ions;--the
uses of the several viscera;--the heart with its pulsations, its power,
its ventricles and auricles, and their several uses;--the lungs, with
their air-cells, blood-vessels, and their use in arterializing the
blood;--the stomach, intestines, &c. with their peristaltic motions,
lacteals, &c.;--the brain, spinal cord, and nerves, with their
connections, ramifications, and uses;--the senses, with their several
organs, their mechanism, and their manner of acting. On all these they
were questioned, and cross-questioned, in every variety of form: And
that the audience might be satisfied that this was not a mere catalogue
of names, but that in fact the physiology of the several parts was
really known, and would be remembered, even if the names of the organs
should be forgotten, they were made repeatedly to traverse the
connecting links of the analysis forward from the root, through its
several branches, to the extreme limit in the ultimate effect; and, at
other times backward, from the ultimate effect to the primitive organ,
or part of the body from which it took its origin. For example, they
could readily trace forward the movement of the arm joint, or any other
joint, from the ligament of the muscle at its junction with the bone,
through its contraction by the nerve at the fiat of the will, by which
the sinew of the muscle, fastened at the opposite side of the joint, is
pulled, and the joint bent;--or they could trace backward any of the
operations of the senses,--the sight, for example, from the object seen,
through the coats of the eye, to the inverted picture of it formed upon
the retina, which communicated the sensation to the optic nerve, by
which it was conveyed to the brain. In all which they invariably
succeeded, and shewed that the whole was clearly and connectedly
understood.

"When this had been minutely and extensively done on the several parts
of the body, some medical gentlemen who were present were requested to
catechise them on any of the topics they had learnt, for the purpose of
assuring themselves and the audience that the children really and
familiarly understood all that they had been catechised upon. One of the
medical gentlemen, for himself and the others present, then stated
publicly to the meeting, that the extent of the children's knowledge of
this difficult science was beyond any thing that they could have
conceived. And afterwards affirmed, that he had seen students who had
attended th