I have illustrated them to be in the production of Vegetables and that both as they are Principles lock'd up in some minute portions of epitomiz'd matter and likewise as they being by requisites duly concurring put into motion become fermental For we account of Generation of Animals no other than an evolution or natural expansion of the implanted seminal Principles contain'd in the minute Embrio and rendred prolific by the fermental odour if I may so say of a masculine Ferment we cannot otherwise reckon but that the noblest of fermental animal Juyces in order to propagation and where the spirits are most vigorous and fecund is the masculine sperm of Animals which is a digested spermatic Elixir capable of tinging those more crude feminine Juyces or a natural but highly prepar'd liquid Magistery circulated and brought on to maturity in its peculiar vessels yea the very efflorescence if I may further add of Animal Juyces impregnated at due seasons with such a stock of spirits emerging from a fermentation proper to it self as renders it capable of inspiring those feminine ovaria or uterine Vesicles with a subtile but very active Ferment which awakens those minute dormant and otherwise steril Embryo's sets them by its own vigorous action into a sort of if I may say vegetative or expansive motion It 's not the gross body of the prepar'd masculine or seminal Sperm or any visible juice or sensible part thereof however by circulation maturated which is admitted into the female Matrix as the worthy Harvey excellently shews in his Tract de generatione Animalium Nihil in utero saith he post coitum invenias generatura enim maris brevi vel elabitur vel evanescit tamen adsit aliquid quod foeminam foecundam reddat But it is a spirituous Ferment indolis contagiosae of which the seminal Liquor is but the Vehicle at seasons so heightened as it if meeting with an aptness of Reception in the Female breaths upon the oviformal Embryo invigorates it into activity putting those implanted and close shut up Principles into Motion For the aforesaid industrious Harvey tells us speaking of what is contain'd in the Female Matrix in order to Conception De generat Animal 278. Quod ad procreatio nem foetûs spectat omnia animalia eodem modo ab oviformi primordio generantur siquidem in eorum generatione hoc solenne est ut primordium vegetale ovi naturam referens praeexistat ex quo foetus producatur est hoc in omnibus vel ovum vel oviforme quid And as he farther adds Inest igitur in utero omnium animalium conceptus primus sive primordium quod teste Aristotele est veluti ovum membrana oblectum cui putamen detractum est So that in the propagation of all Animals the noblest and for whose sake the rest were made not excepted the Embryo anchorite or epitomiz'd Animal shut up within the walls of each of the uterine Vesicles or oviformal Membranes retains its just and proportionable form and shape how minute soever in that seminary oviformal original inclos'd in the Female Matrix and only waits for an inspiration from the active masculine spirituous and fecundating Ferment which is to strike up those dormant Principles into an actual Fermentation or animal fire whereby the little Embryo the seminal Principles being once put into motion begins from a supply of maternal Juyces by a fermental expansion and evolution of its parts to vegetate and grow bigger till from those rudiments by a continual and successive gradation the vital fire be struck up whereby the womb after conception by the inspiring of the pregnant male Ferment is forthwith close shut up nature being so solicitous in this great affair of propagation so wonderfully curious both to prevent monstrous Productions as also multiplicity of contemporary Births from frequent inordinate Coitions as that she doth after Conception seal up the Matrix as I may say hermetically that not the least of Air nor what is much more subtile viz. the Masculine Ferment can have the least ingress The Animal and Mineral Ferments herein conspiring that after impregnation of either viz. of the Animal Embryo Juyce or Mercurial Liquor by their peculiar Seeds the Matrix both Animal and Philosophical are I say both the one Hermetically to be clos'd up the other naturally seal'd up and kept from all heterogeneous assaults whether in the Air or else-where till in the one it be brought on to the maturity of an Animal Life and in the other be elaborated to the perfection of the Philosophic Elixir Concerning the progress of which in order to the Exit or Birth of the Embryo we have somewhat inlarged in our Hydrolog Chymica and probably may do more elsewhere But how the same Principles in their fermentative Collisions in the Animal Juyces are the cause other requisites concurring of the circulation of the Blood the source of all Animal heat and warmth the efficients of nourishment and growth The cause of the generation of Spirits and thence of Vital and Animal Functions viz. Sense and Motion of the Body how the Fountain of all the several Ferments in the peculiar Vessels and Conduits of the Body Hydroph But pray Pyroph be not too concise in these great Matters How in particular according to your Principles do you understand concerning the faculty of the Stomach you call the Ferment thereof which doth perform such wonderful effects doth it by its innate heat according to our Philosophy or by its acid Ferment as of late several Neoterics have thought or by some latent quality unknown to us For it seems to be of a strange penetrating nature as to be able to turn all the several sorts of Food into a Cremor and thence fit it for further preparation in order to blood and nourishment Pyroph True Hydroph the work of the Stomach let it be done by what Agent it will is wonderful and in that very thing Nature's path is very mysterious That it consists not in an innate heat is evident first because no degree of heat of what pitch soever imagin'd can perform the like Mutations or Reductions of Bodys And secondly because all heat is according to our Hypothesis the result of Fermentation and there fore wherever the heat of the body was which is the constant effect of the intestin struglings of the Principles contained in the Animal Juyces there would it necessarily follow that it should perform the like operation in every part where it 's found but constant observation contradicts the consequent therefore heat is not the cause of that dissolving action of the Stomach And that it consists not in an acid Ferment the more plausible of the two will be evident from the deposition of what we conclude it to be Lastly that it is not from an occult quality will be clear from what we shall afterwards discourse of the inexistency and therefore futility of qualities But how I say a pure subtiliz'd Ferment is
continually elaborated into a most depurate and refin'd Elixir containing the most defecate Principles of the blood and aliment whence blood is prepar'd is by circulation conveyed from the blood into the Stomach by the Gastric and perhaps other Arteries inserted into the Ventricle where through the congenealness to our every day receiv'd alimental Juyce can by reason of its subtilty of parts penetrate dissolve and unlock the compage of such alimentary bodys and at length put them into a similar motion by striking up their essential Principles into an intestin Collision which is that very thing we call a Ferment and is therefore here according to our Hypothesis the true cause of the stomachical Ferment that great and almost universal Alkahest of nature that can dissolve bodys though of many different sorts of Textures where the same Principles are to be found which essentially more or less constitute all alimentary Concretes and Liquids too For I must tell you Hydroph that the congenealness of Principles of bodys under very different Textures and various Compages give the cause of their more universal solution by Menstruums prepar'd analogically thereto yea and give the reason why the Principles of one are brought into motion by the action of the other that is by the congruousness of the Principles of the solvent to those of the solvend So that how the Ferment of the Stomach consists not in an implanted acid nor any other native Ferment peculiarly inherent in that part But how it chiefly if not solely owes its original to the circulation of the aforesaid highly prepared and much elaborated Elixir of the blood which communicated by the foresaid ducts by its great penetrability and agility easily mixeth with the assum'd aliment and by the assimilation of Principles sets the whole mass into a fermentative motion and thereby taketh in pieces its Compage by a genuine solution For the universal constitution of all alimentary bodys and by which they all agree in somewhat that is common amongst them consists in some texture or other of the two grand Principles Acid and Sulphur which fermentative Motion I say of the Principles by further solution percolation separation and afterwards by yet more intimate commixtion is carried on to the preparing the blood and spirits and thence to the elaborating the aforesaid volatile Elixir which conveyed into the Stomach compleats the whole round of digegestions and performs the whole circulation compatible to Animals in their great work of nourishment and preparation of spirits in order to Sense and Motion and other functions peculiar to animal bodys how I say all this is perform'd by the various collisions and elaborations of the aforesaid Principles what we only hint here we discourse more at large in our Tentamen Physiolog to which we refer you SECT VI. Hydroph WHat mean you Pyroph by those active Principles you spake of before viz. Fire Ferments Salts and Solvents by some of which all concrete bodys are taken in pieces and new textures or neutral Productions are thence made and by which great changes as you say happen amongst Bodies Pyroph I bring those mentioned Hydroph at present under the notion of extrinsic Agents which have a powerful efficacy in order to the effecting great changes amongst Bodies they are applicable to Hydroph What mean you Pyroph by fire according to your Hypothesis for we suppose it to be the most hot dry and lightest Element plac'd sub concavo Lunae Pyroph Your opinion Hydroph of fire will not be worth the while to refute and indeed I think will easily disappear of it self upon the displaying of ours By Fire therefore in this place I mean the vulgar viz. the fourth and sometimes the first complication of our Principles of Acid and Sulphur which consists in the highest collision and intestine rapid motion those Principles sowen or implanted in all combustible Bodies are capable of which although here we put amongst extrinsic yet may also truly be reckoned as the greatest intrinsic Agent in order to the great changes of the same Bodies from their own highly agitated Principles Hydroph Are there not many opinions concerning the nature and essence of Fire Pyroph Yes Hydroph Yours with the rest of your Hypothesis we reduce to six Classes as you may see in our Tentamen Physiologic where we undertake to shew the great extent of Fire enlarged to all its Dimensions not barely confining Fire within the ordinary limits of that which is vulgar and culinary concerning the illustrating of which as considered in it self and as applicable to other Bodies from our Hypothesis we are not sparing But also de industria do propose the consideration of Fire as extended to the solving the more general and universal apparences of Nature in the production of Bodies Hydroph Why how Pyroph Pyroph By supposing the Genesis of all specific concretes compriz'd in the threefold kingdom of Nature to be nothing else but a certain Evolution and Expansion of seminal Principles carried on by a gentle and mutual Collision of the mechanical Agents which are the very ground work of all natural Fire in Bodies or rather if you please to be nothing else which yet amounts to the same thing but certain igniculi or little Fires deposited and hid in so many minute portions or Urns of matter as there are variety of things giving motion and vigour to every Body wherewith it s cloth'd to the compleating thereof in all its numbers so that every thing we converse with in its existency from Creation or Generation represents somwhat miraculous to us viz. an igniculus or little Fire burning after its manner as made up from the very Principles of Fire mutually acting by a soft Collision and yet the thing it self wonderful and like the Bush which miraculously burn'd with Fire and was not consumed Exod. c. 3. v. 7. as the Divine Philosopher in his Pentateuch tells us so this is not consumed Hydroph But why Pyroph so lofty in your discourse and so curious in your so high speculations of Fire these are strange notions such as we read not of in our nor other sort of Philosophy I have yet met with Pyroph Because I find Hydroph by considering Bodies in their Generation or Production and in their reductions or unweavings and the various Metastases and changes amongst themselves I say by laying things well together and by putting them into their due Balance reducing them to their several Classes that there are seven complications or so many modes of Aggressions of the aforesaid Principles Acids and Sulphurs So that by searching into the depth of Bodies and into the various complications of their seminal Principles we cannot but suppose in Nature so many sorts of Fires hid in the bosome of things as there are modifications of the Principles by which they variously combine to the building of Bodies from their Rudiments and to the raising them up from their seminaries or radical beginnings also to the taking them in pieces or reductions
Then what ever of Food we take in deducting what is separated as Urin Excrements and the like as much I say of real nourishment as is by the digestive Ferments daily made thereof so much do we transpire and loose so that supposing by compute that in most bodys every day I mean while in health and Ferments strong 7 8 or 10 ounces of fresh blood may be produc'd and yet notwithstanding suppose most men to be weighed at 24 26 or at furthest 30 years of age excepting some few that may by the more than ordinary coagulation of that which should transpire after those years grow fat and gross and again at 40 50 or 60 years it will be found that generally there is no increase of weight at all during that time and yet I say so much blood is spent every day in nourishment and so much of the ultimate assimilated aliment is daily transpired and all this without any residence or caput mort of the blood being constantly whilst the Ferments Spirits and Organs are sound and regular volatiz'd by a Ferment from the Air. And yet this Blood is made from various kinds of Flesh Fowl Fish Bread Drink c. all which lose their pristine form by the power of the specifical Ferments through which they pass so that if I should tell you Hydroph that when we come to 20 or 30 years of age and so on we have not the same numerical bodys as we had in our infancy nay perhaps not the same we had 5 year ago you will think it a Paradox if not Heterodox and yet if fairly scan'd what I say will not be found improbable For if we duely consider how that which yesterday appear'd in the form of part of a Sheep Calf Ox Deer Pidgeon Goose Turkey Corn Herbs Beer c. shall to day be transmuted into Chyle Blood Flesh Bones c. of a humane Body yea this to transpire within a few days and assume other forms and all this by the power of Ferments which are as the noble Helmont saith the parents of Transmutation If the nutritive parts of our body was not in a constant flux and always winding off we should in time become Anakites grow to be mighty Gyants But from the vigour of the Ferments of the body together with a perspirability communicated from the Air the succulent yea the solid parts themselves are always upon the wing Thus as new parts are daily by a rotation of Ferments added so the old as constantly march off or wear away or rather as the former texture of parts by a perspirability wind off so new parts by fresh supply of Food passing the circle of Ferments are woven on to confirm which viz. that the Ferments wind off the old and wind on the new coming parts of added Nutriment appears by this Observation that old Cows or Oxen after they have done their expected service being put to feed at fresh Grass do by the power of the aforesaid Ferments lay on new flesh which eats as tenderly as if the Goods had been kill'd young so that that which solely determines matter in this grand circulation of bodys out of one shape into another are the seminal and specifical Ferments and during the vigour of these the form of the body is kept intire in its specifical difference from other concrete bodys Wherefore the same specifical Body after the revolution of some years is no more the same numerical Body than the Ship which went from Athens and by frequent repairs return'd at last without one foot of old Timber that it was at first built with may be said to be the same Hydroph But if so Pyroph why do not we live always Seeing as you say our Bodies are in a constant fluor and as the old parts wear off new ones come on what should hinder but they should always do so and we live longer than Mathusalem Pyroph To which I return Hydroph that although our Bodies consist in a constant flux of Parts and that nutrition is an apposition of new in the place of the old or transpiring Particles yet as the form of this circulating matter is determin'd by the seminal and therefore specifical Ferments so the decaying of our Bodies both by sickness and old Age depend Essentially upon the intenseness and remisness of the vigour of those Ferments so that when these grow languid by diseases the Body wasts by a Marasmus or when they at the long run of old Age become infeebled and draw towards their limit according to the great and irrevocable decree of the Almighty Statutum est omnibus semel mori then do they come to their period as to their Progressive motion I mean in order to nourishment and support of the Body thereby and leaves the Body to be taken in pieces either by a Putredinous Ferment promoted by access of Air or by the Fracedinous odour of the Grave whereby it 's either transmitted into other Animals by the power of their Ferments or reduced into its primitive Juice or Leffas of the Earth For the strength floridness activity and that which is commonly called the constitution of the Body depends mostwhat if not solely upon the vigour of the Ferments as you may see further in our Hydrologia Chymica and Zymologia Physica Hydroph Well Pyroph I have this yet to add against what you say and that is to query why we should be troubled at any time with those sorts of diseases we call Chronical For it should seem to me if what you say concerning our bodies being in a perpetual flux of parts be true that few diseases would be of any continuance so as to acquire the name of Chronical because as the Body so they also would wear off in time Pyroph To which I answer Hydroph that as the Ferments are the primary active and transmutative Principles to which the most incident Phaenomena of diseases are chiefly reducible so what alterations are made in the Body by the Ataxy of Diseases are mostwhat referrable thereto so that Diseases happen not to the Body as it falls under our consideration in the notion of a constant flux and vicissitude of parts but as it is compos'd of a round of Ferments whose exorbitances prevarications and frequent errours become Essential to the begetting Diseases And therefore although the Body as to its material constitutive Principles may admit of a constant alteration of parts in an Agil fluor yet doth it not follow that Diseases are also as constantly worn off because they belong to the Body as considered under its Classis of Ferments so that as the Ferments in their vigour are the Authors of the Eutaxy or due temperament of humors and consequently of Health in like manner their spurious exorbitances are the essential causes of those disorders and discomposures in the Body we call Diseases SECT XI Hydroph BUt pray Pyroph why did you in your discourse about the four Elements being our suppos'd Original of all
mechanical Agents included in all those bodys vulgarly call'd Seeds wrapt up I said in small raiments of matter not but that these Principles themselves are also material and are at the long run reducible into Water the material Principle of all Concretes but with this difference that they are pure subtile parts entangled in more gross adapted for motion or that collision we suppose indispensibly necessary in the Fabric of all such Bodys By Ferments here we mean the fore-said Principles being seminal sparks hidden in matter which are other requisites duly concurring actually put into motion or set into a natural and genuine collision These Principles in the progressive motion of their collision yea and in the whole round of their operation becoming thereby actual Ferments give according to their various stades the different Phaenomena of the same body so that all the apperances are measur'd forth according to the progress or regress of the aforesaid Principles Thus Vegetation as to Plants is nothing else as we else-where in our Zymolog Physic and Tentamen further say but a slow pac'd motion or gentle collision of the aforesaid Principles consisting in an intestin strugling thereof Thus for instance in the production of a Vegetable Seed-bearing Plant as suppose of Rosemary Marjoram Time c. where we have nothing but the minute Seed with the intrinsic Principles which are the connate plastic Faber seated in the Center thereof and what it can determine matter into Now when this Seed being put into a due capacitated Matrix or Earth begins by the fructifying nitrous Salt in the Earth or Air or both together with the concurrance of an aetherial matter c. requisite to the setting all Vegitable Springs into motion to open it self the Principles or hidden mechanical Agents or that seminal embryonative spark lock'd up in the visible Grain or Seed become an actual Ferment whereby Matter which is always mov'd at the beck of those implanted Principles and is thereby sub-divided into minute parts enters the Pores and Streiners thereof with such adaptation of Particles proportionable thereto which becomes thereby extended and is by the fore-said actual Ferment proper to that Seed wrought into such a texture of parts or specifical form singly peculiar to that Plant where the shape colour sapour odour and other specifical indowments are determin'd by the seminal Principles set into a fermental motion and are the results of Matter formally extended thereby For that a Plant should constantly and more forcibly during the time of the vigour of its natural Ferment breath forth so strong an apporrhoea or odour as to be able to smite our senses therewith as if 20 yea 100 could as sometimes they may stand within the Orb of its activity might all be sensible thereof is I say a demonstrable Argument of the extensibility of Matter and subtile Emanation of subtiliz'd or volatiz'd Parts even in the Fabric of that Plant carried off by the quick actions of the aforesaid Ferment which is yet further discoverable either by the reverse motion of the foresaid Principles of the Plant whereby the same ferment in its Retrograde motion becomes putredinous causing in some Plants but especially in Animals a fetidness whereby also happens a Metastasis into an Insect from causes aforesaid or by force of fire into a fume of 100 yea 1000 fold larger compass than the body it self was which fume although extending so large a space is yet so gross as to make it self the object of our senses Thus you see Hydroph how the same Principles which lay dormant in the seed while in the Garner where they are pois'd in equilibrio and remain alone so long uncapable of fructifying or multiplying how I say in order to the awakening these Principles and putting them into a fermental motion there are some concurring requisites duly to be considered viz. that it should be cast into a peculiar Soil or Ground as its proper Matrix which is the Matrix of the Husk as the Husk is of the true Seed where the Leffas Terrae or juice of the Earth being imbued with so much nitrous Salt as is sufficient softens the Husk and makes it swell whose compage being loos'd the Air with its other necessarily concurring to the exciting the Principles in every vegetable Production getting entrance awakes or puts the implanted Embrio-Principles into motion thereby rendring them fermental whence the noble Seed shut up in an obscure point ariseth whose mechanical Principles necessary to the building all Bodies are I say call'd forth to act break the Prison-doors and in their mutual wrestlings cause that grand Phaenomenon of Nature we call Vegetation where Water by the manuduction of Seeds or seminal Principles becomes determined into fibrous off-shoots those being hollow carry along more of the succulent juyces which as it flows in those Pipes upon its access more Fibers Sap-vessels and others whether as Veins Arteries c. analogous to Animals we refer to the particular disquisitions of the worthy Malpighius our Countryman Dr. Grew are produced while the formerly made Vessels by access of Air or being long expos'd thereto become condensed or hardned into stalks wood c. and so is wrought on by the weavings of the foresaid seminal Principles till the whole Plant or Tree put on its intire form of Root Stalk Bole Bark Branch Fruit or Flower Besides which weavings coagulations and condensations of water into vegetable concretions from causes aforesaid it s moreover if I mistake not Hydroph as easie and as daily perform'd for Nature from the power of seminal ferments set a work in Vegetation and after continued by allowing due requisites or ferments congenial to turn I say Water into Wine as it is for the same by the winding off of those ferments in a natural circulation to reduce Wine into Water both equally and daily perform'd by the same seminal Principles differently and in their circular motion considered yea and to turn also Water into all manner of potable or fermentable liquors by the mediation of the foresaid Principles once broke off from Vegetation and kept afoot by the melting of the Grain then dissolved in Water and after by a ferment connatural set into a fermentative motion as it is for the same potable Liquors at the long run of their ferments insensibly winding off to be reduc'd into Water again and so on in a constant round of action and circulation of motion in the upholding the great vicissitude and interchange of things So that these Principles in their gentle collisions are not only the cause of Vegetation in all manner of Plants and Trees and the various apparences thereto belonging both of generation and corruption weavings and unweavings of Bodies by the winding on and off of the Principles but also put into new and different collisions or higher fermentations become the Patrons of all potable Liquors and yet higher become the efficients of heat and that either remiss or intense yea so
appears I say that the Sap of the Stock is to a Cion or or prolifique Bud as the Earth to a Seed or as the Earth to a laid Cion Now the improvements Hydroph that hence may be drawn are various and that in order to the accelleration melioration and fructification of some Trees in other Climates or Countries than where they naturally grow Thus we daily see the Imps of an Aprecock hastned as to its fructifying by being inserted into Plum-stocks Peaches by being put into Aprecock Flanders Hart Duke c. Cherries put into wild or black Cherry-Stocks c. which thereby in two or three years become Fruit-bearing-Trees which would not in many more if set from a Stone or Seed or propagated from a slip'd Cions which are not thereby only hastened as to their growth and maturity but also are bettered thereby both as to bulk of Fruit as also pleasantness and gratefulness of taste Thus probably the prolifique Imp or Bud of Quinces skilfully put into early Apple-stocks might hasten them as to maturity later Grapes of a more delicate taste artificially inoculated into more early might do the same yea very likely if acurate tryals were made of this nature probably not only Melons as to Plants inserted into Pompions might make them both more early and more large especially if the Seeds of Pompion should be brought up in hot-beds to be ready early in the Spring while the other are also foster'd in the same till they were fit for inserting But also many other rare observations might be made concerning other maturations and meliorations of Plants and Fruits not yet taken notice of As to the third improvement viz. the assistance of Nature by Art in the fructification of some Trees in other Climates or Countries than where they naturally grow Thus probably if the prolific Bud of Oranges train'd up from their seedlings in hot-beds or other suitable soyl were inserted into some sort of Trees that grow well with us and seem somewhat to resemble them as for instance in some choice Apples as Pippins or Pearmains or in Quinces thence we might very probably have Oranges to grow frequently with us in England for the reason why such tender Trees more accustomed to hotter Climates do not fructisy with us is cheifly through the defect of concurring causes which I above call by the name of Requisites duely concurring amongst which are most considerable the want of a competent heat or the presence of our intense cold or frost in the Winter time which reaching the Roots of such tender Trees prevents their Fruit-bearing by suspending the fermental action of the Principles if not totally kills them Now Hydroph according to our already prov'd supposition that Stocks answer Soils and are really as such to prolific Buds therefore if instead of training up Orange-Trees from hot Nurseries we take their prolific Imps which we can by hot Beds easily procure and insert them by Inoculation into the Stocks or Branches of any or the most likely of those Trees aforesaid we thereby secure them from intense Frosts we usually have in Winters the chief defect amongst requisites concurring and which hinders otherwise the Fruit-bearing of some Trees in other Climates than naturally they spring up in which I say being remov'd by the aforesaid artificial Expedient gives great likelihood of having upon such tryal plenty of Oranges growing with us in England Thus also if the fruitful Buds of Figgs which rarely in England come to maturity for want of heat and chiefly by being late were inoculated into some sort of good Pears for instance Bergamots or some other early Pear or Branches thereof might probably procure their maturity and thereby to sit peaceably under the improvements of our Vines and our Figg-Trees Amongst the aforesaid due requisites necessarily concurring I chiefly mean Climates and thence different Soils although there are also great variety of Soils under the same Climate where according to the difference of natural heats from the Sun the Principles are put into a slower or quicker Motion from whose more flat or sharp and agil collisions some Bodys or Fruits are wrought with a courser or finer spun texture or by longer weavings become more elaborate and arrive at higher maturities whence proceed Fruits of more delicate tast affecting the Palat more gratefully What improvements Hydroph might hence be made nothing but matter of experiment will satisfie concerning the meliorating at least inlarging of Collyflowers by taking the superannuated stem or bole of a choice sort of Cabbage which the year before has been prevented of bearing Fruit by cutting it off while young and early thereinto the next Spring to insert a Collyflower brought up in a hot or other prepared Bed or preserv'd over Winter from its seed put down in Autumn And so many more choice Observations might be made the truth of which only matter of tryal will evince and satisfie the curious searcher Lastly What improvements might hence also be made Hydroph is only here propos'd to further tryal in order to the having of Roses and perhaps other Flowers all the Winter long by inoculating their prolific Buds at a due season into some Sempervives or Wintergreens I mean for instance in Yew Fir or Pine especially if those Trees were assisted by some Artificial heat as being planted near some Stoves or Furnaces if found that that would accord with their constitution where heat was kept and conveyed to them all Winter long For the Principles in any prolific Bud being set into motion by being planted in any proper Stock the Juyce of that Stock being warm'd by any adventitious heat or what way so ever kept in action becomes like a Soil fitted for them whereby the aforesaid Principles become fermental and by a slow pac'd intestin collision becomes the essential cause yea is the very ratio formalis of vegetation and growth by which the Seed like a seminal Faber works until it have hew'd forth its own body be cloth'd with all the shape lineaments and proportions answerable to the Antitype or latent-Idea couch'd in the central point and exert all the powers capable of emerging therefrom by putting on the intire form of the whole Plant or Tree SECT V. Hydroph AS you have expeditiously enough illustrated what you mean Pyroph by your Principles as seminal and fermental in order to the generation and production of Vegetables and towards the solving many remarkable Phaenomena thereof concerning which what you fall short in here it seems you make up in your Treatise of Fermentation already extant and in your Tentamen Physiolog you have ready for the Press So pray Pyroph give us some touches concerning your Notions how according to your Hypothesis you apprehend the generation of Animals and their most noted apparences are perform'd from your aforesaid Principles Pyroph In the generation of Animals from their seminaries the aforesaid Principles if I mistake not Hydroph are no less suo modo conspicuous than what
the notion of a quality Hence those degrees of qualities which Hydroph you in your Philosophy and Medicks are apt to ascribe Concretes to are no more to be taken notice of than the qualities themselves so that all your Solutions of apparences by your supposed degrees of the Primary qualities will what is said being premis'd of their own accord fall to nothing Hence for instance Iron which you in your Scarb. Spaw repute to be of the third degree of driness is no more to be taken notice of as to a Philosophical Solution of the Essence of that Concrete than if you had said it had been in the third degree of nothing for both are alike unintelligible of which more particularly in our Hydrological Essays Hydroph Well Pyroph I might justly reply to you as formerly we in the Disputations of the Schools us'd to accost the Cartesians viz. Contra principia negantem non est disputandum These are new conceits which we that are grown old in the Philosophy of Aristotle and his followers are not at leisure to take notice of But what will you make Pyroph of the second qualities viz. those we call Density Rarity Gravity Levity Hardness Softness Thickness Thinness Aridity Lubricity Clamminess Friableness Asperity and Smoothness Are not these necessarily to be reputed Qualities by which we arrive to some knowledge of the nature of the Bodies they are found in Pyroph As to which query Hydroph concerning the second qualities I answer that as the first qualities are not in rerum natura as such so neither are the second for sublata causa tollitur effectus But the first are the supposed cause of the second which being by reasons aforesaid deducted out of the Catalogue of Entities nothing of the second qualities as such can remain For that that Texture of parts which makes Bodies appear to our Senses dense or rare heavy or light hard or soft rugged or smooth c. should be reputed Secondary depending upon the quaternary of the first qualities Heat Cold Driness and Moisture is I say as indemonstrable as unintelligible for all these as far as I apprehend depend meerly upon the different Texture of the constitutive parts of Bodies whereby they variously affect our Senses yea and many of them competible to the same Body as its parts are variously agitated by fire Ferments Sal s or Solvents whereby the same Body so differently acted and its parts transpos'd may very changeably affect our Senses after so many different manners as may make up all or most of those you call second qualities Hydroph Is not rarity a second quality arising chiefly from Heat having its parts extenuated as Herbs Pruinae Clouds And is not Density another from Cold having its parts bound up and solidly adhering to each other as Glass Stone Iron and the rest of the Metals And further is not Levity a quality arising from Heat making things capable of moving upwards and Gravity a quality from Cold which makes things move downwards towards a Center Pyroph I answer Hydroph that in what you term Rarity I see no necessity of giving the name of a second quality arising from the Primary Heat but that it is only such a Texture of parts in the composition of some Bodies as makes them appear thin and as it were finely woven being a rare Texture of parts with many Streiners Porosities or vacuolums interspers'd according to whose Fabrick of parts our Senses are generally affected so as they fall under such and such distinct perception thereof Thus Air is a rare Body in as much as its parts are of a fine thin tenuious plyable Texture as aforesaid And as Rarity so Density is no quality being no other than such a Body whose parts are closely set together with few Porosities thus Stone Glass Mealline and Mineral-Bodies are such whose constitutive parts are closely bound up and fast rivetted together and therefore no need of ascribing its original to cold As for Levity it is peculiar to such Bodies whose Texture is rare and finely woven and so the sequel of that we call Rarity Also Gravity is the contrary being the necessary product of such Bodies whose parts are closely put together I mean of those which are compact and dense Bodies And as to the rest of second qualities as Hardness Softness Thickness Thinness c. all which I say are but different Modifications of the parts of Bodies whereby they variously affect our Senses having the same way of solution as those I have already spoken of therefore shall forbear Now that these Hydroph are neither the Indexes nor the Products of the Quaternary of first qualities and consequently not to be reckoned as such in the Category of qualities is evident in that one and the same Body by a Metastasis of its parts by Fire Salts or Solvents may undergo all or most of those you call second and perhaps first qualities too so that to which of these the Essence of that Body should be attributed would prove a query too difficult for most of your Philosophy grounded upon these qualities to resolve Thus for instance suppose we take Antimony into our consideration which in its Minâ—ra is a stony dense heavy hard friable Body this being melted by Fire and thereby separated from its petrifique gritty and sabulous parts gives us that Body of Antimony usually fold in the Shops which still retains all the aforesaid properties which are the natural sequels of its present Texture of parts But suppose this by fire be forc'd in Fumes into Flowers adhering to the sides of Pots Ovens or other large receivers give a rare light soft and impalpable Body with a white colour which fluxed by further addition of Fire becomes a dense heavy hard friable but diaphanous Body called the Vitrum or Glass of Antimony where by the Vitrification of its parts it emulates that other product of the Fire made from Ashes and Sand flux'd together Concerning the reasons and causes of Vitrification in general and particular we discourse in our Tentamen Physiologic and Litholog Physica This glass prepared as aforesaid will by further addition of Fire and Salts become Metalline melt and run into a Regulus which melts and flows like Lead or Quick-silver call'd by Chymists the coagulated Mercury of Antimony is dense hard heavy and opacous which again may be sublim'd into Flowers out of which Flowers may a current Mercury begot by boyling with Salt of Tartar c. as is mention'd in Volum 4. Theat Chym. Nova disquisit de Helia Artista Also Antimony by addition of Salts with the help of Fire produceth that Mass we call hepar Antimonii which makes the frequently us'd Emetick Wine upon which dissolv'd in Water if distill'd Vinegar be poured it makes a speedy separation of a Red and Yellow Sulphur with a Fetid Sulphureous smell very like the Water of the Sulphur-Well at Knarsborough in York-shire But if in lieu of Vinegar more Salts be added and it be further
body giving a green colour and that as well by refraction as transmssiion of Rays from a luminous body gliding side-ways and smiting through the Liquor which renders it diaphanous whose texture of parts with the interstices in the fluid Menstruum causeth I say such a refraction of light as thereby represents it under the form of a green colour If into this green diaphanous Liquor Hydroph you pour a clear solution of Galls the texture of the vitriolin parts in the water will become so altered as that in lieu of a diaphanous it will become an opake Liquor so that the luminous Rays which before were refracted and transmitted will now become either reflected or so intangled in the texture of the parts as neither to make a transmission refraction or any considerable reflection of light there-from and therefore becomes opacous or black For by the addition of Galls to the aforesaid Liquor the first body whose parts were uniform and regularly transmitted and refracted the Rays of light doth now by this commixture with the Particles of Galls muster in so confus'd a posture make an extraversion of large flats some of which always fall in the rear of the Angles and junctures of others so as the transmission of light is quite intercepted and therefore what reflection is made is only so much as to be sufficient to make that representation of bodies by that colour we call black Which that it is so appears further by pouring Oyl of Vitriol Spirit of Nitre Aqua-fortis or the like corrosive Acid Spirits upon those vitriolin opacous Liquors or other bodies made black by vitriolin astringent Steins where you will presently view those Particles of the Gall which before fill'd the Pores of the Liquor and by extraverting many flats made the Liquor opacous dark and inky will now become fretted dissolv'd and the flats lessened so as the parts will again return into their former uniform posture and suffer the light by becoming clear to be transmitted as before so to become a diaphanous Liquor as at first as you may further see in our Experiments about the change of Colours in Spaw Water in our Hydrolog Chymica And that colours are nothing else but different refractions and repercussions of light from bodies according to various Angles of incidence and reflection from the different texture of the depth or superficies thereof carryed through the transparent Tunicles and Humours of the Eyes as through so many Glasses for from the natural Fabric of the Eye are artificial optical or microscopical Glasses contriv'd vibrating after a various manner the Optic Nerves so as to make that kind of sensation we call Vision That colours are I say nothing else but such I might confirm by many more instances viz. by the frequent Manuals of Dyers Tanners Painters c. in their colouring Garments Leather Wood c. by actual bodies not qualities of Vitriol Alum Argol Indico Madder Lime Oak Bark Minium Ceruss Verdigreece Spanish-white Gum Vernice ultra-Marine c. all which produce different colours not from inherent qualities in those bodies arising from a legitimate contemperature of the four Elements but represent themselves as being actual bodies I mean shew that great variety of colours by the different texture of their constitutive parts whereby light becomes so differently refracted or reflected as to be sufficient to cause that great variety of colours we see amongst bodies where we might from the aforesaid different reflections and refractions of light shew amongst the causes of those apparences we call colours what for instance white is and how made which we suppose to be no other than that texture of parts which results from many superficies flat or spherical born up at some little distances from each other by one or more of these following causes viz. 1. By Air 2. Atoms of Cold 3. Other similiar inter-woven bodies 4. Or lastly are wrought into such a texture of parts by the preparatory Vessels First by Air as is evident in Torrents great falls and other agitations of Waters in the white froth of Ale Beer or other fermenting Liquors also in the warming of Ale or Beer c. where the Particles of Water and fermentative Liquors are huft up with those of Air being thereby reduc'd into globular Bubbles the aggregation of which give us that Phaenomenon of white observable therein the like may be reckoned upon in production of white Oyntments from the concussion of Oyls c. Secondly or by Atoms of cold as is evident in the obvious Phaenomenon of Snow where from the cold Atoms woven in with and between the flats for such are the figure of its parts under this disguise of watery Particles results that colour of white as also other apparences compitible to water under the Masque of Snow Thirdly Or by other inter-weaving bodies as is evident where the texture of bodies are such as are made up of many superficies each upon other by a natural stratum super stratum born up by some other interposing parts as is evident in natural Concretions viz. Talk Alabaster Bones Horns Plumes c. In factitious viz. Luna Cornea Venice-glass pulveriz'd Ceruss Paper c. In all which the light from the aforesaid texture of parts is so refracted and reflected as to exhibit us that apparence of white in all such bodies Or lastly are wrought into such a texture of parts by preparatory Vessels by which in Animals I mean the Lacteals and Glandules whence the whiteness of Milk and by other Analogous in Vegetables whence the milky Juyces of all sorts of Spurges Carduus Marie c. But to demonstrate further that Colour and in particular White is no other than the result of such a peculiar texture of bodies as reflects the light after such a mode competible to that apparence and that the same body undergoing no other change of any additional but barely a transposition of the parts of the active Principles therein contained was spontaneously reducible to its pristine clarity and transparency I had this following Phaenomenon represented to me in an Experiment I was then trying In which Experiment I shall forbear to name one of the constituent Liquors in as much as in the main it relates not to this place and only reckon upon the to our purpose pertinent Phaenomenon which was this I having two transparent Liquors by me one was rectified Spirit of Wine the other a Mineral Liquor upon the mixing these I had besides the gentle heat caus'd from a moderate fermentation of the Principles forthwith the apparence of a Milk-white Liquor through the whole body of the mixture which and what was very curious and remarkable to behold within a very few minutes without any extrinsic addition was spontaneously reduc'd to a transparent Liquor as limpid almost as either of the Liquors was before mixture and all this which yet adds to admiration without the least precipitation or any sort of sediment what ever I might further inlarge Hydroph
concrete Bodies say that they were too many to enter the composition of natural Bodies Pyroph Because Hydroph some of them as for instance the Air and Fire the latter of which as considered in its suppos'd Elementary Sphere sub concavo lunae or as culinary concur not as constitutive Principles to the making up of mixt Bodies Hydroph Why is not Air in all or most Bodies Pyroph Yes Hydroph But not as a material Principle of Bodies but with the Aether to fill up vacancies and to do other Offices in part below but more fully illustrated in our Tentamen Physiologic Hydroph Can either Animals live or Vegetables grow without Air Must it not therefore be an Essential Constitutive Element of Bodies Pyroph I grant Hydroph that neither Animals can live nor Vegetables grow without the confluence of Air impregnate with its Nitro-Hermetick Salt and yet see no necessity why it should thence follow that Air should be an ingressive Principle of Bodies For it may help to promote the vigour of the Ferments in Animals by helping to Volatize the succulent parts and make the blood circulate the better without Stagnation or spurious Coagulations in the Vessels and yet may not at all be an Elemental Principle of Bodies Also it may concur to the promoting Vegetation of Plants partly by impregnating the Nursery of Vegetables the Earth with a Volatile nitrous Salt and partly with its Aether by setting the seminal Principles of Plants at work for Earth as we further enlarge in the Appendix to our Hydrologia Chymica is not fertilized nor brings forth Plants without a concurrence of the foresaid Salt nor are the seminal Ferments of Vegetables awakened without the benevolence of the Air and its congeneal Aether saturated therewith which constantly floats in the Air as in its proper Sea Hydroph But is not Air one parcel of which the Universe is made Pyroph Yes Hydroph And is not that matter a part of that whereof Concretes are made Pyroph No For although it be matter yet is it such a Texture thereof as is only pliable but not convertible into other Bodies that is never loseth the form of Air for notwithstanding its Universal concurrence in the constitution of most Bodies as aforesaid yet doth it never quit its genuine form as we further shew in our Tentamen Physiologic Hydroph But we define Air to be an Element moderately hot and most moist filling every place that is not already repleat with another Body Pyroph It is Hydroph if I mistake not neither hot nor moist of it self and therefore can be no Element for that which according to the Peripatetick Sense makes it an Element is the supposed combination of the qualities of Heat and Moisture by which it should seem that moisture according to your Philosophy was the Essential quality of Air and by which Moisture with a moderate heat it should enter the composition of Bodies Now if I make it good that there is no moisture but what is Essential to Water then will your Element of Air cease to be such You must know therefore Hydroph that wherever you can find moisture the Pyrotechnick Art will demonstrate it to be actually Water and that either in a fluid Texture of parts whereby it appears even to the Sense to be Water or at least in an extended form floating vapore tenus in the tenuious and easily recessible Body of Air. Whence it 's evident moisture is no quality at all from the aforesaid reason of its being really and essentially Water either in a fluid or extended form as you may further see in our Hydrologia Chymica So that moisture is only and primarily competible to the thin woven Texture of the parts of Water circulating in the Air and to the Air but secundary as the Vehicle of the extended Body of Water Hydroph But is not the moisture which we see wets stone-walls before Rain falls that which properly belongs to the Air yea and the very Air transmuted into Water Pyroph I answer no for that is nothing but simple rarified Water or the Body of Water extended in the perforations of the Air which while interspers'd in the tenuious and pliable Body thereof by the smalness of its rarified parts escapes our Sense and so remains till the parts thereof come nearer together which gliding along the surface of Stones in Buildings while the lower Region of the Air is ponderous therewith becomes gathered into a visible Body of moisture or Water and therefore is not Air transmuted into Water as you may see more at large in our Hydrologia Chymica Hydroph But pray Pyroph seeing you neither admit of Air as the subjectum inhaesionis of moisture nor moisture to be a primary or essential quality of Air and consequently deny Air to be an Element of Bodies and that there is no transmutability of Air into Water I say pray what do you suppose Air to be Pyroph I look upon Air Hydroph to be such a parcel of matter whose parts consist in a tenuious diaphanous pliable and fluid Texture of easie recess susceptible of the impressions of the minutest of Bodies and capable of permitting rarified Waters Vapours and all sorts of Apporrhoea from the terraqueous Globe to pass and repass of all which and many other minute Bodies that fall not under the perception of our senses it is the proper Vehicle also subservient to the motion of all Bodies that tack to and fro within its Orb is the Vehicle of Species the medium of all influences and transactions betwixt the Coelestial and Terrestrial Bodies And as Trismegistus in Asclepio saith Aer est organum vel machina omnium per quam omnia fiunt not as an Element but as a Machine for the motion of all Bodies Its parts I say are tenuious that it may the better give way to the motion of Bodies within its orbit of easie recess that it may the better admit of other rarified Bodies which are in a continual circulation and those perforations to be of no prefixt figure but either round or angular according to the pressure of its parts by the motion of other Bodies Diaphanous that it may the better transmit the Rays of luminous Bodies pliable I said that it may be the more subservient to the justlings of Bodies and may the better recede upon the access of other moveables and lastly fluid that it may thereby prevent any large vacuum and may the better press into the Porosities of Bodies Thus a stone being cast at a distance which by the impulse it has got draws suppose a straigt line in the Air forceing some parts of the Air and those press upon the next adjacent and those the next till by a circulating motion they fall constantly into the rear of the deserted space made by the motion of the stone and so immediately supplies the vacancy thereof and thereby contributes to the perpetuating the first impulse from a hand Sling or Engine For if the Air did not