sooner looks about him but falls to Mechanism and Mechanical Philosophy forsooth a thing never known nor scarce thought of by our ancient Predecessors Pyroph It 's I confess a great tryal of your ingenuity and demonstrates how much Hydroph you favour truth although attainable after former disappointments to quit the first Principles although strongly impress'd and to turn Volunteers to another more plausible cause which yet is no more than the badge of an ingenuous temper Hydroph What for us that are gray headed in the ancient sort of Philosophy understanding every tittle of the materia prima forma substantialis privatio all the affections of natural Bodys internal and external 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and quiddities of a thousand things more familiar to us in our Philosophy which we have all ad unguem For us I say Pyroph to be constrain'd to have all these impressions wip'd off and so become so many rasa tabula's susceptible of new impressions of another new we know not what sort of Phiysiology would it not think you gaul any man to the inwards Pyroph But if all those Notions by the induction of another and more plausible Hypothesis be demonstrated Hydroph to be no more than figments and Vtopian Conjectures shall not that what ever it be which is grounded upon an experimental Basis be more satisfactory and of more validity than the other you quote which is founded upon airy Chimaera's and fanciful Dreams Hydroph I shall not dispute that Pyroph only what you insinuate That ours is built like Castles in the Air upon meer Chimaera's remains for you to prove Pyroph Which I shall indeavour to do Hydroph for your satisfaction in the sequel of our Discourse Hydroph Well but if I must be the judge to determine the controversie betwixt us I should Pyroph once for all for Antiquities sake and indeed for our own too who have toil'd in that sort of Philosophy give it clearly against you for I must declare I highly approve and that for some reasons aforesaid of the old sort of Philosophising Pyroph You are it seems then Hydroph a Philosopher of the old fashion and therefore no doubt can readily give your suffrage on your own side But if you bring not better or more recent Arguments for the upholding thereof that are yet more cogent than any we see hitherto your old manner of Philosophising will be out of date and you ere long will want Proselytes Hydroph Why if we can Pyroph by an Hypothesis already erected satisfie our selves in the general in the explicating of the causes of things it 's enough we have what we aim at For we would not we declare be guilty of too much prying into the nature of things left we confound our thoughts and at length lose our selves by too deep speculations into the reasons of things contain'd in the vast Volume and intricate Labyrinth of the World Pyroph True Hydroph the circuit of nature is of a large extent many not to say infinite are the Meanders of that intricate Maze of things we converse with one Century is not enough nor a great many Philosophers sufficient to pry narrowly and well to search into so as throughly to find out the vast depth of all the secrets of nature or to investigate every Phoenomenon of the Mundan Susteme or rightly to know every Encheiresis and the Motion of every Wheel of the vast Machin of the World Hydroph Why therefore Pyroph seeing nature is so intricate in all her works and so curious in every texture of bodys as you seem to insinuate why I say should we be too solicitous about any one Hypothesis so as out of an affected humour some are more guilty of than others to prefer that before another Pyroph Because to me Hydroph it seems rational that that Hypothesis what ever it be by which the Phaenomena can more clearly and genuinly be solved ought of right to be preferr'd before the rest for if I mistake not to render any Hypothesis such it is indispensably requisite that the principles concluded on be of a competent number teeming nature perspicuous and the most universal well grounded upon Mechanical Experiments and such whose deductions in the solution of the apparences of Nature are to be not rack'd but natural and genuine Hydro We are apt to think Pyroph if we may be judges in our own cause ours to be such it has moreover serv'd the world so many ages being kept a foot by the Sages of every generation till of late that some of you Upstarts have by your phanatick whims grounded upon the canting mechanical experiments won so much upon the world as to give great jealousie ours is upon the verge of oblivion and were it not that others from whose judgment were are apt to measure our own demerits were amuz'd with the new fancies we could be content for our own parts to be by-standers to laugh at you and to wait till we saw you weary of your own conceits Pyroph But if I tell you Hydroph that you are allowed no more than others to be competent judges in your own concerns and therefore the controversie is fairly to be scan'd and determin'd by indifferent persons And as to the continuation of your Hypothesis for many centuries and its flourishing in the days of many learned men that makes no more for the evincing the truth thereof than because for many centuries of the world the Antipodes was disbelieved yea by learned men for instance Saint Austin Lactantius and others that opinion of the Antipodes was deemed to be a direct heresie that therefore I say it was really so Or if any though never so learned man before Columbus his time should have concluded that no such vast part of the world was really discoverable as America that vast large and rich part of the habitable Orb because from the same reason not then found out which after so many centuries and so many fam'd Navigations was not known till the late discovery made by the thereby fam'd Columbus that therefore such a conclusion I say should have been genuine whereas indeed it would have savour'd so much of Antiquity as to have prov'd very fatal to further invention and contrary to what matter of fact might yea did afterwards produce And as to your being concern'd that others now of late should be taken with our new Philosophy we well know it toucheth you to the quick to be lessened in your repute in the world Hydroph Well Pyroph suppose I should with you conclude that such an Hypothesis as you speak off were chiefly to be desired and that ours was not such yet we find you are not well agreed amongst your selves in order to the establishing thereof Pyroph That 's not material Hydroph For although several judicious and worthy men erect Hypotheses different from each other and all cannot be thought to square with the genuine principles of nature yea perhaps not one of them do coincide with the tenure and just
the sudden and unexpected alterations of Symptoms in diseased and crasie bodies which so much puzzle Physitians to know whence such sudden changes contrary to their expectation should happen how well do things succeed even according to their desire and sometimes beyond their expectation at some peculiar juncture of time attributed by Astrologers to I know not what configuration of the Planets and on the other hand how cross and thwarting to their hopes things happen at other seasons and all this many times from various excited Ferments in the Air which work differently upon bodies according to variety of constitutions disposition of the Ferments and modification of other parts So also from other alterations in the Air by some winds a verminous ferment is excited as we see in the Spring time when the winds breath long from the East that many Caterpillers and other Insects are produc'd upon Trees and Plants and many times putredinous animated Ferments are brought with winds from cadaverous bodies which floating in the Air prove seminaries to contagious and verminous Diseases whence the great Plague at Milan at which time as Cardan reports the Air was filled yea the very dust of the Earth animated with those contagious Vermicles so that in the Air often lurk secret Ferments which may both produce different symptoms in the same disease as also be the cause of many Epidemical Diseases whose Character I mean of Exotick Ferments may for some time be in the Air before they settle upon Bodies so as to cause a general discomposure And from the same cause very probably it is that Animals which are frequently abroad in the Air have a foresight or presensation of the alterations of Weather whence the ground of Auguration amongst the Ancients for their Bodies being always exposed to change of Air in the variety of weather become thereby in their Texture of parts more capable of being affected with the least changes of Air in which are always the forerunners of certain alterations of weather by the foresaid congress of the minute Particles of Heat Cold Moisture and what else which give being by different Winds from diverse quarters to changes of weather Thus Cranes are observed by some Naturalists that when they fly softly and silently do presage fair weather but when they hasten make a great noise and fly in a disturbed order do predict Storms so likewise Storks and Wild-Geese as Wolfangius tells us in his Historia animalium Sacra and therefore Storks and Cranes before the coming of Winter take wing and fly in Troops in a triangular form into hotter Countries witness from Thracia into Egypt and from Cilicia into Persia not to say what is reported that when they fly near Mount Taurus where store of Eagles are they each take a stone in their Bill to prevent any noise lest the Eagles should seise upon them Not unlike to which the learned Wormius in his Museum relates somewhat wonderful concerning a sort of Bird frequent in Norway upon which change of weather has aforehand strange influence his words are as followeth Museum Norm p. 304. Aliud genus saith he Norvegiae Islandis frequens est è Mergorum vel potius Colymborum genere Nidum prope aquas it a struit ut cum necessitas flagitat in eas se celeriter praecipitare potest sed nidum repetitura infixo terrae rostro se suspendit donec corpus sublevaverit ac petitum obtinuerit nidum ubi imbres largiores imminere peculiari naturae instinctu persentiscit pullis ac nido suo ab inundatione metuens querulo sono aerem verberat è contra cum coeli serenitatem clementiam praesagierit laetis acclamationibus alio gratiori sono pullisapplaudit unde de futura tempestate certi accolae vocem Hui audientes exclamare solent Norvegi SECT XIII Hydroph WHat think you Pyroph of the drying quality which we define qualitas patibilis quae suo facile alieno autem termino difficulter clauditur Is not this competible to the Earth primarily and to the Air secundarily and to other Bodies as they admit of the combination of this with other qualities in the composition thereof Pyroph I think Hydroph and perhaps may make good that what you call a drying quality is no more a quality than its opposite moisture and that as moisture is no quality primarily of the Air nor secondarily of other Bodies in their Composition so neither is driness as a quality either peculiar to the Earth or to Compound Bodies For in that a Body is said to be dry is in as much as the parts which constitute it are of another Texture than liquid and are so woven together as to have few at least as discernable fluid parts And those dry Bodies are either naturally such as for instance some sorts of Stones and some Calces of calcin'd Bodies which by no force of Fire are ever reducible into any liquid form or else such Bodies as while kept from force of Fire are accounted dry of which are all Metals Minerals Metalline and Mineral Ore so me Stones as Peables Flints Sand Ashes of burnt or calcin'd Bodies all which by stress of Fire may be made to melt and become fluid some per se as the Metals and some Minerals others by addition of Salts as some Minerals also Mineral and Metalline Ore Pebbles Flint Sand c. by the addition of Salt of Kelp Tartar or other calcin'd Vegetables melt into transparent Glass Thus the Calx of Metals fretted by Acids and thereby reduc'd after Evaporation in minima viz. into their impapable Alcolizate pouders are seemingly dry yet these very subtile Crocus's of Metals witness that of Copper dissolv'd into and incorporated in that Body we call Verdigreece by the help of the sour Juice of Grapes or in that which remains after the Vintage if that be dry'd and beat to a most subtile pouder which by the motion of a Pestle or the like presently by the minuteness of its parts fly up and doth ferire nares as also that of natural Vitriol do I say both by stress of Fire arise in a considerable white fume and condense into a plenty of liquid Spirits as is evident in the Spirit of Verdigreeee of Vitriol and so most of other Bodies which being divided into their Minima so as to appear in a dry Sapless form may yet by distillation be turn'd mostwhat into liquids or by reduction into their Sulphurs or Mercuries if Metalline Bodies be furtherconvertible into the fluid Texture of parts VVherefore seeing dryness is no other than such a Texture of parts in the construction of Bodies as renders the Concrete not easily fluid nor apt to flow together when the constitutive parts are rather continuous than contiguous therefore must this dry quality as well as the rest of the same fraternity ipso facto forfeit its supposed Essence of a quality and lose its repute of a nothing for so I esteem it or little better while under
mechanical Agents included in all those bodys vulgarly call'd Seeds wrapt up I said in small raiments of matter not but that these Principles themselves are also material and are at the long run reducible into Water the material Principle of all Concretes but with this difference that they are pure subtile parts entangled in more gross adapted for motion or that collision we suppose indispensibly necessary in the Fabric of all such Bodys By Ferments here we mean the fore-said Principles being seminal sparks hidden in matter which are other requisites duly concurring actually put into motion or set into a natural and genuine collision These Principles in the progressive motion of their collision yea and in the whole round of their operation becoming thereby actual Ferments give according to their various stades the different Phaenomena of the same body so that all the apperances are measur'd forth according to the progress or regress of the aforesaid Principles Thus Vegetation as to Plants is nothing else as we else-where in our Zymolog Physic and Tentamen further say but a slow pac'd motion or gentle collision of the aforesaid Principles consisting in an intestin strugling thereof Thus for instance in the production of a Vegetable Seed-bearing Plant as suppose of Rosemary Marjoram Time c. where we have nothing but the minute Seed with the intrinsic Principles which are the connate plastic Faber seated in the Center thereof and what it can determine matter into Now when this Seed being put into a due capacitated Matrix or Earth begins by the fructifying nitrous Salt in the Earth or Air or both together with the concurrance of an aetherial matter c. requisite to the setting all Vegitable Springs into motion to open it self the Principles or hidden mechanical Agents or that seminal embryonative spark lock'd up in the visible Grain or Seed become an actual Ferment whereby Matter which is always mov'd at the beck of those implanted Principles and is thereby sub-divided into minute parts enters the Pores and Streiners thereof with such adaptation of Particles proportionable thereto which becomes thereby extended and is by the fore-said actual Ferment proper to that Seed wrought into such a texture of parts or specifical form singly peculiar to that Plant where the shape colour sapour odour and other specifical indowments are determin'd by the seminal Principles set into a fermental motion and are the results of Matter formally extended thereby For that a Plant should constantly and more forcibly during the time of the vigour of its natural Ferment breath forth so strong an apporrhoea or odour as to be able to smite our senses therewith as if 20 yea 100 could as sometimes they may stand within the Orb of its activity might all be sensible thereof is I say a demonstrable Argument of the extensibility of Matter and subtile Emanation of subtiliz'd or volatiz'd Parts even in the Fabric of that Plant carried off by the quick actions of the aforesaid Ferment which is yet further discoverable either by the reverse motion of the foresaid Principles of the Plant whereby the same ferment in its Retrograde motion becomes putredinous causing in some Plants but especially in Animals a fetidness whereby also happens a Metastasis into an Insect from causes aforesaid or by force of fire into a fume of 100 yea 1000 fold larger compass than the body it self was which fume although extending so large a space is yet so gross as to make it self the object of our senses Thus you see Hydroph how the same Principles which lay dormant in the seed while in the Garner where they are pois'd in equilibrio and remain alone so long uncapable of fructifying or multiplying how I say in order to the awakening these Principles and putting them into a fermental motion there are some concurring requisites duly to be considered viz. that it should be cast into a peculiar Soil or Ground as its proper Matrix which is the Matrix of the Husk as the Husk is of the true Seed where the Leffas Terrae or juice of the Earth being imbued with so much nitrous Salt as is sufficient softens the Husk and makes it swell whose compage being loos'd the Air with its other necessarily concurring to the exciting the Principles in every vegetable Production getting entrance awakes or puts the implanted Embrio-Principles into motion thereby rendring them fermental whence the noble Seed shut up in an obscure point ariseth whose mechanical Principles necessary to the building all Bodies are I say call'd forth to act break the Prison-doors and in their mutual wrestlings cause that grand Phaenomenon of Nature we call Vegetation where Water by the manuduction of Seeds or seminal Principles becomes determined into fibrous off-shoots those being hollow carry along more of the succulent juyces which as it flows in those Pipes upon its access more Fibers Sap-vessels and others whether as Veins Arteries c. analogous to Animals we refer to the particular disquisitions of the worthy Malpighius our Countryman Dr. Grew are produced while the formerly made Vessels by access of Air or being long expos'd thereto become condensed or hardned into stalks wood c. and so is wrought on by the weavings of the foresaid seminal Principles till the whole Plant or Tree put on its intire form of Root Stalk Bole Bark Branch Fruit or Flower Besides which weavings coagulations and condensations of water into vegetable concretions from causes aforesaid it s moreover if I mistake not Hydroph as easie and as daily perform'd for Nature from the power of seminal ferments set a work in Vegetation and after continued by allowing due requisites or ferments congenial to turn I say Water into Wine as it is for the same by the winding off of those ferments in a natural circulation to reduce Wine into Water both equally and daily perform'd by the same seminal Principles differently and in their circular motion considered yea and to turn also Water into all manner of potable or fermentable liquors by the mediation of the foresaid Principles once broke off from Vegetation and kept afoot by the melting of the Grain then dissolved in Water and after by a ferment connatural set into a fermentative motion as it is for the same potable Liquors at the long run of their ferments insensibly winding off to be reduc'd into Water again and so on in a constant round of action and circulation of motion in the upholding the great vicissitude and interchange of things So that these Principles in their gentle collisions are not only the cause of Vegetation in all manner of Plants and Trees and the various apparences thereto belonging both of generation and corruption weavings and unweavings of Bodies by the winding on and off of the Principles but also put into new and different collisions or higher fermentations become the Patrons of all potable Liquors and yet higher become the efficients of heat and that either remiss or intense yea so
thereof and from which many and those the chief yea perhaps all Phaenomena of natural Bodies or Concretes we converse with may with a great deal of facility and perspicuity be genuinely solv'd concerning which we designedly enlarge in our Tentamen Physiologicum SECT VII Hydroph PRay Pyroph What are those seven Complications of your Principles which you say are found in the great series and chain of the causes of things and from whence you conclude so many Fires contain'd in the orb and shut up in the Centers of those Bodies we are concern'd with How do you reckon them Pyroph The first is when the Principles combine in such a peculiar Collision as that the ethereal matter is interwoven therewith and is fomented by a continual supply from the perpetual circulation of the aforesaid Aether of which sort are those we call Solar Fires because made from the same Principles as the Solar rays are which I say consist of an Eradiation of Solar beams springing from an incessant but peculiar fermentation in the Body of the Sun and fostered by an unwearied circulation of Aethereal matter as we shew in our discourse of Fermentation This Solar-Fire has a twofold consideration First per se and Secondly as it is transmissive or communicable to other Bodies Hydroph How do you understand that first consideration per se Pyroph That from whose direct or reflexive motion swimming through the vast depth of the Aether called by the Epicureans Inane are produced by an eradiation the grand Phaenomena of Light and Heat in the great Orb of the Macrocosm Hydroph What I pray Pyroph is light as communicable to us from the great Fountain thereof the Sun and as that grand Phaenomenon by which all others are made to appear Pyroph Light we suppose Hydroph to consist in an illumination of Air by a perpetual Emanation of Solar beams issuing as I said before from an incessant but peculiar fermentation in the Body of the Sun That Light is not a quality of a lucid Body as you define it but a corporeal substance and how it is necessary to the exhibiting variety of colours and answers the rule of Dioptricks we shall afterwards in its place discourse Hydroph What is that we call Heat as issuing from the Body of the Sun Pyroph It is nothing else Hydroph If I rightly understand but the reflexive motion of those Solar-Rays which in their Emanation from their Fountain cause Light Hydroph How are Light and Heat distinguished in their Causes Pyroph They differ in this only viz. That Light is the bare illumination of the medium Air by a direct Progressive motion of the Solar Rays from the aforesaid fermentation as the proper object of the Eye and by which all other things are made to appear while heat is the reflexion or Reverberatory motion as we say in our tract of Fermentation p. 106. of the same Luminous Beams issuing from the said Fermentation from the Earth or other solid Bodies affecting by that Fermentative motion our Sensative Organs of feeling Hydroph You have told us Pyroph how you understand Light and Heat to proceed from the same Fermentative motion of Solar Rays the one in a direct the other in a reverse or reflected line But how are those you call Solar Fires made Pyroph I answer Hydroph that besides what we have already said by Concentration of the aforesaid Rays those Fires are made viz. from which Rays by Glasses contriv'd for the purpose artificially concentred are produced actual Fires which will give Flame to and Burn any Combustible So that Heat is Fire in a remiss degree or the same Rays thinly dispers'd in their vehicle the Air while Fire is Heat in an intense Degree artificially concentred and both are Essentially the same that is are really from the same causes And as to the second consideration of Solar Fires viz. as transmissive or communicable to other bodies we mean such as hitting upon some peculiarly adapted Textures of Bodies do by their congruousness fix themselves and thereby are the causes whence several Phaenomena mentioned in our Tentamen Physiologic are easily solvable Hydroph What is the second complication of your Principles and what Phaenomena in the main are thence solvable Pyroph The second is when the foresaid Principles do mutually accost each other by a gentle Collision which is twofold the one progressive from the Center The other Retrogressive from the Superficies The former respects the Generation and Productiof things as is manifest in every genuine Fermentation both of Vegetables and Animals whence the Vegetation of Plants and the natural Fermentation of Animal Juices conducing to their Generation increase and perfection or maturity The latter eyes Putrefaction whose Ratio formalis is taken from the revers'd motion of the same Principles mutually acting where by a different modification the Acidum sets upon the Sulphur and thence produceth that putredness and fetidness the frequent effects thereof concerning which Principles as considered in their Progressive and Regressive motion in order to the Production and Reduction of things more elsewhere Hydroph What is the third modification of your Principles and the apparences in general referrable thereto Pyroph The third is when the Principles by a stronger and more sensible Collision hit upon each other and that 's twofold viz. Natural and Artificial 1. Natural as amongst Vegetables is manifest in their ripened Juices whose Principles struggle with stronger Collisions also in Hay Lime Straw Corn c. which have got moisture being laid up wet amongst Animals it 's manifest in every spurious and exorbitant morbid Ferment and lastly amongst Minerals as is evident in every strong Collision of the Principles and that either in their Embryonative Juices or in concrete Minerals from whose Principles mutually strugling do all Natural Baths yea all heats which arise from Metals or Minerals Naturally or Artificially perform'd take their Original 2. The artificial is manifest in every effervescence made between factitious Alcalies fixt or volatile and Acids concerning which you may see more at large in our Philosophical discourse of Fermentation and in our Tentamen Physiologic Hydroph The fourth you have mentioned before which is the most high and rapid motion the Principles are capable of whence you compute the Ratio formalis of vulgar or Culinary Fire and thence also it seems solve the Phaenomena thereto appertaining But pray go on Pyroph to tell what your fifth is and what thence results Pyroph The fifth is when the Principles after they are by the most rapid Collision brought to an ignition are transmitted from their own into other Bodies where penetrating are by a kind of a fixation lock'd up thereby becomeing the Authors of divers Phoenomena as is evident in the Calces of Metals made sicco modo for instance of Lead in the preparation of Minium Iron and Mercury in calx vive in fixt Alcalies lately made c. Hydroph Now proceed on to acquaint us what the sixth complication of your
Principles is and what Phaenomena in short are thereto referrable Pyroph The sixth is when the Principles are complicated by a certain Colliquation whence the Fires thence resulting may properly enough we think be called Colliquativi ignes which are threefold 1. Caustical 2. Corrosive 3. Putrefactive 1. Caustical are either Lixivial or Vesicatory Lixivial are fixt Alcalies of Plants fixt Nitre Calx vive Vesicatory are Chymical Oyls Cantharides and some Plants as ranunculus cicuta urtica inward bark of Walnut c. 2. Corrosive take their original from Mineral Principles colliquated by force of Fire whence all Corrosive Menstrua are produc'd there being as many Corrosive Fires as Menstrua Some more Corrosive than others according to degrees of the Colliquation of the Principles 3. Putrefactive whence also a threefold Colliquative Putrefactive Fire viz. 1. Pestilential 2. Venenous 3. Properly Putrefactive Concerning all which and the apparences thence genuinely solvable besides what is obiter delivered in our discourse of Fermentation we have at large treated in our Tentamen Physilogic Hydroph Now Pyroph ha st to tell us of the last complication of your Principles Pyroph The seventh and last is when the Principles are fixed by an intimate and radical union whence arise Fires of their kind which by reason of the fixity and inseparable connexion of the Principles they as in an Orb above the rest of the Apparences of Nature suffer no flagration of parts nor admit of any injury by the strongest tortures of Vulcan or vulgar Fire which consists in the fourth Complication of our Principles or any other below it self as is evident in the Metals especially the fixed and in the Philosophick Elixir Nor do they undergo any separation of parts as appears in the Liquor Alkahest and Mercury of Philosophers which by reason of the intimate and radical union of their constituent Principles are liable to no sequestration of Heterogeneities the common fate to most Bodies from which Modification of the Principles of Fire it truely if such there be in rerum natura becomes the Ignis Philosophicus otherwise call'd the Philosophers Sulphur that hidden Tincture so much disbeliev'd by many and those also learned men which secret Fires apply'd to their proper Bodies burn onely away their Dross separating their impurities without the destruction or Consumption of their intrinsick Seeds originally implanted therein whence is solvable the very Ratio formalis of the transmutation of Metals Yea and from this seventh complication of the Principles it is whence probably those abstruse Maximes of the Hermetick Philosophers may genuinely be solv'd where they tell us of their Water which burns Bodies and their Fire which moistens them aqua Philosophica corpora urens viz. eorum hetereogenea eademque madefaciens they burn with Water and moisten with Fire a great Paradox in Nature through our ignorance in the abstruse causes of things of which more interspers'dly in our Lithologia and Tentamen Physiologic but especially in our Chrysologia Hermetica From which Principles differently according to the aforesaid sevenfold Modifications complicated the Phaenomena of Nature in her works are according to our Hypothesis easily solvable concerning which you may see many considerable instances illustrated in our Tentamen Physiologie Hydroph It seems then Pyroph that Fire in its genuine and Physical sense is of a larger extent than ever we dream'd of For you make Fire or the Principles thereof to be Seminal and Mechanical Agents in all Bodies especially in those from Seminal Productions these to be reckon'd amongst the intrinsic but pray how are they as extrinsic Agents so much concern'd in the great Metastasis and Catastrophe of Bodies Pyroph When I accounted Fire amongst the extrinsic Agents it was only as Culinary viz. the vulgar I mean such as our fourth complication of the Principles exhibits and as considered applicable to Bodies already constituted and to the changes thence issuing that is as the Principles of any combustible Body was by a rapid Collision brought into that highest motion we call Fire as these I say were applicable to other Bodies whose Principles in some Modification or other had woven the Texture thereof and so lay dormant and did as adventitious Agents excite the latent Principles into action so they thereby become extrinsic Agents thus the Fiery or combustible Principles being put into action in one Body as suppose Wood or the like this as an extrinsic Agent is able to excite the same combustible Principles in any other combustible Body But it is applicable to other Bodies as an extrinsick Agent upon no other account than this viz. from the congenealness of its Principles to those in Bodies it 's applicable to for as Ferments to take them in the usual acceptation work upon no Bodies but such as have Principles Analogical to themselves which is the very Ratio formalis of such Ferments acting upon other Bodies viz. their congenealness so Fire no otherwise burns Bodies than as its Principles being brought into a rapid Collision awakens the same sort of Principles in Bodies it 's applied to exciting those Principles into the same motion which lay dormant before SECT VIII Hydroph HOw do you reckon Ferments amongst extrinsick Agents Pyroph Much what as I have said concerning vulgar Fire For although most Bodies especially Vegetable and Animal lodge within themselves their own Ferments by which they undergo that intestin motion of their constitutive parts they are natually inclin'd to as appears in the Vegetation of Plants from the Fermentation of their genuine Principles and in the Motion Circulation Generation of Spirits c. in the Fermentative Juices of Animals yet these are also lyable to Mutations from extrinsick Ferments being adventitious Agents which according to the Degrees of their Energie either excite or highten the native or pervert them into that which is spurious But in all alterations that are made by those extrinsick Ferments either by stirring up the supine native Ferments or by graduating and advancing them in their vigour and strength do it I say always by a consimilarnes of Nature that is by a congenealness of the extrinsick to the intrinsick Ferments concerning which we discourse more largely in our Tentamen Physiologic Hydroph What mean you Pyroph by Salts which you reckon also amongst extrinsick Agents and concern'd in the Changes of Bodies Pyroph I look upon them Hydroph as other sorts of extrinsick Agents which applied to and interweaving with other Bodies beget great alterations in their apparences Thus for instance Quick-silver which is a fluid Body doth by the interposition of Salts as of Vitriol Nitre or Fossil Salt arise together by the help of Fire in the form of a white Crystalline Sublimate when from the apparences of a fluid Body and Argent-Colour it becomes determin'd by the aforesaid interweaving of Salts into a consistent solid and white Body as may be seen in the preparation of Mercury Sublimate both Corrosive and Dulcis which solid Body shall become
in the Air from cold Particles and from Ferments of a contrary disposition and what alterations thence happen to Animal Juyces and how perform'd Pyroph I answer That as the Air by reason of some congeneal Ferments tacking to and fro therein doth conspire not only to the awakening the Ferments of Animals and Vegetables and to the keeping them a foot and that both in order to building of bodies as well as to the pulling them down so doth the Air at other seasons contain other Particles of cold which are able to suspend the motion and action of the former that is if very intense are able to destroy the Ferments of Men and other Animals as is evident by the killing of many Men and Beasts in cold Countreys as in Russia Greenland and Norway the Frosts are sometimes so strong as that Men are sometimes brought to Inns or Markets frozen on Horse-back are found rigid and starv'd to death sitting streight up like Statues And in Vegetables it's very discernable to have them mortified by strong Frosts And as the cold Particles arrest the vital and vegetative Ferments of Animals and Vegetables so it likewise suspends the putrefactive Ferments in the resolution or taking bodies in pieces locking up those resolving Ferments hence the Carcases of any sort of Animals expos'd to the Air having a putrefaction already begun and thereby grown faetid have I say upon strong Frosts those putrid Ferments shut up and send forth no foetor or bad smell and that by reason of the cold Atoms which fix themselves in the Pores of such bodys and thereby arrest the motion of the Principles which cold Particles are no sooner extricated by change of weather but the Ferments I mean the putrefactive are let loose again and then goes on as strongly as ever Yea in thawing Winds all putrefactive Ferments grow vigorous and are carried in great and numerous swarms through the common Vehicle the Air which either smite our Nostrils very sensibly or affect our Juyces indiscernably to the producing great alterations therein How much the frost Particles penetrate any Fruits so much do they when the Frost breaks undergo a putrefaction as is obvious in Apples and other Fruits which the more they are expos'd to frost Air so much the sooner they rot and that because the active Principles are so far mortify'd through the openness of their Pores as to their natural and intestine Fermentation and so easily upon the unhinging and unrivetting the cold Atoms fall into regressive and putrefactive Fermentation Hydroph Have you Pyroph any artificial way of representing cold to us Pyroph Yes how cold may be produc'd we had an Experiment above 7 years ago which was thus Having mixed Sal Armoniac and Saturn Ore upon a Marble or in a Mortar and put them into a subliming Urinal for a peculiar purpose we then propos'd to which adding Water and shaking them together while the solution was making produc'd an intense coldness to the hand holding the Glass and washing the out-side of the Glass with water found as it was pour'd on immediately it became long fleaks of Ice which as we took off and poured more water on did the same again and again the same will Sal Armon dissolv'd per se in water do also its caput mort remaining after the sublimation thereof with Pot-ash or Salt of Tartar dissolv'd in Water And to make two cold Liquors cold to touch to heat each other to evince the reason of the contrary quality viz. heat we have put Oyl of Vitriol to water which being mixed by shaking immediately contracts a greater heat than can be suffered by the hand that holds the Glass and from the same cause one may easily cause Ice it self to cause heat to another cold Liquor by proceeding as before with Ice put in Oyl of Vitriol as the worthy Experimentator Mr. Boyle tells us in his last Tract Hydroph How do you Pyroph suppose the freezing of Water to be resolv'd or thaw'd what becomes of those Atoms of cold when a Frost is over and what further Observations do you make of those Ferments in the Air upon thawing seasons and sometimes in other weather Pyroph To which I answer Hydroph That as the Atoms of cold are brought to us through the Air by certain peculiar winds which in their motion meeting with capable viz. liquid watery bodys becomes coagulated therewith into that rigid body we call Ice so there are other Atoms of heat which are brought at other seasons through the same Vehicle of Air by different although to that purpose peculiar winds which in their motion meeting with those of cold either in the Air or coagulated in watry bodies resolve mortifie I mean alter their texture and dint them so as either altering their texture whereby they for a while swell and flow together with the water whence upon thaws Rivers for a time grow bigger till they can extricate themselves from the moist and warm Particles they are involv'd in and by other winds are carryed into other places to perform the same offices or else do as some sorts of Salts do to others of a different texture viz. one to mortifie to use a Chymical term dint and change another until there result a neutrum or third thing different from either of the two Besides which we are to consider Hydroph that these mutually acting and working upon each other beget new shapes amongst themselves and many times prove subtile penetrating Ferments which being carryed in the belly of the wind insinuate into fermentative Liquors and set them freshly a working which we see frequently happen in thawing winds that both Ale and Beer often ferment anew yea Wines too especially about the time of Vintage when those fermentative Particles are arrested and determin'd by vinous Atoms which at that season take wing and float in the Air. The same also may cause strange and different fermentations in the blood and other Juyces of our bodies the efficient sometimes of Feavers and other Endemical yea Epidemical Diseases and that these winds and changes of Air thereby have an odd influence upon the fluid Juyces of our bodies is apparent in that vulgar yet true Proverb that some carry Almanacks in their bones can discern the changes of weather before hand which as we apprehend can be from no other cause than that the minute Particles of heat cold or moisture or combinations thereof carryed by different winds in the Vehicle of the Air from whence all varieties of weather do certainly follow which I say at first or aforehand mustring in an invisible manner in the Air become Ferments which rouse up old Aches Pains Asthma's Heaviness weakness of the Joynts and other Symptoms vulgarly ascribable to the Scurvey and and that many times before the weather be discernably chang'd because these otherwise indiscernable alterations of weather are prefigured and transacted before hand in the Air. Whence many times as may be obvious to a curious eye proceed
body giving a green colour and that as well by refraction as transmssiion of Rays from a luminous body gliding side-ways and smiting through the Liquor which renders it diaphanous whose texture of parts with the interstices in the fluid Menstruum causeth I say such a refraction of light as thereby represents it under the form of a green colour If into this green diaphanous Liquor Hydroph you pour a clear solution of Galls the texture of the vitriolin parts in the water will become so altered as that in lieu of a diaphanous it will become an opake Liquor so that the luminous Rays which before were refracted and transmitted will now become either reflected or so intangled in the texture of the parts as neither to make a transmission refraction or any considerable reflection of light there-from and therefore becomes opacous or black For by the addition of Galls to the aforesaid Liquor the first body whose parts were uniform and regularly transmitted and refracted the Rays of light doth now by this commixture with the Particles of Galls muster in so confus'd a posture make an extraversion of large flats some of which always fall in the rear of the Angles and junctures of others so as the transmission of light is quite intercepted and therefore what reflection is made is only so much as to be sufficient to make that representation of bodies by that colour we call black Which that it is so appears further by pouring Oyl of Vitriol Spirit of Nitre Aqua-fortis or the like corrosive Acid Spirits upon those vitriolin opacous Liquors or other bodies made black by vitriolin astringent Steins where you will presently view those Particles of the Gall which before fill'd the Pores of the Liquor and by extraverting many flats made the Liquor opacous dark and inky will now become fretted dissolv'd and the flats lessened so as the parts will again return into their former uniform posture and suffer the light by becoming clear to be transmitted as before so to become a diaphanous Liquor as at first as you may further see in our Experiments about the change of Colours in Spaw Water in our Hydrolog Chymica And that colours are nothing else but different refractions and repercussions of light from bodies according to various Angles of incidence and reflection from the different texture of the depth or superficies thereof carryed through the transparent Tunicles and Humours of the Eyes as through so many Glasses for from the natural Fabric of the Eye are artificial optical or microscopical Glasses contriv'd vibrating after a various manner the Optic Nerves so as to make that kind of sensation we call Vision That colours are I say nothing else but such I might confirm by many more instances viz. by the frequent Manuals of Dyers Tanners Painters c. in their colouring Garments Leather Wood c. by actual bodies not qualities of Vitriol Alum Argol Indico Madder Lime Oak Bark Minium Ceruss Verdigreece Spanish-white Gum Vernice ultra-Marine c. all which produce different colours not from inherent qualities in those bodies arising from a legitimate contemperature of the four Elements but represent themselves as being actual bodies I mean shew that great variety of colours by the different texture of their constitutive parts whereby light becomes so differently refracted or reflected as to be sufficient to cause that great variety of colours we see amongst bodies where we might from the aforesaid different reflections and refractions of light shew amongst the causes of those apparences we call colours what for instance white is and how made which we suppose to be no other than that texture of parts which results from many superficies flat or spherical born up at some little distances from each other by one or more of these following causes viz. 1. By Air 2. Atoms of Cold 3. Other similiar inter-woven bodies 4. Or lastly are wrought into such a texture of parts by the preparatory Vessels First by Air as is evident in Torrents great falls and other agitations of Waters in the white froth of Ale Beer or other fermenting Liquors also in the warming of Ale or Beer c. where the Particles of Water and fermentative Liquors are huft up with those of Air being thereby reduc'd into globular Bubbles the aggregation of which give us that Phaenomenon of white observable therein the like may be reckoned upon in production of white Oyntments from the concussion of Oyls c. Secondly or by Atoms of cold as is evident in the obvious Phaenomenon of Snow where from the cold Atoms woven in with and between the flats for such are the figure of its parts under this disguise of watery Particles results that colour of white as also other apparences compitible to water under the Masque of Snow Thirdly Or by other inter-weaving bodies as is evident where the texture of bodies are such as are made up of many superficies each upon other by a natural stratum super stratum born up by some other interposing parts as is evident in natural Concretions viz. Talk Alabaster Bones Horns Plumes c. In factitious viz. Luna Cornea Venice-glass pulveriz'd Ceruss Paper c. In all which the light from the aforesaid texture of parts is so refracted and reflected as to exhibit us that apparence of white in all such bodies Or lastly are wrought into such a texture of parts by preparatory Vessels by which in Animals I mean the Lacteals and Glandules whence the whiteness of Milk and by other Analogous in Vegetables whence the milky Juyces of all sorts of Spurges Carduus Marie c. But to demonstrate further that Colour and in particular White is no other than the result of such a peculiar texture of bodies as reflects the light after such a mode competible to that apparence and that the same body undergoing no other change of any additional but barely a transposition of the parts of the active Principles therein contained was spontaneously reducible to its pristine clarity and transparency I had this following Phaenomenon represented to me in an Experiment I was then trying In which Experiment I shall forbear to name one of the constituent Liquors in as much as in the main it relates not to this place and only reckon upon the to our purpose pertinent Phaenomenon which was this I having two transparent Liquors by me one was rectified Spirit of Wine the other a Mineral Liquor upon the mixing these I had besides the gentle heat caus'd from a moderate fermentation of the Principles forthwith the apparence of a Milk-white Liquor through the whole body of the mixture which and what was very curious and remarkable to behold within a very few minutes without any extrinsic addition was spontaneously reduc'd to a transparent Liquor as limpid almost as either of the Liquors was before mixture and all this which yet adds to admiration without the least precipitation or any sort of sediment what ever I might further inlarge Hydroph
part after another till the whole become illuminated may be conceiv'd readily performable by motion For a few firy Particles put into a vibrating agil Flour or into a rapid collision makes a great light and spreads far in a medium whose texture of parts makes no interruption in the transmission thereof To assign a precise figure to the Corpuscles of light is too curious and perhaps hazardous of incurring a contradiction For to say with the Democritans that firy Atoms are of a pyramid form implies me-thinks a tacit contradiction both in Mathematicks as well as in Physicks For according to their Doctrine Atoms even as the word it self implies indivisibility which that these minute Particles should be indivisible and yet Pyramid-wise is to me very strange for being they are bodies and these bodies Pyramids must of necessity be solid Pyramids now that such which are always made up of Lines Superficies and Profundities the natural sequels of Solids should 〈◊〉 … thstanding all this be supposed indivisible is certainly indemonstrable Although indeed if we might imagine with the Cartesians the Globulary Figure seems to be the most congeneal to the nature Phaenomena of Light as being of all Figures the most apt to be moved and most capable of being reflected by its hitting against other Bodies and that because the globular in their incidence upon other Bodies of what figure soever saving such as are concave in their Texture do always touch in puncto which makes them so apt to recoyl and make Angles of reflection answerable to those of incidence and yet to determine a precise figuration of Atoms as such wants not its absurdity as we elsewhere in our Tentamen Physiolog take an oportunity further to enlarge These being premised you see Hydaoph it proves not difficult to assign the cause why the Rays of Light though corporeal should so readily and instantaneously be transmitted through the Hemisphere or rather through the whole Sphere excepting as aforesaid the shades of the Earth and other Planets as to make that Light we see in the World notwithstanding the immensness of the vast medium it wades through the radius of which Circle is both in relation to its self as also to its Circle incommensurable whose motion is always in right lines unless intercepted by the interpositions of opake Bodies Your next Argument Hydroph of the Penetration of Bodies upon the supposition of the corporealness of Light grounded upon the general perspicuity of illuminated Bodies will not be uneasy to refute and that because the bodys of perspicuous mediums are therefore diaphanous in that they are tenuious pliable and thereby easily and readily give way to the transmission of the nimble corporeal Rays of Light which upon that account pervade the tenuious Texture of such mediums even ictu oculi and yet these Rays if compared with other minute Bodies floating in the Atmosphere are not altogether so numerous as we are apt commonly to apprehend For although to our eye plac'd in any point of the diaphanous medium upon the extension of the Body of Light we see the Air totally illuminated as if it were nothing else but Light yet if we consider the largeness of the Texture of our Eye and the proportionableness of an object to render it capable of affecting thereof we shall find that it will require the mustering of a great many of minute Bodies to make up the least sensible Object so that the Texture of the eye is so fram'd by glassy humours as to concenter the largely dilated Rays of Light That thereby it may become serviceable to the transmission of Species For the tunica uvea of the Eye being perforated and defended by the transparent Tunicles call'd Cornea adnata are supposed as a plain Glass or foramen in a dark Room through which the sensible Species of Objects are by the help of Light transmitted but yet so as they appear only inverted Therefore that these Images 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of things which float within their Orbs may appear in their proper form is required the help of the Crystalline humour which is lenticular convex inserted into the vitrious humour as a Gem in a Ring whereby together with the help of the albuginous humor which is to dint shade the Species of things with their accompanied Light lest it should come too strongly upon the Crystalline convex humor the Species that were inverted in the tunica uvea might be revers'd and put into their due posture in the convex Glass of the Crystalline humour like as the inverted Species transmitted through a plane Glass or foramen into a dark room are reversed by the help of a Tube with a convex Glass in it which thereby represents the Species of Objects at a great distance upon the opposite white Wall or Paper in their due and regular order as for Recreation sake we sometimes have seen For the most of the Dioptricks are chiefly grounded upon the Texture of the natural frame of the Eye So that it is by these Glasses that I may so call them of the Eye that the distant Rays of Light become concentred to make a sensible impression there whereby the Air seems to us to be so totally diaphanous as if there was nothing else but Light when indeed it needs a Collection of its Rays by so skilful a contrivance as the Fabrick of the Organ of the Eye to make it sensible Wherefore it is very apparent that notwithstanding the corporealness of the Rays of Light there is no necessity of the consequence of the penetration of Bodies both because of the distance of the Rays of Light as also of the tenuiousness and pliable fluidness of the medium As to your last Argument Hydroph viz. that if Light was a Body so also would darkness be because contraries for the consequence of which Isee no reason at all that because darkness is nothing else but theinterception of Light which is further manifest in that at the same time that the lucid Body of the Sun or other luminous Body is in motion I mean by its emission of Rays extended at the very same time is darkness made by the shades of opake Bodies For the radius of the Sun-beams extend far beyond the shaded and therefore dark cones of the Earth and other Planetary Bodies so that in the shade there is darkness because Light is intercepted by an opake Body but beyond the shaded cone the Rays become further continued even to the very circumference of its vast luminous Orb and so the like of any other lucid Body for if a Candle be plac'd at a competent distance from a Globe in a large Room so far as the Conical shade of the Globe reacheth so far it is dark but beyond that the Rays are again continued even to the extent of its Orb 's activity if nothing interrupt And now Hydroph having overturn'd your Arguments against let me give you one for all for the corporealness