I have illustrated them to be in the production of Vegetables and that both as they are Principles lock'd up in some minute portions of epitomiz'd matter and likewise as they being by requisites duly concurring put into motion become fermental For we account of Generation of Animals no other than an evolution or natural expansion of the implanted seminal Principles contain'd in the minute Embrio and rendred prolific by the fermental odour if I may so say of a masculine Ferment we cannot otherwise reckon but that the noblest of fermental animal Juyces in order to propagation and where the spirits are most vigorous and fecund is the masculine sperm of Animals which is a digested spermatic Elixir capable of tinging those more crude feminine Juyces or a natural but highly prepar'd liquid Magistery circulated and brought on to maturity in its peculiar vessels yea the very efflorescence if I may further add of Animal Juyces impregnated at due seasons with such a stock of spirits emerging from a fermentation proper to it self as renders it capable of inspiring those feminine ovaria or uterine Vesicles with a subtile but very active Ferment which awakens those minute dormant and otherwise steril Embryo's sets them by its own vigorous action into a sort of if I may say vegetative or expansive motion It 's not the gross body of the prepar'd masculine or seminal Sperm or any visible juice or sensible part thereof however by circulation maturated which is admitted into the female Matrix as the worthy Harvey excellently shews in his Tract de generatione Animalium Nihil in utero saith he post coitum invenias generatura enim maris brevi vel elabitur vel evanescit tamen adsit aliquid quod foeminam foecundam reddat But it is a spirituous Ferment indolis contagiosae of which the seminal Liquor is but the Vehicle at seasons so heightened as it if meeting with an aptness of Reception in the Female breaths upon the oviformal Embryo invigorates it into activity putting those implanted and close shut up Principles into Motion For the aforesaid industrious Harvey tells us speaking of what is contain'd in the Female Matrix in order to Conception De generat Animal 278. Quod ad procreatio nem foetûs spectat omnia animalia eodem modo ab oviformi primordio generantur siquidem in eorum generatione hoc solenne est ut primordium vegetale ovi naturam referens praeexistat ex quo foetus producatur est hoc in omnibus vel ovum vel oviforme quid And as he farther adds Inest igitur in utero omnium animalium conceptus primus sive primordium quod teste Aristotele est veluti ovum membrana oblectum cui putamen detractum est So that in the propagation of all Animals the noblest and for whose sake the rest were made not excepted the Embryo anchorite or epitomiz'd Animal shut up within the walls of each of the uterine Vesicles or oviformal Membranes retains its just and proportionable form and shape how minute soever in that seminary oviformal original inclos'd in the Female Matrix and only waits for an inspiration from the active masculine spirituous and fecundating Ferment which is to strike up those dormant Principles into an actual Fermentation or animal fire whereby the little Embryo the seminal Principles being once put into motion begins from a supply of maternal Juyces by a fermental expansion and evolution of its parts to vegetate and grow bigger till from those rudiments by a continual and successive gradation the vital fire be struck up whereby the womb after conception by the inspiring of the pregnant male Ferment is forthwith close shut up nature being so solicitous in this great affair of propagation so wonderfully curious both to prevent monstrous Productions as also multiplicity of contemporary Births from frequent inordinate Coitions as that she doth after Conception seal up the Matrix as I may say hermetically that not the least of Air nor what is much more subtile viz. the Masculine Ferment can have the least ingress The Animal and Mineral Ferments herein conspiring that after impregnation of either viz. of the Animal Embryo Juyce or Mercurial Liquor by their peculiar Seeds the Matrix both Animal and Philosophical are I say both the one Hermetically to be clos'd up the other naturally seal'd up and kept from all heterogeneous assaults whether in the Air or else-where till in the one it be brought on to the maturity of an Animal Life and in the other be elaborated to the perfection of the Philosophic Elixir Concerning the progress of which in order to the Exit or Birth of the Embryo we have somewhat inlarged in our Hydrolog Chymica and probably may do more elsewhere But how the same Principles in their fermentative Collisions in the Animal Juyces are the cause other requisites concurring of the circulation of the Blood the source of all Animal heat and warmth the efficients of nourishment and growth The cause of the generation of Spirits and thence of Vital and Animal Functions viz. Sense and Motion of the Body how the Fountain of all the several Ferments in the peculiar Vessels and Conduits of the Body Hydroph But pray Pyroph be not too concise in these great Matters How in particular according to your Principles do you understand concerning the faculty of the Stomach you call the Ferment thereof which doth perform such wonderful effects doth it by its innate heat according to our Philosophy or by its acid Ferment as of late several Neoterics have thought or by some latent quality unknown to us For it seems to be of a strange penetrating nature as to be able to turn all the several sorts of Food into a Cremor and thence fit it for further preparation in order to blood and nourishment Pyroph True Hydroph the work of the Stomach let it be done by what Agent it will is wonderful and in that very thing Nature's path is very mysterious That it consists not in an innate heat is evident first because no degree of heat of what pitch soever imagin'd can perform the like Mutations or Reductions of Bodys And secondly because all heat is according to our Hypothesis the result of Fermentation and there fore wherever the heat of the body was which is the constant effect of the intestin struglings of the Principles contained in the Animal Juyces there would it necessarily follow that it should perform the like operation in every part where it 's found but constant observation contradicts the consequent therefore heat is not the cause of that dissolving action of the Stomach And that it consists not in an acid Ferment the more plausible of the two will be evident from the deposition of what we conclude it to be Lastly that it is not from an occult quality will be clear from what we shall afterwards discourse of the inexistency and therefore futility of qualities But how I say a pure subtiliz'd Ferment is
subjectum inhaesionis but as actual Bodies how minute soever are capable enough to smite our subtile Organs and affect our Senses set on work by Winds from different quarters which are the Clavigeri tempestatum in order to the mutation of weather For although these float in the Air and are not seen excepting that of Moisture gathered together in a Mist Fog or Cloud yet that they are perceptible enough to our Senses is evident amongst the rest from the minute Particles of Cold which float in the Air from Northern Winds and are of such Shape or Size as they not only pierce our Skins and moderately shut the Pores thereof thereby invigorate the Ferments whence our Appetites to Food are stronger and the Digestions the better perform'd in Frost than in warm Weather And in colder Countries and Climates than in hot but in cold raw Weather the Pores those small Portals of the Body stand a char if I may so say whereby the alterations in the Air have the easier access into our Juices to procure the like in them whence we observe in such Weather people generally take more cold and are more prone to Diseases as well Acute as Chronical than at other Seasons Which Frost Air if it be very sharp congeals the fluid humours of our Bodies forceing the Spirits to a retreat unless oppos'd by a warmth from exercise or Spirits of good Liquor yea the same cold Particles meeting with Water doth so fill the Pores thereof that from a fluid they by their interposition make it become for a time a kind of solid Body which when the winds change and are carried in different Percledi of the Air as breathing suppose from the South or West South-East or South-West points the Particles of Heat and Moisture muster in the Air and mortifie dint or resolve the cold Particles For it 's very probable that the congealing of Water into Ice by Cold is nothing else but the congelation of the Atoms which in one Sense we admit of Cold rivetting themselves fast in the Pores of the Body of Water in as much as these floating in the Air either brought to us by those Winds which blow over the Northern Frozen Seas which in their resolution may extricate themselves from their former combinations being carried by the fanning of the Wind from that quarter or from what other causes soever meeting with liquid Bodies by their piercing nature insinuate themselves into the Texture thereof and as they weave themselves in they put a stop to the motion or fluidity of those liquids unless preserv'd by some active nimble spirituous parts and from a fluid make them become as we said a sort of solid Bodies which as they fill some Pores of Water so they cause some other parts of Water to constringe or concenter themselves whence is one reason why in Frosty Seasons Rivers that are otherwise high by late falls of Rain are upon Frosty Winds shrunk up and Water in Vessels expos'd to the Air are sensibly contracted or lessened Wherefore all Bodies whose Texture consists most what of liquid parts if they contain so many of those aforesaid nimble spirituous fermentative Particles by the briskness of whose motion the liquids are kept fluid then are they secured so long as kept either circulating in their own or defended by close Vessels from the injury of the cold undergo no coagulation therefrom nor are altered thereby Thus the Blood and liquid Juices in the Body of Man or other Animals as long as they are invigorated with Spirituous Saline and Sulphureous parts which keep them constantly in a circulating Motion so long are safe from the injury of cold so all Fermented Liquors whether Wines Sider Perry Ale Beer c. while the Ferments are active with Spirituous parts interwoven in the whole Texture thereof and kept in close Vessels so long are not apt to be surpriz'd by cold or to be congeal'd thereby into Ice unless through the excessiveness of Cold and perhaps carelesness in stopping up Vessels Wines or other Fermented Liquors become Frozen as sometimes happens upon very long Voiages into cold Climates witness that of Fishing for Whales by some Hollanders in the Northern-Seas their Wines otherwise generous enough were by extremity of cold Frozen the Hoops being taken off and the VVines uncask'd they were found congeal'd into Ice and stood in the form of the Vessels they were put in which Ice they perforated with Augers and found about the Center of the Ice a little Liquor of an Amethyst Colour which was the pure Balsamick Spirits of Wine concentred and therefore incapable of being congeal'd by cold all the rest of the Body of Ice being dissolv'd by Heat was an insipid Phlegm or mere VVater of VVine into which if a little of the true Fiery Spirits was pour'd made it like VVine after which manner they drank it And in our late intense Frost December last the Particles of Cold were so copious and piercing as it froze Beer and Ale in Cakes Sherry Sack in Bottles and a Lixivium of Vegetable Salts I had by me yea a pretty smart Spirit of Vitriol standing in a Bottle in a VVindow was as far as I could discern totally Frozen up and in York-shire in some places it froze the moisture in peoples Nostrils into Icicles that with their finger as an Eye-witness told me they pull'd out pieces of Ice So all Volatile Spirits whether Vinous Vrinous or Oleaginous are being kept in close Vessels capable of defending themselves from being congeal'd by cold For neither Spirits of VVine or Volatile Spirits of Blood Vrin Soot Harts-horn c. nor distill'd therefore call'd Chymical-Oyls as of Turpentine Cinamon Cloves Rosemary Sage Wormwood c. are I say none of them apt to be Frozen by Cold but can defend themselves by their nimble active spirituous parts from the injury thereof in like manner all Mineral acid Spirits as of Vitriol except as aforesaid Alom Nitre Salt c. can if kept in close Vessels preserve themselves from damage by cold so also Lixiviums made of the fixt Salts of Tartar or other Vegetables But those Liquids that are destitute of saline sulphurous or other fermenting Particles are of themselves capable of admitting the ingress of cold Atoms so as to suffer some Vacuolums to be fill'd and other parts to be constring'd into a solid form of the congeal'd body of Ice and all this by the medium of Air which is the vehicle of these cold Atoms SECT XII Hydroph BUt we say Pyroph that cold is an active Quality which doth congregare homogenea heterogenea and as such doth condense congeal Water into Ice Pyroph Those qualities Hydroph together with the quaternary of Elements which you look upon as Principles of mixt bodies and from whose combinations you would solve the different apparences thereof I have told you and I think partly demonstrated as such not to be in rerum natura Hydroph But what different impressions Pyroph are made
the notion of a quality Hence those degrees of qualities which Hydroph you in your Philosophy and Medicks are apt to ascribe Concretes to are no more to be taken notice of than the qualities themselves so that all your Solutions of apparences by your supposed degrees of the Primary qualities will what is said being premis'd of their own accord fall to nothing Hence for instance Iron which you in your Scarb. Spaw repute to be of the third degree of driness is no more to be taken notice of as to a Philosophical Solution of the Essence of that Concrete than if you had said it had been in the third degree of nothing for both are alike unintelligible of which more particularly in our Hydrological Essays Hydroph Well Pyroph I might justly reply to you as formerly we in the Disputations of the Schools us'd to accost the Cartesians viz. Contra principia negantem non est disputandum These are new conceits which we that are grown old in the Philosophy of Aristotle and his followers are not at leisure to take notice of But what will you make Pyroph of the second qualities viz. those we call Density Rarity Gravity Levity Hardness Softness Thickness Thinness Aridity Lubricity Clamminess Friableness Asperity and Smoothness Are not these necessarily to be reputed Qualities by which we arrive to some knowledge of the nature of the Bodies they are found in Pyroph As to which query Hydroph concerning the second qualities I answer that as the first qualities are not in rerum natura as such so neither are the second for sublata causa tollitur effectus But the first are the supposed cause of the second which being by reasons aforesaid deducted out of the Catalogue of Entities nothing of the second qualities as such can remain For that that Texture of parts which makes Bodies appear to our Senses dense or rare heavy or light hard or soft rugged or smooth c. should be reputed Secondary depending upon the quaternary of the first qualities Heat Cold Driness and Moisture is I say as indemonstrable as unintelligible for all these as far as I apprehend depend meerly upon the different Texture of the constitutive parts of Bodies whereby they variously affect our Senses yea and many of them competible to the same Body as its parts are variously agitated by fire Ferments Sal s or Solvents whereby the same Body so differently acted and its parts transpos'd may very changeably affect our Senses after so many different manners as may make up all or most of those you call second qualities Hydroph Is not rarity a second quality arising chiefly from Heat having its parts extenuated as Herbs Pruinae Clouds And is not Density another from Cold having its parts bound up and solidly adhering to each other as Glass Stone Iron and the rest of the Metals And further is not Levity a quality arising from Heat making things capable of moving upwards and Gravity a quality from Cold which makes things move downwards towards a Center Pyroph I answer Hydroph that in what you term Rarity I see no necessity of giving the name of a second quality arising from the Primary Heat but that it is only such a Texture of parts in the composition of some Bodies as makes them appear thin and as it were finely woven being a rare Texture of parts with many Streiners Porosities or vacuolums interspers'd according to whose Fabrick of parts our Senses are generally affected so as they fall under such and such distinct perception thereof Thus Air is a rare Body in as much as its parts are of a fine thin tenuious plyable Texture as aforesaid And as Rarity so Density is no quality being no other than such a Body whose parts are closely set together with few Porosities thus Stone Glass Mealline and Mineral-Bodies are such whose constitutive parts are closely bound up and fast rivetted together and therefore no need of ascribing its original to cold As for Levity it is peculiar to such Bodies whose Texture is rare and finely woven and so the sequel of that we call Rarity Also Gravity is the contrary being the necessary product of such Bodies whose parts are closely put together I mean of those which are compact and dense Bodies And as to the rest of second qualities as Hardness Softness Thickness Thinness c. all which I say are but different Modifications of the parts of Bodies whereby they variously affect our Senses having the same way of solution as those I have already spoken of therefore shall forbear Now that these Hydroph are neither the Indexes nor the Products of the Quaternary of first qualities and consequently not to be reckoned as such in the Category of qualities is evident in that one and the same Body by a Metastasis of its parts by Fire Salts or Solvents may undergo all or most of those you call second and perhaps first qualities too so that to which of these the Essence of that Body should be attributed would prove a query too difficult for most of your Philosophy grounded upon these qualities to resolve Thus for instance suppose we take Antimony into our consideration which in its Minâ—ra is a stony dense heavy hard friable Body this being melted by Fire and thereby separated from its petrifique gritty and sabulous parts gives us that Body of Antimony usually fold in the Shops which still retains all the aforesaid properties which are the natural sequels of its present Texture of parts But suppose this by fire be forc'd in Fumes into Flowers adhering to the sides of Pots Ovens or other large receivers give a rare light soft and impalpable Body with a white colour which fluxed by further addition of Fire becomes a dense heavy hard friable but diaphanous Body called the Vitrum or Glass of Antimony where by the Vitrification of its parts it emulates that other product of the Fire made from Ashes and Sand flux'd together Concerning the reasons and causes of Vitrification in general and particular we discourse in our Tentamen Physiologic and Litholog Physica This glass prepared as aforesaid will by further addition of Fire and Salts become Metalline melt and run into a Regulus which melts and flows like Lead or Quick-silver call'd by Chymists the coagulated Mercury of Antimony is dense hard heavy and opacous which again may be sublim'd into Flowers out of which Flowers may a current Mercury begot by boyling with Salt of Tartar c. as is mention'd in Volum 4. Theat Chym. Nova disquisit de Helia Artista Also Antimony by addition of Salts with the help of Fire produceth that Mass we call hepar Antimonii which makes the frequently us'd Emetick Wine upon which dissolv'd in Water if distill'd Vinegar be poured it makes a speedy separation of a Red and Yellow Sulphur with a Fetid Sulphureous smell very like the Water of the Sulphur-Well at Knarsborough in York-shire But if in lieu of Vinegar more Salts be added and it be further
body giving a green colour and that as well by refraction as transmssiion of Rays from a luminous body gliding side-ways and smiting through the Liquor which renders it diaphanous whose texture of parts with the interstices in the fluid Menstruum causeth I say such a refraction of light as thereby represents it under the form of a green colour If into this green diaphanous Liquor Hydroph you pour a clear solution of Galls the texture of the vitriolin parts in the water will become so altered as that in lieu of a diaphanous it will become an opake Liquor so that the luminous Rays which before were refracted and transmitted will now become either reflected or so intangled in the texture of the parts as neither to make a transmission refraction or any considerable reflection of light there-from and therefore becomes opacous or black For by the addition of Galls to the aforesaid Liquor the first body whose parts were uniform and regularly transmitted and refracted the Rays of light doth now by this commixture with the Particles of Galls muster in so confus'd a posture make an extraversion of large flats some of which always fall in the rear of the Angles and junctures of others so as the transmission of light is quite intercepted and therefore what reflection is made is only so much as to be sufficient to make that representation of bodies by that colour we call black Which that it is so appears further by pouring Oyl of Vitriol Spirit of Nitre Aqua-fortis or the like corrosive Acid Spirits upon those vitriolin opacous Liquors or other bodies made black by vitriolin astringent Steins where you will presently view those Particles of the Gall which before fill'd the Pores of the Liquor and by extraverting many flats made the Liquor opacous dark and inky will now become fretted dissolv'd and the flats lessened so as the parts will again return into their former uniform posture and suffer the light by becoming clear to be transmitted as before so to become a diaphanous Liquor as at first as you may further see in our Experiments about the change of Colours in Spaw Water in our Hydrolog Chymica And that colours are nothing else but different refractions and repercussions of light from bodies according to various Angles of incidence and reflection from the different texture of the depth or superficies thereof carryed through the transparent Tunicles and Humours of the Eyes as through so many Glasses for from the natural Fabric of the Eye are artificial optical or microscopical Glasses contriv'd vibrating after a various manner the Optic Nerves so as to make that kind of sensation we call Vision That colours are I say nothing else but such I might confirm by many more instances viz. by the frequent Manuals of Dyers Tanners Painters c. in their colouring Garments Leather Wood c. by actual bodies not qualities of Vitriol Alum Argol Indico Madder Lime Oak Bark Minium Ceruss Verdigreece Spanish-white Gum Vernice ultra-Marine c. all which produce different colours not from inherent qualities in those bodies arising from a legitimate contemperature of the four Elements but represent themselves as being actual bodies I mean shew that great variety of colours by the different texture of their constitutive parts whereby light becomes so differently refracted or reflected as to be sufficient to cause that great variety of colours we see amongst bodies where we might from the aforesaid different reflections and refractions of light shew amongst the causes of those apparences we call colours what for instance white is and how made which we suppose to be no other than that texture of parts which results from many superficies flat or spherical born up at some little distances from each other by one or more of these following causes viz. 1. By Air 2. Atoms of Cold 3. Other similiar inter-woven bodies 4. Or lastly are wrought into such a texture of parts by the preparatory Vessels First by Air as is evident in Torrents great falls and other agitations of Waters in the white froth of Ale Beer or other fermenting Liquors also in the warming of Ale or Beer c. where the Particles of Water and fermentative Liquors are huft up with those of Air being thereby reduc'd into globular Bubbles the aggregation of which give us that Phaenomenon of white observable therein the like may be reckoned upon in production of white Oyntments from the concussion of Oyls c. Secondly or by Atoms of cold as is evident in the obvious Phaenomenon of Snow where from the cold Atoms woven in with and between the flats for such are the figure of its parts under this disguise of watery Particles results that colour of white as also other apparences compitible to water under the Masque of Snow Thirdly Or by other inter-weaving bodies as is evident where the texture of bodies are such as are made up of many superficies each upon other by a natural stratum super stratum born up by some other interposing parts as is evident in natural Concretions viz. Talk Alabaster Bones Horns Plumes c. In factitious viz. Luna Cornea Venice-glass pulveriz'd Ceruss Paper c. In all which the light from the aforesaid texture of parts is so refracted and reflected as to exhibit us that apparence of white in all such bodies Or lastly are wrought into such a texture of parts by preparatory Vessels by which in Animals I mean the Lacteals and Glandules whence the whiteness of Milk and by other Analogous in Vegetables whence the milky Juyces of all sorts of Spurges Carduus Marie c. But to demonstrate further that Colour and in particular White is no other than the result of such a peculiar texture of bodies as reflects the light after such a mode competible to that apparence and that the same body undergoing no other change of any additional but barely a transposition of the parts of the active Principles therein contained was spontaneously reducible to its pristine clarity and transparency I had this following Phaenomenon represented to me in an Experiment I was then trying In which Experiment I shall forbear to name one of the constituent Liquors in as much as in the main it relates not to this place and only reckon upon the to our purpose pertinent Phaenomenon which was this I having two transparent Liquors by me one was rectified Spirit of Wine the other a Mineral Liquor upon the mixing these I had besides the gentle heat caus'd from a moderate fermentation of the Principles forthwith the apparence of a Milk-white Liquor through the whole body of the mixture which and what was very curious and remarkable to behold within a very few minutes without any extrinsic addition was spontaneously reduc'd to a transparent Liquor as limpid almost as either of the Liquors was before mixture and all this which yet adds to admiration without the least precipitation or any sort of sediment what ever I might further inlarge Hydroph