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
Springiness in them and notwithstanding be by reason of their Shape readily expansible on the score of their native Structure as also by Heat Girations and other Motions and compressible by an external Force into a very little room I remember too that I have among other Comparisons of this kind represented the springy Particles of the Air like the very thin Shavings of Wood that Carpenters and Joiners are wont to take off with their Plainers for besides that these may be made of differing Woods as Oak Ash Firr c. and thereby be diversified as to their Substance they are usually of very various Breadths and Lengths and Thicknesses And perhaps you may the rather prefer this Comparison because it may seem somewhat to illustrate the Production of the springy Particles of the Air for to make these Shavings there is no Art nor curious Instruments required and their Curls are no ways uniform but many ways differing and seemingly casual and which is chiefly considerable these Shavings are producible out of Bodies that did not appear nor were suspected to be Elastical in their Bulk as Beams and Blocks almost any of which may afford springy Shavings barely by having some of its Parts so taken off as to be thin and flexible enough and commodiously shap'd Which may perhaps illustrate what I tried that divers solid and even mineral Bodies not suspected of Elasticity being put into corrosive Menstruums devoid of that Quality there will upon the convenient Comminution of Parts insuing the Action and Re-action that passes between them in the Dissolution result or emerge a pretty Quantity of permanently Elastical Fire But possibly you will think that these are but extravagant Conjectures and therefore without adding any thing in favour of them I shall proceed and willingly grant that one may fancy several other Shapes and perhaps fitter than these we have mentioned for these springy Corpuscles about whose Structure I shall not now particularly discourse because of the variety of probable Conjectures that I think may be proposed concerning it Only I shall here intimate that though the Elastical Air seem to continue such rather upon the score of its Structure than any external Agitation yet Heat that is a kind of Motion may make the agitated Particles strive to recede further and further from the Centers of their Motions and to beat off those that would hinder the freedom of their Gyrations and so very much add to the endeavour of such Air to expand it self And I will allow you to suspect that there may be sometimes mingled with the Particles that are springy upon the newly mentioned Account some others that owe their Elasticity not so much to their Structure as their Motion which variously brandishing them and whirling them about may make them beat off the neighbouring Particles and thereby promote an expansive Endeavour in the Air whereof they are Parts And though some of these may in very cold Climates and Seasons prove to be of those which I not long since referr'd to temporary Air yet others of them may be so minute and agile and so advantageously shap'd that at least in our Climate the Air will scarce be so cold but that the Causes which entertain the Agitation and keep it fluid may also give a competent Motion to Particles so well disposed to be kept in it And now Sir 't will be time to indeavour to proceed to some Particulars that may countenance the Conjectures I have hitherto been proposing Having not now the leisure to prosecute this Discourse uninterruptedly till it be compleatly finish'd I thought it not unfit not only to set down in this Paper some of those occurring Thoughts and Observations of my own upon this Subject that were the likeliest unless this way preserved to vanish out of my Memory and which may serve to recal divers others into it but also to annex some Passages referable to the same Purposes borrowed from such Books as probably I may not have at hand when I shall resume this Treatise These two sorts of Passages make up the following Notes and are therefore to be look'd upon but as materially here laid together to be preserved not so much for themselves though some of them perhaps deserve not to perish as in Order to the finishing of the design'd Structure And though for that Reason they may often appear very confusedly placed yet they may seem more incoherent than they are there being certain Transitions and other things by which some of them may be so connected as to be fit to make discoursive Parts and Paragraphs of the Treatise they belong to upon which Account 't is that they are put at divers Distances one from another that if hereafter I have leisure there may be room for the Transitions c. by which they are designed to be connected into coherent Discourses What is above said in reference to this Tract in general is applicable to those particular Parts of it whether Chapters or Sections or other Divisions that follow a Line of Astericks such as the ensuing ********************** imployed to separate the unfinish'd Part of the Division it belongs to from the foregoing TITLE III. Of the Aether in the Atmosphere  TITLE IV. Of the Springy Particles of the Air and the Spring of the Air. Aerem validè comprimere aut dilatare FOllibus lusoriis aerem pyulco ingerentes majorem subinde atque majorem difficultatem percipiunt quo enim magis aer conclusus à naturali raritate recedere cogitur etiam major nisu resistit neque solum magis densari renuit sed se latiùs explicare molitur Hinc didicimus pneumaticos fontes construere qui spiritu interno urgente aquam in altum evibrant plumbeas glandes fistulis ejaculari non pulvere nitrato ignem concipiente sed aere per vim densato ad antiquas dimensiones recuperandas erumpente Quoniam verò ingesta jam in conceptaculum non exigua aeris copia difficiliùs comprimitur novâ aeris accessione quà m ut manus valeat trusillum rectâ impellere idcirco trusilli hastulam deformatam in helicem suae matrici insertam adhibere operae pretium erit dum enim manubrio agitante contorquetur cochlea sensim deprimitur embolus aeremque ingerit Ne autem morâ longiore opus sit perpetuâ versatione manubrii ita cochleae matrix externam vasis faciem contingat ut illi adnecti atque ab eo disjungi valeat initio enim quando adhuc levis est aeris modicè compressi resistentia lamella illa suo foramine interiùs claviculatim striato cohaerens hastulae emboli si à vase disjuncta fuerit unà cum hastulâ movebitur deinde vero quando jam trusillis aegrè impellitur lamella illa cum vase connectatur non nisi versato manubrio adduci atque reduci embolus poterit id quod satis lentè perficietur Rem claritatis gratia in fonte pneumatico explicemus Porrò
Mr. HARTLIB Dear Sir I Shall not I hope altogether forget the Charge which you have been pleased to lay upon me in reference to the Consideration of all winy Liquors their Affections and the several Distempers incident to them with my Thoughts about the preserving of them so as may best retard the Quickness of their Motion and hinder their Dyscrasy and Corruption To which End an exact Scrutiny into the Air its Quality Temperament and Motion and an Inquiry of the Efficacy and Force that this hath upon all such Bodies will be in some measure necessary And this puts me in mind to leave one Request with you viz. to beg-your Assistance and Countenance on all Occasions to Mr. Streete when he shall at any time wait on you who both as to his Undertaking and to the Modesty and Simplicity of his Spirit doth very much emulate our so much joint-esteemed Friend Mr. Mercator who though he may differ from the former in reference to his Method or to some of the profounder Parts of Learning yet I think it very possible to reconcile them in the main and cannot but expect something extraordinary in the asserting and perfecting of the Theory of the Planets will be brought forth between them which I should the more gladly see by how much most Scholars complain of it as of a thing hitherto wanting by how much also I guess that having the Examples of so many who have already attempted the same thing in vain they will find themselves the more constrained to lay down some new choice singular and undeniable Hypothesis for the better Invitation of the Admittance of their Opinion among Learned Men although such a Work be no less necessary also for other Reasons For if we assert not the Theory of the Planets rightly and upon such Ground as are indubitably demonstrable we shall never be free from Errors and Disagreements in Opinion about their Motions and the right Calculation of them And if we mistake in either of these we must mistake of the true Place in the Heavens in which each Planet is or constantly ought to be And if we at all err in our Judgment of their due Places it is impossible we should assert their several Aspects and the mutual Influences and Virtues they have through this one upon another And so the Physical Use of their Motions falls to the Ground wholly or at least becomes subject to very much Uncertainty And truly if there be no such Use at all of the Motions of these Bodies as that which I may call Physical viz for predicting and for in some measure determining the Affections Dispositions and Alterations that are introduced into several things here either immediately or into the Air immediately by reason of the Course of these superior Bodies it would very much lessen and depretiate with me that Toil Cost Pains Watchings and continual Exercises and Indeavours that have been used for the gaining of exact Observations in Astronomy Seeing when we have done all and obtained all beyond the mere bare Knowledg of them we can propound no End Benefit Use or Advantage that may recompense the Trouble and Pains bestowed upon them at least upon some of them nor so much as any real or particular Relation between us and them and if so we know them only to know them But we shall at present presume the contrary and therefore shall crave leave to say that although several Objections are commonly brought against any such Use or Application of these Bodies or of their Power Influence or Motions which are occasioned partly by the Superstition and Paganism incident to this kind of Doctrine partly by the Imposture Ignorance and want of Learning generally observed in the Persons professing this Knowledg partly by the manifest Mistakes and Uncertainty that there is in the Predictions of this Nature and partly by the Inexplicableness of the Way or Manner how they come to affect one another which admits not as many conceive of an easy visible or familiar Demonstration Yet all these Objections if throughly examined do not as we humbly conceive really null or take away the Possibility of the thing simply but are raised rather against the Enormities and Imperfections that are confessed to be in it and it may notwithstanding all those Objections still be certain that these Celestial Bodies according to the Angles they make one upon another but especially with the Sun or with the Earth in our Meridian or with such and such other Points in the Heavens may have a Power to cause such and such Motions Changes and Alterations stronger or weaker according to the Nature of the Angle as the Extremities of which shall at length be felt in every one of us And this may be evidenced 1st by undeniable Experiments not only from things inanimate and vegitate but from the undoubted Observations of Physicians as well in several Chronical as acute Distempers and more eminently in all Lunatick Epileptick Paralitick or Lethargick Persons 2dly It may further admit of a Demonstration for if the extream Motions of Physick be Generation and Corruption and the mean Motions Rarefaction and Condensation allowing then these Bodies to have a share in promoting the mean Motions viz of Rarefaction and Condensation we shall or may soon be convinced that their Effects then upon all other things here cannot but be exceeding considerable For the better understanding of which I shall offer a little more largely to you my Conceptions viz. That to speak properly and simply I take Generation and Corruption to be the Extreams of Motion rather than Motions themselves for the Scope Intentions or Effects of all Physical Motions strictly so taken are only to one of these Ends viz. either for Generation or Corruption and these two are they also which limit and bound all Motion for beyond these Meets there is no Physical Progression and therefore these two must be the true Termini as well à quo as ad quem of all such Motion seeing all things are corrupted to be generated and all things generated are at length corrupted But if these be rather the Termini and Extreams of Motion then Motion it self We must acknowledg there are Motions which Nature useth as Means between these two Extreams which mean Motion must be as opposite also one to another as the two Extreams Otherwise we should never be at a Certainty which way Nature intends by her Motion otherwise also we must say one and the same Course or one and the same thing in Nature may simply and of it self be the immediate Cause of Generation and Corruption of Life and of Death of Hardness and Softness which is absurd and impossible Now as these two Motions of Rarefaction and Condensation are opposite one to the other as is required so do they square to all other the Instruments and Phenomena in Nature viz. the one answering to Heat the other to cold the one to Hardness Compactness and Aridity the other
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
Plague would be very rife in London for which Prediction he gave this reason That in the last great Plague he fell sick of that Disease and he then had a Pestilential Tumor so in two other Plagues that since happened though much inferiour to that great one each of them had a rising in his Body to be its Fore-runner and now having a great Tumor in the forementioned Place he doubted not but it would be followed by a raging Pestilence which accordingly ensued Having heard much Talk of something of this Nature as related by the Doctor I inquired of him how much of it was true and received for Answer the foregoing Narrative You did not perhaps expect that the mere local Motion of the Air should be mentioned by me among the Causes of the Effects of its Changes And indeed the Phaenomena I have yet met with reducible to this kind have been but very few notwithstanding which I shall take notice that this local Motion may in certain Cases operate on other Bodies either as it turns the Air into a Wind or as the tremulous Motion of the Air is modified into found or as the Air is put into a vehement and disorderly Motion by Thunder As to the first of these 't is evident that upon the Vehemence or Slackness and the Places whence and where the changing Wind happens to blow there may divers Effects ensue especially in animated Bodies And this not only as the Wind is accompanied with Cold and Hear or Moisture or Driness but to restrain our selves to Instances more closely pertinent to our present Purpose as the Wind is flowing Air or an Aireal Stream for only as such it may ventilate the Places through which it passes and by expelling the Stagnant Air and introducing other Air may contribute to many of those Changes especially as to the Health of Animals that we see to depend upon the Alteration of Air and perhaps among the more tender sort of Animals there may be found some in which the Motion of the external Air though excluded by Walls and Windows may have a considerable and immediate Operation For I have learned by Enquiry from some curious Natives of Languedoc where I had the Curiosity to look after Silk-worms abounding in that Province that in case it happened when the Worms having eaten their fill began to dispose themselves to work their silken Eggs in case I say it then happened to be thundering Weather a great part of the Worms especially the less vigorous would be destroyed He affirmed to me that in some Mines of above a thousand Foot deep he saw Horses that had been let down by Ropes to the 3d part of the Depth that is above a hundred Yards and that several of them died either in the letting down or by the Change of Air yet several of them survived and were imployed about the Engines belonging to the Mines and seem'd not to have any sensible Inconvenience as to Respiration though in the Receptacles they wrought in they were furnished with Air but from the Groove through which they were let down and by a moderately big Shaft An ingenious Traveller that has had the Curiosity to visit the Mines of several Countries as Bohemia Saxony Swedeland c. answered me that the deepest Mine he saw in Bohemia was of about 2000 of our Feet An intelligent Person that was for many Years Consul of the English Nation at Tripoli in Barbary and at another time Governour of the Castle called of the Coast belonging to the English African Company in Guinea being discoursed with by me about the Diseases incident to that very unhealthy Place and about the Worms that bred in Mens Legs told me That the great Noxiousness of the Air was not constant but frequently ceased and return'd within no long Compass of time insomuch that all his Men would continue in Health for many Days together and then on a sudden divers of them would fall sick especially of Feavers and Fluxes that usually killed them in forty eight Hours or less Dr. C. chief Physician to the Russian Emperor confirmed to me that being in Russia in the Winter when the Frost was very hard and the East or North-East Wind blew cold if he turned his Face toward the Wind and walked against which at other times he was wont and took a Delight to do he found himself unable to fetch his Breath and almost stifled as if the Air were very thick or rather a great Stiffness brought upon the Organs of Respiration whereby he was unable to move them as at other times so that he was fain to turn his Head from the Wind that he might be able to fetch his Breath An observing Person being ask'd about a Tradition of Sea-men that the Lice of Europeans die when the Ships pass the Line answered me that he did not find it to be true as it is wont to be delivered but this he plainly observed in several of our English with whom he sailed that all the Lice quitted their Bodies and got up into their Heads whence they dispersed themselves again when the Ship had left the Equator a pretty way behind it But I remember that another Acquaintance of mine that divers times passed the Equinoctial in Portugal Ships which use to go to the Indies well crouded with People many of them more poor than cleanly answered me that he had heedfully observed those Peoples numerous Lice to die away as they cross the Line though in no long time after the same sort of Cattle would begin to molest them again His Royal Highness the Duke of York at his Return out of Scotland having been pleased to discourse with some of us that had the Honour to be then near him of some Observations he made in his Journey mentioned among other things that Agues were very unfrequent in Scotland which yet that Year were very rife over almost all England This gave me afterwards the Curiosity to inquire of a studious Person who is one of the chief of the Scotish Nobility what he knew about the Unfrequency of Agues in his Country To which his Lordship replied that as to Quartan Agues it was generally taken notice of insomuch that when News was brought that a Gentleman whom he named fell sick of that Disease amongst them in the Country it was look'd upon as a strange and remarkable thing And though divers Persons bring Quartans out of England to Edinburg yet they so seldom keep them long there that a Scotish Physician whom he named to me offered to lay five to one of the quick Recovery of several Patients of his if they would make some reasonable Stay in that City Aer autem corrigetur causa corruptionis ablata quod jam inductum est mali extinguendo si igitur ex nimio humore aer putrescit ignibus accensis qui omni putredini remedio sunt exsiccandus sic ignes per vias domus fiant ex odoratis plantis
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