Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	body_n	part_n	way_n	1,424	5	4.6103	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28959	Essay about the origine & virtues of gems wherein are propos'd and historically illustrated some conjectures about the consistence of the matter of precious stones, and the subjects wherein their chiefest virtues reside / by the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esq. ...	Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691.	1672 (1672)	Wing B3947; ESTC R18997	68,508	202

I well remember that having purposely expos'd divers Gems to the fire though that were but moderate and had a Crucible interpos'd between it and them some of them seem'd to have their Tincture much impair'd and others quite destroy'd But I must be so free as to admonish you that if these Tryals be not warily made they may easily impose upon us especially if we do not consider the nature and cause of Whiteness For any Diaphanous Body as far as I have yet observ'd being divided into a multitude of very minute parts and consequently acquiring a multitude of distinct superficies's which do briskly reflect the Light every way outwards will appear to have a white colour that will be more or less vivid as the particles are more or less numerous minute and otherwise fitted to scatter the incident Beams of Light as you may see by reducing to powder fine Venice-Glass which will be white and ev'n red Inck if so shaken or beaten as to be brought to a froth consisting of many minute Bubbles will seem to have put on a whiteness So that if by too hasty an Ignition or too hasty a cooling of the fir'd Gems they come to be flaw'd with innumerable little Cracks they may be thought to be made white by having their Tincture driven away when their whiteness really proceeds from the multitude of those little flaws which are singly unperceiv'd and the rather because the Body may still retain its former shape or seeming intireness To illustrate which I have sometimes taken pleasure to heat a piece of Christal red hot in a Crucible and then quench it in Cold Water For ev'n when the parts did not fly or fall asunder but the Body retain'd its former shape the multitude of little Cracks that were by this operation produc'd in it made it quite loose its transparency and appear a White Body In making which experiment the multitude of produc'd flaws may be pretty well discover'd to the incredulous if as I have sometimes done the ignited Chrystal be warily and dextrously quench'd not in Water but in a very deep solution of Cochaneel made with Spirit of Wine in which operation if it be well performed but not otherwise enough of the red Particles of the solution will get into the cracks of the Chrystal to give it a Pleasing Colour The other tryals that I have made about the reducing of Whiteness or paleness in bodies either transparent or even Semi-Diaphanous only About Tincture of Coral belonging to an other paper I shall here forbear to mention them having already said enough for my present purpose which is not so much to affirm positively that no Proof at all can be drawn from the operation of fire upon the Colour of Gems as to make you cautious what Proofs drawn from thence you admit 2. Wherefore declining to say any thing more about the first I shall now proceed to the next Circumstance that belongs to our Argument which you may think to be more Considerable then the former namely that the Colours of several Gems when they are not destroy'd by fire will be alter'd thereby which being a thing that happens to divers fossile Pigments of which some I imploy to tinge Glass and other Bodies confessedly Mineral argues a Commixture of Mineral substances in those Stones whose Colour receives some of the Alterations I speak of which last words I add because I would not impose upon you by concealing that there may be a change of Colour produc'd by the fire without any alteration of the tinging parts as such For by flawing the heated Gem in very many parts a degree of whiteness or paleness emerging thereupon may somewhat change the former Colour But this Alteration being but a kind of Dilution is not that which I here mean For I remember I have taken Indian Granats and having in a Crucible expos'd them to the fire I found they had exchang'd their reddish Colour for a Dark and Dirty one like that of Iron that has been long kept in the Air. And having taken some pieces of Agate prettily enough adorn'd with waves of differing Colours and kept them a competent time for they should not be kept too long in the fire I found as I conjectur'd that the greatest part of the Agate seem'd to be depriv'd of its Tincture being reduc'd to a pleasant Whiteness But in some places where there were stains of a differing kind from the rest and where there ran little Veins that I ghess to be of a Metalline Nature there I say the Colour was not destroy'd but chang'd and the Veins of Pigment thus colour'd acquir'd a deep redness which they will retain if let ●lone though I was induc'd to think by some Tryals made on other pieces of Indian Agate that even these Me●alline Tinctures were not so fix'd but ●hat a lastinger fire would drive them ●way and leave the stones purely white Such a change of Colours as I lately mention'd in the Veins of Agate is likewise found in those of some other Stones as also in some Pebbles amongst divers of which that lost only their Transparency by Ignition and Extinction in Water one or two acquir'd so much deeper a Colour then it had before that I thought it remarkable 3. Another Circumstance that seem to favour our Conjecture may be this That it has been observed not unfrequently that near many of the places where colour'd Gems are found som● Mines or Veins of Metals are to be me● with And I think it not unlikely th● if search were skilfully made man● more Discoveries would be made o● Veins either of Metalline Oar or som● other Mineral Liquid or Concreted whence by way of Juices or Fume● the Gems may be presum'd to have receiv'd Tinctures But usually whe● pretious Stones are found Mens Ind●stry and Curiosity is too much confin● to those rich Minerals and does n●● make them solicitous to look after i●feriour Ones Besides that in East-India whose Countreys are best for the most Gems they are wonderfully unskillful at digging Mines as I have gather'd from the Answers of some who purposely went to visit the Diamond Mines as they call them To this may be also referr'd that Gems are several times found in the Metalline Veins themselves or very near them As I can shew you divers Amethysts that an ingenious Gentleman of my Acquaintance took himself out of a piece of Ground abounding with the Ores of Iron and Tin the latter of which was there plentifully dug up And in those colder Countryes such as Germany and England where hard Gems are more unfrequent those soft ones that Mineralists call Fluores are often to be found in or near Metalline Veins so finely tincted by Mineral Juices that were it not for their softness they might pass at least among most Men for Emeraulds Rubies Saphires c. as I have been inform'd not only by some Mineral Writers of good credit but also by eye witnesses and partly by my own

additaments good French Verdigreas and rectifying the obtained liquor I had I say found this Menstruum to be not only as I elsewhere observe a good solvent for many Bodies but also to be distillable from many of them without leaving near so much of it self behind as other Saline Solvents are wont to do Considering this I say I dissolved the stony stiriae in this Liquor and having suffer'd some of it to evaporate away and put the rest into a cool place I obtained as I expected store of small but finely figur'd and transparent Cristals that shot much after the fashion of those of the purer sort of Nitre With some part also of the stony solution I mixed in a convenient proportion a high colour'd solution of Copper made likewise in Spirit of Verdigreas and these two solutions being made with the same Menstruum and warily enough put together did not precipitate one another but afforded me upon the evaporation of the superfluous moisture among divers Cristals that were transparent and colourless some that were richly adorned with a greenish blew Tincture of the dissolved Metal What tryals I made by this way little varied to imitate nature by associating into transparent Bodies stony and metalline Substances I cannot now give you a full account of since I neither have by me the Notes I set down about those tryals nor think it fit to make this first part of our Discourse more prolix than I now perceive it to be already SECT II. Containing a Conjecture about the Causes of the Virtues of GEMS WHat has been hitherto deliver'd in the first part of our Discourse will I suppose make it allowable for me to be more succinct in the Second I shall now therefore proceed to those other considerations which being assisted by what has been already said may I hope suffice to keep our conjecture about the Cause of the Virtues of Gems from seeming unreasonable And my first Observation shall be that not only there is in the Earth a great number and variety of Minerals already known by particular Names but probably there are very many others that are not yet known to us The former part of this proposition will not be doubted by those that consider how great a multitude of Metalline Ores Marchasites of several sorts Antimonies Tinn'd-glass Fluores Talks of various Kinds Spars Sulphurs Salts Bitumens c. are mention'd partly by Chymists and other Mineralists and partly by those that have given us accounts of Musaeums and other collections of natural Rarities insomuch that of only one Kind of Fossils the diligence of some modern Writers hath reckoned up between two hundred and two hundred and fifty besides Animal Stones as Lapis Bezoar Lapis Manati Oculus Cancri Lapis Porcinus c. And as for the Second Part of our proposition or observation you will scarce deny it though you consider with me but these two things The first is the small and inconsiderable proportion that the perpendicular depth that the generality of Mines bears to the Semidiameter of the Earth reckon'd to be above 3500 Miles so that though our Globe were inhabited by some hundreds of millions of men more than now it is and they had curiosity enough to dig Mines every where and consequently there were Millions of inquisitive and laborious men more than really there are their Spades and Pickaxes would except here and there penetrate so little a way into the Earth that a vast multitude of Fossils might by lying deeper in the bowels of it continue undiscover'd And to this First Observation I shall subjoin this Second that as far as I have observed almost every Region affords Minerals of its own differing from those that are taken notice of in other Regions And in particular Countryes as in some Shires of England a curious and heedful Eye may I doubt not observe several that are not taken notice of by the inhabitants themselves especially if well-made borers were diligently and skilfully imploy'd to pierce the ground and bring up Simples of divers Fossils that lye hidden under it But having elsewhere discoursed of this matter I shall here only tell you in general that in some parts of England where I had more opportunity than in others to exercise some Curiosity about Minerals I met sometimes in a small compass of ground with a much greater variety than I expected and several of them undescrib'd that I know of by any Writer of which sort I have received divers others from several parts both of the old world and the new In the next place I consider that Nature has furnished the Earth with Menstruums and others Liquors of several sorts and indowed it with divers qualities This I have already manifested in the discourse of subterraneal Menstruums whereto I shall therefore refer you only taking notice in this place that whereas water is abundantly to be met wi●h under ground and for the most part very copiously in Mines by which it is capable to be variously impregnated this liquor it self especially being thus alter'd may in some cases act the part of no despicable M●nstruum and on some occasions otherwise concur to the production of Mineral Bodies I further observe that the subterraneal Liquors upon one account or other for we need not now particularly determin it are qualified to work either as Corrosive Menstruums or as other Solvents upon many of the Medicinal Earths and other Minerals they meet with under ground which Minerals having never been exposed to our sires have their Texture more open and their parts more soluble than those that have been melted by the violent heats of our furnaces And that even Common water will suffice to dissolve and impregnate it self both with the Saline and oftentimes with Metalline parts that it meets with in its passage is obvious enough in the differing tasts and other qualities of liquors that all pass for common water whereof some is found better and some worse than others to Brue some to wash Linnen some to Dye Scarlet or other determinate Colours some to temper Steel and some for other uses But others unquestionably more eminent instances are given us by the Mineral Springs whether Thermae or Acidul● as Authors distinguish those that are actually hot as at Bath and those that are Saline and for the most part sowrish like those at Tunbridge and the ●ork-shire Spaw of which two sorts good store are enumerated by Physitians and Geographers and of which a far greater number would be discover'd if men wanted neither skill nor diligence And here I shall desire you to take notice that though common water do the most readily dissolve the Salts more properly so called though not altogether pure it meets with in the bowels of the Earth as we see it happens in those Salt-Springs that come not from the Sea yet there are also many others subterraneal Bodies which upon the score of their abounding with Saline particles will be dissolved by water though