The title of this article will probably on the first impression provoke a smile; and that so simple and seemingly inert a substance as bran should exert so much influence, does appear extraordinary. But it is necessary to reflect before arriving at any conclusion, that it is by these simple means—working gradually, but continuously—that nature effects in time such unlocked for ends. Watch the continued effects of water, drop by drop, on hard stone, or the growth of stalactites and stalacmites in caverns, both of which operations are imperceptible, but still the effect most marked, if visited at distant periods.