Snow Hail Meteors and other apparances common to and peculiarly obvious in the Atmosphere So here I would take an occasion from the nature of the foresaid Fermentation to insist a little upon the two grand Phoenomena's of heat and light found in concrete bodies from the same principles CHAP. VI. I Shall not here by climing so high insist upon the causes of heat and light in that great and inexhaustible Fountain thereof the Sun whether its perpetual Spring and incessant emanation may not consist in a peculiar Fermentation of its own set a work by the divine Fiat and kept a foot by a continual circulation of aethereal matter concerning which we may elsewhere modestly propound our thoughts nor shall I descend so low as to treat any further of the causes of heat in those known subterraneal Vulcano's But shall at present make it my task in short to shew First That Fermentation is made from the mutual struglings and intestine combatings of Acid and Sulphur in all juices and concrete bodies where it is evident And how heat is produced from Fermentation in all such bodies where it is found Secondly To shew how from the same principles and after what manner light is made That Fermentation and Ebullition in mineral juices whether naturally or artificially prepared proceed not from the contrariety of Salts as many worthy persons urge is evident because there is no such Ebullition amongst Salts but what are from the contrariety and struglings of Acids and Alcalies whereas no man ever yet could make it appear that those minerals either in succo or in actual concretion contain'd any sort of Alcalies either fixed or volatile But on the contrary its most certain from irresragrable experiments that Sulphurs and Acids are separable from them all And as before we have shewed the Fermentation of minerals to consist in the collision and intestine wrestlings of their Acid and Sulphur as the causes of hot Baths c. So the Fermentation in animals is no less observable to proceed from the like inward struglings of their imbred Acid and Sulphur continually till they dye kept on foot in the body of animals and that will appear if we consider their implanted acid juices the very foundation of all Ferments and the daily occurrence of such sort of Food in whose texture both Acid and Sulphur chiefly Sulphur doth reside in order to the keeping those Ferments at work for the nourishing and upholding the fabrick of those bodies The first wheel as I may say of these Ferments or the primordial Stamina of acids in animal bodies after their formation are placed in the Stomack where the Fermentation begins from the native acidum acting upon the acquired Sulphur of nutritive food and is carryed on into the second digestion into the intestines where a fresh gentle acidum from the pancreatick juice and a Sulphur from the Gaule sent thither by the ductus biliaris promote and assist a further Fermentation and thence carryed into the blood where the same principles of Fermentation together with a volatile Salt complicated with the Sulphur and Acidum are still at work and undergo new separations and depurations as also acquire new helps of volatization from the continually inspired Air into the Lungs through which the blood passeth which still promotes the begun Fermentation in order to the circulation thereof and nourishment of the whole So that the native acid juice of the Stomack is not in a strict sense a Ferment till such times as it finds some Sulphurous food upon which as its proper subject it begins to work and then upon its action collision and mutual strugling with the Sulphur in the assum'd aliment begins the Fermentation which being vital we suppose to be the very first spring of heat in the animal body after it hath passed its Embrio-state Yea all the rest of the Fermentations in the body are but the continuations of this Fermentation begun in the Stomack for the blood is made up of that Chyle which by Fermentation is wrought in the Stomack retaining so much of its first principles of Acid and Sulphur mixed in a just temperature assisted with the pancreatick and bilous juices as may be sufficient to keep that Liquor still in a Fermentative motion such as may help to supply with a new off-spring of animal Spirits the very product of that Fermentation as also to fill up the interstices of that matter or those parts which are continually upon the wheel winding off through the perspirable Portals of the body as we may elsewhere God willing take an occasion further to discourse How powerful a menstruum this Stomachial acid the first efficient of heat is doth appear both by the great force of working upon and dissolving all alimentary things which are all of them such as wherein Sulphur whether vegitable or animal is more or less complicated and cujus intuitu viz. for the sake of which all the rest wrapt up in the same concrete are also dissolved as likewise doth appear from those strong vellications of the Nerves and Tunicles of the Stomack upon hunger being a nothing else but that aforesaid acid menstruum preying upon the next adjacent parts through the want of some Sulphurous subject to work upon That Sulphurous concretes whether animal or vegital are the proper Subjects for the native acidum of the Stomack to work upon in order to Fermentation is clear because neither Stone Clay Earth Marle Wood nor such like wherein are no Sulphurous parts or at least such as are not congenial to the foresaid acidum can become capable of being food inasmuch as no genuine Fermentation essentially necessary to the upholding the fabrick of an animal body can thence be made Not now further to shew how Fermentation begun in the Stomack and carryed on in the blood and other humours is not onely the efficient cause and effectual source of heat but also of all animal Spirits carryed thence by the conduit-pipes of the Nerves into the habit of the body in order to the performing those peculiar functions of sense and motion both viz. heat and animal Spirits being the immediate products of animal Fermentations We say that in the circle of natures operations throughout her triplicity of bodies there is no such thing as Spirits separable but what are the immediate results of Fermentation For however among some Physiologists they are reputed inter principia corporum yet according to our Hypothesis they are no principles but the posterior products of Fermentation and appear in bodies according to the slow or quick low or high degrees of Fermentation from whence proceed their threefold order in the productions of concretes For either these Fermentations are to be considered in their primordials or first workings in bodies in order to the fabrick thereof and so the Spirits which thence result are in a low depressed state deeply immers'd in corporeal bulk as appears in vegitables c. in their state of Infancy and Crudity
the implanted principles of Acid and Sulphur being by percussion allision or attrition put into a speedy Fermentation For the better understanding whereof we are to consider both the nature and temperament of those bodies as also the manner of the production of Heat or Fire therefrom as to the first they are all of them such in whose texture our principles of Fermentation viz. Acid and Sulphur lye scattered and interspers'd what are Flints and other Pyrites but stony concretions who have a Sulphurous principle for their cement which lyeth close shut up in their bodies especially in some of them the flagrable Sulphur is so fast locked up as that it appears not by any usual manner of way unless either by attrition of other bodies wherein an Acid and Sulphur hang more loosely viz. Iron or Steel or by the solution of some powerful menstruum such as the grand solvent the Alchahest whilst others of them have their Sulphur more easily extricated of which last sort it is G. Fabricius speaks when he saith that out of any the Pyrites equo excutitur ignis excoquitur etiam Sulphur What is Iron or Steel the latter being but the former hardened but a metal wherein eminently above the rest of metals doth appear an Acidum witness it s easie mouldering into Rust being a natural calcination thereof by the bare acid moisture of the Air For what Fire by its Acidum doth to Iron loosening the innate acidum thereof by actual calcination the same in a longer tract of time doth the connate acidum of the Air to the inbred acid of Iron which then working upon the native Sulphur doth unhinge it and so together taketh in pieces the whole body into a crocus And although Copper hath also an implanted acidum the chief cause of its contracting an erugo in the Air yet it is not so easily extravertable by the acidum in the Air and therefore defends it self the better from the injuries thereof Lastly not now to name any more what is Wood whether in a sappy Branch or dry but firm stick but the more strong concretions of vegetable juices wherein the foresaid principles of Acid and Sulphur are in the one freshly acting in the work of vegetation and in the other lye dormant under the bonds of coagulation So that if the same principles be actuated and accelerated in their motions as they are by sudden collisions and attrisions they may thereby be put into stronger Fermentations and at length be invigorated to that height as actually to take Fire which according to our Hypothesis is the very reason why a Green Branch or Stick by strong and frequent attritions one part upon another will Fire also why the Axis Staves or Wheels of Coaches Wagons and Mills will from strong and violent motions and attritions take Fire and burn The like may be said concerning all the other foregoing Subjects as to the causes or manner of their striking Fire which now we shall insist no longer upon only this by the by I would take notice of before I have done with this matter that frications which are sleight attritions of the parts of the body which by the Ancients were much in use towards the assisting the cure of many Diseases whose peccant matter lay much in the habit of the body were grounded upon this very reason viz. that they thereby help'd the Fermentation of the blood and other dormant juices which lay coagulated in the outward parts of the body benumbing the Nerves Muscles and other outward parts and that if Physicians would now more frequent the use thereof might probably find an advantage thereby in order to the Cure of Diseases by invigorating those dorming Ferments putting them into action whereby the offending matter might the better be discuss'd and evaporated CHAP. XI THus having as compendiously as we could run through the causes of Heat and Fire as the result from all sorts of Fermentations in the triplicity of natures Empire and shewed Heat to be Fire in a remiss and Fire Heat in an intenc'd degree or if you will a slow or more quick motion of the principles I mean Fermentations solves both and shewed also these Fermentations to proceed from a wrestling of Acidum and Sulphur excepting those made from an intestine strugling of Acidum and a fixt Alcali or Acidum and Vrinous Spirits Now come we to the last thing we propounded and that is how from our deposited Doctrine of Fermentation to solve that other grand Phoenomena viz. Light Not now to treat of Light as it is communicable to us from the great Fountain thereof the Sun which as we suppose consists in an illumination of Air by a perpetual emanation or eradiation of solar beams springing from an incessant but peculiar Fermentation in the body of the Sun and fostered by an unwearied circulation of Aethereal matter Light and Heat as proceeding from the great scuree thereof we conceive to differ only in this viz. That Light is the bare illumination of the medium the Air by a direct progressive motion of Aethereal matter from the foresaid Fermentation as the proper object of the Eye and by which all other things are seen while heat is the reflection or reverberatory motion of the same luminous beams proceeding from the said Fermentation from the Earth or other solid bodies affecting by that Fermentative motion our Organs of feeling concerning which we may elsewhere modestly propose our opinion Our design at present is onely to discourse of the nature and manner of such sort of Lights which we find amongst bodies we usually converse with upon the Earth and within the verge of our Atmosphere which are as followeth viz. the Light of culinary Fire I mean of most usual combustable concretes the Light of all Sulphurous matters whether in the form of mineral Sulphurs Gumms Rosins Turpentine Axungia's c. or in liquids of Bitumen Oyles vinous Spirits c. The Light of rotten Wood long dry'd Fish as Codds c. who have an incipient putrefaction The Light of Glow-worms Cats-Eyes Light from attrition of Wood green or dry which have thereby taken Fire from the attrition or percussion of Steel and Flint or any Pyrites from the frication or pectation of animals such as are Light from the Combing a Womans head as sometimes hath been known Light struck in the currying of a Horse and that Light I have seen from a sudden frication upon a Catts-Back of some Liquors the Light of subterraneal Lamps the perpetual Light preparable by the exuberate Mercury of the Philosophers graduated by circulation and cohobation according to our English Anonymus who had seen it done The Light of some precious Stones as Carbuncles some sort of Diamonds magnetical of Light as the Bononian-stone prepared by an artificial calcination Lastly The Light of meteors amongst which may be reckoned Lightening flashes of Fire or Light seen in Storms upon the Sea also those luminous meteors which in great Storms at Sea
true efficients of Fermentation in mineral juices for if he had the question had been beyond dispute for though Sulphur or common Brimstone in its concrete substance is not the Sulphurous principle nature useth in the producing of Fermentation in the primary disseminate juices where such things are in Embrio or in solutis principijs yet even that very concrete body whether in the form of Brimstone or complicated within the texture of other minerals Pyrites c. is by the supervening of a powerful acidum capable of Fermentation and thence of imparting its more subtile apporrhea or steame by the comminution of the foresaid Fermentation and susceptable of the virtues thereof So that it appears that Sulphur may be one of the efficients of heat in Baths and yet its flagration not requisite at all the same we may safely say of Bitumen Now as we have endeavoured to prove Sulphur whether in succo soluto in the very primordial shapings or generations of minerals or the same reduced from mineral concretions by the superinduction of congenial acids to be one of the two ingredients or mechanical Organs nature useth in mineral Fermentations This therefore leads me to our second position viz. CHAP. III. THat there is no Fermentation amongst mineral juices wherein an acid is not concern'd Or thus That an acid is necessarily requisite in all mineral Fermentations By acidum here I mean one of these two sorts viz. are such as are imbred in the same mineral concretion whilst in succo soluto c. in the beginings of its generation Or Secondly a superinduc'd acidum which is powerful in the reductions of minerals already concrete so that if we have our eye upon Fermentation from mineral concrete bodies which have already past their Embrio-state and are come to the solidity of compleat bodies then by acidum we do not mean such a one as is intrinsick connatural to and implanted in all Brimstones and mineral Sulphurs more or less for no Sulphur nor Sulphurous body as such can alone be the cause of Fermentation or heat in the Earth but an extrinsick supervening acid which must by reduction set those minerals by a kinship or consanguinity of parts into Fermentation de novo Now therefore it remains to prove that there are acid juices in the bowells of the Earth and that these are either embryonative to the same mineral where the Sulphur is or else peculiar to some other bodies by which the transient waters become acuated which if the former then the Acidum and Sulphur being natives of the same mineral do more easily by their mutual contact and intestine struglings cause a Fermentation even whilst the minerals are in solutis principijs which being constant those waters which pass through them must as certainly and constantly be heated So that from the unerring rules of nature from perpetuating the cause the effect must be no less The acid which causeth the latter sort of Fermentation we shall shortly touch upon First then the acids of the former classis will be apparent to us if we consider that there are no minerals produced in their peculiar beds in the intrails of the Earth without a previous Fermentation from their congenial principles of Acidum and Sulphur For our Hypothesis concerning the generation of minerals is grounded upon Acid and Sulphur from which foundation we say that these two being actually put into motion by the mineral seed in Embrio distinguished according to the lubet of the divine fiat in the great wheel-work of generation do by their mutual innate wrestlings cause a Fermentation and this to be one yea the chief cause of heat in natural Baths These in-dwelling acids I say are manifest and easily discoverable to us a posteriori from their not difficult separations out of the bodies of most known minerals thus we see plenty of an acidum separable from common Brimstone by bare flagration and the sleight artifice of condensing those fumes witness the Oyle of Sulphur per Campanam which is acid Thus also we have separated an acidum from Saturn Ore and know how to do the same from Antimony both which are perform'd two manner of ways viz. First By separating their Sulphurs which I have done both from the Ore of Saturn as also from the minera of Antimony which by flagration like common Brimstone yield an acid Secondly By distilling the foresaid minerals I mean Lead Ore and Antimony per se in close Vessels by a peculiar way may be drawn an acid Thus likewise out of both Vitriol and Alom as also from common fossil which is all one marine Salt and Nitre by bare distillation in close Vessels are frequently acids drawn which are singly or joyntly thence preparable witness Spirit or Oyle of Vitriol Aqua fortis Spirit of Salt Spirit of Nitre c. all of them sufficiently acid Thus out of all the Pyrites may an acid be separated yea further out of bitumens amber jet which is kennel coal and other sorts of Lythanthrax may by distillation an acid Spirit or Liquor be easily separated Thus my ingenious Friend Mr. Fisher hath separated an acidum out of a concrete bitumen got out of Lead-mines in the Peake in Derby-shire not far from Buxton hot Bath which is an Electrical Concrete as also hath done the like from the rest of the last recited mineral bodies And the like acidum hath been drawn from a bituminous fungus found in those parts Now come we to treat of our second sort of acidum which is one of the chief ingredients or principles of our latter sort of Fermentation to be numbred amongst the causes of some hot Baths and that is a superinduc'd acidum viz. the current of a living Spring as such are called in its subterraneal passages meeting with some Salts in Embrio or Bed of Earth impregnated with acid juices of which sort are all or most of the mineral Salts whilst in fieri before they by a further maturity reach the state of concretion I say passing through these Beds becomes by reason of its facile imbibition of such juices acuated therewith and then falling into a bed of Brimstone or other minerals or pyrites c. impregnated with Sulphur begins a solution thereof so raiseth a Fermentation betwixt the Sulphur and the supervening acid which gives heat to the water and becomes more or less hot according to the more or less powerfulness of the Acid and Sulphur as it passeth As also according to the nearness or remoteness of the waters exit from the source of Fermentation which acid dividing subtilizing and volatizing the Sulphur doth brake it into such small parts as that it becomes I mean as to the purest part thereof dissolvable in water according as we have more largely explain'd above and thence it is I mean from the Fermentation made from Acid and Sulphur whether perform'd the former or latter way that all hot Baths have somewhat of Sulphur in them more or less This last sort
a few drops of any acid juice do whether vegitable or mineral as of Vinegar Vitriol Sulphur Salt c. yea the runnet which is made up of Milk coagulated by the Stomichal acid of an animal which by keeping sours yet more and is made up with Salt to preserve it from decaying by the addition I say of the foresaid acid ferment or animal Runnet to Milk especially in heat is made that coagulation of the Sulphurous and Curdy parts out of which our Cheese is usually made So that from the different actions of the acid whether native or additional upon the Sulphur are produc'd those usual coneretions or rather coagulations of Butter and Curds separable from the more liquid serum which Butter has also its connate acid which is the cause of its liquidity in heat and coagulation in cold as we could sufficiently demonstrate the liquidity and coagulation of such the succulency and concretion the softness and hardness of other sort of bodies chiefly to depend upon the various modes of acids either considered in Fermentation or Concretion and as assisted by other concurring causes chiefly of the Air which we now with difficulty and chiefly for brevity sake refer to another place We might if willing to inlarge take an occasion here amongst animal Ferments to insist upon the causes and reasons of those strangely surprizing effects resulting from the invigorated Ferments of some venemous animals and shew that all their poysonous properties consist chiefly and solely in the Ferments of their juices which may be invigorated to that height as to become poysonous Fires which by a bite or the like getting admission into the blood of a humane body will according to the degrees of their exasperation make their transits in the bearing down and mortifying our animal Spirits Hence those fiery Serpents we read of were probably such whose Fermental principles was by exasperation wrought to that height as to become a venemous Fire by whose least entrance into the blood by their sting or the like did presently mortifie the Spirits of those who were bitten whereby they were suddenly killed And to shew that as the strength of our bodies depends upon the energie of the animal Spirits the product of vital Fermentation according to whose remiss or intense degrees of depuration sublimation and eradiation in their proper Channels the Nerves the weakness or vigour yea the whole crasis of the body subsists Diseases generally prevailing upon us from their various assaults which are made upon these in their original source of production I mean in the fermentable juices of the body so likewise the Spirits of venemous animals the product also of the Fermentation peculiar to their juices being by exasperation so subtiliz'd as that they are highly in vigorated and beyond imagination Spiritualiz'd do by their sudden fiery vibrating motion if admitted make their transits quasi ictu oculi through our Fermenting juices presently arrest our Spirits and by coagulations and other manner of mortifications suspends their generation and motion which being precipitated and born down and the future vibrations of the vital Acidum and Sulphur mortified must needs bring on death which is nothing else but a period put to the mutual collisions of the vital principles Where we might shew that the deleterious properties of venemous Animals as Vipers Adders Snakes Scorpions c. reside not at all in their flesh because they may and are frequently eaten not onely without harm but also in some cases with good success but in their peculiar Ferments consisting according to our supposition of Acidum and Sulphur of their kinds which being capable of exasperations and heightenings are also as lyable to have their Spirits invigorated insomuch as the more those animals are angred as I may say the stronger the Fermentation and the more subtile the Spirits are yea the more mortal their fire which bearing the character of their material principles have the foresaid sudden mortifying influence upon our vital juices and the Spirits thereof We might also shew how those sorts of Ferments in their strong inveterating motions do sometimes fix themselves upon some peculiar matter or coagulated juice in their bodies where the Ferments lurk as in a seminary and this is the reason why that matter vomited by some sort of venemous Scorpions If I mistake not called Gecco upon their being whipt and hung up thereby having their Ferments exasperated is used by the Indians as a speedy death to their malefactors by pricking the skin under one Nayle of the hand and applying a little quantity thereof to it which immediately thereby getting entrance into the blood presently suspends the Fermentation thereof mortifies the Spirits killing them presently yea at Macassar a Town in the Island Celebes belonging to the Molucco Islands there is a sort of poyson whether made by the foresaid artifice from inraged venemous animals I know not which the King of that place uses for expeditious killing those he would dispatch out of the way by applying it to any breach of the skin it immediately from its Fermental corrosive poyson not only kills but burns the whole body into a corruptive putrilage concerning which and many other things of the like nature we now for brevity sake willingly desist to inlarge CHAP. VII HAving in brief thus signified the causes of the Fermentations in animals to consist in a brief but suitable intestine dwellings betwixt the two principles Acid and Sulphur which coincide in puncto vitalo according to our Hypothesis and that their heat is immediately thence produced In the next place let us consider whether the same Hypothesis may not hold good in the due explicating the Phoenomena in that other kingdom of nature I mean the vegitable where besides what we have already said vegitation in our account is no other then a gentle vibration and slender collision of the Vegitable Acid Sulphur from which two principles put into a wrestling motion in every seed after the loosening its body or husk in the lessas terrae is begun the vegitable Fermentation which ceaseth not till the body shap'd according to the form of those minute Types wrapt up in the seedlings and in some obvious to the eye assisted by good microscopes is brought in all its pourtrayings upon the visible Stage of the World And from this Fermentation set afoot in the very primordials seedlings and first hewings of vegitable forms are deducable all the observable Phoenomena of vegitables for not onely vegitation it self consists in a slow-pac'd motion of the foresaid principles set into a slender easie Fermentation but also their colours sapours odours also other medicinal qualifications and their propagation by Seeds and their future Fermentations as of Corn Grapes and Fruits c. in order to our Bread and Drink are referrable to the various intestine wrestlings of the inbred Acid and Sulphur First As to Vegitation it self we have already hinted how it s performed by a secret Fermentation from
in the concretions and maturations of Fruits but in the Fermentations of potable Liquors Thus as to the First Fruits while upon the Trees by the help of the Sun have their vegetative Fermentations compleated by the Sulphurs sweetening and maturating their Acids the like is done though nothing nigh so well in Fruits taken off the Trees before they be ripe and laid by in Straw Hay or the like whereby the warmth of the Air there formerly begun Fermentation is in some measure carryed on to maturation whereas if exposed to a more warmth or a greater degree of heat if done in Water they are Codled if before the Fire they are Roasted In both which although somewhat sweetened from what they were yet are far short of the pleasant gust and delicate colour they arrive at by their more natural and gentle maturating heat Thus if any Grain suppose Barley c. be steeped and afterwards laid in heaps till it contract a spontaneous heat this very heat transcending that which is peculiar to its own vegetative Fermentation suspends or rather indeed perverts the intention of nature whereby it will never so vegetate afterwards as to go on to a propagation by Seed but onely if permitted by neglect of turning will shoot forth a spurious branch call'd vulgarly an Acrespire Thus as to the last Fermentative Liquors if they have any other heat but what results from the collisions of their own active principles or at least in degree is congenial thereto then the intention of nature is perverted by the dissipations of the principles of Fermentation or at least by the graduations of the Acid above the Sulphur as appears in heating the Fermentative Liquor too much or in putting it up too warm in the Vessels the like happens I mean a dissipation of the Fermentative agents or an exorbitancy of the Acidum in hot seasons or with the percussions of the Air by the noise of Guns or Thunder or from insolation or the like In all which the crasis of Fermentable Liquors are perverted and the Acidum by overpowering the Sulphur grows exorbitant subverting the temperature of the whole CHAP. IX HAving thus sleightly for brevities sake run through the reasons and causes of Fermentation from the lowest to the highest degree thereof in all natural productions throughout the threefold kingdom of Nature and shewed those from the genuine causes and natural principles to be the fountain of Heat in and amongst bodies Now come we to consider of some other sorts of Heat that seem to arise either from other manner of Fermentations or from other causes of which are all Fermentations or Ebullitions made betwixt Acids and all kinds of Alcalies whether lixivial or alcalizate fixed or volatile the Fermentation and Heat obvious in quicklime made by the affusion of water heat also caus'd from the collision and attrition of solid bodies For indeed from a due examination I find there is no Heat produc'd amongst bodies I mean from their own intestine principles what sort soever it be but what is referable of one of these two viz. either Acids and Sulphurs or to Acids and Alcalies The first is the natural cause of Heat as thence springing from its genuine source which admits of degrees even to actual flagration The other is artificial and never arrives to the height of the former I found therefore upon due consideration that the foresaid Fermentations and Heat reckoned amongst those which arise betwixt Acids and some sorts of Alcalies might be soly'd from one of these two causes viz. either from our deposited principles of Acid and Sulphur or from a mutual fretting betwixt Acids and urinous Spirits Thus we suppose and elsewhere in our Lithologio Physica illustrate in all Petrifick concretions somewhat of a Sulphurous principle lockt up in the strickt texture of the petrifying native Alcaly which when an acid menstruum comes to terebrate finding the Sulphur its proper object closeth therewith and from their mutual struglings happens the solution of the body thence proceeds the Ebullition and consequently in some where it is strong Warmth For we suppose a Sulphur or Sulphurous principle to be as a cement to bind up the petrifick Alcali in all or most of stony concretions Thus also we suppose in all fixt lixivial Alcalies or fixt Salts as they are vulgarly called a Sulphurous principle to be close shut up in the texture thereof and that every fixt lixivial Alcali is a new compage of the same prae-existent principles produc'd and bound up by the Acidum of Fire where the Acidum and Sulphur are so interwoven with a volatile urinous Spirit or Salt as that by force of Fire they do colliquescere melt down into a body dissolvable per deliquium which is generally esteemed a simple Salt but having discourst largely thereof in our Halologia shall now wave it and onely say that these fixt Alcalies vulgarly reputed solitary Salts being new textures of the intrinsick principles do by that neutrality of Essence they are wrought into by the Fire from new complications I say do make different assaults upon Acids then before Hence it is that upon a double account as I said that Acids mixed with these Alcalies may cause an effervescence viz. either as meeting with the Sulphur close bound up with the Acid and urinous Spirit or Salt in the compage of the Alcali and so to cause an Ebullition and Heat according to our foresaid principles or as meeting with the volatile urinous Salt close rivetted with the Sulphur and Acid may either way cause an effervescence Onely this difference which is considerable is to be noted betwixt these Fermentations made between Acids and Sulphurs as they happen in petrifick concretions and fixt lixivial Alcalies from those which happen in the general course of nature inasmuch as Fermentations which are set awork amongst animals vegetables yea and many minerals do produce a quite different effect from those lately cited as appears in animal Fermentations their effects are the production of animal Spirits c. In vegetable Fermentations their effects are either such which immediately result from the slow pac'd motion of the principles viz. Vegetation Volatization of their Sulphurs Odours c. or are the effects of the more sensible Fermentations in all vegetable juices in order to potable Liquors which are vinous Spirits or the effects of mineral Fermentations which if done in the bowels of the Earth where no current of water happens are the productions of mineral concretes c. If where waters have their Channels in their great circulation their effects are hot Baths c. Or Lastly if the Fermentation be from mineral bodies and corrosive menstrua the effects are stifling fumes c. All which in their different classes happen from the looseness of the compage of their Sulphurs and from their facile inclination to volatization But in the late cited effervescences betwixt Acids and Alcalies whether in Petrifick or lixivial Salts their Sulphurs being naturally
Alcali or volatile Salt taking in some Sulphurous parts but espcially as I say bound up or knit together by the vinculum of an Acid Of which further in our Lithologia Physica Amongst Minerals What are all fossil and other mineral Salts but concretions chiefly perform'd by the power of Acids in the bowels of the Earth In particular what are Sal marine Vitriol Alom and Nitre but concretions of acid juices And indeed what are the generality of artificial Salts or such as are made by mixture but such in whose texture Acids are chiefly and primarily concern'd and without which scarce any saline concretion at all doth appear What are Stones made in the bowels of the Earth but liquid subterraneal juices of alcalizate or other proper matter arrested by acid steams arising from some Fermentation of mineral juices which together pass into those petrifick concretions as we sufficiently and that de industria demonstrate in our Lithologia Physica and Halologia Chymica What are Minerals themselves being immature Metals having the principles of Metals but after a crude volatile imperfect manner such as Brimstone Antimony Pyrites Auripigmentum c. but Sulphurous concretions bound up by their intrinsick acids taking into their compage other Heterogenities as we have in short above declared and may more at large God willing in another place Yea to go higher what are the Metals but a metallick Sulphur bound up by a peculiar implanted Acidum in the mercurial juices whose mixture being not perfect through a complication of some heterogenities makes the imperfect but those being removed by a closer bond of the metallick principles gives the perfect Metals unseparable and unalterable by the power of the strongest culinary Fire We might go yet further and ask what is the Philosophers Elixir if such there be in rerum natura but such a close weaving of metallick principles whose Acidum is intimately and inseparably united all so highly graduated as to become a fixt coagulated tincture of so extensive a nature as to be able to make quick transits through and thereby to hinge into its own fixity and purity other imperfect metallick bodies So that upon a serious inquiry with our Eye directly levelled into the works of nature we cannot but conclude First That all manner of coagulations congelations condensations salifications petrifications yea all sorts of concretions of bodies or of juices into bodies are primarily ascribable to Acids as their grand faber of which we discourse largely and demonstrate we think clearly in our two foresaid Tracts Secondly That by these foresaid coagulations salifications petrifications and other concretions the connate Acidum doth so combine with the Sulphurous parts it closeth with as that both pass into a quid tertium or neutral result partaking of both and yet distinguishable by neither insomuch as the Acidum by such sort of coagulations and concretions looseth its Sting and becomes thereby altogether unperceptable And hence is the reason why although Acids be the very foundation of all coagulations other concretions of bodies yet are themselves as to our gust in many things the least discoverable which because we cannot easily get to the insides of bodies in their natural productions shall therefore endeavour to demonstrate and ellustrate by artificial mixtures resembling the natural Thus in mixing the Runnet or usual Ferment to New-Milk upon heat or while warm after Milking the acidity of the Runnet not only makes the Milk split into Curds and Whey but is it self so coagulated with the Curds as not to become perceptable at all so that Cheese is nothing else but a neutrum or neutral result from an Acid and curdling parts of Milk coagulated together while Cream is the Sulphurous parts of Milk and Butter is the coagulum of that Cream separated by a slender Fermentation procured by the motion of Churming which very coagulation of Butter is from a combination of some small quantity of Acidum with the Sulphurous parts Thus also from the Acidum in Wines of all sorts in Ale Beer Syder c. being poured upon warm or boiled Milk from the Acidum I say in any of the foresaid Liquors it is that the Milk separateth into Curds and Whey or posset-drink the former of which are made lighter or stiffer according to the difference of the Acids and various manner of application of the ingredients in which Curds the acidum of the Fermentable Liquor is wholly coagulated which is a good way of mortifying or correcting all sorts of fretting Acids whether in bad Wines or other Liquors which all fix if there be Milk enough in the Curd and yet that Curd is a neutral and the Acid not at all perceptable therein yea in case of bad Wines or other Drinks where the Acedum is too eager and fretting to those who do not care for Posset-drink and yet would not loose their Wines or other Liquors I would being prompted from the foresaid cause propound as an expedient to put a spoonful or two of boyling Milk upon a Pint or Quart of such sort of Liquors stir it about if the Curd rise to the top to skim it off if not to run it through a filter whereby it will become clear and so you have corrected your Wines c. and made them fit for drinking or in lieu of that to put a tost of old Wheat bread therein which will imbibe much of the superfluous Acidum and make the Drink thereby more wholsome From the foresaid cause of Acids it is also that Fat congeals in animals which is but the Sulphur of the blood congealed by its own or at least acquired Acidum of the Air which after melting by heat whereby the Acid becomes fluid congeals again in cold into that consistence called Saem or Tallow and from the facile congelation of the Sulphurous parts of the blood in some animals from the acidum under either or both considerations viz. of native or acquired from the Air it is that for instance Conies and Field-fare become Fatter in Frosty weather and from the like cause the Fat of Land-animals is hard as the ingenuous Dr. Grew notes in his discourse of mixture while that of Fish is very soft and in great part runs to Oyle viz. because the first sort are expos'd to the acidum floating in the Air and thereby continually to proper ends inspired and the latter being always immers'd in water is much what depriv'd of that congealing acreal acidum And as Acids are remarkable in the various concretions of animals viz. in the coagulations into Flesh consolidations into Bones congelations into Fat c. whereby they shew their different operations upon various juices of animal bodies and thereby also combine into neutral results as aforesaid so likewise the same is evident amongst vegetables Thus express'd Oyles especially when the innate acidum so prevails by some acquirements from the aereal do by keeping grow rancid and thick as also is further apparent in the mixture of acid
Oyle by bare infusions and distillations in ordinary water is now by the comminution of previous Fermentation so divided sub-divided and volatiz'd as that these vegitable Sulphurs will not only arise by the gentlest heat but will also easily dissolve in any water or common vehicle As we plainly see that any vinous Spirit made from vegitables by Fermentation will easily mix with ordinary water which the oyles of those vegitables separated before Fermentation would not do So likewise the effects of those sensible at least by their heat Fermentations in mineral Fermentative juices is no other then the comminution and volatization of their otherwise crude Sulphurs For what is it would I ask that can render Sulphur and bituminous juices capable of incorporating with Spring-water Seeing that neither fire which what that is in a true Physiological sense according to our Hypothesis we may elsewhere declare in the vulgar notion thereof nor Salts I mean fixed or volatile can alone perform that work For by fire if in open Vessels Brimstone being burnt it ariseth with a fume condensible into an acid Sulphurous Liquor witness the oyle of Sulphur per Campanam made by flag ration and in close Vessels it makes no alteration arising only in Flowers which are nothing else but the entire body of Brimston unaltered or opened and as to fixt vegitable Salts those indeed open the body of Common Sulphur or Sulphur of any of the minerals so as to make them more capable of dissolving in those congenial menstrua's of Oyle or vinous Spirits but do not at all procure their solution in common water for water being poured to any of the foresaid solutions of Sulphur made either with Oyles or vinous Spirits by fixt Salts do forthwith lactescere causing a precipitation of the very body of Sulphur in a milkie form call'd lac Sulphuris So that it remains that nothing else short of acid juices can perform this great work of dissolving mineral Sulphurs so as to make them mingable with water which is performed one of these three ways viz. either by bare solution distillation or Fermentation in all which the acidum must have the preheminence before such sort of alteration upon Sulphur can be made thus as it is ex intuitu Sulphuris that all metals are dissolvable in the Stiâ—ian or other proper menstrua which being taken in pieces by acids together with their congenial Sulphurs the mercurial and other parts complicated in the texture of that body doth colliquescere So likewise it is ex intuitu acidorum that all mineral Sulphurs or Sulphurous Concretes do either dissolve in water or are capable of distillation into Liquors or lastly do undergo Fermentation and the products thereof First As to solution in water thus vitriol or vitriolin marcasites which contain plenty of Sulphur do either per se or expos'd to the air become capable of dissolving most what in water and that from the prevalency of their acids above their Sulphurous principle whereby the Sulphur lurks under the mask of the acid Secondly As to their distillation I mean of Sulphurs in the form of Liquors that happens also from the powerfulness of their acids assisted by the acidum of fire us'd in such distillations whereby the Acidum and Sulphur do colliquescere into a corrosive Liquor as appears in Oyle of Vitriol And Lastly This Acido-Sulphurous-Liquor and others of the like nature prepared as aforesaid by distillation if diluted by the addition of a little water or of any oylie Liquor or vinous Spirit be mixed therewith the Sulphur is presently set upon by the acid from whose mutual assaults ariseth a strong Fermentation making the Glass intensely hot and thereby sometimes comes near to an actual flagration So that it is the acidum variously treating the Sulphur whence all these varieties of operations proceed And by this last work of Fermentation the Sulphur is more comminuted volatiz'd and altered then by either of the two former It s true indeed that fixt alcalies or Calx vive being analogous to the former doth so work upon the body of common Sulphur or Sulphur of some minerals and thereby opens it so as meeting with an acid juice may make a resemblance of some Sulphur waters as we have elsewhere largely discourst in our Hydrologia Chymica concerning the Sulphur-well at Knarsbrough which is without doubt I mean the precipitation by the supervening acid the cause of the strong smell of this and some other the like waters Amongst the causes assigned by divers Authors of the heat in natural Baths those of subterraneal fires are not the least which because we have by sufficient arguments at large exploded in our Hydrologia Chymica shall now therefore wave But the great and most authentick opinion is that of Dr. Jordens in his book of natural Baths which by many learned persons hath and that not unworthily the kind acceptance and the most general applause which is grounded upon a Fermentation from a seminary Spirit of minerals in the bowels of the earth meeting with convenient matter from which Spirit acting upon the matter in generation of minerals is caused that heat which perpetuates hot Baths It would be too tedious a task for this intended short tract now to wade into a deep examination of the Hypothesis of this learned man I shall only say leaving the rest of that doctrine in its own worth that had that judicious person been better acquainted with the understanding of the true and genuine sense of Fermentation would no doubt have polish'd his notions much better then we find them and would have told us wherever Fermentation was found in whichsoever of the triplicity of natures Kingdoms that there necessarily must concur the principles of Fermentation and that Sulphur or Bituminous matter being a kin to Sulphur must be one of those principles as to the mineral Kingdom and consequently be an indispensible ingredient in all hot Baths For Fermentation can no more exist without its own principles then fire can without combustible matter or the principles of firing nor then animal bodies can be sustained without their peculiar Ferments which what analogy these viz. vegitable and animal juices in their Fermentations as to their constituent principles bear to those of minerals we may elsewhere give an account Onely here we shall take occasion to answer that grand objection the foresaid ingenuous Author makes against Sulphur being the cause of heat in Baths For though we do not assert that Sulphur singly considered is the cause of Fermentation or Heat but that it is one of the principles of Fermentation yet we judge that objection toucheth upon the Verge of our Hypothesis and therefore worthy our solution The Objection is That if Sulphur can give actual heat to our Baths it must burn the like he saith of bitumen that unless it be kindled it can yeild no heat to our Baths I answer That hereby it is obvious that the foresaid Author did not throughly understand the
of Fermentation which I may call if we have respect to the already concrete body of Sulphur or Sulphurous minerals and that not improperly Fermentation at the Second hand I say is no less to be performed by minerals then vegitables For as amongst vegitables Corn when ripe and reap'd its fermenting principles of vegitation as we may elsewhere shew how all vegitation is nothing else but a natural slow-pac'd Fermentation from each plants peculiar principles of Acid and Sulphur are shut up and would constantly remain dormant till it either be committed to the ground in order to fresh vegitation and multiplication of its species or be malted whereby its vegitative Fermentation is perverted and the same principles driven on to another design of fermenting in water after malting in order to the making of our drink wherein both viz. Vegitation and Malting the same fermentative principles are kept afoot though to different ends So likewise it happens by a parity of principles amongst minerals where when the Fermentation necessarily in their production sometimes terminate in concretion in which the Sulphurous principle being prevalent most what coagulates the acidum and both with some other heterogenious parts combine to the making up this or the other mineral Sulphurous concrete I say there in that concrete the principles of Fermentation cease to act and so would if unexcited remain always dormant untill by a congenial powerful supervening acid the intrinsick principles be put into a fresh intestine strugling or regular motion which we call Fermentation which heating the transient waters becomes the efficient cause of some natural hot Baths CHAP. IV. HAving already shewed that Acidum and Sulphur are the chief ingredients of hot Baths as the essential principles thereof Now come we to demonstrate how and in what manner the waters in hot Baths become hot which to do we must endeavour to shew that some sorts of acids have so powerful an operation upon Sulphurs or Sulphurous concretes as that being actually set a work or put into motion are sufficient causes of Fermentation in mineral juices and next that heat which will necessarily follow is the immediate result of such Fermentation The First we shall elucidate with an induction of many paralel instances whereby we shall perform two things at once viz. both illustrate our doctrine of Fermentation grounded upon the genuine principles of Acidum and Sulphur as also solve the Phoenomena of the occurring instances The first mechanical instance shall be the solution of any metall except Gold in an Aqua fortis and of Gold it self in an Aqua Regis which are no sooner put together both being duely qualified but the action of Fermentation is plain to any eye in the dissolving or breaking to pieces that metal what it is that causeth Solution and Fermentation which immediately happens upon the working of the solvent on the solvend It is not as I conceive from the complications of the fluid Salt in the menstruum with the fixt Salt in the metal whereby the metallick compage is broke and the particles thence hid in the pores of the menstruum according to the judgement of the learned Dr. Willis Nor need we with him imagine a vitriolick Salt in Silver or an armoniack in Gold but is it not rather the Sulphur in the metal and the acidum of the menstruum for the sake of which Sulphur the mercurial part is also broken to pieces and the whole by that Fermentative motion dissolv'd cujus Sulphuris intuitu totum liquescit metallum in which corrosion or solution of the imperfect metals in Aqua fortis or the like corrosive menstrum there is no such great danger of breaking the Glass if stopped as happens inevitably in the solution of the Sulphur of the more crude minerals the reason of which is from the more fixity those Sulphurs arrive to by metallization from what they are in unripe marcasites or minerals Hence we may certainly conclude that in the Fermentation requisite for hot Baths no metals are concern'd and that both because of the more fixity of their Sulphurs as also from the deficiency of such corrosive menstrua in the earth for nothing short of an Aqua fortis or Aqua Regis can make a Fermentation with a metal Hence also nothing but minerals or liquid bituminous juices wherein the connate Sulphur is of a more loose compage also more volatile and consequently easily fermentable by more lanquid acids are the proper and essential ingredients of hot Baths where we may observe both by the preceding and by this following instance That the Sulphur in the metals acting upon the acids or vice versa are the true causes of corrosive Fermentations and thence of heat Thus the caput mort ' of viridaris from which I had according to Zuelfer drawn off the concentred acetum being a subtile calx of Venus I mixed with an equal quantity of Sal armon in order to the preparing a sort of that vulgarly called ens veneris which mixture being well impropriated by a sufficient triture within less then one quarter of an hour caused so strong a heat as I could scarce get it into the retort without burning my hand The next instance therefore shall come nearer to the matter in hand and that shall be concerning Sulphurs more Crude as they stand related to the minerals Thus in the affusion of Aqua Regis upon Antimony or Spirit of Nitre upon butirum Antimonij where the acidum of the menstruum acting upon and strugling with the crude Sulphur either of crude solatary Antimony or of the same carryed up by Salts in the form of a butirum doth cause a very strong Fermentation where the Sulphur by the assaults of those corrosive acid Spirits grows so high in its Fermentation as that it almost takes flame passing off with a strong stifling and incoarcible arsenical vapour by the former of which prepared with common Salt my ingenious Friend Mr. Wilkinson and my self have after Fermentation separated a Sulphur out of Antimony not unlike the common greener sort of Brimstone That the Fermentation caus'd in the last of which experiments I mean betwixt Spirit of Nitre and Butter of Antimony is not as some might urge from the Salts in the Sublimate mixing with the acidum in the menstruum appeareth because the same menstruum poured upon the same Salts while incorporated with Mercury in the form of Sublimate causeth no such Fermentation yea on the contrary I have seen Sublimate wherein the foresaid Salts are lodg'd which are in butirum Antimonij dissolve in an acid menstruum without the least tumultuous Ebullition even almost like and perhaps neer as soon as Ice in warm water Another mechanical instance shall be from the pouring an Aqua Regis upon well dry'd Danzick vitriol upon which well blanch'd I poured the foresaid menstruum from whose mixture being made per vices such a strong impetuous Fermentation with thick red fumes was caused as that it seemed to come
little short of actual fire causing an intense heat Now that it was the Sulphur in the vitriol which meeting with the acids in the menstruum produced that violent Fermentation and Heat is evident because out of a pound and a half of well dry'd vitriol after the Fermentation was over and that the fumes had passed off in a thick cloud there remained after the solution in a distillation in a coated Glass retort being at length urg'd with a very strong fire searce five Ounces of a Spongy red coloured cap ' mort ' totally insipid The like may be performed by acids upon any of the Pyrites or other imperfect minerals whose native Sulphur being crude hangs but loosely in the compage of such concretes That this foresaid Fermentation proceeds not as some may object from the Salts in the Vitriol is evident because if the Salt of Vitriol prepared by Fire by whose stress the Sulphur is either banished or fixt be mixed with such sort of acid menstruum it causeth no Fermentation besides which this Fermentation happens betwixt the acidum of the menstruum and the Sulphur of the body dissolv'd where there is no suspition of implanted Salts other then what is acid which the foresaid instance of Fermentation from aqua regia upon crude Antimony sufficiently evinceth Lastly As acids working upon the Sulphur of metals cause a Fermentation and thereby their solution and setting upon minerals which comes nearer to our purpose doth cause a most strong Fermentation unhinging their Sulphurs which being unripe are the more apt to ferment So likewise meeting with bituminous juices they do in like manner become the efficients of Fermentation which sort of bituminous Oyles I account to be of a middle nature betwixt mineral and vegitable Sulphurs and therefore we shall illustrate the manner of their Fermentation with acids by vegitable Sulphurs And so mineral acids mixed with vegitable Sulphurs cause Fermentation this threefold way viz. First as meeting with them in a more solid substance as with turpentine rosin resinous gumms or Secondly in a more liquid form as of Oyles or Lastly in a comminution of those Oyles into highly rectified vinous Spirits where the vegitable Sulphurs are comminuted and subtiliz'd by Fermentation into smaller parts Thus as to the first aqua fortis with turpentine rosins or resinous gumms makes a Fermentation which happens from their implanted Sulphurs mask in that solid form and the acidum in the menstruum Hence it is that some resinous gumms for instance Camphire will dissolve in Spirit of wine or aqua fortis singly but not joyntly the reason whereof seems to be this that in the former it dissolves from the analogy of Sulphurs comminuted and volatiz'd Sulphurs the more easily permeating from the nimbleness of their parts the like Sulphurs lurking in more solid forms which indeed is the reason why vinous Spirits are the proper menstrua for dissolving many resinous woods roots gumms and inspissated juices as of Turbith Jallap Mecoacan Scamony Myrrh Aloes c. by extracting their resinous or sulphurous parts In the latter I mean aqua fortis Camphire dissolves from the acidum of the menstruum and from the same cause viz. of acids working upon Sulphurs it is that other resinous gumms do also dissolve in acids as we find Ammoniacum Galbanum Tachamahaca c. do in Vinegar But these two menstrua's being mixed after Fermentation degenerate into a quid neutrum will not then dissolve Camphire as the ingenuous Dr. Lister hath tryed As to the second sort Oyle of Vitriol being mixed with Oyle of Turpentine causeth a strong Fermentation and Heat and by distillation gives plenty of a Brimstone which Fermentation and Seperation of Sulphur being rightly understood is as we judge from no other cause then from the acidity in the Vitriol working upon the vegitable Sulphur in the Oyle and thence the Fermentation according to our Hypothesis whereupon having deserted its own mineral Sulphur contained in it self gives cause of the facile seperation of its formerly implanted Brimstone Lastly Thus Spirit of Nitre or Oyle of Vitriol being mixed with a highly rectified vinous Spirit which is prepared from the Fermenting juice of Grapes or with any other vegitable fermentative Spirit doth presently cause a violent Fermentation which heats the Glass it s done in so intensely as that it can no more be touched then fire whose cause as I apprehend is no other then from the strong acidity in the menstrua which meeting with the highly graduated Sulphur of Vegitables in those admirable depurated and volatiz'd Liquors the one frets upon the other causing that intestine collision which we call Fermentation whence immediately results the heat which Fermentation betwixt the Acidum and the Sulphur in that violent hurricane of rapid motion wheels off along with it a great part of the Sulphur contain'd in the corrosive acid menstruum Another argument why the Fermentation in mineral juices is the cause of heats in Baths may be taken from the perpetuation of their cause for seeing no other incessant cause can satisfactorily be assigned which may in all things so well square with the nature of hot Baths as the aforesaid therefore till a more rational cause can be found out if any such there be in nature it may not be unacceptable to the ingenious Now that their cause is certain and constant according to our deposited Hypothesis of Fermentation of minerals in their production is evident from their continual generation for where once begun they cease not to perpetuate their Offspring which is evident from the observation of Mine-works Thus Salt-peeter men find that when they have extracted Salt-peeter out of a floor of Earth one year within three or four years after they find more Salt-peeter generated there and work it over again the like is observed as Dr. Jorden notes in Alom or Copperass or Vitriol And this is not only usual to all minerals but also the same may be said of metals For the Tinners in Cornewall have experience as the foresaid Author well observes of Pitts which have been filled up with Earth after they have wrought out all the Tin they could find in them and within thirty years they have opened them again and found more Tin generated The like hath been observed in Iron as Gaudentius Merula reports of Ilva an Island in the Adriatick Sea under the Venetians where Iron breeds continually as fast as they can work it which is confirm'd by Agricola and Baccius and by Virgil who saith of it Insula inexhaustis Chalybum generosa metallis The like is found at Saga in Lygis where they dig over their Iron mines every tenth year Mathesius also gives examples in almost all sorts of minerals and metals which he hath observed to grow and regenerate Erastus as Dr. Jorden notes affirms that he saw in S. Joachims Dale silver grown upon a beam of wood which was placed in the Pit to support the works The like of reproductions of
Aqua fortis sets upon it whereby a strong Fermentation is presently raised which wanting room breaks all in pieces before it Thus Thirdly by pouring Aqua regia upon Antimony or the Spirit of Nitre upon butirum Antimonij put into Glasses or the strongest of Vessells and close stopt up would break them though never so strong into many pieces and that from the foresaid Fermentation which happens from the acidum in the menstruum and the Sulphur either in crude Antimony or the Butter thereof many more of which sort of experiments we further illustrate in our Halologia Chymica Thus also from the aforesaid experiments may without any more ado an account be given of many subterraneous Eruptions for I have by them at once given a sufficient demonstration as I think both of the reasons and causes of Earth-quakes and also of Eruptions inasmuch as that Fermentation from mineral juices made in straight meanders of the Earth when it cannot find vent if moderately strong they only cause terra tremor but if very violent even nigh an actual flagration then the greater the weight of Earth Rocks or other matter is which lieth upon it the stronger and more hideous are the Eruptions breaking in pieces all before it So that I suppose all Eruptions and subterraneal belchings to proceed from one of these two causes viz. either from subterraneal fires of Sulphurous minerals actually but accidentally kindled witness those Vulcano's of Aetna Visuvius Strongilo c. of which we have discoursed in our Hydrological Essayes or else from subterraneal Fermentations amongst which some may possibly rise so high and strong from the great plenty of Sulphur and Acids set into an actual Ebullition as that they may by the air which may probably reach them through some small crevices actually take fire and burn Thus besides the foresaid instances if Spirit of Wine be mixed with Spirit of Nitre or be added to a mixture of Oyle of Vitriol and Spirit of Nitre maketh an exceeding strong Fermentation even almost into an actual flame and the Glass will be intensely fiery hot as that ones hand may as long endure a hot cole as it which if pent up would for want of room to expand it self in its Elastick power would I say by its explosive force break all before it In the next place we shall endeavour to demonstrate how from the premised Doctrine of mineral Fermentations may also not onely Brimstone or other mineral concrete Sulphurs be generated de novo in some parts of the Earth but likewise how many of the fontes acidi may thence take their original As to the generation of concrete Sulphurs we suppose it thus viz. when or where a strong Fermentation happens from mineral juices whilst in Embrio and that there is no immediate current of water to carry off the looser part of the principles as they ferment as happens in all hot Baths as we have before sufficiently declared which not being pent up as happens in the most usual Earth-quakes and Eruptions as aforesaid but finding room enough in the most potent places of the Earth percolates some more loose bed of Earth and thereby leaves that Sulphur which was carryed up along with the fermenting steam as it were in the filter For that the acidum being prevalent in the foresaid Fermentation may in those steams it ariseth with the Sulphur in some peculiar colanders of the Earth desert its former companion may somewhat appear to us by pouring Oyle of Vitriol upon Antimony or the minera thereof and distilling it thence The Sulphur in the Oyle after Fermentation becomes separated and as it were percolated by the body of the Antimony while the acidum ariseth more simple leaving the Sulphur behind which afterward by a stronger fire is carryed up in the form of Brimstone taking along with it through the congenialness of parts some of the Sulphur of Antimony Next to which how many of the fontes acidi may from the foresaid Fermentation of mineral juices take their original we shall thus explain viz. by supposing that in some mineral Fermentations whilst in Embrio and where no current of waters nor strait passages happen for causes aforesaid the Ebullition from their Acidum and Sulphur may be so intense as that thereby a fresh acidum may be ingendred or the former multiplyed vires acquirit eundo with deserting Sulphur its companion in the colander of some Earths may be sublim'd and carryed in steams as a thinner and more subtile acidum at a great distance from the Source where afterwards touching upon and irroreating some Earth or some Stammina of the mineral beds of Iron or Alom-stone impregnates them to further uses So that where a current of water toucheth either upon that Earth and afterwards upon either of the foresaid minera's or doth touch upon those minera's impregnated with the aforesaid acidity I say either way are made vitriolin or aluminous waters or spaws Now that an acid may after the foresaid manner thus ascend from fermenting juices barely from the Ebullition of the principles even without any extrinsick heat will appear from this following mechanical experiment viz. I poured six Ounces of rectified Spirit of Wine upon half a pound of Spirit of Nitre which I put into a double bolt head with a pretty long neck after a while as soon as the vinous Sulphur in the Spirit of Wine had set the Acidum and Sulphur of the Spirit of Nitre a work they caused such a furious Fermentation that it drive up the stopple and forc'd it self forth up to the top of the Room whereby a great part was lost whereas if the Glass had been very close stopt it would without doubt have broke the Glass into shivers to what was sav'd I added of the same ingredients of each four Ounces it began after a while to fall into a strong fermenting Ebullition so boyl'd and bubled forth very fiercely and sent forth a strong fume which heated the Glass so intensely as I could not hold the very top of it in my hand then I set a small Glass-head over the Glass to condence some of the fumes which I found gave a very smart acid Spirit not but that there are other causes of some of the foresaid acidulate Spaw-waters concerning which we have at large discoursed in our two books of Hydrologia Chymica and its Vindication And now that I have laid down my Hypothesis of the causes of hot Baths branch'd into many sorts subterraneal Damps Earthquakes Eruptions Regeneration of some Sulphurous concretes and of the original of some of the fontes acidi all from the Fermentation of mineral juices as aforesaid which how well grounded and how further improveable I shall leave to the unbyassed reader to examin and judge as also to consider whether from the same Hypothesis or supposition of causes may and that not impertinently be solved the Phoenomena of the diversity of Winds the vicissitudes of heat and cold the reasons of
Or Secondly These Fermentations are to be considered in the further progress and closer interweavings of the principles whereby they become to be more quick and high the Sulphur gradually softening and sweetning their connate acids and thence the bodies wherein those Fermentations happen becomes more pregnant with Spirits being now more plentifully ingendred and more easily set at liberty by the power of Fermentation then before And this is evident in all things brought on to maturity and becomes sensibly apparent chiefly in all odorous Plants and Fruits Or Lastly They are to be considered in the more sensible brisk conflicts of the principles even after the bodies they work in are brought to maturity one dulcifying the other by the concurring causes of solar heat c. the principles I say being yet kept on in motion in all fermentable juices and grains do produce the greatest plenty of Spirits which being set at liberty are all those we call vinous Spirits in animals those we call animal Spirits the genuine product of vital and animal Fermentations and in minerals their Spirits in some places after heating transient waters for hot Baths appear in volatiz'd Sulphurs otherwhere in subtile acids as the causes of some aciduloe and elsewhere in apporrhea steams c. as elsewhere we have shewed Thus in all fruits brought on to maturity and all grains ripened for the harvest the principles in their mutual Collisions are so pregnant as that by being put nearer together which happens by their being juiced or malted they are thereby set a work into a sensible Fermentation as appears in all fermentable juices and malted grains the immediate result of both which are vinous Spirits Thus in all natural animal Fermentations of their juices requisite for circulation of the blood nourishment of the body and for the performing other functions peculiar thereto the animal principles are so pregnant as in their continual wrestlings and inward collisions incessantly to produce such a stock of Spirits a being rightly disposed and carryed in their proper Conduits the Nerves are sufficient to thâ— absolving the functions of sense and motion And the like in their kind may be said of minerals concerning which viz. the origin of animal Spirits from the foresaid Fermentation we may elsewhere largely discourse We shall only say at present that as the natural Fermentations in animal bodies are produced from the intestine collisions and inward struglings betwixt the native acid of the Stomack fortified perhaps by some connatural acidum in the aliment and the acquired Sulphur of nutritive concretes separating Hetrogenities and graduating themselves by successive depurations till they in their proper juices perform those circulations requisite to the peculiar funcitons of the body So likewise from the Catastrophe of the natural and superinduction of other not congenial acids may be made such mortifications precipitations and depravations of the genuine ferments and such new complications betwixt the recent acid and the Sulphur in the otherwise natural fermenting juices as to lay a foundation of new spurious Fermentations the causes of Feavers of all sorts Not to say here how most yea for ought I know all sorts of Feavers are nothing else but spurious Fermentations of the blood and other juices of the body distinguishable or if I may say specificated by variety of acids not congeneal but wholly disagreeable gradually heightening the natural and otherwise slow pac'd genuine Fermentations whose various degrees of Feavers are most what differenced or specificated from the low or high slower or quicker degrees of spurious Fermentation or to speak in a more plain dialect how Feavers are various sorts or different degrees of inflamations of the blood and other juices For an inflamation according to our Hypothesis is nothing else but a heightening of Fermentation from a more strong collision of the principles whereby from their mutual wrestlings they arrive to the height of causticks which as we shew elsewhere differ from corrosives onely from the difference of their acids such I mean as in a lower degree pleurising from an inflamatory transposition of the fiery particles of the blood upon the pleura and in a higher degree as are the plague and pestilential Feavers which are Feavers in their highest inflamatory and siery degree witness the Anthrases Carbuncles and other pestilential badges which shew perfect Eschars upon the skin as if perform'd by cauteries Lixivial or fiery which are with due caution to be cured by such ways and methods as allay that furious fiery Ebullition by Phlebotomy and gentle breathing Sweats but here we must cut short intending as this finds acceptance a fuller and more free discourse of the nature of Feavers how essentially specificated and what methods accordingly they best yield too concerning which we may Deo dante treat in another place Onely this by the by we would observe that amongst animal juices those from vegitables made by animal Ferments suppose Milk by the various actions of the innate or adventitious acids upon their inbred Sulphurs happen different products First therefore as to the coagulations and alterations to be made from the inbred acidum thereof Thus Milk while in an equal temperature of its constituent ingredients undergoes no separation of parts remaining in an uniform Liquor but being expos'd to the Air after a while the innate acidum of the Milk being acuated by that of the Air makes a spontaneous separation of a cremor from the more thin part which Cream having some acidum in it as we elsewhere prove that all Cremors Oyles Fatts Axungia's c. are but different disguises of animal Sulphurs have their implanted acids by keeping grows more sour this by concussion of the parts in that motion we call Churming undergoes a Fermentation of its kind from whence happens another sort of separation viz. into Butter which is Sulphur in another form then before and a more serous part call'd Butter-milk And as Milk after the separation of Cream by longer standing comes to a thick and almost gellyed consistence by Countrey people call'd Loppard and by a little heat splits into Curd and Whey so Butter-milk if kept long will come to the like consistence but if heated the acidum presently coagulates the Curdy part if that coagulation be made in heat after the mixture of New-Milk the acidum in the Butter-milk coagulates both the Curdy parts of its own as also Butirous and Curdy parts of the New-milk into that sort of sour coagulum call'd hatted Milk which is more or less sour according to the prevalency of the acidum or more or less affusion of New-Milk And Lastly As the foresaid alterations are made from the various coagulations of Milk from its implanted acid So likewise other sorts of coagulations thereof are produced from additional acids Thus any Fermentative potable Liquor as Wine Ale Beer Syder c. mixed with Milk the acidum in such Liquors coagulates the Sulphurous parts into a Curd separable from the serus Liquor the like will
retrograde motion which is that we vulgarly call putrefaction are all other sorts produc'd and so of the rest which we shall not now enlarge upon and as to what results from mineral Fermentation we have elsewhere discourst That moisture or water the former of which is but the latter rarified is absolutely necessary both to the setting the principles of Fermentation a work as also to the keeping them afoot even in all such motions from the very lowest degree of vegetable Fermentation to the highest of actual flagration is evident in most things throughout the series of natures triplicity thus Vegitables necessarily require moisture not onely to set but also to keep their principles of Fermentation in a constant Spring Thus the Ferments of our Stomacks do really need the pouring down of Water Wine Ale Beer or other potable Liquors for the perpetuating and invigorating their active principles And hence for ought we know may be the reason why a Glass of Water taken after a plentiful repast is found to help the digestion by setting the Fermentation awork which otherwise by the glut of Food might be interrupted and that too by diluting the assum'd aliment and so setting the Acidum of the Stomack and Sulphur of the food into a mutual collision even as a little water poured to the thick Oyle of Vitriol by diluting sets the inward principles of Acidum and Sulphur into a Fermentation thence producing a considerable heat as we elsewhere further treat So likewise do the principles of mineral Ferments in their source no less require the continual afflux of Water in order to the heightening their heat and making of hot Baths Thus also Brass Lumps which are a sort of vitriolin marcasite laid in heaps do from the moisture of the Air or sprinkling of water suffer their principles of Acid and Sulphur by their mutual collisions to be set awork which are invigorated to that height as to rise to an actual flagration The same will Metal-Coals Mines of Tin-Glass Alom c. do and that from the identity of causes with the former So likewise moist Hay Corn in Green or Moist Sheafs Corn Steeped or otherwise Moistened do all of them from the same heightening of the action of their principles by moisture conceive heat yea take fire too as is abovesaid So that wherever Fermentation happens and that there is plenty of moisture or water there the Fermentation is considerably heightened as may be illustrated by all the foresaid instances And wherever there is heat proceeding from the same principles of Acidum and Sulphur if these by the addition of moisture become sufficiently intended will certainly cause Fire Yea perhaps fire it self I mean the culinary made up and fed with combustible concretes doth as necessarily require a moisture in the Air to the performing its quick rapid Fermentation of ignition and flagration so as to make 〈◊〉 principles liquid in the very act of flagration 〈◊〉 that mineral corrofive Fires do require the addition of moisture or water upon no other account then for the dissolving and putting into Fermentation their corrosive Acids and Sulphurs is evident not only in the Oyle of Vitriol but also in the Stigian waters viz. Spirit of Nitre Aqua fortis and Aqua regia the two former of which being the same thing as made from the same principles of Acid and Sulphur dissolv'd by the help of fire in water as we further declare in our Halologia all which are corroding menstrua's or liquid burning fretting fires which while in the form of dry Salts or Sulphurs separated are not at all apt to make such corrosions of Metals Minera s c. For according to our Hypothesis corrosive menstrua are not made from Salts in fluor nor are they bare acetous Liquors or Saline particles driven by force of fire from the imbraces of their own Earth as the learned Dr. Willis would have them but are an Acid and Sulphur brought over in a Liquid form That they are all Acids needs no proof and that they have all Sulphurs may very easily be made to appear by the resinous oylie or other Sulphurous separations to be made from all of them even from the leanest I mean distilled Vinegar as we demonstrate in our Lythologia Physica and Halologia so that Acidum and Sulphur by stress of Fire raising up some Liquid or watery parts fall into a fluor and thereby become corrosive menstrua For mineral Salts never become corrosives till their Sulphurs and Acids colliquate and that they do either by distillation from stress of fire the acidum of the fire assisting their colliquations as is evident in the making of the Stygian and other corrosive menstrua or by Fermentation as appears in the mixture of Mercury sublimate and crude Antimony or regulus of Antimony where the acidum of the Salts catch hold of the Sulphur in the crude or reguline Antimony and cause a Fermentation colliquating together or rather by their colliquations cause a Fermentation which you will for we see upon the Fermentation the mass of Salts and Antimony flow together appearing in a liquid although thick form which Colliquation and Fermentation is perform'd without the least specimen of any alcali or quid alcali analogum to which many ingenious persons for want of a true Basis and right Ariadnes Thred to extricate them from difficulties are driven to take Shelter in the solving these and the like Phaenomena And not onely corrosives but causticks also we suppose according to our Hypothesis to consist both of them chiefly in the vigour of Acids raised to the height of Fermentation and to differ onely in this that causticks are made from the acidum of Fire and that either as in its own rapid motion of Fermentation happening betwixt the Acidum and Sulphur of the combustible concrete or as its Acidum is fixt inter cremandum upon such sort of bodies as can grasp hold of and detain it in its intrails of which are all sorts of fixt Alcalies as they are call'd minium calx vivae c. whereas Corrosives are made from the acids of Minerals complicated with their Sulphurs and heightened by Fire which by the medium of an ingeint moisture or by a colliquation betwixt themselves become liquid corrosive Menstrua of which more elsewhere And of whose manner of workings in the solution of Metals we have above given a short account according to our deposited Thesis Yea and that some Acids and Sulphurs will colliquescere even without the help of Fire in distillation and in that colliquation will cause a strong Fermentation and intense heat is evident from the mixture of Antimony or the regulus of Antimony and mercury sublimate with dry powders will melt being mixed as if fused in a crucible We shall not here say how by the Fermentations of our foresaid principles all vegetable and animal concretes for the texture of whose bodies water as a material principle is absolutely requisite and which is
fixed as in Stony concretions and are made so in lixivial alcalies So that although Acids may touch upon them and cause a little fretting effervescence yet cannot volatize them therefore upon their collision and Ebullition we find no different hogo to smite our Nostrils the usual products of other Fermentations And then as to volatile Alcalies which put to Acids cause a fretting heat they do consist of an Acid and an urinous Spirit as in our Halologia we further demonstrate which being complicated together retains so much of the Acidum as is sufficient to its concretion into a saline form and yet is so much subjugated by the Vrinous Spirit as to be overpowered thereby and from the neutrality of their nature to cause the foresaid effervescence being mixed with Acids In the next place as to the reasons of Fermentation contracted in quick-lime from the affusion of water in short thus we suppose and think to demonstrate that heat to proceed from a Fermentation betwixt Salts of a different nature which upon the affusion of water are dissolv'd and thereby set into an actual strugling These different Salts are an Alcali and an Acidum Now that fixt alcalizate Alcalies not lixivial of Plants are disseminated in the bowels of the Earth to which petrisick concretions chiefly owe their original we at large shew in our Lithologia Physica and that such a sort of Alcali is implanted in calx vive which in the calcination required to the making thereof becomes yet heightened is evident First by its mortifying and sweetening Acids witness its being put to water acidulated with Spirit of Salt Nitre c. the acidity will presently be altered and mortified next by its closing Acids wrapt up in the texture of another body as appears by its mixture with Sal armoniack where its Alcali for it can be no other catcheth hold of the Acidum of Sal marine and so breaks the compage of the Armoniack Salt setting the volatile Vrinous Spirit at liberty Thirdly by the heat it makes after extinction by affusion of water with an acid Spirit as when Spirit of Vitriol is poured upon extinguish'd Lime a heat is thence caused Lastly By the observing that the water of its extinction will serve to open the body of mineral Sulphur by boiling them together which it will do almost as well as if the water had been acuated with fixt lixivial Salts both which work upon mineral Sulphurs by their Acids as we shall demonstrate more clearly afterwards And as to the Acidum in quick-lime we say it owes its original to no other then to that of Fire contracted in the calcination of the Stone and that it was not pre-existent before calcination Now that Fire in the actual flagration of combustable bodies doth in that violent Fermentation of its principles fix its acidum while the Sulphurous principle wheels off into the Air upon some bodies it meets withall suitable for the reception thereof and how that from the difference of Acids in several combustable concretes by flagration intangling themselves with and fixing upon other bodies different effects are produced I might confirm by many instances The former is evident amongst the rest in the reverberatory calcination of Lead in its preparation into minium where the Acidum in the flame of Wood centers and fixeth it self upon the Lead and gives considerable increase of weight thereto So in like manner to come nearer to our purpose the Acidum of Cole in the calcination of Lime-stone doth by a continued reverberation fix it self in the cranies and inward recesses thereof Thus in the calcination of Vitriol by the rayes of the Sun in the preparation of the Sympathetick powder the pondus thereby becomes increased And then as to the latter viz. the different effect upon bodies from the variety of Acids in actual ignition or flagration either fixing themselves thereon or at least by some sleighter intrusions shewing a different operation we could demonstrate from our observations upon burning of Bricks hardening of Iron or Steel calcinations of minerals and metals various reverberations and many other mechanical operations solely owing their original to the difference of the foresaid Acid nor to say here how amongst other Phoenomena the difference of colours amongst minerals and metals contracted by calcinations and reverberations owe their original to this source of varieties of Acids in different sorts of Fires which for brevity sake we now omit referring to a further discourse thereof in another place By the power of the foresaid Acidum in quick-lime communicated thereto by Fire in the calcination thereof it is that the water of Lime will perform what other more usual Acids cannot for instance That Lime-water mixed with any volatile Vrinous Salt and distilled therefrom fixeth yea turns the Salt into an insipid powder or indissolvable calx concerning which the ingenuous Zuelfer well notes quin etiam saith he speaking of this very thing huic aquae recenti salia volatilia jungerem moxque vidi effectum sc salium dictorum totalem destructionem eorum in calcem vel pulverem insipidum indissolubilem omni odore sapore privatum ignisque violentiam in posterum strenue sustinentem conversionum The like probably would minium do to the same volatile Salts if mixed therewith and that from the same cause viz. the Acidum contracted by the Fire and from the same Acidum it is also that water of Lime cast plentifully upon boiling Milk will curdle it And from these two viz. the Alcali and Acidum which we have demonstrated to be in quick-Lime put into a strugling fretting motion by their solution in water is according to our Hypothesis the very cause of heat obvious in quick-Lime For unless these two be dissolved no Fermentation happens and consequently no heat Hence it is that although rectified Spirit of Wine Spirit of Turpentine or other such like Sulphurous Liquors be added yet cause no heat because they are not competent menstrua nor suitable Liquors for the dissolving the foresaid Alcali and Acidum from whose solution and combating motion proceeds the heat But we have at large discourst upon that subject in our Lithologia Physica to which I refer the Reader therefore shall now forbear further to insist thereon CHAP. X. LAstly as to heat and sometimes ignition which is caused from the collisions and attritions of hard solid bodies we may without any difficulty solve from our formerly deposited principles As for instance that heat and ignition which proceed from the attritions and percussions of Flint and Steel the attritions of Steele and Wood of Steel and Pyrites or any other Gritt or Free-stone The attritions of either sappy or dry wood as happens in the violent motion of the Axis or Wheels of Coaches Chariots Wagons or Mills all which Phoenomena we can well and we think rationally charge to the account of our former Hypothesis viz. That they are performed no other way then by a quick and sudden excitation of
or retrogressive Fermentation in taking bodies in pieces For putrefaction always begins where the principles terminate their actions in generative motions viz. upon the external superficies or outward rims of all Bodies where the ambient Air touch them and thence begin their retrograde motion in the natural analysis of Bodies which is evident from this observation viz. That I know by an artificial exclusion of Air how to preserve most perhaps all sorts of Fruits newly taken off the Trees as suppose Gooseberries Apricots Damsens Cherries c. so that in January I have had Tarts made of them to entertain Strangers with as we elsewhere in our Lithologia Physica further shew So that it is from a peculiar sort of Fermentation betwixt the Acidum and Sulphur in the unhingeing the compage of the concrete whence proceeds the flaming brightness of rotten Wood For the principles are not all wound off but onely are a going off in a luminous brightness whence also proceeds its facile susception of Fire from any Spark thereof insomuch as the last Threds of natures unraveling in the reduction of bodies by putrefaction especially in some is of the finest sort the volatile Sulphur winding it self off by slender vibrations from the connate acid in a subtile but luminous rotation The like account may be given of Light from some sorts of Fish hung up till they undergo an incipient putrefaction For while their principles of Acid and Sulphur do by the moisture in the Air undergo a putefactive Fermentation the Sulphur by those retrograde motions becomes more volatiz'd and by gentle touches from its inbred Acid winds off in a luminous flame In which supposition we are the more confirm'd inasmuch as they shine not till a sleight putrefaction of their juices be already begun To which may be added that in their putrefactive reductions a mucilage is made to appear which is the receptacle and as it were sperme wherein the two principles do the better shew themselves in their vibrations and luminous productions which mucilage the Fish imbib'd and incorporated into its self according to all probability from the estuations of the Sea upon Storms and Tempests of which we shall speak further below As to the Light from Glo-worms its probable that sort of insect takes its original from the putrid juice or excrements of some animal or other insect wherein the principles are winding off in a slender texture of an eradiating brightness which juice that insect yet retains For I look upon the slender woven flame inherent in Glo-worms and other foresaid putrid juices to proceed from a mutual but gentle vibration of the principles in their retrograde motion which although without any sensible heat that it has none we dare not say yet ceteris paribus to be in some measure answerable as to the ground of the causes to that flame made from the principles in their generative motion heightened by frication attrition or the like into a burning luminous flame CHAP. XIII NOw come we to treat of the production of luminous Meteors and to enquire into the causes of their Light such I mean as happen within the compass of the Atmosphere For the better understanding whereof we are first to conceive of the Earth as a body in whose intrails various Fermentations especially such as relate to minerals are continually at work to the compleating the generation of Minerals and Metals to the making Hot-Baths the producing the fontes acidi and to the perpetuating other grand Phoenomena of Nature Next that these Fermentations of subterraneal juices I mean as to the effects thereof terminate not always upon the external cortex of the Earth but are continually breath forth whose subtiliz'd and volatiz'd particles especially the Sulphureous are incessantly passing off in the slenderest of textures viz. in a subtile apporrhea or invisible steame into the Atmosphere filling it with plenty of agil nimble parts floating in the Air as in their proper Sea and dissolv'd therein as in their peculiar fluid menstruum Also we are to conceive that the Atmosphere doth not onely lodge plenty of the foresaid effiuvia arising from mineral but likewise from animal and vegetable Fermentations wheeling off in tenuious combinations and slender woven nexures undiscernable to our Eyes although fortified by the best microscopes whereby the Air becomes the common receptacle of innumerous multitudes and swarms as I may say of volatiz'd Acid and Sulphurous particles not onely issuing through the pores of the Earth but also from other bodies upon the surface thereof continually spending themselves in insensible effuvia kept a foot by their unwearyed Fermentations In which consideration we are to apprehend of the Earth not onely as the common matrix impregnated with those intestine Fermentations from mineral juices but also as from whose exuberant lap plenty of other more simple and sometimes sensible I mean watery steams are especially from springie places continually issuing forth insomuch as those last are discernable to a curious eye intently looking upon the surface of the Earth a little after Sun-rise the eye being somewhat elevated above the Level of the ground and directed towards the Sun by which curious observation Springs themselves are sometimes found out And as the Earth in the consideration aforesaid so also every particular concrete has its Atmosphere more or less extending its orb of activity according to the quick or slow pac'd inward Fermentations I mean according to the more brisk or flat onsets and encounters of their principles Acid and Sulphur And further that many of those slender woven combinations are by reason of their tenuity so indissipable as to retain the specimen of their first original even after long at least succedaneous rotations in the Atmosphere whereby they become capable of performing other effects to which they are naturally propence from the occurrance of other co-working causes as is evident in many unusual effects in or from the Air whose causes lying so remote from our sences we do not easily apprehend concerning which we have not time now to reckon These considerations being premis'd it will not be difficult hence to solve the Phoenomena of those short liv'd luminous textures Meteors where we shall not need to our help to call in either the exhalations of the Peripateticks because grounded upon improbable causes amongst which that of the supposition of extrinsical heat as the efficient is not the least Or the Cartesian Globeloy Or Gassendus his Glomeres being supposed complications of Nitro-vitriolick-Sulphurous-steams Or Nitro-aereal particles common to the Air and Nitre according to the Hypothesis of a late Author Nor lastly shall we call in any other Hypothesis to contribute to our assistance But shall study to trace the sootings of our own principles although making their way through as yet hidden and unknown paths making our free inquest whether Meteors may not from our foresaid principle be genuinely and satisfactorily solv'd We say therefore that amongst the Mineral and