every piece of it though infinitely divided the same proprieties it hath it self This magnetical virtue I say having such a relation and being forced thus to vary 't is very probable that the internal parts to which it hath a respect have a variation likewise and consequently that these internal parts which are supposed generally very dense compact and very closely and solidly united may be notwithstanding more loose and ununited and movable from certain causes To proceed therefore I say that it seems very probable to me that the body of Comets may be of the same nature and constitution with that of the internal parts of the Earth that these parts may by the help of the Aether be so agitated and blended together as to make them work upon and dissolve each other in the same manner as we have often had examples of some of the parts of the Earth a late instance of which was at Mongibel or Aetna in Sicily where the Fire continued for a long time and produced very considerable effects That this internal agitation may confound the gravitating principle and so leave the parts in a greater freedom to be dissolved by the encompassing Aether which is the agent that sets the other two at work to destroy each other that it may at length prey upon both and dissolve them both into it self and consequently not only the parts thus dissolved are elevated to a greater distance from the center of the Star or Nucleus or the superficies of it whose gravitating or attractive principle is much destroyed the Coma being in this Comet four or five Diameters of the Star or Nucleus but having given those parts leave thus far to ramble the gravitating principle of another body more potent acts upon it and makes those parts seem to recede from the center thereof though really they are but as it were left behind the body of the Star which is more powerfully attracted than the minuter steaming parts for I suppose the gravitating power of the Sun in the center of this part of the Heaven in which we are hath an attractive power upon all the bodies of the Planets and of the Earth that move about it and that each of those again have a respect answerable whereby they may be said to attract the Sun in the same manner as the Load-stone hath to Iron and the Iron hath to the Loadstone I conceive also that this attractive virtue may act likewise upon several other bodies that come within the center of its sphere of activity though 't is not improbable also but that as on some bodies it may have no effect at all no more than the Load-stone which acts on Iron hath upon a bar of Tin Lead Glass Wood c. so on other bodies it may have a clean contrary effect that is of protrusion thrusting off or driving away as we find one Pole of the Magnet doth the end of a Needle touched on the opposite part whence it is I conceive that the parts of the body of this Comet being confounded or jumbled as 't were together and so the gravitating principle destroyed become of other natures than they were before and so the body may cease to maintain its place in the Universe where first it was placed Whence instead of continuing to move round some central body whether Sun or Planet as it did whilst it maintained it self entire and so had its magnetical quality as I may so call it unconfounded it now leaves that circular way and by its motion which always tends to a straight line and would be so were it not bended into a curve by the attractive virtue of the central body it flies away from its former center by the Tangent line to the last place where it was before this confusion was caused in the body of it In this line 't is probable it passes from one part of the Heavens to another and so passes through the spheres of the activity of multitudes of central bodies in the passing through which spheres 't is not improbable that those parts which by their dissolution are made of a nature differing from the body in the center are rather expelled from than attracted towards it and so being by this dissolution rarified and loosened from the middle and by their acting upon one another and dissolution of the Aether made of another nature after they have every way dispersed themselves to a considerable distance from their proper body are converted and driven in a way almost opposite to that expelling body and so continue to be driven away to such a vast distance as to make out that prodigious length of the tail or Blaze of some Comets such as was that of 1618. which as Kepler reports was extended to 70 degrees from the body or head of it till at last they are dissolved also and commixed with the Aether within them So that though I suppose the attractive power of the Sun or other central body may draw the body towards it and so bend the motion of the Comet from the streight line in which it tends into a kind of curve whose concave part is towards the Sun by reason that there are some central parts of it which are not yet destroyed and so retain somewhat of its gravitating principle yet I conceive that all those parts of the Comet which are thus wrought upon by the other and changed into another state and are very much rarified and produce light are of a clean contrary nature and recede from the center of the Sun much after the same manner as we find any combustible body with us as Coal c. where we find that the body of the Coal before it be resolv'd into smoke is a very dense and very heavy body and tends to the center of the earth but the parts thereof agitated by the Air and Aether into steams and smoke and those yet farther dissolved into flame do tend upwards and from the center of the earth Now though one cause of the recess of flame from the center of the Earth be the gravity of the ambient Air. Yet 't is not impossible but that there may be somewhat also of positive levity conjoyned therewith Most certain it is that there must be a tendency of receding as well as a tendency of approaching the center of the Earth and other attracting body And there may be much said for the supposition that the recess of the purest Aether from the center is the cause of the motion of the grosser Aether and of all other bodies towards it though there are also very considerable arguments against it But this discourse is not my present business though it may hereafter be the subject of a Lecture in this place for upon it do depend some of the greatest operations in the universe And as in the History of the Creation we have an account of the production of light immediately after the making of matter which is a motion of recess from
the center of the shining body Next that a Firmament which divided between the waters or the fluids of the one and the fluids of another part of the world And in the third place the collections of particular fluids to one center as the center of the Earth and lastly out of that collection of fluids appeared the dry and solid land So I conceive the most proper way of speculating on these great productions of the omnipotent Creator may be to begin with the consideration of light or the motion of recess from the center of a body Next with the consideration of the cause of the separating of fluid from fluid as Aether from Aether as I may so call differing Aethers because we have not yet distinct names in use and the reason of their conglobation the Aether from the Air the Air from the Water the Water from Quicksilver Oyl or other fluid Thirdly the cause of the conglobating property of each of these fluids when separated how they accept and embrace Homogenea and reject or expel Heterogenea And fourthly how they condense and settle together and produce a solid body whence proceeds the confirmation of attraction or gravitation c. But to digress no further but conclude this part of enquiry in short I suppose the Nucleus or Star of the Comet may be much of the like nature with the central parts of the Earth Moon Mars Jupiter Saturn or other Planets but much impaired in its attractive or gravitating power Next that the Coma or Hazy Cloud about it may be of the nature of the Atmosphere or Air about the Earth or the Smoke or steams about a heated or burning body before they are quite kindled converted into Flame or dissolved into the ambient Air. Thirdly that the Tail or Blaze is much of the nature of the parts of Flame though with those differences I conceive that the parts of these steams are not so close together as are those of Smoke nor doth the motion of them though much swifter upwards than that of our Flame serve to make them appear a shining line but being at that distance they appear much slower to the eye and so discontinue the appearance whence every shining particle appears only a shining point though in the parts of flame where notwithstanding the motion be much flower yet being nearer and so varying the position to the eye much quicker each of the shining parts makes an appearance of a line of light and all of them passing pretty near together make the appearance of a continued fluid flame though that indeed be nothing but a great number of single parcels of the burning body raised up in the particles of Smoke This will appear evident if we consider the appearances easily to be taken notice of in light for 't is obvious from multitudes of experiments that any shining body as a candle or brands end being moved very quick makes the same impression on the eye that a line of light doth standing still And as obvious also that any very light body incompassed with a dark medium appears to the eye under an angle bigger than really it is and a dark body encompassed with a light medium much less This any one may presently find if he make a small hole through a thin plate of metal and holding it first between the light and the eye and so seeing the light appear through it and then placing it so as there is nothing but darkness appears through the said hole for he will plainly perceive that the same hole will appear much bigger in the former position than in the latter Upon this account indeed each of the shining parts of the Comet seems to fill and occupy a much greater space than really it doth and so as 't is observable in the milky way a great number of these small shining bodies though dispersed at a pretty distance one from another yet by reason of the imperceptibleness of each of them they all seem to coalesce into a stream or Blaze of light the brightness of which is yet farther augmented by a clear and unenlightened air and by such a part of the Heaven wherein there appears fewest of the Stars whether they be greater or lesser To the Query Of what magnitude the Body Coma and Blaze of Comets may be No answer can be given until another question be first answered and that is What is the place of Comets and what is their distance from the Earth It was the opinion of most Modern Writers before Tycho Brahe and Kepler I know divers of the Antients thought otherwise that Comets were sublunary Meteors drawn up into the higher Regions of the Air and there set on fire and so continued burning till the Meteor were consumed and as the matter increased or wasted so did the appearance of the Comet But this noble Dane and several others about that time found by accurate observations made that its Parallax was less than that of the Moon and consequently that it was farther distant from the earth that it must be a body of another magnitude and nature than most before that time had imagined and therefore that it ought to be otherwise thought of than the generality of mankind believed concerning it Many had been the attempts of former Writers concerning them to find out their parallax and whether from their unaccurate instruments or from their less skill and diligence in using them or from an imagination of the solidity and impenetrability of the Coelestial Orbs or from error in their calculations or from comparing Observations made at distant places one or both whereof were unaccurate or from a prepossession of Tradition or common Fame or from what other cause soever it were is uncertain but 't was generally concluded by them that all Comets were sublunary Meteors and there are not even at this day wanting some of the same opinion though for what reason I know not 'T will be hard to convince some of these that the opinion they have hitherto received for good is not so because they will hardly give themselves the trouble of examining strictly into the matter And to understand the nature of Parallaxes and how significant they are in determining the distances of bodies from the surface of the Earth to certain degrees thereof beyond which by reason of the imperfections in Instruments and Observations and the exceeding niceness and curiosity necessary they signifie very little It is not my present design to explain what Parallax is that I would suppose my Reader to understand otherwise there can be no reason shewn him to convince him that 't is possible to prove that this or that Comet was not nearer than so many semidiameters of the Earth nor farther off than so many There are then two ways by which we may come to some certainty of what distance a Comet is and those are first the Parallax of its Diurnal motion or its Parallax caused by the Diurnal motion of the Earth And
is taken up into it and kept suspended therein though the parts of the Gold be fifteen times heavier than the parts of the Aqua Regis So Pit-coal though very heavy is yet taken up into the Air and kept suspended therein though it will be found to be some thousands of times more ponderous than the menstruum of the Air that keeps it suspended Many reasons I could produce to shew the great power of the Aether and the universality of its activity almost in all sensible motions but reserving them for another Discourse hereafter I shall at present only mention those suppositions which seem to have the greatest difficulty in this Theory viz. how the dissolution of the parts of the Star by the incompassing Aether should cause light and secondly how it should cause an actual Levitation of the dissolving particles upwards For the explication of these two difficulties I must at present crave favour to explain them by examples taken from operations of Nature in the Atmosphere wherein we live very similar and analogous to them First for the production of light we find that the Air incompassing the steams of bodies prepared by heat or otherwise and made fit for dissolution doth so operate upon them as to make them fly and part asunder with a very impetuous motion insomuch that the small particles or Atoms of the dissolved bodies do not only leave one another but depart and dart out with so great an impetuosity as to drive off all the incompassing Air from their Center from whence they flew and this I take to be the cause not only of their Light but also of their Levity upwards this may be seen very plainly by the small parts of crackling Char-coal which upon the blowing them with Bellows and so crowding a great quantity of the fresh menstruum on them fly and dart asunder with great celerity and noise but is abundantly more evident in the kindling of Gun-powder where the impetuosity is so very great as to drive away not only all the incompassing Air but all other bodies though never so solid that hinder its expansion in the performing of which operation the Aether hath a great share as I may hereafter shew 't is very probable that the Aether in the same manner dissolving the particles of the Star causeth the Atoms thereof to fly asunder with so great an impetuosity as to leave a vacuity even of the parts of the Aether which flying asunder doth not only cause light by impressing on the Aether a stroke or pulse which propagates every way in Orbem but maketh such an agitation of the the Aether as causes a rarefaction in the parts thereof whilst the parts that are once actually separated by continual rebounding one against another before they come to be at rest and quietly to touch each other prolong that first separation or vacuity between them This Explication though it be somewhat difficult yet I hope it is intelligible and may be with probability enough supposed to be the true cause of the appearance whilst there is nothing therein supposed which is not manifestly the method of Nature in other operations and though the supposition even of the Aether may seem to be a Chimera and groundless yet had I now time I could by many very sensible and undeniable experiments prove the existence and reality thereof and that it doth actually produce not only as sensible effects as these I have named but very much the same and many others much more cosiderable which by Philosophers have hitherto been ascribed to quite different causes Had I been able to have made some other observations which I designed if I had had the opportunity of seeing it some of the succeeding Nights I should have hoped to have explained several other difficulties concerning the nature of the body and blaze of Comets but being therein prevented I must leave them till I can make some further observations on some Comets that may hereafter appear In the mean time that what I have discoursed concerning the light of Comets may not seem so altogether paradoxical and unintelligible as some may imagine I have here added an account of some trials and observations made on shining substances of natures exceedingly differing from those that are commonly to be met withal And this I the rather do not only because it affords an instance of shining where there is no Air but that hereby I may enlarge the limits of their imagination who shall consider of this subject For nothing is more apt to misguide our reasoning than a narrow and limited knowledg of causes we are not to conclude the body of a Comet a sulphureous vapour exhaled from the Earth and kindled above because here are such vapours observed and such effects produced nor a collection of Sun beams made by a Lentiformed vapour after the manner of a Burning-glass as some eminent Writers have lately done because some such appearances may be Artificially produced in a smoaky or thickned Air since if we diligently inquire we may find that light which is the most sensible quality of Comets that affects our senses may be and really is produced by very many and those very differing ways In Nitre and Sulphur kindling each other by heat we have one way in a body burning in the Air a second in a heated Iron or Glass a third in a piece of Iron hammered till red hot a fourth in rotten Wood and decayed Fish a fifth in Glow-worms Scolopondras and other living Worms and in the sweat and excrements of other living creatures a sixth in a Diamond rubbed a seventh in Dews Ignes fatui c. an eighth in Sea-water a ninth in the Bononian stone and in the Phosphorus Baldwini which I take to be much of the same nature a tenth in the Phosphorus of Mr. Kraft an eleventh and possibly wholly differing from all these may be the light of the Sun a twelfth and that of the Star may differ from that of Sun and the Comet may be differing from all the rest Whether they be so or not the being acquainted with the several proprieties of them will the better enable one to judg of what is pertinent to be observed in Comets in order to find out which is concerned The Phaenomena of most of these shining bodies are very common and obvious and therefore needless to be added but that of the Bononian stone prepared and that of the Phosphorus Baldwini lately discovered by Mr. Baldwine are rare and hard to be got and the effects of them are wholly differing from all the ways I have yet met with and will therefore prove Experimenta Crucis highly instructive in the Theory of Light of which more hereafter As for the Phosphoros Fulgurans of Mr. Kraft more scarce and rare than the other 't is wholly differing from any of the rest and very strange and surprising at least it appeared so to me who had the good fortune to be present at a good part of
seem more nearly to concern us And those are contained in the ensuing Discourse being A Relation communicated to me in a Letter by that ingenious and experienced Chirurgion Mr. James Young of Plimouth in the beginning of January last of the fatal Symptoms caused by a Bullet swallowed into the Lungs SIR In the beginning of April 1674. one Mr. Anthony Williamson of Liscard in Cornwal aged about 65 years of a brisk firm habit became after a too liberal drinking of Cyder afflicted with the Colick of which in four days he cured himself by swallowing two Musket Bullets and receiving some Carminative Clysters On the 12. of the same month his pain returning somewhat smarter than before he attempted to swallow three Pistol Shot and supposing it the easiest way he lay on his back and threw them all at once into his throat where they choaking had almost strangled him constraining him to vomit c. When they were past down he became seized immediately with a violent Cough Wheasing pain in the left side of his Breast a great noise in respiration more especially after a fit of Coughing for then his Breast would hiss like the sucking of a Pump when the Air descends through the boxes These accidents so suddenly occurring without any manifest cause did much surprize him and the more because he was naturally of a sound breast the Colick was cured by Clysters Potions of Manna ol amyg d. c. and two of the Shot were soon ejected ex ano and maugre the other accidents he became indifferently well and able to walk about house Five or six weeks after this those symptoms became more fierce depaupering his spirits prostrating his appetite disquieting his sleep with dreams a Dyspnoea and rutling violent Cough a straitness and load in his Breast kept him in bed extenuated his body which without help of Milk Clysters was costive he frequently fainted with sweats and a tickling sleepiness in both legs Under the tyranny of this legion of symptoms our Western Apollo Dr. Bidgood of Exeter was consulted who affirmed them all to be caused by the remaining Bullet which passing through the Larynx was fallen into one of the branches of the Trachea where it would abide in despight of any endeavours to eject it yet to alleviate the violence of the accidents he directed to the use of emollient Eclegma's temperate Cordials c. by help of which and some other propitious circumstances he not only recovered his legs becoming able to walk and ride a small Journey but also consummated Marriage with a young woman of 25 who afterward brought him two Children whereof one is now alive and very lusty and was seven months gone with a third when he died the more wonderful if the woman were just to him of which there appeareth no reason to doubt because a very little motion would so increase his difficulty of breathing as to make him faint After Matrimony he had divers lucid Intervals at times would be very brisk and at others very languid and faint like a dying man he continually expectorated sometimes grumous coagulated Blood otherwhiles very recent now purulent foetid matter then laudable pus His natural aversion to Medicine caused him to reject what was advised by Dr. Bidgood Dr. Lower Dr. Sprage c. saving a few of the more slight mixtures And although Sack had been formerly very familiar to him he was now forced to shun it and all strong Drinks because they would infallibly produce a Cardialgia a pulsant throbbing of the Heart and labouring in his Breast the first of these perhaps proceeded from his Constitution which inclined to Choler but the latter undoubtedly from the effervescency and warm motion to which it enforced the Blood which the obstruction and pressure the Bullet occasioned in the Pneumatick organs could not peaceably admit of wherefore he resolutely fixed to small Drink and shunned as much as possible all evitable Exercise saving that of his hands which he frequently employed in making Net-work In the Year 1676. he applied himself to our ingenious and learned Country-man Dr Mayow of Bath who agreed with Dr. Bidgood that the remaining Bullet lodging in the Lungs was the occasion of all those ill symptomes under which he laboured but seemed to dissent from his presage by hoping he might expectorate it to atchieve which he directed to have the body suspended head downwards and fumes of Storax Benjamin c. to induce expulsive Coughing together with concussions of the body and all preceded with an opening course to relax and dilate the vessels of the Breast all which were used to no purpose save to verifie Dr. Bidgoods Prognostick that no efflation how violent soever would be able to extrude it and inhaunce the Patients despair of being ever cured from which time he never attempted it so that those symptomes before mentioned continuing until the Winter and then gaining considerably on him especially the Haemoptysis c. he languished till the ninth of December last and then died The tenth Ditto assisted by his Son-in-law I opened the Thorax in presence of two other Chirurgions of the place together with divers persons of Quality whose curiosity led them to see the examination because the Bullets being there was so much doubted by many and disputed as impossible by others In the disfection the following particulars were observable The Body was extenuate and tabid The right lobes of the Lungs were replete sound and well coloured The Serum in the Pericardium was almost all absumed The Heart strangely shrivelled and very small Under the Pericardium the Body being supine we found a lump of coagulated Blood as big as a Pigeons Egg near which lay also a substance shaped like an obtuse headed muscle having a Tendon-like tail which insinuated to the Pendant Lobe Its body was above an half inch thick It s other dimensions and shape exactly like that of the figure X of which A sheweth the head or upper end B the tail which in drawing out of the rotten Lungs being also corrupted broke asunder It s Texture seemed fibrous like that of the Kidneys being white one half way through the rest of a dark red it was very soft and plum having a firm smooth tegument and felt very much like a Sheeps kidney The left Lobe of the Lungs was cadaverous and hollow by an abscess which had discharged near a pint of very foetid and purulent matter into that side of the trunk where it lay immured up by the adhesion of the Lungs on that side to the Pleura which with the Diaphragima as far as the matter extended was livid and eroded We examined this rotten part of the Lungs with what exactness and curiosity we were capable of amidst such a crowd as were present and the more troublesome stench of the Cadaver and found though the whole Parenchyma were rotten and no firmer than coagulated Blood with which it had very near resemblance yet the branches of the Trachea continued