constantly succeed by a circular motion close in the rear of the moveable the impulse would immediately flag and the motion of the Body cease And although Democritus his two grand ingredients of the world were Atoms and that which he calls vacuum or inane which was nothing else but what we in the verge of our Atmosphere call Air and above is Aether yet certainly although the parts of Air are so tenuious and diaphanous as never to become visible to our eyes yet I say may no less be reputed matter in how different a Texture soever than that which enters the composition of natural Bodies as genuine Elements thereof Hydroph These are general considerations of Air as it falls in a large sense under our apprehension But pray Pyroph how do you apprehend of it in a more strict and particular sense in order to the intimate concerns of Animals and Vegetables which seem to have some near dependance thereon both as to their Generation Conservation in their Species and Metastasis too Pyroph Not so general considerations Hydroph as you may perhaps take them to be but may many of them very well serve to some Phaenomena of both Animals Vegetables and other Bodies as they fall under a Philosophick inquiry for that it should by its tenuious plyable fluid Texture be subservient to the motion of Bodies is thereby no less serviceable as for the general so the particular concerns of Animals and Vegetables both by concurring to the Motion Sensation Secretion and Perspiration of Animals as also by promoting the motion and Vegetation of Vegetables and that too as it is perforable and diaphanous admitting both of luminous as well as other Bodies which circulate in its Orb for the helping forward Animation and Vegetation and all this by invigorating the Essential Ferments of both which its congenial associate the Volatile nitrous Salt and Aetherial matter hid therein Without which the functions of Vitality could not be perform'd for without those jointly concurring neither would the Ferments be actuated the parts perspirable the Taper of Life set a flaming nor in fine the Body moveable without the help of that Organum as Trismegistus calls it which is further evident by what improvements the great Naturalist Esq Boyle hath made in the lately invented Pneumatick Engine into which if Animals be put and the Air pumpt forth they fall into Palpitations and in a very little time for want of the help of this Essential Organum the Ferments are damp'd the Spirits run counter flag and the Taper of Life is quickly extinct so that they speedily die of Spasms and Convulsions And as the Air with its Volatile Salt is an Essential Machine not as an Element necessary to promote if not also to excite the Functions of Vitality in Animals so it is no less effectual in the invigorating the seminal Ferments of Vegetables For neither are these brought on to maturity nor do they grow without the concurrence thereof Inasmuch as the superficies of the Earth which is the Matrix or Nursery of Vegetable Seeds is porous and spongy whereby the Air has access to Seeds even in their first openings and beginnings to motion concurring to the first workings of the seminal Principles by putting the Springs Ferments into Action and when they by the Vegetative Collision of their Principles put forth or spring out of the Earth still require the assisting influence of this fluid Aereal matter of which if they be denied their Ferments cease to act and the Body withers And as to what you ask Hydrop how the Air is concern'd in the Metastasis of Bodies out of one shape into another I answer that new Ferments are super-induc'd upon Bodies for the mutation thereof by the mediation of Air whereby the seminal Principles which by their intestine and Progressive Collisions have been the Mechanical Agents in the Production and Genesis of Bodies do now by the superinduction of new Ferments from the Air fall into other sorts I mean Retrogressive Collisions thereby takes the same Body they built before now in pieces by a putredinous Ferment For if some Bodies can but be secur'd from the Air or from what is contain'd in the Air before a putrid Ferment be introduc'd that is before the Principles be put into their reverse motion they may be preserv'd intire in their form the truth of which may be confirm'd by several Mechanical instances For besides the Additaments of Salts Sugars and Vinegars wherewith many sorts of things as food and all Confections may be preserv'd a considerable time for use and besides the Occlusions of the Pores of some Bodies especially Pullen and the like killed and hung up in the Feathers whereby those Bodies may be kept intire from putrefaction by the Frost Air as they preserve their kill'd Pullen for several Months sweet and good in New-England I say besides all these I know a peculiar Artifice of preserving Aprecocks Damsens Gooseberries Cherries c. without the addition of any thing save a skilful contrivance of excluding the Air of which more in our Zymolog Physic and Tentamen Physiologic Thus also Quinces by taking forth the Core which boyl'd with some other Quinces to a Mucilage with which they are to be fill'd and put into a close Vessel fill'd round with the same Mucilage will preserve them intire in their form for a whole year so flesh kept in a constant current of Water or in Spirit of Wine will be preserv'd a long time in its intire form as sometimes a Puppy has been kept intire and Embrio's are preserved from any putrid Ferment in Spirit of Wine Also Beef season'd and well bak'd and put in a Cask fill'd with despum'd Butter has thereby been kept good in long Voyages Thus by imbalming Fumes and Searcloths Cadaverous Bodies are kept a great while from putrefaction also by a constant heat the same Bodies may be Mummiz'd witness the Bodies both of Men and Beasts in sandy Deserts as those of Arabia being covered over with Sands by whirl-winds or Hurricanes are by the heat of the Sun constantly beating upon them and by being separated from the Air turn'd into Mummy found unbar'd by other contrary Winds So that you see hence Hydroph how Bodies are prevented of their otherwise sudden Metastasis into other shapes either by additional Saline or other sorts of Condiments Liquors Steams c. or other more solitary Exclusions of Air all which do anticipate the sudden Analysis of Bodies which frequently happen from new putredinous Ferments by arresting and suspending the Principles of Bodies in their Fermentative Collisions wherefore you see that the Air is not only of general but particular concern as in the production and conservation of Animals and Vegetables so also in the production or putredinous Analysis of them into other forms Besides all which Hydroph we are to consider the Air as the common Vehicle of Heat Cold and Moisture not as Qualities which are Essential to Air as their
calcin'd it turns from a yellow to a Carnation then to a white Colour which when edulcorated by washing the Salts therefrom becomes that Body we call Diaphoretick Antimony being a white with yellow reflection soft impalpable powder In like manner Antimony calcin'd with Aqua-fortis either becomes white or by another addition thereto with a slight Artifice is turn'd into a green Sulphur which flames and has all the properties of common Brimstone So Antimony with the addition of Mercury sublimate is by the help of the Salts therein contain'd brought into a glacial Oyl which as it becomes a fluid Body by the least Heat so it is congeal'd into Crystals frequently by Cold if upon this Oyl warm Water or Oyl of Tartar be poured precipitates into a soft powder call'd Mercurius Vitae if Spirit of Nitre or Aqua-fortis be distill'd therefrom it becomes after the passing away of a stifling Sulphureous Arsenical Fume another soft white impalpable powder call'd Bezoadicum Minerale Thus you see Hydroph how the same Body of Antimony is by the various application of Fire and Salts so altered in the Texture of its parts as to give that variety of apparences under which it arrives differently disguis'd to our Senses viz. as that which appears dense heavy hard of one colour c. shall presently discover it self to be rare light soft of another colour c. and which even now appear'd solid and permanent shall forthwith become soft and fluid where it will be difficult to judge truly of the nature of this Mineral Concrete by the present prevalency of any of these secondary qualities Yea and further to acquaint you what great alterations and changes may be made in the same Body by the transposition and sometimes volatization of the parts through the mediation of Fire and Solvents I know by a certain method how to make Antimony the Body we urge for instance as solid a Concrete as it is arise over the Helm in an easie Heat and in the form of a Liquor and by which sometimes I have known it come into the Helm even in the gentle heat of Balneum Mariae in the form not only of a limpid liquor but also sometimes of a Salt dissolvable per deliquium into an Oyl easily discernable by its lactescence and precipitation by the bare addition of simple water I might Hydroph confirm this by further instances of the like nature viz. by urging the various Phaenomena's of Vitriol Copper and other Metals whose different transposition of parts by Fire Salts and Solvents make up the great variety of those necessary sequels of Bodies which you term Qualities whether primary or secondary and yet are really no other than the different mutation of the constitutive parts of Bodies out of one Posture and Figure into another whereby the same Body differently smites our senses with those mechanical Affections of matter which Hydroph you ascribe to the first and second qualities For the further illustrating of which you may consult the works of that worthy and incomparable Philosopher and industrious searcher of Nature the Honourable Boyle especially his Treatise of the Origin of Forms But before we conclude this Section give me leave Hydroph to acquaint you that amongst other Instances we have and might urge how that from Metals by the mediation of Salts and help of Fire may result other sorts of concretions than usually appear by different modifications mask'd with various qualifications So that Mineral-gums if I may so call them may hence be made which are much different both in colour capacity of taking flame fusibility like water c. from any of the ingredients that enter the composition thereof Thus for instance from Sal Armoniack Mercury sublimate and cap. Mort. of Verdegreece left after the distillation of its Spirit mixed and put in a subliming Urinal after it fluxed together for it boyls like water for five or six hours when cool I found in the bottom a Cake of a kind of Rosin very hard somewhat red almost like Gum guttae the sublimate which arose was but very thin and inconsiderable which Rosin would take Fire and burn with a blue Flame and that chiefly from the Sulphur of the Copper which is opened by the Salts And not only Art but Nature her self exhibits us the various Phaenomena of Water under the disguise of Frost Snow Hail c. where for instance in Snow the otherwise liquid fluid ponderous and transparent Body of Water by the interposition of Frost or cold Atoms blowing from the North becomes by having the Texture of its parts so altered as so many Flats or Planes laid with layers of cold Particles stratum super stratum as I may not improperly say a white soft light opake continuous and unless it meet with heat dry body so that you plainly see Hydroph how humidity siccity fluidity continuity ponderousness levity transparency and opacity and in particular whiteness is competible to the same Body whose parts are variously altered and transposed per se or with additionals SECT XIV Hydroph BUt are there not Pyroph other qualities of Bodies whereby they become the Objects of the Senses as Colours Sapours Odours c. To begin with the first do not we rightly define colour to be extremitas perspicui in corpore terminato Pyroph Those you reckon Hydroph are no more to be accounted Qualities than the rest beforenamed But are to be look'd upon as different affections of Concrete Bodies as they stand in a relation to a perception by our senses and first as to the definition of colour whose genus is extremitas methinks Aristotle began at the wrong end For it is not the extremity of a Diaphanous Body which gives Essence to colour being only necessary thereto à Posteriori For if I mistake not light should be the genus of the definition of colour which admitting of various refractions and reflections in and from the extremities or surfaces of Bodies make those different apparences thereof we call colours Besides it should seem to me that what you call extremitas perspicui is not of that extent as to comprise the generality of colours although we should admit of it as the genus and that because we see colours as frequently made by simple reflections of light from the surfaces of bodies witness from all Vegetables Animals stain'd or dy'd Garments and the rest as well I say as by refractions of the same light the efficient of all colours in perspicuous bodies For that colour should be confin'd to the only extremity of a diaphanous body is methinks too strait every way both as to the genus as also to the specifical difference of the true definition of colour in as much as where a diaphanous body proves opake the luminous Rayes which before were refracted do now become terminated and reflected and yet doth no less produce variety of colours than before As for instance Suppose a Solution of Vitriol made in distill'd Water which is a perspicuous
in the Air from cold Particles and from Ferments of a contrary disposition and what alterations thence happen to Animal Juyces and how perform'd Pyroph I answer That as the Air by reason of some congeneal Ferments tacking to and fro therein doth conspire not only to the awakening the Ferments of Animals and Vegetables and to the keeping them a foot and that both in order to building of bodies as well as to the pulling them down so doth the Air at other seasons contain other Particles of cold which are able to suspend the motion and action of the former that is if very intense are able to destroy the Ferments of Men and other Animals as is evident by the killing of many Men and Beasts in cold Countreys as in Russia Greenland and Norway the Frosts are sometimes so strong as that Men are sometimes brought to Inns or Markets frozen on Horse-back are found rigid and starv'd to death sitting streight up like Statues And in Vegetables it's very discernable to have them mortified by strong Frosts And as the cold Particles arrest the vital and vegetative Ferments of Animals and Vegetables so it likewise suspends the putrefactive Ferments in the resolution or taking bodies in pieces locking up those resolving Ferments hence the Carcases of any sort of Animals expos'd to the Air having a putrefaction already begun and thereby grown faetid have I say upon strong Frosts those putrid Ferments shut up and send forth no foetor or bad smell and that by reason of the cold Atoms which fix themselves in the Pores of such bodys and thereby arrest the motion of the Principles which cold Particles are no sooner extricated by change of weather but the Ferments I mean the putrefactive are let loose again and then goes on as strongly as ever Yea in thawing Winds all putrefactive Ferments grow vigorous and are carried in great and numerous swarms through the common Vehicle the Air which either smite our Nostrils very sensibly or affect our Juyces indiscernably to the producing great alterations therein How much the frost Particles penetrate any Fruits so much do they when the Frost breaks undergo a putrefaction as is obvious in Apples and other Fruits which the more they are expos'd to frost Air so much the sooner they rot and that because the active Principles are so far mortify'd through the openness of their Pores as to their natural and intestine Fermentation and so easily upon the unhinging and unrivetting the cold Atoms fall into regressive and putrefactive Fermentation Hydroph Have you Pyroph any artificial way of representing cold to us Pyroph Yes how cold may be produc'd we had an Experiment above 7 years ago which was thus Having mixed Sal Armoniac and Saturn Ore upon a Marble or in a Mortar and put them into a subliming Urinal for a peculiar purpose we then propos'd to which adding Water and shaking them together while the solution was making produc'd an intense coldness to the hand holding the Glass and washing the out-side of the Glass with water found as it was pour'd on immediately it became long fleaks of Ice which as we took off and poured more water on did the same again and again the same will Sal Armon dissolv'd per se in water do also its caput mort remaining after the sublimation thereof with Pot-ash or Salt of Tartar dissolv'd in Water And to make two cold Liquors cold to touch to heat each other to evince the reason of the contrary quality viz. heat we have put Oyl of Vitriol to water which being mixed by shaking immediately contracts a greater heat than can be suffered by the hand that holds the Glass and from the same cause one may easily cause Ice it self to cause heat to another cold Liquor by proceeding as before with Ice put in Oyl of Vitriol as the worthy Experimentator Mr. Boyle tells us in his last Tract Hydroph How do you Pyroph suppose the freezing of Water to be resolv'd or thaw'd what becomes of those Atoms of cold when a Frost is over and what further Observations do you make of those Ferments in the Air upon thawing seasons and sometimes in other weather Pyroph To which I answer Hydroph That as the Atoms of cold are brought to us through the Air by certain peculiar winds which in their motion meeting with capable viz. liquid watery bodys becomes coagulated therewith into that rigid body we call Ice so there are other Atoms of heat which are brought at other seasons through the same Vehicle of Air by different although to that purpose peculiar winds which in their motion meeting with those of cold either in the Air or coagulated in watry bodies resolve mortifie I mean alter their texture and dint them so as either altering their texture whereby they for a while swell and flow together with the water whence upon thaws Rivers for a time grow bigger till they can extricate themselves from the moist and warm Particles they are involv'd in and by other winds are carryed into other places to perform the same offices or else do as some sorts of Salts do to others of a different texture viz. one to mortifie to use a Chymical term dint and change another until there result a neutrum or third thing different from either of the two Besides which we are to consider Hydroph that these mutually acting and working upon each other beget new shapes amongst themselves and many times prove subtile penetrating Ferments which being carryed in the belly of the wind insinuate into fermentative Liquors and set them freshly a working which we see frequently happen in thawing winds that both Ale and Beer often ferment anew yea Wines too especially about the time of Vintage when those fermentative Particles are arrested and determin'd by vinous Atoms which at that season take wing and float in the Air. The same also may cause strange and different fermentations in the blood and other Juyces of our bodies the efficient sometimes of Feavers and other Endemical yea Epidemical Diseases and that these winds and changes of Air thereby have an odd influence upon the fluid Juyces of our bodies is apparent in that vulgar yet true Proverb that some carry Almanacks in their bones can discern the changes of weather before hand which as we apprehend can be from no other cause than that the minute Particles of heat cold or moisture or combinations thereof carryed by different winds in the Vehicle of the Air from whence all varieties of weather do certainly follow which I say at first or aforehand mustring in an invisible manner in the Air become Ferments which rouse up old Aches Pains Asthma's Heaviness weakness of the Joynts and other Symptoms vulgarly ascribable to the Scurvey and and that many times before the weather be discernably chang'd because these otherwise indiscernable alterations of weather are prefigured and transacted before hand in the Air. Whence many times as may be obvious to a curious eye proceed