could penetrate at all they would penetrate freely and then the former Inconvenience would return The second is a denial or supposal that there are no such pores in Glass as any such smaller Particles can go thorough But to the first I answer That though the pores of the Glass be pervious enough to the Aether or subtiler parts of the Air yet the Râ—nitency of the natural consistence of the Air will not for-go them but by some force and a less pressure or force than of a column of Quick-silver of about 30 inches high will not prevail any above it will To the second That in my first Remark I have hinted that part 4. which will sufficiently prove that there are pores in the Glass as well as particles subtiler than the Air to pass through them as is apparent in the direction of the rays to one point through a Burning-glass against what our Authour here declares that there is only a vis virtue or vigour corporeal no substance that penetrates the Glass For as bodies are only tangible so they are only reflexible and refractable To which you may add that the lightness and frangibleness of Glass are farther Indications of its porosity These things are so plain to the unprejudiced that it is needless to insist on them REMARK the Eighteenth And yet we may use a further confirmation of the subtiler parts of the Air passing the pores of the Glass from the Authours own concession p. 128. l. 18. that they pass not through the Mercury as he conceives they do in the inverting a Glass-Tube of Mercury on the free Air in which case he observes bubles ascending in the Mercury as it descends but there being no such tumultuary motion of the Mercury in the Torricellian Experiment he concludes no parts of Air pass through the Mercury into the Tube And therefore say I it is the plainer case they pass through the pores of the Glass only in this experiment Upon Chapter the Ninth REMARK the Nineteenth Of which we shall be the better assured after we understand that the Authours Reasons in this Ninth Chapter for the ascent of steams or vapours from the Mercury it self p. 139. l. 13. are not sufficient For the two ways that he offers for the separating these steams or vapours from the body of the Mercury are The first expression or driving them out by the strong descent of the Mercury and compression of the inferiour parts by the superiour The other is extraction or straining out those parts that are more subtil and fluid and capable of expansion c. To which I answer that these two ways are in a manner one and the same or at least the stress lies upon that one first which if it fail the other will signifie nothing And methinks it is apparent at least in such a case as this that it will signifie nothing namely if the Tube filled with Mercury be immitted into the restagnant Mercury very much inclining and be raised to a perpendicular by degrees and leasurely for then there being no such jolting of one part against another but a gently bringing one part over another perpendicularly and being so posited they according to the law of Fluids not gravitating one part upon another in the Tube above the surface of the restagnant Mercury and having but little under to gravitate upon nor the restagnant Mercury according to the same law of Fluids even then when it was made something to ascend by the Mercury descending from the Tube gravitating one part upon another it is manifest there was no compression able to separate any particles from the Mercury and send them into the Tube REMARK the Twentieth The Authour himself raises a notable objection p. 141. l. 26. against this opinion of Mercurial effluvia supplying the derelicted place of the Mercury in the Tube Suppose says he the Tube were ten foot long or the upper end were a Bolts-head that should contain 4 pounds of Mercury this Mercury subsiding to 29 inches where should there be effluvia to fill so great a space His answer is the more Mercury descends to 29 inches the more effluvia there will be to fill the space but I say if the Tube of Mercury be let down obliquely as before and be gently and leasurely raised to a perpendicular according to the law of Fluids the compression will be even just nothing From whence then can that vast empty space be supplyed but by the subtiler parts of the Air coming in through the pores of the Glass-Tube which is that we aimed at Upon Chapter the Eleventh REMARK the Twenty first HIS confutation of the use of the Atmospherical Cylinder in the solving of the Torricellian Experiment is very ingenious p. 158. l. 4. namely from the supposal of a Glass-Tube half an inch diameter in Cavity and as much in thickness of 3 foot long and sealed at one end filled with Mercury and immersed to the bottom of a Vessel of restagnant Mercury 7 inches deep so that 29 inches and 1 2 will be above the restagnant Mercury the Tube remaining full to the top But the Glass being lighter than the Mercury it will be driven up thereby near to the superficies thereof So that about 6 inches of the upper end of the Tube will be empty but the Tube continues till 39 inches of Mercury and 1 2 the bottom of it immersed but 1 2 an inch and the supposition is that the 29 inches of Mercury and an half weighs one pound and the Tube just as much This Tube of Mercury now in these circumstances fixed by a String to a Beam of a pair of Scales two pound in the adverse Scale will counterpoise and any little advantage of weight added will make it preponderate Whence he clearly deduces from the Mercury's contributing the weight of a pound to the counterpoizing the Scale that it is not sustained by a Cylinder of Air of equal diameter and weight with it self for then there would be but that one pound weight of the Tube alone to counterpoize the two pound in the Scale which is a firm and ingenious demonstration against the Hypothesis of the Atmospheres pressing the restagnant Mercury REMARK the Twenty second Nor can it be eluded by saying p. 161. l. 8. that though the column of Quick-silver in the Tube be indeed sustained by a column or Cylinder of Air of equal diameter with the column of Mercury in the Tube and so weighs not at all against the Scale yet a column of Air whose basis is the top of the Tube does ponderate upon it and so supplies the place of the Cylinder of Quick-silver to which it is equal in weight For since the diameter of the Quick-silver is but half an inch and the diameter of the whole Tube 3 2 of an inch it is manifest that the weight of the column of Air on the head of the Tubes if it weighed at all in their sense would be nine times
as much in weight as that of the Mercury in the Tube which is a very gross absurdity REMARK the Twenty third And as weak a subterfuge is that whereby they would elude this Answer namely by pretending that the Glass-Tube being a body specifically lighter than Mercury is it self sustained by the restagnant Mercury as if that broke the force of the column of Air that presses 9 times as strong on the head of the Tube as the other column of Air on the restagnant Quick-silver when-as it is a thing plainly prodigious that a single force should keep Mercury 29 inches and 1 2 above the surface of the restagnant Mercury up in the Air though it be I know not how many thousand times lighter than Mercury and yet that the Glass should not be kept down 6 inches under the surface of the restagnant Mercury though not fourteen times heavier than Glass by a force nine times as great as the former REMARK the Twenty fourth But the Authour does very handsomely meet with all such elusions by two neat experiments The one is of a Glass-Tube the Diameter of whose Cavity was 48 the Diameter of the whole 58 of an inch the length 18 inches the weight thereof in the Air 2 ounces 34 the water it would contain near 1 ounce 34. This Tube tyed at the closed end to the Scale of a Balance and being filled with water and stopt with ones finger and so let down into water and so settled there as that the lower end was near about a quarter of an inch from the surface there was required in the opposite Scale four ounces and 12 which is equal to the weight of the Water and Tube together to hold the Tube in an Aequilibrium and here the Glass-Tube is not held up by the restagnant water the Glass being so heavy that it would sink to the bottom as being a body specifically heavier than water Wherefore this Aequilibrium being from hence according to the Principles of those that hold the pressure of the Atmosphere either because the Tube and the water jointly do weigh against the Weights in the other scale or because the column of Air on the head of the Tube with the Tube weigh against them this second being impossible for as much as the diameter of that column is five such parts as the diameter of the column of water in the Tube and that of Air on the restagnant water is four and therefore would press at least half as much again as the water in the Tube namely in the proportion of 25 to 16 which the Scale discovers to be false for there is only one ounce ◠4 added to the two ounces 3 ◠not 1 ◠3 2 of an ounce more it remains that it is the Water with the Tube jointly that weighs against the Weights in the other Scale for as much as the restagnant Water does not hinder the Tube from whence it follows that the water in the Tube is not sustained by any column of Air on the restagnant Water which will be more apparent in the other experiment which is this He took suppose the same Tube heated it very hot and hung the closed end upon one Scale of a Balance and let the open end sink a little into a Vessel of water and counterpoized it in the other Scale with 2 ounces 3 ◠the weight the empty Tube weighed in the Air which because the end of it did little more than touch the water it still retained but within the space of half a quarter of an hour the Tube was filled 12 inches of its 18 with water which 12 inches of water was found to weigh one ounce and ¼ and one ounce and ¼ more put in the opposite Scale and the Scales held so that the Tube might only touch the surface of the water the Tube with the 12 inches of water in it was found to weigh just 4 ounces Now therefore since the Tube could weigh no more if so much on the top of the water than it did when it was hung only in the Air for the pillar of Air incumbent on the top of the Tube is the same in both cases it is manifest against the principles of those that hold the pressure of the Atmosphere that the water in the Tube weighs its part namely one ounce and ¼ to make the weight 4 ounces and consequently that the water in the Tube is not sustained by any pressure of a Pillar of Air incumbent on the restagnant Water REMARK the Twenty fifth That also is an ingenious demonstration against the opinion of the pressure of Atmospherical Cylinders p. 175. l. 9. namely the inverting a Glass-Tube of Quicksilver suppose of a diameter of 9. such parts as the Vessels diameter of restagnant Quick-silver is 10. so that it may be apparent that the Rim or round superficies of the restagnant Mercury in the Vessel is not a full fourth part of the area of the Mercurial Cylinder in the Tube and yet the Mercury in the Tube will be sustained as in other cases Which therefore cannot be from the pressure of the Air on the restagnant Mercury the superficies thereof being less than one fourth part to the area of the Cylinder of Mercury REMARK the Twenty sixth And this last Instance surely is no wise to be contemned That the Torricellian experiment will succeed as well in a great Receiver as in the open Air when-as notwithstanding there can be no Atmospherical column on the restagnant Mercury in the Receiver nor is there any refuge here to the elasticity of the Air p. 186. because that supposes the Gravitation thereof which has been so plainly disproved by the Authour not only by these last Experiments but in his 6. Chapter and particularly by the two Brass Cylinders weighed in water of Diameters of a double proportion one to another and the one side of a quadruple to the other For things being so contrived that a column of Air of two inches diameter press on the one and not a quarter of an inch diameter on the other the Cylinders yet shall be equiponderant in the water The Experiment there has a threefold improvement and the very first strong enough considering there is no elasticity or rebounding in the water see p. 75. l. 4. though the Authour phansie there is and that equal weights pressed by unequal force the stronger must prevail And moreover if this elasticity of the Air were admitted he does not unskilfully urge that every part of the included Air does act so equally in a manner against every part every way that there is a suspension of the pressure any way to any effect c. p. 194. l. 23. Upon Chapter the Thirteenth REMARK the Twenty seventh THat Experiment also of the Bottle and the Bolts-head is notably levelled against the elasticity of the Air p. 196. l. 22. That a Bolts-head soundly heated and placed upon a Glass-bottle with some fix ounces of water in
Embolus at a due nearness to the Valve the Obturaculum will suddenly fall whence it is manifest that the Solution is not finally to be made into the raising of the water to several heights upon which its pressure should encrease against the Obturaculum but into the abituriency of the Air in the Tube or just quantity thereof and of the several forces of that abituriency into the laws of motion innate or essential to the Spirit of Nature or universal Transposer of the parts of the matter of the world For where there is no raising of the water higher at a deeper descent to make its pressure greater in the immitting Air into Water as in a Glass filled with Air and well stopt let down into the bottom of the Sea upon a deep descent it will break though upon a moderate it will not though it raises the water alike in both cases Which is resolvible into nothing but the greater excitement of the force of the Principium Hylarchicum upon the greater transgression of those Hylostatick laws vitally and essentially included in it For the parts of water in water do not gravitate one against another and they have as much room to play in when a Bottle of Air is sent down into the Water as when a Bottle of Water of the same size is sent thereinto But the Air in the former is misplaced contrary to the Hylostatick laws of the Universe Upon Chapter the Seventh REMARK the Fourteenth IT is a very notable and pleasant Experiment the Learned Authour mentions p. 118. l. 19. It is most evident to any mans sense quoth he that will but try that if a Tube be open at both ends and filled up with Mercury and then one end stopped with the finger and the other end inverted and immersed in the restagnant Mercury whereby it descends from the top of the Tube a strong and sensible attraction is wrought upon the pulp of the upper finger that closeth it which continues and grows more and more forcible sensible and evident the further the Mercury is removed from the upper end and approaches to its usual station of 29 inches This is his experiment which to me is a seasonable confirmation of what in the foregoing Remark I observed That the force of activity in the Principium Hylarchicum or Hylostaticum is excited proportionably to the measure of misplacement of the parts of the matter of the Universe But as for the Learned Authours solution of this Phaenomenon I mean of this attraction of the pulp of his finger at the top of the Tube I must confess I am not at all satisfied with and look upon it as a kind of Philosophical incivility whenas so eminent a fellow Creature as this Hylostatick spirit took the opportunity of pulling him by the finger when he could not shake him by the hand that he would not embrace this offer of acquaintance nor take notice of the existence of such a Being in the world which I must confess I think this Phaenomenon is a notable evidence of so circumstantiated as this Authour hath described for it is not Impulsion ab extrà as he describes it For says he most evidently the force the finger feels is from within and not from without and when he says it is upon the pulp of the finger and not the quitching of the skin it is apparent that that force is in his very finger not on the outside whether in the Tube or without And therefore it cannot be the contiguity of any body in the Tube as our Learned Authour would have it by which this attraction is made but it is the Hylostatick spirit of Nature that upon unexpected occasions after an unexpected manner moves the matter and it was a kind of an attempt of this Hylarchick Principle to expand and rarifie the pulp of the finger to supply the absence of the Mercury It s tugging therefore of the pulp of the finger toward the Cavity of the Tube made the sense of the Attraction into it But that this Attraction could be by no contiguity of any body in the Tube appears from hence that then it would have been felt more particularly and distinctly in the very exteriour skin REMARK the Fifteenth The other two instances out of Honoratus Faber which this Learned Authour brings p. 120. seem to favour my sense of the first For the Papyr extendible by force but otherwise contracting it self made fast at the upper end of the Tube and upon the descent of the Mercury being extended as also a Bladder so fastned and close tyed in the neck and being blown out at the descent of the Quick-silver both these seem effects of an ineffectual effort in the Hylarchical Spirit of the world to supply that nakedness or emptiness of the Tube of that matter it ought to be replenished with as far as it can and that makes it extend the Papyr to supply as far as it will go and to blow up the Bladder by putting the grosser Particles in it upon motion that is rarefying what moisture there is in the Bladder which it is no wonder when there is a hole in the Bladder is not done for then those Particles get out and are dispersed throughout the whole vacuity But that the whole Bladder should be blown up by attraction I shall take occasion hereafter to show to be a mistake REMARK the Sixteenth That Aphorism of our Learned Authour p. 122. That regularly all natural bodily effects are wrought by a contact of some active body upon the patient This to me seems to contradict the Phaenomena of Nature and in motion confessedly so called most numerously and universally which is not unless ex accidenti Mechanical but vital The descent of a stone is vital as I have proved in my Enchiridium Metaphysicum but its hitting or occursion against any thing whereby it moves that is only Mechanical motion in the thing so moved otherwise motion is not by knocking or crowding but by vital transposing of parts as is most manifest in Fluids the parts not gravitating one against another but being jointly and freely moved by that vital Principle which we call the Hylarchick Spirit of the world Upon Chapter the Eighth REMARK the Seventeenth OUR Authour reasons passing-well against a free permeation of the Aether into the Glass-Tube derelicted of the Quick-silver because the Quicksilver then would subside to the bottom as when there is but a hole at the top of the Tube no bigger than a Pins point because then the Air he thinks may come in freely so if the Aether could come in freely through the pores of the Glass the Mercury would subside in that case too But that the subtiler parts of the Air or Aether cannot upon occasion though not so freely penetrate the pores of the Glass His Arguments for this Assertion seem to me altogether unsatisfactory For if I understand him aright the first thing he offers to prove it by is That if they