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
the sudden and unexpected alterations of Symptoms in diseased and crasie bodies which so much puzzle Physitians to know whence such sudden changes contrary to their expectation should happen how well do things succeed even according to their desire and sometimes beyond their expectation at some peculiar juncture of time attributed by Astrologers to I know not what configuration of the Planets and on the other hand how cross and thwarting to their hopes things happen at other seasons and all this many times from various excited Ferments in the Air which work differently upon bodies according to variety of constitutions disposition of the Ferments and modification of other parts So also from other alterations in the Air by some winds a verminous ferment is excited as we see in the Spring time when the winds breath long from the East that many Caterpillers and other Insects are produc'd upon Trees and Plants and many times putredinous animated Ferments are brought with winds from cadaverous bodies which floating in the Air prove seminaries to contagious and verminous Diseases whence the great Plague at Milan at which time as Cardan reports the Air was filled yea the very dust of the Earth animated with those contagious Vermicles so that in the Air often lurk secret Ferments which may both produce different symptoms in the same disease as also be the cause of many Epidemical Diseases whose Character I mean of Exotick Ferments may for some time be in the Air before they settle upon Bodies so as to cause a general discomposure And from the same cause very probably it is that Animals which are frequently abroad in the Air have a foresight or presensation of the alterations of Weather whence the ground of Auguration amongst the Ancients for their Bodies being always exposed to change of Air in the variety of weather become thereby in their Texture of parts more capable of being affected with the least changes of Air in which are always the forerunners of certain alterations of weather by the foresaid congress of the minute Particles of Heat Cold Moisture and what else which give being by different Winds from diverse quarters to changes of weather Thus Cranes are observed by some Naturalists that when they fly softly and silently do presage fair weather but when they hasten make a great noise and fly in a disturbed order do predict Storms so likewise Storks and Wild-Geese as Wolfangius tells us in his Historia animalium Sacra and therefore Storks and Cranes before the coming of Winter take wing and fly in Troops in a triangular form into hotter Countries witness from Thracia into Egypt and from Cilicia into Persia not to say what is reported that when they fly near Mount Taurus where store of Eagles are they each take a stone in their Bill to prevent any noise lest the Eagles should seise upon them Not unlike to which the learned Wormius in his Museum relates somewhat wonderful concerning a sort of Bird frequent in Norway upon which change of weather has aforehand strange influence his words are as followeth Museum Norm p. 304. Aliud genus saith he Norvegiae Islandis frequens est è Mergorum vel potius Colymborum genere Nidum prope aquas it a struit ut cum necessitas flagitat in eas se celeriter praecipitare potest sed nidum repetitura infixo terrae rostro se suspendit donec corpus sublevaverit ac petitum obtinuerit nidum ubi imbres largiores imminere peculiari naturae instinctu persentiscit pullis ac nido suo ab inundatione metuens querulo sono aerem verberat è contra cum coeli serenitatem clementiam praesagierit laetis acclamationibus alio gratiori sono pullisapplaudit unde de futura tempestate certi accolae vocem Hui audientes exclamare solent Norvegi SECT XIII Hydroph WHat think you Pyroph of the drying quality which we define qualitas patibilis quae suo facile alieno autem termino difficulter clauditur Is not this competible to the Earth primarily and to the Air secundarily and to other Bodies as they admit of the combination of this with other qualities in the composition thereof Pyroph I think Hydroph and perhaps may make good that what you call a drying quality is no more a quality than its opposite moisture and that as moisture is no quality primarily of the Air nor secondarily of other Bodies in their Composition so neither is driness as a quality either peculiar to the Earth or to Compound Bodies For in that a Body is said to be dry is in as much as the parts which constitute it are of another Texture than liquid and are so woven together as to have few at least as discernable fluid parts And those dry Bodies are either naturally such as for instance some sorts of Stones and some Calces of calcin'd Bodies which by no force of Fire are ever reducible into any liquid form or else such Bodies as while kept from force of Fire are accounted dry of which are all Metals Minerals Metalline and Mineral Ore so me Stones as Peables Flints Sand Ashes of burnt or calcin'd Bodies all which by stress of Fire may be made to melt and become fluid some per se as the Metals and some Minerals others by addition of Salts as some Minerals also Mineral and Metalline Ore Pebbles Flint Sand c. by the addition of Salt of Kelp Tartar or other calcin'd Vegetables melt into transparent Glass Thus the Calx of Metals fretted by Acids and thereby reduc'd after Evaporation in minima viz. into their impapable Alcolizate pouders are seemingly dry yet these very subtile Crocus's of Metals witness that of Copper dissolv'd into and incorporated in that Body we call Verdigreece by the help of the sour Juice of Grapes or in that which remains after the Vintage if that be dry'd and beat to a most subtile pouder which by the motion of a Pestle or the like presently by the minuteness of its parts fly up and doth ferire nares as also that of natural Vitriol do I say both by stress of Fire arise in a considerable white fume and condense into a plenty of liquid Spirits as is evident in the Spirit of Verdigreeee of Vitriol and so most of other Bodies which being divided into their Minima so as to appear in a dry Sapless form may yet by distillation be turn'd mostwhat into liquids or by reduction into their Sulphurs or Mercuries if Metalline Bodies be furtherconvertible into the fluid Texture of parts VVherefore seeing dryness is no other than such a Texture of parts in the construction of Bodies as renders the Concrete not easily fluid nor apt to flow together when the constitutive parts are rather continuous than contiguous therefore must this dry quality as well as the rest of the same fraternity ipso facto forfeit its supposed Essence of a quality and lose its repute of a nothing for so I esteem it or little better while under
appears I say that the Sap of the Stock is to a Cion or or prolifique Bud as the Earth to a Seed or as the Earth to a laid Cion Now the improvements Hydroph that hence may be drawn are various and that in order to the accelleration melioration and fructification of some Trees in other Climates or Countries than where they naturally grow Thus we daily see the Imps of an Aprecock hastned as to its fructifying by being inserted into Plum-stocks Peaches by being put into Aprecock Flanders Hart Duke c. Cherries put into wild or black Cherry-Stocks c. which thereby in two or three years become Fruit-bearing-Trees which would not in many more if set from a Stone or Seed or propagated from a slip'd Cions which are not thereby only hastened as to their growth and maturity but also are bettered thereby both as to bulk of Fruit as also pleasantness and gratefulness of taste Thus probably the prolifique Imp or Bud of Quinces skilfully put into early Apple-stocks might hasten them as to maturity later Grapes of a more delicate taste artificially inoculated into more early might do the same yea very likely if acurate tryals were made of this nature probably not only Melons as to Plants inserted into Pompions might make them both more early and more large especially if the Seeds of Pompion should be brought up in hot-beds to be ready early in the Spring while the other are also foster'd in the same till they were fit for inserting But also many other rare observations might be made concerning other maturations and meliorations of Plants and Fruits not yet taken notice of As to the third improvement viz. the assistance of Nature by Art in the fructification of some Trees in other Climates or Countries than where they naturally grow Thus probably if the prolific Bud of Oranges train'd up from their seedlings in hot-beds or other suitable soyl were inserted into some sort of Trees that grow well with us and seem somewhat to resemble them as for instance in some choice Apples as Pippins or Pearmains or in Quinces thence we might very probably have Oranges to grow frequently with us in England for the reason why such tender Trees more accustomed to hotter Climates do not fructisy with us is cheifly through the defect of concurring causes which I above call by the name of Requisites duely concurring amongst which are most considerable the want of a competent heat or the presence of our intense cold or frost in the Winter time which reaching the Roots of such tender Trees prevents their Fruit-bearing by suspending the fermental action of the Principles if not totally kills them Now Hydroph according to our already prov'd supposition that Stocks answer Soils and are really as such to prolific Buds therefore if instead of training up Orange-Trees from hot Nurseries we take their prolific Imps which we can by hot Beds easily procure and insert them by Inoculation into the Stocks or Branches of any or the most likely of those Trees aforesaid we thereby secure them from intense Frosts we usually have in Winters the chief defect amongst requisites concurring and which hinders otherwise the Fruit-bearing of some Trees in other Climates than naturally they spring up in which I say being remov'd by the aforesaid artificial Expedient gives great likelihood of having upon such tryal plenty of Oranges growing with us in England Thus also if the fruitful Buds of Figgs which rarely in England come to maturity for want of heat and chiefly by being late were inoculated into some sort of good Pears for instance Bergamots or some other early Pear or Branches thereof might probably procure their maturity and thereby to sit peaceably under the improvements of our Vines and our Figg-Trees Amongst the aforesaid due requisites necessarily concurring I chiefly mean Climates and thence different Soils although there are also great variety of Soils under the same Climate where according to the difference of natural heats from the Sun the Principles are put into a slower or quicker Motion from whose more flat or sharp and agil collisions some Bodys or Fruits are wrought with a courser or finer spun texture or by longer weavings become more elaborate and arrive at higher maturities whence proceed Fruits of more delicate tast affecting the Palat more gratefully What improvements Hydroph might hence be made nothing but matter of experiment will satisfie concerning the meliorating at least inlarging of Collyflowers by taking the superannuated stem or bole of a choice sort of Cabbage which the year before has been prevented of bearing Fruit by cutting it off while young and early thereinto the next Spring to insert a Collyflower brought up in a hot or other prepared Bed or preserv'd over Winter from its seed put down in Autumn And so many more choice Observations might be made the truth of which only matter of tryal will evince and satisfie the curious searcher Lastly What improvements might hence also be made Hydroph is only here propos'd to further tryal in order to the having of Roses and perhaps other Flowers all the Winter long by inoculating their prolific Buds at a due season into some Sempervives or Wintergreens I mean for instance in Yew Fir or Pine especially if those Trees were assisted by some Artificial heat as being planted near some Stoves or Furnaces if found that that would accord with their constitution where heat was kept and conveyed to them all Winter long For the Principles in any prolific Bud being set into motion by being planted in any proper Stock the Juyce of that Stock being warm'd by any adventitious heat or what way so ever kept in action becomes like a Soil fitted for them whereby the aforesaid Principles become fermental and by a slow pac'd intestin collision becomes the essential cause yea is the very ratio formalis of vegetation and growth by which the Seed like a seminal Faber works until it have hew'd forth its own body be cloth'd with all the shape lineaments and proportions answerable to the Antitype or latent-Idea couch'd in the central point and exert all the powers capable of emerging therefrom by putting on the intire form of the whole Plant or Tree SECT V. Hydroph AS you have expeditiously enough illustrated what you mean Pyroph by your Principles as seminal and fermental in order to the generation and production of Vegetables and towards the solving many remarkable Phaenomena thereof concerning which what you fall short in here it seems you make up in your Treatise of Fermentation already extant and in your Tentamen Physiolog you have ready for the Press So pray Pyroph give us some touches concerning your Notions how according to your Hypothesis you apprehend the generation of Animals and their most noted apparences are perform'd from your aforesaid Principles Pyroph In the generation of Animals from their seminaries the aforesaid Principles if I mistake not Hydroph are no less suo modo conspicuous than what
thereof and from which many and those the chief yea perhaps all Phaenomena of natural Bodies or Concretes we converse with may with a great deal of facility and perspicuity be genuinely solv'd concerning which we designedly enlarge in our Tentamen Physiologicum SECT VII Hydroph PRay Pyroph What are those seven Complications of your Principles which you say are found in the great series and chain of the causes of things and from whence you conclude so many Fires contain'd in the orb and shut up in the Centers of those Bodies we are concern'd with How do you reckon them Pyroph The first is when the Principles combine in such a peculiar Collision as that the ethereal matter is interwoven therewith and is fomented by a continual supply from the perpetual circulation of the aforesaid Aether of which sort are those we call Solar Fires because made from the same Principles as the Solar rays are which I say consist of an Eradiation of Solar beams springing from an incessant but peculiar fermentation in the Body of the Sun and fostered by an unwearied circulation of Aethereal matter as we shew in our discourse of Fermentation This Solar-Fire has a twofold consideration First per se and Secondly as it is transmissive or communicable to other Bodies Hydroph How do you understand that first consideration per se Pyroph That from whose direct or reflexive motion swimming through the vast depth of the Aether called by the Epicureans Inane are produced by an eradiation the grand Phaenomena of Light and Heat in the great Orb of the Macrocosm Hydroph What I pray Pyroph is light as communicable to us from the great Fountain thereof the Sun and as that grand Phaenomenon by which all others are made to appear Pyroph Light we suppose Hydroph to consist in an illumination of Air by a perpetual Emanation of Solar beams issuing as I said before from an incessant but peculiar fermentation in the Body of the Sun That Light is not a quality of a lucid Body as you define it but a corporeal substance and how it is necessary to the exhibiting variety of colours and answers the rule of Dioptricks we shall afterwards in its place discourse Hydroph What is that we call Heat as issuing from the Body of the Sun Pyroph It is nothing else Hydroph If I rightly understand but the reflexive motion of those Solar-Rays which in their Emanation from their Fountain cause Light Hydroph How are Light and Heat distinguished in their Causes Pyroph They differ in this only viz. That Light is the bare illumination of the medium Air by a direct Progressive motion of the Solar Rays from the aforesaid fermentation as the proper object of the Eye and by which all other things are made to appear while heat is the reflexion or Reverberatory motion as we say in our tract of Fermentation p. 106. of the same Luminous Beams issuing from the said Fermentation from the Earth or other solid Bodies affecting by that Fermentative motion our Sensative Organs of feeling Hydroph You have told us Pyroph how you understand Light and Heat to proceed from the same Fermentative motion of Solar Rays the one in a direct the other in a reverse or reflected line But how are those you call Solar Fires made Pyroph I answer Hydroph that besides what we have already said by Concentration of the aforesaid Rays those Fires are made viz. from which Rays by Glasses contriv'd for the purpose artificially concentred are produced actual Fires which will give Flame to and Burn any Combustible So that Heat is Fire in a remiss degree or the same Rays thinly dispers'd in their vehicle the Air while Fire is Heat in an intense Degree artificially concentred and both are Essentially the same that is are really from the same causes And as to the second consideration of Solar Fires viz. as transmissive or communicable to other bodies we mean such as hitting upon some peculiarly adapted Textures of Bodies do by their congruousness fix themselves and thereby are the causes whence several Phaenomena mentioned in our Tentamen Physiologic are easily solvable Hydroph What is the second complication of your Principles and what Phaenomena in the main are thence solvable Pyroph The second is when the foresaid Principles do mutually accost each other by a gentle Collision which is twofold the one progressive from the Center The other Retrogressive from the Superficies The former respects the Generation and Productiof things as is manifest in every genuine Fermentation both of Vegetables and Animals whence the Vegetation of Plants and the natural Fermentation of Animal Juices conducing to their Generation increase and perfection or maturity The latter eyes Putrefaction whose Ratio formalis is taken from the revers'd motion of the same Principles mutually acting where by a different modification the Acidum sets upon the Sulphur and thence produceth that putredness and fetidness the frequent effects thereof concerning which Principles as considered in their Progressive and Regressive motion in order to the Production and Reduction of things more elsewhere Hydroph What is the third modification of your Principles and the apparences in general referrable thereto Pyroph The third is when the Principles by a stronger and more sensible Collision hit upon each other and that 's twofold viz. Natural and Artificial 1. Natural as amongst Vegetables is manifest in their ripened Juices whose Principles struggle with stronger Collisions also in Hay Lime Straw Corn c. which have got moisture being laid up wet amongst Animals it 's manifest in every spurious and exorbitant morbid Ferment and lastly amongst Minerals as is evident in every strong Collision of the Principles and that either in their Embryonative Juices or in concrete Minerals from whose Principles mutually strugling do all Natural Baths yea all heats which arise from Metals or Minerals Naturally or Artificially perform'd take their Original 2. The artificial is manifest in every effervescence made between factitious Alcalies fixt or volatile and Acids concerning which you may see more at large in our Philosophical discourse of Fermentation and in our Tentamen Physiologic Hydroph The fourth you have mentioned before which is the most high and rapid motion the Principles are capable of whence you compute the Ratio formalis of vulgar or Culinary Fire and thence also it seems solve the Phaenomena thereto appertaining But pray go on Pyroph to tell what your fifth is and what thence results Pyroph The fifth is when the Principles after they are by the most rapid Collision brought to an ignition are transmitted from their own into other Bodies where penetrating are by a kind of a fixation lock'd up thereby becomeing the Authors of divers Phoenomena as is evident in the Calces of Metals made sicco modo for instance of Lead in the preparation of Minium Iron and Mercury in calx vive in fixt Alcalies lately made c. Hydroph Now proceed on to acquaint us what the sixth complication of your
rational Fabrick but above all these the noble and worthy Boyle has laid in so many materials by his curious and manifold mechanical experiments and observations as has thereby furnished the Checker of learning with a vast stock Hence its reasonable I say every one should have liberty not only in laying in materials but also of venturing if he have skill in building to put them together what freedom I have taken herein is no more than what is in common to any other And in short whether I have us'd any skill in cementing together those notions I had grounded upon mechanical experiments and what uniformity there is in the Fabrick I have ventur'd on in this ensuing and in other tracts already published or yet to publish being room enough in the vast shop of Nature for as many as please to set up for themselves is refer'd gentle Reader to thee to determine And wherein I fall short in this tract as being only an abstract of the Principles of Philosophy I have endeavoured to make up in my Zymologia Physica or Philosophical discourse of Fermentation a noble subject and worthy the best of Pens to which occasionally I sometimes refer also in my aforesaid pieces If this find acceptance I have thoughts also favente numine Divino to collect and digest some scatter'd notions and at present immature speculations I have about the abstruse Phaenomena of Hypochondraisme and occult qualities where the the true seat is of that grassant and afflicting malady whence issues such varieties of sypmtoms and what the Organs by which it 's managed with some considerations offer'd about the cure thereof by other remedies than are through the ignorance of its causes usually prescrib'd Mean-while if thou look favourably upon these present although small endeavours may encourage him to a further task who bids thee fare-well W. S. LONDON April the 10th 1677. PHILOSOPHICAL DIALOGUES SECT I. Pyrophilus WEll met Hydrophilus what 's the matter that your Countenance is so discompo'd what is' t that troubles you Hydrophilus Troubles me Pyrophilus you know well enough you need not ask the Question Pyroph I may perhaps guess but pray tell me what it is that sticks so on your stomach as to cause such a cloudiness to over-cast the brightness of your natural features Hydroph It is in plain terms a company of your new Philosophers forsooth that a man cannot sit quietly down with our old imbib'd Principles of peripatetick Philosophy nor safely ruminate upon them but must be disturbed by your conceited fancies indeed we that have some of us spent so much time in the Colledges and have taken a great deal of pains to be skill'd in the old Philosophy of Aristotle and his followers and you a company of Punies to amuse us and which is worse the world with your new Crotchets like so many new-nothings it was never a good world since such a young fry of Novel Philosophers peep'd up Pyroph But why Hydroph so wrath with the new Philosophers Hydroph Would it not Pyroph raise the spleen of any even the calmest Dogmatists to see you appear upon the Stage of the World like so many Americans presenting new and unheard of things yea like so many innovators in Philosophy every one bringing his Beads Rattles c. I mean his new Notions filling the ears of the people with your so much nois'd Mechanical Experiments forsooth Pyroph Stay why so passionate Hydroph pray curb your choler and discourse more calmly there 's no cause of such heat if you weigh the matter well Hydroph That 's strange how can a man restrain from passion while he observes a company of you innovators indeavour if it were possible to bereave a man of his beloved Notions to rob him of his first conceiv'd Opinons to tumble the Phiosophical Orb up-side down yea by ransacking and demolishing ours to establish your new Crincums Pyroph But stay good Hydroph be not so hasty go not on so fast let not the zeal for the old Philosophy hurry you too fast nor drive you out of good nature Hydroph I tell you Pyroph I have much ado to bear it I can scarce contain my self within bounds when I think on 't That we who have spent the most yea the prime and flower of our years in sucking in the old Principles should now of a sudden through the introduction of your Whims be look'd upon as triflers yea be brought to this unhappy dilemma either to reclaim our formerly taken-in Principles or to run the hazard of the repute of old Peripateticks which now begins to sound as badly in the ears of the World as it doth in the ears of a woman to be called Old Pyroph Pray Hydroph compose your self a little and be more calm let not the headiness of passion over-rule you but discourse the matter fairly and mildly Hydroph Mildly Pyroph how can that be when we are so affronted and abus'd that our esteem in the world seems past its crisis and got upon the wrong side of the vertical point deeply declining and all through your so much admired Philosophical Stratagems For I know not better how to denominate your mechanical Experiments than so many Stratagems by which you seek cunningly to overturn and lay wast the walls of our good old Philosophy Pyroph The affront Hydroph is not so great if you consider that from the aforesaid mechanical Experiments a new Hypothesis is or may be rais'd whereby you may approach nearer the knowledge of the truth the great work of Philosophers Hydroph Truth I tell you we were sufficiently satisfied before of the truth of our already established Hypothesis and therein although an inch broke no square with us could solve the Phaenomena well enough at at least as much as we thought needful for us who do not affect too much nicety in our speculations nor to be too critical in our deductions Pyroph Well Hydroph but will not truth be more acceptable to you when the reasons of things shall be deduced from more natural and genuine Principles illustrated by mechanical Observations Hydroph Mechanical Observations said you Pyroph yea that 's your Diana you and the world of late so much admire your Bacon and your Boyle or your Bacon well boil'd is so much in fashion with you that scarce any other Dish although never so good prepared after an old fashion will go down with you Pyroph But withal Hydroph you forgot to add a Calves head which together make a savory Dish usually going hand in hand much in use in the Colledges especially amongst the Seniors those old sit-fasts Hydroph Droll not Pyroph for I am in good sad earnest and cannot but tell you even with a heavy heart it 's a hard case that we must be compelled to turn School-boys again and go with Satchels on our backs to learn at your Pyrotechnical and Mechanical Schools or else lye under the censure of every pitiful smatterer that 's lately crept out of the shell and no
I have illustrated them to be in the production of Vegetables and that both as they are Principles lock'd up in some minute portions of epitomiz'd matter and likewise as they being by requisites duly concurring put into motion become fermental For we account of Generation of Animals no other than an evolution or natural expansion of the implanted seminal Principles contain'd in the minute Embrio and rendred prolific by the fermental odour if I may so say of a masculine Ferment we cannot otherwise reckon but that the noblest of fermental animal Juyces in order to propagation and where the spirits are most vigorous and fecund is the masculine sperm of Animals which is a digested spermatic Elixir capable of tinging those more crude feminine Juyces or a natural but highly prepar'd liquid Magistery circulated and brought on to maturity in its peculiar vessels yea the very efflorescence if I may further add of Animal Juyces impregnated at due seasons with such a stock of spirits emerging from a fermentation proper to it self as renders it capable of inspiring those feminine ovaria or uterine Vesicles with a subtile but very active Ferment which awakens those minute dormant and otherwise steril Embryo's sets them by its own vigorous action into a sort of if I may say vegetative or expansive motion It 's not the gross body of the prepar'd masculine or seminal Sperm or any visible juice or sensible part thereof however by circulation maturated which is admitted into the female Matrix as the worthy Harvey excellently shews in his Tract de generatione Animalium Nihil in utero saith he post coitum invenias generatura enim maris brevi vel elabitur vel evanescit tamen adsit aliquid quod foeminam foecundam reddat But it is a spirituous Ferment indolis contagiosae of which the seminal Liquor is but the Vehicle at seasons so heightened as it if meeting with an aptness of Reception in the Female breaths upon the oviformal Embryo invigorates it into activity putting those implanted and close shut up Principles into Motion For the aforesaid industrious Harvey tells us speaking of what is contain'd in the Female Matrix in order to Conception De generat Animal 278. Quod ad procreatio nem foetûs spectat omnia animalia eodem modo ab oviformi primordio generantur siquidem in eorum generatione hoc solenne est ut primordium vegetale ovi naturam referens praeexistat ex quo foetus producatur est hoc in omnibus vel ovum vel oviforme quid And as he farther adds Inest igitur in utero omnium animalium conceptus primus sive primordium quod teste Aristotele est veluti ovum membrana oblectum cui putamen detractum est So that in the propagation of all Animals the noblest and for whose sake the rest were made not excepted the Embryo anchorite or epitomiz'd Animal shut up within the walls of each of the uterine Vesicles or oviformal Membranes retains its just and proportionable form and shape how minute soever in that seminary oviformal original inclos'd in the Female Matrix and only waits for an inspiration from the active masculine spirituous and fecundating Ferment which is to strike up those dormant Principles into an actual Fermentation or animal fire whereby the little Embryo the seminal Principles being once put into motion begins from a supply of maternal Juyces by a fermental expansion and evolution of its parts to vegetate and grow bigger till from those rudiments by a continual and successive gradation the vital fire be struck up whereby the womb after conception by the inspiring of the pregnant male Ferment is forthwith close shut up nature being so solicitous in this great affair of propagation so wonderfully curious both to prevent monstrous Productions as also multiplicity of contemporary Births from frequent inordinate Coitions as that she doth after Conception seal up the Matrix as I may say hermetically that not the least of Air nor what is much more subtile viz. the Masculine Ferment can have the least ingress The Animal and Mineral Ferments herein conspiring that after impregnation of either viz. of the Animal Embryo Juyce or Mercurial Liquor by their peculiar Seeds the Matrix both Animal and Philosophical are I say both the one Hermetically to be clos'd up the other naturally seal'd up and kept from all heterogeneous assaults whether in the Air or else-where till in the one it be brought on to the maturity of an Animal Life and in the other be elaborated to the perfection of the Philosophic Elixir Concerning the progress of which in order to the Exit or Birth of the Embryo we have somewhat inlarged in our Hydrolog Chymica and probably may do more elsewhere But how the same Principles in their fermentative Collisions in the Animal Juyces are the cause other requisites concurring of the circulation of the Blood the source of all Animal heat and warmth the efficients of nourishment and growth The cause of the generation of Spirits and thence of Vital and Animal Functions viz. Sense and Motion of the Body how the Fountain of all the several Ferments in the peculiar Vessels and Conduits of the Body Hydroph But pray Pyroph be not too concise in these great Matters How in particular according to your Principles do you understand concerning the faculty of the Stomach you call the Ferment thereof which doth perform such wonderful effects doth it by its innate heat according to our Philosophy or by its acid Ferment as of late several Neoterics have thought or by some latent quality unknown to us For it seems to be of a strange penetrating nature as to be able to turn all the several sorts of Food into a Cremor and thence fit it for further preparation in order to blood and nourishment Pyroph True Hydroph the work of the Stomach let it be done by what Agent it will is wonderful and in that very thing Nature's path is very mysterious That it consists not in an innate heat is evident first because no degree of heat of what pitch soever imagin'd can perform the like Mutations or Reductions of Bodys And secondly because all heat is according to our Hypothesis the result of Fermentation and there fore wherever the heat of the body was which is the constant effect of the intestin struglings of the Principles contained in the Animal Juyces there would it necessarily follow that it should perform the like operation in every part where it 's found but constant observation contradicts the consequent therefore heat is not the cause of that dissolving action of the Stomach And that it consists not in an acid Ferment the more plausible of the two will be evident from the deposition of what we conclude it to be Lastly that it is not from an occult quality will be clear from what we shall afterwards discourse of the inexistency and therefore futility of qualities But how I say a pure subtiliz'd Ferment is
fluid again as Water by the help of Fire if thereto be added Sal-Armoniack and filings of Copper or the Calx of Verdigreece remaining after the distillation of that Spiritus Veneris so called by Snelfer Thus also two Saline fluid Liquors the one made by putrefaction and Distillation either from Animals or Vegetables the other by distillation prepared from Fermentative Liquors put together shall lose their fluidity and become a dry Osta as is conspicuous not only in the well known mixtures of Spirit of Wine and Spirit of Urin Blood Sal-Armoniac Plants c. but also two Mineral Liquors mentioned in our Halolog Chym. mixed a dry Osta may be made likewise Oyl of Vitriol pour'd upon a peculiarly prepar'd Vitriolin Liquor to be mentioned in the aforesaid Treatise of Salts turns to a blue Clay And as some fluid Bodies by Salts as extrinsick Agents become Solid so some Solid Bodies by Salts become fluid as for instance Butyrum Antimonii viz. Butter of Antimony in a gentle heat is as fluid as an Oyl of a strong Body and yet consists of the Flowers of Antimony brought into that form by the additional Salts before contain'd in sublimate so Antimony by Salts loseth its colour Thus from black with the addition of Salts it becomes brown or yellow as in the Hepar of Antimony and from thence by further addition of Salts and Calcinations it becomes a lighter yellow at length white with a sleight yellow reflexion as is evident in Diaphoretic Antimony in Mercurius Vitae and Bezoardicum Minerale concerning which Mutations amongst Bodys you may see more in our aforesaid Discourse of Salts Hydroph What mean you Pyroph by Solvents the last you reckon upon the score of extrinsic Agents in order to the changes which happen amongst Bodys Pyroph By Solvents I understand all or most sorts of Menstrua whether preparable amongst Animals Vegetables or Minerals amongst Animals such whose energetical Crasis depends chiefly upon volatile Alcalies and those as more or less complicated or colliquated with their connate Sulphurs amongst Vegetables such where first either the Sulphur is deprest and the Acidum prevalent as in all Acids or Vinegars distillable from the fermented Juyces of Plants once deprav'd viz. in Vinegars Alegars c. or their Spirits or Secondly where the Acidum and Sulphur are in aequilibrio as in all vinous or other fermentative Liquors Or Thirdly where the Acidum is deprest and the Sulphur exalted as in all vinous Spirits distillable from fermentative Liquors Lastly amongst Minerals such where first the Acids prevail and are thin or lean as in Spirit of Vitriol Secondly where the Acids imbibe and colliquate more of their Sulphurs as in Spirit of Salt Thirdly where the Sulphurs prevail and yet are bound down by a strong Colliquation with their Acids as in the Oyl of Vitriol Sulphur per Campane Aquae Stygiae or lastly where the Sulphur is most prevalent as in Oyl of Antimony In all which there are real although gradual Colliquations of the Mineral Principles with what alterations they make upon other bodys they are applicable to and that as they are extrinsic Agents not only the Chymical Dispensatory's but also our Halolog or Discourse of Salts do abundantly illustrate Hydroph How do these extrinsic Agents you have mentioned accord amongst themselves and how thereby reconcilable to your Hypothesis Pyroph Because as I said Fire viz. the vulgar made from the fourth Complication of our Principles was applicable to other bodys whose Principles otherwise lay dormant as an extrinsic Agent so if we take Fire in the largest sense as extended through all the seven Complications of the Principles whereby according to our Hypothesis it is concern'd in the Fabric of most if not all bodies then we shall find that even the other three viz. Ferments Salts and Solvents are in one sense or other most-what reducible thereto Thus Ferments are compriz'd chiefly in the second and third Complications of the Principles and Solvents in as much as they depend for the most part upon the Colliquation of the Principles do most-what result from the sixth The greatest difficulty I find is in Salts as Agents and in petrific Concretes viz. how Salts in their concretions and Stones in their nativity are comprisable within the sphere of our Principles and reconcilable to our Hypothesis concerning Salts how they all in their several concretions comprehend a Sulphur in one degree mode or other lockt up in their Compage And how a ten-fold complication of the Principles of Salts are necessarily to be considered in order to all the various Concretions they are in Nature or by Art in imitation of Nature reducible to and concerning the manifold Phaenomena thence solvable For for instance one saline Liquor by the addition of another Salt or Body doth assume the form of an Oyl Butter Jelly Clay Osta c. is demonstrated by particular Examples and Illustrations Also how Salts do preserve bodys they are apply'd to from putrefaction by preventing the access of somewhat in the Air which is concern'd in the setting those retrograde Springs in motion I mean in putting the Principles into their reverse and analytical Fermentations shew'd in the taking bodys in pieces by putrefaction And lastly how these Principles may be arrested from their Motion and suspended from their putrefactive Fermentations by additions not only of Salts Frost Air Fume of Brimstone and additionals of other Condiments but also by bare but artificial Extrusions of Air concerning all which at large you may further see in our Halolog Chym. almost finisht upon that Subject when extant and as to the Nativity of petrific bodys from their intimate and essential causes both as relating to the Macro as well as to the Micro-cosme you may consult when extant our Lithologia Physica being a Discourse of Petrification Hydroph Wherein pray Pyroph do your Principles differ from the Corpuscularian For you seem in some things to strike in with their Hypothesis Pyroph If you will observe Hydroph you will find as in many things it accords so it differs much for theirs supposeth in the main matter mov'd which also includes in it the figure shape and size of the parts moved reducing them into certain minute figur'd parts irreducible into less which convening in such and such numbers with others of different figure combine together under the mask of some other figure than before and so constitute this or the other body shap'd according to the texture of those parts so collected and united together whereas ours although it include much of this Doctrine especially that of matter mov'd and under the consideration of variety of figure shape and size of the constituent parts yet herein it differeth first that it doth not consider the parts as reduc'd or reducible into indivisible and yet figur'd points But supposeth all the however minute parts of matter which do accost our senses or make any alterations in our Juyces by which we usually make an
subjectum inhaesionis but as actual Bodies how minute soever are capable enough to smite our subtile Organs and affect our Senses set on work by Winds from different quarters which are the Clavigeri tempestatum in order to the mutation of weather For although these float in the Air and are not seen excepting that of Moisture gathered together in a Mist Fog or Cloud yet that they are perceptible enough to our Senses is evident amongst the rest from the minute Particles of Cold which float in the Air from Northern Winds and are of such Shape or Size as they not only pierce our Skins and moderately shut the Pores thereof thereby invigorate the Ferments whence our Appetites to Food are stronger and the Digestions the better perform'd in Frost than in warm Weather And in colder Countries and Climates than in hot but in cold raw Weather the Pores those small Portals of the Body stand a char if I may so say whereby the alterations in the Air have the easier access into our Juices to procure the like in them whence we observe in such Weather people generally take more cold and are more prone to Diseases as well Acute as Chronical than at other Seasons Which Frost Air if it be very sharp congeals the fluid humours of our Bodies forceing the Spirits to a retreat unless oppos'd by a warmth from exercise or Spirits of good Liquor yea the same cold Particles meeting with Water doth so fill the Pores thereof that from a fluid they by their interposition make it become for a time a kind of solid Body which when the winds change and are carried in different Percledi of the Air as breathing suppose from the South or West South-East or South-West points the Particles of Heat and Moisture muster in the Air and mortifie dint or resolve the cold Particles For it 's very probable that the congealing of Water into Ice by Cold is nothing else but the congelation of the Atoms which in one Sense we admit of Cold rivetting themselves fast in the Pores of the Body of Water in as much as these floating in the Air either brought to us by those Winds which blow over the Northern Frozen Seas which in their resolution may extricate themselves from their former combinations being carried by the fanning of the Wind from that quarter or from what other causes soever meeting with liquid Bodies by their piercing nature insinuate themselves into the Texture thereof and as they weave themselves in they put a stop to the motion or fluidity of those liquids unless preserv'd by some active nimble spirituous parts and from a fluid make them become as we said a sort of solid Bodies which as they fill some Pores of Water so they cause some other parts of Water to constringe or concenter themselves whence is one reason why in Frosty Seasons Rivers that are otherwise high by late falls of Rain are upon Frosty Winds shrunk up and Water in Vessels expos'd to the Air are sensibly contracted or lessened Wherefore all Bodies whose Texture consists most what of liquid parts if they contain so many of those aforesaid nimble spirituous fermentative Particles by the briskness of whose motion the liquids are kept fluid then are they secured so long as kept either circulating in their own or defended by close Vessels from the injury of the cold undergo no coagulation therefrom nor are altered thereby Thus the Blood and liquid Juices in the Body of Man or other Animals as long as they are invigorated with Spirituous Saline and Sulphureous parts which keep them constantly in a circulating Motion so long are safe from the injury of cold so all Fermented Liquors whether Wines Sider Perry Ale Beer c. while the Ferments are active with Spirituous parts interwoven in the whole Texture thereof and kept in close Vessels so long are not apt to be surpriz'd by cold or to be congeal'd thereby into Ice unless through the excessiveness of Cold and perhaps carelesness in stopping up Vessels Wines or other Fermented Liquors become Frozen as sometimes happens upon very long Voiages into cold Climates witness that of Fishing for Whales by some Hollanders in the Northern-Seas their Wines otherwise generous enough were by extremity of cold Frozen the Hoops being taken off and the VVines uncask'd they were found congeal'd into Ice and stood in the form of the Vessels they were put in which Ice they perforated with Augers and found about the Center of the Ice a little Liquor of an Amethyst Colour which was the pure Balsamick Spirits of Wine concentred and therefore incapable of being congeal'd by cold all the rest of the Body of Ice being dissolv'd by Heat was an insipid Phlegm or mere VVater of VVine into which if a little of the true Fiery Spirits was pour'd made it like VVine after which manner they drank it And in our late intense Frost December last the Particles of Cold were so copious and piercing as it froze Beer and Ale in Cakes Sherry Sack in Bottles and a Lixivium of Vegetable Salts I had by me yea a pretty smart Spirit of Vitriol standing in a Bottle in a VVindow was as far as I could discern totally Frozen up and in York-shire in some places it froze the moisture in peoples Nostrils into Icicles that with their finger as an Eye-witness told me they pull'd out pieces of Ice So all Volatile Spirits whether Vinous Vrinous or Oleaginous are being kept in close Vessels capable of defending themselves from being congeal'd by cold For neither Spirits of VVine or Volatile Spirits of Blood Vrin Soot Harts-horn c. nor distill'd therefore call'd Chymical-Oyls as of Turpentine Cinamon Cloves Rosemary Sage Wormwood c. are I say none of them apt to be Frozen by Cold but can defend themselves by their nimble active spirituous parts from the injury thereof in like manner all Mineral acid Spirits as of Vitriol except as aforesaid Alom Nitre Salt c. can if kept in close Vessels preserve themselves from damage by cold so also Lixiviums made of the fixt Salts of Tartar or other Vegetables But those Liquids that are destitute of saline sulphurous or other fermenting Particles are of themselves capable of admitting the ingress of cold Atoms so as to suffer some Vacuolums to be fill'd and other parts to be constring'd into a solid form of the congeal'd body of Ice and all this by the medium of Air which is the vehicle of these cold Atoms SECT XII Hydroph BUt we say Pyroph that cold is an active Quality which doth congregare homogenea heterogenea and as such doth condense congeal Water into Ice Pyroph Those qualities Hydroph together with the quaternary of Elements which you look upon as Principles of mixt bodies and from whose combinations you would solve the different apparences thereof I have told you and I think partly demonstrated as such not to be in rerum natura Hydroph But what different impressions Pyroph are made