far as divers Earthquakes have done but that the fire passes through some little subterraneal clefts or channels or hidden conveyances from one great Cavity or Mine to another yet 't is not improbable but that the vehemently tremulous motion does oftentimes reach a very great way beyond the places where the explosions were made Since though Seneca would confine the extent of Earthquakes to two hundred miles yet observations made in this and the last Century warrant us to allow them a far greater spread The Learned Josephus Acosta affirms that in the Kingdom of Peru in the year 1586 an Earthquake reached along the shoar of the Pacifick sea 160 Leagues and adds that sometimes it has in those parts run on from South to North 300 Leagues And in the beginning of this our age Anno Dom. 1601 good writers relate a much larger Earthquake to have happened since it reached from Asia to that Sea that washes the French Shoars and besides some Asiatick Regions shook Hungary Germany Italy and France and consequently a great part of Europe And if that part of the Narrative be certain which relates that this lasted not much above a quarter of an hour it will be the more likely that this Earthquake shook great Tracts of Land beyond those places to which the fired matter passing from one cavity to another could reach in so short a time As you will the more easily guesse if you try as I have done that in trains of Gunpowder it self the fire does not run on near so swiftly as one would imagine But though I have been in more Earthquakes then one yet since they were too sudden and too short to afford me any considerable observation I shall say no more of them but proceed to take notice that oftentimes the motion of a Coach or Cart that passed at a good distance from the place that I was in has made the buildings so sensibly shake that I could not but wonder that so great a portion of so firm and sluggish a body as the Earth could by a cause that seemed very disproportionate to such an effect be made to tremble it self and manifestly to shake firm buildings that were founded on it And this observation made me the more inclinable to give credit to their Relations who tell us that in a calm night the march of a troup of horse may be felt by attentive Scouts watching at a great distance off by the shake that the ground receives from the trampling of the horses though I formerly suspected much and do yet a little that the impulse of the air conveyed along the resisting surface of the ground might mainly contribute to the effect that is ascribed onely to the motion of the soil Before I advance to the Second Member of this Chapter it may not be impertinent to note that in peculiarly disposed bodies and especially in Organical ones a very languid motion may have a far greater effect than it could produce by a bare propagation of it self For it may so determine the motion of the Spirits or other active parts of the body it works on as to make multitudes of them act as if they conspired to perform the same motions As when a ticklish man by having the pulp of one's finger passed gently along the sole of his foot or the palm of his hand has divers muscles and other parts of his body and face put into preternatural or unusual motions And most men by being lightly tickled with the end of a feather or straw within their Nostrils have their heads and many parts of their bodies put into that violent Commotion wherein Sneezing consists And I remember that having for some time been by a distemper from which God was graciously pleased a while after to free me quite deprived of the use of my hands it more than once hapned to me that sitting alone in a Coach if the wind chanced to blow a single hair upon my face in the Summer-time the tickling or itching that it produced was so uneasy to me 'till by calling out to a footman I could get it removed that though I could well bear it as long as I was wont to do when having the use of my hands I could relieve my self at pleasure yet if I were forced to endure the itching too long before any came to succour me the uneasiness was so great as to make me apprehend falling presently either into Convulsions or a Swoon But 't is time to proceed to the second Member of this Chapter 2. Others there are that cannot believe that Local motion especially if it be languid can be propagated through differing Mediums each of which save that wherein the Motion is begun must they think either repell or check and dead it To these I shall recommend the Consideration of an Experiment I remember I made before some Learned men in our Pneumatick Engine For having caused a large and thick glass Receiver to be so blown that it had a glass button in the inside of that part which upon the Engine was to be placed upwards I caused a Watch to be suspended by a little Silverchain fastned to that button by as slender and soft a body as I thought would be strong enough to support my watch and then the Glass being cemented on close to the Receiver to prevent a Commerce between the Cavity of it and the Air the watch that hung freely near the middle of the Cavity of the Receiver made it self to be heard by those attentive Listners that would hold their ears directly over the suspended watch whose motions were thereby argued to have been propagated either through the included air or along the string to the concave part of the Glass and through the whole thickness of the Glass to the convex part and thence through the interposed air to the Ear. And this mention of watches minds me of what I often observed in a small striking watch that I have worn in my pocket For when it struck the Hours and in some postures when the balance did but move I could plainly feel the brisker motions of the Bell and sensibly the languid ones of the balance through the several linings of my Breeches and some other interposed soft and yielding bodies and this though the watch as I said was small and the balance included in a double case and though the outwardmost were of what they call Chagrine and the innermost of Gold which I therefore mention because that closest of metals is observed more to dead sounds and motions than harder metals as Silver Copper and Iron That Motion may be propagated through differing Mediums may seem the more probable by the shakings that are often felt by men lying on beds that stand in rooms close shut when loud claps of thunder are produced perhaps at a great distance off in the clouds And whether it will be fit to add to this Instance that which you have lately met with in the III. Chapter
in the production of divers difficult Phaenomena of nature that are wont to be referred to less genuine as well as less intelligible Causes FINIS AN Experimental Discourse Of some UNHEEDED CAUSES OF THE Insalubrity and Salubrity OF THE AIR Being a Part of an intended Natural History of AIR LONDON Printed by M. Flesher for Richard Davis Bookseller in Oxford 1685. THE Preface HAving heretofore had occasion to draw together under certain Heads divers unpublish'd Observations and Experiments of my own and some of other men by way of Memorials for a Natural History of the Air I thought fit by more largely treating of two or three of the Subjects distinctly mention'd in my Scheme of Titles to give a Semplar or Specimen of what may be done upon the other Heads of the designed History Vpon this account I treated somewhat largely of the Salubrity and Insalubrity of the Air as a Subject which for the importance of it to Mens healths and lives I thought deserv'd to be attentively consider'd and have its Causes diligently inquir'd into And having observ'd that among the six principal Causes of the healthfulness or insalubrity of the Air namely the Climate the Soil the Situation of the Place the Seasons of the Year the raigning winds and Contingencies whether more or less frequent and especially Subterraneal Steams having I say observ'd that among these Causes there was one viz. the last nam'd about which I thought I could offer something that I had not met with in the Books of Physicians that treat of it I was thereby invited to set down my Thoughts and Observations by way of Conjectures which I was made to believe would appear uncommon and would not prove useless These Observations and Reflexions I referr'd for clearness and distinctions sake to four Propositions But when I had gone thorough the three first and made some progress in the fourth being hinder'd by divers Avocations to make an end of it I laid by the whole Discourse in a place which I thought a safe one but when afterwards I had some opportunity to dispatch what remain'd I found all the diligence I us'd to retrieve the entire Manuscript unsuccessfull At this surprizing Accident I confess I was somewhat troubled because whatever may be thought of the discursive part of those Papers the Historical part contain'd divers matters of Fact that I did not meet with in Books nor can now distinctly remember and will not perhaps be lighted on by even Physicians or such Naturalists as derive their knowledge onely from them 'T is upon this consideration that having afterwards met with many Papers that belong'd to most parts of the unhappy discourse I thought fit to put them together in the best order I could that I might not loose what might give some light to so important a Subject as the Theory of Diseases And this course I the rather pitch'd upon because before the Papers about the Salubrity of the Air I miss'd two other of my Manuscripts whereof the former contain'd a Cellection of Medicinal things and the second a defence of the Mechanical way of Philosophizing about Natural Things as it respects Religion And I remember'd that having formerly lost a Manuscript I was much concern'd for I purposely made a noise of it whence I suppos'd the Plagiary would conclude himself unable to make it pass for his And in effect the Book was in a while after privately brought back so that I found it laid in a By-place where I had before as fruitlesly as carefully sought it AN Experimental Discourse Of some Unheeded CAUSES OF THE Insalubrity and Salubrity OF THE AIR c. THE sixth and last thing upon which the Salubrity and Insalubrity of the Air depends is the impregnation it receives from Subterraneal Effluvia And though this be a cause not wont to be much heeded by Physicians themselves yet I take it to be oftentimes one of the most considerable in its effects The Effluvia that pass into the Air may be distinguish'd into several sorts according to their respective Natures as has been elsewhere shewn wherefore I shall now only take notice of the differences that may be taken from place and time upon which account we may consider that some of them arise from the Crust if I may so call it or more superficial parts of the Earth and others have a deeper Original ascending out of the lower parts and as it were Bowels of the Terraqueous Globe And to this difference taken from place I must add another perhaps no less considerable afforded by Time which difference relates chiefly to the second sort of Steams newly mentioned Of the Subterraneal Effluvia some are almost constantly or daily sent up into the Air and those I therefore call Ordinary Emissions and others ascend into the Air but at times which are not seldom distant enough from one another and those I call Extraordinary Emissions whether they come at stated times and so deserve the title of Periodical or else uncertainly sometimes with far greater sometimes with far smaller intervals and so may be called fortuitous or irregular But though I thought it might render what I am about to say more clear if I made and premised the two foregoing distinctions yet because in many cases Nature does not appear solicitous to observe them but at the same time imbues the Air with Steams referable to divers Members of these distinctions I shall several times though not always take the liberty to imitate her and consider the Effluvia of the Terraqueous Globe in the more general Notion that they are so I know 't is frequently observed and usually granted that Marrish Grounds and wet Soils are wont to be unhealthfull because of the moist and crude vapours that the stagnating waters send up too copiously into the Air. And on the other side dry Soils are because of their being such generally lookt upon as healthy Nor do I deny that these Observations do most commonly hold true but yet I think that besides what can be justly ascribed to the moist vapours or dry Exhalations we have been speaking of in many places the healthfulness and insalubrity of the Air may be ascribed to other sorts of Effluvia from the Soil than those that act merely or perhaps principally as these are either moist or dry PROPOSITION I. TO deliver my Thoughts about this matter somewhat more distinctly I shall lay them down in the four ensuing Observations or Propositions whereof the first shall be this It seems probable that in divers places the Salubrity or Insalubrity of the Air considered in the general may be in good part due to subterraneal Expirations especially to those that I lately call'd Ordinary Emissions For in some places the Air is observ'd to be much more healthy than the manifest qualities of it would make one expect and in divers of these Cases I see no Cause to which such a happy Constitution may more probably be ascrib'd than to friendly Effluvia
AN ESSAY Of the Great EFFECTS OF Even Languid and Unheeded MOTION Whereunto is Annexed An Experimental Discourse of some little observed Causes of the Insalubrity and Salubrity of the Air and its Effects By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE Fellow of the Royal Society LONDON Printed by M. Flesher for Richard Davis Bookseller in Oxford 1685. ADVERTISEMENT OF THE Publisher T IS thought fit the Reader should be inform'd That the insuing Tract about the Effects of Languid Motions was design'd to be a Part of the Authour's Notes about the Origine of Occult Qualities and should have come abroad together with the Papers about the Effluvia of Bodies most of which are already publish'd And accordingly it was printed seven or eight years ago which Circumstance is here mention'd to give a Reason why several Particulars were omitted in the Body of the Discourse that will be found annex'd to the End of it For these occurring to the Authour whilst he cursorily read over the Tract it self when it was upon the point to be made publick 't was thought fit rather to subjoin them by way of a short Appendix than to let any thing be lost that seem'd pertinent to so difficult and uncultivated a Subject as That they belong to The Reader is farther to be advertis'd That of the Three Preliminary Discourses which the Authour intended for Introductory Ones to What he design'd to say more particularly about the Mechanical Origine or Production of Occult Qualities One was concerning the Relations betwixt the Pores of Bodies and the Figures of Corpuscles but that the great Intrieacy and Difficulty He found in this copious Subject made Him consent That the Discourse of Local Motion which should have accompany'd it to the Press should be printed long before it And those Papers about Pores and Figures having been for a great while out of the Authour's Power He now to gratify the Stationer with something that may in Their stead make up the formerly printed Essay a Book of a convenient Bulk has put into his Hands what now comes forth about some Unheeded Causes of the Healthfulness and Insalubrity of the Air which being chiefly attributed to Subterraneal Steams Subtile and for the most part Invisible are as near of kin to the other Effluviums treated of in the Introductory Discourse as is requisite to keep the mention that is made of them in this Book from appearing very incongruous AN ESSAY Of the Great EFFECTS Of Even Languid and Vnheeded LOCAL MOTION CHAP. I. HOW superficially soever the Local Motion of Bodies is wont to be treated of by the Schools who admit of divers other Motions and ascribe almost all strange things in Physicks to Substantial Forms and Real Qualities yet it will become Us who endeavour to resolve the Phaenomena of Nature into Matter and Local motion guided at the beginning of things immediately and since regulated according to settled Laws by the Great and Wise Author of the Universe to take a heedfull notice of its kinds and operations as the true Causes of many abstruse Effects And though the industry of divers late Mathematicians and Philosophers have been very laudably and happily exercised on the nature and general Laws of this Motion yet I look upon the Subject in its full extent to be of such importance and so comprehensive that it can never be too much cultivated and that it comprises some parts that are yet scarce cultivated at all And therefore I am not sorry to find my self obliged by the design of these Notes written as you know to facilitate the explicating of Occult Qualities to endeavour to improve some neglected Corners of this vast field and to consider Whether besides those effects of Local motion which are more conspicuous as being produced by the manifest striking of one body against another where the bulk c. of the Agent together with its Celerity have the chief Interest there may not be divers effects wont to be attributed to Occult Qualities that yet are really produced by faint or unheeded Local motions of bodies against one another and that oftentimes at a distance But before I enter upon particulars this I must premise in general which I have elsewhere had occasion to note to other purposes that we are not to look upon the bodies we are conversant with as so many Lumps of Matter that differ onely in bulk and shape or that act upon one another merely by their own distinct and particular powers but rather as bodies of peculiar and differing internal Textures as well as external Figures on the account of which structures many of them must be considered as a kind of Engines that are both so framed and so placed among other bodies that sometimes Agents otherwise invalid may have notable operations upon them because those operations being furthered by the Mechanism of the body wrought on and the relation which other bodies and Physisical Causes have to it a great part of the effect is due not precisely to the external Agent that 't is wont to be ascribed to but in great measure to the action of one part of the body it self that is wrought on upon another and assisted by the concurring action of the neighbouring bodies and perhaps of some of the more Catholick Agents of Nature This Notion or Consideration being in other Papers particularly confirmed I shall not now insist upon it trusting that you will not forget it when there shall be occasion to apply it in the following Notes There may be more Accounts than we have yet thought of upon which Local motions may perform considerable things either without being much heeded or without seeming other then faint at least in relation to the considerableness of the Effects produced by them And therefore I would not be understood in an exclusive sense when in the following Discourse I take notice but of a few of the above-mentioned Accounts these seeming sufficient whereto as to Heads may be conveniently enough referred the Instances I allot to this Tract And concerning each of these Accounts I hold it requisite to intimate in this place that I mention it onely as that whereon such effects of Local motion as I refer to it do principally depend for otherwise I am so far from denying that I assert that in divers cases there are more Causes than one or perhaps than two of those here treated of apart that may notably concur to Phaenomena directly referred to but one or other of them To come then closer to our subject I shall take notice That among the severall things upon whose account men are wont to overlook or undervalue the efficacy of Local motions that are either Unheeded or thought Languid the chief or at least those that seem to me fittest to be treated of in this Paper are those that are referable to the following Observations CHAP. II. Observat I. Men are not usually aware of the great efficacy of Celerity even in small Bodies and especially if they
Liquors that are necessary to the nutrition and growth of Plants and by depraving those juices make the vegetables that are nourish'd by them unhealthy for the men that eat them or make drinks of them and these noxious Exhalations may be suppos'd in many places to impregnate the juices of the Earth much more copiously than they do the running or stagnant Waters lately spoken of because the difficulty of pervading the Earth in their ascent may so long check them as to make them very numerous in a small space and perhaps make them convene into Bodies so far of a Saline Nature as to be dissoluble either in common Water or some other Subterraneal Liquor by whose help as by vehicles they may insinuate themselves into the roots of Plants and be thence conveyed to other parts Divers things might be alledg'd to keep this conjecture from being improbable if I had leisure to insist on them but I I shall now only mention two things that on this occasion come into my mind the first whereof is that enquiring of a famous Chymist who liv'd in a Countrey abounding with Mines of Vitriol whether he did not observe that the Oaks growing over them were more solid or heavy than those Trees are elsewhere wont to be he answer'd me that he did and that the difference was remarkable The other is that the parts of some Minerals probably by reason of the smallness and solidity of the Corpuscles they consist of are capable of insinuating themselves very plentifully into the pores of growing Vegetables without being really subdu'd by what Philosophers are pleas'd to call the Concocting Faculty of the Plant and instead of being assimilated by the Vegetable they retain their own Mineral Nature and upon the recess or evaporation of the juice that serv'd them for a vehicle may sometimes discover their being Mineral even to an unassisted Eye For I remember I have seen a piece of a Vine that grew not far from Paris which being broken I perceiv'd a multitude of the internal Pores of the root and if I mistake not part of the Trunk also to be stuff't with Corpuscles of a Marchasitical Nature as manifestly appear'd by their Colour and their shining lustre and also by their weight There goes a Tradition among learned Men that the leaves of Vines that grow in some places of Hungary whose Mines afford Gold are as it were gilt on the lower side by ascending Exhalations of a Golden Nature whether this be true or no I shall not take upon me to determine but I remember that having made enquiry about the truth of it of a very ingenious Traveller whose Curiosity led him to visit heedfully those famous Mines he told me that he did not remember he had observ'd what is reported about the Leaves of the Vine but he knew very well that at Tockay a place that affords the famousest Wine of Hungary and indeed the best I have drunk very many of the kernels of the Grapes would appear guilt over as it were with leaf gold To what has been already discours'd may be added that since men are not wont to feed upon either Beasts or Birds of prey as carnivorous Animals usually are but upon such as live upon Grass or Seeds or other vegetable substances and drink nothing but fair water the noxious exhalations that make vegetables and water unwholsome may by their means have a very bad influence upon Sheep Cows Deer Pigeons and other Animals that seed upon such deprav'd vegetables and drink such noxious waters and consequently may be very hurtfull to those men that feed upon such Animals and may by the deprav'd aliment they afford determine them to an Endemical Disease such as that vitiated nutriment is fitted to produce Perhaps it will not seem improper to add on this occasion that 't is possible that in certain places the latent Minerals may be of such a Nature as that their Effluvia may instead of promoting hinder the Production of some particular Disease whether Epidemical or Endemical in the Bodies of them that inhabit those Places For as Physicians observe that the more manifest morbifick causes of some sicknesses are quite contrary to those of others so I think it not improbable that there may also be a mutual contrariety between those latent morbifick causes that are sent up by subterraneal Agents And therefore it need to be no wonder if some of these should either disable those to which they are Hostile or should at least work in Humane Bodies a great Indisposition to admit their hurtfull Operations which methinks those Physicians and Chymists should easily grant who with a boldness that I do not applaud prescribe Amulets wherein Arsenick or some other poysonous Drug is employ'd as preservatives from the Plague against which I doubt the chief Succours they afford proceeds from the Confidence or Fearlesness they give those that wear them But to return to our subterraneal Effluvia since there are divers whole Countries or lesser places that are either altogether or in great part free from this or that particular Disease as in several parts of Scotland from Agues especially if I mistake not Quartans are very unfrequent insomuch that a learned Physician answer'd me that in divers years practice he met not with above three or four and in several large Regions of the East-Indies notwithstanding the excessive heat of the Climate the Plague is very rare since I say these things are so it seems not altogether improbable that the subterraneal steaws may contribute to this advantage by impregnating both the Air the Earth and the Water with Corpuscles endow'd with Qualities unfriendly to these Diseases which seems to be somewhat the more credible because it has been observ'd that some vast Tracts of Land will neither breed nor maintain venemous Creatures as is undoubtedly believ'd of the whole Kingdom of Ireland where I confess I neither did see any alive nor met with any other that did for as to Spiders though they breed in that Countrey where I have seen many of them and sometimes even upon Irish Wood yet they are unanimously believ'd not to be poysonous there And some Writers tell us how truly I know not of some other Countries to which they affirm the like Privilege to belong But there is one instance afforded us by Begninus who travel'd much to visit Mines which if it be strictly true is very notable for my present purpose Dignum admiratione est says he quod quamvis in vicinia Hydriae Comitatus Gloriciensis ubi reperitur copiosè ☿ singulis ferè annis Lues pestifera grassatur illa tamen semper immunis ab hac manere soleat idque viri provectae aetatis se observasse à majoribus suis accepisse mihi sanctè confirmârunt To which I should add the Testimony of the Learned Michael Mayerus who pronounces Mercury to be an Alexipharmacum against divers Diseases and particularly the Plague if I did not suspect by his way
breathed in with the Air in Respiration or carried up and down by the Bloud or other Liquors of the Body may pass by other parts of it without doing them any sensible harm and attacking this or that determinate part produce there some Disease such as the fabrick and situation of that part peculiarly dispose it to be affected with And I shall add on this occasion that in our Hypothesis we may render a probable reason why in some Epidemical Diseases some persons may escape much better than other that seem likely to be at best as obnoxious to them without a recourse to the peculiar Constitutions of the Bodies of differing Persons for it may be conjectur'd that the noxious Corpuscles that infest the Air may especially in windy weather be very unequally disperc'd through the Air and many fly in far greater or lesser numbers within equal spaces of Air and consequently the Persons that have the ill luck to be in the way of the more numerous swarms of morbifick Corpuscles may be much more prejudiced by them than others though of weaker constitutions who happen to be attaqu'd but by few of them On which occasion I remember that a great many Trees in some Land that belongs to me having been suddenly much endamag'd by a wind that was not able to doe it by it's bare strength I had the curiosity to view somewhat heedfully a Tree that stood in the Garden and perceiv'd that all the considerable mischief was done to that side of the Tree which respected the corner whence the hurtfull Wind blew the Leaves of the other side continuing fresh and verdant as being by the other part of the same Tree fenc'd from the Wind and it was farther observ'd that even the expos'd side of the Tree was not every-where endamag'd for there were divers parts where the Leaves continued sound and green though neighbouring Leaves were some more some less for all that were prejudic'd were not totally blasted the sound Leaves and the discolour'd being so odly mingled that I conjectur'd the cause of the mischief to have been this that some Arsenical or other corrosive or poisonous Exhalations being suddenly emitted from the Subterraneal parts into the Air were by the Wind they chance to meet with there hurry'd along with it and blown against the Bodies that stood in it's way moving in the Air like Hail-shot discharg'd out of a Gun here in a closer and there in a more scattering order so that as more or fewer of them happend to fall upon the same Branch or Leafe they left more or less marks of their passage by destroying the texture and colour in the Leaves or parts of them they chanc'd to beat upon And this may possibly be the cause of some of those sudden and sometimes fatal Effects that I have known in some places the people talk much of complaining that such a one had his Eyes or his Face or onely one side of it blasted by a malignant Wind of which I thought I saw an Example in a Domestick of my own whilst in such a Wind he was riding after me who thanks be to God had no such mischief done me But the Vulgar have entertain'd such strange Conceits and Stories about these Blastings on which account some of them say that Men are Planet-struck that the fabulous things mingled with those that are possible have made intelligent Persons reject them all One thing more I shall take notice of in favour of our Hypothesis which is that it well agrees with what has been observed not without some wonder of the very short duration of some Epidemical Diseases in certain Times and Places For this may proceed from hence either that all the Morbifick Expirations ascended into the Air almost at once or at least within a short time and so were easily spent that is by diffusion or dispersion so weakned as to be disabled from doing much mischief or else the Subterraneal Commotion that produc'd them may pass on from one place to another and so cease to afford the Air incumbent on the first place the supplies necessary to keep it impregnated with noxious Exhalations And it agrees well with this Conjecture that sometimes we may observe certain Epidemical Diseases to have as it were a progressive Motion and leaving one Town free pass on to another Of which some Observations that I have made encline me to think that if Physicians would heedfully mind it they might take notice of several Instances One thing more may be added as consonant to our Hypothesis namely that sometimes an Epidemical Disease ceases in this or that place almost as sudden as it invaded or at least in a much shorter time than Physicians expected For according to our Hypothesis it may well happen that after one sort of Exhalations whose peculiar Qualities make them Morbifick have deprav'd the Air incumbent on a particular place there may by a new or farther Commotion of Subterraneal Bodies be sent up into the Air store of Expirations of another kind which meeting with those that formerly impregnated it may either precipitate them and so free the Air from them or by other operations on them and sometimes even by Coalitions with them so alter their nature as to disable them from doing any farther mischief This I shall illustrate if not confirm by that very remarkable Phaenomenon that is yearly observ'd at Grand Cairo in Aegypt for though I know not whether or no the Corpuscles that produce it arise from under Ground the affirmative part of the Question being not improbable it appears that by the intermixture of adventitious Corpuscles with the formerly Pestilential Air 't is so alter'd and corrected that within one day or two if not within a lesser compass of time there is a stop put to the progress of the Plagues that in that favourable time of year namely about the middle of Summer scarce ever misses of raging in that populous City and which is more admirable these sanative Corpuscles if I may so call them operate so powerfully that of those that are already seiz'd by that fatallest of Diseases the Plague few or none die of it after once these Antidotal Particles have sufficiently impregnated the Air. I confess so great and sudden a change is very wonderfull and I should scarce think it credible if I had not had the means and curiosity to enquire about it of divers persons some of them very intelligent that either curiously visited or also made some considerable stay in that great City and found them agree in the main about the truth of the matter of fact which is much confirm'd to me by so eminent a Testimony as that of the learned Prosper Alpinus who for several years practis'd Physick in Grand Cairo and as an Eye-witness delivers what he relates more authentically as well as more particularly than any I have met with And though he endeavours to give several reasons of this strange and sudden cessation of the
malignity of the Plague yet I doubt they are not sufficient for so wonderfull an effect unless we take in some new Exhalations that then impregnate and correct the Air. And we shall scarce doubt of the great interest these have in the effect produc'd if we give credit to what the recentest Writer I have met with of Voyages into Egypt has lately publish'd about the annual Pestilence at Grand Cairo a City he much frequented This Authour in the account he gives of the present state of Egypt relates that a little after the middle of our June and usually upon the very seventeenth day there begin to fall towards the last quarter of the night near the morning certain drops of a kind of Dew which causes the River to be fruitfull and purifies the Air from all the Infection of Camsims by which I presume he means the Pestilence for after some lines interpos'd he subjoins The Drops or Dew purifies the Air for as soon as it falls the Plague ceases to be mortal none dies of it the Air is wholesome all Distempers cease and if any person grows sick he never dies And then he adds This Dew gives life to every thing and when it falls upon the Wheat it causeth it to continue many years without corruption or Worms and is far more nourishing than that Corn on which it never falls For this cause they never house the Corn of the Grand Seignior in the Barns till this Dew is fallen upon it that it might keep the longer without Worms As well this Conjecture as some other things deliver'd here and there in this Paper about the Salubrity of the Air may probably gain the more credit if I here subjoin what I learn'd by inquiry from a very ingenious Gentleman who was owner of one or more of the Mines that afford the Phaenomenon I am to mention Which is this That in the Tin-mine Countreys in Devonshire it sometimes happens as perhaps I may have elsewhere noted to another purpose that upon a sudden a Spot of ground and that not always narrow will be as 't were blasted by the ascending hurtfull Fumes insomuch that not onely the Grass Fern and other more tender Vegetables will be turned black and as it were burnt or scorched up but now and then Trees also without excepting Oaks themselves will be blasted and spoil'd by the powerfull Operation of these subtil and poisonous Effluvia It will probably be here expected that among the Epidemical Diseases that our Hypothesis derives from Subterraneal Effluvia I should particularly treat of the cause of Pestilential Fevers and the Plague it self But though some such Fevers may not improbably be in great part imputed to the noxious Expirations of the Globe we inhabit yet as to the true Plague it self I freely confess I am at a loss about it's Origine The sacred Writings expresly teach that some Plagues and particularly that which in David's time swept away in three days 70000 Persons have been in an extraordinary manner inflicted by God And to me it appears either scarce possible or far more difficult than those that have not attentively enough considered the matter are wont to think it To deduce the abstruce Origine strange Symtomes and other odd Phaenomena of some Plagues that are recorded in History from merely Corporeal Causes On the other side it seems unphilosophical and perhaps rather seems than is very pious to recur without an absolute necessity to Supernatural Causes for such Effects as do not manifestly exceed the power of Natural ones though the particular manner of their being produc'd is perchance more than we are yet able clearly to explicate And I think it the more questionable whether all Plagues are Supernatural Exertions of God's Power and Wrath against the Wicked because I observe that Brutes which are as well uncapable of moral Vice as moral Vertue are yet oftentimes subject to Murrains such as may without incongruity be lookt upon as the Pestilences of Beasts And 't is the less likely that these sweeping and contagious Maladies should be always sent for the punishment of impious men because I remember to have read in good Authours that as some Plagues destroy'd both Men and Beasts so some other did peculiarly destroy Brute Animals of very little consideration or use to Men as Cats c. Upon these and the like Reasons I have sometimes suspected that in the Controversie about the Origine of the Plague namely Whether it be Natural or Supernatural neither of the contending Parties is altogether in the right since 't is very possible that some Pestilences may not break forth without an extraordinary though perhaps not Immediate interposition of Almighty God provok'd by the Sins of Men and yet other Plagues may be produc'd by a Tragical concourse of merely Natural Causes But though the difficulties that incumber each of the opposite Opinions keep me both from Dogmatically asserting that All Plagues have a Supernatural Origine and from denying that Any have it yet to say something on such an occasion though I can speak but very hesitantly I shall venture to add that whether or no the true Plague be said to descend to the Earth from a higher Sphere than that of Nature yet its Propagation and Effects are at least for the most part carry'd on mainly by a malignant disposition in the Air without which some Plagues could never have been so catching as they were nor so suddenly mortal and that in divers Pestilences this malignant Disposition in the Air may probably be in great part imputed to some kinds of Subterraneal Expirations I am prone to think and that chiefly upon two Accounts The first thing that induces me to this Conjecture is that not any of the several Causes to which the Plague is wont to be imputed seems to me to be sufficient Those that fetch it from the malevolent aspects and influence of the Celestial lights besides that they suppose some things very difficult to be prov'd have recourse to Agents too remote too general and too indeterminate to be acquiesc'd in as the Causes of such particular Symtomes and Phaenomena as oftentimes accompany Pestilences And as for those other Sects of Physicians that confidently derive the Plague some from Internal Putrefaction and others from excessive Heats noisome Stinks Corrupt aliments and such other Celebrated Causes though each party alledges plausible Reasons for its own opinion yet their objections against their adversaries are much stronger than their arguments are for themselves And the Learned Diemer-broeck though his own Hypothesis seem to be more Theological than Philosophical has much enervated the Arguments brought for the several opinions lately nam'd and by him dissented from The Reasons he employs to refute all the receiv'd opinions about the Origine of the Plague except his own are divers of them worthy of so learned a man to whom though I had leisure to transcribe them I should refer the Curious my present design being onely
to deliver some few things that seem more favourable to my Conjectures than to his Opinion and were suggested to me partly by my own Thoughts and partly by the informations that to examine those Thoughts I procur'd by consulting some uncommon Authours and asking Questions of great Travellers and Navigatours By this means I came to learn that divers great Countries are usually free from the Plague that according to the vulgar Hypotheses ought to be as much subject to it if not more than England France Italy and those other parts of Europe and Asia where that fatal Disease rages from time to time in the parched Regions of Africk to which the Excessive Heats would make one expect that the Plagues should make far more frequent visits than to our temperate European Countries Leo Africanus informs us that some parts are so seldom afflicted with that dreadfull Disease that it usually spares the Inhabitants 29 or 30 years together And he expresly records that in Numidia it self if I much misremember not the Countrey 's name notwithstanding the raging heat of the Climate the Plague is wont to be produc'd but once in a hundred years Our Purchas informs us that in the Land of Negro's it is not known at all And to omit what some Travellers and Navigatours relate of Japan as if it were seldom or never invaded by the Pestilence I do not remember that in New England which contains a great extent of Land though I have had both Curiosity and opportunity to inquire after the Diseases of that Countrey I ever heard the English take any notice of the Plague since their setling there above threescore and ten years ago And as for the East Indies Sir Philibert Vernatti a Virtuoso of great fame and authority at Batavia where he resides in his ingenious Returns to the Queries sent him by the Royal Society of Naturalists answers thus to the fifteenth Pestis morbus est Indiarum Incolis incognitus The Plague is a Disease unknown amongst the Indians And of the Countries that lie yet more remote as the great Empire of China and the Kingdoms of Tunquin and of Cochinchina that great Traveller Alexander de Rhodes who spent 30 years in those parts affirms that the Plague is not so much as spoken of there And yet the same Jesuit does upon grounds probable enough estimate the number of the people of China alone to be two hundred and fifty millions a number I take to exceed by far that of all the Nations of Europe Now when I consider how vast Tracts of Land are compriz'd in those Countries some of which the Plague does not at all and others but exceeding unfrequently invade this Immunity seems to me very unfavourable to most if not all the opinions receiv'd among Physicians as also that of Diemerbroeck himself who derives the Plague from a Supernatural Cause the wrath of God against the sins of men For in Regions of such extent and divers of them very populous which are seated under very differing Climats and which are some of them inhabited by Nations that make war with numerous Armies fight bloudy battels leave heaps of unbury'd Bodies expos'd to the putrefying heat of the Sun are sometimes forc'd as well as others to live upon very unwonted and unwholsome foods that worship stocks and stones and beasts and some of them Devils whom they know to be such that are at least as guilty as Europeans of Assassinats Poisonings Rapes Oppression Sodomy and other crying Sins in these Regions I say 't is not imaginable but that great Intemperatures of the Air especially in point of Heat Stench of dead Bodies kill'd in fights unwholsomness of Aliments malevolent aspects of Celestial Bodies high provocations of the divine Justice and in short all the Causes to one or other of which the several parties of Physicians are wont to refer the Plague should be wanting any more than in our Europe and yet the Plague which is presum'd to be the Effect of one or other of those Causes is not here observed to be produc'd I know that it may be said that the Historical things I have been reciting do not onely oppugn the several receiv'd Opinions of Physicians about the cause of the Plague but disfavour my Conjectures too But if this be said I desire it may also be consider'd that my Judgment about the Plague consists of two Parts One that 't is exceeding difficult to assign the true and adequate Cause of the Origine of the Pestilence and the Other that whatever be the Cause of its First Eruption its Propagation and divers of its Symptomes may be probably enough refer'd to the depravation of the Air by Subterraneal Steams and their Effects If this be duly consider'd the Historical Observations will appear not to overthrow the First member of our Hypothesis but rather to confirm it and 't is upon this account that I have mention'd them in this place And as to the Second member it may be said that since in the East Indies and the other Countries I have nam'd as privileg'd from this raging Disease it is not observ'd to break out as it cannot be said that Subterraneal Effluvia do in those Countries promote the Propagation of it so it cannot be prov'd that they could not doe it incase the Plague were begun by other Causes But in regard I think it not improbable that sometimes the Plague is not onely fomented but begun by noxious Expirations of the Terrestrial Globe I shall add that this supposition though I confess it be somewhat disfavour'd by some of the lately mention'd Observations yet is not absolutely inconsistent with them For First it may be said that some of the Countries I speak of may be destitute of those noxious minerals to which we impute some Plagues it holding true in Minerals as well as in Plants Non omnis fert omnia tellus and to omit what I have not without some wonders observ'd of the Limits of differing sorts of Mines and Mineral Veins in very bordering parts of the same tract of Land I cannot but here take notice that though Sulphur be in many Countries usually found and that in plenty where there are other Metalline Veins insomuch that Chymists make it one of the three Principles of all Metals yet in the Mines of England more strictly so call'd I do not remember I ever met with so much as an Ounce of Native Sulphur and I could not find by divers Mineralists of whom I purposely ask'd the question that they had met with any among the various Mines they had frequented It may also happen that there may be hurtfull Minerals in a Countrey and yet not capable of often producing or promoting Pestilences there even upon moderate Earthquakes For 't is possible that these Orpimental or other Noxious Minerals may have their Beds or Veins lying so deep in the Earth that they are not ordinarily able to send up Effluvia strong and copious enough to make
He adds that this Pestilence than which none had been observ'd more furious and spreading began two years before in the Kingdom of Cathay by a vapour that was most horribly stinking which brake out of the Earth like a kind of Subterraneal fire consum'd and devour'd above 200 Leagues of that Countrey even to the very Trees and Stones and infected the Air in a wonderfull manner From Cathay say's he it pass'd into Asia and Greece thence into Africk afterwards into Europe which it ransack'd throughout Other Instances of Pestilences begun by noxious Subterraneal Fumes I have met with in good Authours but cannot now recall the Particulars to mind and therefore shall pass on to the second Observation 2. In the next place then whereas 't is noted by diligent Observers that there is a wonderfull diversity in several Countries and even in the same Countrey at several distant times of those raging Diseases that Physicians agree in calling the Plague whence it happens that such Medicins or Methods of curing as are in one Plague succesfull as Phlebotomy Purging c. do oftentimes in another prove dangerous if not mortal whereas I say this great variety has been observ'd in Plagues it may be fairly accounted for by the great number and diversity that has been actually found or may be reasonably suppos'd in the numerous Minerals and other Bodies that nature has lay'd up in the Subterraneal Regions especially if we consider that the number of such Bodies may be much increas'd and diversified by the various combinations which may be made of them not onely by casualties but by the action of Subterraneal Fires and aestuaries and menstruums such as I have elsewhere shewn to be lodg'd beneath the turf or superficies of the Earth And the ascending Corpuscles of those Mineral Bodies being most of them solid and subtile may produce in the Bloud and so in the Body far more odd and violent Symtomes than the peccant Humours that use to beget ordinary Diseases Which may be one reason and perhaps the chief why the ancient Heathens and Hippocrates himself acknowledg'd in Pestilential Diseases 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 somewhat of Divine surpassing ordinary Nature What these Mineral Substances are whose steams produce such odd and dismal Symtomes I think exceeding hard to determine Yet if I were to name one sort I should perhaps think the least unlikely to be Orpiment For of the Poysonous Minerals we are acquainted with I know not any of which there is greater quantity in the Bowels of the Earth especially taking that name in the latitude allowed it by those skilfull men that make three sorts of it viz. Yellow Red and White Orpiment divers of whose mischievous Effects seem to agree well enough with the Symtomes of some Plagues and may be guessed to have at least a considerable interest in the production of them But yet to speak candidly I do not think that these Minerals are the causes even of all those Pestilences whose efficients may come from under the Ground For several reasons and some drawn from Experience make me think that the Subterraneal Regions have many kinds of very mischievous fossiles of which Physicians and even Chymists have no knowledge and for which they have not any distinct names and that the various associations of these which Nature may by Fire and menstruums make under Ground and perhaps in the Air it self may very much increase the number and variety of hurtfull Matters and also heighten their hostility to Humane Bodies as I think may be argued from the factitious White Arsenick that is commonly sold in Shops which though usually made of Orpiment by the addition of so innocent a Body as common Salt which is found in great plenty under Ground is observ'd to be far more poysonous than Orpiment it self And I remember that a skilfull Chymist having in my presence tasted some prepar'd and as was thought somewhat corrected Arcenick was quickly invaded by such Symtomes as he thought would presently kill him But through God's blessing I quickly put him out of danger though not out of pain by early prescribing him store of Oil of sweet Almonds and something made of Lemmons that I chanc'd to have by me But to return to what I was saying Sandarach seems to be but Orpiment whose yellow Colour is deepn'd to Redness and native Arsenick for I have seen such a thing though it rarely comes into England seems to be little other than pale or white Orpiment And indeed in Hungary all three may be found not far from one another in the same Mine As I learn'd by Inquiry from an observing Eye-witness by whose means and of another Chymist divers Native Orpimental Minerals to say nothing of Realgar because it is a Factitious combination of Orpiment and Sulphur came to my hands And as this sort of Fossiles comprizes more numerous and various ones than is vulgarly noted so the very noxious effects of the Effluvia of Orpiment are not unknown to divers Physicians and the Learned Sennertus gives a particular instance of it in a Painter who upon opening a Box where Orpiment which men of his Profession use as a Pigment had been long kept had his face all swell'd and was cast into fainting Fits And as White Arsenick is of a more piercing and corrosive nature so it were not difficult to shew out of the Writings of eminent Physicians that its effects have divers times proved very hurtfull and sometimes mortal When but externally worn in Amulets especially if the Pores of the Skin were open by exercise and sweat and the nature of the Symptomes produced seems to confirm our Hypothesis since the Persons that wore these Arsenical Amulets were affected some with great anxieties about the Heart some with inflammation some with burning Fevers some with exulceration of the Breasts so some with Pussles like those of the Plague and these were sometimes black as if made with a Caustick most Patients were affected with great weakness and faintness c. as if they had swallowed Poison and of one young Man 't is recorded that having heated himself in a Tennis-court with an Amulet upon his Breast the virulence of its Corpuscles made him fall down stark dead upon the Spot And 't is a considerable Circumstance in these Observations that several Patients were cur'd of the Symptomes that seem'd to be Pestilential ones by the same Remedies that are Alexipharmacal against the Plague whence it may also be made probable that the Plague it self many times is a natural though a dreadfull and anomalous Disease since its Effects and Symptomes so much resemble those of acknowledg'd Poisons and have been cur'd by Antidotes effectual against other Poisons I have not time to mention what I have my self try'd and observ'd about the bad effects of Orpiment and its kinds But I remember that enquiring of an ingenious Man who sometimes visited a Mine which was known to abound with Orpimental Fossils he answer'd me