surmounted by a permanent calyx, it affords a ready mark for discrimination, independent of other notes of difference between a shrub and an herbaceous plant. Several species of this genus are, by the natives where they grow wild, treated as simples, and have obtained some reputation for their efficacy in dropsical

diseases.

The Aralia Palmata, or palmate-leaved angelica-tree, a native of China, produces a bark which is used by the Chinese as a medicament in dropsies and diseases of the skin. This shrub climbs like the ivy; bears palmate, or five-lobed leaves, (so as to have a certain resemblance to the hands when the fingers are spread out,) and a cluster of white flowers.

Aralia Nudicaulis, or naked-stalked angelica-tree, is a native of Canada or Virginia. It has a very short stem, with

leaves elegantly divided; the flowers are in clusters, like those of our common ivy. The inhabitants of Canada use the roots of this species instead of sarsaparilla, the root of which has been proved, by many trials, to have a good effect in cases where the sharpness or acrimony of the fluids occasions a derangement of the external surface of the body. There appears to be a strange correspondence between that state of the system which produces dropsy, and the state of the skin. One of the Sandwich | Island Chiefs, who was a sincere friend to religion and the missionaries, was afflicted with this malady, and subject to an unsightly disorder in the legs, which is endemic or local in that group. As the time for affording a temporary relief by the customary operation drew near, the sores upon the legs broke out, rankled, and discharged, and presented a most "lazarlike" and revolting appearance. But within a short time after the operation, the legs, which had so lately offered a piteous illustration of Isaiah, i. 6, were healed, and only reminded us of their former condition by discoloured patches, powdered with a scurfy whiteness. We have told this short story, as it proves, without any pathological or recondite reasoning upon the subject, that the same medicine may be useful among the inhabitants of one place for the dropsy, where it is common, and in another, for a disease of the skin, from the connexion that is seen to obtain between them. We are therefore justified in saying, that these two plants just mentioned have nearly, if not entirely, the same effect; which is worthy of remark, for in stem and foliage they differ greatly, but in the nature of their flowers they are essentially the

same.

The virtues of the Panax Quinquefolium, or Gin-seng, have been already alluded to, under that head, in No. III.

Hedera Helix, common ivy. The ivy, according to Dioscorides, is useful in all kinds of ulcer. The leaves boiled in wine are good for a discoloured and sun-burnt skin; properties very similar to which we have just seen the Canadians ascribe to an associate of the ivy, the aralia nudicaulis. The powdered berries of the ivy, when ripened to dryness, were formerly exhibited in large doses, as a remedy against the plague. The same authority quoted above, recommends it in diseases of the nostrils, and as an antidote against the bite of the tarantula. The ivy was worn in a wreath about the head by bacchanalians, doubtless on account of its flourishing in bloom and

greenness when most other shrubs sicken from the inclemencies of winter; for wine, in the flustered imagination of a drunkard, imparts youth, health, and beauty, with every goodly and prosperous gift. The burden of jovial songs is, that while sober-minded persons are fading with care, the lover of wine is always green and fresh. Such wretched dupes of their own deceivings are the votaries of jollity and good-fellowship. The ivy was not the only material in the composition of this crown, but the vine branches and various kinds of flowers were employed for the same purpose. If the reader will be pleased to turn to Isaiah xxviii. 1, he will find an allusion to this practice; and, in the following verses, a severe reproof to wine-bibbers. Porcius Cato, who fought, at the age of seventeen, in the war against Hannibal, and was himself the pattern of domestic economists, teaches us, in rule cxI. in his work on rustic affairs, how to find by experiment when wine has been diluted with water. "If you would know," says he, "whether water has been put to the wine or not, make a small vessel of the wood of the ivy, then pour that wine which you suppose has water into it. If it has water, the wine will flow out, the water remain; for a vessel made of the ivy wood will not hold wine.' Porcius Cato most likely gave this recipe upon the credit of others, without an experiment; for since his time, Olaus Wormius actually put the precept to its trial, but it was found that not only wine leaked through the spongy wood, but the water also, to bear it company. The ivy yields a gum resin, which is sometimes imported and sold in the shops. It is obtained in the usual way, by wounding the stem, when the gum resin oozes out, and congeals about the wound. If the top of the germen or unripe fruit be examined while it is in flower, a number of minute drops will be seen upon it, as we have stated in our description of this shrub. See Hedera, No. III. The dew just described is doubtless a gum resin, and offers a connecting link between the araliaceous and umbelliferous plants.

MUSICAL TALENTS OF SAMUEL WESLEY.

SAMUEL WESLEY gave some astonishing proofs of his love for music when quite a child. The following is abridged from the Methodist Magazine, where some anecdotes of his early life are given as stated by his father, the Rev. Charles Wesley.

While his brother Charles was playing,

Samuel used to stand by, with his childish fiddle, scraping and beating time. The first tunes he aimed at, were the King's Anthem and Fischer's Minuet, which he picked up from the street-organ players, when he was about three years of age. Whenever Mr. Kelway came to teach Charles, Sam constantly attended, and accompanied Charles on the chair. If his brother ever began playing his lesson before Sam was called, he would cry and roar as if he had been beaten. When Mr. Arnold heard him at the harpsichord, he said, "I set down Sam for one of my family." Whenever he heard his brother begin to play, he could tell whose music it was, (whether Handel, Corelli, Scarlatti, or any other;) and what part of what lesson, sonata, or

overture.

When he was about eight years of age, Dr. Boyce called on his father, saying, Sir, I hear you have got an English Mozart in your house;" adding, that he had been told wonderful things of him. A piece of music of Samuel's composition was shown to the doctor, who looked over it very carefully, "These airs are certainly some of the prettiest I have seen. This boy writes, by nature, as true a bass as I can by rule and study."

After this he was much taken notice of, playing voluntaries on the organ; delighting many companies for hours together with his own music, and playing the first violin at private concerts. He was, also, every where as much admired and loved for his behaviour, as for his skill in music. "If he loved any thing better than music, it was regularity. He took to it himself. Nothing could exceed his punctuality. No company, no persuasion, could keep him up beyond his time. He never could be prevailed on to hear any concert by night. The moment the clock gave warning for eight, away ran Sam, in the midst of his most favourite music. Once he rose up, saying, "Come, mamma, let us go home, or I sha'nt be in bed by eight." When some talked of carrying him to the queen, and I asked him if he was willing to go, "Yes; with all my heart," he answered; "but I won't stay beyond eight."

The praises bestowed so lavishingly upon him did not seem to affect, much less to hurt him; and whenever he went into the company of his betters, he would much rather have stayed at home; yet, when among them, he was free and easy; so that some remarked, "He behaves as one bred

up at court, yet without a courtier's servility."

In addition to the above, the Hon. Daines Barrington gives some further particulars respecting this extraordinary boy. He first saw him when he was nearly ten years of age; and he states, that he was then able to execute the most difficult lessons for the harpsichord at sight, and that his fingers never wanted the guidance of the eye in the most rapid and desultory passages. He could execute the most crabbed composition at sight: his abilities in this way were once put to a severe test. An old composition, supposed to have been composed by Queen Elizabeth, which none of the harpsichord masters could perform, was taken to him. Samuel immediately placed it on his desk, and, although he allowed that there were two or three passages which he could not play at sight, as they were "so queer and awkward," yet he said he had no notion of not trying. He boggled at these " and awkward parts" the first time, but executed them clearly at the second practice.

queer

His judgment as to the merits or defects of musical composition, was also very acute and correct. Lord Mornington once said, that he always wished to consult Master Wesley upon any difficulty in composition, as he knew no one who gave such immediate and satisfactory information.

An instance of the delicacy of his feelings may now be stated. He had been desired to compose an easy melody in the minor third, for an experiment on little Crotch; and that he would go to hear what that very extraordinary child was capable of. Crotch was not in good humour; and Master Wesley submitted, amongst other things, to play upon a cracked violin, in order to please him; the company, however, having found out who he was, pressed him very much to play upon the organ, which Sam constantly declined. As this was contrary to his usual readiness in obliging any person who had the curiosity to hear him, he was afterwards asked what might be the occasion of his refusal; when he said that it would look like wishing to shine at little Crotch's expense.

It would appear, also, that this youthful musical genius was able to sing at sight from the time of his first knowing his notes. We shall conclude our notice with an anecdote related of him by the Hon. Daines Barrington :

"He was desired to compose a march for one of the regiments of guards; which

he did to the approbation of all that ever heard it; and a distinguished officer of the royal navy declared that it was a movement which would probably inspire steady and serene courage when the enemy was approaching. As I thought the boy would like to hear this march performed, I carried him to the parade at the proper time, when it had the honour of beginning the military concert. The piece being finished, I asked him whether it was executed to his satisfaction; to which he replied,' By no means.' I then immediately introduced him to the band, (which consisted of very tall and stout musicians,) that he might set them right. On this Sam said to them, "You have not done justice to my composition.' To which they answered the urchin with both astonishment and contempt, by, "Your composition!' Sam, however, replied with great serenity, 'Yes, my composition!' which I confirmed. They then stared, and severally made their excuses, by protesting that they had copied accurately from the manuscript which had been put into their hands. This he most readily allowed to the hautbois and bassoons, but said that it was the players on the French horns that were in fault; who making the same defence, he insisted upon the original score being produced, and, showing them their mistake, ordered the march to be played again; which they submitted to with as much deference as they would have shown to Handel."

HORSEMONGER JAIL.

It was on the sabbath day, that, passing by the end of a street, a crowd engaged my attention. Thinking it probable that some one was preaching in the open air to the multitude, I moved towards the throng, but soon found that the people assembled together were of a very different description to those who hear the word gladly, or hunger and thirst after eternal life. A reckless crowd of persons, mostly young, was assembled, and the loud laugh of thoughtless folly, the horrid oath of the daring blasphemer, and the coarse ribaldry of the profane, were blended together. There were some persons, apparently, drawn to the spot by mere curiosity; but they formed an exception only to that concourse of sabbath breakers, who, by turns, chaffered with the Jew-boys for their oranges, played at leap-frog, excited their dogs to fight, or quarrelled with each other.

Being a stranger to the place, I asked a by-stander the cause of the crowd, when he significantly pointed to the roof of the large building, exactly opposite the throng. It was Horsemonger Jail, on the top of which was erected a gallows, ready for the execution of a murderer on the morrow morning.

Thus, on the sabbath-day, with the gallows before their eyes, whereon, in less than twenty-four hours, a wretched being would end a guilty life by enduring a miserable death, this throng was assembled together in all the thoughtlessness of unsubjugated mirth, and the hardiness of the most obdurate impiety. "Lord, what is man!"

TROUBLE.

"I will be with him in trouble." Ps. xci. 15. MANY remarkable facts are recorded in Scripture, verifying the truth of this promise. God was with faithful Abraham to comfort and sustain him under all the trials of his pilgrimage, and encourage him "to look for a city that had foundations:" he was with Daniel in the time of extremity, to stop the mouths of lions: he was with Job, so that he exclaimed, “I know that my Redeemer liveth:" he was with David, and enabled him to say,

though I walk through the valley and shadow of death, I will fear no evil." He has been to his people in all ages that are past, and he will be in those which are to come, "a very present help in time of trouble." This is the christian's privilege, that this God is his God, and he will guide him in life's intricate path-he will be a refuge for him in the day of adver sity-he will be his solace on the bed of affliction-and in death he will be with him, to calm the swellings of Jordan-to dispel the gloom, and to animate him with the blessed hope of celebrating for ever the praises of God and the Lamb in the realms of bliss and immortality.

STUDIOSUS.

HOW TO LIVE.-Live not so much upon the comforts of God, as upon the God of comforts, Psalm lxiii. 3.

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