AN ACCOUNT OF A Portable Barometer WITH Reasons and Rules For the Use of it How to Weigh the Air Measure its Height and foretell all the alteration of Weather the Constitution of the Atmosphere and how the Effluvia keep off the Air 's Gravitation with a New Account and Experiments how Rain Snow Winds Frost Thunder Lightning Hurricans and Tornado's are produced And an inquiry whether the Planetary Beams or Influence can cause an alteration of weather to be foretold by them With a sensible Demonstration of their Influences and the insufficiency of all Hygroscopes Thermometers and other Inventions to discover the alterations or Weather by And lastly Rules and Experiments for the certain knowledge of all the alterations of Weather both in Quantity and Quality By GVST PARKER Med. LONDON Printed for William Haws at the Rose in Ludgate-street MDCXCX THE Preface THE business of a Portable Barometer have been the endeavours of several Men above Thirty Years last past To find out some way or other to put the Quicksilver Glass into a secure Travelling Posture at last they got a way to tye a piece of Leather over the Cistern and round the Tube and such they called their Portable Barometers which the Philosophical Transactions saies are no ways to be trusted to by reason of their Intolerable Errors and besides are indeed no ways Portable which this of mine is to every body that can but walk and will whether they will or not shew any alteration of Weather and several other things besides But this short Account being altogether new and I believe the first that ever came abroad of this nature consisting only of Experiments and Discoveries of this Instrument it will I hope from friends especially want the less Apology both for the Stile Matter and manner which is not often so smoth well digested and ordered in a thing that never was before as it may be a second time And I hope the confiderations of the usefulness of these Barometers in all the following and many other Discoveries will excuse the rest not only in what concerns the true Nature Quality Temper and Inclinations of the Air as to its self and the alterations of the Weather but all other Liquids as well which may thus be divers ways both weighed and measured at the same time in their Fountains and thereby discover many particular qualifications very hard and difficult if not impossible by any other means and thereby also in time give a Demonstration of the true System of all Natural Bodies And being thus led to the knowledge of their Consistence will be conducted from thence to their Prima Materia and so to the Grand System of the Great World But as there are some who have gained the way of making others little upon Trust so they will abhor the news of any that undertake to undeceive them and will neither give themselves nor others leave to consider what another have done Yet if they will set to work and Merit their own Encomiums with Meum and Tuum they shall have every thing due to their Characters from Gus t s Parker AN ACCOUNT OF A Portable Barometer CHAP. I. First what the Portable Barometer is the Constitution of the Atmosphere and how the Effluvia keep off the Airs Gravitation and are the cause of the variation of its weight WHat I have to offer about a Portable Barometer I once intended to shew the world in another manner but since that could not be I am unwilling by reason of the extraordinary service it may be applied to in Philosophy Hydrostaticks and Mechanicks they should know nothing of it yet know no reason after a great deal of Labour and Charge to give it away but could rather wish there were something ordered for a present reward according to the worth of every discovery whereby every improvement would immediately receive a thousand improvements if it were capable and the World the benefit at the same time And for the Philosophical Reasons of the Natures of these things from Authors I never saw any either of Meteors or this and as I suppose the thing is New so I know nothing but what reason has taught me in the use of it for about two years and a half Therefore it cannot be supposed the Method Reasons or Rules should be so smooth Direct and Perfect the first time as they may be afterward if I live and do well to make another Edition The Portable Barometer is an Instrument that weighs the Air measures its Height and foretells all the alterations of Weather both in Quantity and Quality which for the better understanding it will be convenient to tell the reasons which I shall do in ten Particulars Then shew the manner in its use and settle the Rules for there is no alteration of Weather which is not preceeded by an alteration of the weight of the Air both for Heat and Cold as well as Wet and Dry which comes to pass in this manner The continual motion of the Parts of Matter of which all things are composed and from whence they encrease and decay begets a mighty Emancipation of Atoms with constant Emanations from every part of all sorts of Bodies which being pressed on every side by the Universal Fluid of Air gives them particular bounds and so constitute an Atmosphere or Sphere of Attoms to every Body and is thereby also the cause of Electrical Attractions therefore the great Globe of Earth and Water with all its consistent Bodies must needs have very Copious Effluviums and so make a very large Atmosphere being by an Universal Motion driven from every part of the whole as far as the Power of that Motion and the Pressure of the Air will give leave which by that Pressure and their own weight are again returned like random-shot from whence they are sent This Sphere of Atoms or at least our Hemispherical part thereof is sometimes filled with more and less Emanations by the inequality of that Motion several Undulations particular Eddies and the Effluvia Circulations which in like manner does more or less keep off the Airs Gravitation whereby a Cylinder of the Air cannot weigh so much in wet or Winds Weather as it does in dry Weather and not as John Smith tells us by his Principle of Philosophy that the Air is lighter by being mixt with watery vapors tho a thousand times heavier than its self and mixes Water with Rectified Spirits of Wine for a Demonstration in his Horological Disquisitions pag. 75. I say Winds as well as Wet keep off the Airs Gravitations for Winds also being only humid bodies sufficiently dilated and by that Expansive force the strugling Atoms as strangely agitated with numerous and powerful Attacks from multitudes of fresh Emancipations and Eruptions from our Aeolian Globe must needs keep off the Air 's Gravitation much more then other Pacide Vapors as I shall further Demonstrate in the third and fifth Chapters following which in the Common Barometer make very
considerable alterations tho there be no Rain and are easily discovered by several Hygroscopes by their surprising Gravities as I shall shew in the tenth Chapter Thus our Aeolian Effluvia do not only keep off the Gravitation of the Air but are the cause of the variation of its weight CHAP. II. How Rain and Snow are Generated and Produced and why they make a Cylinder of Air lighter and yet any other particular parcel of Air much heavier WHat I have to say upon the Contents of this Chapter is not of the prime cause of Rain and Snow but only a short account of their Generation and Production in relation to their affections of the Atmosphere for the better understanding of the nature and use of the Barometer Rain and Snow then are generated of the same matter But for distinction I will first give an account of Rain and then of Snow Rain is generated of the Effluviums that constitute our Terraqueous Atmosphere being by their Emancipated motion in a certain part thereof driven towards the extremity of the Sun's reflections into a cooler Region they soon condense in some little part first which Condensation immediately makes room for the natural Elasticity of the Air which as soon begins to carry a long with it all the other Effluvia round about to the first Condensation where being by this Elastick force first brought from all the neighbouring parts the Effluvious Air then runs down by its own weight and Elasticity from every side to a vast extent where being heaped and crowded together they not only fall by their Innate Gravity but by the same motion of Air which now is Wind are sent down sometimes with extream violence and thus not only the neighbouring Atoms are condensed in a little Cloud and small Showers but the whole Hemispherical Effluvia are driven and drawn together and discharged upon a whole Country or national Horizon oftentimes till the whole half Atmosphere is emptied of all those Vapors and then having made a Current from every part beyond all the other Emanations that are raised in other parts of the world as readily flow hither to be discharged here in continual Rains for a long time together till by a piarticuler Condensation in some other Place the course is altered and the Current turned and then it may be Dry as long the Continual stream of Atoms being carried away to other Places to be discharged there The difference between storms or a little wet and lasting settled Rains is that in the first Emancipated Atoms being not so thick or Copious as at other times in their elevating Motions become Bounded by Particular Eddies of Air which drives them so close together that by this means they are formed into Clouds and by their being driven yet closer together by the Power and strength of these Eddies and the Addition of fresh Matter The small Atoms fall so fast one into another by Cold and compressure that very large Drops are Immediately produced and sent Down with more or less violence according to the Disposition of their Motion the Season and Air. But in settled Rains the Effluvious Vapors having for some time before been continually filling our Hemesphere from all parts without any discharge in a still and quiet manner without disturbing the Air at last receive a Condensation as above in some particular part which Immediately makes way for the Airs Elasticity But being now every where filled which these Vapors cannot unbend or move so fast yet continually brings the Neighbouring Vapors and so are gently and continually sent down as long as they last Snow is generated of the same Effluvium's or small peices of moisture when the Sun is at a convenient Distance and the Country proper with Hills Mountains and Latitudes The Calorifick Beams being easily hindred by them or not tended far enough for the other together with the Assistance of the Contrary Motions or Interpositions of the Beams of the other Stars or obstructed by the Numerous Effluvia that murales or or walls the whole Atmosphere or by contrary currants of Air or Winds and the Heat being thus or any other ways kept off and the Effluvious Vapours continuing their Pneumatick Motions without any great pressure they are not condensed into Drops but are frozen in their own shapes in some little part first which is quickly extended to all the rest by the Frigorifick Saline Particls as they use to tell us universally dispersed and mixed with these Atoms But rather by the former privations as will be further demonstrated in the 6 Chapter Then being driven a little closer they fall by their own weight in bigger or lesser Flakes and with more or less driving according as the Motion Cold and Pressure is Then as for Hail that is seldom any other ways than in Storms and is a kind of half frozen Snow and Rain mixed together The manner of its generation and Production may be easily conceived by the account I have given of Rain and Snow with better satisfaction than what they use to tell us of the drops freezing after they fall from the Clouds which is almost impossible But this being not so directly to my purpose I shall say no more of it but only demonstrate how Rain and Snow which thus thickens and fills the Air yet make a Cylinder thereof much lighter but any other particular parcel of Air much heavier The reason why Snow and Rain make a Cylinder of Air lighter is that the Effluvious vapours that constitute the Atmosphere and of which it consists being so very numerous from every part of Matter and so constantly and powerfully sent out that they not only make particular streams from the more fluid parts but an universal stream from the whole Globe of Earth and Water and all other consistent Bodies whatever This universal stream or flood of Vapors being thus united in all parts of the world make an intire screen of condensed or thickened Matter to a great thickness being near a thousand times more solid than Air before they appear in Clouds and therefore must needs keep off or stop the Airs penetration and thereby its Gravitation which yet does not require a general Rain or Snow for a little that comes by particular Currents or Eddies in Storms will do it for they being of no great height want no great extent to hinder both the direct and collateral pressure of the Air as has been observed by common Barometers in a little distance Thus the Ethereal Particles are always hindred by these Emanation at all times but much more in wet than in dry weather and the nearer the Earth's Surface the more they are obstructed as appears in the little heights of small Hills by the same Barometers so that it is impossible a Cylinder of Air should weigh so much in wet as it does in dry weather which I shall now demonstrate by Experiments also Experiments in weighing the Air. In weighing the Air with the Portable Barometer
swell the Water into Mountains and the People cry out Garde le Mascaret in Summer time and the calmest air So the Gulf of Lions often threatens the adjacent Country with a Deluge the Lake of Geneva and several other places from the same causes CHAP. IV. That violent Tempests Hurricanes or Tornadoes c. seldom happen in cold Countries Winter-seasons Large Plains or great Seas WInds being generated according to the preceding manners they may consist of almost infinite variety of Salts Sulphurs Spirits Mineral and Subterraneous Juices Damps and Aeolian Ejections Mists and rarified Vapours Rain or dissolved Snow broken and dissipated Clouds or agitated Air and so may be hot cold dry moist c. and thereby also more or less lasting or violent according to the matter power and plenty of their Causes yet must be raised in natural ways from their Fountains or proper Productions which are very easily effected without recourse to Occult Causes upon so tender a fluid as Air by the foregoing ways in the preceding Chapter and may be as truly foretold by the Portable Barometer notwithstanding all this variety by the alterations they produce in the weight of the Air but yet violent Winds Storms Tempests Hurricanes Tornadoes c. cannot be so easily produced in cold Countries hard frosty seasons large Plains or great Seas as â—n warmer Regions Rockey Countries or narrow and craggy Seas for in cold Countries or frosty Seasons the Effluvious Air is too much Condensed into a kind of fixation and thereby not only keep the Effluvia in the same posture but walls in very Atmosphere against all other Pneumatick Attacks whatever that the most violent Protrusions of Exotick force can never disorder their Perennial Structure but can only displace some outward Particles which the standing force of the rest will take no notice of nor can there be any internal disturbance to disorder their quiet for the same cold that fixes the Effluvia keeps them so and hinders all other commotions and also shuts the pores of the Earth hinders the Rarefaction of Vapours and stops all manner of Effervescencies and calid Emotions of Subterraneous Mineral Heterogeneous Spirits and Ejections whereby the Atmosphere must needs be much more quiet and free from these raging disturbances in such places and at such times than in hot mountainous or rocky places And so in large Plains or great Seas there can be nothing to interrupt or obstruct the currents or course or the Air but as it comes so it continues its progress and goes away in a great body to a vast distance and meets with neither resilitions nor compressions no Hills Mountains nor Vulcanos but is continued almost in a perennial Course either with the Sun Earth or primum mobile in all such places as well as the whole Torrid Zone and some degrees on each side except in Rocky Countries narrow Seas c. In Trade Etesian or Anniversary Winds or with the Course of the Sea or Air and Water as the Levant and Provincial Winds in continued Streams or at most in gentle puffs and even Gales created by the motion of particular Clouds soft Rains moderate Storms or Effluvious Densities that propell the Air before them in such undulous A sperities but must be something extraordinary or a great Complication of causes that can seldom happen to produce a Hurricane Tornado c. besides in cold Countries great Seas large Plains c. the chief material efficients are wanting a powerful Effervescency confused Eddies Transverse Resilitions strong Compressions and heaping Superonerations therefore besides the freedom from these violent sorts of weather these places must needs enjoy more mild and temperate seasons at all times except heat in the Torrid Zone than any other yet heat and cold as well as all other sorts of weather are caused by the particular temperature disposition of the Atmosphere assisted by the presence or absence of the Calorifick Beams and constitution of the place and so may be as well foretold by the alterations they make in the weight of the Air as any other sort of weather as I shall shew in the Seventh and Eighth Chapters following CHAP. V. That they are easily foretold because they produce the greatest variation in the weight of the Air. WInds being only the motions or agitations of our Effluvious Air it may at first seem strange how they should cause so great an alteration in the weight thereof above any other sort of Weather and will be almost surprising to see a Cylinder of Air that now weighs 2020 or more in a few hours not to weigh above 1970 or less and after the Wind is over in a little longer time to weigh 2020 again or more than it did before tilâ— the matter and causes are considered If our Hemispherical part of the Atmosphere continue of an even thickness and the Effluvia in the same posture a Cylinder of Air must needs continue of the same weight for as there is nothing to alter its density so 't is impossible it should alter its gravity and continuing of the same weight the Effluvia are neither dispersed nor more heaped or crowded together therefore being still there can be no wind and the longer it holds the greater the calm if it continues two or three days a Feather will fall perpendicular from a considerable height so that let the weight be what it will or can when ever it stands it is always calm which may be further said to be almost more than true if possible for it may continue to increase or decrease one two or three parts in 24 hours and yet it will continue calm from the highest to the lowest variation And so for violent Storms Tempests Hurricanes and Tornados they being produced by such means related in the third Chapter it will be impossible any of them should happen when the weight of the Air does not alter above two three four five or six parts in twenty four hours nor indeed in half that time let the alteration be in what part of the variation it will tho between 2020 and 1980 five or six parts will be near as much as ten in any other part for if it be more than 2020 the Air is too dry or fair so there is nothing to put it into motion and if it be less than 1980 it is too wet or too much filled and thickned every where with the Effluvious vapours to receive any such disturbances and the reasons why none of these violent tempests never come when the weight of the Air alters no faster are that the Effluvious Vapours come smoothly on and the Atmosphere thickens by degrees and by that means our Hemispherical part thereof is gradually filled to a greater or lesser depth and thickness and therefore must be leisurely discharged in the manner related in the second Chapter about Rain for thus our Hemisphere is secured from all manner of violence from outward attacks or inward disturbances of strong Compressions confused
the Weights may and do consist of Ounces Drachms Scruples and Grains and may as well be Pounds or Hundreds but will be most Convenient to have them of one Denomination and the bigger or more Weights we use the greater will be the variation of the smaller parts if the Balance be good to foretell the last as well as other alterations of weather by which with small weights except the Balance be very nice will not be casie to distinguish so many minute variations as all the alterations of weather will require I have therefore a weight consisting of or divided into 2000 equal parts for the Middle or Center of variation and have not yet observed the weight of Air to vary full 60 such parts either above or below that number that is 120 in all so if the weight be bigger the variations will be more as this of 2000 is 120 if it were 4000 the variation would be 240 such parts which is near ten times as much as in the Common Barometer but if it be but 1000 the variations will not be above 60 such parts which is 3 times as much as the common ones and to be less will not be so serviable January 3. 1698 9 a Cylinder of Air weighed but 1951 having been very wet the day before and rained all the night presceeding and now extream dark thick weather but no rain this thrid day Jan. 4. it weighed 1958 being very Cloudy but no Rain this day neither Jan. 6. it weighed 1964 when it rained all the day abundance The first of these times the Common Barometer was something below much Rain the next the Quicksilver stood at much Rain and in the last one division above much Rain Sept. 12. 1698 a Cylinder of Air weighed 2025 it was very fair clear and dry Octob. 3. 1698 a Cylinder weighed 2022 being very fair clear and dry Decemb. the 3d. and 4th 1698 a Cylinder of Air weighed 2026 being very fair yet thawing and a hard frost going away In the first of these the Common Barometer was at fair and at the second very near at the last somewhat above fair These I believe are sufficient to prove that a Cylinder of Air does not weigh so much in wet as in dry weather but yet a particular parcel of Air as a Quart Gallon or Bushel c. must needs weigh much heavier in a wet time or tho only misty then in a clear Season it containing so many watery Particles every where within our reach that there is not above one third part of pure Air if so much as I have several times tried Octob. 21 and 22. 1698 it rained both days almost from morning to night and so much in Buckingham and Bedfordshire that the like had not been known On the 21 I took a Brass Aeolipile which held something more than a Pint and half a little better than eight and twenty ounces of common well Water this was made as hot as it would indure and then the Orifice was very well stoped with a firm Cement and so laid to cool and when it was through cold in an exact pair of Scales it weighed Eight Ounces Seven Drachms and a half the Orifice being then opened to let in the Air it weighed something above 19 Grains more a Cylinder of Air at the same time weighed 1962 and the Quicksilver Glass stood 4 below Changeable The 22 in the morning the same quantity of Air weighed near 20 Grains a Cylinder of Air 1963 and the weather-glass as before Jan. 2. 1698 9 being a very wet day when a Cylinder of Air weighed but 1949 the Weather-glass at 2 below much Rain the emptied Aeolipile contained 21 grains and a half of humid Air. Jan. the 6. following very wet again yet a Cylinder of Air weighed 1964 the Weather-glass three divisions higher than on the second day but the exhausted Aeolipile 22 Grains of humid Air this day Then on the 12th of Sept. 1698 when a Cylinder of Air weighed 2025 the Weather Fair the Aeolipile heat and weighed as before would now hold but 15 Grains and a half of Air. Octob. 3d following a Cylinder of Air weighed 2022 being very fair and clear the Weather-glass very near the same height the Aeolipile weighed 16 Grains more when the Air was let in then before Decemb. the 4th 1698 a Cylinder of Air weighed 2026 being very fair but a little misty the Weather-glass a little above Fair the exhausted Aeolipile near 17 Grains more when the Air was let in then it did before This I believe is sufficient to make good the Title of this Chapter and prove the truth of a Paradox or two that the Aiâ— is both lighter and heavier in weâ— weather and both heavier and lighteâ— in dry weather But there is nor can be no certainty in the Aeolipilan way as I shall demonstrate in the 10 Chapter to foretell any alteration of weather by CHAP. III. How Winds Storms Tempests Hurricanes and Tornados are produced THe Portable Barometer being an Instrument that discovers all the alterations of Weather it will be convenient to give some account of Winds also what they are and how produced for they are as well foreseen by this as any other sort of weather and the reason we have had no better knowledge of them is only for want of a true method in Science to direct us in all natural observations to enlarge and confirm our knowledge That have kept us from it therefore what I have to say of Winds cannot be expected to be either so full or perfect as what is dilivered of more obvious Subjects being not so Cogniscible to our Senses but are indeed of a Metaphysical Nature of which few I suppose have made any great experiments but only given us some Historical relations of their strangeness and tho Winds are only the motions of Air yet their origines are almost as various as their motions and cannot be had from any one cause but we must ascend into the Regions of the Air and descend into the Caverns of the Earth and Waters of the Sea to understand them for we can never confine their original to any one efficient nor I believe there never was any single Theory yet stated that would resolve the whole Phaenominon of Winds which may be generated these six ways by Rarefaction Compressure Elasticity and Resilition or by Subterraneal or Submarine Eruptions The universal Efficient of the first four is chiefly the operations of the Sun Beams upon the Effluvious Air and that of the other two from Subterranial Vutrano's and Calid Emotions of Mineral Heterogenities as I shall successively shew First by Rarification that Air may be dilated to 100 200 nay 13000 times its former extent as the Honourable Esquire Boyle Mersennus and others have experienced without heat by removing the Circumjacent Pressure of the other Aerial Particles but let this or any such Rarefaction be produced from what cause soever either by the Sun Beams or any other
Eddies and heaping Superonerations yet when any of these violent Tempests do come a calm must preceed and our Hemispherical part of the Atmosphere must continue very still for some time before for if the Air be in motion tho in never so gentle a course there can no such thing happen because it will be carried off by that current as it comes that their productions may be the better collected and kept together than in such places as are subject to these violences they may be reasonably expected from some Cavernous Vulcanos Calid Emotions strong Effervescencies Subterraneous or Submarine Eruptions either single or complicate from one or more places the Emanations being powerfully sent up perpendicularly from the Horizon or inclining as the disposition of the Air is for a considerable time in such a calm season like smoak from Chimneys they propel the Air before them and so make room for the other Effluvia that follows with the same swiftness and the rest of the Atmosphere to unbend if it inclines with its whole Elasticity that makes as quick a current till the propelled Air being strengthned by a mighty Turba can be driven no further and the other following lowing with as great strength they become fenced on every side with such mighty pressures that they fill the whole lower Region and thereby in a manner keep off the whole body of superior Air from any gravitation till at last it is discharged in so dreadful a manner with such amazing displosions And thus these Tempests by a small inclination at their first risings may be carried a considerable distance from their local originals and their skirts may chance to make so great an alteration in the weight of the Air that they may be expected there if not carefully observed and so in lesser Storms and also in showery Seasons of temperate Countries the weight of the Air will sometimes alter in this manner when no Rain can come within eight or ten miles of the place but if these Tempests in their perpendicular ascensions are equally dilated on every side they are in a little time discharged very near the place of their first productions with more or less violence according to the plenty of the Matter and disposition of the neighbouring Air. Thus all these Tempests are easily foretold for if in two three or four hours time the weight of the Air decreases 20 30 40 or 50 parts we may be certain some of these sorts of weather will follow tho sometimes the Winds will blow when the weight of the Air increases 10 15 or 20 parts in six eight or ten hours but then it must decrease leisurely before and a little rain before it rise The several sorts of Tempests may be distinguished by the particular parts of the variation the decrease is made from with respect to the Country and Season yet if it begins about 2015 and decreases to 1980 or less it will Thunder tho in Winter if it begins about 2010 and rest about 1970 it will be only Winds with very little Rain but such Winds as very seldom happen We had an example on the sixth of February 1698 9 at 10 over night before a Cylinder of Air weighed 2011 the same morning at 7 it weighed 1991 at 10 in the forenoon it weighed but 1965 which was 36 parts in three hours time and 20 the night before which were 56 in all in twelve hours time It rested at 1965 till about nine the next morning at two afternoon it weighed 1970 and at night it weighed 2011 again at 7 the next morning which was the eighth it weighed 2022. How strong and tempestuous a wind we had at that time not I suppose be related few Houses escaping its fury and many Houses and Barns blown quit down and many thousands of Elms in the Kingdom and several Oakes one near Hamsted 5 miles from London twisted like a Withe of great Bigness CHAP. VI. What Frost and Thunder is A conjecture at their Causes ond Production WHat I have to say upon these two difficult Subjects is chiefly from Experiments and Notions that have reciprocally directed one another in some further and more easie ways of their productions by the use of this Instrument yet am not arrived beyond conjectures but hope they will elucidate these things to a further discovery of the very truth it self Frost and Thunder then I believe are not produced by such means as have been formerly maintained the first from nitrous Saline particles dispersed in the Air and was only thought to be the last effect or production of Cold and the other from Nitro-Sulphureous particles in the same manner dispersed but then collected and afterwards by very hard or difficult means set on fire in the midst of so much Water But Thunder I suppose may be much easier produced from a collection of the Solar Rays by a particular disposition of the Effiuvious Vapours or Clouds and Frost by a privation of those and other Calorifick Corpuscules which create a certain stifness from a contrary tendance and want of motion But first of Thunder our Atmospherical Effluvia having no other original than the Terraqueous Globe and its productions how plentifully soever they are sent from the burning Mountains Grottos and Vulcanos in Japan China Sumatra Fez Fogo Sicily the Alps California New Spain or other places some of which are said to cast their Ashes two hundred Miles about either of Niter Sulphur Bitumine or any other simple or compounded combustible matter from any other parts all of the Earth or Sea they are all too much mixed with the Aqueous Particles that accompany them or the Clouds they compose to be set on fire in the Air or to Thunder there any other ways than with their Echos or Winds they produce they may indeed thunder in these Vulcanos under the Earth or Water shake and tear it in a terrible manner and produce many fiery eruptions from such places but can never be re-inkindled in the Air or any other distant places from their local originals for if these Effluvia of Niter and Sulphur be distilled or sublimed from these places with never so great a fire the first will be liquified with its own Phlegm after the manner of other distillations and the other by these and other humid vapours in the thundring Clouds or Air and so can never be set on fire after they are raised from their Concrets for Thunder in the Air I believe is never without a Cloud and some Rain nor can the spirits of Niter Sulphur Salt Vitriol Aquafortis or Regis produced by these or any other distillations being any ways mixed either with themselves or any other things be brought to any more than a heating Bullition and not to an actual fire and if we should suppose the Atmosphere to consist of two third parts of Niter and Sulphur in substance when it is impossible there should be one in proportion to the other parts of the world
and to be driven never so close by Winds and Compressions the other third part will prevent the Ignition of the rest which is easily experienced by taking Niter Sulphur and Water of each alike in a Crucible that will hold two or three times as much well luted and set it on a gentle fire at first the Crucible may be very red without any fire breaking out and if then a vent be made through the Lute to let it boyl over which it will immediately do into the fire yet it will not kindle till the water is evaporated We have another common Experiment in the tryal of Spirits of Wine with Gunpowder the most inflammable of any thing we know by taking the Spirits of Wine in a Spoon with some Corns of Gunpowder at the bottom and seting it on fire if there be but a little Phlegm in the Spirits the Gunpowder will be left almost dry at the bottom yet not fired tho surrounded with the fire and kept stirring all the while Thus it seems almost impossible Thunder and Lightning should be produced from any thing of Niter or Sulphur or any Terrene Effluvia without some other assistance but rather from a Concave Collection of the Promethean Fire by several Nebulous Conical Profundities which cannot be when the Air thickens by degrees for continual Rains for then the Sun Beams are equally mixed with the Effluvia only some few excluded and the Atmosphere being of one consistency there can be no such disturbance but when it is somewhat still and in a little dryish time and place when the Effluvia are sent up by more plentiful streams from some particular places and fewer from others by which if those streams receive a circumjacent pressure by their propulsions through the Effluvious Air or be but kept from dilating they will naturally terminate in Cones but whether Conical or Cylindrical those nearest the Earth will be most united and thereby form the Solar Rays into erect or inclining Conical figures amongst the Clouds which by the Atmospherical Eddies and Currents that are then very deep both Fire and Water becomes more and more compressed and cannot be carried very far before they are dischared some indirect Coruscations which they may gain by that motion and others in collateral or inclining one which they may be brought to in the same manner so that whenever the Effluvious Vapours receive or acquire such a disposition with sufficient depth and density it may Thunder tho in Winter and for further confirmation if we take an ordinary Concave-Glass and concenturate the Sun Beams but upon a Bason of Water they will quickly put it into a Bullition and if kept steady upon the same place for some time they will at last give it the same motion and sound of Thunder with that in the Clouds but if with a onveniently shap'd and sized Glass like a Boult-head with a long neck being exactly placed and filled with fair water and with a good Concave-glass the Sun Beams be concenturated upon that solid body of Water in the other Glass with care to heat it leisurely that the fire may not crack the Glass till throughly warm and then kept steady upon the same place as before these Igneous Corpuscles will not only bring that water to the same Thundring Bullitions with that in the Clouds by the various impulsive motions of its rising and falling but these very Beams by those impulsions will variously penetrate both glass and water in diverse linghtning flashes Thus we have no occasion to fill the Air with so much Niter and Sulphur to save the Phaenomenon of Thunder and Lightning but it will be sufficient to have it seasoned like other products then for the Lightnings coming downwards either right side ways or inclining and as it was thought contrary to the nature of other fire whose flame was also thought would go no other ways but upwards till by melting Niter in some Iron or other Sulphureous Vessels that spirituous and penetrating Salt by that heat mixing with the imbibed Oyl or concetred Sulphur as soon as it has acquired a compleat red body of fire I say a body of fire whose Atoms having the same passages can as well go back as they came in and these Saline Particles can now we see by the help of that Oyl or Sulphur accompany them with natural Coruscations for Niter being made a body of fire that consists of such subtile or rather spirituous parts to what part soever the Oyl or Sulphur or any other combustible matter is contiguous from thence the flashes must proceed there being nothing to hinder as well downwards inclining or side-ways as right up and so from any other body of fire that is not fuel as well as Niter for Niter is no ways inflammable of its self which may soon be proved in a Crucible at any time but it is impossible the flame of any combustable matter alone however disposed should go any other ways than upwards except the Air incline it other ways because the Terrene Propulsions are made that ways and increased by the heat if near and most such things growing liquid by inversion and that weight are extinguished but yet it is as unlikely if not impossible that any fiery flashes should be produced from any Terrene Concrete to be continued to half that strength and distance that Lightning is known to be of nor can they by any means be brought to a true resemblance not those of Niter and Sulphur to them of Lightning whose Rays being universally defused are easily collected and may be compressed a thousand times more than a little Air in a wind Gun to solve the Phaenomena of many other Consequences but the hardest of all is that it is often times known to Hail with Thunder and Lightning how these Clouds that contain so much fire should yet freeze the water is very strange that it cannot in thundring weather well be thought to freeze in falling as was formerly asserted but rather that in warm seasons as some places become dry so the moist ones send up more plentiful Effluvia whereby these plentiful Effluvia become limited to such places and more Jejune Effluvia to the dry ones which being augmented to a sufficient depth and density they will both exclude and collect the Solar Rays at the same time the more powerfully by this disposition and their contrary qualities and so may Hail and Thunder at the same time tho in hot weather this also is the reason why commonly the Spring time and not in Summer is more windy and stormy than any other Season and from hence another of more wet in Autumn but will be too much for this short account tho it would further elucidate the matter and give an explication to that of Frost which I shall now endeavour to evince by these Experiments Frost then being only an ultimate but may be not the most ultimate effect of Cold is produced by greater or lesser degrees of that
heat or Condensation of some particular part to make room for the natural Expansion of another the effects will be all one a Wind must insue by the Protrusion of other Air which by this means crowd and Superonerate the former spaces whereby that wonderful and admirable Emotions of the Atmosphere is produced we call Wind which is more or less violent according to the force and extent of the Rarefaction Secondly Compressure is another way by which Winds may be generated the Effluvious Air being in continual motion not in one but several Currents must needs produce very numerous undulations these together almost as many Eddies whether in pure Air Efflvious Vapours or Clouds which in contrary Currents meet with more or less violence according to the Bigness Strength and Density of the Matter by which means the Wind may as the pressure is violently descend Perpendicularly to the Earth or being reverted by cross or collateral obstructions heaping and pressing Superonerations makes as violent Whirl-winds Hurricanes or Tornadoes c. to blow from all the parts of the Compass at the same time with amazing Displosions as if the Heavens and the Earth were going to be torn in pieces by these examinating Tempests But their several Species is not my present business only the use of the Barometer but if Life and Leisure serve it may be done in another Edition Thirdly Elasticity the natural springiness of the Air is another cause of Winds for tho we suppose our Atmosphere to be in never so still and quiet a posture and all things most calm and sedate yet 't is impossible it should be all of one universal consistency but must contain a great variety of rare and dense parts from the Local Diffirances the Emanations proceed from either Waters or Marshes or dry Lands and these different degrees of fluid Densities being upon a just and true Aequilibrium a small strenght of other Elastick Particles between turns them any way which immediately make room for a numerous succession of other Auxiliaries to a vast extent that carries all before them in an impetuous Wind. So that whenever any Aereal Particle has leave to unbend it self in any posture it immediately gives way to the other neighbouring Particles Expansions and as the motion is made to others beyond to a mighty extent by which means their strength is also encreased to a mighty proportion with the addition of their weight to their Elasticity and so carries all before them to the turning up of the strongest Oakes or Buildings which continue till the Elastick Particles are driven to their utmost extentions that the other pacid Particles will yeild to and then they begin again to curl and fluctuate and by degrees to settle in their native postures and a quiet calm till fresh causes give them new disturbances Fourthly The Resilition of the Atmosphere is another cause that produces wind the Effluvious Air being easily taken and brought into currents by several Meanders as well in the upper as in the lower Regions in the upper by the Sun Beams or the particular constitution or local position of the same Effluviums and in the lower by the Waters in several Seas and Channels and also with several Mountains and Valleys by Land this tender fluid being so very tractable so easily susceptible and long retentive of the last Impression that 't is a kind of a perpetual Automata which may by these or several other ways be brought into Currents but yet it is almost impossible these Currents should be continued in even and uninterrupted Orbicular courses but must be met or obstructed by several Clouds and Densities in the Atmosphere Hills Mountains the Sun Beams contrary Currents of Air Provincial Trade or Etesian-winds Mascarets c. any of which obstructions forthwith begets this Resilition and that more or less wind according to the bigness and strength of the recoyling Protrusions Fifthly Subterraneal eruptions are another cause of Winds which eruptions are produced by the Calid Emotions and Effervescencies of Mineral Heterogeneities that plentifully abound in all parts of the world and these Calid Emotions by the mixtures of the Effluvious Acids from Niter and other Salts Vitriols Sulphurs Antimony c. which will immediately heat only with a small quantity of fair water as Spirits of Niter and Vitriol c. which are only their acid salts freed from their more Terrestrial parts and united with a little Phlegm mingled with water will do the small Partieles of which are always at hand and can never be wanting in no such places And with bigger additions of other Auxiliaries are in some places augmented to actual fires by which means their acid Salts are made Alcaline and so furnish the whole Universe with sufficient matter for Effervescencies and fermenting Calid Emotions by the continual actions and reactions of their Acid and Alcaline Particles as quick Lime and Water or these with Sal Armoniack c. or any Acid Spirit with the ashes of Wood Bones Coals or other Alcalies will immediately heat and boyl without fire with such strength and violence that the strongest Vessel cannot contain them Thus the Subterraneal Caverns are the Kingdom of Aeolus and Nature's Chymical Furnaces where all the numerous Cranies are Receptacles of Wind from the internal Vulcano's Rarefactions which are continually sent Night and Day from all those places and constantly disturb our Atmosphere more or less in one place or another by their powerful Propulsions For the Earth is the first Mother of Meteors and contains all those restless Spirits and Effervescencies that afterwards raise Storms Tempests Hurricanes and Tornado's by Sea several raging Winds and violent Storms by Land Thunders and Lightnings in the Air and Earth-quakes under ground frequently known to come from the burning Mountains in China the Grotto's in Calabria and Sicily The Alps and many other places of the World Sixthly Submarine eruptions are produced in the same manner under the Sea as the others are under the Ground and generate Winds as they do and are called Procella Coeca they break out in a Cloud or Mist from under the Water and encrease and diffuse themselves till they cover the face of the whole Heavens and end in most dreadful Tempests we have an account of one from our Fleet at Duncannon by the Principal Officers to their Superiours in England related by Esquire Boyle that in a calm day there suddenly ascended a black Cloud out of the Water hard by them in shape and bigness of a Barrel which afterwards ended in so hideous and dreadful a Tempest that it forced the Ships to Sea again in the greatest danger of total destruction and had like to have cast them away So in St. Owen's Bay in the Isle of Jersey when never so calm and no Wind stirring these submarine Tempests often appear and the roaring of the Waves are heard all over the Isle and 20 or 30 miles into France and in the River Dourdongn near Bourdeaux the Mascarets
and that not by any subject of Inhaesion but by a privation of heat Paucity of Calorifick Corpuscles and want of motion or lesser agitation and contrary tendency Frost therefore being only an effect or product of Cold is either more or less intense according to the degrees of its Cause and cold more or less freezing according to the privation of heat and Paucity of Calorifick Corpuscles What this heat is and from whence these Corpuscles come must therefore be considered the heat is of two sorts either Terrene or from the Heavens the first from several Vulcanos internal Bullitions and fermenting Emotions all which are subject to intermissions and obstructions because they proceed from no universal matter or cause and several subsidences may both obstruct and extinguish them the other from the Heavens cannot be thus extinguished but may be several ways hindered or obstructed by Hills or Mountains and several dispositions of the Effluvious Vapours or may be carried off some other way by the winds or particular currents of Air or by the Central motion of the Sun to parts of less heat or not extended far enough for the Latitude of the place these obstructions or privations of heat makes a Chasm between these and those incorporated in the parts of all natural Bodies the incorporated particles as all heat and fire do soon fade and die which for want of that continuance as soon leave all the external parts especially less active more extended and therefore more stiff more porose and more bulky which are the common qualificatiens of Frost and from these all the other may be easily deduced CHAP. VII That there never is no settled Frost to hold when the Air continues to weigh 2020 or more nor never no Thunder when it weighs but 1980 or less HAving now given some account what Frost and Thunder is tho my Experiments have not enabled me to observe all the circumstances relating to the Title of this Chapter we having had no great Frosts or Thunders since I have been Master of it yet by reason of many other Meteorological Concurrencies in the alterations of the weather which I have often experienced that are in some sort like a Magnetick Clinatory being plainly applied shew only South and North yet by these we are also shewn East and West and all the other points without removing it to them Plains so I hope by the Experiments I have made in other alterations and some few I have made in these to tell the truth of both without staying any longer for these sorts of weather besides being but the reverse of the former Chapter as to the effects upon the Barometer it will the more easily appear First Then there can be no Frost to hold when the Air continues to weigh 2020 or more yet no settled fair weather except Frost if it weighs 10 or 15 parts less and yet I believe there have been no lasting Frosts yet known but in fair weather how Frost then which is only an effect of â—he privation of heat should continue when there is nothing that appears â—o hinder the Sun Beams and that â—here should be no such frosty weaâ—her when the Atmosphere continues â—o be crowded with the thickest Clouds of Rain Hail Snow Mists â—r other Vapours which seems wholâ—â— to obstruct them is somewhat â—range till we consider that all these â—ffluvia whether of Rain Hail or â—now c. are the products of some â—â—bterraneal Bullitions or other fermentations or of the Sun's reverborations but let it be from which of them it will the same effects will follow for that Heat or Motion that raises them or the Calorifick Corpuscles conjoyned do we see keep them all fluid beneath therefore we may be sure there must much more heat contained amongst those particles that are near a thousand times more dense than those of Air to maintain their fluidity and keep them from freezing thus it is almost impossible we should have any Frost on Earth when we have such a fuming Sea about us yet we oftentimes feel it more Cold in such sorts of weather than in clear and frosty Seasons because our corporeal Emanations can easier keep of a lighter than a heavier Medium or Pressure therefore our Sensories can make no true distinctions of the degrees of Cold but as soon as ever the Rain or Snow is over it will immediately Freeze but can never hold when the Atmosphere is thus filled for the former reasons but when the Air weighs 2005 10 12 or 15 if the Latitude of the place disposition of the Country and Season of the Year be proper it will certainly freeze yet not at the extreamities of the Sun Beams or Earths surface first for those Igneous Atoms incorporated there by their own presence and some few emotions will prevent that and make the first beginnings so far in the Air as those emotions reach from the earth which gradually as these emotions cease and dye for want of renovations is extended more and more down till the outward surface of the earth it self is thus deprived and frozen many of which frozen particles being constantly emitted do as well fill the Atmosphere as other Vapours so that the Air can never weigh 2020 if the frost continues but less and less by the frosty emissions filling the Atmosphere for if it weighs 2020 the Sun Beams will come unobstructed upon us and give no place to any such thing which they can never do near the Poles or in other cold Countries these are the Reasons that the Quicksilver in the Common Barometers in some places is quit lost below the Register Plate and in others far above it which the Portable one discovers before hand Then for Thunder if it be produced by the ways related in the former Chapter we may be almost sure when the Air weighs but 1980 the Atmosphere will be too much filled with the Effluvious Vapours and much more disposed for continual Rains which will too much wet the Fulminous Particles then for Thunder or Storms except Jupiter should send a Messenger amongst them for tho Thunder I suppose is not known to be without Rain yet it is not known neither I believe in continual Rains besides in Summer Seasons and warm weather the Air does for the most part weigh the more and not often times less not long together for if it should I am sure the weather would be very unnatural as well as unseasonable to the Summers products and might rather be called Winter than Summer but when it weighs 2014 2020 25 30 or 40 and the weight decreases 15 20 25 or 30 parts in 12 or 24 hours it will be sure to Thunder more or less according to the parts of variation it has decreased and the time it was made in for then the Sun Beams being more radiant are more powerful and by their dispositions in the former Chapter are more easily collected and thereby greater Thunders and Lightnings produced so that when ever
with the Terraqueous Emotions constantly assisting and being in a thicker medium tho there be a less degree of heat in appearance yet it will be longer retained will keep it from freezing all which is further demonstrable from all other liquids if heated the thicker they are the longer they keep hot or whether actually heated or not a common Thermometer will discover River or Pond-water in Winter time and sometimes in a warmer Season to be hoter than the Air and Sea or Salt-water to be warmer than those and Oyl of Tartar or Vitriol hoter than the Salt-water and Quicksilver the heaviest liquid we know which all the world look upon to be very cold to be warmer than any of them and so many others likewise CHAP. IX Whether the planetary Beams or influences can cause an alteration of weather to be foretold by them WHat some Astrologers have told us about the alterations of the weather from the Planets is no ways satisfactory and very strange it should be continued down to these times that some of our Vertuosi have not told us something about that as well as other natural discoveries that we might be no longer imposed upon by telling us the several sorts of winds and weather c. are appropriated to the several Planets but have told us neither Reason nor Cause of this Appropriation and others that the several Planets are Authors of these sorts of winds and weather and another that has writ only of the Weather tells us the Seven visible Planets in the Skies have their Correspondent ones in the Air and in the Bowels of the Earth that are night and day at work in making those forts of weather for us and thereby undertakes to tell the cause of all the vulgar Prognosticators errors and the true way of judging the weather with as much truth as the rest For indeed it is impossible that either Winds Rain or fair weather Frost Snow or Thunder should proceed from the Planets they being composed of no such matters nor are they intelligent to effect it yet it must be acknowledged that the Sun and Moon and the rest of the Planets and other Stars have their particular Rays of Light but whether these Rays of Light are Beams of fire or not and differ only in quantity and not in quality as their different lights appear and from whence they have their lights whether inate or not will be too much for this short account and that those from the Sun especially at any time of the year but too apparent to be questioned in Summer time are of sufficient power to disperse several Vapours Mists and Clouds raised from our Terraqueous Globe for 't is the Earth and not the Sun Moon or Stars that is the first Mother of Meteors 't is the Terrene Emotions with some new modifications that gives birth to them all according to the first second and third Chapters and not the Planers conjoyned in watery Signs where may be they placed the watery Windows of Heaven spoken of in the seventh of Genesis that makes their Apertio Portarum or opening the Gates of Heaven and those that rained Fire and Brimstone on Sodom in fiery Signs and others in Airy ones but we never heard what from earthly signs therefore as none of these sorts of weather can proceed from the Planets so neither can they from any of the Signs nor the Planets conjoyned in them but the Effluvia being raised in the preceeding manner are indetermined Precisely both to time and place yet by several Eruptions Propulsions Rarefactions Compressions and Resilitions they may receive or meet with as well in their first ascensions as afterwards they may be driven spread and discharged to and in several distant places without any other assistance but these chiefly happen in the Torrid Zone or in some Hilly or Mountainous Countries or near some Vulcanos c. by Paroxysms and not often in more open and plain Countries or Temperate Climates and are constant no where whereby the Effluvia are sometimes in the first sort of places left and at most times in other places to the disposal of the Beams or Influences of the Heavens which I believe may be evinced of sufficient power to alter and disperse them First of the Sun Beams which in most Countries are known every day they appear but a few hours to disperse all foggy Mists and Vapours and turn a dark Cloudy morning into a clear and fair Day not by any occult property but by a manifest one as all other heat in Boyling Distilling or other Coction does and so for winds the general or Trade Winds are always according to the Course of the Sun or Earth as far as these Beams and the inferiour Tract is conformable or proper some degrees beyond the whole breadth of the Zodiack on either side they constantly propelling all humid Vapours and Air before them and so likewise the Monsoons which Sir Thomas Herbert in his Travels says begin exactly at the Sun's entrance into a Sign of the Zodiack and blow half a year constantly that way till the Sun enter into the opposite Degree and then they blow in the same manner the other way Captain Swanly says the Monsoons raigns five months on one side of the Compass and five months on the other and that there are two months in which they change are variable or break up as some term these alterations in March and September when the Sun crosses the Line and as long as the Sun is on the north side of the Aequator to the Tropique of Cancer the winds are to the northward and veery more northerly according to the course of the months and when on the South side of the AEquinoctial the winds blow from thence in the same manner and thus also there is half a year of fair Monsoons and half a year of Rainy and fowl Monsoons and that the fair Monsoons blow off the Shoars and the Rainy Monsoons on the Shoars and that near all Lands between the Tropicks Eastwards of Cape-Bon-Esperance in the rainy Monscons there happen some fair intervals but in the dry Monsoons seldom any rain and to this purpose many other relations might be as easily transeribed but that the certain knowledge and experience of all our own and other Country Seamen to those places make it needless thus we see the Beams in those neighbouring Regions are so plentiful and turgid that they drive all before them in winds with constant dry weather if of the Land side and with almost continual rains if from the Sea thus also these tumultuous and unequal crowds of Effluvia make that inequality of heat and cold that Ariesta relates and complains of in the burning Zone where he had the Sun for Zenith and expected to be scorched with heat he was forced to go into the Sun-shine for warmth and that he saw Snow Hail and frozen water on the tops of Mountains and the cold so bitter that all the Grass was
withered and Men and Beasts benumed that passed that way pag. 101 and 109 and this North and South wind heat and cold wet and dry weather proceeded from the Sun 's local position on the North or South side of their Zenith or Equator as his Rays decline from their perpendicularity and not from fiery airy watery or earthly Signs for the Sun beams are not earthly in us nor watery in ♉ but fiery in ♋ and always so powerful in the Torid Zone that they are the chief efficients of all these sorts of weather without any assistance from the other Planets there being hardly any room for any of their beams to crowd in Secondly of the beams of the Moon these being from a lesser light have not so many manifest operations as those of the Sun yet are known in several places of India and the Torid Zone to cause contractures in the Bodies of those that are too long exposed to them as well to the Natives as Strangers tho more to the latter and that several are made Lame or else have had some of their Limbs contracted for several weeks and some for as many months and others to their lives end if they happen to sleep where the Moon shines upon them which several of our Seamen who go to those places have also seen and a friend of mine a Relation and Merchant that Traded and Lived sometime in the Island of Sunda at Achem in Sumatra and Bantum in Java and had traveled many other parts of India assured me he had seen several that had their Limbs contracted and their Mouths or Necks so drawn aside and twisted by the beams of the Moon that they were very surprising to behold and that he himself when he came first into those parts before he was acquainted with it took up his Lodging after an extream hot day according to the custom of the place in the open air with slender covering where the Moons beams could fully come for good part of the night which being past before he waked when he went to rise he found the left side of his neck and up to his Ear and the same Arm and Soulder which was very much exposed so stiff that he was scarce able to stir himself and was forced to keep within eight or ten days to be cured which was done by the constant use of inward and outward Aromaticks of the Country for that time and that the Country people told him the next morning if he had acquainted them with his design or had passed the night where they did he would have prevented that mischief by lodging in a place unexposed to the Moons Beams The reasons of these disasters must be that the beams of the Moon like those of the Sun do propel the Terrene Effluvia before them but having no such heat as they have these Effluvia thus driven enter the Pores of the Body in the exposed parts with a contrary tendency and much less agitated than the Animal Spirits and Humours and thereby cool and obstruct their natural motions and circulations these Nutricious Spirits and Juices being thus hindred a paucid Lympha supplies which has no such motion and thereby Tumefies Contracts and hinders the proper motion of the part it possesses which the heat of the body soon exsiccates may be as it comes and so confirms it and as these people say it is only the beams of the Moon so neither can we suppose it should be any thing else for it should proceed from the Wind or cold Damps then it might be as well when the Moon did not shine upon them or in some other parts than those on which it did shine which is not known and when they do take up their lodging in the open air we cannot suppose neither that the Wind should be concentred upon them through any crack or hole besides being in the open air the continual Streams or Effiuvia of their own bodies both warm and keep off the neighbouring air from every part equal to the power and strength of their motions and so secures them in all places that are but moderately calm and still Then for the Beams of the other Planets and Stars there is none can say they are refracted either by the Aether Air or Atmosphere but that they pass directly down upon us and so penetrate every part of all these in their descensions as we see and know their light is sent down thus far these beams therefore having so great a power notwithstanding the constant Diurnal Circumgyration of the Earth or Heavens to continue their direct courses hither must needs move alter and impell the Effluvious Air before them but yet no other ways than according to their direct positions and so may either bring or carry from us misty rainy or snowy Vopours or otherways may put the Air into a direct or contrary motion and so produce Winds Storms Tempests Thunders Hurricanes c. which may thus be foretold at any time and from what quarter the Wind will blow with as much certainty as their Motions and Positions are known and by this means there will be or rather is a new account of their Aspects according to the Lines and Angles they make at the earth and not amongst themselves nor from fiery airy watery or earthly signs for neither of these can have any respect to us of which this Barometer has given a Diagram that by taking the Planets places from an Ephemeris to their true places in that all the alterations of weather and winds from their Quarters may be foretold at any time And further tho not so proper here these beams that are able to penetrate move and alter the air which we can no ways subsist nor live one hour without are as capable to penetrate our bodies as that which we know the beams of the Sun does c. and move and alter our spirits and so the spirits of all other bodies which cannot be less subject to these motions and alterations than ours are and if our spirits and the spirits of all other bodies may be moved and altered by these beams then these spirits being the immediate causes and only principles of Life Power Vertue Force and Strength it will be impossible they should be altred and changed and no alterations made in the bodies themselves therefore a less limit of the power of these beams cannot be set than what must at length terminate as well in the bodies themselves All which I hope to demonstrate further by infalliable proofs if life and leisure serve in a Treatise by it self what these Beams and Motions are that they have power to cause all the alterations of winds and weather we are acquainted with and all other common alterations in our and other Animal Bodies and Spirits by the Lines and Angles they make at the Earth and not by their beholding one another by Sextile Quartile Trine or Opposition which may serve till then for tho it be the