Nature's abhorrence of a Vacuum That heavy Bodies unhinder'd fall to the Ground in a Perpendicular Line because Nature directs them the shortest way to the Centre of the Earth and that Bubbles Rise thro' the Water and Flames Ascend in the Air because Nature directs these Bodies to re-join themselves to their respective Elements to omit other Instances of this sort that there will be occasion to mention hereafter Till when these may suffice to warrant my taking most of my Instances from Inanimate Bodies though I shall not confine my self to these especially when I shall come to Answer Objections that are taken from living Creatures The foregoing Advertisement will be I hope found conducive to clear the way for my Fifth Argument lately propos'd which concludes that if indeed there were such a Being as Nature is usually Represented to be several things would be otherwise Administred in the Universe than Experience shews they are To enumerate all the Particulars that may be propos'd to make this good would swell this Discourse much beyond the Bulk to which my Haste obliges me to confine it But to make you amends for the Paucity of Instances I shall now name by the kind of them I shall propose such as for the most part are taken from those very things whence the Wisdom and Vigilancy of Nature is wont to be confidently Argued which I the rather do that by such I may make way for and shorten the Answers I am to give to the Arguments e're-long to be Examined First then Whereas the great Care and Vigilancy of Nature for the common Good of the Universe is wont to be Demonstrated from the watchful Care she takes to prevent or replenish a Vacuum which would be very Prejudicial to the Fabrick of the World I Argue the quite contrary from the Phaenomena that occur about a Vacuum For whereas 't is Alledg'd that Nature in great Pumps and in the like Cases lifts up the heavy Body of Water in spight of its tendency towards the Centre of the Earth to obviate or fill up a Vacuity and that out of a Gardener's Pot or Inverted Pipe stopp'd at one end neither the Water nor even Quick-Silver that is near fourteen times as heavy will fall down lest it should leave a Vacuum behind it I demand how it comes to pass that if a Glass-Pipe be but a Foot longer than 34 or 35 Feet or an Inverted Tube fill'd with Quick-silver be but a Finger's breadth longer than 30 Inches the Water in the one and the Quick-silver in the other will subside though the one will leave but about a Foot and the other but about an Inch of deserted Space which they call Vacuum at the top of the Glass Is it possible that Nature that in Pumps is said to raise up every Day so many Hundred Ton of Water and if you will believe the Schools would raise it to any height left there should be a Vacuum should not have the Discretion or the Power to lift up or sustain as much Water as would serve to fill one Foot in a Glass-Tube or as much Quick-silver as an Inch of a slender Pipe will contain to obviate or replenish the Vacuum she is said so much to abhor sure at this rate she must either have very little Power or very little Knowledge of the Power she has So likewise when a Glass-Bubble is blown very thin at the Flame of a Lamp and Hermetically seal'd whilst 't is very hot the Cause that is rendered why 't is apt to break when it grows cold is that the inward Air which was before rarefied by the Heat coming to be Condens'd by the Cold left the space deserted by the Air that thus Contracts itself should be left void Nature with violence breaks the Glass in pieces But by these Learned Mens favour if the Glass be blown but a little stronger than ordinary though at the Flame of a Lamp the Bubble as I have often tryed will continue unbroken in spight of Natures pretended abhorrency of a Vacuum Which needs not at all to be recurr'd to in the Case For the Reason why the thin Glass-Bubble broke not when 't was hot and did when it grew cold is plainly this That in the former state the Agitation of the Included Air by the Heat did so strengthen the Spring of it that the Glass was thereby assisted and enabled to resist the weight of the Incumbent Air Whereas upon the Cessation of that Heat the Debilitated Spring of the Internal being unable to assist the Glass as formerly to resist the Pressure of the External Air the Glass itself being too thin becomes unable to support the Weight or Pressure of the Incumbent Air the Atmosphaerical Pillar that leans upon a Bubble of about two Inches Diameter amounting to above one Hundred Pound Weight as may be manifestly concluded from a late Experiment that I have try'd and you may meet with in another Paper And the Reason why if the Bubble be blown of a due thickness it will continue whole after it is Cold is that the thickness of it though but faintly assisted by the weakned Spring of the Included Air is sufficient to support the Weight of the Incumbent Air though several times I have observed the Pressure of the Atmosphaere and the resistence of the Bubble to have been by Accident so near the aequipollent that a much less outward Force than one would imagine applyed to the Glass as perhaps a Pound or a less Weight gently laid on it would enable the outward Air to break it with Noise into a Multitude of pieces And now give me leave to consider how ill this Experiment and the above-mentioned Phaenomena that happen in Glass-Pipes wherein Water and Quick-silver subside agree with the Vulgar Apprehension Men have of Nature For if in case She did not hinder the falling down of the Water or the Quicksilver there would be no such Vacuum produced as She is said to abhor Why does She seem so solicitious to hinder it And why does She keep three or four and thirty Foot of Water in Perpendicular height contrary to the nature of all heavy Bodies suspended in the Tube And Why does she furiously break in pieces a thin seal'd Bubble such as I come from speaking of to hinder a Vacuum if in case She did not break it no Vacuum would ensue And on the other side if we admit her Endeavours to hinder a Vacuum not to have been superfluous and consequently foolish we must confess that where these endeavours succeed not there is really produc'd such a Vacuum as She is said to abhor So that as I was saying either She must be very indiscreet to trouble Herself and to transgress Her own ordinary Laws to prevent a danger She need not fear or Her strength must be very small that is not able to fill a Vacuity that half a Pint of Water or an Ounce of Quick-silver may replenish or break a tender Glass-Bubble which
that Liquor to tend downwards and actually to fall down if it be not externally hinder'd But when Water ascends by Suction in a Pump or other Instrument that Motion being contrary to that which is wonted is made in virtue of a more Catholick Law of Nature by which 't is provided that a greater Pressure which in our case the Water suffers from the weight of the Incumbent Air should surmount a lesser such as is here the Gravity of the Water that ascends in the Pump or Pipe The two foregoing Observations may be farther illustrated by considering in what sense Men speak of things which they call Praeter-natural or else Contrary to Nature For divers if not most of their Expressions of this kind argue that Nature is in Them taken for the Particular and Subordinate or as it were the Municipal Laws establish'd among Bodies Thus Water when 't is intensly Hot is said to be in a Praeter-natural State because it is in One that 't is not usual to It and Men think doth not regularly belong to It though the Fire or Sun that thus agitates It and puts it into this State is confess'd to be a Natural Agent and is not thought to act otherwise than according to Nature Thus when a Spring forcibly bent is conceiv'd to be in a State contrary to its Nature as is argued from its incessant Endeavour to remove the compressing Body this State whether Praeter-natural or contrary to Nature should be thought such but in reference to the Springy Body For otherwise 't is as agreeable to the grand Laws that obtain among Things Corporeal that such a Spring should remain bent by the degree of Force that actually keeps it so as that it should display itself in spight of a less or incompetent Degree of Force And to omit the Six Non-natural Things so much spoken of by Physitians I must here take notice that though a Disease be generally reckon'd as a Praeter-natural Thing or as Others carry the Notion further a State contrary to Nature yet that must be understood only with reference to what customarily happens to a human Body Since excessively cold Winds and immoderate Rains and sultry Air and other Usual Causes of Diseases are as Natural Agents and act as agreeably to the Catholick Laws of the Universe when they produce Diseases as when they condense the Clouds into Rain or Snow blow Ships into their Harbour make Rivers overflow ripen Corn and Fruit and do such other Things whether they be hurtful or beneficial to Men. And upon a like Account when Monsters are said to be Praeternatural Things the Expression is to be understood with regard to that particular Species of Bodies from which the Monster does enormously deviate though the Causes that produce that Deviation act but according to the general Laws whereby Things Corporeal are guided 3. I doubt whether I should add as a Third Remark or as somewhat that is referrable to one or both of the Two foregoing that sometimes when 't is said that Nature performs this or that Thing we are not to conceive that this Thing is an Effect really produc'd by other than by proper Physical Causes or Agents but in such Expressions we are rather to look upon Nature either as a Relative Thing or as a Term imployed to denote a Notional Thing with reference whereunto Physical Causes are consider'd as acting after some peculiar manner whereby we may distinguish their Operations from those that are produc'd by other Agents or perhaps by the same consider'd as acting in another Way This I think may be Illustrated by some other receiv'd Expressions or Forms of Speech As when many of the Ancient and some of the Modern Philosophers have said that Things are brought Fatally to pass they did not mean that Fate was a distinct and separate Agent but only that the Physical Causes perform'd the Effect as in their Actings they had a necessary Dependance upon one another or an inviolable Connexion that link'd them together And on the other side when Men say as they too frequently do that Fortune or Chance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Aristotle and his Followers distinguish Them ascribing to the former what unexpectedly happens to Deliberating or Designing and to the later what happens to Inanimate or Undesigning Beings has done this or that Considerate Philosophers do not look upon Fortune or Chance as a true and distinct Physical Cause but as a Notional Thing that denotes that the proper Agents produc'd the Effect without an Intention to do so as I have more fully declar'd in the Fourth Section One may for ought I know without Impertinence refer to this our Third Observation That many Things are wont to be attributed to Time as when we say that Time ripens some Fruits that are too early gather'd that it makes many things moulder and decay Tempus edax rerum that 't is the Mother of Truth that it produces great Alterations both in the Affairs of Men and in their Dispositions and their Bodies To omit many other Vulgar Expressions which represent Time as the Cause of several Things whereof really it is but an Adjunct or a Concomitant of the Effects however Coincident with the successive Parts of Time and so some way related to It being indeed produc'd by other Agents that are their true and proper Efficients Sometimes likewise when it is said that Nature does this or that we ought not to suppose that the Effect is produc'd by a distinct or separate Being but on such Occasions the Word Nature is to be conceiâ—â—d to signifie a Complex or Convention of all the Essential Properties or necessary Qualities that belong to a Body of that Species whereof the real Agent is or to more Bodies respectively if more must concur to the Production of the Effect To this sense we are to expound many of those Forms of Speech that are wont to be imploy'd when Physicians or others speak of what Nature does in reference to Diseases or the Cure of them And to give a right sense to such Expressions I consider Nature not as a Principal and Distinct Agent but a kind of Compounded Accident that is as it were made up of or results from the divers Properties and Qualities that belong to the true Agents And that the Name of a Compounded Accident may not be startled at I shall to explain what I mean by it observe that as there are some Qualities or Accidents that at least in comparison of others may be call'd Simple as Roundness Streightness Heat Graviâ—â— c. so there are others that may be conceiv'd as Compounded or made up of several Qualities united in one Subject As in divers Pigments Greenness is made up of Blew and Yellow exquisitely mix'd Beauty is made up of fit Colours taking Features just Stature fine Shape graceful Motions and some other Accidents of the Human Body and its Parts And of this sort of Compounded Accidents
Coldness is natural to Water since this Liquor perpetually varies its Temperature as to Cold and Heat according to the temper of the Contiguous or the Neighbouring Bodies especially the Ambient Air. And therefore the Water of an unshaded Pond for Instance though it rests in its proper and natural Place as they speak yet in Autumn if the Weather be fair the Temperature of it will much vary in the compass of the same Day and the Liquor will be much hotter at Noon than early in the Morning or at Midnight though this great diversity be the Effect only of a Natural Agent the Sun acting according to its regular Course And in the depth of Winter 't is generally confess'd that Water is much colder than in the Heat of Summer which seems to be the Reason of what is observ'd by Watermen as a wonderful thing namely that in Rivers Boats equally Laden will not sink so deep in Winter as in Summer the cold Condensing the Water and consequently making it heavier in specie than it is in Summer when the Heat of the Ambient Air makes it more thin In divers parts of Africk that Temperature is thought natural to the Water because 't is that which it usually has which is far hotter than that which is thought natural to the same Liquor in the frigid Zone And I remember on this occasion what perhaps I have elsewhere mention'd upon another that the Russian Czars chief Physician inform'd me that in some Parts of Siberia one of the more Northern Provinces of that Monarch's Empire Water is so much more Cold not only than in the Torrid Zone but than in England that two or three foot beneath the surface of the Ground all the Year long even in Summer itself it continues Concreted in the form of Ice so Intense is the Degree of Cold that there seems natural to it This odd Phaenomenon much confirms what I lately intimated of the Power of Contiguous Bodies and especially of the Air to vary the Degree of the coldness of Water I particularly mention the Air because as far as I have try'd it has more Power to bring Water to its own Temperature than is commonly suppos'd For though if in Summer-time a Man puts his Hand into Water that has lain expos'd to the Sun he will usually feel it Cold and so conclude it much colder than the Ambient Air yet that may often happen upon another Account namely that the Water being many Hundred times a more Dense Fluid than the Air and consisting of Particles more apt to insinuate themselves into the Pores of the Skin a greater Part of the Agitation of the Blood and Spirits contained in the Hand is communicated to the Water and thereby lost by the Fluids that part with it And the Minute Particles of the Water which are perhaps more Supple and Flexible insinuating themselves into the Pores of the Skin which the Aerial Particles by Reason of their Stifness and perhaps Length cannot do they come to affect the somewhat more Internal Parts of the Hand which being much Hotter than the Cuticula or Scarf-skin makes us feel them very Cold as when a Sweating Hand is plung'd into Luke-warm Water the Liquor will be judg'd Cold by Him who if his Other Hand be very Cold will with it feel the same Water Hot. To confirm which Conjecture I shall add that having sometimes purposely taken a Seal'd Weather-glass whose included Liquor was brought to the Temperature of the Ambient Air and thrust the Ball of it under Water kept in the same Air there would be discover'd no such Coldness in the Water as One would have expected the former Reason of the sensible Cold the Hand feels when thrust into that Liquor having here no Place To which I shall add that having for Tryal's sake made Water very Cold by dissolving Sal-armoniac in it in Summer time it would after a while return to its usual degree of Warmth And having made the same Experiment in Winter it would return to such a Coldness as belong'd to it in that Season So that it did not return to any Determinate degree of Coldness as Natural to it but to that Greater or Lesser that had been Accidentally given it by the Ambient Air before the Sal-armoniac had Refrigerated It. As to the Motion of Restitution observable upon the Removal or Ceasing of the Force in Air violently compress'd and in the Blade of a Sword forcibly bent I confess it seems to me a very difficult Thing to assign the true Mechanical Cause of It. But yet I think it far more likely that the Cause should be Mechanical than that the Effect proceeds from such a Watchfulness of Nature as is pretended For First I question Whether we have any Air here Below that is in Other than a Preternatural or Violent State the Lower Parts of our Atmospherical Air being constantly compress'd by the weight of the Upper Parts of the same Air that lean upon them As for the Restitution of the bent Blade of a Sword and such like Springy Bodies when the force that bent them is remov'd my Thoughts about the Theory of Springynes belong to another Paper And therefore I shall here only by way of Argument ad Hominem consider in Answer to the Objection That if for Example you take a somewhat long and narrow Plate of Silver that has not been hammer'd or compress'd or which is surer has been made red-hot in the Fire and suffer'd to cool leasurely you may bend it which way you will and it will constantly retain the last curve Figure that you gave It. But if having again streightned this Plate you give it some smart stroaks of a Hammer it will by that meerly Mechanical Change become a Springy Body So that if with your Hand you force it a little from its Rectitude as soon as you remove your Hand it will endeavour to regain its former Streightness The like may be observ'd in Copper but nothing near so much or scarce at all in Lead Now upon these Phaenomena I demand Why if Nature be so careful to restore Bodies to their former State She does not restore the Silver Blade or Plate to its Rectitude when it is bent this way or that way before it be Hammer'd And why a few stroaks of a Hammer which acting violently seems likely to have put the Metal into a Preternatural State should entitle the Blade to Nature's peculiar Care and make Her solicitous to restore it to its Rectitude when it is forc'd from It And Why if the Springy Plate be again Ignited and Refrigerated of itself Nature abandons Her former Care of It and suffers it quietly to continue in what crooked Posture One pleases to put it into Not now to demand a Reason of Nature's greater Partiality to Silver and Copper and Iron than to Lead and Gold itself in Reference to the Motion of Restitution I shall add to what I was just now saying that even in
harbour'd in the Plant did as is presum'd solicitously intend its Welfare We see also in divers Diseases and in the unseasonable and hurtful Crises's of Feavers how far what Men call Nature oftentimes is from doing that which is best for the Sick Man's Preservation And indeed as hath been formerly noted on another Ocsicaon in many Diseases as Bleedings Convulsions Cholera's c. a great Part of the Physicians Work is to appease the Fury and to correct the Errors of Nature which being as 't were transported with a blind and impetuous Passion unseasonably produces those dangerous Disorders in the Body that if She were wise and watchful of its Welfare She would have been as careful to prevent as the Physicians to remedy Them Add to all this that if Nature be so Provident and Watchful for the Good of Men and other Animals and of that Part of the World wherein they live How comes it to pass that from time to time She destroys such Multitudes of Men and Beasts by Earthquakes Pestilences Famine and other Anomalies And How comes it so often to pass in Teeming Women that perhaps by a Fright or a longing Desire or the bare Sight of any outward Object Nature suffers Herself to be so disordered and is brought to forget Her Plastick Skill so much as instead of well-form'd Infants to produce hideous Monsters and those oftentimes so mishapen and ill-contriv'd that not only Themselves are unfit to live one Day or perhaps one Hour but cannot come into the World without killing the Mother that bare Them These and such other Anomalies though as I have elsewhere shewn they be not repugnant to the Catholick Laws of the Universe and may be accounted for in the Doctrine of God's General Providence yet they would seem to be Aberrations incongruous enough to the Idaea the Schools give of Nature as of a Being that according to the Axiom hitherto consider'd does always that which is best But 't is time that we pass from that to the Examen of another Though I have had occasion to treat of Vacuum in the Fifth Section yet I must also say something about it in This because I there consider'd it but as it is imploy'd by the Peripateticks and others to shew the Necessity of the Principle they call Nature But now I am to treat of it not so much as an Argument to be confuted as on the score of its belonging to a very plausible Axiom to be consider'd although I fear that by reason of the Identity of the Subiect though consider'd in the Fifth Sect. and here to differing purposes I shall scarce avoid saying something or other co-incident with what has been said already V. The Word Vacuum being ambiguous and us'd in differing Senses I think it requisite before I declare my Opinion about the generally receiv'd Axiom of the Schools that Natura Vacuum horret or as some express it abhorret à Vacuo to premise the chief Acceptions in which I have observ'd the Term Vacuum to be made use of For it has sometimes a Vulgar and sometimes a Philosophical or strict Signification In common Speech To be empty usually denotes not to be devoid of all Body whatsoever but of that Body that Men suppose should be in the Thing spoken of or of That which it was fram'd or design'd to contain as when Men say that a Purse is empty if there be no Mony in it or a Bladder when the Air is squeez'd out or a Barrel when either it has not been yet fill'd with Liquor or has had the Wine or other Drink drawn out of it The Word Vacuum is also taken in another sense by Philosophers that speak strictly when they mean by it a Space within the World for I here meddle not with the Imaginary Spaces of the School-men beyond the bounds of the Universe wherein there is not contain'd any Body whatsoever This Distinction being premis'd I shall inform you that taking the Word Vacuum in the strict Sense though many and among them some of my best Friends press'd me to a Declaration of my Sense about that famous Controversie An detur Vacuum because they were pleas'd to suppose I had made more Tryals than others had done about it yet I have refus'd to declare myself either Pro or Contra in that Dispute Since the decision of the Question seems to depend upon the stating of the true Notion of a Body whose Essence the Cartesians affirm and most other Philosophers deny to consist only in Extension according to the three Dimensions Length Breadth and Depth or Thickness For if Mr. Des Cartes's Notion be admitted 't will be irrational to admit a Vacuum since any Space that is pretended to be empty must be acknowledg'd to have the three Dimensions and consequently all that is necessary to Essentiate a Body And all the Experiments that can be made with Quicksilver or the Machina Boyliana as they call it or other Instruments contriv'd for the like Uses will be eluded by the Cartesians who will say that the space deserted by the Mercury or the Air is not empty since it has Length Breadth and Depth but is fill'd by their Materia Subtilis that is fine enough to get freely in and out of the Pores of the Glasses as the Effluvia of the Loadstone can do But though for these and other Reasons I still forbear as I lately said I have formerly done to declare either way in the Controversie about Vacuum yet I shall not stick to acknowledg that I do not acquiesce in the Axiom of the Schools that Nature abhors a Vacuum For First I consider that the chief if not the only Reason that moves the Generality of Philosophers to believe that Nature abhors a Vacrum is that in some Cases as the Ascension of Water in Sucking-Pumps c. they observe that there is an unusual endeavour and perhaps a forcible Motion in Water and other Bodies to oppose a Vacuum But I that see nothing to be manifest here save that some Bodies not devoid of Weight have a Motion upwards or otherwise differing from their usual Motions as in Determination Swiftness c. am not apt without absolute necessity to ascribe to Inanimate and Senseless Bodies such as Water Air c. the Appetites and Hatreds that belong to Rational or or least to Sensitive Beings and therefore think it a sufficient Reason to decline imploying such improper Causes if without them the Motions wont to be ascrib'd to Them can be accounted for 2. If the Cartesian Notion of the Essence of a Body be admitted by us as 't is by many Modern Philosophers and Mathematicians it can scarce be deny'd but that Nature does not produce these oftentimes Great and oftner Irregular Efforts to hinder a Vacuum since it being impossible there should be any 't were a fond thing to suppose that Nature who is represented to us as a most wise Agent should bestir Herself and do Extravagant Feats to prevent
begun about Distempers wont to be harmless by being Transient we may observe that the third or fourth day after Women are brought to Bed there is commonly a kind of Feaver produc'd upon the plentiful resort of the Milk to the Breasts for which cause this Distemper is by many call'd the Feaver of Milk And this is wont in a short time to pass away of itself as depending upon Causes far less durable than the Oeconomy of the Womans Body And if it be objected that these are not Diseases because they happen according to the Instituted Course of Nature I will not now dispute the validity of the Consequence though I could represent that the Labour of Teeming Woemen and the breeding of Teeth in Children happen as much according to the Institution of Nature and yet are usually very painful and oftentimes dangerous But I will rather answer that if the troublesome Accidents I have alledg'd cannot serve to prove they may at least to illustrate what I aim at And I shall proceed to take notice of a Distemper that Physicians generally reckon among Diseases I mean the flowing of Blood at the Haemorrhoidal Veins For though oftentimes this Flux of Blood is excessive and so becomes very dangerous and therefore must be check'd by the Physician which is no great Argument that a Being wise and watchful manages this Evacuation yet frequently if not for the most part the Constitution of the Body is such that the superfluous or vitiated Blood goes off before it has been able to do any considerable mischief or perhaps any at all to the Body And so we see that many Coughs and Hoarsenesses and Coryzas are said to be cur'd that is do cease to trouble Men though no Medicine be us'd against them the Structure of the Body being durable enough to out-last the Peccant Matters or the Operation of those other Causes that pro-duce these Distempers It is a known thing that most Persons the first time they go to Sea especially if the Weather be any thing Stormy are by the unwonted Agitations which those of the Ship produce in them assisted perhaps by the sea-Sea-Air and Smells of the Ship cast into that Disease that from the Cause of it is call'd the Sea-sickness which is sometimes dangerous and always very troublesome usually causing a loss of Appetite and almost continual Faintness a pain in the Head and almost constant Nauseousness accompany'd with frequent and oftentimes violent Vomitings which Symptoms make many complain that for the time they never felt so troublesome a Sickness and yet usually after not many days this Distemper by degrees is master'd by the Powers of the Body tending still to persevere in their orderly and friendly Course and suppressing the adventitious Motions that oppose it and the sick Person recovers without other help And so though Persons unaccustom'd to the Sea whether they be sick or no are by the inconvenient Motions of the Ship usually brought to a kind of habitual Giddiness which disposes them to reel and falter when they walk upon firm ground Yet when they come a Shore they are wont in no long time to be freed from this uneasie Giddiness without the help of any Medicine The usual and regular Motions of the Parts of the Body obliterating by degrees in a few days I us'd to be free from it within some hours that adventitious Impression that caus'd the Discomposure To the same purpose we may take notice of that which happens to many Persons who riding backwards in a Coach are not only much distemper'd in their Heads but are made very sick in their Stomachs and forced to Vomit as violently and frequently as if they had taken an Emetick And yet all this Disorder is wont quickly to cease when the Patient leaves the Coach without the continuance of whose Motion that continues a preposterous One in some Parts of the Patient the Distemper will quickly yield to the more ordinary and regular Motions of the Blood and other Fluids of the Body So when in a Coach or elsewhere a Man happens to be brought to Faintness or cast into a Swoon by the closeness of the Place or the over-charging of the Air with the fuliginous Reeks of Mens Bodies tho' the Disease be formidable yet if the Patient be seasonably brought into the free Air the friendly Operation of That External Body assisting the usual Endeavours or Tendency of the Parts of the Patients Body to maintain his Life and Heath is wont quickly to restore him to the State he was in before this sudden Sickness invaded him Divers things that happen in some Diseases may be grosly illustrated by supposing that into a Vial of fair Water some Mud be put and then the Vial be well shaken for the Water will be troubled and dirty and will lose its Transparency upon a double Account that of the Mud whose opacous Particles are confounded with It and that of the newly generated Bubbles that swim at the top of it and yet to clarifie this Water and and make it recover its former Limpidness there needs no particular Care or Design of Nature but according to the common Course of Things after some time the Bubbles will break and vanish at the top and the earthy Particles that compose the Mud will by their Gravity subside to the bottom and settle there and so the Water will become clear again Thus also Must which is the lately express'd Juice of Grapes will for a good while continue a troubled Liquor but though there be no Substantial Form to guide the Motions of this factitious Body yet according to the Course of Things a Fermentation is excited and some Corpuscles are driven away in the Form of Exhalations or Vapours others are thrown against the sides of the Cask and harden'd there into Tartar and others again subside to the bottom and settle there in the Form of Lees and by this means leave the Liquor clear and as to Sense uniform And why may not some Depurations and Proscriptions of Heterogeneous Parts be made in the Blood as well as they are usually in Must without any peculiar and solicitous Direction of Nature There is indeed one Thing to which the Sentence of Nature's being the Curer of Diseases may be very speciously apply'd and that is the healing of Cuts and Wounds which if they be but in the Flesh may oftentimes be cured without Plaisters Salves or other Medicines but not to mention Haemorrhagies and some other Symptoms wherein the Chriurgeon is fain to curb or remedy the Exorbitancies of Nature this Healing of the Solutio continui seems to be but an Effect or Consequent of that Fabrick of the Body on which Nutrition depends For the Alimental Juice being by the Circulation of the Blood and Chile carried to all Parts of the Body to be nourish'd if it meets any where either with preternatural Concretions or with a Gap made by a Cut or Wound its Particles do there concrete into a