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
to Gentleness Softness Sweetness Maturity c. For which Reasons therefore as well as for many other which might be urged if insisted on we do conclude submitting it nevertheless to be examined that Generation and Corruption Rarefaction and Condensation is the simplest plainest and truest Analysis that can be found in Nature for all Physical Motions as unto some of which all Motion purely Physical may as we humbly conceive without straining be immediately referred and as by and through which all may likewise with as little Difficulty be resolved And having laid this as a second Argument we say 3dly That it cannot be denied but all the Affections and Dispositions of Moisture Heat Cold Drought the Course of all Winds Showers Thundering or whatsoever else is used by Nature to produce these two general and universal Effects of Rarefaction and Condensation do in a great Measure if not wholly depend upon and are altogether regulated by the Course Motion Position Situations or Aspects of the Superiour and Celestial Bodies or Planets And therefore 4thly We say that every Planet hath its own proper Light And as the Light of the Sun is one thing the Light of the Moon another so every Planet hath its distinct Light differing from all the other Now we must either say that this Light is a bare Quality and that the utmost Use and End of it is only to illuminate and there is no Light but is accompanied further with some Power Virtue or Tincture that is proper to it which if granted it will inform us then that every Light hath its own Property it s own Tincture and Colour it s own specifique Virtue and Power and that according to the several Bodies of Light there are several Properties Tinctures and Powers and that as one Star differs from another in Glory according to the Apostle so one Star and one Planet differs from another in its Virtue in its Colour in its Tincture and in its Property And consequently that those eminent Stars and Planets that are in the Heavens are not to be considered by us as sluggish inergetical Bodies or as if they were set only to be as bare Candles to us but as Bodies full of proper Motion of peculiar Operation and of Life The Sun not only shining upon the rest of the Planets but by his quickning Warmth awakening stirring and raising the Motions Properties and Powers that are peculiar to them According therefore to the Angles they make with the Sun and according as they are more or less enlightned by him according also as they are at the same time more directly or more obliquely more remotely or more nearly scituated and placed in respect to us so must the Effects of the Powers Virtues and Tinctures that are proper to them be more or less felt by us 5thly For the manner of the Planets transmitting these their Properties and Powers and of their affecting other Bodies at so remote Distance there is nothing begged or required in it that is insuperable to a Man's Apprehension or Belief seeing 1. We affirm not any Property Operation Virtue or Power to be transmitted from any of the said Planets but what doth descend with its Light and is the real Property of its Light 2. No Man judgeth that the Light of any Planet or of the Sun it self is refracted or by any other means weakned hindred or impaired by the Aether or that Substance which fills up the Space between one Planet and another through which it passeth but that it doth descend whole directly and inrefracted unto or upon our Atmosphere 3. But whatsoever is received by the Atmosphere is also received by the thin and subtile Air that is contiguous to the Atmosphere And this Air therefore cannot but be capable of being moved stirred altered and impressed by these Properties Virtues and Lights as penetrating each Part of it 4. Not only the Air by reason of its Thinness and Subtilty is capable of being thus penetrated moved and altered by these Planetary Virtues and Lights But forasmuch also as our Spirits and the Spirits likewise of all mix'd Bodies are really of an Aerious Ethereal Luminous Production and Composition these Spirits therefore of ours and the Spirits of all other Bodies must necessarily no less suffer an Impression from the same Lights and cannot be less subject to an Alteration Motion Agitation and Infection through them and by them than the other viz. the Air But rather as our Spirits are more near and more Analogous to the Nature of Light than the Air so they must be more prone and easy to be impressed than it And if our Spirits and the Spirits of all mix'd Bodies may be altered changed moved and impressed by these superiour Bodies and their Properties then these Spirits being the only Principles of Energy Power Force and Life in all Bodies wherein they are and the immediate Causes through which all Alteration comes to the Bodies themselves It is impossible therefore Spirits should be altered and changed and yet no Alteration made in the Bodies themselves and therefore a less Limit or Extream cannot be set to the Power or Operation or Force of the superiour Bodies upon the Inferiour than what must terminate at length into the very Bodies themselves 5. As a further Confirmation or Proof of this in reference at least to our selves I shall offer to your Consideration the Accidents that often happen to Men by the mere Air as Convulsions Cramps Blastings Lameness Colds many of which indure a Man's Life-time and which with many bitter Infirmities that sometimes seize upon a Man while standing walking or lying in the Air are rarely or never felt or discerned at the Instant of their Approach or Insults upon a Man nor yet accompanied with the Sense of any Excess in the Air for Heat or Cold at that time and therefore not well referrable to any Cause in the Air if not to the Power of those Properties and Operations of the Celestial Bodies that we speak of And this I submit to the Judgment of common Experience 6. Lastly As the Sun-shining on the rest of the Planets doth not as we said only barely illuminate their Bodies but besides this through the Power Virtue and Activity it hath doth also raise excite awaken and stir up the several Properties and Dispositions that are in those several and respective Bodies whereby they are more lively and effectually brought forth upon us so we are to suppose it is in reference to this our Planet which is the Earth which is not only enlightned warmed cherished and fructified by the Power Virtue and Influence of the Sun but hath its proper Magnetical Planetary Virtue also fermented stirred agitated and awakened in it which it remits back with the reflected Light of the Sun and together with this Magnetick Planetary Property of the Earth which is stirred and raised by the Sun are awakened also the seminal Dispositions Odors and Ferments that are lodged in and proper
been well graduated 12 or 16 Degrees being the most that are set upon the common Weather-Glass whereas to the making of accurate Observations it would require a Cylinder to be divided into at least 360 Parts though I think it neither unreasonable nor unpracticable to have one divided into 1000 Parts allowing but 10 Degrees to each Inch which is no unusual Division seeing such an one will much better discover not only the small but the more suddain and remarkable Changes of the Weather which are of chiefest Use than any others that are common and ordinary 4. Although no Liquor ought to be used in these Glasses that is subject to Frost yet we have little or no Account what those Liquors are that might be best or fittest for the accurate making of those Experiments whether those whose Property it is somewhat to attract the Air and so to preserve themselves in at least their first Quantity as Oleum Sulphuris per Campanam Ol. Vitrioli Liquor Salis Tartari c. Or 2dly Whether those whose Parts are finest subtilest and nearest of kin to the Air such as is Spirit of Wine Spirit of Terebinth well rectified and according as there is occasion still fresh supplied Or 3dly Whether those that are of a middle Nature as strong Spirit of Vinegar Or 4thly Whether instead of these and beyond these it may not be best to use only well-refined Quicksilver All which several Particulars as they are necessary and ought to be first ascertained yet they are but preliminary to the Experiments themselves In the making of the Experiments themselves therefore it would be convenient 1st That several Thermometers of one Proportion Length and Graduation in their Cylinders in all Respects as near as may be were set in one Frame together either with one and the same or with Variety of Liquors 2dly That several of these Frames were set in several Rooms and that fome were exposed immediately to the Air it self yet so as it may be conveniently sheltred from the actual Rays of the Sun and from the Injury of Storms Rain and Winds In the History it self there cannot be too much Care and Exactness provided the Air of the Chimny Cranny of a Wall or Door Breath of People or other such Accidents do not interpose to deceive a Man's Observation which must be circumspectly foreseen and considered The Proportion between the Warmth of the Day and Night in constant Weather the Agreement or Disagreement of the Motion of the Air with the Motions of the superiour Bodies in all uncertain changeable and inconstant Weather the Efficacy or Inefficacy through these in foretelling of Winds and Rain the Air its particular Disposition under Thunder under times of Mildews or Blastings eminent Eclipses Conjunctions with many other the like Particulars which will of themselves be incident to an ingenious diligent apprehensive Person may be the Subject of this History I shall not digress so far as to tell you what other things may be done by the Help of this excellent Instrument this being not pertinent to our present Purpose Yet it is certain that Drebble that great singular learned Mechanick did by the Help of this Instrument make a Dial continually to move of it self regularly shewing both the times of the Day and other Motions of the Heavens did also make an Automatous Instrument of Musick and found out a Furnace which he could govern to any Degree of Heat but whether these have died with him or how far the Meditations of others have wrought upon them I shall humbly refer to a more leasurable Inquiry And if you can inform me among any of your Acquaintance or Correspondents I should be glad to hear and to learn any thing of this Nature or relating to the further Use Experiment or Improvement of this rare little Instrument or to the further clearing ventilating or discussing the Theory or Doctrine of the Planets or the Physical Use and Power of these Bodies that we have thus briefly made an Essay of Thus far that Letter They have a received Tradition in Java and probably in divers other Islands of the South Sea that the Beams of the Moon are wont to cause Contractures in the Body of those Men that stay too long exposed to them The Truth of which Tradition was lately confirmed to me by an ingenious Doctor that with Applause practised Physick in those Parts who assured me that he had observed that upon the Account before mentioned some were made lame or else had some of their Limbs contracted for divers Weeks and some for many Months or even a longer time And when I asked him whether he had at any time been subject to that Mischief himself He answered that whilst he was a Novice in those Parts after a very hot Day he laid himself down very slenderly covered to sleep according to the Custom of the Place near the Door of the House he lodg'd in but being unacquainted with the Tradition he unskilfully chose a Place upon which the Moon could fully beat for a good part of the Night which being past before he wak'd when he went to rise he found his Neck so stiff that he was scarce able at all to stir it and his Mouth was so drawn awry that 't was hideous to behold and continued so unsightly that Shame forced him to keep within for some Days during which he made Use of brisk Aromatick Medicines by whose Help he got off a Contracture that used to stay very much longer with others And when I asked him if these Distempers were not occasioned rather by the Coldness of the Night and Subtilty of the Air than the Operation of the Moon 's Beams He answered me that 't was generally observ'd that the other Causes without the direct Beams of the Moon were not wont to produce such bad Effects and that his Landlord when he saw his Mouth awry told him that if he had made him acquainted with his Design to pass the Night in the open Air he would have prevented this Mischief by lodging him in a Place unexposed to the Moon 's Light TITLE XIV Of the Height of the Atmosphere  TITLE XV. Of the Motion of the Air and of Winds Extract of a Letter from Fort St. George dated January the 23d 1668. ALthough the Bar of Porta Nova proved more shallow and dangerous than we were informed yet she our Ship got safe in thither and it was well she did so Had we kept her here there had been no Possibility of her Escape from perishing in a dreadful Storm or rather Hurricane which happened here the 22d of November The like hath not been known here in any Man's Memory The Tempest of Wind and Rain was so exceeding violent that nothing could stand before it Men and Beasts carried into the Sea by the Violence of the Winds and Floods the Generality of the Houses in this and the Neighbour Towns were ruined scarce any Trees left standing in Gardens or elsewhere
e fracasso cosi gradne che faceua terrore essendo per dette Ville un concorso grande di Popolo uicino per uedere cose che si rendono incredibili Doctor B. answered me that though the Eastern Winds blow near of a Year at Tangier yet they seem not to reach far into the Inland Country where he observed them to be very unfrequent An ingenious Gentleman who is Owner of a Mine or two near the Sea being asked by me whether he could by any peculiar Change appearing in the deeper Parts of the Mines foretel any Alterations of Weather He answered me that the only Presage he had constantly observed was of the Change of the Wind. For many Hours before the Wind was to shift from some other Corner and get into the South the Water at the bottom of the Mine would appear manifestly more troubled or less limped than before and when the Wind was to blow from the East he was usually forewarned of it by an unusual Degree of Clearness in the Waters which would appear more diaphanous than ordinary though the South-Wind had not immediately before operated on the Waters The Depth of the Mine was between fifteen and twenty Fathom He told me that the Hurricans about Goa are observed to come usually but at two Seasons about the Beginning of March and the 4th of October TITLE XVI Of the Air as the Medium of Sounds and of Sounds and Noises in the Air and particularly Thunder and of the Air 's Operation on the Sounds of Bodies THIS Variety of the Air is the Cause of most dreadful Thunders which when Gregory described he astonished his Hearers For upon the rising of several Tempests altogether the Sky is of a sudden covered over with black and thick as it were Globes of smokey Clouds By and by the Thunder breaks forth on every Side ratling continually with Lightning as incessantly flashing enough to amaze the most resolute and most accustomed to the Noise Ludolph's Hist of Ethiop l. 1. c. 5. The String of a Viol has been by Mr. F. observed to give a sharper Sound against or in rainy Weather by almost half a Note Mr. F. also assures me that more than once or twice it has happened to him that having put up false Strings in his Pocket to make Frets of as judging them useless for any other Purpose the want of Strings having driven him to make Use of those he has found them not false any more but good Strings And also that he observes some Strings apter to receive a Tension from the moist Air than others are TITLE XVII Of the Weight of the Air. A short Account of the Statical Baroscope imparted by Mr. Boyl March 24. 1665. In a Letter to Mr. H. Oldenburgh AS for the new kind of Baroscopes which I lately intimated to you that my Haste would not permit me to give you an Account of though the Necessity of preparing for an approaching Journey gives me the same Excuse I then had yet since your Letters acquaint me that you still design a communicating to the Curious as much Information as may be in reference to Baroscopes I shall venture to send you some though but an imperfect Account of what I did but name in my former Letter to you Though by a Passage you may meet with in the Page of my Thermometrical Experiments and though you may find that I did some Years ago think upon this new kind of Baroscope yet the Changes of the Atmosphere's Weight not happening then to be such as I wished and being unwilling to deprive my self of all other Use of the exactest Ballance that I or perhaps any Man ever had I confess to you that successive Avocations put this Attempt for two or three Years out of my Thoughts till afterwards returning to a Place where I chanc'd to find two or three Pairs of Scales I had left there the Sight of them brought it again into my Mind and though I were then unable to procure exacter yet my Desire to make the Experiment some Amends for so long a Neglect put me upon considering that if I provided a Glass Bubble more than ordinarily large and light even such Ballances as those might in some measure perform that which I had tried with the strangely nice ones above-mentioned I caused then to be blown at the Flame of a Lamp some Glass Bubbles as large thin and light as I could then procure and chusing among them one that seem'd the least unfit for my turn I counterpoized it in a pair of Scales that would lose their Equilibrium with about the 30th part of a Grain and were suspended at a Frame I placed both the Ballance and the Frame by a good Baroscope from whence I might learn the present Weight of the Atmosphere then leaving these Instruments together though the Scales being no nicer than I have expressed were not able to shew me all the Variations of the Air 's Weight that appear in the Mercurial Baroscope yet they did what I expected by shewing me Variations no greater than alter'd the Height of the Mercury half a quarter of an Inch and perhaps much smaller than those nor did I doubt that if I had had either tender Scales or the means of supplying the Experiment with convenient Accommodations I should have discerned far smaller Alterations of the Weight of the Air since I had the Pleasure to see the Bubble sometimes in an Equilibrium with the Counterpoize sometimes when the Atmosphere was lighter preponderate so manifestly that the Scales being gently stirred the Tongue would play altogether on that side at which the Bubble was hung and at other times when the Air was heavy that which was at the first but the Counterpoise would preponderate and upon the Motion of the Ballance make the Tongue vibrate altogether on its side and this would continue sometimes many Days together if the Air so long retained the same measure of Gravity and then again the Bubble would regain an Equilibrium or a Preponderance So that I had oftentimes the Satisfaction by looking first upon the Statical Baroscope as for Distinction sake it may be called to foretel whether in the Mercurial Baroscope the Liquor were high or low Which Observations though they hold as well in Winter as the Spring yet the Frequency of their Vicissitudes which perhaps was but accidental made them more pleasant in the latter of these Seasons So that the Matter of Fact having been made out by Variety of repeated Observations and by sometimes comparing several of those new Baroscopes together I shall add some of those Notes about this Instrument which readily occur to my Memory reserving the rest till another Opportunity And 1. If the Ground on which I went in framing this Baroscope be demanded the Answer in short may be 1st That though the glass Bubble and its Counterpoise at the time of their first being weighed be in the Air wherein they both are weighed exactly of
in about 130 Foot The other Day two Gentlemen belonging to the Province of New-Hampshire in New-England whence they came not long since and imployed by that Colony to his Majesty here answer'd me that in the Winter the coldest Wind that blows in their Country is the North-West and being ask'd again what was their hottest Wind in Summer they told me it was likewise the North-West At which Answer being surprized I ask'd them whether they could give any Reason of so odd a Phenomenon Whereto they answered that they ascribed it to the large Tract of the Continent and the great Woods that lay to the North-West which Woods they said in the Winter had their Branches through which the Wind past all laden with Snow And in the Summer they said the close Air of the Vallies and the thick Steams that fill'd it would conceive so intense an Heat that sometimes in the Heat of Summer when a sudden Puff of Wind blew upon their Faces from those sultry Vales it seem'd to them as if it came out of the Mouth of a Furnace and would be ready to overcome them with the Faintness produced by the Heat and Vapours it brought along with it De montibus ad Bavariam stantibus mira est Alberti Chanow â—â— nostri narratio post Bergreichensteinam oppidum fodinis hodie quae nobile esse montes non tam situ alii enim ad septentrionem alii ad meridiem latus obvertunt quam Coelo temporibus adversantes callibus latissimis montes illos dirimentibus monstri instar est quod se vidisse Anno 1639 in rem praesentem venisse religiosissimus ille Apostolicus vir asserit in altero monte saepius aestatem in altero apposito hiemem dominari ita ille siccus aestivat hic altissimis nivibus obsitus à viatore superari non potest ob eamque causam Messes ipsae variant dum in montibus ad nos obversis demessa sunt omnia altera Montium parte seges virescit Mirius illud quod in Biessinensibus Czachroviensibus Agris in tractu Plsnensi contiguis quos unus tantum sulcus dirimit ac dividit deprehenditur Czachrovienses adhuc hibernant cum in Biessinensi Coelum ardeat ibi caput attollit humo â—â—â—â—mentum cum Czachroviiadolescit in culmum elemento quoque dispari illud riget hoc tepet fervet eâque ex causâ dum Czachrovienses bene pelliti ingrediuntur Biessinenses pellibus onerari se sentiunt villosque deponunt Aliquid tale Anno 1652. mihi quoque accidisse memini nam cum Glacio Zambergam in Bohemia contenderem Glacio ob nives altissimas certum vehiculi genus quod trabas dicimus sumpsissem superatis montibus qui comitatum Glacensem à Bohemia dividunt subitò alia rerum facies apparuit altero enim montium latere viridia omnia reperimus sic ut Trahae nulli jam rei usui essent currum petere cogeremur nisi in luto natare placuisset at accolae montium illorum quotannis id sibi accidere confirmabant ut unum latus montium profundissimae nives contegerent quando alterum latus lectissimos flores proferret cum ibi omnia ventis verti viderentur apud se e floribus suavissimos odores efflari I learned by Inquiry of an ingenious Gentleman who several times went down into the Hungarian Gold-Mine at Cremnitz that when he was drawn up out of the deep Pit or perpendicular Groove whose Depth exceeded 100 Feer when he had ascended above half the way he found the Air sensibly warm and so it continued till he came by many Foot nearer the Day as the Workmen call the Orifice of the Pit And when I ask'd whether this notable and suddain Heat did not proceed from some Mineral through which he passed in that Region of the Earth or part of the Groove He answered me that he believed it did in regard he was there surrounded with a Vein or Bed of native Vitriol some of one Colour some of another which he found to be soft under Ground though it soon after harden'd in the Air and of these differingly colour'd sorts of Vitriol he brought up thence several Pieces some of which he presented me And when I ask'd whether the new Heat he found in that Part of the Mine did not proceed from its being much nearer than the lower Part to the Air which at that time was hot and whether he found the Heat to increase as he came nearer the Day He answered in the Negative and told me that after he had in his Ascent left beneath him that warm Region he found himself cold again in the superiour Part of the Groove to which the Vitriolate Region did not reach I remember on this occasion that asking an intelligent Person who had more than once crossed the Torrid Zone what Expedient they used in his Ship to keep their Beer and other Liquors cool enough to be drinkable in those sultry Climates He answered that their way was to take the Bottle they mean to use and wrap it about with a course Linnen Cloth dipp'd in the Sea-water and then in some convenient Place of the Ship hang it in the Wind which beating freely and uncessantly upon it would in no long time cool it to be potable enough And this Gentleman who was an observing Person added farther that having sometimes for Curiosity sake taken away a Bottle before it had been exposed above half the usual time he was able to find by the Taste that part of the Beer or Wine that was next the sides of the Bottle to be refrigerated whilst the more inward Parts of the Liquor did yet continue hot The Czar's chief Physician confirmed to me that in the Year 1664 or 63 extraordinary dry and great Scopes of Land were set on Fire and miserably wasted by the great Heat of the Sun And he added that the very last Year he found the like to have happened in Norway particularly in a Place call'd by us Bear-haven where having seen the Ruine of divers Wood-houses burnt and inquiring into the Cause he was answered that the Weather being very dry and hot not only the Grass and other Vegetables were scorch'd up but those wooden Houses among others were set on Fire which was confirmed to him by the Governor of the Place and countenanced by this Circumstance that he saw the Country covered with a fresh and verdent Livery of new Grass brought up instead of that which was burnt by some Rains that fell a while before A Traveller and Scholar being ask'd by me whether at Mozambique which is thought the hottest Place in the known World he had never observed the Houses to be set on Fire with the mere Heat of the Sun He answered me that in the three Months he stayed there he saw no such thing but the Inhabitants affirmed it not to be very unfrequent and as he passed to and fro shewed him
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
it into Particles of quite another Nature which by this means are deprived of all their offensive Smell and some other ill Qualities It may also be said that the great Increase of Heat in July may enable the Sun-beams by penetrating the Earth deeper and agitating its lower Parts stronger and producing Crevisses and other new or formerly obstructed Passages in the upper Parts of it may elevate into the Air divers saline and other new Corpuscles which may either divide or dissipate the Pestilential ones or else by associating themselves with them make up new Concretions differing from the Pestilential Corpuscles in Bulk Shape Texture or Motion in most or all of these by which means the morbifick Corpuscles being much altered their Operations on the humane Bodies they invade may be so too and the Diseases they produce may become less malignant or degenerate into some other Disease And if it be demanded why this does not happen elsewhere as well as at Aleppo and Smyrna it may be answered That the Concourse of Causes may not be the same and particularly that the Soil of those two Places may be peculiarly disposed to emit Pestilential Corpuscles of such a determinate Nature with such a Degree of Heat and dissipable by a greater or with a more intense Heat to afford also Exhalations capable to correct the former as 't is delivered by good Authors and ingenious Men have confirmed it upon their own Observation that yearly at Grand Cairo in the Heat of Summer the Plague ceases to be mortal and almost to be infectious when the Nile begins to overflow which wonderful Change I should not so much ascribe to a Frigeration of the Air that usually accompanies the Swellings of the Waters since Pestilences rage in much cooler Weather than can be supposed in so hot a Climate as that of Egypt in July as to some nitrous and other corrected Exhalations that are plentifully emitted by the freshly arriving Waters There is an Account that has not that I know of been taken notice of upon which the supervening Coldness and Heat of the Air may pro tempore very much alter the Qualities of it in reference to the Bodies and Health of Men For the Air being a fluid Body as well as Water and impregnated with Salts of different kinds some merely saline and others associated with sulphureous and other kinds of Particles it seems not improbable that what happens in that grosser fluid Water impregnated with differing sorts of Salts and alter'd by succession of Heat and Cold takes place also in the Air. I purposely tried in Water that by dissolving in it convenient Quantities of two differing Salts though whilst the Liquor was hot or perhaps so much as lukewarm they would swim together undistinguishably in the Liquor and so were in a Capacity to act jointly and as the Schools speak actione communi on divers Occasions yet when the Liquor was cold and sometimes when there was only a considerable Remission of the Heat the saline Particles of one kind being not capable of being any longer sufficiently agitated by so faint a Degree of Heat would convene into Grains or Cristals and losing their Fluidity and Motion visibly separate themselves from the other kind of Salts which yet continued fluid in the Water where it could now act but by its own particular Qualities and not as formerly actione communi The clearest Instance I found of this Observation was afforded me by an Experiment made with the Solutions of Alum and Nitre a Relation of which I find among my Adversaria in the following terms Equal Parts of Alum and Nitre being dissolv'd in the same Portion of fair Water and the Liquor being in good measure evaporated the Earthen Vessel that contain'd it was set in the cold by which means at the bottom and the lower part of the sides the Alum appear'd to be first coagulated in many Octaedrical Grains no Chrystals of Nitre yet being visible Afterwards upon a further Evaporation of the Water and the Removal of the Vessel from the Fire there appear'd more Grains of Alum but as yet no Nitre wherefore having yet further evaporated the Liquor at length the Nitre shot plentifully into fine little Chrystals of the Shape proper to that Salt This is the Account my Note-Book contains of this Trial which seems to invite us to conjecture that of the numerous sorts of saline Corpuscles that rove up and down in the Air whilst it is well heated by the Sun or other Causes some sorts may by the Absence of that Heat or some supervening Causes of Coldness be made to separate from the others which were thereby contemperated or perhaps enabled to co-operate to divers Purposes that they were not fit for alone and to form Concretions which though not singly visible may be too great to be kept in a State of Fluidity by the diminish'd Heat of the Air. A Mouse lived ten Minutes at least with a quarter Air and three afterwards TITLE XLI Of heavy Bodies sustained in or taken up into the Air.  TITLE XLII Of Dew  TITLE XLIII Of Rain AN eminent Virtuoso informed me that in the Country of Campen he had seen divers Pits that are digg'd for Turf or rather Peat which were not deep for the most part but reach'd to a kind of quick Sand upon which the Rain falling did by Degrees in some Years form a kind of slimy Earth or Clay which was much of a martial Nature and being skilfully handled would yield good Iron The same Person assured me that he had divers times distilled the Water of Campen in new and fine Glasses and still found them to leave a considerable Quantity of stony Matter at the Bottom notwithstanding the Rectification Quicquid erit sine fuco significat velut Rottenberg Silesiae compastum appellant perinde Milessow Temporum prognostes jure merito dici posset Vidi ex proximo totum aliquando montem densissimis Nebulis contectum eâ prorsus imagine qua Mons Sinai Moyse in Nebula latente depingitur at caeteri circum Montes innubes hilares velut rerum gerendarun ignari stabant Sol ipse formosissimus ibat at accolae locorum domum fugiebant pecora urgebant meque ut domum protinus recipirem properarem equos currum trahentes concitari juberem monebant neque horae quadrans intercessit jam Coelum obduci Sol contegi eripi omnis aspectus Virg. Immensum Coelo ruit agnem aquarum ruit arduus aether Et pluvia ingenti sata laeta boumque labores Diluit implentur fossae quae divinus Poeta prosequitur At contra etiam accidere vidi ut caeteri fumarint montes Milessow nihil se commovente nihil aut nubilum aut turbidum minante Incoloe rogati nihil esse magnopere timendum à caeteris spondebant hunc unum intuendum esse horum nubila omnia à Milessow quodammodo devorari TITLE XLIV Of Hail ON ecrit de l'Isle en Flandres le