the Penumbra which is the shadow of the refracting Atmosphere for the bending of the Rays being altogether caus'd by Inflection as I have already shewn all that part which is ascribed by Kepler and others after him to the Penumbra or dark part which is without the umbra terroe does clear vanish for in this Hypothesis there is no refracting surface of the Air and consequently there can be no shadows such as appear in the ninth Figure of the 37. Scheme where let ABCD represent the Earth and EFGH the Atmosphere which according to Keplers supposition is like a Sphaere of Water terminated with an exact surface EFGH let the lines MF LB ID KH represent the Rays of the Sun 't is manifest that all the Rayes between LB and ID will be reflected by the surface of the Earth BAD and consequently the conical space BOD would be dark and obscure but say the followers of Kepler the Rays between MF and LB and between ID and KH falling on the Atmosphere are refracted both at their ingress and egress out of the Atmosphere nearer towards the Axis of the spaerical shadow CO and consequently inlighten a great part of that former dark Cone and shorten and contract its top to N. And because of this Reflection of these Rays say they there is superinduc'd another shell of a dark Cone FPH whose Apex P is yet further distant from the Earth By this Penumbra say they the Moon is Eclipsed for it alwayes passes between the lines 1 2 and 3 4. To which I say That if the Air be such as I have newly shewn it to be and consequently cause such an inflection of the Rays that fall into it those dark Penumbra's FYZQHXVT and ORPS will all vanish For if we suppose the Air indefinitely extended and to be no where bounded with a determinate refracting surface as I have shewn it uncapable of having from the nature of it it will follow that the Moon will no where be totally obscured but when it is below the Apex N of the dark blunt Cone of the Earth's shadow Now from the supposition that the Sun is distant about seven thousand Diameters the point N according to calculation being not above twenty five terrestrial Semidiameters from the Center of the Earth It follows that whensoever the Moon eclipsed is totally darkned without affording any kind of light it must be within twenty five Semidiameters of the Earth and consequently much lower then any Astronomers have hitherto put it This will seem much more consonant to the rest of the secundary Planets for the highest of Iupiter's Moons is between twenty and thirty Iovial Semidiameters distant from the Center of Iupiter and the Moons of Saturn much about the same number of Saturnial Semidiameters from the Center of that Planet But these are but conjectures also and must be determin'd by such kind of Observations as I have newly mention'd Nor will it be difficult by this Hypothesis to salve all the appearances of Eclipses of the Moon for in this Hypothesis also there will be on each side of the shadow of the Earth a Penumbra not caus'd by the Refraction of the Air as in the Hypothesis of Kepler but by the faint inlightning of it by the Sun For if in the sixth Figure we suppose ESQ and GSR to be the Rays that terminate the shadow from either side of the Earth ESQ coming from the upper limb of the Sun and GSR from the under it will follow that the shadow of the Earth within those Rays that is the Cone GSE will be totally dark But the Sun being not a point but a large area of light there will be a secondary dark Cone of shadow EPG which will be caus'd by the earth's hindring part of the Rays of the Sun from falling on the parts GPR and EPQ of which halved shadow or Penumbra that part will appear brightest which lyes nearest the terminating Rayes GP and EP and those darker that lye nearest to GS and ES when therefore the Moon appears quite dark in the middle of the Eclipse she must be below S that is between S and F when she appears lighter near the middle of the Eclipse she must pass some where between RQ and S and when she is alike light through the whole Eclypse she must pass between RQ and P. Observ. LIX Of multitudes of small Stars discoverable by the Telescope HAving in the last Observation premis'd some particulars observable in the medium through which we must look upon Coelestial Objects I shall here add one Observation of the Bodies themselves and for a specimen I have made choice of the Pleiades or seven Stars commonly so called though in our time and Climate there appear no more then six to the naked eye and this I did the rather because the deservedly famous Galileo having publisht a Picture of this Asterisme was able it seems with his Glass to discover no more then thirty six whereas with a pretty good twelve foot Telescope by which I drew this 38 Iconism I could very plainly discover seventy eight placed in the order they are ranged in the Figure and of as many differing Magnitudes as the Asterisks wherewith they are Marked do specifie there being no less then fourteen several Magnitudes of those Stars which are compris'd within the draught the biggest whereof is not accounted greater then one of the third Magnitude and indeed that account is much too big if it be compared with other Stars of the third Magnitude especially by the help of a Telescope for then by it may be perceiv'd that its splendor to the naked eye may be somewhat augmented by the three little Stars immediately above it which are near adjoyning to it The Telescope also discovers a great variety even in the bigness of those commonly reckon'd of the first second third fourth fifth and sixth Magnitude so that should they be distinguish'd thereby those six Magnitudes would at least afford no less then thrice that number of Magnitudes plainly enough distinguishable by their Magnitude and brightness so that a good twelve foot Glass would afford us no less then twenty five several Magnitudes Nor are these all but a longer Glass does yet further both more nicely distinguish the Magnitudes of those already noted and also discover several other of smaller Magnitudes not discernable by the twelve foot Glass Thus have I been able with a good thirty six foot Glass to discover many more Stars in the Pleiades then are here delineated and those of three or four distinct Magnitudes less then any of those spots of the fourteenth Magnitude And by the twinkling of divers other places of this Asterisme when the Sky was very clear I am apt to think that with longer Glasses or such as would bear a bigger aperture there might be discovered multitudes of other small Stars yet inconspicuous And indeed for the discovery of small Stars the bigger the aperture be the better adapted is
those small parcels is made so glowing hot that it is melted into a Vitrum which by the ambient Air is thrust into the form of a Ball. A Fifth thing which I thought worth Examination was Whether the motion of all kind of Springs might not be reduced to the Principle whereby the included heterogeneous fluid seems to be moved or to that whereby two Solids as Marbles or the like are thrust and kept together by the ambient fluid A Sixth thing was Whether the Rising and Ebullition of the Water out of Springs and Fountains which lie much higher from the Center of the Earth then the Superficies of the Sea from whence it seems to be derived may not be explicated by the rising of Water in a smaller Pipe For the Sea-water being strained through the Pores or Crannies of the Earth is as it were included in little Pipes where the pressure of the Air has not so great a power to resist its rising But examining this way and finding in it several difficulties almost irremovable I thought upon a way that would much more naturally and conceivably explain it which was by this following Experiment I took a Glass-Tube of the form of that described in the sixth Figure and chusing two heterogeneous fluids such as Water and Oyl I poured in as much Water as filled up the Pipes as high as AB then putting in some Oyl into the Tube AC I deprest the superficies A of the Water to E and BI raised to G which was not so high perpendicularly as the superficies of the Oyl F by the space FI wherefore the proportion of the gravity of these two Liquors was as GH to FE This Experiment I tried with several other Liquors and particularly with fresh Water and Salt which I made by dissolving Salt in warm Water which two though they are nothing heterogeneous yet before they would perfectly mix one with another I made trial of the Experiment Nay letting the Tube wherein I tried the Experiment remain for many dayes I observed them not to mix but the superficies of the fresh was rather more then less elevated above that of the Salt Now the proportion of the gravity of Sea-water to that of River-water according to Stevinus and Varenius and as I have since found pretty true by making trial my self is as 46. to 45. that is 46. Ounces of the salt Water will take up no more room then 45. of the fresh Or reciprocally 45 pints of salt-water weigh as much as 46 of fresh But I found the proportion of Brine to fresh Water to be near 13 to 12 Supposing therefore GHM to represent the Sea and FI the height of the Mountain above the Superficies of the Sea FM a Cavern in the Earth beginning at the bottom of the Sea and terminated at the top of the Mountain LM the Sand at the bottom through which the Water is as it were strained so as that the fresher parts are only permitted to transude and the saline kept back if therefore the proportion of GM to FM be as 45 to 46 then may the Cylinder of Salt-water GM make the Cylinder of Fresh-water to rise as high as E and to run over at N. I cannot here stand to examine or confute their Opinion who make the depth of the Sea below its Superficies to be no more perpendicularly measured then the height of the Mountains above it 'T is enough for me to say there is no one of those that have asserted it have experimentally known the perpendicular of either nor shall I here determine whether there may not be many other causes of the separation of the fresh water from the salt as perhaps some parts of the Earth through which it is to pass may contain a Salt that mixing and uniting with the Sea-salt may precipitate it much after the same manner as the Alkalizate and Acid Salts mix and precipitate each other in the preparation of Tartarum Vitriolatum I know not also whether the exceeding cold that must necessarily be at the bottom of the Water may not help towards this separation for we find that warm Water is able to dissolve and contain more Salt then the same cold insomuch that Brines strongly impregnated by heat if let cool do suffer much of their Salt to subside and crystallize about the bottom and sides I know not also whether the exceeding pressure of the parts of the Water one against another may not keep the Salt from descending to the very bottom as finding little or no room to insert it self between those parts protruded so violently together or else squeeze it upwards into the superiour parts of the Sea where it may more easily obtain room for it self amongst the parts of the Water by reason that there is more heat and less pressure To this Opinion I was somewhat the more induced by the relations I have met with in Geograhical Writers of drawing fresh Water from the bottom of the Sea which is salt above I cannot now stand to examine whether this natural perpetual motion may not artificially be imitated Nor can I stand to answer the Objections which may be made against this my Supposition As First How it comes to pass that there are sometimes salt Springs much higher then the Superficies of the Water And Secondly Why Springs do not run faster and slower according to the varying height made of the Cylinder of Sea-water by the ebbing and flowing of the Sea As to the First In short I say the fresh Water may receive again a saline Tincture near the Superficies of the Earth by passing through some salt Mines or else many of the saline parts of the Sea may be kept back though not all And as to the Second The same Spring may be fed and supplyed by divers Caverns coming from very far distant parts of the Sea so as that it may in one place be high in another low water and so by that means the Spring may be equally supply'd at all times Or else the Cavern may be so straight and narrow that the water not having so ready and free passage through it cannot upon so short and quick mutations of pressure be able to produce any sensible effect at such a distance Besides that to confirm this hypothesis there are many Examples found in Natural Historians of Springs that do ebb and flow like the Sea As particularly those recorded by the Learned Camden and after him by Speed to be found in this Island One of which they relate to be on the Top of a Mountain by the small Village Kilken in Flintshire Maris aemulus qui statis temporibus suas evomit resorbet Aquas Which at certain times riseth and falleth after the manner of the Sea A Second in Caermardenshire near Caermarden at a place called Cantred Bichan Qui ut scribit Giraldus naturali die â—is undis deficiens toties exuberans marinos imitatur instabilitates That twice in four and twenty hours
to be made up of abundance of small Balls which do but just touch each other and yet there being so many contacts they make a firm hard mass or a Stone much harder then Free-stone Next though we can by a Microscope discern so curious a shape in the particles yet to the naked eye there scarce appears any such thing which may afford us a good argument to think that even in those bodies also whose texture we are not able to discern though help'd with Microscopes there may be yet latent so curious a Schematisme that it may abundantly satisfie the curious searcher who shall be so happy as to find some way to discover it Next we here find a Stone though to the naked eye a very close one yet every way perforated with innumerable pores which are nothing else but the interstitia between those multitudes of minute globular particles that compose the bulk it self and these pores are not only discover'd by the Microscope but by this contrivance I took a pretty large piece of this stone and covering it all over with cement save only at two opposite parts I found my self able by blowing in at one end that was left open to blow my spittle with which I had wet the other end into abundance of bubbles which argued these pores to be open and pervious through the whole stone which affords us a very pretty instance of the porousness of some seemingly close bodies of which kind I shall anon have occasion to subjoyn many more tending to prove the same thing I must not here omit to take notice that in this body there is not a vegetative faculty that should so contrive this structure for any peculiar use of Vegetation or growth whereas in the other instances of vegetable porous bodies there is an anima or forma informans that does contrive all the Structures and Mechanismes of the constituting body to make them subservient and usefull to the great Work or Function they are to perform And so I ghess the pores in Wood and other vegetables in bones and other Animal substances to be as so many channels provided by the Great and Alwise Creator for the conveyance of appropriated juyces to particular parts And therefore that this may tend or be pervious all towards one part and may have impediments as valves or the like to any other but in this body we have very little reason to suspect there should be any such design for it is equally pervious every way not onely forward but backwards and side-ways and seems indeed much rather to be Homogeneous or similar to those pores which we may with great probability believe to be the channels of pellucid bodies not directed or more open any one way then any other being equally pervious every way And according as these pores are more or greater in respect of the interstitial bodies the more transparent are the so constituted concretes and the smaller those pores are the weaker is the Impulse of light communicated through them though the more quick be the progress Upon this Occasion I hope it will not be altogether unseasonable if I propound my conjectures and Hypothesis about the medium and conveyance of light I suppose then that the greatest part of the Interstitia of the world that lies between the bodies of the Sun and Starrs and the Planets and the Earth to be an exceeding fluid body very apt and ready to be mov'd and to communicate the motion of any one part to any other part though never so far distant Nor do I much concern my self to determine what the Figure of the particles of this exceedingly subtile fluid medium must be nor whether it have any interstitiated pores or vacuities it being sufficient to solve all the Phaenomena to suppose it an exceedingly fluid or the most fluid body in the world and as yet impossible to determine the other difficulties That being so exceeding fluid a body it easily gives passage to all other bodies to move to and fro in it That it neither receives from any of its parts or from other bodies nor communicates to any of its parts or to any other body any impulse or motion in a direct line that is not of a determinate quickness And that when the motion is of such determinate swiftness it both receives and communicates or propagates an impulse or motion to any imaginable distance in streight lines with an unimaginable celerity and vigour That all kind of solid bodies consist of pretty massie particles in respect of the particles of this fluid medium which in many places do so touch each other that none of this fluid medium interposes much after the same mannner to use a gross similitude as a heap of great stones compass one great congeries or mass in the midst of the water That all fluid bodies which we may call tangible are nothing but some more subtile parts of those particles that serve to constitute all tangible bodies That the water and such other fluid bodies are nothing but a congeries of particles agitated or made fluid by it in the same manner as the particles of Salt are agitated or made fluid by a parcel of water in which they are dissolv'd and subsiding to the bottom of it constitute a fluid body much more massie and dense and less fluid then the pure water it self That the air on the other side is a certain company of particles of quite another kind that is such as are very much smaller and more easiely moveable by the motion of this fluid medium much like those very subtile parts of Cochenel and other very deep tinging bodies where by a very small parcel of matter is able to tinge and diffuse it self over a very great quantity of the fluid dissolvent or somewhat after that manner as smoak and such like minute bodies or steams are observ'd to tinge a very great quantity of air onely this last similitude is deficient in one propriety and that is a perpetuity or continuance in that state of commixture with the air but the former does more neerly approach to the nature and manner of the air 's being dissolv'd by this fluid or Aether And this Similitude will further hold in these proprieties that as those tinctures may be increased by certain bodies so may they be precipitated by others as I shall afterwards shew it to be very probable that the like accidents happen even to the Air it self Further as these solutions and tinctures do alter the nature of these fluid bodies as to their aptness to propagate a motion or impulse through them even so does the particles of the Air Water and other fluid bodies and of Glass Crystal c. which are commixt with this bulk of the Aether alter the motion of the propagated pulse of light that is where these more bulkie particles are more plentifull and consequently a lesser quantity of the Aether between them to be mov'd there the motion must necessarily
Earth and sprunkling a little warm water thereon would within four days produce Mushroms fit to be eaten at what time one will As also that Mushroms may be made to grow at the foot of a wilde Poplar Tree within four days after warm water wherein some leaves have been dissolv'd shall be pour'd into the Root which must be slit and the stock above ground Next that as Mushroms may be generated without seed so does it not appear that they have any such thing as seed in any part of them for having considered several kinds of them I could never â—â—nd any thing in them that I could with any probability ghess to be the â—eed of it so that it does not as yet appear that I know of that Mushroms may be generated from a seed but they rather seem to depend merely upon a convenient constitution of the matter out of which they are made and a concurrence of either natural or artificial heat Thirdly that by several bodies as Salts and Metals both in Water and in the air and by several kinds of sublimations in the Air actuated and guided with a congruous heat there may be produc'd several kinds of bodies as curiously if not of a more compos'd Figure several kinds of rising or Ebulliating Figures seem to manifest as witness the â—â—ooting in the Rectification of spirits of Vrine Hart-horn Eloud c. witness also the curious branches of evaporated dissolutions some of them against the sides of the containing Jar others standing up or growing an end out of the bottom of which I have taken notice of a very great variety But above all the rest it is a very pretty kind of Germination which is afforded us in the Silver Tree the manner of making which with Mercury and Silver is well known to the Chymists in which there is an Ebullition or Germination very much like this of Mushroms if I have been rightly inform'd of it Fourthly I have very often taken notice of and also observ'd with a Microscope certain excrescencies or Ebullitions in the snuff of a Candle which partly from the sticking of the smoaky particles as they are carryed upwards by the current of the rarify'd Air and flame and partly also from a kind of Germination or Ebullition of some actuated unctuous parts which creep along and filter through some small string of the Week are formed into pretty round and uniform heads very much resembling the form of hooded Mushroms which being by any means expos'd to the fresh Air or that air which encompasses the flame they are presently lick'd up and devour'd by it and vanish The reason of which Phaenomenon seems to me to be no other then this That when a convenient thread of the Week is so bent out by the sides of the snuff that are about half an Inch or more remov'd above the bottom or lowest part of the flame and that this part be wholly included in the flame the Oyl for the reason of filtration which I have elsewhere rendred being continualy driven up the snuff is driven likewise into this ragged bended-end and this being remov'd a good distance as half an Inch or more above the bottom of the flame the parts of the air that passes by it are already almost satiated with the dissolution of the boiling unctuous steams that issued out below and therefore are not onely glutted that is can dissolve no more then what they are already acting upon but they carry up with them abundance of unctuous and sooty particles which meeting with that rag of the Week that is plentifully fill'd with Oyl and onely spends it as fast as it evaporates and not at all by dissolution of burning by means of these steamy parts of the filterated Oyl issuing out at the sides of this ragg and being inclos'd with an air that is already satiated and cannot prey upon them nor burn them the ascending sooty particles are stay'd about it and fix'd so as that about the end of that ragg or filament of the snuff whence the greatest part of the steams issue there is conglobated or fix'd a round and pretty uniform cap much resembling the head of a Mushrom which if it be of any great bigness you may observe that its undersidâ— will be bigger then that which is above the ragg or stem of it for the Oyl that is brought into it by filtration being by the bulk of the cap a little shelter'd from the heat of the flame does by that means issue as much out from beneath from the stalk or downwards as it does upwards and by reason of the great access of the adventitious smoak from beneath it increases most that way That this may be the true reason of this Phaenomenon I could produce many Arguments and Experiments to make it probable As First that the Filtration carries the Oyl to the top of the Week at least as high as these raggs is visible to one that will observe the snuff of a burning Candle with a Microscope where he may see an Ebullition or bubbling of the Oyl as high as the snuff looks black Next that it does steam away more then burn I could tell you of the dim burning of a Candle the longer the snuff be which arises from the abundance of vapours out of the higher parts of it And thirdly that in the middle of the flame of the Candle neer the top of the snuff the fire or dissolving principle is nothing neer so strong as neer the bottom and out edges of the flame which may be observ'd by the burning asunder of a thread that will first break in those parts that the edges of the flame touch and not in the middle And I could add several Observables that I have taken notice of in the flame of a Lamp actuated with Bellows and very many others that confirm me in my opinion but that it is not so much to my present purpose which is onely to consider this concreet in the snuff of a Candle so farr as it has any resemblance of a Mushrom to the consideration of which that I may return I say we may also observe In the first place that the droppings or trillings of Lapidescent waters in Vaults under ground seem to constitute a kind of petrify'd body form'd almost like some kind of Mushroms inverted in so much that I have seen some knobb'd a little at the lower end though for the most part indeed they are otherwise shap'd and taper'd towards the end the generation of which seems to be from no other reason but this that the water by soaking through the earth and Lime for I ghess that substance to add much to it petrifying quality does so impregnate it self with stony particles that hanging in drops in the roof of the Vault by reason that the soaking of the water is but slow it becomes expos'd to the Air and thereby the outward part of the drop by degrees grows hard by reason that the water gradually
found in the middle of this great Case another smaller round Case between which two the interstices were fill'd with multitudes of stringie fibres which seem'd to suspend the lesser Case in the middle of the other which as farr as I was able to discern seem'd full of exceeding small white seeds much like the seed-bagg in the knop of a Carnation after the flowers have been two or three days or a week fallen off but this I could not so perfectly discern and therefore cannot positively affirm it After the seed was fallen away I found both the Case Stalk and Plant all grow red and wither and from other parts of the root continually to spring new branches or slips which by degrees increased and grew as bigg as the former seeded ripen'd shatter'd and wither'd I could not find that it observ'd any particular seasons for these several kinds of growth but rather found it to be springing mature ripe seedy and wither'd at all times of the year But I found it most to flourish and increase in warm and moist weather It gathers its nourishments for the most part out of some Lapidescent or other substance corrupted or chang'd from its former texture or substantial form for I have found it to grow on the rotten parts of Stone of Bricks of Wood of Bones of Leather c. It oft grows on the barks of several Trees spreading it self sometimes from the ground upwards and sometimes from some chink or cleft of the bark of the Tree which has some putrify'd substance in it but this seems of a distinct kind from that which I observ'd to grow on putrify'd inanimate bodies and rotten earth There are also great varieties of other kinds of Mosses which grow on Trees and several other Plants of which I shall here make no mention nor of the Moss growing on the skull of a dead man which much resembles that of Trees Whether this Plant does sometimes originally spring or rise out of corruption without any disseminated seed I have not yet made trials enough to be very much either positive or negative for as it seems very hard to conceive how the seed should be generally dispers'd into all parts where there is a corruption begun unless we may rationally suppose that this seed being so exceeding small and consequently exceeding light is thereby taken up and carried to and fro in the Air into every place and by the falling drops of rain is wash'd down out of it and so dispers'd into all places and there onely takes root and propagates where it finds a convenient soil or matrix for it to thrive in so if we will have it to proceed from corruption it is not less difficult to conceive First how the corruption of any Vegetable much less of any Stone or Brick should be the Parent of so curiously figur'd and so perfect a Plant as this is But here indeed I cannot but add that it seems rather to be a product of the Rain in those bodies where it is stay'd then of the very bodies themselves since I have found it growing on Marble and Flint but always the Microscope if not the naked eye would discover some little hole of Dirt in which it was rooted Next how the corruption of each of those exceedingly differing bodies should all conspire to the production of the same Plant that is that Stones Bricks Wood or vegetable substances and Bones Leather Horns or animate substances unless we may with some plausibleness say that Air and Water are the coadjutors or menstruums in all kinds of putrifactions and that thereby the bodies though whil'st they retain'd their substantial forms were of exdceeing differing natures yet since they are dissolv'd and mixt into another they may be very Homogeneous they being almost resolv'd again into Air Water and Earth retaining perhaps one part of their vegetative faculty yet entire which meeting with congruous assistants such as the heat of the Air and the fluidity of the Water and such like coadjutors and conveniences acquires a certain vegetation for a time wholly differing perhaps from that kind of vegetation it had before To explain my meaning a little better by a gross Similitude Suppose a curious piece of Clock-work that had had several motions and contrivances in it which when in order would all have mov'd in their design'd methods and Periods We will further suppose by some means that this Clock comes to be broken brused or otherwise disordered so that several parts of it being dislocated are impeded and so stand still and not onely hinder its own progressive motion and produce not the effect which they were design'd for but because the other parts also have a dependence upon them put a stop to their motion likewise and so the whole Instrument becomes unserviceable and not fit for any use This Instrument afterwards by some shaking and tumbling and throwing up and down comes to have several of its parts shaken out and several of its curious motions and contrivances and particles all fallen asunder here a Pin falls out and there a Pillar and here a Wheel and there a Hammer and a Spring and the like and among the rest away falls those parts also which were brused and disorder'd and had all this while impeded the motion of all the rest hereupon several of those other motions that yet remain whose springs were not quite run down being now at liberty begin each of them to move thus or thus but quite after another method then before there being many regulating parts and the like fallen away and lost Upon this the Owner who chances to hear and observe some of these effects being ignorant of the Watch-makers Art wonders what is betid his Clock and presently imagines that some Artist has been at work and has set his Clock in order and made a new kind of Instrument of it but upon examining circumstances he finds there was no such matter but that the casual slipping out of a Pin had made several parts of his Clock fall to pieces and that thereby the obstacle that all this while hindred his Clock together with other usefull parts were fallen out and so his Clock was set at liberty And upon winding up those springs again when run down he finds his Clock to go but quite after another manner then it was wont heretofore And thus may it be perhaps in the business of Moss and Mould and Mushroms and several other spontaneous kinds of vegetations which may be caus'd by a vegetative principle which was a coadjutor to the life and growth of the greater Vegetable and was by the destroying of the life of it stopt and impeded in performing its office but afterwards upon a further corruption of several parts that had all the while impeded it the heat of the Sun winding up as it were the spring sets it again into a vegetative motion and this being single and not at all regulated as it was before when a part of that
activity cause as great a parcel of Earth to fly on wings in the Air as it does of Water in steams and vapours And what swarms must we suppose to be sent out of those plentifull inundations of water which are poured down by the sluces of Rain in such vast quantities So that we need not much wonder at those innumerable clouds of Locusts with which Africa and other hot countries are so pestred since in those places are found all the convenient causes of their production namely genitors or Parents concurrent receptacles or matrixes and a sufficient degree of natural heat and moisture I was going to annex a little draught of the Figure of those Nuts sent out of Devonshire but chancing to examine Mr. Parkinson's Herbal for something else and particularly about Galls and Oak-apples I found among no less then 24. several kinds of excrescencies of the Oak which I doubt not but upon examination will be all found to be the matrixes of so many several kinds of Insects I having observ'd many of them my self to be so among 24. several kinds I say I found one described and Figur'd directly like that which I had by me the Scheme is there to be seen the description because but short I have here adjoin'd Theatri Botanici trib 16. Chap. 2. There groweth at the roots of old Oaks in the Spring-time and semetimes also in the very heat of Summer a peculiar kind of Mushrom or Excrescence call'd Uva Quercina swelling out of the Earth many growing one close unto another of the fashion of a Grape and therefore took the name the Oak-Grape and is of a Purplish colour on the outside Schem XXVIII and white within like Milk and in the end of Summer becometh hard and woody Whether this be the very same kind I cannot affirm but both the Picture and Description come very neer to that I have but that he seems not to take notice of the hollowness or Worm for which 't is most observable And therefore 't is very likely if men did but take notice they might find very many differing Species of these Nuts Ovaries or Matrixes and all of them to have much the same designation and office And I have very lately found several kinds of Excrescencies on Trees and Shrubs which having endured the Winter upon opening them I found most of them to contain little Worms but dead those things that contain'd them being wither'd and dry Observ. XLIV Of the tusted or Brush-born'd Gnat. THis little creature was one of those multitudes that fill our English air all the time that warm weather lasts and is exactly of the shape of that I observ'd to be generated and hatch'd out of those little Insects that wriggle up and down in Rain-water But though many were of this form yet I observ'd others to be of quite other kinds nor were all of this or the other kind generated out of Water Insects for whereas I observ'd that those that proceeded from those Insects were at their full growth I have also found multitudes of the same shape but much smaller and tenderer seeming to be very young ones creep up and down upon the leaves of Trees and flying up and down in small clusters in places very remote from water and this Spring I oberv'd one day when the Wind was very calm and the afternoon very fair and pretty warm though it had for a long time been very cold weather and the wind continued still in the East several small swarms of them playing to and fro in little clouds in the Sun each of which were not a tenth part of the bigness of one of these I here have delineated though very much of the same shape which makes me ghess that each of those swarms might be the of-spring of one onely Gnat which had been hoorded up in some safe repository all this Winter by some provident Parent and were now by the warmth of the Spring-air hatch'd into little Flies And indeed so various and seemingly irregular are the generations or productions of Insects that he that shall carefully and diligently observe the several methods of Nature therein will have infinitely cause further to admire the wisdom and providence of the Creator for not onely the same kind of creature may be produc'd from several kinds of ways but the very same creature may produce several kinds For as divers Watches may be made out of several materials which may yet have all the same appearance and move after the same manner that is sâ—â—w the hour equally true the one as the other and out of the same kind of matter like Watches may be wrought differing ways and is one and the same Watch may by being diversly agitated or mov'd by this or that agent or after this or that manner produce a quite contrary effect So may it be with these most curious Engines of Insect's bodies the All-wise God of Nature may have so ordered and disposed the little Automatons that when nourished acted or enlivened by this cause they produce one kind of effect or animate shape when by another they act quite another way and another Animal is produc'd So may he so order several materials as to make them by several kinds of methods produce similar Automatons But to come to the Description of this Insect as it appears through a Microscope of which a representation is made in the 28. Scheme It s head A is exceeding small in proportion to its body consisting of two clusters of pearl'd eyes BB on each side of its head whose pearls or eye-balls are curiously rang'd like those of other Flies between these in the forehead of it there are plac'd upon two small black balls CC two long jointed horns tapering towards the top much resembling the long horns of Lobsters each of whose stems or quills DD were brisled or brushed with multitudes of small stiff hairs issuing out every way from the several joints like the strings or sproutings of the herb Horse-tail which is oft observ'd to grow among Corn and for the whole shape it does very much resemble those brushy Vegetables besides these there are two other jointed and brisled horns or feelers EE in the forepart of the head and a proboseis F underneath which in some Gnats are very long streight hollow pipes by which these creatures are able to drill and penetrate the skin and thence through those pipes suck so much bloud as to stuff their bellies so full till they be ready to burst This small head with its appurtenances is fastned on by a short neck G to the middle of the thorax which is large and seems cased with a strong black shel HIK out of the under part of which issue six long and slender legs LLLLLL shap'd just like the legs of Flies but spun or drawn out longer and slenderer which could not be express'd in the Figure because of their great length and from the upper part two oblong but slender transparent wings MM
more dense towards the middle the Sun beams that are tangents or next within the tangents of this Globe will be refracted or inflected from their direct passage towards the center of the Globe whence according to the laws of refractions made in a triangular Prism and the generation of colour set down in the description of Muscovi-glass there must necessarily appear a red colour in the transitus or passage of those tangent Rays To make this more plain we will suppose in the sixth Figure ABCD to represent the Globe of the Atmosphere EFGH to represent the opacous Globe of the Earth lying in the midst of it neer to which the parts of the Air sustaining a very great pressure are thereby very much condens'd from whence those Rays that are by inflection made tangents to the Globe of the Earth and those without them that pass through the more condens'd part of the Atmosphere as suppose between A and E are by reason of the inequality of the medium inflected towards the center whereby there must necessarily be generated a red colour as is more plainly shewn in the former cited place hence whatsoever opacous bodies as vapours or the like shall chance to be elevated into those parts will reflect a red towards the eye and therefore those evenings and mornings appear reddest that have the most store of vapours and halituous substances exhaled to a convenient distance from the Earth for thereby the inflection is made the greater and thereby the colour also the more intense and several of those exhalations being opacous reflect several of those Rays which through an Homogeneous transparent medium would pass unseen and therefore we see that when there chances to be any clouds situated in those Regions they reflect a strong and vivid red Now though one great cause of the redness may be this inflection yet I cannot wholly exclude the colour of the vapours themselves which may have something of redness in them they being partly nitrous and partly fuliginous both which steams tinge the Rays that pass through them as is made evident by looking at bodies through the fumes of Aqua fortis or spirit of Nitre as the newly mentioned Illustrious Person has demonstrated and also through the smoak of a Fire or Chimney Having therefore made it probable at least that the morning and evening redness may partly proceed from this inflection or refraction of the Rays we shall next shew how the Oval Figure will be likewise easily deduced Suppose we therefore EFGH in the sixth Figure of the 37. Scheme to represent the Earth ABCD the Atmospere EI and EL two Rays coming from the Sun the one from the upper the other from the neather Limb these Rays being by the Atmosphere inflected appear to the eye at E as if they had come from the points N and O and because the Ray L has a greater inclination upon the inequality of the Atmosphere then I therefore must it suffer a greater inflection and consequently be further elevated above its true place then the Ray I which has a less inclination will be elevated above its true place whence it will follow that the lower side appearing neerer the upper then really it is and the two lateral sides viz. the right and left side suffering no sensible alteration from the inflection at least what it does suffer does rather increase the visible Diameter then diminish it as I shall shew by and by the Figure of the luminous body must necessarily appear somewhat Elliptical This will be more plain if in the seventh Figure of th 37. Scheme we suppose AB to represent the sensible Horizon CDEF the body of the Sun really below it GHIK the same appearing above it elevated by the inflection of the Atmosphere For if according to the best observation we make the visible Diameter of the Sun to be about three or four and thirty minutes and the Horizontal refraction according to Ticho be thereabout or somewhat more the lower limb of the Sun E will be elevated to I but because by his account the point C will be elevated but 29. minutes as having not so great an inclination upon the inequality of the Air therefore IG which will be the apparent refracted perpendicular Diameter of the Sun will be less then CG which is but 29. minutes and consequently six or seven minutes shorter then the unrefracted apparent Diameter The parts D and F will be likewise elevated to H and K whose refraction by reason of its inclination will be bigger then that of the point C though less that of E therefore will the semidiameter IL be shorter then LG and consequently the under side of the appearing Sun more flat then the upper Now because the Rays from the right and left sides of the Sun c. have been observ'd by Ricciolo and Grimaldus to appear more distant one from another then really they are though by very many Observations that I have made for that purpose with a very good Telescope fitted with a divided Ruler I could never perceive any great alteration yet there being really some it will not be amiss to shew that this also proceeds from the refraction or inflection of the Atmosphere and this will be manifest if we consider the Atmosphere as a transparent Globe or at least a transparent shell encompassing an opacous Globe which being more dense then the medium encompassing it refracts or inflects all the entring parallel Rays into a point or focus so that wheresoever the Observator is plac'd within the Atmosphere between the focus and the luminous body the lateral Rays must necessarily be more converg'd towards his eye by the refraction or inflection then they would have been without it and therefore the Horizontal Diameter of the luminous body must necessarily be augmented This might be more plainly manifest to the eye by the sixth Figure but because it would be somwhat tedious and the thing being obvious enough to be imagin'd by any one that attentively considers it I shall rather omit it and proceed to shew that the mass of Air neer the surface of the Earth consists or is made up of parcels which do very much differ from one another in point of density and rarity and consequently the Rays of light that pass through them will be variously inflected here one way and there another according as they pass so or so through those differing parts and those parts being always in motion either upwards or downwards or to the right or left or in some way compounded of these they do by this their motion inflect the Rays now this way and presently that way This irregular unequal and unconstant inflection of the Rays of light is the reason why the limb of the Sun Moon Iupiter Saturn Mars and Venus appear to wave or dance and why the body of the Starrs appear to tremulate or twinkle their bodies by this means being sometimes magnify'd and sometimes diminished sometimes elevated otherwhiles
the Glass for though perhaps it does make the several specks more radiant and glaring yet by that means uniting more Rays very near to one point it does make many of those radiant points conspicuous which by putting on a less aperture may be found to vanish and therefore both for the discovery of the fixt Star and for finding the Satellites of Iupiter before it be out of the day or twilight I alwayes leave the Object-glass as clear without any aperture as I can and have thereby been able to discover the Satellites a long while before I was able to discern them when the smaller apertures were put on and at other times to see multitudes of other smaller Stars which a smaller aperture makes to disappear In that notable Asterism also of the Sword of Orion where the ingenious Monsieur Hugens van Zulichem has discovered only three little Stars in a cluster I have with a thirty six foot Glass without any aperture the breadth of the Glass being about some three inches and a half discover'd five and the twinkling of divers others up and down in divers parts of that small milky Cloud So that 't is not unlikely but that the meliorating of Telescopes will afford as great a variety of new Discoveries in the Heavens as better Microscopes would among small terrestrial Bodies and both would give us infinite cause more and more to admire the omnipotence of the Creator Observ. LX. Of the Moon Schem XXXVIII Up and down in several parts of this place here describ'd as there are multitudes in other places all over the surface of the Moon may be perceived several kinds of pits which are shap'd almost like a dish some bigger some less some shallower some deeper that is they sâ—em to be a hollow Hemisphere incompassed with a round rising bank as if the substance in the middle had been digg'd up and thrown on either side These seem to me to have been the effects of some motions within the body of the Moon analogus to our Earthquakes by the eruption of which as it has thrown up a brim or ridge round about higher then the Ambient surface of the Moon so has it left a hole or depression in the middle proportionably lower divers places resembling some of these I have observ'd here in England on the tops of some Hills which might have been caus'd by some Earthquake in the younger dayes of the world But that which does most incline me to this belief is first the generality and diversity of the Magnitude of these pits all over the body of the Moon Next the two experimental wayes by which I have made a representation of them The first was with a very soft and well temper'd mixture of Tobacco-pipe clay and Water into which if I let fall any heavy body as a Bullet it would throw up the mixture round the place which for a while would make a representation not unlike these of the Moon but considering the state and condition of the Moon there seems not any probability to imagine that it should proceed from any cause analogus to this for it would be difficult to imagine whence those bodies should come and next how the substance of the Moon should be so soft but if a Bubble be blown under the surface of it and suffer'd to rise and break or if a Bullet or other body sunk in it be pull'd out from it these departing bodies leave an impression on the surface of the mixture exactly like these of the Moon save that these also quickly subside and vanish But the second and most notable representation was what I observ'd in a pot of boyling Alabaster for there that powder being by the eruption of vapours reduc'd to a kind of fluid consistence if whil'st it boyls it be gently remov'd besides the fire the Alabaster presently ceasing to boyl the whole surface especially that where some of the last Bubbles have risen will appear all over covered with small pits exactly shap'd like these of the Moon and by holding a lighted Candle in a large dark Room in divers positions to this surface you may exactly represent all the Phaenomena of these pits in the Moon according as they are more or less inlightned by the Sun And that there may have been in the Moon some such motion as this which may have made these pits will seem the more probable if we suppose it like our Earth for the Earthquakes here with us seem to proceed from some such cause as the boyling of the pot of Alabaster there seeming to be generated in the Earth from some subterraneous fires or heat great quantities of vapours that is of expanded aerial substances which not presently finding a passage through the ambient parts of the Earth do as they are increased by the supplying and generating principles and thereby having not sufficient room to expand themselves extreamly condens'd at last overpower with their elastick properties the resistence of the incompassing Earth and lifting it up or cleaving it and so shattering of the parts of the Earth above it do at length where they find the parts of the Earth above them more loose make their way upwards and carrying a great part of the Earth before them not only raise a small brim round about the place out of which they break but for the most part considerable high Hills and Mountains and when they break from under the Sea divers times mountainous Islands this seems confirm'd by the Vulcans in several places of the Earth the mouths of which for the most part are incompassed with a Hill of a considerable height and the tops of those Hills or Mountains are usually shap'd very much like these pits or dishes of the Moon Instances of this we have in the descriptions of Aetna in Sicily of Hecla in Iceland of Tenerif in the Canaries of the several Vulcans in New-Spain describ'd by Gage and more especially in the eruption of late years in one of the Canary Islands In all of which there is not only a considerable high Hill raised about the mouth of the Vulcan but like the spots of the Moon the top of those Hills are like a dish or bason And indeed if one attentively consider the nature of the thing one may find sufficient reason to judge that it cannot be otherwise for these eruptions whether of fire or smoak alwayes raysing great quantities of Earth before them must necessarily by the fall of those parts on either side raise very considerable heaps Now both from the figures of them and from several other circumstances these pits in the Moon seem to have been generated much after the same manner that the holes in Alabaster and the Vulcans of the Earth are made For first it is not improbable but that the substance of the Moon may be very much like that of our Earth that is may consist of an earthy sandy or rocky substance in several of its superficial parts which parts being
perceive the perforation with ones naked eye though by the help of a Microscope it may easily enough be perceived Nay I have made a Pipe perforated from end to end so small that with my naked eye I could very hardly see the body of it insomuch that I have been able to knit it up into a knot without breaking And more accurately examining one with my Microscope I found it not so big as a sixteenth part of one of the smaller hairs of my head which was of the smaller and finer sort of hair so that sixteen of these Pipes bound faggot-wiâ—e together would but have equalized one single hair how small therefore must its perforation be It appearing to me through the Microscope to be a proportionably thick-sided Pipe To proceed then for the trial of the Experiment the Experimenter must place the Tube AB perpendicular and fill the Pipe F cemented into the hole E with water but leave the bubble C full of Air and then gently pouring in water into the Pipe AB he must observe diligently how high the water will rise in it before it protrude the bubble of Air C through the narrow passage of F and denote exactly the height of the Cylinder of water then cementing in a second Pipe as G and filling it with water he may proceed as with the former denoting likewise the height of the Cylinder of water able to protrude the bubble C through the passage of G the like may he do with the next Pipe and the next c. as far as he is able then comparing the several heights of the Cylinders with the several holes through which each Cylinder did force the air having due regard to the Cylinders of water in the small Tubes it will be very easie to determine what force is requisite to press the Air into such and such a hole or to apply it to our present experiment how much of the pressure of the Air is taken off by its ingress into smaller and smaller holes From the application of which to the entring of the Air into the bigger hole of the Vessel and into the smaller hole of the Pipe we shall clearly find that there is a greater pressure of the air upon the water in the Vessel or greater pipe then there is upon that in the lesser pipe For since the pressure of the air every way is found to be equal that is as much as is able to press up and sustain a Cylinder of Quicksilver of two foot and a half high or thereabouts And since of this pressure so many more degrees are required to force the Air into a smaller then into a greater hole that is full of a more congruous fluid And lastly since those degrees that are requisite to press it in are thereby taken off from the Air within and the Air within left with so many degrees of pressure less then the Air without it will follow that the Air in the less Tube or pipe will have less pressure against the superficies of the water therein then the Air in the bigger which was the minor Proposition to be proved The Conclusion therefore will necessarily follow viz. That this unequal pressure of the Air caused by its ingress into unequal holes is a cause sufficient to produce this effect without the help of any other concurrent and therefore is probably the principal if not the only cause of these Phaenomena This therefore being thus explained there will be divers Phaenomena explicable thereby as the rising of Liquors in a Filtre the rising of Spirit of Wine Oyl melted Tallow c. in the Week of a Lamp though made of small Wire Threeds of Asbestus Strings of Glass or the like the rising of Liquors in a Spunge piece of Bread Sand c. perhaps also the ascending of the Sap in Trees and Plants through their small and some of them imperceptible pores of which I have said more on another occasion at least the passing of it out of the earth into their roots And indeed upon the consideration of this Principle multitudes of other uses of it occurr'd to me which I have not yet so well examined and digested as to propound for Axioms but only as Queries and Conjectures which may serve as hints toward some further discoveries As first Upon the consideration of the congruity and incongruity of Bodies as to touch I found also the like congruity and incongruity if I may so speak as to the Transmitting of the Raies of Light For as in this regard water not now to mention other Liquors seems nearer of affinity to Glass then Air and Air then Quicksilver whence an oblique Ray out of Glass will pass into water with very little refraction from the perpendicular but none out of Glass into Air excepting a direct will pass without a very great refraction from the perpendicular nay any oblique Ray under thirty degrees will not be admitted into the Air at all And Quicksilver will neither admit oblique or direct but reflects all seeming as to the transmitting of the Raies of Light to be of a quite differing constitution from that of Air Water Glass c. and to resemble most those opacous and strong reflecting bodies of Metals So also as to the property of cohesion or congruity Water seems to keep the same order being more congruous to Glass then Air and Air then Quicksilver A Second thing which was hinted to me by the consideration of the included fluids globular form caused by the protrusion of the ambient heterogeneous fluid was whether the Phaenomena of gravity might not by this means be explained by supposing the Globe of Earth Water and Air to be included with a fluid heterogeneous to all and each of them so subtil as not only to be every where interspersed through the Air or rather the air through it but to pervade the bodies of Glass and even the closest Metals by which means it may endeavour to detrude all earthly bodies as far from it as it can and partly thereby and partly by other of its properties may move them towards the Center of the Earth Now that there is some such fluid I could produce many Experiments and Reasons that do seem to prove it But because it would ask some time and room to set them down and explain them and to consider and answer all the Objections many whereof I foresee that may be alledged against it I shall at present proceed to other Queries contenting my self to have here only given a hint of what I may say more elswhere A Third Query then was Whether the heterogeneity of the ambient fluid may not be accounted a secondary cause of the roundness or globular form of the greater bodies of the world such as are those of the Sun Stars and Planets the substance of each of which seems altogether heterogeneous to the circum-ambient fluid aether And of this I shall say more in the Observation of the Moon A Fourth was
or any other creatures seeking and placing their Seeds in convenient repositories we may if we attentively consider and examine it find that there are circumstances sufficient upon the supposals of the excellent contrivance of their machine to excite and force them to act after such or such a manner those steams that rise from these several places may perhaps set several parts of these little Animals at work even as in the contrivance of killing a Fox or Wolf with a Gun the moving of a string is the death of the Animal for the Beast by moving the flesh that is laid to entrap him pulls the string which moves the trigger and that le ts go the Cock which on the steel strikes certain sparks of fire which kindle the powder in the pann and that presently flies into the barrel where the powder catching fire ratifies and drives out the bullet which kills the Animal in all which actions there is nothing of intention or ratiocination to be ascrib'd either to the Animal or Engine but all to the ingeniousness of the contriver But to return to the more immediate consideration of our Gnat We have in it an Instance not usual or common of a very stange amphibious creature that being a creature that inhabits the Air does yet produce a creature that for some time lives in the water as a Fish though afterward which is as strange it becomes an inhabitant of the Air like its Sire in the form of a Fly And this me thinks does prompt me to propose certain conjectures as Queries having not yet had sufficient opportunity and leisure to answer them my self from my own Experiments or Observations And the first is Whether all those things that we suppose to be bred from corruption and putrifaction may not be rationally suppos'd to have their origination as natural as these Gnats who 't is very probable were first dropt into this Water in the form of Eggs. Those Seeds or Eggs must certainly be very small which so small a creature as a Gnat yields and therefore we need not wonder that we find not the Eggs themselves some of the younger of them which I have observ'd having not exceeded a tenth part of the bulk they have afterwards come to and next I have observed some of those little ones which must have been generated after the Water was inclosed in the Bottle and therefore most probably from Eggs whereas those creatures have been suppos'd to be bred of the corruption of the Water there being not formerly known any probable way how they should be generated A second is whether these Eggs are immediately dropt into the Water by the Gnats themselves or mediately are brought down by the falling rain for it seems not very improbable but that those small seeds of Gnats may being perhaps of so light a nature and having so great a proportion of surface to so small a bulk of body be ejected into the Air and so perhaps carried for a good while too and fro in it till by the drops of Rain it be wash'd out of it A third is whether multitudes of those other little creatures that are found to inhabit the Water for some time do not at certain times take wing and fly into the Air others dive and hide themselves in the Earth and so contribute to the increase both of the one and the other Element Postscript A good while since the writing of this Description I was presented by Doctor Peter Ball an ingenious Member of the Royal Society with a little Paper of Nuts which he told me was sent him from a Brother of his out of the Countrey from Mamhead in Devonshire some of them were loose having been as I suppose broken off others were still growing fast on upon the sides of a stick which seem'd by the bark pliableness of it and by certain strings that grew out of it to be some piece of the root of a Tree they were all of them dry'd and a little shrivell'd others more round of a brown colour their shape was much like a Figg but very much smaller some being about the bigness of a Bay-berry others and the biggest of a Hazel-Nut Some of these that had no hole in them I carefully opened with my Knife and found in them a good large round white Maggot almost as bigg as a small Pea which seem'd shap'd like other Maggots but shorter I could not find them to move though I ghess'd them to be alive because upon pricking them with a Pinn there would issue out a great deal of white mucous matter which seem'd to be from a voluntary contraction of their skin their husk or matrix consisted of three Coats like the barks of Trees the outermost being more rough and spongie and the thickest the middlemost more close hard white and thin the innermost very thin seeming almost like the skin within an Egg 's shell The two outermost had root in the branch or stick but the innermost had no stem or process but was onely a skin that cover'd the cavity of the Nut. All the Nuts that had no holes eaten in them I found to contain these Maggots but all that had holes I found empty the Maggots it seems having eaten their way through taken wings and flown away as this following account which I receiv'd in writing from the same person as it was sent him by his Brother manifests In a moorish black Peaty mould with some small veins of whitish yellow Sands upon occasion of digging a hole two or three foot deep at the head of a Pond or Pool to set a Tree in at that depth were found about the end of October 1663. in those very veins of Sand those Buttons or Nuts sticking to a little loose stick that is not belonging to any live Tree and some of them also free by themselves Four or five of which being then open'd some were found to contvin live Insects come to perfection most like to flying Ants if not the same in others Insects yet imperfect having but the head and wings form'd the rest remaining a soft white pulpy substance Now as this furnishes us with one odd History more very agreeable to what I before hinted so I doubt not but were men diligent observers they might meet with multitudes of the same kind both in the Earth and in the Water and in the Air on Trees Plants and other Vegetables all places and things being as it were animarum plena And I have often with wonder and pleasure in the Spring and Summer-time look'd close to and diligently on common Garden mould and in a very small parcel of it found such multitudes and diversities of little reptiles some in husks others onely creepers many wing'd and ready for the Air divers husks or habitations left behind empty Now if the Earth of our cold Climate be so fertile of animate bodies what may we think of the fat Earth of hotter Climates Certainly the Sun may there by its
purpose which was indeed the chief cause of inventing these wayes of tryal we will suppose a Cylinder indefinitely extended upwards I say a Cylinder not a piece of a Cone because as I may elsewhere shew in the Explication of Gravity that triplicate proportion of the shels of a Sphere to their respective diameters I suppose to be removed in this case by the decrease of the power of Gravity and the pressure of the Air at the bottom of this Cylinder to be strong enough to keep up a Cylinder of Mercury of thirty inches Now because by the most accurate tryals of the most illustrious and incomparable Mr. Boyle published in his deservedly famous Pneumatick Book the weight of Quicksilver to that of the Air here below is found neer about as fourteen thousand to one If we suppose the parts of the Cylinder of the Atmosphere to be every where of an equal density we shall as he there deduces find it extended to the height of thirty five thousand feet or seven miles But because by these Experiments we have somewhat confirm'd the hypothesis of the reciprocal proportion of the Elaters to the Extensions we shall find that by supposing this Cylinder of the Atmosphere divided into a thousand parts each of which being equivalent to thirty five feet or seven geometrical paces that is each of these divisions containing as much Air as is suppos'd in a Cylinder neer the earth of equal diameter and thirty five foot high we shall find the lowermost to press against the surface of the Earth with the whole weight of the above mentioned thousand parts the pressure of the bottom of the second against the top of the first to be 1000 1 = 999. of the third against the second to be 1000 2 = 998. of the fourth against the third to be 1000 â— 3 = 997. of the uppermost against the 999. or that next below it to be 1000 999 = 1. so that the extension of the lowermost next the Earth will be to the extension of the next below the uppermost as 1. to 999. for as the pressure sustained by the 999. is to the pressure sustain'd by the first so is the extension of the first to the extension of the 999. so that from this hypothetical calculation we shall find the Air to be indefinitely extended For if we suppose the whole thickness of the Air to be divided as I just now instanced into a thousand parts and each of those under differing Dimensions or Altitudes to contain an equall quantity of Air we shall find that the first Cylinder whose Base is supposed to lean on the Earth will be found to be extended 35 35 999 foot the second equal Division or Cylinder whose basis is supposed to lean on the top of the first shall have its top extended higher by 35 70 998 the third 35 105 997 the fourth 35 140 996 and so onward each equal quantity of Air having its dimensions measured by 35 and some additional number exprest alwayes in the manner of a fraction whose numerator is alway the number of the place multipli'd by 35. and whose denominator is alwayes the pressure of the Atmosphere sustain'd by that part so that by this means we may easily calculate the height of 999. divisions of those 1000. divisions I suppos'd whereas the uppermost may extend it self more then as high again nay perhaps indefinitely or beyond the Moon for the Elaters and Expansions being in reciprocal proportions since we cannot yet find the plus ultra beyond which the Air will not expand it self we cannot determine the height of the Air for since as we have shewn the proportion will be alway as the pressure sustain'd by any part is to 35. so 1000. to the expansion of that part the multiplication or product therefore of the pressure and expansion that is of the two extream proportionals being alwayes equal to the product of the means or 35000. it follows since that Rectangle or Product may be made up of the multiplication of infinite diversities of numbers that the height of the Air is also indefinite for since as far as I have yet been able to try the Air seems capable of an indefinite Expansion the pressure may be decreased in infinitunt and consequently its expansion upwards indefinite also There being therefore such a difference of density and no Experiment yet known to prove a Saltus or skipping from one degree of rarity to another much differing from it that is that an upper part of the Air should so much differ from that immediately subjacent to it as to make a distinct superficies such as we observe between the Air and Water c. But it being more likely that there is a continual increase of rarity in the parts of the Air the further they are removed from the surface of the Earth It will hence necessarily follow that as in the Experiment of the salt and fresh Water the ray of Light passing obliquely through the Air also which is of very different density will be continually and infinitely inflected or bended from a streight or direct motion This granted the reason of all the above recited Phaenomena concerning the appearance of the Celestial Bodies will very easily be deduced As First The redness of the Sun Moon and Stars will be found to be caused by the inflection of the rays within the Atmosphere That it is not really in or near the luminous bodies will I suppose be very easily granted seeing that this redness is observable in several places differing in Longitude to be at the same time different the setting and rising Sun of all parts being for the most part red And secondly That it is not meerly the colour of the Air interpos'd will I suppose without much more difficulty be yielded seeing that we may observe a very great interstitium of Air betwixt the Object and the Eye makes it appear of a dead blew far enough differing from a red or yellow But thirdly That it proceeds from the refraction or inflection of the rays by the Atmosphere this following Experiment will I suppose sufficiently manifest Take a sphaerical Crystalline Viol such as is describ'd in the fifth Figure ABCD and having fill'd it with pure clear Water expose it to the Sun beams then taking a piece of very fine Venice Paper apply it against that side of the Globe that is opposite to the Sun as against the side BC and you shall perceive a bright red Ring to appear caus'd by the refraction of the Rays AAAA which is made by the Globe in which Experiment if the Glass and Water be very cleer so that there be no Sands nor bubbles in the Glass nor dirt in the Water you shall not perceive any appearance of any other colour To apply which Experiment we may imagine the Atmosphere to be a great transparent Globe which being of a substance more dense then the other or which comes to the same that has its parts
shall find it to sink till it comes towards the middle where it will remain fixt without moving either upwards or downwards And by a second Experiment of poising such as bubble in water whose upper part is warmer and consequently lighter then the under which is colder and heavier the manner of which follows in this next Quaery which is 6. Whether the rarifaction and condensation of Water be not made after the same manner as those effects are produc'd in the Air by heat for I once pois'd a seal'd up Glass-bubble so exactly that never so small an addition would make it sink and as small a detraction make it swim which suffering to rest in that Vessel of Water for some time I alwayes found it about noon to be at the bottom of the Water and at night and in the morning at the top Imagining this to proceed from the Rarifaction of the Water caus'd by the heat I made tryal and found most true for I was able at any time either to depress or raise it by heat and cold for if I let the Pipe stand for some time in cold water I could easily raise the Bubble from the bottom whither I had a little afore detruded it by putting the same Pipe into warm Water And this way I have been able for a very considerable time to keep a Bubble so poys'd in the Water as that it should remain in the middle and neither sink nor swim For gently heating the upper part of the Pipe with a Candle Coal or hot Iron till I perceived the Bubble begin to descend then forbearing I have observed it to descend to such or such a station and there to remain suspended for some hours till the heat by degrees were quite vanished when it would again ascend to its former place This I have also often observed naturally performed by the heat of the Air which being able to rarifie the upper parts of the Water sooner then the lower by reason of its immediate contact the heat of the Air has sometimes so slowly increased that I have observed the Bubble to be some hours in passing between the top and bottom 7. Whether the appearance of the Pike of Tenerif and several other high Mountains at so much greater a distance then seems to agree with their respective heights be not to be attributed to the Curvature of the visual Ray that is made by its passing obliquely through so differingly Dense a Medium from the top to the eye very far distant in the Horizon For since we have already I hope made it very probable that there is such an inflection of the Rays by the differing density of the parts of the Air and since I have found by several Experiments made on places comparatively not very high and have yet found the pressure sustain'd by those parts of the Air at the top and bottom and also their differing Expansions very considerable Insomuch that I have found the pressure of the Atmosphere lighter at the top of St. Paul's Steeple in London which is about two hundred foot high then at the bottom by a sixtieth or fiftieth part and the expansion at the top greater then that at the bottom by neer about so much also for the Mercurial Cylinder at the bottom was about 39. inches and at the top half an inch lower the Air also included in the Weather-glass that at the bottom fill'd only 155. spaces at the top fill'd 158. though the heat at the top and bottom was found exactly the same with a scal'd Thermometer I think it very rational to suppose that the greatest Curvature of the Rays is made nearest the Earth and that the inflection of the Rays above 3. or 4. miles upwards is very inconsiderable and therefore that by this means such calculations of the height of Mountains as are made from the distance they are visible in the Horizon from the supposal that that Ray is a straight Line that from the top of the Mountain is as 't were a Tangent to the Horizon whence it is seen which really is a Curve is very erroneous Whence I suppose proceeds the reason of the exceedingly differing Opinions and Assertions of several Authors about the height of several very high Hills 8. Whether this Inflection of the Air will not very much alter the supposed distances of the Planets which seem to have a very great dependence upon the Hypothetical refraction or inflection of the Air and that refraction upon the hypothetical height and density of the Air For since as I hope I have here shewn the Air to be quite otherwise then has been hitherto suppos'd by manifesting it to be both of a vast at least an uncertain height and of an unconstant and irregular density It must necessarily follow that its inflection must be varied accordingly And therefore we may hence learn upon what sure grounds all the Astronomers hitherto have built who have calculated the distance of the Planets from their Horizontal Parallax for since the Refraction and Parallax are so nearly ally'd that the one cannot be known without the other especially by any wayes that have been yet attempted how uncertain must the Parallax be when the Refraction is unknown And how easie is it for Astronomers to assign what distance they please to the Planets and defend them when they have such a curious subterfuge as that of Refraction wherein a very little variation will allow them liberty enough to place the Celestial Bodies at what distance they please If therefore we would come to any certainty in this point we must go other wayes to work and as I have here examined the height and refractive property of the Air by other wayes then are usual so must we find the Parallax of the Planets by wayes not yet practised and to this end I cannot imagine any better way then the Observations of them by two persons at very far distant parts of the Earth that lye as neer as may be under the same Meridian or Degree of longitude but differing as much in latitude as there can be places conveniently found These two persons at certain appointed times should as near as could be both at the same time observe the way of the Moon Mars Venus Iupiter and Saturn amongst the sixt Stars with a good large Telescope and making little Iconismes or pictures of the small fixed Stars that appear to each of them to lye in or near the way of the Center of the Planet and the exact measure of the apparent Diameter from the comparing of such Observations together we might certainly know the true distance or Parallax of the Planet And having any one true Parallax of these Planets we might very easily have the other by their apparent Diameters which the Telescope likewise affords us very accurately And thence their motions might be much better known and their Theories more exactly regulated And for this purpose I know not any one place more convenient for such an Observation
to be made in then in the Island of St. Helena upon the Coast of Africk which lyes about sixteen degrees to the Southwards of the Line and is very near according to the latest Geographical Maps in the same Meridian with London for though they may not perhaps lye exactly in the same yet their Observations being ordered according to what I shall anon shew it will not be difficult to find the true distance of the Planet But were they both under the same Meridian it would be much better And because Observations may be much easier and more accurately made with good Telescopes then with any other Instruments it will not I suppose seem impertinent to explain a little what wayes I judge most fit and convenient for that particular Such therefore as shall be the Observators for this purpose should be furnished with the best Telescopes that can be had the longer the better and more exact will their Observations be though they are somewhat the more difficultly manag'd These should be fitted with a Rete or divided Scale plac'd at such a distance within the Eye-glass that they may be distinctly seen which should be the measures of minutes and seconds by this Instrument each Observator should at certain prefixt times observe the Moon or other Planet in or very near the Meridian and because it may be very difficult to find two convenient stations that will happen to be just under the same Meridian they shall each of them observe the way of the Planet both for an hour before and an hour after it arrive at the Meridian and by a line or stroke amongst the small fixed Stars they shall denote out the way that each of them observ'd the Center of the Planet to be mov'd in for those two hours These Observations each of them shall repeat for many dayes together that both it may happen that both of them may sometimes make their Observations together and that from divers Experiments we may be the better assured of what certainty and exactness such kind of Observations are like to prove And because many of the Stars which may happen to come within the compass of such an Iconism or Map may be such as are only visible through a good Telescope whose Positions perhaps have not been noted nor their longitudes or latitudes any where remarked therefore each Observator should indeavour to insert some fixt Star whose longitude and latitude is known or with his Telescope he shall find the Position of some notable telescopical Star inserted in his Map to some known fixt Star whose place in the Zodiack is well defin'd Having by this means found the true distance of the Moon and having observed well the apparent Diameter of it at that time with a good Telescope it is easie enough by one single Observation of the apparent Diameter of the Moon with a good Glass to determine her distances in any other part of her Orbit or Dragon and consequently some few Observations will tell us whether she be mov'd in an Ellipsis which by the way may also be found even now though I think we are yet ignorant of her true distance and next which without such Observations I think we shall not be sure of we may know exactly the bigness of that Ellipsis or Circle and her true velocity in each part and thereby be much the better inabled to find out the true cause of all her Motions And though even now also we may by such Observations in one station as here at London observe the apparent Diameter and motion of the Moon in her Dragon and consequently be inabled to make a better ghess at the Species or kind of Curve in which she is mov'd that is whether it be sphaerical or elliptical or neither and with what proportional velocities she is carried in that Curve yet till her true Parallax be known we cannot determine either Next for the true distance of the Sun the best way will be by accurate Observations made in both these forementioned stations of some convenient Eclipse of the Sun many of which may so happen as to be seen by both for the Penumbra of the Moon may if she be sixty Semidiameters distant from the Earth and the Sun above seven thousand extend to about seventy degrees on the Earth and consequently be seen by Observators as far distant as London and St. Helena which are not full sixty nine degrees distant And this would much more accurately then any way that has been yet used determine the Parallax and distance of the Sun for as for the Horizontal Parallax I have already shewn it sufficiently uncertain nor is the way of finding it by the Eclipse of the Moon any other then hypothetical and that by the difference of the true and apparent quadrature of the Moon is less not uncertain witness their Deductions from it who have made use of it for Vendeline puts that difference to be but 4 ' 30 whence he deduces a vast distance of the Sun as I have before shewn Ricciolo makes it full 30' 00 but Reinoldus and Kircher no less then three degrees And no wonder for if we examine the Theory we shall find it so complicated with uncertainties First From the irregular surface of the Moon and from several Parallaxes that unless the Dichotomy happen in the Nonagesimus of the Ecliptick and that in the Meridian c. all which happen so very seldom that it is almost impossible to make them otherwise then uncertainly Besides we are not yet certain but that there may be somewhat about the Moon analogus to the Air about the Earth which may cause a refraction of the light of the Sun and consequently make a great difference in the apparent dichotomy of the Moon Their way indeed is very rational and ingenious and such as is much to be preferr'd before the way by the Horizontal Parallax could all the uncertainties be remov'd and were the true distance of the Moon known But because we find by the Experiments of Vendiline Reinoldus c. that Observations of this kind are very uncertain also It were to be wisht that such kind of Observations made at two very distant stations were promoted And it is so much the more desirable because from what I have now shewn of the nature of the Air it is evident that the refraction may be very much greater then all the Astronomers hitherto have imagined it And consequently that the distance of the Moon and other Planets may be much lesse then what they have hitherto made it For first this Inflection I have here propounded will allow the shadow of the Earth to be much shorter then it can be made by the other Hypothesis of refraction and consequently the Moon will not suffer an Eclipse unless it comes very much nearer the Earth then the Astronomers hitherto have supposed it Secondly There will not in this Hypothesis be any other shadow of the Earth such as Kepler supposes and calls
the upper and under parts of the Air as to make a reflecting Surface 5. Whether if so this will not explicate the Phaenomena of the Clouds An Experiment to this purpose 7. Whether the Rayes from the top of the Mountains are not bended into Curve-lines by inflection An Argument for it taken from an Experiment made on St. Paul's Steeple 8. Whether the distance of the Planets will not be more difficult to be found What wayes are most likely to rectifie the distance of the Moon the way of sitting Telescopes for such Observations How to make the Observations and how from them to find the true distance of the Moon at any time How the distance of the Sun may be found by two Observators The way by the Dicotomy of the Moon uncertain That the distance of the Moon may be less then it has been hitherto suppos'd Kepler's Supposition not so probable the explication of the Phaenomena by another Hypothesis Observ. 59. Of the sixt Stars Of the multitudes of Stars discoverable by the Telescope and the variety of their magnitudes 78. Stars distinguisht in the Pleiades that there are degrees of bigness even in the Stars accounted of the same magnitude the longer the Glasses are and the bigger apertures they will indure the more fit they are for these discoveries that 't is probable longer Glasses would yet make greater discoveries 5. Stars discover'd in the Galaxie of Orion's Sword Observ. 60. Of the Moon A description of a Vale in the Moon what call'd by Hevelius and Ricciolus and how describ'd by them with what substances the hills of the Moon may be cover'd A description of the pits of the Moon and a conjecture at their cause two Experiments that make it probable that of the surface of boyl'd Alabasler dust seeming the most likely to be resembled by eruptions of vapours out of the body of the Moon that Earthquakes seem to be generated much the same way and their effects seem very similar An Argument that there may be such variations in the Moon because greater have been observ'd in the Sun because the substance of the Moon and Earth seem much alike and because 't is probable the Moon has a gravitating principle this is argued from several particulars The reason why several pits are one within another The use that may be made of this Instance of a gravity in the Moon ERRATA IN the Preface Page 7. line 18. read feet line 24. read Gilbert Harvy Page 13. line ult read taste p. 34. l. 18. r. small lens l. penult r. that proceeds from p. 40. l. 44. r. when you p. 48. l. 34. r. broadest p. 57. l. 39. dele be p. 62. l. 36. r. water-drop p. 64. l. 9. r. duction of GACH l. 35. r. impressions p. 96. l. 33. r. compose p. 100. l. 11. r. Mersennus p. 106 l. 8. r. extreamly p. 110 l 8. r. â—â— l. 12. r. those p. 112 l. 32. r. Aldronendus Wormius p. 121. l. 9. dele of p. 128. l. 43 dele from p. 129. l. 18. r. fifth place p. 130. l. 29. r. Aerial menstruum p. 136. l. 39. r. knew how p. 144. l. 2. r. parts of the p. 147. l. 36. r. look'd on p. 161. l. 13. r. body p. 162. l. 17. dele only p. 166. l. 11.1.22 l. 11. dele the Semicolon l. 17. r. place p. 167. l. 40. r. 22 p. 172 l. 18. r. and first for the p. 198. l. 17. r. and an artific p. 215. l. ult r. and from the p. 221. l. 4 r. whence the under p. 234. l. 18. r. to hope p. 238. l. 42. r. is not less p. 240. l. 19. r. Moon Schem 2. Fig. 1. Schem 2. Fig. 2. Schem 14 Fig. 3. Schem 3. Fig. 1. Schem 3. Fig. 2. Schem 4. Schem 4. Fig. 1. Schem 6. Fig. 3. Schem 6. Fig. 3. Schem â— Fig. 1. Schem 8. Fig. â— Schem 9. Fig. 1. See Schem 11. Fig. 2. Fig. 1. Schem 36. Fig. 3.
not onely into the Microscopical pores and so perfectly stoping them up but also into the pores or interstitia which may perhaps be even in the texture or Schematismâ— of that part of the Wood which through the Microscope appears most solid do thereby so aâ—gment the weight of the Wood as to make it above three times heavier then water and perhaps six times as heavie as it was when Wood. Next they thereby so lock up and â—etter the parts of the Wood that the fire cannot easily make them flie away but the action of the fire upon them is onely able to Char those parts as it were like a piece of Wood if it be clos'd very fast up in Clay and kept a good while red-hot in the fire will by the heat of the fire be charr'd and not consum'd which may perhaps also be somewhat of the cause why the petrify'd substance appear'd of a dark brown colour after it had been burnt By this intrusion of the petrifying particles this substance also becomes hard and friable for the smaller pores of the Wood being perfectly wedg'd and stuft up with those stony particles the small parts of the Wood have no places or pores into which they may slide upon bending and consequently little or no flexion or yielding at all can be caus'd in such a substance The remaining particles likewise of the Wood among the stony particles may keep them from cracking and flying when put into the fire as they are very apt to do in a Flint Nor is Wood the onely substance that may by this kind of transâ—â—tation be chang'd into stone for I my self have seen and examin'd very many kinds of substances and among very credible Authours we may meet with Histories of such Metamorphoses wrought almost on all kind of substances both Vegetable and Animal which Histories it is not my business at present either to relate or epitomise but only to set down some Observation I lately made on several kind of petrify'd Shels found about Keinsham which lies within four or five miles of Brisâ—ol which are commonly call'd Serpentine-stones Examining several of these very curiously figur'd bodies which are commonly thought to be Stones form'd by some extraordinary Plastick virtue latent in the Earth itself I took notice of these particulars First that these figured bodies or stones were of very differing substances as to hardness some of Clay some Marle some soft Stone almost of the hardness of those soft stones which Masons call Fire-stone others as hard as Portland stone others as hard as Marble and some as hard a a Flint or Crystal Next they were of very differing substances as to transparency and colour some white some almost black some brown some Metalline or like Marchasites some transparent like white Marble others like flaw'd Crystal some gray some of divers colours some radiated like these long petrify'd drops which are commonly found at the Peak and in other subterraneous caverns which have a kind of pith in the middle Thirdly that they were very different as to the manner of their outward figuration for some of them seem'd to have been the substance that had fill'd the Shell of some kind of Shel-fish others to have been the substance that had contain'd or enwrapp'd one of those Shels on both which the perfect impression either of the inside or outside of such Shells seem'd to be left but for the most part those impressions seem'd to be made by an imperfect or broken Shell the great end or mouth of the Shell being always wanting and oftentimes the little end and sometimes half and in some there were impressions just as if there had been holes broken in the figurating imprinting or moulding Shell some of them seem'd to be made by such a Shell very much brused or flaw'd insomuch that one would verily have thought that very figur'd stone had been broken or brused whilst a gelly as 't were and so hardned but within in the grain of the stone there appear'd not the least sign of any such bruse or breaking but onely on the very uttermost superficies Fourthly they were very different as to their outward covering some having the perfect Shell both in figure colour and substance sticking on upon its surface and adhering to it but might very easily be separated from it and like other common Cockle or Scolop-shels which some of them most accurately resembled were very dissoluble in common Vinegar others of them especially those Serpentine or Helical stones were cover'd or retained the shining or Pearl-colour'd substance of the inside of a Shel which substance on some parts of them was exceeding thin and might very easily be rubbed off on other parts it was pretty thick and retained a white coat or flaky substance on the top just like the outsides of such Shells some of them had very large pieces of the Shell very plainly sticking on to them which were easily to be broken or flaked off by degrees they likewise some of them retain'd all along the surface of them very pretty kind of sutures such as are observ'd in the skulls of several kinds of living creatures which sutures were most curiously shap'd in the manner of leaves and every one of them in the same Shell exactly one like another which I was able to discover plainly enough with my naked eye but more perfectly and distinctly with my Microscope all these sutures by breaking some of these stones I found to be the termini or boundings of certain diaphragms or partitions which seem'd to divide the cavity of the Shell into a multitude of very proportionate and regular cells or caverns these Diaphragms in many of them I found very perfect and compleat of a very distinct substance from that which fill'd the cavities and exactly of the same kind with that which covered the outside being for the most part whitish or mother-of-pearl colour'd As for the cavities between those Diaphragms I found some of them fill'd with Marle and others with several kinds of stones others for the most part hollow onely the whole cavity was usually covered over with a kind of tartareous petrify'd substance which stuck about the sides and was there shot into very curious regular Figures just as Tartar or other dissolv'd Salts are observ'd to stick and crystallize about the sides of the containing Vessels or like those little Diamants which I before observed to have covered the vaulted cavity of a Flint others had these cavities all lin'd with a kind of metalline or marchasite-like substance which with a Microscope I could as plainly see most curiously and regularly figured as I had done those in a Flint From all which and several other particulars which I observ'd I cannot but think that all these and most other kinds of stony bodies which are found thus strangely figured do owe their formation and figuration not to any kind of Plastick virtue inherent in the earth but to the Shells of certain Shel-fishes which either by
some Deluge Inundation Earthquake or some such other means came to be thrown to that place and there to be fill'd with some kind of Mudd or Clay or petrifying Water or some other substance which in tract of time has been settled together and hardned in those shelly moulds into those shaped substances we now find them that the great and thin end of these Shells by that Earthquake or what ever other extraordinary cause it was that brought them thither was broken off and that many others were otherwise broken bruised and disfigured that these Shells which are thus spirallied and separated with Diaphragmes were some kind of Nautili or Porcelane shells and that others were shells of Cockles Muscles Periwincles Scolops c. of various sorts that these Shells in many from the particular nature of the containing or enclos'd Earth or some other cause have in tract of time rotted and mouldred away and onely left their impressions both on the containing and contained substances and so left them pretty loose one within another so that they may be easily separated by a knock or two of a Hammer That others of these Shells according to the nature of the substances adjacent to them have by a long continuance in that posture been petrify'd and turn'd into the nature of stone just as I even now observ'd several sorts of Wood to be That oftentimes the Shell may be found with one kind of substance within and quite another without having perhaps been fill'd in one place and afterwards translated to another which I have very frequently observ'd in Cockle Muscle Periwincle and other shells which I have found by the Sea side Nay further that some parts of the same Shell may be fill'd in one place and some other caverns in another and others in a third or a fourth or a fifth place for so many differing substances have I found in one of these petrify'd Shells and perhaps all these differing from the encompassing earth or stone the means how all which varieties may be caus'd I think will not be difficult to conceive to any one that has taken notice of those Shells which are commonly found on the Sea shore And he that shall throughly examine several kinds of such curiously form'd stones will I am very apt to think find reason to suppose their generation or formation to be ascribable to some such accidents as I have mention'd and not to any Plastick virtue For it seems to me quite contrary to the infinite prudence of Nature which is observable in all its works and productions to design every thing to a determinate end and for the attaining of that end makes use of such ways as are as farr as the knowledge of man has yet been able to reach altogether consonant and most agreeable to man's reason and of no way or means that does contradict or is contrary to humane Ratiocination whence it has a long time been a general observation and maxime that Nature does nothing in vain It seems I say contrary to that great Wisdom of Nature that these prettily shap'd bodies should have all those curious Figures and contrivances which many of them are adorn'd and contriv'd with generated or wrought by a Plastick virtue for no higher end then onely to exhibite such a form which he that shall throughly consider all the circumstances of such kind of Figur'd bodies will I think have great reason to believe though I confess one cannot presently be able to find out what Nature's designs are It were therefore very desirable that a good collection of such kind of figur'd stones were collected and as many particulars circumstances and informations collected with them as could be obtained that from such a History of Observations well rang'd examin'd and digested the true original or production of all those kinds of stones might be perfectly and surely known such as are Thunder-stones Lapides Stellares Lapides Iudaici and multitudes of other whereof mention is made in Aldrovandus Wormius and other Writers of Minerals Observ. XVIII Of the Schematisme or Texture of Cork and of the Cells and Pores of some other such frothy Bodies I Took a good clear piece of Cork and with a Pen-knife sharpen'd as keen as a Razor I cut a piece of it off and thereby left the surface of it exceeding smooth then examining it very diligently with a Microscope me thought I could perceive it to appear a little porous but I could not so plainly distinguish them as to be sure that they were pores much less what Figure they were of But judging from the lightness and yielding quality of the Cork that certainly the texture could not be so curious but that possibly if I could use some further diligence I might find it to be discernable with a Microscope I with the same sharp Pen-knife cut off from the former smooth surface an exceeding thin piece of it and placing it on a black object Plate because it was it self a white body and casting the light on it with a deep plano-convex Glass I could exceeding plainly perceive it to be all perforated and porous much like a Honey-comb but that the pores of it were not regular yet it was not unlike a Honey-comb in these particulars First in that it had a very little solid substance in comparison of the empty cavity that was contain'd between as does more manifestly appear by the Figure A and B of the XI Scheme for the Interstitia or walls as I may so call them or partitions of those pores were neer as thin in proportion to their pores as those thin films of Wax in a Honey-comb which enclose and constitute the sexangular cells are to theirs Next in that these pores or cells were not very deep but consisted of a great many little Boxes separated out of one continued long pore by certain Diaphragms as is visible by the Figure B which represents a sight of those pores split the long-ways I no sooner discern'd these which were indeed the first microscopical pores I ever saw and perhaps that were ever seen for I had not met with any Writer or Person that had made any mention of them before this but me thought I had with the discovery of them presently hinted to me the true and intelligible reason of all the Phaenomena of Cork As First if I enquir'd why it was so exceeding light a body my Microscope could presently inform me that here was the same reason evident that there is found for the lightness of froth an empty Honey-comb Wool a Spunge a Pumice-stone or the like namely a very small quantity of a solid body extended into exceeding large dimensions Next it seem'd nothing more difficult to give an intelligible reason why Cork is a body so very unapt to suck and drink in Water and consequently preserves it self floating on the top of Water though left on it never so long and why it is able to stop and hold air in a Bottle though it be
the water can very little or not at all penetrate this therefore retaining always very neer the same dimensions and the other stretching and shrinking according as there is more or less moisture or water in its pores by reason of the make and shape of the parts the whole body must necessarily unwreath and wreath it self And upon this Principle it is very easie to make several sorts of contrivances that should thus wreath and unwreath themselves either by heat and cold or by driness and moisture or by any greater or less force from whatever cause it proceed whether from gravity or weight or from wind which is motion of the Air or from some springing body or the like This had I time I should enlarge much more upon for it seems to me to be the very first footstep of Sensation and Animate motion the most plain simple and obvious contrivance that Nature has made use of to produce a motion next to that of Rarefaction and Condensation by heat and cold And were this Principle very well examin'd I am very apt to think it would afford us a very great help to find out the Mechanism of the Muscles which indeed as farr as I have hitherto been able to examine seems to me not so very perplex as one might imagine especially upon the examination which I made of the Muscles of Crabs Lobsters and several sorts of large Shell-fish and comparing my Observations on them with the circumstances I observ'd in the muscles of terrestrial Animals Now as in this Instance of the Beard of a wilde Oat we see there is nothing else requisite to make it wreath and unwreath it self and to streighten and bend its knee then onely a little breath of moist or dry Air or a small atome almost of water or liquor and a little heat to make it again evaporate for by holding this Beard plac'd and fix'd as I before directed neer a Fire and dipping the tip of a small shred of Paper in well rectify'd spirit of Wine and then touching the wreath'd Cylindrical part you may perceive it to untwist it self and presently again upon the avolation of the spirit by the great heat it will re-twist it self and thus will it move forward and backwards as oft as you repeat the touching it with the spirit of Wine so may perhaps the shrinking and relaxing of the muscles be by the influx and evaporation of some kind of liquor or juice But of this Enquiry I shall add more elsewhere Observ. XXVIII Of the Seeds of Venus looking-glass or Corn Violet FRom the Leaves and Downs and Beards of Plants we come at last to the Seeds and here indeed seems to be the Cabinet of Nature wherein are laid up its Jewels The providence of Nature about Vegetables is in no part manifested more then in the various contrivances about the seed nor indeed is there in any part of the Vegetable so curious carvings and beautifull adornments as about the seed this in the larger sorts of seeds is most evident to the eye nor is it less manifest through the Microscope in those seeds whose shape and structure by reason of their smalness the eye is hardly able to distinguish Of these there are multitudes many of which I have observ'd through a Microscope and find that they do for the most part every one afford exceeding pleasant and beautifull objects For besides those that have various kinds of carv'd surfaces there are other that have smooth and perfectly polish'd surfaces others a downy hairy surface some are cover'd onely with a skin others with a kind of shell others with both as is observable also in greater seeds Schem XVII Schem XVIII This though it appear'd one of the most promising seeds for beauty to the naked eye yet through the Microscope it appear'd but a rude mishapen seed which I therefore drew that I might thereby manifest how unable we are by the naked eye to judge of beauteous or less curious microscopical Objects cutting some of them in sunder I observ'd them to be fill'd with a greenish yellow pulp and to have a very thick husk in proportion to the pulp Observ. XXIX Of the seeds of Tyme THese pretty fruits here represented in the 18. Scheme are nothing else but nine several seeds of Tyme they are all of them in differing posture both as to the eye and the light nor are they all of them exactly of the same shape there being a great variety both in the bulk and figure of each seed but they all agreed in this that being look'd on with a Microscope they each of them exactly resembled a Lemmon or Orange dry'd and this both in shape and colour Some of them are a little rounder of the shape of an Orange as A and B they have each of them a very conspicuous part by which they were join'd to their little stalk and one of them had a little piece of stalk remaining on the opposite side of the seed you may perceive very plainly by the Figure is very copped and prominent as is very usual in Lemmons which prominencies are express'd in D E and F. They seem'd each of them a little creas'd or wrinckled but E was very conspicuously furrow'd as if the inward make of this seed had been somewhat like that of a Lemmon also but upon dividing several seeds with a very sharp Pen-knife and examining them afterward I found their make to be in nothing but bulk differing from that of Peas that is to have a pretty thick coat and all the rest an indifferent white pulp which seem'd very close so that it seems Nature does not very much alter her method in the manner of inclosing and preserving the vital Principle in the seed in these very small grains from that of Beans Peas c. The Grain affords a very pretty Object for the Microscope namely a Dish of Lemmons plac'd in a very little room should a Lemmon or Nut be proportionably magnify'd to what this seed of Tyme is it would make it appear as bigg as a large Hay-teek and it would be no great wonder to see Homers Iliads and Homer and all cramm'd into such a Nut-shell We may perceive even in these small Grains as well as in greater how curious and carefull Nature is in preserving the seminal principle of Vegetable bodies in what delicate strong and most convenient Cabinets she lays them and closes them in a pulp for their safer protection from outward dangers and for the supply of convenient alimental juice when the heat of the Sun begins to animate and move these little automanâ—â—s or Engines as if she would from the ornaments wherewith she as deckt these Cabinets hint to us that in them she has laid up her Jewels and Master-pieces And this if we are but diligent in observing we shall find her method throughout There is no curiosity in the Elemental kingdom if I may so call the bodies of Air Water Earth that are comparable in
form to those of Minerals Air and Water having no form at all unless a potentiality to be form'd into Globules and the clods and parcels of Earth are all irregular whereas in Minerals she does begin to Geometrize and practise as 't were the first principles of Mechanicks shaping them of plain regular figures as triangles squares c. and tetraedrons cubes c. But none of their forms are comparable to the more compounded ones of Vegetables For here she goes a step further forming them both of more complicated shapes and adding also multitudes of curious Mechanick contrivances in their structure for whereas in Vegetables there was no determinate number of the leaves or branches nor no exactly certain figure of leaves or flowers or seeds in Animals all those things are exactly defin'd and determin'd and where-ever there is either an excess or defect of those determinate parts or limbs there has been some impediment that has spoil'd the principle which was most regular Here we shall find not onely most curiously compounded shapes but most stupendious Mechanisms and contrivances here the ornaments are in the highest perfection nothing in all the Vegetable kingdom that is comparable to the deckings of a Peacock nay to the curiosity of any feather as I elsewhere shew nor to that of the smallest and most despicable Fly But I must not stay on these speculations though perhaps it were very well worth while for one that had leisure to see what Information may be learn'd of the nature or use or virtues of bodies by their several forms and various excellencies and properties Who knows but Adam might from some such contemplation give names to all creatures If at least his names had any significancy in them of the creature's nature on which he impos'd it as many upon what grounds I know not have suppos'd And who knows but the Creator may in those characters have written and engraven many of his most mysterious designs and counsels and given man a capacity which assisted with diligence and industry may be able to read and understand them But not to multiply my digression more then I can the time I will proceed to the next which is Observ. XXX Of the Seeds of Poppy THe small seeds of Poppy which are described in the 19. Scheme both for their smalness multiplicity and prettiness as also for their admirable soporifick quality deserve to be taken notice of among the Schem XIX Schem XX. other microscopical seeds of Vegetables For first though they grow in a Case or Hive oftentimes bigger then one of these Pictures of the microscopical appearance yet are they for the most part so very little that they exceed not the bulk of a small Nitt being not above â— 32 part of an Inch in Diameter whereas the Diameter of the Hive of them oftentimes exceeds two Inches so that it is capable of containing neer two hundred thousand and so in all likelihood does contain a vast quantity though perhaps not that number Next for their prettiness they may be compar'd to any microscopical seed I have yet seen for they are of a dark brownish red colour curiously Honey comb'd all over with a very pretty variety of Net-work or a small kind of imbosment of very orderly rais'd ridges the surface of them looking not unlike the inside of a Beev's stomack But that which makes it most considerable of all is the medicinal virtues of it which are such as are not afforded us by any Mineral preparation and that is for the procuring of sleep a thing as necessary to the well-being of a creature as his meat and that which refreshes both the voluntary and rational faculties which whil'st this affection has seis'd the body are for the most part unmov'd and at rest And methinks Nature does seem to hint some very notable virtue or excellency in this Plant from the curiosity it has bestow'd upon it First in its flower it is of the highest scarlet-Dye which is indeed the prime and chiefest colour and has been in all Ages of the world most highly esteem'd Next it has as much curiosity shew'd also in the husk or case of the seed as any one Plant I have yet met withall and thirdly the very seeds themselves the Microscope discovers to be very curiously shap'd bodies and lastly Nature has taken such abundant care for the propagation of it that one single seed grown into a Plant is capable of bringing some hundred thousands of seeds It were very worthy some able man's enquiry whether the intention of Nature as to the secundary end of Animal and Vegetable substances might not be found out by some such characters and notable impressions as these or from divers other circumstances as the figure colour place time of flourishing springing and fading duration taste smell c. For if such there are as an able Physician upon good grounds has given me cause to believe we might then insteed of studying Herbals where so little is deliver'd of the virtues of a Plant and less of truth have recourse to the Book of Nature it self and there find the most natural usefull and most effectual and specifick Medicines of which we have amongst Vegetables two very noble Instances to incourage such a hope the one of the Iesuite powder for the cure of intermitting Feaâ—â—â—s and the other of the juice of Poppy for the curing the defect of sleeping Observ. XXXI Of Purslane-seed THe Seeds of Purslane seem of very notable shapes appearing through the Microscope shap'd somewhat like a nautilus or Porcelane shell as may be seen in the XX. Scheme it being a small body coyl'd round in the manner of a Spiral at the greater end whereof which represents the mouth or orifice of the Shell there is left a little white transparent substance like a skin represented by BBBB which seems to have been the place whereunto the stem was join'd The whole surface of this Coclea or Shell is cover'd over with abundance of little prominencies or buttons very orderly rang'd into Spiral rows the shape of each of which seem'd much to resemble a Wart upon a mans hand The order variety and curiosity in the shape of this little seed makes it a very pleasant object for the Microscope one of them being cut asunder with a very sharp Pen-knife discover'd this carved Casket to be of a brownish red and somewhat transparent substance and manifested the inside to be fill'd with a whitish green substance or pulp the Bed wherein the seminal principle lies invelop'd There are multitudes of other seeds which in shape represent or imitate the forms of divers other sorts of Shells as the seed of Scurvy-grass very much resembles the make of a Concha Venerea a kind of Purcelane Shell others represent several sorts of larger fruits sweat Marjerome and Pot-marjerome represent Olives Carret seeds are like a cleft of a Coco-Nut Husk others are like Artificial things as Succory seeds are like a Quiver full