Beginning of the Night more Stars in the Firmament than ever I had seen before by two thirds I could see the Cloud in Cancer full of small Stars and amongst the Pleiades a great many small Stars About ten a Clock the Moon did rise and then a quarter of them was not to be seen The Wind for the most part of this Month hath been Northeâ—ly and very cold c. Capt. James p. 62. The Russian Emperor's Physician confirmed to me by word of Mouth what he had some Years since told me in a Letter that one Night which was exceeding cold and clear being awakened out of his Sleep by a Shake that had like to have overturn'd his Sled he look'd out and saw more Stars by far than ever he saw in England or the Neighbouring Parts of Europe and particularly that he saw many about the 7 Stars or the Pleiades and divers others he had not seen before in several other Parts of the Sky He farther told me that these Stars seemed far more beautiful and bright than was usual insomuch that he doubts not that if it had not been for the Snow some of them would have cast a discernable Shadow For Confirmation he saith that the Phaenomena were not only taken notice of by him but by others that travelled with him and that though he often gazed at the Sky since that time he never could see there near so many Stars nor so bright December 4. I had not time the last Week to tell you of something that to us that have not been long in this Country seems strange but the People of this Place say happens very often On the 29th of the last Month after I had written and sent away my Letters looking out of the Dutchesses Window to see what Weather it was I saw towards the N E. alongst the Horizon it look'd as light and just as if it had been Break-of-Day it was then about a quarter past eleven and gave as great a Light I went then into the Drawing-Room and looking out of that Window could look more Northerly and saw it was more light due N. and saw several Streaks of Light like the Tail of the Blazing Star all pointing N. and S. one of which was as long or longer than that we saw last Year for it reached from the Horizon and pass'd betwen Charles's Wain and the N. Star and reached up just over our Heads The small ones sometimes disappeared and then we saw others of the same Dimensions appear in other Places they were all near the great one two of them seem'd as if their Light had come from the two Guards in Charles's Wain and when they vanished others appeared more South I went to the other Side of the House and saw that the Light reached from the W. or W N W. by the N. to the E. or E N E. I did not go out because it blew very hard and was very wet contenting my self to see it out of the House but sent Geo. Man up the Hill who saw the same and it was so clear they could see the Frith About the New Moon before there was such a Light as this seen by Lord Belcarus as he came in the Night from St. Andrews to his House and by the Seamen of the Yacht at Leith and by some here in Town But though the Sky was not then so clear there being broken Clouds yet it gave such Light as they could read very plainly as they told me that began about 7 and lasted till 9. This last I did not see till after 11 and at a quarter of 12 it began to lessen at which time I went to Bed and the Tails were then no more to be seen Tell Dr. Flamsted of this and know of him whether he has seen or heard of such kind of things This was from his Royal Highness the Duke of York then High Commissioner in Scotland An intelligent Gentleman that liv'd in Africk being asked by me how far off he was able to see the Top of the Pico of Teneriff at Sea replied that by the Estimate of the Captain of the Ship it was near 50 Leagues and yet it appear'd to him so high above some Clouds and so near that he was fain to cast his Head up to see it TITLE XXI Of the Operation of the Air on the Consistency of Animal Substances AS on the one side the Schools teach the Air to be a simple and elementary Body that is only hot and moist so on the other Side the Generality of Men are so accustomed to judg of things by their Senses that not finding the Air to be a visible Body they ascribe less to it than even the School-men do and what is invisible they think to be next Degree to nothing And indeed both the one sort of Men and the other are wont to consider the Air only as a Receptacle that barely harbours the visible and palpable Bodies committed to it or as it were deposited in it without acting upon them unless it be perhaps a little upon the Account of its manifest Qualities Heat and Moisture But for my part who look upon the Air under another Notion and think it may as well alter as receive the Bodies that lie exposed to it I am apt to allow it in reference to some Bodies certain other Faculties and Powers among which some may be called Generative and Maturative and others Corruptive and this not only in respect of Animals and other Bodies of a slighter Texture but even of Salts and Minerals themselves An observing Man that had sailed to and fro between Europe and the East-Indies answered me among other things about their way of transporting Cheese That the Cheese they used to take along were Cheshire of a very considerable Thickness which they inclosed in leaden Boxes fit for them and thereby were able to preserve them sound till they came to the East-Indies But in case they were not able or neglected to make use of such Boxes he several times observed that cutting a Cheese in two when they were any thing near the Equinoctial that most part of it would be very dry and brittle and seem'd as if it were spoil'd Whereas the Parts about the middle were so fat and soft as if all the unctuous Parts that were wanting in the dried Portion of the Cheese had retired thither and was between Cream and Cheese Which Conjecture was not contradicted by this that if they cut some of them Cheeses when having left the Torrid Zone behind them and had made a good Progress in the Temperate Zone they found the external Portion good and the Consistence of the Cheese uniform enough Quere Whether the moist Particles that flie in the Air be not the great Cause of all Corruption of Bodies since Acosta says that in Peru where it seldom rains all things like dead Bodies keep a great while uncorrupted The like may be observed of Egypt if it be not to be rather imputed to the
Substances 216 Title 31. Of the Operations of the Air on the Tastes of Vegetable Substances 217 Title 32. Of the Operations of the Air on the Tastes of Mineral Substances 218 Title 33. Of the Operations of the Air on the Colours of Animal Substances 219 Title 34. Of the Operations of the Air on the Colours of Vegetable Substances 220 Title 35. Of the Operations of the Air on the Colours of Mineral Substances 222 Title 36. Of the Air destroying or introducing other less obvious Qualities into Animal Substances 229 Title 37. Of the Air destroying or introducing other less obvious Qualities into Vegetable Substances 230 Title 38. Of the Air destroying or introducing other less obvious Qualities into Mineral Substances 232 Title 39. Of the Air in reference to the Propagation and Vegetation of Plants 234 Title 40. Of the Air in reference to the Generation Life and Health of Animals 235 Title 41. Of heavy Bodies sustained in or taken up into the Air 251 Title 42. Of Dew 252 Title 43. Of Rain 253 Title 44. Of Hail 255 Title 45. Of Snow 256 Title 46. Of other things falling out of the Air 257 Title 47. Promiscuous Experiments and Observations of the Air 258 Title 48. Desiderata in the History of the Air and Proposals towards supplying them 259 THE PREFACE THE continual Vse of the Air is so absolutely necessary to our Life the good or bad Temperature of it is so important to our Health and the scarce evitable Presence and powerful Pressure of it has so great an Interest in many of the Phaenomena we meet with here below and even in divers where its Agency is not suspected that among mere Bodies there are perhaps few Subjects that more deserve our Curiosity whether as we are Animals or as we are Naturalists Upon which Account I can scarce think that any thing that conduces to the fuller Knowledg of a Body so diffused so necessary and so powerful is fit to be despised or is unworthy to be preserved in Writing And therefore though I have formerly had occasion to treat in distinct Tracts of some of the Qualities or Affections of the Air as its Gravity Springiness c. yet I found my self inclined to contribute further to the Knowledg of that vast and useful Subject by setting down some Memorials partly out of my own Observations and Trials and partly out of those I had from Persons of good Credit concerning some Causes and Effects of the Changes of the Air and consequently concerning several of its Qualities that were requisite to be taken into Consideration in a work of that Nature And not content with this though my own Studies and Affairs would not permit me to prosecute my self the Design I am going to mention yet thinking it might be a very useful thing in reference both to Philosophy and Physick that a Natural History of the Air though at first it should prove but a very imperfect one were faithfully compiled I propounded the Design to some Virtuosi that seem'd to relish it and undertook to be Assistant in it And to facilitate their Work I drew up a Set of Heads and Inquiries of that sort which in another Paper I call Titles of the first Classis or Order which tho purposely set down without any anxious Method were comprehensive enough to have a good Number and Variety of Particulars conveniently referr'd to them But afterwards finding the Persons to whom I had committed these Schemes to have been for many Years very unmindful of their Promises I did on this Discouragement lay aside not only the Hopes of a General History of the Air but what I had already written about the Changes of that Body And upon the same Accounts those scattered Notes lay many Years in loose neglected Papers till at length the Curiosity and Desires of some Virtuosi that knew I had gathered some Remarks though few and incoherent touching some Qualities of the Air obliged me to draw together those that without a troublesome Search I could retrieve offering themselves to promote the Design that others had abandon'd The Desire to gratify these Inquisitive Men and the Conviction I am brought under by such Reasons as are mentioned at the Beginning of this Paper that scarce any Truth whether Historical or Doctrinal that relates to so important a Subject as the Air is unfit to be preserv'd prevail'd with me rather to chuse a very disadvantageous way of setting down what I have to deliver about it than suffer the loose Observations I had occasion to make about some Phanomena and Qualities and especially the Changes of the Air to be lost And therefore though I have not the leisure to methodize my incoherent Notes and much less to weave them into continued Discourses yet rather than let them perish and disappoint those that will have them such as they are I am content to refer to some of the Titles prefixed to this Treatise as to a kind of Common Places what my Memory or some old Notes about divers things relating to the Air and especially to the Causes and Effects of its Changes supply me with in reference to that Body And upon the like Account I have not strictly confined my self to the mention of my loose Observations and those that I have been furnished with by Answers to the Questions I put to divers Travellers and Navigators but I have also cast in several pertinent Passages that chanced to occur to me in the reading of some Voyages and other Books especially such as either are out of Print or are but in few Hands or else are not extant in those that are called the Learned Languages And that those Virtuosi that are willing to contribute their Industry to carry on the Design that was at first proposed might have some Heads whereunto to refer what shall occur to them I thought fit to premise to my Papers the above-mentioned Scheme or rough Draught of the General History which after many Years I chanced to recover I have also thought fit that under three or four Titles my Collections of Particulars should be somewhat large and Methodical to afford the same Persons some Specimens of what I should have thought requisite to do upon particular Subjects if I would have ventur'd upon such a Task as to write a Natural History of the Air. I am not ignorant that I expose my self to Censure for suffering to pass out of my Hands Memoirs so maimed and imperfect that several of the Subjects mentioned in the Scheme of Titles are left altogether untouch'd and those that are particularly mentioned are for the most part touch'd upon but lightly But the chief though not perhaps the only Reasons that kept me from being silenc'd by these Considerations though I confess them to be weighty were these First That not pretending to write the History of the Air but only some Memoirs for it I might without Incongruity or Indecency contribute what had occurr'd to me in reference to
the Sky-Colour reach'd to the lower part of the Liquor which at this time is wholly and deeply of that Colour the Oil that swims above it being clear TITLE XIX Of the Heat and Coldness of the Air. THough the Peripatetick Doctrine about the Limits and Temperaments of the three Regions into which they divide the Air hath been so plausibly proposed that it has been readily entertained not only by the Aristotelian Schools but by the Generality of Philosophers as well modern as ancient yet since I think it becomes a Naturalist to consider not so much how easy a Doctrine is by reason of its Concinnity to be remembred or supposed as how strongly 't is to be proved I must not dissemble that as to this vulgar Theory I think it fitter we should wish it to be true than that we should believe it is so for I confess that upon the best Informations I have been able to procure from Travellers by Land and Sea or from Writers that relate rather what they have observed than what they have been taught I have been much tempted to question the received Doctrine of the Schools about the Regions of the Air. And that you may judg whether or no my Thoughts be rational the ensuing Discourse shall acquaint you with several of the Particulars on which they are grounded What I have in other Papers written concerning Cold does not only make it less proper for me to treat of it indefinitely in this Place but would make it difficult for me to say much on this Subject without Repetition And it were perhaps fittest for me to say nothing on an occasion wherein I have left my self little to say that is new and pertinent but yet since this Title promises not any thing about Cold in general but only some less heeded Particulars relating to the Coldness of the Air That I may not leave it wholly unfurnished I will refer to it a few Instances that ensue The Physician elsewhere mentioned that was lately at Morocco answered me that notwithstanding the excessive Heat that reign'd there in the Day-time he felt the Night very cold and so he did the mountanous Air in those Parts An intelligent Gentleman that stay'd a Year in Guinea and spent part of that time in the Land answer'd me that notwithstanding the excessive Heat of the Climate he was divers times about four of the Clock in the Morning reduced to be ready to tremble for Cold as he lay in his Hammock for about an Hour together A learned Man that lived at Jamaica assured me that when he laid in his Hammock about three or four Foot from the Ground though he had much Clothes under him and little or none over him he felt it cold beneath and hot above 'T is obvious to every Man's Sense or Observation that the greater Heat that is usually found in our Air during the Summer than in other Seasons of the Year has manifest Effects upon such easily agitable Bodies as Liquors and upon the Juices and Flesh of Animals and the softer Parts of Vegetables But that even in Places shelter'd from the Sun-beams the Warmth of a temperate Summer should be able sensibly to rarify and expand so cold and compact a Body as Glass it self would not be easily suspected or believed And yet that this is one of the Effects of the Temperature of the Air in Summer seems very probable by this Experiment that having two large factitious Crystal Viols caused some Stopples of the same Matter to be exquisitely ground and fitted this or that Vessel exactly closed when the Stopple was in it was very easy to be opened in Winter and in the colder Parts of the Neighbouring Seasons but in Summer 't was oftentimes so difficult to unstop the same Vessel that a Man's Force though assisted with a String was not able to pull out the Stopple To that I was often reduced to cause the Necks of the Vials to be held under a Pump or to be stirred to and fro in a Vessel full of Water that the Coldness of that Liquor might take off the Expansion that the Heat of the Season had given the Glass which being by this means made to shrink into its former Dimensions the Vial and Stopple would be easily enough disjoined This was tried in several Vessels and in more than one Year But to make this Experiment successful two Parts must at first have been exquisitly adjusted to one another which in those Glasses with Stopples of the same Matter that are commonly sold they are not usually found to be We are wont to attribute the Effects we feel of the Summers Heat to the bare Warmth of the Air and to the Agitations that such Warmth produces in the Parts of our Bodies especially in the Blood Juices and Spirits whereas it may very well happen that we may find odd Changes in our selves upon very hot Weather which proceed not from the Heat of the Air as such but rather from this Cause that by such a Degree of Heat divers Bodies that we think not of may be solicited to send forth Effluvia that have emitted none by Force or at least no such Quantity as could make them sensibly operative And these Effluvia may be the true and immediate Causes of divers Effects that are unwarily ascribed to the mere Heat of the Air and that which it produces in our Bodies To illustrate and confirm this Conjecture I shall propose the following Experiment Being in the Heat of Summer in the Country I took a some-what large Piece of fine Amber that I usually imployed about Electrical Experiments and when the Sun had reach'd a considerable Height above the Horizon I placed it in a shaded Part of a Window on which he shined freely though I left the Amber here for a competent time yet I could not find that it would draw a Piece of Straw Feather or other light Body that at a convenient Distance was held to it But when I removed it a very little further into a Part of the Window into which the Sun-beams fell freely they quickly put its Parts into such an Agitation as made it emit Electrical Effluvia and readily attract those light Bodies that would not stir before and which it would soon though not immediately lose the Power of drawing as before if it were removed back into the neighbouring shaded part of the Window May 26. Mr. Nickson who was four Years Governour of the English Colony in Hudsons-Bay answered me that when they sail'd within a certain Distance of floating Islands of Ice if the Wind blew from thence toward the Ship or as the Seamen speak if they were to the Leeward of the Ice they could by the new and sensible Cold they felt know that such Ice lay to Windward of them sometimes even before they were able to discover it by Sight And when I further asked at what Distance that might be he answered that 't was sometimes twelve or fifteen Miles if
Springiness in them and notwithstanding be by reason of their Shape readily expansible on the score of their native Structure as also by Heat Girations and other Motions and compressible by an external Force into a very little room I remember too that I have among other Comparisons of this kind represented the springy Particles of the Air like the very thin Shavings of Wood that Carpenters and Joiners are wont to take off with their Plainers for besides that these may be made of differing Woods as Oak Ash Firr c. and thereby be diversified as to their Substance they are usually of very various Breadths and Lengths and Thicknesses And perhaps you may the rather prefer this Comparison because it may seem somewhat to illustrate the Production of the springy Particles of the Air for to make these Shavings there is no Art nor curious Instruments required and their Curls are no ways uniform but many ways differing and seemingly casual and which is chiefly considerable these Shavings are producible out of Bodies that did not appear nor were suspected to be Elastical in their Bulk as Beams and Blocks almost any of which may afford springy Shavings barely by having some of its Parts so taken off as to be thin and flexible enough and commodiously shap'd Which may perhaps illustrate what I tried that divers solid and even mineral Bodies not suspected of Elasticity being put into corrosive Menstruums devoid of that Quality there will upon the convenient Comminution of Parts insuing the Action and Re-action that passes between them in the Dissolution result or emerge a pretty Quantity of permanently Elastical Fire But possibly you will think that these are but extravagant Conjectures and therefore without adding any thing in favour of them I shall proceed and willingly grant that one may fancy several other Shapes and perhaps fitter than these we have mentioned for these springy Corpuscles about whose Structure I shall not now particularly discourse because of the variety of probable Conjectures that I think may be proposed concerning it Only I shall here intimate that though the Elastical Air seem to continue such rather upon the score of its Structure than any external Agitation yet Heat that is a kind of Motion may make the agitated Particles strive to recede further and further from the Centers of their Motions and to beat off those that would hinder the freedom of their Gyrations and so very much add to the endeavour of such Air to expand it self And I will allow you to suspect that there may be sometimes mingled with the Particles that are springy upon the newly mentioned Account some others that owe their Elasticity not so much to their Structure as their Motion which variously brandishing them and whirling them about may make them beat off the neighbouring Particles and thereby promote an expansive Endeavour in the Air whereof they are Parts And though some of these may in very cold Climates and Seasons prove to be of those which I not long since referr'd to temporary Air yet others of them may be so minute and agile and so advantageously shap'd that at least in our Climate the Air will scarce be so cold but that the Causes which entertain the Agitation and keep it fluid may also give a competent Motion to Particles so well disposed to be kept in it And now Sir 't will be time to indeavour to proceed to some Particulars that may countenance the Conjectures I have hitherto been proposing Having not now the leisure to prosecute this Discourse uninterruptedly till it be compleatly finish'd I thought it not unfit not only to set down in this Paper some of those occurring Thoughts and Observations of my own upon this Subject that were the likeliest unless this way preserved to vanish out of my Memory and which may serve to recal divers others into it but also to annex some Passages referable to the same Purposes borrowed from such Books as probably I may not have at hand when I shall resume this Treatise These two sorts of Passages make up the following Notes and are therefore to be look'd upon but as materially here laid together to be preserved not so much for themselves though some of them perhaps deserve not to perish as in Order to the finishing of the design'd Structure And though for that Reason they may often appear very confusedly placed yet they may seem more incoherent than they are there being certain Transitions and other things by which some of them may be so connected as to be fit to make discoursive Parts and Paragraphs of the Treatise they belong to upon which Account 't is that they are put at divers Distances one from another that if hereafter I have leisure there may be room for the Transitions c. by which they are designed to be connected into coherent Discourses What is above said in reference to this Tract in general is applicable to those particular Parts of it whether Chapters or Sections or other Divisions that follow a Line of Astericks such as the ensuing ********************** imployed to separate the unfinish'd Part of the Division it belongs to from the foregoing TITLE III. Of the Aether in the Atmosphere  TITLE IV. Of the Springy Particles of the Air and the Spring of the Air. Aerem validè comprimere aut dilatare FOllibus lusoriis aerem pyulco ingerentes majorem subinde atque majorem difficultatem percipiunt quo enim magis aer conclusus à naturali raritate recedere cogitur etiam major nisu resistit neque solum magis densari renuit sed se latiùs explicare molitur Hinc didicimus pneumaticos fontes construere qui spiritu interno urgente aquam in altum evibrant plumbeas glandes fistulis ejaculari non pulvere nitrato ignem concipiente sed aere per vim densato ad antiquas dimensiones recuperandas erumpente Quoniam verò ingesta jam in conceptaculum non exigua aeris copia difficiliùs comprimitur novâ aeris accessione quà m ut manus valeat trusillum rectâ impellere idcirco trusilli hastulam deformatam in helicem suae matrici insertam adhibere operae pretium erit dum enim manubrio agitante contorquetur cochlea sensim deprimitur embolus aeremque ingerit Ne autem morâ longiore opus sit perpetuâ versatione manubrii ita cochleae matrix externam vasis faciem contingat ut illi adnecti atque ab eo disjungi valeat initio enim quando adhuc levis est aeris modicè compressi resistentia lamella illa suo foramine interiùs claviculatim striato cohaerens hastulae emboli si à vase disjuncta fuerit unà cum hastulâ movebitur deinde vero quando jam trusillis aegrè impellitur lamella illa cum vase connectatur non nisi versato manubrio adduci atque reduci embolus poterit id quod satis lentè perficietur Rem claritatis gratia in fonte pneumatico explicemus Porrò
Pounds of Water to which that Liquor and a convenient Quantity of bruised Raisons upon the Orifice of the Glass were tied the Neck of a pretty large Bladder out of which the Air having been diligently express'd it was strongly fastned to our Glass with one of our close Cements so that by squeezing the Bladder we could not perceive that any Air could get in or out Then this done we left the Glass in a convenient Place in the Laboratory till the 8th or 9th of March and then finding the Bladder to be pump'd up we would have tied up the contained Air but could not do it by reason of an imperceiv'd Hole perchance made with the Point of a Pin by some one of them that handled it Wherefore taking off this Bladder we caused another that was very limber to be put on after the manner newly described and yesterday Morning we found it though by Estimation it might hold about two Pounds of Water to be so full of Air that we could not without difficulty and losing a pretty deal of the contain'd Air tie the Bladder very close near the Neck of it And to try whether this same Mixture would continue to produce Air whether fermented or not I must not here dispute I caused another Bladder to be fastned to the same Glass as before and found it this Morning March 11. as full as if it were distended with a Pair of Bellows April 28. Into the bottom of a wide-mouth'd Vial we put some good Spirit of Salt and Filings of Steel and whelm'd over it a Rr. fitted with an Eel-skin and a Wire to the latter of which was tied a thin Glass-Vessel hermetically seal'd at the bottom tho 't was but slender and furnished with a competent Quantity of Filings of Copper then we exhausted the Rr. well with our Engine and afterwards by thrusting the Glass that held the Filings against the bottom of the Vial we broke it off upon which the Filings fell into the Menstruum which acting upon them there ensued good store of Bubbles that made a Froth much deeper than was the Liquor and the successive Generation of these Bubbles continued a good while and appear'd some of them large enough though in the free Air they would scarce have been visible or at least would not have been taken notice of the Vial having been kept in our Vacuum for a Quarter of an Hour longer and no Greenness to be seen in the Liquor the Rr. was taken off and the Vial left open to the Air. A Bubble of Air whose Diameter was near in length to that of a middle siz'd Pea was left at the top of a round Vial with a long narrow Neck whose Cavity was fill'd with fine Oil of Turpentine and then being inverted into a Vial fill'd with the same Liquor was set aside in a quiet Place and left there for a competent time Another Vial shap'd like the former but a pretty deal less was fill'd Neck and all with Alcohol of Wine save a Bubble of Air about the same Bigness with the former This Vial being inverted into another furnish'd with the same Liquor was set aside in the same Window with it and at the same time The Event was that about the End of the 6th Day the Bubble disappear'd in the Glass that contain'd the Oil of Turpentine And the like Absorption if I may so call it I observ'd to have been made of the Air by the contiguous Spirit of Wine the next Day after May the 23d We open'd another exhausted Receiver wherein was an unstop'd Vial more than half full of an opacous and blackish Liquor which we guess'd for we found no Inscription belonging to it to have been Frogs Spawn and were sure to have been included at least three Years By the Mercurial Gage that was put up with it it appear'd to have afforded some Air but not very much It s Smell was stinking much like that of the Pump of a Ship but yet it had produc'd no Insects nor had any Appearance of Mouldiness A Gentleman of my Acquaintance an industrious Digger for Mines and Owner of a good one informs me that when the Miners meet with running Water under Ground they are thereby supplied with Air enough for free Respiration And when I ask'd whether he thought that Air was produced or extricated by the Motion of the Water or else were only concomitant to the Stream He answered that it seemed to him more like to proceed from the Water it self and further answered me that standing Waters did not afford Air to the Diggers and that running Waters did it even at considerable Depths amounting to many Fathoms Experiments about the Production of Air and the examining thereof proposed Sect 1. TO produce Air by Fermentation in exactly closed Receivers To produce Air by Fermentation in seal'd Glasses To separate Air from Liquors by boiling To separate Air from Liquors by the Engine To produce Air by Corrosion especially with Sp. Anti. To separate Air by Animal and sulphureous Solvents To obtain Air in the exhausted Receiver by burning Glasses and red hot Irons To produce Air out of Gun-powder and other nitrous Bodies Sect. 2. Examine the produc'd Aerial Substance by its preserving or reviving 1st Animals 2dly Flame 3dly Fire 4thly The Light of rotten Wood Fish To examine it by its Elasticity and the Duration thereof As also by its Weight And by its lifting up the Smoak of Liquors TITLE VII Of the Accidental or less constant Ingredients of the Air. Â TITLE VIII Of Aqueous Particles in the Air and of the Moisture and Driness of the Air. I Shall not here determine whether in all the Instances that are referr'd to this Title the Phenomena be produced by the meer Moisture of the Air as such or by some other Agents whose Corpuscles are accompanied and assisted by the moist Air as a Vehicle and a concurrent Cause But without nicely distinguishing the Grounds of particular Operations we shall refer the Phenomena in general to the Moisture of the Air or moist Air that Quality being the most obvious to be observ'd in these Phenomena in the Production of some of which it seems either the only or the main Cause in others an assistant Cause and in all a not useless Concomitant The Account upon which a Body is dry being usually but this that the Pores intercepted between its more stable Parts are not fill'd with any visible Liquor it is not to be expected that a Quality so near of kin to a Privation should furnish much to our present historical Notes But yet Driness may sometimes have a not-inconsiderable Interest in the Changes of a Body and that upon differing Scores whereof I take these two to be the chief 1st As the Body by Exsiccation is deprived of those liquid and exhalable Parts that were before harbour'd in its Pores and were perhaps the Principle of divers Operations ascribed to it And 2dly As these Evaporable Parts
by their Recess may occasion a Change of Texture in the Body especially in regard of the Pores whose Bigness Figure and perhaps Position being alter'd the Body by this Change of Texture acquires a Disposition to act and be acted on in several Cases otherwise than formerly Sometimes when the Weather began to be overcast the Hygroscope did not sensibly appear to grow heavier and sometimes it would preponderate when I took notice of no Vapours to make it do so and though these things happen'd but seldom in respect of the ordinary Changes of the Hygroscope according to those of the Weather yet they made me suspect that sometimes the Clouds may consist of other Steams than Aqueous or that there may be some Exhalations that may have a peculiar Congruity with the Pores of the Hygroscope and whose Nature may be such as to the Power of drying the Hygroscope that upon these or some other yet unheeded Accounts the Steams that are sometimes diffused in the Air may controul the usual and regular Causes of increasing or lessening the Gravity of the Hygroscope And this Suspicion was the stronger because having made Hygroscopes with Powder and Salt and also with the Saw-dust of Wainscot hung at nice Scales in very thin open Glasses purposely blown for Lightness sake at the Flame of a Lamp though they usually acquired and lost Weight as the Weather grew moister or drier yet sometimes they did not At half of an Hour after nine a Clock at Night I look'd upon the Half Hundred Weight that hung at the bottom of the Rope the Weather being then fair and a Mark being put at that part of the erected Board where the bottom of the Weight touch'd I perceiv'd the Sky a while after to grow cloudy and overcast but without Rain wherefore going to visit the Weight again I found it to be risen ¼ of an Inch or more and looking on my Watch perceiv'd there had pass'd an Hour and a Quarter since the Mark was made This Morning I came again to look upon the Weight between eight and nine of the Clock and found it raised above the newly mentioned Mark made last Night about one Inch for 't was about 9 10 of an Inch. This Day the Weather being fair and windy the Weight was fallen by ten at Night about six Inches beneath its Station at which I found it when I look'd on it in the Morning Being not well yester-night the Weight was observ'd at Bed-time by two of my Servants and it then rested at the 11th of the erected Bound This Morning about eight of the Clock I visited it my self and found it to be risen about ⅛ of an Inch above the eighth Inch the Morning being cloudy though the Morning very dry and dusty The Weather growing more overcast within somewhat less than an Hour after I visited the Weight again some scatter'd Drops of Rain then beginning to fall and found it to be risen about half an Inch above the newly mention'd eighth Mark. I look'd when I was ready to go to Bed upon the suspended Weight of 56 Pound and mark'd how low it reach'd upon the divided Board and a great part of the Night having been rainy I look'd again when I was dress'd in the Morning which was about half an Hour after eight a Clock and I found the Cord so shrunk that the Weight was raised above five Inches higher than I left it the Night before but the Day recovering dry and windy and sometimes warm the Rope was so stretch'd that at Night the Weight sunk a good way beneath all the Marks N. B. The Rope near the Weight was in Diameter ◠of an Inch and four decimal Parts of a tenth We took a Rope of near three Foot and an half in length from the Point of Appension and somewhat less than ◠Inch in Diameter this we suffer'd to be stretch'd for some Days by a Weight of Lead with an Iron Ring or Ansula weighing a Quarter of an Hundred according to the great Hundred which is five score and twelve and then placing a flat Board under it so that the Weight just rested upon it we had the Rope well wetted over them with a Spunge dip'd in Water and so often applied to it that the Liquor might be thorowly soak'd into the Pores of the Rope which at first seem'd thereby a little stretch'd rather than shorten'd but after an Hour or two it began to shrink so that we could make the Weight swinge like a Pendulum over the Piece of Board it lean'd upon before But afterwards the same Day the Weight stretch'd out the Rope again as much as formerly 'T is observable that though Morocco be an Inland-Town and the Soil of those Parts be usually dry if not parched yet Doctor D. who was lately there informed me that about Morocco notwithstanding the violent Heats he felt in the Day-time he observed the Nocturnal Air to be very damp so as to make the Clothes he put off at Night exceeding moist and unfit to be worn without airing the next Morning He added That though the Air was very piercing and manifested it self to be so by many other Signs yet it would not make his Knife rust in his Pocket or his Sword in the Scabbard though it would quickly produce a Rust in Instruments of that Metal exposed naked to it Air too moist cannot be wholesome The Air in our Parts viz. about Oakly in Buckingham-shire though a high Country is as I said before between Michaelmas and Alhallontide very moist especially in rainy Weather and upon a Thaw insomuch that Wainscots Stair-cases and Pictures will stand all of a Water and after run down in great Drops and at Brill upon that high Hill 't is in divers Houses worse than in the Valley insomuch that the Stair-cases especially if laid in Oil will run down with Water the North and North-East side of our Houses are observed to be moister insomuch that the Furniture will rot if Fires be not made sometimes in the Rooms and the things aired This is observ'd to be the most aguish Season of the Year Mr. J. T. As in another Experiment wetried whether or no the Removal of the Air out of the Receiver would much alter the Temperature of the included Medium or Space as to Heat and Cold so we indeavour'd to discover whether the Alteration would be notable as to Driness and Moisture To this purpose we did indeed wish for such a Hygroscope or Instrument wherewith to measure the Moisture and Driness of the Air as we used many Years ago and since found well described by the industrious Kircher in a Place of his Ars magnetica to which I therefore refer your Lordship But in regard that to this Instrument there is requisite the Beard of a wild Oat seasonably gather'd which we could not then procure we recall'd to Mind another Hygroscope which though it discover not such small Mutations as the former we thought
to Gentleness Softness Sweetness Maturity c. For which Reasons therefore as well as for many other which might be urged if insisted on we do conclude submitting it nevertheless to be examined that Generation and Corruption Rarefaction and Condensation is the simplest plainest and truest Analysis that can be found in Nature for all Physical Motions as unto some of which all Motion purely Physical may as we humbly conceive without straining be immediately referred and as by and through which all may likewise with as little Difficulty be resolved And having laid this as a second Argument we say 3dly That it cannot be denied but all the Affections and Dispositions of Moisture Heat Cold Drought the Course of all Winds Showers Thundering or whatsoever else is used by Nature to produce these two general and universal Effects of Rarefaction and Condensation do in a great Measure if not wholly depend upon and are altogether regulated by the Course Motion Position Situations or Aspects of the Superiour and Celestial Bodies or Planets And therefore 4thly We say that every Planet hath its own proper Light And as the Light of the Sun is one thing the Light of the Moon another so every Planet hath its distinct Light differing from all the other Now we must either say that this Light is a bare Quality and that the utmost Use and End of it is only to illuminate and there is no Light but is accompanied further with some Power Virtue or Tincture that is proper to it which if granted it will inform us then that every Light hath its own Property it s own Tincture and Colour it s own specifique Virtue and Power and that according to the several Bodies of Light there are several Properties Tinctures and Powers and that as one Star differs from another in Glory according to the Apostle so one Star and one Planet differs from another in its Virtue in its Colour in its Tincture and in its Property And consequently that those eminent Stars and Planets that are in the Heavens are not to be considered by us as sluggish inergetical Bodies or as if they were set only to be as bare Candles to us but as Bodies full of proper Motion of peculiar Operation and of Life The Sun not only shining upon the rest of the Planets but by his quickning Warmth awakening stirring and raising the Motions Properties and Powers that are peculiar to them According therefore to the Angles they make with the Sun and according as they are more or less enlightned by him according also as they are at the same time more directly or more obliquely more remotely or more nearly scituated and placed in respect to us so must the Effects of the Powers Virtues and Tinctures that are proper to them be more or less felt by us 5thly For the manner of the Planets transmitting these their Properties and Powers and of their affecting other Bodies at so remote Distance there is nothing begged or required in it that is insuperable to a Man's Apprehension or Belief seeing 1. We affirm not any Property Operation Virtue or Power to be transmitted from any of the said Planets but what doth descend with its Light and is the real Property of its Light 2. No Man judgeth that the Light of any Planet or of the Sun it self is refracted or by any other means weakned hindred or impaired by the Aether or that Substance which fills up the Space between one Planet and another through which it passeth but that it doth descend whole directly and inrefracted unto or upon our Atmosphere 3. But whatsoever is received by the Atmosphere is also received by the thin and subtile Air that is contiguous to the Atmosphere And this Air therefore cannot but be capable of being moved stirred altered and impressed by these Properties Virtues and Lights as penetrating each Part of it 4. Not only the Air by reason of its Thinness and Subtilty is capable of being thus penetrated moved and altered by these Planetary Virtues and Lights But forasmuch also as our Spirits and the Spirits likewise of all mix'd Bodies are really of an Aerious Ethereal Luminous Production and Composition these Spirits therefore of ours and the Spirits of all other Bodies must necessarily no less suffer an Impression from the same Lights and cannot be less subject to an Alteration Motion Agitation and Infection through them and by them than the other viz. the Air But rather as our Spirits are more near and more Analogous to the Nature of Light than the Air so they must be more prone and easy to be impressed than it And if our Spirits and the Spirits of all mix'd Bodies may be altered changed moved and impressed by these superiour Bodies and their Properties then these Spirits being the only Principles of Energy Power Force and Life in all Bodies wherein they are and the immediate Causes through which all Alteration comes to the Bodies themselves It is impossible therefore Spirits should be altered and changed and yet no Alteration made in the Bodies themselves and therefore a less Limit or Extream cannot be set to the Power or Operation or Force of the superiour Bodies upon the Inferiour than what must terminate at length into the very Bodies themselves 5. As a further Confirmation or Proof of this in reference at least to our selves I shall offer to your Consideration the Accidents that often happen to Men by the mere Air as Convulsions Cramps Blastings Lameness Colds many of which indure a Man's Life-time and which with many bitter Infirmities that sometimes seize upon a Man while standing walking or lying in the Air are rarely or never felt or discerned at the Instant of their Approach or Insults upon a Man nor yet accompanied with the Sense of any Excess in the Air for Heat or Cold at that time and therefore not well referrable to any Cause in the Air if not to the Power of those Properties and Operations of the Celestial Bodies that we speak of And this I submit to the Judgment of common Experience 6. Lastly As the Sun-shining on the rest of the Planets doth not as we said only barely illuminate their Bodies but besides this through the Power Virtue and Activity it hath doth also raise excite awaken and stir up the several Properties and Dispositions that are in those several and respective Bodies whereby they are more lively and effectually brought forth upon us so we are to suppose it is in reference to this our Planet which is the Earth which is not only enlightned warmed cherished and fructified by the Power Virtue and Influence of the Sun but hath its proper Magnetical Planetary Virtue also fermented stirred agitated and awakened in it which it remits back with the reflected Light of the Sun and together with this Magnetick Planetary Property of the Earth which is stirred and raised by the Sun are awakened also the seminal Dispositions Odors and Ferments that are lodged in and proper
been well graduated 12 or 16 Degrees being the most that are set upon the common Weather-Glass whereas to the making of accurate Observations it would require a Cylinder to be divided into at least 360 Parts though I think it neither unreasonable nor unpracticable to have one divided into 1000 Parts allowing but 10 Degrees to each Inch which is no unusual Division seeing such an one will much better discover not only the small but the more suddain and remarkable Changes of the Weather which are of chiefest Use than any others that are common and ordinary 4. Although no Liquor ought to be used in these Glasses that is subject to Frost yet we have little or no Account what those Liquors are that might be best or fittest for the accurate making of those Experiments whether those whose Property it is somewhat to attract the Air and so to preserve themselves in at least their first Quantity as Oleum Sulphuris per Campanam Ol. Vitrioli Liquor Salis Tartari c. Or 2dly Whether those whose Parts are finest subtilest and nearest of kin to the Air such as is Spirit of Wine Spirit of Terebinth well rectified and according as there is occasion still fresh supplied Or 3dly Whether those that are of a middle Nature as strong Spirit of Vinegar Or 4thly Whether instead of these and beyond these it may not be best to use only well-refined Quicksilver All which several Particulars as they are necessary and ought to be first ascertained yet they are but preliminary to the Experiments themselves In the making of the Experiments themselves therefore it would be convenient 1st That several Thermometers of one Proportion Length and Graduation in their Cylinders in all Respects as near as may be were set in one Frame together either with one and the same or with Variety of Liquors 2dly That several of these Frames were set in several Rooms and that fome were exposed immediately to the Air it self yet so as it may be conveniently sheltred from the actual Rays of the Sun and from the Injury of Storms Rain and Winds In the History it self there cannot be too much Care and Exactness provided the Air of the Chimny Cranny of a Wall or Door Breath of People or other such Accidents do not interpose to deceive a Man's Observation which must be circumspectly foreseen and considered The Proportion between the Warmth of the Day and Night in constant Weather the Agreement or Disagreement of the Motion of the Air with the Motions of the superiour Bodies in all uncertain changeable and inconstant Weather the Efficacy or Inefficacy through these in foretelling of Winds and Rain the Air its particular Disposition under Thunder under times of Mildews or Blastings eminent Eclipses Conjunctions with many other the like Particulars which will of themselves be incident to an ingenious diligent apprehensive Person may be the Subject of this History I shall not digress so far as to tell you what other things may be done by the Help of this excellent Instrument this being not pertinent to our present Purpose Yet it is certain that Drebble that great singular learned Mechanick did by the Help of this Instrument make a Dial continually to move of it self regularly shewing both the times of the Day and other Motions of the Heavens did also make an Automatous Instrument of Musick and found out a Furnace which he could govern to any Degree of Heat but whether these have died with him or how far the Meditations of others have wrought upon them I shall humbly refer to a more leasurable Inquiry And if you can inform me among any of your Acquaintance or Correspondents I should be glad to hear and to learn any thing of this Nature or relating to the further Use Experiment or Improvement of this rare little Instrument or to the further clearing ventilating or discussing the Theory or Doctrine of the Planets or the Physical Use and Power of these Bodies that we have thus briefly made an Essay of Thus far that Letter They have a received Tradition in Java and probably in divers other Islands of the South Sea that the Beams of the Moon are wont to cause Contractures in the Body of those Men that stay too long exposed to them The Truth of which Tradition was lately confirmed to me by an ingenious Doctor that with Applause practised Physick in those Parts who assured me that he had observed that upon the Account before mentioned some were made lame or else had some of their Limbs contracted for divers Weeks and some for many Months or even a longer time And when I asked him whether he had at any time been subject to that Mischief himself He answered that whilst he was a Novice in those Parts after a very hot Day he laid himself down very slenderly covered to sleep according to the Custom of the Place near the Door of the House he lodg'd in but being unacquainted with the Tradition he unskilfully chose a Place upon which the Moon could fully beat for a good part of the Night which being past before he wak'd when he went to rise he found his Neck so stiff that he was scarce able at all to stir it and his Mouth was so drawn awry that 't was hideous to behold and continued so unsightly that Shame forced him to keep within for some Days during which he made Use of brisk Aromatick Medicines by whose Help he got off a Contracture that used to stay very much longer with others And when I asked him if these Distempers were not occasioned rather by the Coldness of the Night and Subtilty of the Air than the Operation of the Moon 's Beams He answered me that 't was generally observ'd that the other Causes without the direct Beams of the Moon were not wont to produce such bad Effects and that his Landlord when he saw his Mouth awry told him that if he had made him acquainted with his Design to pass the Night in the open Air he would have prevented this Mischief by lodging him in a Place unexposed to the Moon 's Light TITLE XIV Of the Height of the Atmosphere  TITLE XV. Of the Motion of the Air and of Winds Extract of a Letter from Fort St. George dated January the 23d 1668. ALthough the Bar of Porta Nova proved more shallow and dangerous than we were informed yet she our Ship got safe in thither and it was well she did so Had we kept her here there had been no Possibility of her Escape from perishing in a dreadful Storm or rather Hurricane which happened here the 22d of November The like hath not been known here in any Man's Memory The Tempest of Wind and Rain was so exceeding violent that nothing could stand before it Men and Beasts carried into the Sea by the Violence of the Winds and Floods the Generality of the Houses in this and the Neighbour Towns were ruined scarce any Trees left standing in Gardens or elsewhere
e fracasso cosi gradne che faceua terrore essendo per dette Ville un concorso grande di Popolo uicino per uedere cose che si rendono incredibili Doctor B. answered me that though the Eastern Winds blow near of a Year at Tangier yet they seem not to reach far into the Inland Country where he observed them to be very unfrequent An ingenious Gentleman who is Owner of a Mine or two near the Sea being asked by me whether he could by any peculiar Change appearing in the deeper Parts of the Mines foretel any Alterations of Weather He answered me that the only Presage he had constantly observed was of the Change of the Wind. For many Hours before the Wind was to shift from some other Corner and get into the South the Water at the bottom of the Mine would appear manifestly more troubled or less limped than before and when the Wind was to blow from the East he was usually forewarned of it by an unusual Degree of Clearness in the Waters which would appear more diaphanous than ordinary though the South-Wind had not immediately before operated on the Waters The Depth of the Mine was between fifteen and twenty Fathom He told me that the Hurricans about Goa are observed to come usually but at two Seasons about the Beginning of March and the 4th of October TITLE XVI Of the Air as the Medium of Sounds and of Sounds and Noises in the Air and particularly Thunder and of the Air 's Operation on the Sounds of Bodies THIS Variety of the Air is the Cause of most dreadful Thunders which when Gregory described he astonished his Hearers For upon the rising of several Tempests altogether the Sky is of a sudden covered over with black and thick as it were Globes of smokey Clouds By and by the Thunder breaks forth on every Side ratling continually with Lightning as incessantly flashing enough to amaze the most resolute and most accustomed to the Noise Ludolph's Hist of Ethiop l. 1. c. 5. The String of a Viol has been by Mr. F. observed to give a sharper Sound against or in rainy Weather by almost half a Note Mr. F. also assures me that more than once or twice it has happened to him that having put up false Strings in his Pocket to make Frets of as judging them useless for any other Purpose the want of Strings having driven him to make Use of those he has found them not false any more but good Strings And also that he observes some Strings apter to receive a Tension from the moist Air than others are TITLE XVII Of the Weight of the Air. A short Account of the Statical Baroscope imparted by Mr. Boyl March 24. 1665. In a Letter to Mr. H. Oldenburgh AS for the new kind of Baroscopes which I lately intimated to you that my Haste would not permit me to give you an Account of though the Necessity of preparing for an approaching Journey gives me the same Excuse I then had yet since your Letters acquaint me that you still design a communicating to the Curious as much Information as may be in reference to Baroscopes I shall venture to send you some though but an imperfect Account of what I did but name in my former Letter to you Though by a Passage you may meet with in the Page of my Thermometrical Experiments and though you may find that I did some Years ago think upon this new kind of Baroscope yet the Changes of the Atmosphere's Weight not happening then to be such as I wished and being unwilling to deprive my self of all other Use of the exactest Ballance that I or perhaps any Man ever had I confess to you that successive Avocations put this Attempt for two or three Years out of my Thoughts till afterwards returning to a Place where I chanc'd to find two or three Pairs of Scales I had left there the Sight of them brought it again into my Mind and though I were then unable to procure exacter yet my Desire to make the Experiment some Amends for so long a Neglect put me upon considering that if I provided a Glass Bubble more than ordinarily large and light even such Ballances as those might in some measure perform that which I had tried with the strangely nice ones above-mentioned I caused then to be blown at the Flame of a Lamp some Glass Bubbles as large thin and light as I could then procure and chusing among them one that seem'd the least unfit for my turn I counterpoized it in a pair of Scales that would lose their Equilibrium with about the 30th part of a Grain and were suspended at a Frame I placed both the Ballance and the Frame by a good Baroscope from whence I might learn the present Weight of the Atmosphere then leaving these Instruments together though the Scales being no nicer than I have expressed were not able to shew me all the Variations of the Air 's Weight that appear in the Mercurial Baroscope yet they did what I expected by shewing me Variations no greater than alter'd the Height of the Mercury half a quarter of an Inch and perhaps much smaller than those nor did I doubt that if I had had either tender Scales or the means of supplying the Experiment with convenient Accommodations I should have discerned far smaller Alterations of the Weight of the Air since I had the Pleasure to see the Bubble sometimes in an Equilibrium with the Counterpoize sometimes when the Atmosphere was lighter preponderate so manifestly that the Scales being gently stirred the Tongue would play altogether on that side at which the Bubble was hung and at other times when the Air was heavy that which was at the first but the Counterpoise would preponderate and upon the Motion of the Ballance make the Tongue vibrate altogether on its side and this would continue sometimes many Days together if the Air so long retained the same measure of Gravity and then again the Bubble would regain an Equilibrium or a Preponderance So that I had oftentimes the Satisfaction by looking first upon the Statical Baroscope as for Distinction sake it may be called to foretel whether in the Mercurial Baroscope the Liquor were high or low Which Observations though they hold as well in Winter as the Spring yet the Frequency of their Vicissitudes which perhaps was but accidental made them more pleasant in the latter of these Seasons So that the Matter of Fact having been made out by Variety of repeated Observations and by sometimes comparing several of those new Baroscopes together I shall add some of those Notes about this Instrument which readily occur to my Memory reserving the rest till another Opportunity And 1. If the Ground on which I went in framing this Baroscope be demanded the Answer in short may be 1st That though the glass Bubble and its Counterpoise at the time of their first being weighed be in the Air wherein they both are weighed exactly of
Plague would be very rife in London for which Prediction he gave this reason That in the last great Plague he fell sick of that Disease and he then had a Pestilential Tumor so in two other Plagues that since happened though much inferiour to that great one each of them had a rising in his Body to be its Fore-runner and now having a great Tumor in the forementioned Place he doubted not but it would be followed by a raging Pestilence which accordingly ensued Having heard much Talk of something of this Nature as related by the Doctor I inquired of him how much of it was true and received for Answer the foregoing Narrative You did not perhaps expect that the mere local Motion of the Air should be mentioned by me among the Causes of the Effects of its Changes And indeed the Phaenomena I have yet met with reducible to this kind have been but very few notwithstanding which I shall take notice that this local Motion may in certain Cases operate on other Bodies either as it turns the Air into a Wind or as the tremulous Motion of the Air is modified into found or as the Air is put into a vehement and disorderly Motion by Thunder As to the first of these 't is evident that upon the Vehemence or Slackness and the Places whence and where the changing Wind happens to blow there may divers Effects ensue especially in animated Bodies And this not only as the Wind is accompanied with Cold and Hear or Moisture or Driness but to restrain our selves to Instances more closely pertinent to our present Purpose as the Wind is flowing Air or an Aireal Stream for only as such it may ventilate the Places through which it passes and by expelling the Stagnant Air and introducing other Air may contribute to many of those Changes especially as to the Health of Animals that we see to depend upon the Alteration of Air and perhaps among the more tender sort of Animals there may be found some in which the Motion of the external Air though excluded by Walls and Windows may have a considerable and immediate Operation For I have learned by Enquiry from some curious Natives of Languedoc where I had the Curiosity to look after Silk-worms abounding in that Province that in case it happened when the Worms having eaten their fill began to dispose themselves to work their silken Eggs in case I say it then happened to be thundering Weather a great part of the Worms especially the less vigorous would be destroyed He affirmed to me that in some Mines of above a thousand Foot deep he saw Horses that had been let down by Ropes to the 3d part of the Depth that is above a hundred Yards and that several of them died either in the letting down or by the Change of Air yet several of them survived and were imployed about the Engines belonging to the Mines and seem'd not to have any sensible Inconvenience as to Respiration though in the Receptacles they wrought in they were furnished with Air but from the Groove through which they were let down and by a moderately big Shaft An ingenious Traveller that has had the Curiosity to visit the Mines of several Countries as Bohemia Saxony Swedeland c. answered me that the deepest Mine he saw in Bohemia was of about 2000 of our Feet An intelligent Person that was for many Years Consul of the English Nation at Tripoli in Barbary and at another time Governour of the Castle called of the Coast belonging to the English African Company in Guinea being discoursed with by me about the Diseases incident to that very unhealthy Place and about the Worms that bred in Mens Legs told me That the great Noxiousness of the Air was not constant but frequently ceased and return'd within no long Compass of time insomuch that all his Men would continue in Health for many Days together and then on a sudden divers of them would fall sick especially of Feavers and Fluxes that usually killed them in forty eight Hours or less Dr. C. chief Physician to the Russian Emperor confirmed to me that being in Russia in the Winter when the Frost was very hard and the East or North-East Wind blew cold if he turned his Face toward the Wind and walked against which at other times he was wont and took a Delight to do he found himself unable to fetch his Breath and almost stifled as if the Air were very thick or rather a great Stiffness brought upon the Organs of Respiration whereby he was unable to move them as at other times so that he was fain to turn his Head from the Wind that he might be able to fetch his Breath An observing Person being ask'd about a Tradition of Sea-men that the Lice of Europeans die when the Ships pass the Line answered me that he did not find it to be true as it is wont to be delivered but this he plainly observed in several of our English with whom he sailed that all the Lice quitted their Bodies and got up into their Heads whence they dispersed themselves again when the Ship had left the Equator a pretty way behind it But I remember that another Acquaintance of mine that divers times passed the Equinoctial in Portugal Ships which use to go to the Indies well crouded with People many of them more poor than cleanly answered me that he had heedfully observed those Peoples numerous Lice to die away as they cross the Line though in no long time after the same sort of Cattle would begin to molest them again His Royal Highness the Duke of York at his Return out of Scotland having been pleased to discourse with some of us that had the Honour to be then near him of some Observations he made in his Journey mentioned among other things that Agues were very unfrequent in Scotland which yet that Year were very rife over almost all England This gave me afterwards the Curiosity to inquire of a studious Person who is one of the chief of the Scotish Nobility what he knew about the Unfrequency of Agues in his Country To which his Lordship replied that as to Quartan Agues it was generally taken notice of insomuch that when News was brought that a Gentleman whom he named fell sick of that Disease amongst them in the Country it was look'd upon as a strange and remarkable thing And though divers Persons bring Quartans out of England to Edinburg yet they so seldom keep them long there that a Scotish Physician whom he named to me offered to lay five to one of the quick Recovery of several Patients of his if they would make some reasonable Stay in that City Aer autem corrigetur causa corruptionis ablata quod jam inductum est mali extinguendo si igitur ex nimio humore aer putrescit ignibus accensis qui omni putredini remedio sunt exsiccandus sic ignes per vias domus fiant ex odoratis plantis
qualis Laurus est Mirtus Pinus Cupressus Rosmarimus reliquae ejus generis qua ratione pestem Athenis Hippocrates extinxit vapores praeterea maligni per aerem sparsi dissipandi sunt id quod a magnis ventis fieri solet Sic Olysiponi cum trium dierum ingens procella venisset pestis extincta nuper est in Maroco ingens pestilentia vento quodam evanuit qui veluti è fornace adeo calidus erat exire videbatur aerem autem nos imitando ventos commovere poterimus si bombardarum strepitus multos fieri curemus si verò vapores ex paludibus ac stagnantibus aquis fieri videntur eas resiccare aut novare oportet frequenter maximè per aestatem Renovantur autem novis supervenientibus aquis quas è fluminibus per canales traducere oportet aut siccandae sunt factis rivulis fossis per quae superfluant ad flumina quod cum primus magnus Etruriae Dux Cosmus Pisis fecisset magna animi contentione nunc faciat Ferdinandus factum est ut saluberrimus ejus urbis aer per omne anni tempus sit redditus verum si cadaverum inhumatorum multitudo aerem inficit magna profunda facta fovea sepeliantut si ab immunditie excrementis quae per urbem domos sparguntur id quod ut reor Bisantii Olysiponi in causa est cur pestis adeo saeviat ac duret mundare oportet omnia viae ac domus quotidiè vel saltem semel in septimanâ repurgandae 1. Joh. Beguinus in Tyrocin Chymic lib. 2. cap. 13. Dignum admiratione est quod quamvis in viciniâ Hydriae Comitatûs Goriciensis ubi reperitur copiose Mercurius singulis ferè annis Lues pestifera grassatur illa tamen semper immunis ab hac manere soleat idque viri provectae aetatis se observasse à majoribus suis accepisse mihi sanctè confirmarunt Hinc patet Mercurium esse summum omnis putredinis ac corruptionis alexipharmacum 2 Michael Majerus in lusu de Mercurio Argentum vivum est plurimorum morborum alexipharmacum ut testantur quidam ipsius Pestis cum eo loco ubi Mercurius effoditur tractatur nunquam aut rarissimè hoc Contagium grassetur dummodò maneat in suâ propriâ naturâ non à salibus aut aquis corrosivis inficiatur ac venenosus reddatur A very ingenious Physician that travell'd much in the East-Indies and visited some Islands in the South-Sea to which our English were not permitted to have Access being ask'd of me some Questions about the Effects and Changes of the Air in those Parts related to me that having made some stay in the fam'd Island of Ternate he learned that the Dutch who had master'd the Inhabitants did upon a Composition made with the King for his Damages cut down almost all the numerous Clove-trees that grew in that Island that thereby they might keep up the high rate of that Spice as indeed they have done Whereupon there happened a Change in the Temperature of the Air that gave cause to conclude that the Exhalations of the Blossoms which being dried afford the Cloves were not only very pleasant but very healthful too For no long time after the Excision of these fragrant Trees the Island became very unhealthful which this Physician very probably imputed to the corrosive and noxious Steams which plentifully issuing out from a kind of Vulcan or smoaking and sometimes burning Hill depraves the Air of that Island that is but little but had their hurtful Effects formerly prevented by the Aromatick and benign Emanations of those numerous Blossoms and Trees that richly impregnated the Air and by their volatile and oily Salts opposed and hindred the Effects of the sulphureous and other sharp Steams of the Vulcan And my Relator assures me that this Change of the Air 's Constitution was so remarkable and acknowledg'd when he was there that whereas formerly sick and valetudinary Persons used to be sent thither from Batavia to recover their Health by the Goodness of the Air as we often send consumptive Persons into France the Air at his being in Ternate had been for divers Years so unhealthful that the Dutch were fain from Batavia or other more healthy Places to send Men twice a Year to releive the Garisons and bring back the many sick they usually found at their Arrival in that formerly healthy Island An observing Physician lately return'd from Tangier answered me that though otherwise it be a healthy Place he took notice that 't was not unusual for new Comers to find themselves feverish for many Weeks or some Months after their Arrival especially if the piercing easterly Wind happened to reign This he says he found in himself not only by a constant Heat and some other Symptoms but by that main one of the praeternatural Quickness of his Pulse He added that this Disease though very mild held him near four Months When the Easterly Winds happened to blow on which his Feaverishness so depended that he could easily when he awaked in the Morning know without asking whether that Wind blew or not May 16. We put into a small Receiver five or six little Ants which run about very briskly but the Air being pump'd out they presently lost their Motion which they soon recovered upon the restoring of the Air to them Then the Air was again withdrawn and the Insects thereby brought to lie some upon their Backs as stark dead in which Condition they were suffered to remain about five or six Hours after which the Air being let in upon them they nevertheless continued seemingly dead for many Minutes as we guessed between 15 and 30 but at length all recovered running nimbly up and down the Glass though it were late at Night Si Patrono queste barche dalla costa della pescaria e vanno all isola di Ceilam nella costa della quale per la lunghezza di venti miglia tre sole miglia lontane da terra sette braccia abbasso arrivando sino alli dieci nel fondo si ritrova infinita quanta di madreperle escono per questa pesca le barche la matina col vento di terra arrivando al posto delle madreperle gettare l'ancore e fermaresi in quel posto cominciano a tuftarsi nel mare i marinari de quali ogni barca ne ha quindeci e venti e ciafcuno di essisi lega nel mezzo con una fune della quale ha cura uno che resta in barca e con un ' altra func segandosi una pietra alla gamba un ' altro ha pure cura di quella e cingendosi un ' sacco di cuoio dinanzi mettendosi le guante alle mani cosi legato si tufta con violenza nel mare lentando quelli le funi e col peso della Pietra va con grandiss ' violenza giu arrivato ch'e scioltasi
it into Particles of quite another Nature which by this means are deprived of all their offensive Smell and some other ill Qualities It may also be said that the great Increase of Heat in July may enable the Sun-beams by penetrating the Earth deeper and agitating its lower Parts stronger and producing Crevisses and other new or formerly obstructed Passages in the upper Parts of it may elevate into the Air divers saline and other new Corpuscles which may either divide or dissipate the Pestilential ones or else by associating themselves with them make up new Concretions differing from the Pestilential Corpuscles in Bulk Shape Texture or Motion in most or all of these by which means the morbifick Corpuscles being much altered their Operations on the humane Bodies they invade may be so too and the Diseases they produce may become less malignant or degenerate into some other Disease And if it be demanded why this does not happen elsewhere as well as at Aleppo and Smyrna it may be answered That the Concourse of Causes may not be the same and particularly that the Soil of those two Places may be peculiarly disposed to emit Pestilential Corpuscles of such a determinate Nature with such a Degree of Heat and dissipable by a greater or with a more intense Heat to afford also Exhalations capable to correct the former as 't is delivered by good Authors and ingenious Men have confirmed it upon their own Observation that yearly at Grand Cairo in the Heat of Summer the Plague ceases to be mortal and almost to be infectious when the Nile begins to overflow which wonderful Change I should not so much ascribe to a Frigeration of the Air that usually accompanies the Swellings of the Waters since Pestilences rage in much cooler Weather than can be supposed in so hot a Climate as that of Egypt in July as to some nitrous and other corrected Exhalations that are plentifully emitted by the freshly arriving Waters There is an Account that has not that I know of been taken notice of upon which the supervening Coldness and Heat of the Air may pro tempore very much alter the Qualities of it in reference to the Bodies and Health of Men For the Air being a fluid Body as well as Water and impregnated with Salts of different kinds some merely saline and others associated with sulphureous and other kinds of Particles it seems not improbable that what happens in that grosser fluid Water impregnated with differing sorts of Salts and alter'd by succession of Heat and Cold takes place also in the Air. I purposely tried in Water that by dissolving in it convenient Quantities of two differing Salts though whilst the Liquor was hot or perhaps so much as lukewarm they would swim together undistinguishably in the Liquor and so were in a Capacity to act jointly and as the Schools speak actione communi on divers Occasions yet when the Liquor was cold and sometimes when there was only a considerable Remission of the Heat the saline Particles of one kind being not capable of being any longer sufficiently agitated by so faint a Degree of Heat would convene into Grains or Cristals and losing their Fluidity and Motion visibly separate themselves from the other kind of Salts which yet continued fluid in the Water where it could now act but by its own particular Qualities and not as formerly actione communi The clearest Instance I found of this Observation was afforded me by an Experiment made with the Solutions of Alum and Nitre a Relation of which I find among my Adversaria in the following terms Equal Parts of Alum and Nitre being dissolv'd in the same Portion of fair Water and the Liquor being in good measure evaporated the Earthen Vessel that contain'd it was set in the cold by which means at the bottom and the lower part of the sides the Alum appear'd to be first coagulated in many Octaedrical Grains no Chrystals of Nitre yet being visible Afterwards upon a further Evaporation of the Water and the Removal of the Vessel from the Fire there appear'd more Grains of Alum but as yet no Nitre wherefore having yet further evaporated the Liquor at length the Nitre shot plentifully into fine little Chrystals of the Shape proper to that Salt This is the Account my Note-Book contains of this Trial which seems to invite us to conjecture that of the numerous sorts of saline Corpuscles that rove up and down in the Air whilst it is well heated by the Sun or other Causes some sorts may by the Absence of that Heat or some supervening Causes of Coldness be made to separate from the others which were thereby contemperated or perhaps enabled to co-operate to divers Purposes that they were not fit for alone and to form Concretions which though not singly visible may be too great to be kept in a State of Fluidity by the diminish'd Heat of the Air. A Mouse lived ten Minutes at least with a quarter Air and three afterwards TITLE XLI Of heavy Bodies sustained in or taken up into the Air.  TITLE XLII Of Dew  TITLE XLIII Of Rain AN eminent Virtuoso informed me that in the Country of Campen he had seen divers Pits that are digg'd for Turf or rather Peat which were not deep for the most part but reach'd to a kind of quick Sand upon which the Rain falling did by Degrees in some Years form a kind of slimy Earth or Clay which was much of a martial Nature and being skilfully handled would yield good Iron The same Person assured me that he had divers times distilled the Water of Campen in new and fine Glasses and still found them to leave a considerable Quantity of stony Matter at the Bottom notwithstanding the Rectification Quicquid erit sine fuco significat velut Rottenberg Silesiae compastum appellant perinde Milessow Temporum prognostes jure merito dici posset Vidi ex proximo totum aliquando montem densissimis Nebulis contectum eâ prorsus imagine qua Mons Sinai Moyse in Nebula latente depingitur at caeteri circum Montes innubes hilares velut rerum gerendarun ignari stabant Sol ipse formosissimus ibat at accolae locorum domum fugiebant pecora urgebant meque ut domum protinus recipirem properarem equos currum trahentes concitari juberem monebant neque horae quadrans intercessit jam Coelum obduci Sol contegi eripi omnis aspectus Virg. Immensum Coelo ruit agnem aquarum ruit arduus aether Et pluvia ingenti sata laeta boumque labores Diluit implentur fossae quae divinus Poeta prosequitur At contra etiam accidere vidi ut caeteri fumarint montes Milessow nihil se commovente nihil aut nubilum aut turbidum minante Incoloe rogati nihil esse magnopere timendum à caeteris spondebant hunc unum intuendum esse horum nubila omnia à Milessow quodammodo devorari TITLE XLIV Of Hail ON ecrit de l'Isle en Flandres le