all her operations both of Sense and Motion First for sense it is plain by what is discovered in a Vertigo for the Brain it self is not of such a fluid substance as to turn round and make all objects to do so too wherefore t is a sign that the immediate corporeal instrument of conveying the images of things is the Spirits in the Brain Secondly That they are the chief Engine of Sight is plain not onely because the eye is full of these livid Spirits but also because dimness of sight comes from deficiency of them though the parts of the eye otherwayes be entire enough as in sick and old persons and in those troubled with an Amaurosis or Gutta Serena I had the last year a Patient a young Boy of seventeen years old who fell casually stark blind of his right eye in which you could outwardly discover no fault at all the Disease being an Amaurosis or obstruction of the Optick Nerve for that Nerve being by successful means disobstructed and relaxed so that the Animal Spirits were able to flow done to the Retina again he shortly after perfectly recovered his sight again without any relapse at all to this present day Thirdly If you cast a Ligature upon any Nerve you destroy both the sense and motion of that part whither that Nerve was propagated as by that pleasant Experiment by tying the recurrent Nerves in a living Dogg we have tryed till by relaxing the Ligature the Spirits may have the freedome to channel into the Nerves again Which truth is also handsomely made out by that ordinary example of a mans Leg being asleep as we call it for by compression of the Nerves the propagation of the Spirits into the part is hindred for as sense and motion is restored you may feel something creep into the Leg tingling and stinging like Pismires as Spigelius compares it which is the return of the Animal Spirits into that part again Fourthly That Spontaneous motion is performed by continuation of the Animal Spirits from the common Sensorium to the Muscle which is the gross Engine of Motion is sensibly evinced in dead Palsies where one side is taken away To all which add the former Observation of the Spirits circumundulation when the Snail at any time moved and of their joint quiescency together Having now shown you how these Animal Spirits are generated in our Body or to speak more properly disimprisoned and separated from our nutriment and so from fixation brought through Fusion to Volatilization having also shown you what use Nature makes of them in Sensation and Motion let us screw our Enquiry a little further and see if we can discover how the Spirits move in the Brain and Nerves to perform the same operations First therefore we affirm that a lesser quantity and slower motion of the Spirits is required for Sensation than there is for Motion for in this the Muscle swells that moves the part which is a plain Indication of a greater influx of Spirits directed thither a greater I say for I do not deny but there is required to sensation a moderate quantity and diffusion of the Spirits into all the parts of the Body else we should alwayes be benummed and stupid as when our Leg is asleep by an interception of the Spirits Secondly that their motion is slower in sensation then motion the former Experiment of the Snail does also manifest whose Animal Spirits never begin to undulate till she begin to move whereas she is sensible when they are in Quiescency as you may by pricking her with a Needle easily observe Thirdly in the return of the Spirits into the stupefied Leg we plainly perceive by the prickling what a flow motion the Spirits have All which Phaenomena do seem to favour our former Conjecture that for Motion the Spirits move impetuously down the nervous filaments which are hollow but for Sensation they onely creep by a filtration down their Coats and Membranes Now these Spirits being so subtle and dissipable the Soul spends them every day in using of them and they being much spent she can hardly move the Body any longer The sense whereof we call Lassitude For certainly as Doctor More very ingeniously inferrs if it were an immediate faculty of the Soul to contribute Motion to any matter I do not understand that Faculty never failing nor diminishing no more than the Soul it self can fail or diminish that we should ever be weary Thus are the Phaenomena of Sense and Motion best salved whilst we are awake now what happens when we sleep is a matter of further enquiry Some have defined Sleep to be a migration of all the Spirits out of the Brain into the exteriour parts of the Body whereas by our former Observations it may rather seem to the contrary that is The retraction of the Spirits into the Brain or at least a restagnation of them in the nervous parts does till Nature being recruited by a new supply and regeneration of them in the Brain direct them into the Spinal Marrow and Nerves which being replenished with them again they run their current as before so the whole Animal thereby is made capable of feeling the Impulses of any external object whatever which we call Walking and during this Interval and Non-tearm of sensation for so we may without a Complement call Sleep why may not the Soul be retracted and wholly intent upon and busied about her Vegetative and Plastical Operations So that when she has locked up the doors of this Laboratory the Body she may be busie in augmenting repairing and regenerating all the Organs and Utensils within and painting and plaistring the Walls without This I am sure we observe to be the greatest part of her obscure employment in the Womb where the Embryo for the most part sleeps whilst the Soul is in full exercise of her Plastick and Organo-Poïetical Faculty Now these Animal Spirits being continually transmitted from the Brain through the Spinal Marrow Nerves Tendons Fibers into all the parts of the Body especially whilst we are awaking may some of them at least have a kind of circulation for those which perspire not having lost their motion may either mix with the bloud in habitu partium or relapse into a kind of insipid phlegm as Chymical Spirits do that are not purely rectified and to be returned back by the Lymphiducts again Lastly I have but one paradoxical and extravagant Quaere to make and that is this That since we have proved these Animal Spirits to be the ultimate result of all the concoctions of the Body the very top and perfection of all Nature's operations the purest and most aetherial particles of all Bodies in the World whatsoever and so consequently of nearest alliance to Spiritualities and the sole and immediate instrument of all the Soul's operations here even in statu conjuncto the Body and the Organs thereof being but secondary and subservient Instruments to the Spirits These things being thus premised may
he then vomits into a Vineger-glass again and that presents white Wine At the next disgorgement when his stomack is full of nothing but clear water indeed which he has fill'd so by the exceeding quantity of water which at every interval he drinks he then deludes the Spectators by vomiting Rose water Angelica water and Cinamon water into those glasses which have been formerly washed with those Spirits And thus was that famous Cheat perform'd and indeed acted with such a port and flowing grace by that Italian Bravado that he did not onely strike an Admiration into vulgar heads and common Spectators but even into the judicious and more knowing part of men who could not readily find out the ingenuity of his knavery The Chymical Elaboratories likewise do teach us this Truth in Fumes and Smoaks as well as Liquors which indeed are but rarified and expaused Liquors for Niter it self though nothing a kin to redness doth in distillation yield bloud-red Fumes called by the Chymists Salamanders-bloud which fall again into a Liquor which hath nothing of red in it So Soot though black yet when it is pressed and forced up into an exhalation by a strong fire will fill the Receiver with Milk white Fumes thus Sall-Armoniack and black Antimony being equally mixed and gradually sublimed in an Urinal will exhibit a Scene of Colours and will make a transition out of one into another with a delectable variety By all which pleasant Observations it palpably appears that the nature of Colours consists in the free admission transition refraction or reflection of light from the Objects discoloured For first you see several Colours introduced into Liquors by those Ingredients that neither had nor could communicate any such tincture Secondly 't is as plain that the minute Particles and Atoms of those Bodies that were imbibed by the Liquors and filled up their smallest Cavities or Interstices accordingly as they were altered in their site position and motion so were the Luminous Beams variously transmitted refracted or reflected and so consequently thence resulted those several Scenes of Colours Thus when the Atoms wherewith the Liquor is fully impregnated do relax and open themselves that the light may fairly penetrate then is the Liquor limpid and clear but if they draw up a little closer one to another so that the light be refracted then is the Liquor yellow if closer yet to a greater refraction of the Light then is the Liquor red but if in this randezvouz they draw up into a very close Body indeed so that by reason of their contiguity both in rank and file no light can be trajected through them then opacity and darkness arises If the Rays cannot break the front of them then is a milky-Whiteness presented there The Fifth COROLLARY Anatomical Considerations about the Eye OUr next Reflections shall be made upon the Eye to admire as well as contemplate Nature's variety in the constructure and conformation of so excellent an Organ The two Luminaries of our Microcosm which see all other things cannot see themselves nor discover the excellencies of their own Fabrick Nature that excellent Mistress of the Opticks seems to have run through all the Conick Sections in shaping and figuring its Parts and Dioptrical Artists have almost ground both their Brain and Tools in pieces to find out the Arches and Convexities of its prime parts and are yet at a loss to find their true Figurations whereby to advance the Fabrick of their Telescopes and Microscopes which practical part of Opticks is but yet in the rise but if it run on as successfully as it has begun our Posterity may come by Glasses to out-see the Sun and Discover Bodies in the remote Universe that lie in Vortexes beyond the reach of the great Luminary At present let us be content with what our Microscope demonstrates and the former Observations I am sure will give all ingenious persons great occasion both to admire Nature's Anomaly in the Fabrick as well as in the number of Eyes which she has given to several Animals We see the Tunica Cornea in most Insects is full of perforations as if it were a Tunica Vvea pinked full of Holes and whereas perfect Animals have but one Aperture these Insects have a thousand Pupils and so see a Hemisphere at once and indeed 't is worth our consideration to think that since their Eye is perfectly fixed and can move no wayes it was requisite to lattice that Window and supply the defect of its Motion with the multiplicity of its Apertures that so they might see at once what we can but do at several times our Eyes having the liberty and advantage to move every way like Balls in Sockets which theirs have not Secondly We observe no diaphanous parts in those lattic'd Eyes since it is probable that the Horney Coat of the Eye serves also for a Pericranium for their Brain For that the Brain of most Insects lies in their Eyes seems to me more than a probability First because in Flies Butter-flies Bees c. you can find no other place in their Heads wherein any matter analogous to the Brain can be lodged Secondly in the Eyes of those Insects you shall alwayes find great store of a pulpous substance like to be Brain in those Creatures Thirdly the Eyes in all Insects are very large and seem disproportional to so small Bodies if intended for no other use than Vision Fourthly why may not this lattic'd film of their Eye be their Tunica Retina which as it is concave in us is convex in them and as it is made of the Brain in us so it is in them and therefore lies contiguous to it and may indeed be over-cast by a transparent Cornea through which the Net-work of this interiour film may thus eminently appear For certainly such Animals as have distinction of Senses as Seeing Feeling c. must needs have an Animal-Sensation an Animal I say for I hold also a natural Sensation which is performed without a Brain and such an one is discoverable even in Animals and in our own Selves for besides the Animal-Sensation whose original is in the Brain the Stomach Guts and the Parenchymata of the Body yea and the Bloud too has a natural Sensation of what is good and what is bad for them as Doctour Harvey has excellently proved Lib. de Gener. and so some of the lowest rank of Animals as the Zoophyta and plant-Animals may perchance be utterly devoid of Animal and have onely a Natural Sensation but this belongeth to some Anatomical Observations I have by me where I may perchance prove that all Vegetables as well as the Sensitive and humble Plants have this latter kind of Sensation as well as Animals But let us return to the Eye again of which curious Organ I am tempted to say much more but that I have reserved that discourse as more proper for my Telescopical Observations Onely for the present to encourage the Lovers of free Philosophy and to let
viz A Perpetual Motion For the demonstrating of which he devis'd this following Experiment M r. Charles Townley his Experiment from which he would deduce a Perpetual Motion LEt the Glass DEF be fill'd with two several Liquors so as they may remain in two distinct Regions one above another as AB without the least mixture which may be performed in Milk and Water placing a broad piece of Cork or Bread that will swim so upon the Milk which must be the lower as A being heavier than Water that it may receive the force of the Water's fal when you pour it upon the Milk this done and the Cork or Bread being taken out hang the Syphon ACB first fill'd with Milk upon the stick DCE so artificially that the longer end A may remain in the Region of Milk and the shorter end B in the Region of Water with this caution That the flexure of the Syphon C be removed no higher from the Milk than it would naturally ascend to if the Syphon was streight Now saith Mr. Charles Since in the former Experiment the Water would rise over the top of the Syphon and drive back the Milk and afterwards rise to the top thereof and there swim aloft why here in the Syphon ACB the like should not follow viz. the Water at B drive the Milk which is suppos'd first to fill the Syphon back to C then to A where issuing out of the Pipe as it did in the former Experiment it would ascend to its proper Region of Water again and so continue in a Circular Motion perpetually Now however this same Problem of M. Charles might seem probable in the Theory yet it will prove more than most difficult if not impossible in the Practice For 1. We fill'd the Glass DEF half full of Milk and half full of Water as AB then hanging the Syphon first fill'd with Milk so artificially on the stick DE so that the longer Shank might reach the Milk A and the shorter might open into the Superincumbent Region of Water B we observ'd this effect That the Milk did for a small time run out of the Orifice B and seem'd to fall into the inferiour Region of Milk but at last the Milk or at least the serous or more watrish parts thereof so intermixed with the Water which we could discern by the whiteness and opacity of the Water that the flux was quite stifled 2. Contrary to Mr. Charles his Prognosticks the Water did not rise up the short Shank and drive back the Milk but quietly permitted the Milk to drill through it though I know it was not material which way the flux was performed provided it would have been perpetual The Experiment failing in these two Liquors we attempted the same again in other two Liquors which we were sure would not mix and to that purpose we fill'd the aforesaid Glass with Oyl of Tartar per deliquium and Spirit of Wine which we tinged yellow with Saffron the better to distinguish the Liquors and then adapting the Syphon as before we wish'd for a happy event in the Experiment But Experience which ought to be the Mistress of wise men as well as fools shew'd us the quite contrary for the Syphon would not run at all but continued full which we afterwards conjectured to proceed from the Heterogeneity of the two Liquors so that the Oyl of Tartar would not break out into the Spirit of Wine no more than Milk or Water will do into the open Ayr where the pendent Shank is shorter than the Standard-height of those two Liquors So that it seems to effect this Experiment indeed two such Liquors must be found out as are in some wise Homogeneous and of a Congruity and the one considerably lighter than the other which is tantùm non impossibile For besides the former Liquors we have tried Oyl and Water and no Motion at all was perceived for the same reason of incongruity formerly delivered But these and a hundred more Experiments of this nature are every day excogitated and tried by our Noble Society of Gresham-Colledge which in a little time will be improved into far nobler Consequences and Theories than can possibly be done by the single Endevours of any Person whatsoever The End of the Mercurial Experiments EXPERIMENTAL PHILOSOPHY The Third Book Containing Experiments Magnetical With a Confutation of GRANDAMICVS Amicus Plato Amicus Aristoteles Grandis Amicus Grandamicus Sed Magis Amica Veritas By HENRY POWER D r. of Physick LONDON Printed in the Year 1663. A CONFUTATION OF GRANDAMICVS HIS MAGNETICAL TRACTATE DE IMMOBILITATE TERRAE The Third Book CHAP. I. THe three great Demonstrations and Magnetical Discoveries that this Authour so gloriously pretends to are 1. A Magnetical Demonstration of the Earth's Immobility 2. An universal Meridian Magnetically demonstrated 3. A Magnetical discovery of Longitudes or something equivalent thereunto In the canvassing of these three great Discoveries we shall invert the order and begin with the last first But before we can conveniently fasten upon these three main pillars of his Book there are three other considerable Errors of his first to be removed which though they lye more obscure and removed from our sight and buried as it were under ground yet indeed are they the Basis and Foundation upon which his magnificent Structure is built And they are these Positions following 1. That the virtue of the Magnet and all Magnetick Bodies is purely immaterial and a bare simple Quality 2. That it proceeds intrinsecally from the proper form of the Loadstone as he hath delivered Cap. 3. Pag. 48. 3. That all the World and consequently all the Bodies therein were made by the Divine Providence for the use of us and our habitation this Globe of Earths which he has fixed in the Centre of the World and constituted us Lords and Masters of all the Universe Grand Pag. 50. CHAP. II. Of the Corporeal Effluviums of the Loadstone DOctor Highmore tells us That the Magnetical Exspirations of the Loadstone may be discovered by the help of Glasses and be seen in the form of a mist to flow from the Loadstone This indeed would be an incomparable eviction of the Corporeity of Magneticall Effluviums and sensibly decide the Controversie under Consideration But I am sure he had either better Eyes or else better Glasses than ever I saw though I have look'd through as good as England affords and the best of them all was as far from presenting these subtil Emanations that they would never exhibit to me those grosser and far more material Effluviums from Electrical and Aromatical Bodies Nay not the Evaporations of Camphire which spends it self by continually Effluviating its own component Particles Nay I could never see the grosser steams that continually transpire out of our own Bodies and are the fuliginous Eructations of that internal Fire which constantly burns within us Indeed if our Dioptricks could attain to that Curiosity as to grind us such Glasses as would present the Effluviums