the Sky-Colour reach'd to the lower part of the Liquor which at this time is wholly and deeply of that Colour the Oil that swims above it being clear TITLE XIX Of the Heat and Coldness of the Air. THough the Peripatetick Doctrine about the Limits and Temperaments of the three Regions into which they divide the Air hath been so plausibly proposed that it has been readily entertained not only by the Aristotelian Schools but by the Generality of Philosophers as well modern as ancient yet since I think it becomes a Naturalist to consider not so much how easy a Doctrine is by reason of its Concinnity to be remembred or supposed as how strongly 't is to be proved I must not dissemble that as to this vulgar Theory I think it fitter we should wish it to be true than that we should believe it is so for I confess that upon the best Informations I have been able to procure from Travellers by Land and Sea or from Writers that relate rather what they have observed than what they have been taught I have been much tempted to question the received Doctrine of the Schools about the Regions of the Air. And that you may judg whether or no my Thoughts be rational the ensuing Discourse shall acquaint you with several of the Particulars on which they are grounded What I have in other Papers written concerning Cold does not only make it less proper for me to treat of it indefinitely in this Place but would make it difficult for me to say much on this Subject without Repetition And it were perhaps fittest for me to say nothing on an occasion wherein I have left my self little to say that is new and pertinent but yet since this Title promises not any thing about Cold in general but only some less heeded Particulars relating to the Coldness of the Air That I may not leave it wholly unfurnished I will refer to it a few Instances that ensue The Physician elsewhere mentioned that was lately at Morocco answered me that notwithstanding the excessive Heat that reign'd there in the Day-time he felt the Night very cold and so he did the mountanous Air in those Parts An intelligent Gentleman that stay'd a Year in Guinea and spent part of that time in the Land answer'd me that notwithstanding the excessive Heat of the Climate he was divers times about four of the Clock in the Morning reduced to be ready to tremble for Cold as he lay in his Hammock for about an Hour together A learned Man that lived at Jamaica assured me that when he laid in his Hammock about three or four Foot from the Ground though he had much Clothes under him and little or none over him he felt it cold beneath and hot above 'T is obvious to every Man's Sense or Observation that the greater Heat that is usually found in our Air during the Summer than in other Seasons of the Year has manifest Effects upon such easily agitable Bodies as Liquors and upon the Juices and Flesh of Animals and the softer Parts of Vegetables But that even in Places shelter'd from the Sun-beams the Warmth of a temperate Summer should be able sensibly to rarify and expand so cold and compact a Body as Glass it self would not be easily suspected or believed And yet that this is one of the Effects of the Temperature of the Air in Summer seems very probable by this Experiment that having two large factitious Crystal Viols caused some Stopples of the same Matter to be exquisitely ground and fitted this or that Vessel exactly closed when the Stopple was in it was very easy to be opened in Winter and in the colder Parts of the Neighbouring Seasons but in Summer 't was oftentimes so difficult to unstop the same Vessel that a Man's Force though assisted with a String was not able to pull out the Stopple To that I was often reduced to cause the Necks of the Vials to be held under a Pump or to be stirred to and fro in a Vessel full of Water that the Coldness of that Liquor might take off the Expansion that the Heat of the Season had given the Glass which being by this means made to shrink into its former Dimensions the Vial and Stopple would be easily enough disjoined This was tried in several Vessels and in more than one Year But to make this Experiment successful two Parts must at first have been exquisitly adjusted to one another which in those Glasses with Stopples of the same Matter that are commonly sold they are not usually found to be We are wont to attribute the Effects we feel of the Summers Heat to the bare Warmth of the Air and to the Agitations that such Warmth produces in the Parts of our Bodies especially in the Blood Juices and Spirits whereas it may very well happen that we may find odd Changes in our selves upon very hot Weather which proceed not from the Heat of the Air as such but rather from this Cause that by such a Degree of Heat divers Bodies that we think not of may be solicited to send forth Effluvia that have emitted none by Force or at least no such Quantity as could make them sensibly operative And these Effluvia may be the true and immediate Causes of divers Effects that are unwarily ascribed to the mere Heat of the Air and that which it produces in our Bodies To illustrate and confirm this Conjecture I shall propose the following Experiment Being in the Heat of Summer in the Country I took a some-what large Piece of fine Amber that I usually imployed about Electrical Experiments and when the Sun had reach'd a considerable Height above the Horizon I placed it in a shaded Part of a Window on which he shined freely though I left the Amber here for a competent time yet I could not find that it would draw a Piece of Straw Feather or other light Body that at a convenient Distance was held to it But when I removed it a very little further into a Part of the Window into which the Sun-beams fell freely they quickly put its Parts into such an Agitation as made it emit Electrical Effluvia and readily attract those light Bodies that would not stir before and which it would soon though not immediately lose the Power of drawing as before if it were removed back into the neighbouring shaded part of the Window May 26. Mr. Nickson who was four Years Governour of the English Colony in Hudsons-Bay answered me that when they sail'd within a certain Distance of floating Islands of Ice if the Wind blew from thence toward the Ship or as the Seamen speak if they were to the Leeward of the Ice they could by the new and sensible Cold they felt know that such Ice lay to Windward of them sometimes even before they were able to discover it by Sight And when I further asked at what Distance that might be he answered that 't was sometimes twelve or fifteen Miles if
Pounds of Water to which that Liquor and a convenient Quantity of bruised Raisons upon the Orifice of the Glass were tied the Neck of a pretty large Bladder out of which the Air having been diligently express'd it was strongly fastned to our Glass with one of our close Cements so that by squeezing the Bladder we could not perceive that any Air could get in or out Then this done we left the Glass in a convenient Place in the Laboratory till the 8th or 9th of March and then finding the Bladder to be pump'd up we would have tied up the contained Air but could not do it by reason of an imperceiv'd Hole perchance made with the Point of a Pin by some one of them that handled it Wherefore taking off this Bladder we caused another that was very limber to be put on after the manner newly described and yesterday Morning we found it though by Estimation it might hold about two Pounds of Water to be so full of Air that we could not without difficulty and losing a pretty deal of the contain'd Air tie the Bladder very close near the Neck of it And to try whether this same Mixture would continue to produce Air whether fermented or not I must not here dispute I caused another Bladder to be fastned to the same Glass as before and found it this Morning March 11. as full as if it were distended with a Pair of Bellows April 28. Into the bottom of a wide-mouth'd Vial we put some good Spirit of Salt and Filings of Steel and whelm'd over it a Rr. fitted with an Eel-skin and a Wire to the latter of which was tied a thin Glass-Vessel hermetically seal'd at the bottom tho 't was but slender and furnished with a competent Quantity of Filings of Copper then we exhausted the Rr. well with our Engine and afterwards by thrusting the Glass that held the Filings against the bottom of the Vial we broke it off upon which the Filings fell into the Menstruum which acting upon them there ensued good store of Bubbles that made a Froth much deeper than was the Liquor and the successive Generation of these Bubbles continued a good while and appear'd some of them large enough though in the free Air they would scarce have been visible or at least would not have been taken notice of the Vial having been kept in our Vacuum for a Quarter of an Hour longer and no Greenness to be seen in the Liquor the Rr. was taken off and the Vial left open to the Air. A Bubble of Air whose Diameter was near in length to that of a middle siz'd Pea was left at the top of a round Vial with a long narrow Neck whose Cavity was fill'd with fine Oil of Turpentine and then being inverted into a Vial fill'd with the same Liquor was set aside in a quiet Place and left there for a competent time Another Vial shap'd like the former but a pretty deal less was fill'd Neck and all with Alcohol of Wine save a Bubble of Air about the same Bigness with the former This Vial being inverted into another furnish'd with the same Liquor was set aside in the same Window with it and at the same time The Event was that about the End of the 6th Day the Bubble disappear'd in the Glass that contain'd the Oil of Turpentine And the like Absorption if I may so call it I observ'd to have been made of the Air by the contiguous Spirit of Wine the next Day after May the 23d We open'd another exhausted Receiver wherein was an unstop'd Vial more than half full of an opacous and blackish Liquor which we guess'd for we found no Inscription belonging to it to have been Frogs Spawn and were sure to have been included at least three Years By the Mercurial Gage that was put up with it it appear'd to have afforded some Air but not very much It s Smell was stinking much like that of the Pump of a Ship but yet it had produc'd no Insects nor had any Appearance of Mouldiness A Gentleman of my Acquaintance an industrious Digger for Mines and Owner of a good one informs me that when the Miners meet with running Water under Ground they are thereby supplied with Air enough for free Respiration And when I ask'd whether he thought that Air was produced or extricated by the Motion of the Water or else were only concomitant to the Stream He answered that it seemed to him more like to proceed from the Water it self and further answered me that standing Waters did not afford Air to the Diggers and that running Waters did it even at considerable Depths amounting to many Fathoms Experiments about the Production of Air and the examining thereof proposed Sect 1. TO produce Air by Fermentation in exactly closed Receivers To produce Air by Fermentation in seal'd Glasses To separate Air from Liquors by boiling To separate Air from Liquors by the Engine To produce Air by Corrosion especially with Sp. Anti. To separate Air by Animal and sulphureous Solvents To obtain Air in the exhausted Receiver by burning Glasses and red hot Irons To produce Air out of Gun-powder and other nitrous Bodies Sect. 2. Examine the produc'd Aerial Substance by its preserving or reviving 1st Animals 2dly Flame 3dly Fire 4thly The Light of rotten Wood Fish To examine it by its Elasticity and the Duration thereof As also by its Weight And by its lifting up the Smoak of Liquors TITLE VII Of the Accidental or less constant Ingredients of the Air. Â TITLE VIII Of Aqueous Particles in the Air and of the Moisture and Driness of the Air. I Shall not here determine whether in all the Instances that are referr'd to this Title the Phenomena be produced by the meer Moisture of the Air as such or by some other Agents whose Corpuscles are accompanied and assisted by the moist Air as a Vehicle and a concurrent Cause But without nicely distinguishing the Grounds of particular Operations we shall refer the Phenomena in general to the Moisture of the Air or moist Air that Quality being the most obvious to be observ'd in these Phenomena in the Production of some of which it seems either the only or the main Cause in others an assistant Cause and in all a not useless Concomitant The Account upon which a Body is dry being usually but this that the Pores intercepted between its more stable Parts are not fill'd with any visible Liquor it is not to be expected that a Quality so near of kin to a Privation should furnish much to our present historical Notes But yet Driness may sometimes have a not-inconsiderable Interest in the Changes of a Body and that upon differing Scores whereof I take these two to be the chief 1st As the Body by Exsiccation is deprived of those liquid and exhalable Parts that were before harbour'd in its Pores and were perhaps the Principle of divers Operations ascribed to it And 2dly As these Evaporable Parts
been well graduated 12 or 16 Degrees being the most that are set upon the common Weather-Glass whereas to the making of accurate Observations it would require a Cylinder to be divided into at least 360 Parts though I think it neither unreasonable nor unpracticable to have one divided into 1000 Parts allowing but 10 Degrees to each Inch which is no unusual Division seeing such an one will much better discover not only the small but the more suddain and remarkable Changes of the Weather which are of chiefest Use than any others that are common and ordinary 4. Although no Liquor ought to be used in these Glasses that is subject to Frost yet we have little or no Account what those Liquors are that might be best or fittest for the accurate making of those Experiments whether those whose Property it is somewhat to attract the Air and so to preserve themselves in at least their first Quantity as Oleum Sulphuris per Campanam Ol. Vitrioli Liquor Salis Tartari c. Or 2dly Whether those whose Parts are finest subtilest and nearest of kin to the Air such as is Spirit of Wine Spirit of Terebinth well rectified and according as there is occasion still fresh supplied Or 3dly Whether those that are of a middle Nature as strong Spirit of Vinegar Or 4thly Whether instead of these and beyond these it may not be best to use only well-refined Quicksilver All which several Particulars as they are necessary and ought to be first ascertained yet they are but preliminary to the Experiments themselves In the making of the Experiments themselves therefore it would be convenient 1st That several Thermometers of one Proportion Length and Graduation in their Cylinders in all Respects as near as may be were set in one Frame together either with one and the same or with Variety of Liquors 2dly That several of these Frames were set in several Rooms and that fome were exposed immediately to the Air it self yet so as it may be conveniently sheltred from the actual Rays of the Sun and from the Injury of Storms Rain and Winds In the History it self there cannot be too much Care and Exactness provided the Air of the Chimny Cranny of a Wall or Door Breath of People or other such Accidents do not interpose to deceive a Man's Observation which must be circumspectly foreseen and considered The Proportion between the Warmth of the Day and Night in constant Weather the Agreement or Disagreement of the Motion of the Air with the Motions of the superiour Bodies in all uncertain changeable and inconstant Weather the Efficacy or Inefficacy through these in foretelling of Winds and Rain the Air its particular Disposition under Thunder under times of Mildews or Blastings eminent Eclipses Conjunctions with many other the like Particulars which will of themselves be incident to an ingenious diligent apprehensive Person may be the Subject of this History I shall not digress so far as to tell you what other things may be done by the Help of this excellent Instrument this being not pertinent to our present Purpose Yet it is certain that Drebble that great singular learned Mechanick did by the Help of this Instrument make a Dial continually to move of it self regularly shewing both the times of the Day and other Motions of the Heavens did also make an Automatous Instrument of Musick and found out a Furnace which he could govern to any Degree of Heat but whether these have died with him or how far the Meditations of others have wrought upon them I shall humbly refer to a more leasurable Inquiry And if you can inform me among any of your Acquaintance or Correspondents I should be glad to hear and to learn any thing of this Nature or relating to the further Use Experiment or Improvement of this rare little Instrument or to the further clearing ventilating or discussing the Theory or Doctrine of the Planets or the Physical Use and Power of these Bodies that we have thus briefly made an Essay of Thus far that Letter They have a received Tradition in Java and probably in divers other Islands of the South Sea that the Beams of the Moon are wont to cause Contractures in the Body of those Men that stay too long exposed to them The Truth of which Tradition was lately confirmed to me by an ingenious Doctor that with Applause practised Physick in those Parts who assured me that he had observed that upon the Account before mentioned some were made lame or else had some of their Limbs contracted for divers Weeks and some for many Months or even a longer time And when I asked him whether he had at any time been subject to that Mischief himself He answered that whilst he was a Novice in those Parts after a very hot Day he laid himself down very slenderly covered to sleep according to the Custom of the Place near the Door of the House he lodg'd in but being unacquainted with the Tradition he unskilfully chose a Place upon which the Moon could fully beat for a good part of the Night which being past before he wak'd when he went to rise he found his Neck so stiff that he was scarce able at all to stir it and his Mouth was so drawn awry that 't was hideous to behold and continued so unsightly that Shame forced him to keep within for some Days during which he made Use of brisk Aromatick Medicines by whose Help he got off a Contracture that used to stay very much longer with others And when I asked him if these Distempers were not occasioned rather by the Coldness of the Night and Subtilty of the Air than the Operation of the Moon 's Beams He answered me that 't was generally observ'd that the other Causes without the direct Beams of the Moon were not wont to produce such bad Effects and that his Landlord when he saw his Mouth awry told him that if he had made him acquainted with his Design to pass the Night in the open Air he would have prevented this Mischief by lodging him in a Place unexposed to the Moon 's Light TITLE XIV Of the Height of the Atmosphere  TITLE XV. Of the Motion of the Air and of Winds Extract of a Letter from Fort St. George dated January the 23d 1668. ALthough the Bar of Porta Nova proved more shallow and dangerous than we were informed yet she our Ship got safe in thither and it was well she did so Had we kept her here there had been no Possibility of her Escape from perishing in a dreadful Storm or rather Hurricane which happened here the 22d of November The like hath not been known here in any Man's Memory The Tempest of Wind and Rain was so exceeding violent that nothing could stand before it Men and Beasts carried into the Sea by the Violence of the Winds and Floods the Generality of the Houses in this and the Neighbour Towns were ruined scarce any Trees left standing in Gardens or elsewhere
and forthwith laying it to Iron when it freezes hard by its immediate Adhesion even in the Moment of touching it would make some way for the Affirmative That same Month returning back from Warsaw I saw upon my Journey the Sun rise with a large Pillar coloured like a Rain-bow perpendicular over it out of a clear Horizon and I remember Monsieur Hevelius told me he observed it once set with the like N. In Cornwall they observe in their driving home Levels or Sink the Waters do also manifestly partake of the Minerals for in some Mines they are Sanative where Iron is observed and in others apt to cause Wounds to fester and rankle As the first was most manifest at Karne Key the latter at Relistian both famous Tin-Works Asking of a Chymist that travelled with a famous Virtuoso of my Acquaintance over part of the Alpes that is said to be much subject to Thunders divers Questions about Thunder I had among other Answers this That he and my Friend being together at the Top of a forked Mountain between whose Parts there lay a Valley that seem'd almost cover'd with a thick Cloud and though the Weather were clear at both the Tops he observed that the subjacent Cloud being big with Thunder the Lightning appeared quite through it and seem'd to lie deep in it so that casting his Eyes down upon the Cloud he fancied that what he saw was to use his own Comparison as if a shining Fish were moving to and fro very swiftly in a somewhat troubled Water If I had seasonably had the Relation I had enquired of my Friend about it but I was the more inclined to believe it because I remember that passing over a part of the Alpes less high than that where the recited Observation was made though it was very fair Weather and a clear Sky at the Top of the Mountain where we were yet a great way beneath us we saw dark Clouds through part of which we afterwards in our Descent were obliged to pass though then whether part of the Matter had been in the mean while discussed I examine not it seemed to us little different from a thick Fog which when we had passed thorow we found the Weather fair and clear enough to the Foot of the Mountain Meeting with an inquisitive Noble-man that liv'd long at Naples I asked him whether he had ever seen any of those famous Apparitions that are said sometimes to shew themselves in or near the Sicilian Strait and is known by the Name if I mistake not of Morgane To this he answered me that during the Spring-time he had once the Curiosity to try whether this Tradition had so much Ground as was commonly believed and that accordingly on several fair Mornings he rose before the Sun and look'd solicitously along the Coast without seeing any thing that answered his Expectation But not being discouraged by these Disappointments he one Morning perceived as he thought two Steeples in a Neighbouring Town where he knew there was but one which Phaenomenon inviting him to continue his Curiosity he chose the first fair and cloudless Morning to rise early on and casting his Eyes towards the lately mentioned Town and the Coast it was not remote from he was surprized with a delightful Prospect of a new Town beyond the other and incomparably greater than it and furnish'd as it seem'd to him and a Doctor of Physick that accompanied him with Walls and Towers and Steeples and Houses and other things that were delightful as well as wonderful to behold But he answer'd me that the Colours were not near so lively as the Figures being for the most part somewhat dim though adorned here and there with some Redness but this odd Spectacle as it was not invariable during the whole time it lasted did not continue very long for when the Sun was gotten up to such a Height above the Horizon as made his Beams powerful they quickly confounded all these Airy Structures in a kind of Chaos and made the fantastick City vanish Moist Vapours are not the only Cause or Sign of the Opacity of the Air since that dry blighting East Wind which from the Effects Country People call a red Wind makes the Air at a Distance seem blewish and thick This is the Wind which these two Years last past has been so pernicious to Apples and indeed to all sorts of Trees not only to blast the Fruit but the very Leaves of such Trees as it met withal just in the Tender as the Woodmen call it i. e. when they are newly expanded out of the Buds Mr. J. T. That Air is sometimes more clear and transparent and sometimes more dark and as it were muddy being clogg'd and opacated with terrestrial Steams is every Man's Observation But there are some Phaenomena that depend upon the Density Diaphancity c. of the Air that are not so vulgarly taken notice of For besides those that require Skill in the Doctrine of Refractions on which therefore I shall not now insist there are some others that may be worth your notice which I shall give a Taste of Considering the differing Accounts that are given by good Authors of the number of the Fixed Stars and comparing them with some Observations of our own I was thereby and upon some other Grounds induced to suspect that the differing and unheeded Constitutions of the Air might occasion a Difference in assigning the Number of the Stars which made me inquire of several Navigators and Travellers some into the torrid Zone and others into the frigid ones what Difference they found in contemplating the Stars in those Climates and in ours and by this Inquiry I learned that in some Places where the Air is very pure Celestial Observations may be more happily made And particularly because I supposed that intense Cold by precipitating the darkning Vapours out of the Air may probably make it more defecate and clear I desired an ingenious Physician that travelled in Muscovy to take notice of any thing that should favour or disfavour this Conjecture In Compliance with which Request of mine he informed me that travelling one Night in a Sled in the more mediterranean Parts of Russia the Weather being extraordinary cold he was invited to quit his Sled a little to consider the Sky where he saw so many Stars and so much brighter than he had ever seen before that he was almost as much surprized as delighted with so glorious a Spectacle which he shewed to some of his Fellow-Travellers that shared in his Wonder And this brought into my Mind that remembring that the ingenious Capt. James being forc'd to winter in Charlton-Island which though but of the Latitude almost of Cambridg is but little if at all less cold than Nova Zembla it self I should probably find something pertinent to our present Subject in so diligent an Observer I resorted to his Voyage where I met with these notable Observations January 30 and 31 there appeared in the
dalla gamba quella fune con la quale sta legata la pietra resta egli libero la pietra viene subito tirata soprada quello che n'ha cura et il marinaro poi comincia con molta follecitudine à pigliare quelle madreperle che li vengono dinanzi e le mette nel sacco e sentendosi mancare la respiratione tocca la fune con la quale sta legato nel mezzo e quello subito con grandiss ' velocita lo tira et arrivando nella barca scaricando le madre perle ripiglia fiato e dopo torna a legarsi di nuovo la pietra e di nuovo si tufta come sopra's ' e detto e sempre cosi per tutta la giornata Et è tanto faticosa questa pesca ch' essendo tanto profunde le Madre perl nel mare molti mancando loro la respiratione si trovano affogati It is by long Observation and often repeated Experience found certain that if any Foreigner lie on shore all Night at Johanna they seldom miss to be taken with Sickness there or within a few Days after their Departure from the Island and are commonly seized with putrid Feavers whereof most die in two or three Days though those that have remained upon the Place all Day-long for several Days together are almost always safe if they go on board of Ship every Night about a Mile or a little further from the Shore The Island abounds with the greatest Variety of Plants and Trees that can be almost imagined in that Circumference and is generally excessive hot in the day-time but cold after Sun-set Whence it may possibly be supposed that the most volatile Parts of those promiscuous and probably many of them poisonous Plants exalted in the day-time by Degrees and suddenly condensed at Night may by Inspiration infect the Mass of Blood much after the same manner as in Pestilential Airs The Inhabitants themselves are very much subject to Feavers of what sort I could not learn for which they cut or scarify their Breast or Abdomen in several Places but they observe that few live except their Feaver terminates in a considerable number of Botches in divers Parts of the Body There is one Hill there remarkable for Height which is seldom or never free from thick Fogs or Clouds hovering over the Top of it sometimes higher sometimes lower according as the Weather alters Upon the Coast of Cormandell and most maritime Places of the East-Indies there are sometimes I think yearly Fogs so thick notwithstanding it is then very hot that all or most Inhabitants from other Nations and the tenderer sort of the Natives are necessitated to keep their Houses with the Doors and Windows fast shut there being little or no Commerce at that time At Balassore in the Bay of Bengale and in divers other Parts in that Country there happens after great Rains so great Corruption of the Air that the stinking Smell is very nauseous to the Inhabitants which I presume may be chiefly occasioned by a great number of Frogs and other Reptiles wherewith those Places abound left upon the dry Places after the Inundation and then putrified by the excessive Heat of the Sun At this time there is great Sickness and Mortality amongst the Natives chiefly by violent Feavers In the return of English Ships from the East-Indies they generally put their sick People on Shore at St. Helena where they find so sensible Alteration that altho carried thither there are few that do not recover so much Strength as to walk about in two or three Days which in all Probability must chiefly be attributed to the Alteration of Air not of Food there being in most Ships much the same Benefit of fresh Provision for those that are diseased Le chemin plus court de Mosul a Bagdad est par la Mesopotamie mais on n'y trouve aucun Village le Samiel y regne tout l'Eté depuis Mosul jusques a Sourat ce qui oblige a prendre l'eau sur le Tigre où ce vent ne Souffle point Le nom de ce vent et composé des mots Sam et jel c'est a dire poison et vent comme qui diroit vent de poison Ce pourroit être le vent urens dont parle Job xxvii 21. Lorsque quelqu ' un a respiré ce vent il tombe mort subitement quoi qu'il en ait quelques uns qui ont le temps de dire qu' ils brûlent au dedans D' abord qu' on est mort on devient tout noir et si on tire le mort par le bras où par la jambe où par un autre endroit la chair quite les os et reste entre les mains de ceux qui la touchent Thevenot dans le Bibliotheque Universel Tom. xiii p. 266. Doctor Colins relates that in Muscovy their Horses are much subject to a very scurvy Disease whose Russian Name I have forgot from which the Natives are wont to preserve them by keeping Goats in their Stables And being ask'd by me whether he had this by Tradition or upon his own Trial He affirmed that he had found it true himself and that he therefore was wont to keep Goats in his own Stable The ingenious Mr. Rycaut English Consul at Smyrna being ask'd of me whether at Smyrna as well as at Aleppo he observed that the Plague that uses to rage in the former part of the Summer degenerates into other Diseases about the latter End of June and beginning of July He answered me that at Smyrna the Observation does not hold so much as at Aleppo but yet at Smyrna they generally observe that about that time of the Year though exceeding hot that the Malignity of the Plague does notably lessen for it is not quite so infectious nor near so generally mortal as it was in the former part of the Summer When many Years ago I heard of this strange Phaenomenon of the Pestilence at Aleppo I began to think whether a possible though not perhaps the true Cause of it may not be such as this That the Pestilential Corpuscles that rove up and down in the Air during the former part of the Summer require such a Bulk or Grossness to enable them to exercise their pernicious Operations but when the Weather grows to be exceeding hot that Heat of the Air becomes able to dissipate those Corpuscles and deprive them of that Bulk that we have supposed necessary to their destructive Efficacy For Illustration of this Conjecture we may take notice of the Smoak that issues out of the Weik of a Candle newly blown out for whilst the sooty Corpuscles retain their Bigness and Texture they are able to offend the Nostrils very much by their Stink and sometimes to cause Convulsive Motions and Abortions in teeming Women but if you apply a Flame to this Smoak it presently discusses this fuliginous Matter and dissipates