it would call back that which was gone out before and was ready to fall and would make it thrust on and return to its former pace and enter again into the pot to mingle again with the water which lyes therein You see then this mystery which at first was surprizing displayed and made as familiar and natural as to see a stone fall down from the air T is true that to make a demonstration thereof by an exact and compleat rigor we must adde other circumstances which we have done in another Discourse wherein I expressely treated of this subject But that which I now say is sufficient to give a tincture how this so notable an attraction is made The other attraction which comes by fire which draws unto it the ambient air with the smal bodies therein is made thus The Fire acting according to its own nature which to push on a continual river or exhalation of its parts from the center to the circumference and out of its source carrieth away with it the air which adjoyned and sticking to it on all sides as the water of a river trains along with it the earth of thae channel or bed through which it glides For the air being humid and the fire drye they cannot do lesse than embrace and hug one another But there must a new air come from the places circumjacent to fill the room of that which is carried away by the fire otherwise there would a vacuity happen which nature abhors This new air remains not long in the place which it comes to fill but the fire who is in a continual carreer and emanation of his parts carries it presently with him and draws the new air and so there is a perpetual and constant current of the air as long as the action of fire continues We dayly see the experience hereof for if one makes a good fire in ones Chamber it draws the air from the door and windows which chough one would shut yet there be crevices and holes for the air to enter and coming near them one shall hear a kind of whisling noise which the air makes in pressing to enter and t is the same cause that produceth the sound of the Organ and flute and he who would stand between the crevices and the fire he should find such an impetuosity of that artificial wind that he would be ready to freeze while he is ready to burn the tother side next the fire And a candle of wax being held in this current of the wind would melt by her flame blown against the wax and waste away in a very short time whereas if that candle stood in a calm place that her flame might burn upward it would last much longer But if there be no passage whereby the air may enter into the Chamber the one part then of the vapor of the wood which should have converted to flame and so mounted up the funnel of the chimney descends downward against its nature for to supply the defect of air within the said Chamber and fills it with smoak but at last the fire choaks and extinguisheth for want of air Whence it come to passe that the Chymists have reason to say that the air is the life of the fire as well as other animals But if one puts a bason or vessel of water before the fire upon the hearth there will be no smoke in the Chamber although it be so close shut that the air cannot enter for the fire attracts parts of the water which is a liquid substance and easie to move out of its place which aquatic parts rarifie themselves into air and thereby perform the functions of the air This is more evidently seen if the Chamber be little for then the air which is there penned in is sooner raised up and carried away And by reason of this attraction they use to make great fires where there are hushould-stuff of men that died of the Pestilence to disinfect them For by this inondation of air which is drawn the fire doth as it were sweep the walls the planks with other places of the Chamber and takes away those little putrified sharp corrosive and venemous bodies which were the infections that adhered unto it drawing them into the fire where they are partly burnt and partly sent up into the chimney accompanied with the atoms of the fire and the smoke It is for this reason that the great Hippocrates which groped so far into the secrets of Nature disinfected and freed from the plague a whole Province or entire Region by causing them to make great fires every where Now this manner of attraction is made not onely by a simple fire but by that which partakes of it viz. by the heated substances and that which is the reason and cause of the one is also the cause of the other For the spirits or ignited parts evaporating from such a substance or hot body carry away with them the adjacent air which ought necessarily to be nourished by some other air or by some matter which keeps the place of the air as we have spoken of the bason and tub of water put before the fire to hinder smoke It is upon this foundation that Physitians do ordain the hot application of Pigeons or young dogs or some other hot animals to the soles of the feet or the handwrists or the stomacks or navills of their patients to extract out of their bodies the wind or ill vapors which infect them and in time of contagion or universal infection of the air pigeons cats dogs with other hot animals use to be killed which make continually a great transpiration of evaporation of spirits because the air by those attractions it makes taking the room of the spirits which issue forth of evaporation the pestiferous atoms which are scattered in the air and accompany it use to stick to their feathers skins or furres And for the same reason we see that bread coming hot from the Oven draws unto it the must of the cask which spoiles the wine if they put it hot upon the bung And that onions such hot bodies which perpetually exhale unto them the fiery parts which appears by the strength of their smell are quickly taken with infectious airs if they be exposed unto them which is one of the signes to know whether the whole masse of the air be universally infected And one might reduce to this head the great attraction of air which is made by calcind bodies and particularly by tartar all ignited by the violent action of the fire upon it which is heaped together and bodified among his salt for I have observed that it attracts unto it nine times more air than it weighs it self For if one should expose to the air a pound of salt of tartar well calcind and burnt it will afford you ten pound of good oyl of tartar drawing unto it and so bodifying the circumjacent air and that wherewith t is mingled as it befell that oyl of
determine the possibility and truth of a matter which is doubtful I shall content my self because I would not trespasse too much upon your patience at this time to make instance in one onely but it shall be one of the clearest the most perspicuous and the most averred that can be not onely for the remarkable circumstances thereof but also for the hands which were above the Vulgar through which the whole businesse passed For the cure of a very sore hurt was perfected by this Power of Sympathy upon a person that is illustrious as well for his many perfections as for his several employments All the circumstances were examined and sounded to the bottom by one of the greatest and most knowing Kings of his time viz. King Iames of England who had a particular talent and marvailous sagacity to discusse natural things and penetrate them to the very marrow As also by his Sonne the late King Charles and the Duke of Buckingham their prime Minister And in fine all was registred among the observations of great Chancelor Bacon to adde by way of Appendix unto his Natural History And I believe Sirs when you shall have understood this History you will not accuse me of vanity if I attribute unto my self the Introducer unto this Quarter of the World this way of curing Mr. Iames Howel well known in France for his publick works and particularly for his Dendrologia translated into French by Monsieur Baudouin coming by chance as two of his best friends were fighting in duel he did his endeavour to part them and putting himself between them seized with his left hand upon the hilt of the sword of one of the Combatants while with his right hand he laid hold of the blade of the other they being transported with fury one against the other strugled to rid themselves of the hindrance their friend made that they should not kill one another and one of them roughly drawing the blade of his sword cuts to the very bone the nerves and mussles of Mr. Howels hand and then the other disingaged his hilts and gave a crosse blow on his adversaries head which glanced towards his friend who heaving up his sore hand to save the blow he was wounded on the back of his hand as he had been before within It seems some strange constellation raigned then against him that he should lose so much bloud by parting two such dear friends who had they been themselves would have hazarded both their lives to have preserved his but this unvoluntary effusion of bloud by them prevented that which they should have drawn one from the other For they seeing Mr. Howels face besmeared with blood by heaving up his wounded band they both run to embrace and having searched his hurts they bound up his hand with one of his garters to close the veins which were cut and bled abundantly They brought him home and sent for a Surgeon But this being heard at Court the King sent one of his own Surgeons for his Majesty much affected the said Mr. Howel It was my chance to be lodged hard by him and four or five dayes after as I was making my self ready he came to my House and prayed me to view his wounds for I understand said he that you have extraordinary remedies upon such occasions and my Surgeons apprehend some fear that it may grow to a Gangrene and so the hand must be cut of In effect his countenance discovered that he was in much pain which he said was unsupportable in regard of the extream inflammation I told him that I would willingly serve him but if haply he knew the manner how I would cure him without touching or seeing him it may be he would not expose himself to my manner of curing because he would think it peradventure either ineffectual or superstitious he replyed That the wonderful things which many have related unto me of your way of medecinement makes me nothing doubt at all of its efficacy and all that I have to say unto you is comprehended in the Spanish Proverb Hagase el milagro y bagalo Mahoma Let the miracle be done though Mahomet do it I asked him then for any thing that had the bloud upon it so he presently sent for his garter wherewith his hand was first bound and as I called for a Bason of water as if I would wash my hands I took a handfull of Powder of Vitrol which I had in my study and presently dissolved it As soon as the bloody garter was brought me I put it within the Bason observing in the interim what Mr. Howel did who stood talking with a Gentleman in a corner of my Chamber not regarding at all what I was doing but he started suddenly as if he had found some strange alteration in himself I asked him what he ailed I know not what ailes me but I find that I feel no more pain me thinks that a pleasing kind of freshnesse as it were a wet cold napkin did spread over my hand which hath taken away the inflammation that tormented me before I replyed since then that you feel already so good an effect of my medicament I advise you to cast away all your playsters onely keep the wound clean and in a moderate temper twixt heat and cold This was presently reported to the Duke of Buckingham and a little after to the King who were both very curious to know the circumstance of the businesse which was that after dinner I took the garter out of the water and put it to dry before a great fire it was scarce dry but Mr. Howels servant came running that his Master felt as much burning as ever he had done if not more for the heat was such as if his hand were twixt coles of fire I answered that although that had happened at present yet he should find ease in a short time for I knew the reason of this new accident and I would provide accordingly for his Master should be free from that inflammation it may be before he could possibly return unto him but in case he found no ease I wished him to come presently back again if not he might forbear coming Thereupon he went and at the instant I did put again the garter into the water thereupon he found his Master without any pain at all To be brief there was no sense of pain afterward but within five or six dayes the wounds were cicatrized and entirely healed King Iames required a punctual information of what had passed touching this cure and after it was done and perfected his Majesty would needs know of me how it was done having drolled with me first which he could do with a very good grace about a Magitian and a Sorcerer I answered That I should be alwayes ready to perform what his Majesty should command but I most humbly defired him before I should passe further to tell him what the Authour of whom I had the secret said to the great Duke of Toscany upon
mediation of the Sun beams and of the light use to issue forth out of all bodies that are composed of Elements who throng the air and are carried a marvailous distance from the place and bodies where they have their origen and source the proof and explication of which things hath been the aime of my discourse hitherunto Now my Lords I must if you please make you see how these small bodies that so fill and compose the air are oftentimes drawn to a road altogether differing from that which their universal causes should make them hold and it shall be our fifth principle One may remark within the course and aeconomy of nature sundry sorts of attractions as that of succion or sucching whereby I have seen a ball of lead at the bottom of a long steel exactly wrought follow the air which one sucked out of the mouth of a Canon with that impetuosity and strength that it broke his teeth The attraction of water or wine that is done by the instrument Scyphon is like to this for by means of that one liquor is made to passe from one vessel into another without changing any way the colour or rising of the lees There is another sort of attraction which is called magnetical whereby the loadstone draws the iron Another electrick when the Iett-stone draws unto it straws There is another of the Flame when the smoke of a candle put out draws the flame of that which burns hard by and makes it descend to light that which is out There is another of Filtration when one humid body mounts upon a dry body or when the contrary is done Lastly when the fire or some hot body draws the air and that which is mixed therewith We will treat here of the two first species of attraction I have sufficiently spoken of the rest in another place Filtration may seem to him who hath not attentively considered it nor examined by what circumstances so hidden a secret of nature comes to passe and to a person of a mean and limited understanding to be done by some occult virtue or property and will perswade himself that within the Filtre or strayning instrument there is some secret Sympathy which makes water to mount up contrary to its natural motion But he who will examine the business as it ought to be observing all that is done without omitting any circumstance he will find there is nothing more natural and that it is impossible it should be otherwise And we must make the same judgement of all the profound mysteries and hidden'st mysteries of nature if one would take the pains to discover them and search into them with judgement Behold then how Filtration is made they use to put a long toung of cloth or cotten or spongy matter within an earthen pot of water or other liquor and let hanging upon the brim of the pot a good part of the cloth and one shall see the water presently mount up and passe above the brink of the vessel and drop at the lower end of the piece of cloth upon the ground or within some vessel and the Gardners make use of this method to water their plants and flowers in Summer by soft degrees As also the Apothecaries and Chymists to separate their liquors from their dregs and residences To comprehend the reason why the water ascends in that manner let us neerly observe all that is done That part of the cloth which is within the water becomes wetted to wit it receives and imbibes the water through its spongy and dry parts at first This cloth swells in receiving the water so two bodies joyned together require more room than one of them would by it self Let us consider this swelling and augmented extension in the last thread of them which touch the water viz. that on the superficies which to be distinguished from the rest let it be marked at the two ends as by a line as with A. B. and the thread which immediately follows and is above it let it be C. D. and the following E. F. then with G. H. and so to the end of the toung I say then that the thread A. B. dilating it self and swelling by means of the water which enters twixt it fibres or strings approacheth by little and little to C. D. which is yet dry because it toucheth not the water but when A. B. is grown so grosse and swelling by reason of the water which enters that it fills all the vacuity and all the distance which lies twixt it and C. D. as also that it presseth against C. D. by reason of its extension which is greater than the space was betwixt them both then it wets C. D. because the thread A. B. being compressed the exterior part of the water which was in it coming to be pushed on upon C. D. seeks there a place and entreth within the threeds and wets them in the same manner as at first the exterior and highest part became wet C. D. being so wetted it shall dilate it self as A. B. did and consequently pressing against E. F. it cannot chuse but work the same effect in it which before it had received by the swelling and dilatation of A. B. and so by gentle degrees every thread wets its neighbour untill the very last thread of cloth toung And it is not to be feared that the continuity of the water will break ascending this scale of chords or that it will recoyl backwards for those little ladders so easy to be mounted render the ascent the more easie and the woolly fibres of every thread seem to reach their hands to help them up at every pace and so the facility of getting up contremont joyned with the fluidness of the water and the nature of quantity which tends alwayes to the uniting of substances and of bodies which it clothes when there occures no other predominant cause to break and divide it causeth that the water keeps it self in one piece and passeth above the brink of the pot After that its voyage is made more easie for it goes after its natural panching alwayes downwards And if the end of the cloth hangs lower without the pot then the surface of the water within the pot the water spills on the earth or some vessel placed beneath as we see that a heavier chord being hung upon a pully the longest and heaviest falls upon the ground and carrieth away the shortest and lightest making it passe above the pully But if the outward end of the cloth which is without the pot were horizontal with the surface of the water and did hang no lower then it the water would be immoveable as the two sides of a balance when there 's equal weight in both the scales And if one would powre out the water that is in the pot in such sort that the superficies did grow lower than the end of the cloth In that case the ascending water becoming more heavy than the descendant on the other side without the pot
tartar which Monsieur Ferrier made me whereof I spake before But me thinks that all this is but little compared to the attraction of air which was made by the body of a certain Nunne at Rome whereof Petrus Servius Urban the Eighth's Physitian makes mention in a book which he hath published touching the marvailous accidents which he observed in his time Had I not such a vouchy I durst not produce this History although the Nunne her self did cnnfirm it unto me and that a good number of Doctors of the faculty of Physick at Rome did assure me of the truth thereof There was a Nunne that by excesse of fasting of watchings and mental orisons was so heated in her body that she seemed to be all on fire and her bones dryed up and calcind This heat then this internal fire drawing the air so powerfully this air did incorporate within her body as it useth to do in salt of Tartar and the passages being all open it got to those parts where there is most serosity which is the bladder and thence she rendred it in water among her urine and that in an incredible quantity for she voided during some weeks more than two hundred pounds of water every four and twenty hours With this notable example I will put an end to the experiments I have urged to prove and explicate the attraction which is made of air by hot and ignited bodies which are of the nature of fire My sixth Principle shall be that when fire or some hot body attracts the air and that which is within the air if it happens that within that air there be found some dispersed atoms of the same nature with the body which draws them the attraction of such atoms is made more powerfully then if they were bodies of a different nature and these atoms do stay stick and mingle with more willingesse with the body which draws them The reason hereof is the resemblance and Sympathy they have one with the other If I should not explicate wherein this resemblance consisted I should expose my self to the same censure and blame as that which I taxed at the beginning of my Discourse touching those who speak but lightly and vulgarly of the Powder of Sympathy and such marvails of nature But when I shal have cleared that which I contend for by such a resemblance and conveniency I hope then you will rest satisfied I could make you see that there are many sorts of resemblances which cause an union between bodies but I will content my self to speak here onely three signall ones The first resemblance shall be touching weight whereby bodies of the same degree of heavinesse do assemble together the reason whereof is evident for if one body were more light it would ocupy a higher situation than the heavier body as on the contrary if a body were more weighty it would descend lower than that which is lesse heavy but both having the same degree of heavinesse they keep company together in equilibrio as one may see by experience in this gentile example which some curious spirits use to produce for to make us understand how the four elements are situated one above the other according to their weight and heavinesse They use to put in a viall the spirit of wine tincturd with red to represent the fire the spirit of turpentine tinctured with blew for the air the spirit of water tinctured with green to represent the element of water And to represent the earth the Powder of some solid mettal enamelld you see them one upon the other without mixing and if you shake them together by a violent agitation you shall see a Chaos such a confusion that it will seem ther 's no particular atomes that belong to any of those bodies they are so huddled pell mell altogether But cease this agitation and you shall see presently every one of these four substances go to its naturall place calling again and labouring to unite all their atoms in one distinct masse that you shall see no mixture at all The second resemblance of bodies which draw one another and unite is among them which are of the same degree of rarity and density The nature and effect of Quantity is to reduce to unity all things which it finds if there interpose not some other stronger power as the differing substantiall forme which doth multiply it do not hinder And the reason of that is evident for the essence of Quantity is a divisibility or capacity to be divided which is as much to say as to make it Many whence it may be inferred that Quantity it self is not many therefore she is of her self and in her own nature a continued extension seeing then that the nature of Quantity in general tends to unity and continuity the first differences of Quantity which are rarity and density must produce the same effect of unity and continuity in those bodies which convene in the same degree with them For proof whereof we find that water doth unite and incorporate it self strongly and easily with water oil with oil the spirit of wine with spirit of wine but water and oil can hardly unite nor mercury with the spirit of wine and other bodies of differing density and tenuity The third resemblance of bodies which unites and keeps them strongly together is that of Figure I will not serve my self here with the ingenious conceit of a great personage who holds that the continuity of bodies results from some small hookings or claspings which keeps them together and are differing in bodies of a differing nature But not to extend my self two diffusively in every particularity I will say in grosse as an apparent thing that every kind of body affects a particular figure We see it plainly in the several sorts of salt peele and stamp them separately dissolve coagulate and change them as long as you please they come again alwayes to their own natural figure after every dissolution and coagulation The ordinary salt doth form it self alwayes in cubes of foursquare faces salt-peter in formes of six faces Armoniac salt in Hexagons of six points as the snow doth which is sexangulary Whereunto Mr. Davison attributes the pentagonary figure of every one of those stones which were found in the bladder of Monsieur Peletier to the number of fourscore for the same immediate efficient cause which is the bladder had imprinted its action both within the stones and the salt of the urine The Distillators observe that if they powre upon the dead head of some distillation the water which was distilled it imbibes it and re-unites incontinently whereas if one would powre any other water of an heterogeneous body it swims on the top and incorporates with much difficulty The reason is that the distill'd water which seems to be an homogeneous body yet t is composed of small bodies of discrepant figures as the Chymists do plainly demonstrate and these atomes being chaced by the action of fire out of their own
that the Oxen come to acquire so excessive store of fat that it doth extend it self in a great quantity to their leggs as also to their feet and hoofs which oftentimes causeth impostumes in the bottom of their feet which comes to swell and cast out a great deal of core and putrified matter which hindreth the beast to goe The proprieters when they observe that though the beefbe never the worse for the shambles yet are they damnified thereby in regard that not being able to bring them to London where the grand market is for fat beefs through all England as Paris is for Auuergne for Normandy and other provinces of France I say the Graziers not being able to bring them to London they are constrained to kill them upon the place where their flesh is not worth half the price that they might have got in London Now there is a remedy for this inconvenience which is that one must observe where the Oxe Cow or Heifer doth plant upon the Earth his sick foot the first time that he riseth up in the morning and at that very place one must cut out a green turf of that Earth where the beast had trod with that foot and put this turf upon a tree or upon a hedg lying open to the North wind And if that wind come to blow upon the turf of Earth the beef will be cured within three or four daies very perfectly but if one should put that turf towards the South wind or South west which in Tholouze is called d'Autant here in Montpellier le Marin and in Italy le Scirocco the distemper in the Oxe will encrease These circumstances will not seem superstitious unto you when you will have considered how that by the repose of the night the corrupt matter or core doth use to gather in a great quantity under the foot of the sick Oxe and comming in the morning to set his foot upon the ground he presseth forth the impostume the matter whereof sticks to that part of the Earth and makes impressions upon it Now this turf of Earth being put and exposed in some proper place to receive the dry cold blasts of the Northern winds the dry cold blasts of that wind doth intermingle with the said corrupted impostumated matter which strerching its spirits all along the air the ulcerated foot of the animal which is the source of all drawes them unto it and with them it attracts also the cold dry atomes which cause the cure the malady requiring no other help than to be well dryed and refreshed But if one should expose this turf to a moist hottish wind it would produce contrary effects Behold my Lords all my wheelsformed I confesse they are ill fil'd and polished but let us try whether being put together and mounted they will make the engine go but if these wheeles being well joyned and placed do draw the conclusion or this unshaken carraque to a good port you will I presume have the goodnesse to pardon the grossenesse and rude expressions of my language and passing by the words you will content your selves with the naked truth of things let us therefore apply that which hath been spoken to that which is practis'd when a hurt person is cured Let us consider Mounsieur Howell wounded upon his hand a great inflammation hapened upon his hurt his garter is taken covered with the bloud that issued from the wound it is steeped in a bason of water where Vitriol was dissolved one keeps the bason in a closet at the moderate heat of the Sun and at night in the chimney corner in such sort that the bloud which is upon the garter be alwaies in a good naturall temperament neither colder or hotter than the degree required in a healthfull body what ought then to result according to the doctrine that we endeavour to stablish from all this In the first place the Sun and the light will attract a great extent and distance off the spirits of the bloud which are upon the garter and the moderate heat of the hearth which acts gently upon the composition which comes to the same thing as if one should carry it dry in his pocket to make it feel the temperate heat of the body I say the moderate heat of the hearth doth push out the said atoms as the water which gathers it selfe round in the filtration or strainings use to drive on that which mounts up to make it go faster and more easily making it also to dilate it self and distill and so march of themselves a good way in the air to help thereby the attraction of the Sun and of the light Secondly the spirit of the Vitriol being incorporated with the bloud cannot chuse but make the same voyage together with the atomes of the bloud Thirdly the wounded hand expires and exhales in the mean time continually abundance of hot fiery spirits which gush forth as a river out of the inflamed hurt which cannot be but that the wound must consequently draw unto it the air which is next it Fourthly this air drawes unto it the other air which is next it and that the next to it also and so there is a kind of current of air drawn round about the wound Fiftly with this air come to incorporate at last the atomes and spirits of the bloud and the vitrioll which were diffused and shed a good way off in the air by the attractions of the light and the Sun Besides it may well be that from the beginning the orb and sphere of these atomes and spirits did extend it self in so great a distance without having need of the attractions of the air or of the light to make them come thither Sixthly the atomes of bloud finding the proper source and originall root whence they came do stay and stick there and so reenter into their naturall beds and primitive receptacles whereas the other air is but a passenger and evapourates away as soon as it comes as when it is carried away through the funnell of the chimney as soon as it is drawn into the chamber by the doore Seventhly the atomes of bloud being inseparably with the spirits of the Vitrioll both the one and the other do joyntly imbibe together within all the corners fibres and orifices of the veines which lye open about the wound of the party hurt which herby are comforted and in fine imperceptibly cured Now to know wherefore such an effect and cure is so happily performed we must examine the nature of Vitrioll which is composed of two parts the one fixed the other volatill The fixed which is the salt is sharp and biting and caustique in some degree The volatill is smooth soft balsamicall and astringing and 't is for that reason that vitrioll is made use of as a soveraign remedy in the collyres for the inflammations of the eies and when they are corroded and scorched by some sharp and burning humor or defluxion As also in injections where excoriations and