that the Growth of Vegetables depends upon the Influences of the Sun since the different Seasons of the Solar Year have so constant and so powerful Effects upon them For in Winter the Influence of the Sun is very weak because of the Obliquity of his Rayes and the shortness of the dayes and therefore Seeds lye dormant in the Earth without any motion Herbs fade and wither or dye totally Trees are depriv'd of their Leaves and lively Verdure shoot forth no Twigs produce no Blossoms bear no Fruit and in a word cease from all Vital Actions Yea many Animals themselves loose much of their Vigour and some of them such as Flyes Frogs Swallows c. lye dead as it were all the Winter long in Chinks of Walls or in Cavities of the Earth or under Water without any motion Sense or the least appearance of Life But when the Sun comes to be more vertical and the Dayes grow longer every thing capable of Life is quickn'd or reviv'd and the whole Face of the Earth that look'd dead and lifeless before appears fresh verdant lively and quite new insomuch that 't is astonishing to behold so vast an alteration the Vital Spirit remaining in the Roots of such Herbs as did not quite dye in the preceeding Winter being Reviv'd Excited to Motion and Corroborated falls to work afresh and produces new Stalks Leaves Flowers Seed Fruit c. the Vital Spirit that had in a great measure retir'd from the Branches of Trees into their Roots and Body explicates it self anew restores their fresh and lively Verdure and adorns them with new Leaves Twigs Buds Blossoms Fruit c. Finally the Vital Spirit of the forementioned Animals that had Concentred it self in the middle of their Body actuates the Members anew which it had before deserted and restores to them Sense Motion and the Exercise of all their Vital Functions Lastly The Vniversal Spirit appears to be of an Igneous Nature 1. Because it flows from the Sun which is an actual Fire Yea the Solar Rayes themselves which diffuse this Vital Substance through the Visible World being Collected by a Burning Glass into a Center produce all the Effects of our Actual Culinary Fire 2. The Vital Spirit of Animals is fed by the Universal Spirit as has been evidently prov'd and by consequence is of the same Nature with it Now this Vital Spirit in Hot Sanguineous Animals has all the Essential Properties of an Actual Flame For it constantly diffuses a sensible Heat through all the Members of the Body it is maintain'd by constant fresh supplies of sulphureous Fuel from the Aliments that are taken into the Stomach and thence conveyed to the Blood where this subtil Flame invisibly burns and of an Aerial Pabulum from the Air that is taken into the Lungs by Inspiration and there communicated to the same Liquor it constantly emits Fuliginous Effluvia both through the Wind-Pipe also through all the Pores of the Skin which are like so many Chimneys appointed to ventilate this vital Fire It is kindled first in the Seminal Liquor either by another vital Fire as in viviparous Animals or by the Intestine Motion of the Sulphureous Parts excited and cherished by a continu'd External Warmth as in Oviparous Animals but so long as the Foetus is included in the Womb or Egg it burns very faintly and never breaks out into an actual Flame till the Air have free nccess to it by Respiration finally it dyes as soon as it is depriv'd of Sulphureous Fuel of Aerial Pabulum or of Ventilation Now these Properties seem to be peculiar to Flame and particularly there is nothing we know of in the World besides Life and Fire whose Motion is instantly suppressed by withdrawing the Air. See Willis de Accentione Sanguinis Prop. 19. The Vniversal Spirit that Coagulates Elementary Water into Solid Substances of the Animal Vegetable and Mineral Kingdoms consists of Acid Particles For 1. IT is of an Igneous nature and Fire has been prov'd to consist of Acid Particles put into a rapid Motion 2. All Chimists agree that the Concretion of Bodies depends upon the Saline Principle Now Acaline Salts are apt rather to Dissolve Bodies than either to Coagulate or be Coagulated Whereas we have a multitude of Instances of Coagulation and Fixation perform'd by Acid Salts which tho' they Corrode and so Dissolve many Bodies yet their Property is to Concoagulate with the Bodies they have Corroded Thus Quicksylver is Fixed and Coagulated by the Acid Particles of common or Antimonial Sulphur into Cinnabar by those of Salt and Vitriol into Sublimate Corrosive by Spirit of Nitre into Red Precipitate as the Chymists abusively call it by Oyl of Vitriol Oyl of Sulphur or Oyl of Alum into Turbith Mineral finally by the Acid Particles of Fire into Precipitate per se These Instances are the more pertinent to our purpose because Mercury is a more Fluid Body than Simple Water it self And the last of them tho' at first it appear somewhat Paradoxical yet upon better examination it seems to be very reasonable since Precipitate per se as well as the rest of the newly mentioned Preparations of Quicksilver may be reviv'd into running Mercury by being distill'd from Salt of Tartar Quick-lime or such other Alcalisate Bodies as are very apt to be wrought upon by Acid Salts and thereby to disengage the Quicksilver that was Coagulated with them and since the Particles of Fire which have been prov'd to be Acid may penetrate Glass and many times increase the weight of the inclosed Bodies as Mr. Boyle has undeniably evinced by a great many Experiments and finally since Fire is the only Agent in this Preparation The Sulphur of Lead deprives Quicksilver of its Fluidity Volatil urinous Salts are so powerfully fix'd by Acid Spirits as to endure an open Fire for some time but they recover their former volatility as soon as they are disengaged from the Acid Salts that fixed them by the addition of any Alcalisate Body All sorts of Acid Salts do coagulate Milk and the Coagulation of the Creamy parts of Milk into Butter depends upon the internal Acid of the Milk for if you throw any Alcalisate Salt into it there can be no Butter obtain'd from it The Acid Salts of Nitre do so powerfully fix the vomitive Sulphur of Antimony as to render it a good Diaphoretic The Acid of Spirit of Wine instantly Coagulates Spirit of Vrine for if both these Liquors be highly rectified as soon as ever you have mingled them the whole mixture loses its Fluidity insomuch that tho' the Glass be inverted not one drop will fall out yea our Author affirms that if Spirit of Wine highly rectified be kept for some months upon Salt of Urine in a gently digestive heat they will unite together into a Calculus of a reddish Colour and which is yet more strange four parts of this Stone will convert one part of new Spirit of Urine into its own Substance and four parts of this one more and so on without any end and that the Stone in the may be Generated after the same manner by the Plaistick Vertue of an Internal Acidum joyned with the Salt of Urine and being mixt with Gravel by Fermentation concentrates into a Concreate Substance We found by a Stone being taken out of a Humane Bladder and Anatomized by Distillation to consist of Oyl Spirit and Volatile Salt with a very large Caput Mortuum but of this we shall say no more at present but leave the Reader to judge what may be gathered by the foregoing Experiment so that it 's believed the Universal Spirit that Coagulates Elementary Water as well as other Bodies into solid Substances consists of Acid Particles FINIS Some Books Printed for and sold by Stafford Anson at the three Pidgeons in St. Paul's Church-yard 1691. 1. DIctionarium Historicum Geographicum Poeticum Opus admodum utile apprime necessarium A Carolo Stephano Inchoatum Ad incudem vero revocatum innumerisque pene locis auctum emaculatum per Nicolaum Lloydium Collegii Wadhami in Celeberrima Academia Oxoniensi socium Editio novissima In qua Historico Poetica Geographica seorsim sunt Alphabetice digesta Liber totus tum emendationibus tum additamentis recentioribus tredicem Annorum Lloydii Elucubrationibus manuque ultima ita adornatur ut novus ac plane alius videripossit Cui accessit Index Geographicus ubi hodierna vernacula Locorum nomina Antiquis Latinis proponuntur 2. The History of the Council of Trent containing eight Books In which besides the ordinary Acts of the Council are declared many notable Occurrences which happened in Christendom during the space of forty years and more and particularly the Practices of the Court of Rome to hinder the Reformation of their Errors and to maintain their Greatness Written in Italian by Pietro Soave Polano and faithfully translated into English by Sir Nathaniel Brent Knight Whereunto is added the Life of the Learned Author and the History of the Inquisition in Folio 3. Dionysii orbis Descriptio Annotationibus Eustathii Hen. Stephani nec non Guil. Hill commentario Critico Geographico ac Tabulis illustrata 8vo 4. P. Virgilii Maronis opera Interpretatione notis Illustravit Car. Ruaeus ad usum Delphini Juxta Editionem novissimam Parisiensem 8vo 5. Horatii opera ad Vsum Delphini 8vo 6. Phaedri Fabulae ad Vsum Delphini 8vo 7. Virgilii operacum Annotationibus Johannis Minellii 8. Id. cum Notis T. Farnabii 12ves 9. P. Terentii Comoediae cum notis T. Farnabii 12ves 10. Isocratis Orationes duae 1. Ad Demonicum 2. Ad Nicoclem Nova methodo apprime utili quoad verbum sensum Latine redditae Graecismis Phrasibus sententiis in quibus maxima vis Rei consistit
has been imployed to corrode Iron and the superfluous moisture evaporated recorporifies into Vitriol And Spirit of Nitre satiated with Salt of Tartar or any other fixt Salt turns into Nitre again after evaporation Moreover these Acid Spirits are often found upon the Corks that stop the Glasses wherein they are kept in a dry saline form The same is to be said of the Acid Spirits of Vegetables as that of Vinegar Tartar Guaiac c. which are nothing else but Essential Salts dissolved in Phlegm Sect. V. The Oyls or Sulphurs of Vegetables are nothing else but Volatile Salts concentrated in union with an unctuous inflamable Acid which by its unctuosity hinders them to mix readily with Water as all Salts use to do THerefore Helmont often affirms that Vegetable Oyls may be turned into Volatile Salts But however that be being joyned with fixt Salts they turn into a Soap and if they be frequently drawn off they are thereby at last resolved into mere Elementary Water which is also true of all Fermented ardent Spirits since they are but Oyls dissolved in Phlegm Thus Spirit of Wine drawn off from Salt of Tartar leaves its seminal Acid behind it and comes over weak and Phlegmatick and if this abstraction be often reiterated it is thereby at length resolved into pure Elementary Water as will be more fully declared hereafter There is a certain Vegetable Sulphur found in Charcoals before they be burnt to ashes by vertue whereof they glow It is separated by means of Alcali's and Precipitation This Sulphur is of a golden colour and of no contemptible use but if the Charcoal be Distilled in a Retort with an open fire it turns like all other Sulphurs into an Acid Spirit which being poured upon the fixt Salt of the Caput mortuum makes an effervescence with it and so is Coagulated into a Salt Sect. VI. The Sulphurs of Animals namely Oyl and Fat are also nothing else but Volatile Alcaline Salts concentrated and somewhat suppressed by an occult Acid that is not manifest to sense so that they cannot make any Effervescence with manifest Acids THESE Volatile Salts may be discovered after the very same manner with those of Vegetable Oyls Yea sometimes Dogs-grease for instance exposed in a Glass to the Sun sublimes into a Volatile Salt without any other art and 't is upon the sole account of this Volatile Salt that it has been found beneficial to the exulcerated Lungs of Consumptive persons The Oyl of Harts-horn also may be sublimed into a Volatile Salt Sect. VII The Acid Oyls of Minerals as Vitriol Sulphur Allom Sea-salt c. are not true Oyls but Acid Salts concentrated and differ not from the fore-mentioned Acid Spirits of the same Minerals but in that they are less diluted with Phlegm Sect. VIII All Mineral Sulphurs if they be kindled turn into a very Acid saline Spirit THE fixt incombustible Sulphurs of Metals that Helmont speaks of are if there be any such Sulphurs reducible into a Salt since the same Author informs us that the Metals themselves may be totally reduced to an aequiponderant Salt and this into insipid Water As for the Earthy part of Natural Bodies being useless and of no activity it scarcely uses to be reckoned amongst the Principles And however Helmont informs us that the Liquor Alcahest turns this Earth into Water by depriving it of its Essence i. e. of its seminal vertue From what has been said it appears that all those substances that the vulgar Chymists obtain from Bodies by the Fire and style Principles are reducible to Salts and and Phlegm or Water Now our ingenious Author goes on to prove at great length that even Sect. IX All sorts of Salts whether Acid or Alcalisate Fixt or Volatile are finally reducible to Elementary Water HERE first of all 't is to be acknowledged that Salts do naturally exist in Bodies before they have suffered the Fire although in many Bodies as Woods Flints c. the Salts are so bound up by reason of the close contexture of the Parts of these Bodies that they cannot easily be put into motion and dissolved and therefore do not affect the Organs of tast 'till the concretion of the Parts be dissolved and the scattered saline Particles be brought together and Colliquated by the Fire Nor is it true that the Terrestrial Particles are turned into Salts by the Operation of the Fire for Why is it then that Ashes once Elixiviated will not yield one grain more of Salt though you Calcine them again Why do not any Terrestrial Particles acquire a saline tast by the Operation of the Fire But yet Sect. X. The fixt Salts of Vegetables prepared by Calcination were not naturally pre-existent in that form but are produced of the Volatile Salts colliquated amongst themselves and with the Earthy Particles by the force of the Fire 'T IS true there naturally exists in the Juice of Grapes and of all other Vegetables a Tartar so fixt as to be inodorous and to endure the Air though not the Fire without flying away Which fixtness proceeds from the Acid that saturates the Volatile Alcali of this Tartar as we see in the Volatile Salt of Urine Soot c. which being satiated with Spirit of Salt are thereby fixed into Sal-Armoniack that has no smell The Fermentation of the Juices pressed out of Apples Pears c. is a manifest proof of this Tartarous Salt for there can be no Fermentation without Acid and Alcaly which are the constituent Principles of Tartar But there is no Salt pre-existent to Calcination in any Vegetable so fixt as to endure the Fire as well as the Air. For First the ordinary way of preparing fixt Salts is by burning the dried Vegetables to Ashes in an open Fire Lixiviating these Ashes by decoction in common Water and exposing this Lee to some heat 'till the greatest part of the Water being Evaporated the saline Particles formerly dispersed in the Pores of the Liquor unite together for want of room into Crystals of different Figures according to the diversity of the seminal Acid. Others Distill a certain Acid seminal Spirit from the Plant reduced to Ashes by a moderate Fire and Lixiviate the Salt that remains in the retort with this Spirit Again others instead of this Acid cast a little Sulphur upon the Salt when 't is highly Calcined whose seminal Acid gives a certain form to the Salt in place of that which the extreme Calcination had destroyed lest if the Salt were wholly destitute of a seminal Acid it should resolve into Elementary Water as shall be made out hereafter But Tachenius's method is the best namely to reduce the Plants whilst they are fresh and green into black Ashes with a very gentle Fire so as they may not break out into a manifest flame to Calcine these Ashes to whiteness in an Earthen Pot over the fire stirring them ever now and then after this to Lixiviate them with common Water to evaporate the Lee to the consistence
Sulphur and less Mercury And tho the judicious Mr. Boyle has some suspitions of this strange Relation yet as to the Generation of Animals and Plants he thinks it not incredible since common Water which is indeed often impregnated with variety of Seminal Principles and Rudiments long kept will putrify and stink and then perhaps too produce Moss and little Worms or other Insects according to the Nature of the Seeds that were lurking in it And tho' the Distillation of Eels yielded him some Oyl Spirit Volatile Salt and Caput mortuum yet were all these so disproportionate to the Phlegm in which at first they boyl'd as in a pot of Water that they seem'd to have been nothing but Coagulated Phlegm which does likewise strangely abound in Vipers as hot in their operation and as vivacious as they are And seven ounces and a half of Human Blood yielded near six ounces of Phlegm before any of the Spirits began to arise and require the Receiver to be chang'd Corrosive Acid Spirits tho they seem to be nothing but Fluid Salts yet you 'l find them to abound with Water if either you entangle and so six their Saline part by making them corrode some idoneous Body or mortify it with a contrary Salt Thus in making of Balsamus Samech with distill'd Vinegar instead of Spirit of Wine the Salt of Tartar from which it is distilld will by mortifying and retaining the Acid Salt turn near twenty times its weight of the Vinegar into worthless Phlegm before it be satiated And in making the true Balsamus Samech which is nothing but Salt of Tartar dulcifi'd by distilling from it Spirit of Wine till it be glutted with the Vinous Sulphur as soon as the Spirit of Wine is depriv'd of its Sulphur by the Salt of Tartar the rest which is incomparably the greater part remigrates into Phlegm so that if Helmonts process be true which was confirmed to Mr. Boyle by a sober and skilfull Spagyrist who did indeed prepare the Spirit and Salt by a way that is neither short nor easie but added nothing to them Spirit of Wine seems to be Materially nothing but Water under a Sulphureous disguise tho' being so igneous that it will totally flame away 't is of all Liquors the most likely to be free from Water But Helmont's grand Argument for his Hypothesis is taken from the operation of the Alcahest which he says does adequately resolve Plants Animals and Minerals into one Liquor or more according to their several internal Disparaties of Parts without Caput mortuum or the destruction of their seminal vertues and that the Alcahest being abstracted from these Liquors in the same weight and vertue wherewith it dissolv'd them they may by frequent Cohobations from Chalk or some other fit substance be totally depriv'd of their seminal Endowments and by that means reduc'd to Insipid Water Here Mr. Boyle judiciously observes that it may be doubted whether this Water because insipid must be Elementary since the candid P. Laurembergius affirms that he saw an insipid Menstruum that was a powerfull Dissolvent and the Water which may be drawn from Quicksilver without addition tho' almost tastless will manifest a very differing nature from simple Water if you digest in it appropriated Minerals However the forementiond Experiments concerning the growth of Vegetables do sufficiently prove that Salt Spirit Earth and Oyl which are four of the pretended Chymical Principles may be produc'd out of simple Water But to return to our Author Having prov'd That Water is the only Material Principle of Bodies usually calld Mixt by three Arguments 1. Because none of the other pretended Chymical Principles have a right to that Title some of them not being naturally pre-existent in the Bodies from which they are obtain'd and all of them being reducible to Elementary Water 2. Because Water is the only Nourishment of all Animals Plants and Minerals and by consequence the only Matter of which they consist Because all Animals Plants and Minerals are by a true Analysis ultimately reducible to simple insipid Water Having evinc'd this I say by these three newly mention'd Arguments and Fire being the only Sublunary Body besides Air of which heareafter that these Arguments as hitherto prosecuted can with any colour of reason be pretended not to reach and being likewise by many enumerated amongst the Principles of Natural Bodies the next Proposition shall be that Prop. XVI Fire is nothing but an Acid Volatile Sulphur very swiftly mov'd FOR there is a certain Sulphur in every Inflamable Body which takes fire as soon as 't is put into a rapid motion whatsoever the Cause be that excites it to that motion This appears in the striking of fire by the collision of two Flints in the firing of the Axel-tree of a Mill or Coach that sometimes happens upon a long continued and vehement attrition and in many other such obvious Instances Oyl of Vitriol contains a great many Acid Sulphureous Particles proceeding as well from the Embryonated Acid that Corroded the Iron or Copper Oar in the Bowels of the Earth as from the Iron or Copper it self these Particles being excited to motion by the affusion of Oyl of Tartar or even genuine Spirit of Tartar produce a notable heat and Effervescency The Sulphur of Quick-lime whether it be innate or adventitious from the fire conceives a vehement Heat as soon as 't is excited to motion by the Alcaline Lixivial Particles set at liberty by the affusion of Water Finally to add no more Butter of Antimony consists chiefly of the Sulphureous Particles of the Antimony and the Salino-Acid ones of the Mercury Sublimate the latter being wash'd off with Water the former do more manifestly appear namely in Mercurius vitae which causes Vomiting without any danger of Corroding the Bowels and both of them being vehemently mov'd by the affusion of Spirit of Nitre there is an intense heat produc'd So that the Formal nature of Fire or Heat consists in Motion Now that the Sulphureous Particles of which Fire is materially constituted are of an Acid nature will abundantly appear from the ensuing Considerations I. The particles of the Flame of common Sulphur being receiv'd and Condens'd in a Glass Bell do compose a very piercing Acid Liquor II. There are not any Bodies more akin to Fire than the totally inflamable Spirits of fermented Vegetables And yet all the Principal Effects of these Fermented Spirits depend upon a Volatile Acid. For 'T is upon the account of its Acid Salt that Spirit of Wine is Coagulated in Spirit of Urine or Salarmoniac or in any other Volatile Alcali as also that it loses its strength by distillation from Salt of Tartar which imbibes and retains the Acid and receives an increase of weight thereby And Generous Wine that is turgent with this Spirit being drunk moderately sends a Volatile Acid to the Brain that makes a subtile effervescence with the Alcaline Animal Spirits and thereby produces Cheerfulness and a Vigorous Promptitude to
of Honey then to urge it with a moderate Fire to browness and last of all to dissolve and Chrystallise it One pound of Ashes prepared after this manner will yield near four ounces of very pure fixt Salt whereas four pound Calcined by the former methods will scarce yield one ounce The reason of so great a difference depends partly upon the greenness of the Plants and partly upon the moderateness of the Fire imployed to Calcine them For dried Plants for instance Wormwood do always afford less fixt Salt than green ones whence it manifestly follows that by Exsâ—iccation some Saline Particles are carried away with the Aqueous ones which would have composed a part of the fixt Salt if the Plant had been Calcined while it was green now these Salts could not fly away unless they were Volatile Again as the Volatile Salts of a Plant are spent by the action of the Air in Exsiccation so are they likewise by the action of the Fire in Calcination and this so much the more by how much the Fire is more violent for the Particles of a manifest flame being in exceeding quick motion excite the Volatile Salts to a swifter motion and consequently a more copious avolation than those of a gentle smothering Fire Secondly If you take the Soot that ascends in the Calcination of Tartar otherwise called the Spirit of Tartar and put it back again to the Caput mortuum you will thereby much increase the quantity of the fixt Salt And if all the Volatile saline Particles of Tartar could be kept from flying away in Calcination they would all turn into a fixt Salt But if all of them were driven away 't were not possible to obtain one grain of fixt Salt which yet never happens because they cannot all fly away at once but one after another so that those which were to fly away last are by reason of their longer stay in the fire Colliquated and so fixed and that partly by the Acid Particles that feed the flame and condense the smoak into Soot and partly by the Earthy Particles commixed with the Volatile Salts that are Coagulated in the Fire Thirdly 'T is impossible to extract one grain of fixt Salt from any Vegetable not yet calcined to Ashes that is so long as there remains any smoke or the least motion of the Vegetable Particles such as we see in glowing Charcoal but when this motion ceases 't is a sign that all the remaining Particles are Coagulated and fixed Fourthly Soot is nothing else but a heap of Volatile Particles Coagulated together and yet by Calcination it affords a considerable quantity of fixt Salt which must proceed from the Colliquation of the Volatile Salts since there can be none but such in Soot for fixt Salts are so constant in the Fire that they cannot ascend in the form of Flame or Smoak and consequently cannot enter the composition of Soot And that the Salts of Soot are Volatile is also manifest from hence that by means of Spirit of Salt they may be turned to Sal-Armoniack and consequently when the Acid Spirit is separated by the addition of a fixed Alcali into a Volatile and highly Urinous Salt So that the matter of which the fixt Salt of Soot consists are these Volatile Salts of Soot one Acid and another Urinous Colliquated together and with the Terrestrial Particles by the force of the Fire Nor can it be said that the fixt Salt of Soot was carried up by the Volatile for besides that there was no fixt Salt pre-existent in the mixt Body by this means it would be no more a fixt but a Volatile Salt and if we consider the proportion of the fixt Salt of Soot to the weight of the Soot it self it will easily appear that Soot contains not enough of Volatile Salt to elevate such a quantity of Fixt since that ought to exceed this almost in a triple proportion Thus though if you mingle fixt Salt of Tartar with a sufficient proportion of its own or any other Volatile Salt and commit this mixture to sublimation our Author denies not but that some parts of the fixt Salt will be elevated by the other Salt yet he affirms that these are not integral parts but have lost the nature of a fixt Salt and are really turned into a Volatile one because this sublimation separates them from the Terrestial Particles their union with which was the only thing that kept them in a fixt state In the like manner Spirit of Wine being digested with fixt Salt of Tartar and drawn off by Distillation carries along with it some of the saline Particles whence it is said to be Tartaris'd but no Terrestrial ones and consequently no fixt Salt but a Volatile Again as 't is impossible to obtain one grain of fixt Salt from Soot before a violent Calcination so the quantity of the fixt Salt is increased by all the same methods that restrain the Volatile from flying away in this Calcination namely if it be Calcined in a close Vessel with an intense Fire at the beginning that the Volatile Salts may be the sooner colliquated before they can have time to fly away then beaten and kept stirring over the Fire 'till it be of a cineritious colour The Soot also that ascends in the Calcination of Soot being put back again to the Caput Mortuum increases the quantity of the fixt Salt Fifthly Whatsoever separates the Terrestrial parts from any fixt Salt does at the same time destroy its Fixity and Volatilise the saline parts Which our Author makes out by several Experiments 1. If you pour Spirit of Salt by degrees upon a Lee of Salt of Tartar or of any other Alcalisate Salt 'till it be almost satiated which is known by the abating of the Effervescence you shall observe a kind of Earth precipitate out of the fixt Salt namely because upon the mutual conflict between an Acid and an Alcali whatsoever heterogeneous substance is contained in either of them uses to precipitate The Earthy part of the Salt of Tartar being thus separated the saline part is thereby render'd Volatile and would actually fly away were it not for the Acid that fixes it anew and if you separate this Acid by the addition of new Salt of Tartar it will by this means be set at liberty and strike your Nostrils with an Urinous odour Thus if you separate the Liquor from the precipitated Earth by Filtration then reduce it to Crystals by evaporation and last of all mingle an equal quantity of Salt of Tartar with these Crystals in a Mortar the Acid rit Spirit will joyn it self to this new Salt of Tartar and so the Volatile Alcali being freed from the Acid flies away Nor can it be said that the forementioned Earth did but externally adhere to the Salt of Tartar and was not intimately united with it by Colliquation since the experiment succeeds with Oyl of Tartar per deliquium though it be clear and limpid like Rock-water but observe that the Earth
produce But yet he acknowledges a Specifick Difference between them upon the account of the Seed in the Acid of Tartar which differs from the Seeds of other Acids and in this respect other Urinous Salts do also differ from one another since the renowned Boyl has observ'd that the Volatil Salt of Harts-horn resembles a Parallelopiped but that of Human Blood digested with Spirit of Wine is like a Rhombus This diversity of Figure is owing to the different Seeds or Idea's as residing in the Acids that are the causes of the Solidity and Coagulation of these Salt Wherefore the Fixt Salt of Tartar Cristallis'd does also resemble a Rhombus because the Seminal Acid of this Salt is of the same kind with that of the Spirit of Wine which being stronger than the Seminal Acid of the foremention'd Volatile Salt of Blood this Salt is Coagulated according to the Idea of the Vinous Acid even as when Spirit of Nitre is pour'd upon Salt of Tartar the Acid of the former being the more powerfull forms the Crystals of an Oblong figure like Nitre but not like Salt of Tartar which resembles a Rhombus The Author concludes that this Seminal difference of Volatile Alcalies is of little moment in Medicine since all Alcalies even the purest are endow'd with so much of a Seminal Acid as does indeed preserve them from a Spontaneous resolution into Elementary Water but yet hinders them not from being in a capacity to imbibe this or that Hostile Morbisic Acid indifferently The same thing is to be said of the fixt Alcalisate Salts of Vegetables for the Seminal Vertues are lost in the Calcination and there remains only so much of a seminal Acid as keeps them from relapsing into Elementary Water and does indeed cause them to differ specifically from one another but not to produce different Effects in Medicine From all the foremention'd Particulars concerning the Volatilising of Fixt Salts our Author concludes that there can never be any Method found out to effect it but by separating the Terrestrial Particles As for Zwelfers Volatile Salt of Tartar prepar'd by often reiterated Solutions per deliquium and Abstractions he affirms that 't is nothing else but useless Elementary Water as will manifestly appear to him that considers that Alcalisate Salts are fundamentally nothing else but Aqueous Particles converted by a little Seminal Acid into rigid Salts which as soon as the Acid is destroy'd turn again into Water wherefore the more violent the Calcination is and by consequence the greater your loss is of this seminal Acid they are the more easily resolv'd per deliquium in moist Air which by it's vertue as a Menstruum does in great part consume the little Acid that remains and thereby resolve a great part of the Alcalisate Salt into Elementary Water wherein the other Particles not yet depriv'd of their Seed do swim for when Salts approach to the nature of Water they are readily dissolv'd in it but if the Water be abstracted from them and they expos'd to the Air again their remaining Acid is destroy'd and they resolv'd into Water in great part and if they run per deliquium and be abstracted often enough all the Seminal Acid will be at length destroy'd and nothing remain but bare Elementary Water which will all of it easily ascend And by this means any Fixt Alcalisate Salt may be totally reduc'd into Elementary Water Sect. XI THE Volatile Salts of Vegetables since they are the Matter of which Colliquated with the Acid and Terrestrial Particles the Alcalisate Salts consist And the Volatile Salts of Animals since as the Author has prov'd they differ not essentially from those of Vegetables are both of them ultimately reducible into Elementary Water Sect. XII ACID Salts made fluid by the force of Fire and drawn off from fixt Alcalies may be thereby so rob'd of their Acid that nothing will ascend but Elementary Water And the Alcalisate Salt that has imbib'd the Acid being frequently resolv'd per deliquium and the Phlegmatic part as frequently abstracted may by this means be at length totally converted into pure Elementary Water Thus the Author having particularly examin'd the pretended Chymical principles and found them all ultimately reducible into Elementary Water Concludes that Sect. XIII ALL Mixt Bodies are made up of Water as the only first Material Principle and Seeds which differ according to the differing species of Bodies as the Formal Principle united together by means of Acid Ferments That is to say Water is Coagulated into a Plant by the Ferment of a Vegetable Seed into a Metal Stone c. by that of a Mineral Seed and into Flesh Bones c. by the Ferment of an Animal Seed For in all Mixt Bodies there are certain Acid Particles wherein the Seeds or Ideas of Natural things do reside and which in Coagulating the approximated Aliment do follow the draught of these Ideas and so are thereby determin'd to give it the form of this or the other Vegetable Mineral or Animal Thus in a Mans Stomach for example there lurks a certain Acid that discovers it self by the sour belches of healthy men and by the Vomiting of Coagulated Milk tho' it were taken fluid This Acid easily receives the Alcalical Particles of the Meat extracted by the Alcalical Menstruum the Spittle and imprints the Idea of its own Seed upon them by which they are determin'd to nourish Man only and no other Animal as afterwards when they come to every particular Part of the Body by the Circulation of the Blood they are determin'd by the seminal Acid residing in that Part to nourish it rather than any of the rest And that Aliment which has once receiv'd the Seal or Impression of the seminal Idea of any Animal in the Stomach or of any part of the Animal in that same Part will never receive the Idea of another Animal nor of another Part of the same Animal unless it be suppress'd by a more powerfull Ferment as when Sheeps Bones tho' furnish'd with their own proper Ferment and Idea yet being unable to resist the stronger one of a Dogs stomach are therein turn'd into fit nourishment for the Dog and afterwards for his Musculous Flesh it self and other Parts as well as for his Bones In like manner Grass has its own Ferment and Idea suppress'd by that of a Cows stomach which seals it with such an Impression as renders it fit Nourishment for a Cow but not for any other Animal But if the same Grass had been taken into the stomach of a Horse it would have been turn'd into Nourishment fit for a Horse but unfit for a Cow or any other Animal Again common Mercury which is the Nourishment of Metals is converted into this or the other Metal according to the diversity of the Acid seminal Sulphur that Coagulates it Finally all Vegetables also are endow'd with a seminal Acid and therefore their express'd Juices do after long Fermentation tast Acid. And in the Fermentation
of Cream of Tartar with Salt of Tartar the Seed Idea or Archeus that reside in the Acid of the Tartar forms certain Bubbles very much resembling natural Grapes All this will be better understood hereafter from the Authors particular expication of the nature of the foremention'd Seeds Ideas and Ferments But now to put it past all doubt that Water is the only Material Principle of all Mixt Bodies the Author has not only prov'd that all Substance 's that Mixt Bodies can be resolv'd into by the Chymical Art are totally reducible into Elementary Water but likewise he proves particularly that Prop. XIV Water is the only and Catholic Nourishment of all Vegetables Animals and Minerals AND 'T is manifest that every Body consists of the same Matter that nourishes 1. As for Vegetables Helmonts Experiment proves this beyond contradiction namely he put 200 pound of Earth dry'd in an oven into an earthen vessel moisten'd it with Rain-water planted it in the trunk of a Willow Tree weighing 5 pound and let it alone there for 5 years time only watering it as need requir'd with Rain-water or distill'd Water And to keep the neighbouring Earth from getting in he imploy'd a plate of Iron tin'd over and perforated with many holes At the 5 years end he found the Tree had grown so well that it weighed 169 pound and three ounces And yet the Earth being dry'd again weigh'd but two ounces less than it had done at first so that above 160 pound of Wood Bark Root c. had grown up out of mere Water Coagulated by the Seminal Ferment of the Vegetable into the severall Substances newly mention'd Hence Rain does wonderfully refresh envigorate and advance the growth of all sorts of Plants and without that they decay wither and dye For Water is indifferent to them all till it be turn'd by the Ferment of the Vegetable Seed into Leffas as Helmont calls the Juice that is the immediate Aliment of the Plant. Thus Wolf-bane Aconitum and Lavender for instance growing in the same Soyl are both nourish'd by the same Rain-water which by the Ferment of the one is Coagulated into a poysonous Herb and by that of the other into a wholsome one Secondly That Animals are nourish'd with Water alone appears in Fishes for they live only in the Water and yet have no food supply'd them from any where else nor is there any Rudiment of it to be found in their Stomachs as Helmont observes And tho' some Fishes feed upon others yet these others feed only upon Water and therefore are materially nothing else but Water As for Terrestrial Animals some of them as Horses Cows Sheep c. feed wholly upon Water and Grass which the Author has already prov'd to be materially nothing else but Water and therefore that which grows in well water'd places prospers best others as a Lyon Wolf c. tho' they be not nourish'd by Grass and Water only but feed upon other Animals yet still their food is materially nothing else but Water being that these Animals live only upon Grass and Water except when they are too young to digest Grass that they are nourish'd by their Mothers Milk which also is materially nothing else but Water since it is generated of the Mothers nutriment The same things are easily applicable to Birds and to Men which feed only upon Vegetables Fishes and the Flesh of Beasts that are nourish'd only by Vegetables Thirdly As for Minerals Mercury is the immediate Aliment of Metals and some other Minerals and the nearest Matter of which they are produc'd Now Mercury is nothing but Elementary Water Coagulated by a certain Metalline and Arsenical Sulphur into such a Water as does not wet the Hands and by other various Sulphurs 't is further Coagulated into Antimony and divers Metals Hence Mines are never found but where there is a great conflux of Water Gold is gather'd out of the Sands of some Rivers Sand abounds no where so much as near the Sea and great Rivers Stones are nothing else but sand compacted together And the illustrious Mr. Boyle has fully prov'd in a most ingenious as well as judicious Discourse about the Origine and virtues of Gems that many Gems and Medical Stones were once fluid Bodies But 't were too long here to give an account of the many cogent Arguments he there imploys to prove this Assertion which very much countenances our Authors Hypothesis The experienc'd Helmont informs us that it often happens in Mines when the Workmen are breaking the Rocks that the Wall cleaves and a little water of a whitish green Colour flows out of the cleft presently thickens like liquid Soap afterwards it growes yellow or white or of a deeper green This Juice he calls Bur and affirms it to be the nearest Matter of all Minerals and to be nothing else but Water Coagulated by a Mineral Ferment as Leffas is by a Vegetable To make it yet more evident that Water is the only first Material Principle of Natural Bodies the Author undertakes to prove that Prop. XV. All Animals Vegetables and Minerals are ultimately resoluble into Elementary Water FIRST the substances that Animals are resolv'd into by Distillation are Phlegm Volatile Salt Urinous Spirit Oyl and Earth or Caput mortuum but very little if any Fixt Salt The Phlegm is nothing else but Elementary Water except in as far as it partakes of the Volatile Salt and Oyl of which it always carries up some Particles nor can it ever be perfectly separated from them 2. The Volatile Salt of Animals is of the same nature with that of Vegetables which being Colliquated by the force of the Fire with Acid and Earthy Particles is thereby turn'd into a Fixt Salt And this fixt Salt being frequently deliquated and the Phlegm as often abstracted is at length totally resolv'd into Elementary Water All this was abundantly prov'd before as also that 3. The Spirit is nothing else but Volatile Salt dissolv'd in Phlegm 4. The Oyly and Fat parts of Animals may be united with an Alcalisate Salt into Soap from which being often abstracted they turn at length into meer Elementary Water And this is to be observ'd of all the Fat 's of Animals that by frequent Circulation with Salt of Tartar they are converted into Water 5. As for the Fixt Salt of Animal Substances 't is the common Opinion that none can be abstracted from them perhaps because all their Saline Parts are so Volatile that to speak consonantly to our Authors Hypothesis they cannot sustain a Colliquation with the Earthy Parts especially since there are very few if any manifestly Acid ones to concur to their Fixation But that indefatigable Searcher into Nature Mr. Boyle informs us that by an obstinate Calcination of eight ounces and a half of Caput mortuum of Human Blood he obtain'd above seven drams of Salt which tho it were not truly Lixivial but rather of the nature of Sea-salt yet it was Fixt enough to endure a
a much more Volatile Oleous Body than the Oyle of Lin-seed evaporates before it and carryes its Acid along with it even as the same Spirit being mingl'd with Aqua fortis and distill'd in a Cucurbit ascends before it and carrys a great part of its Acidity along with it insomuch that the remaining Aqua fortis becomes a very safe Internal Medicine tho' before the smell of it only would cause an Atrophia in the whole Body The same Oyl of Lin-seed is also Corrected by frequently extinguishing red hot Steel in it till it appear by the ceasing of the hissing smoke that the Acid Particles are either Evaporated in smoke and spent by Deflagration or Coagulated in the Mars And if after this it be Distill'd from Quick-lime that if any Acidity yet remains it may be therein Coagulated the Oyl of Lin-seed becomes an excellent Remedy for Inflammations Burns and the like as Oyl-Olive also does by Distillation from Quick-lime And this last nam'd Oyl being imbib'd in old Tyles or Bricks which are depriv'd of all moisture by their having been long expos'd to the heat of the Sun heated red hot and quench'd in it and then distill'd in a Retort is thereby robb'd of all its Acidity and acquires a singular Vertue in the Palsey Gout Cramp c. And all Oyls are wholsomer boyl'd than crude because a great part of the Acid is exhal'd in the boyling 6. Helmont teaches that Distill'd Chymical Oyls which are otherwise very hot may by an artificial Circulation for three Months time with an Alcali Salt be turn'd into a very temperate Volatile Salt namely because the hot Acid of the Oyl is Saturated by the Alcali and by that means reduc'd temperate Nor can there be any other Reason given why the Alcaly should have this effect upon the Oyl but that the Acid of the Oyl corrodes the Alcaly and is Coagulated in it Now in the next place That the Heat and Inflammability of Oyly Substances depend upon the Acid that the Experiments newly deliver'd prove to be contain'd in them may be evinc'd from those same Experiments most of which do not only prove that Oleous and Fat Bodies are endow'd with an Acid but likewise that the effects usually ascrib'd to the hot Quality of these Bodies do indeed depend upon this Acid and that whatsoever mitigates or destroys this Acid does at the same time weaken or destroy their Heating Power And 2. that this may also be truly apply'd to their Inflammability and that the Acid Particles contain'd in Oyly and Fat Substances are really the Matter of which the Flame of these Substances when they are burning consists does plainly appear by the Abstraction of Oyls from Spirit of Wine Quick-lime or Bricks for being by this means depriv'd of their Acid they become less Inflammable than the crude Oyles were And Candles made of Sheeps Tallow burn sooner away than those made of any other Tallow because there is greater store of Acid Particles in it as appears by the Griping of the Guts which cannot happen without a Corroding Acid for all the Medicines effectual against this Distemper testify that to be the Cause of it and which is very often occasion'd by eating Fat Mutton especially if the Acid Salts be dissolv'd by drinking after it in like manner as when Salt Butter is sweetned by melting it and pouring it into water and thereby dissolving the Salt Likewise recent Fat or Oyl burns sooner away than that which has been long kept and thereby lost much of its Volatile Acid. N.B. Since Tallow as well as every other Body is materially nothing else but water Coagulated by a seminal Acid and since 't is only the Acid Particles that feed the Flame it follows that when they are consum'd he remainder being robb'd of the Coagulating Acid must return into Elementary Water and therefore 't is insensibly dissipated like a Vapour even as the water of Spirit of Wine kindled vanishes into a Vapour IV. The Particles of Fire being fix'd or Coagulated in any Body whatsoever do plainly manifest themselves to be Acid as appears from the following Instances 1. Fire Coagulated in Mars turns it into a Crocus that differs nothing from Rust which proceeds always from an Acid and is every way like to that Crocus which is prepar'd with Acids and endow'd with the same Medicinal Vertues V. Tachen Hipp. Chym. cap. 28. 2. Fire Coagulated in Saturn is separated by means of a Fixt Alcaly or even of Venetian Borax for Minium which receiv'd its red Colour from the Sulphur of the Coals even as the Sulphur of Antimony Coagulated in Mercury turns it into Cinnabar of an exceeding high red is by the help of these Salts reduc'd to crude Lead N. B. According to Tachenius's Computation 100 pound of Lead retains in Calcination ten pound of Fire 3. All the Remedies for Burns are such as are capable to imbibe saturate or suppress the Igneous Acid for instance Sugar of Saturn Ceruss Litharge Oyls depriv'd of their Acidity Lixiviums c. And unwashen Threed mitigates Erysipelatous Inflammations because of the Alcaly of the Spittle V. And lastly The Acidity of the Particles of Fire appears from its efficacy in Chirurgery and particularly in exstirpating ill condition'd Ulcers For the cause of Vlcers being a Corrosive Acid they may be cur'd by three sorts of external Medicines 1. Those that Saturate this Acid as Spirit of Salt-Armoniac Quick-lime Water Oyl of Tartar per deliquium and the like 2. Those that imbibe and assume this Acid as all the Preparations of Saturn The Author has known Ulcers in the Legs cur'd meerly by applying thin Plates of Lead to them because the Acid corroding the Musculous Flesh was coagulated in the Lead 3. Those that by a more potent Acidity suppress this weak one as Verdegreese which consists of the Acid Salts of Vinegar Coagulated in Particles of Venus now these Salts are much more powerfull than in common Vinegar because they are concentrated and separated from strong Phlegm and thereby enabl'd to suppress the weaker putredinous Acid of the Ulcers which Aqua fortis Spirit of Salt and other Acid Spirits also do But nothing performs this so effectually as Actual Cauteries because there is no Acid so powerful as that of Fire N. B. I. The Acid Effluvia that are continually passing away from Inflammable Bodies while they are burning do compose Flame so long as they continue numerous enough within a certain Sphere and in a very swift motion but having pass'd the limits of this Sphere they begin to move more slowly and are by degrees dispers'd So that the same Acid Effluvia which being in a rapid motion produce tormenting Pains and Convulsive Motions by corroding the Nervous Parts when they are in a moderate Motion do produce in our Body a temperate and gratefull heat by inciting the Nervous Capillaments to gentle Spasms N. B. 2. Tho' Actual Fire be so far from being one of the Material Principles of Mixt
Bodies that it cannot exist in them without destroying them yet there are certain Acid Particles in all mixt Bodies differing but in Rest or in Degrees of Motion from Actual Fire in which the Seeds or Ideas reside that are the Formal Principles of those Bodies But these Acid Particles do themselves return into Elementary Water when they are devested of those Seeds Which Seeds or Ideas so often heretofore mention'd t' will now be seasonable to explain Having abundantly prov'd that Simple Water is the only Matter of which all Mixt Bodies consist 't is plain that they all agree in one and the same Material Principle so that their difference one from another proceeds not from any diversity in the Matter of which they consist or in the proportion of the Elements that may be suppos'd to concur to their Composition But Prop. XVII The diversity that is among Natural Bodies is wholly owing to the different Seminal Ideas that regulate the Operation of the Plastick Spirit which Coagulates Water into various Substances differing in Figure Solidity Bigness Order and Connection of Parts and other Modifications according as its Motions are guided by these Ideas FOR when God at first Created out of nothing the Terraqueous Globe and furnish'd it with numerous Bodies of several Species or kinds he was pleas'd because the Individuals were Corruptible to endow them by vertue of his Omnipotent Word Be fruitful and multiply with a Power of producing out of Pre-existent Matter new Individuals like themselves and of their own Species that so when the first Individuals were dissolv'd the Species might nevertheless be preserv'd in these new Individuals generated by the first so on as long as the world endures This Generative Power is seated in the seeds which are very obvious in Animals and Vegetables but more doubtful in Minerals at least in severall sorts of them As for Animals and particularly Man the Feminine seed is a limpid Liquor contain'd in the little Eggs that are found in the Testicles This Seminal Liquor contains in it self an exact Idea of an entire Human Body of the femal sexe consisting of as many particular distinct Ideas as there are different Parts in a Human Body which all together concur to make up one entire Idea of an entire Woman so if it were possible for us to contemplate this Idea with our Bodily Eyes as well as we can do with our Intellectual we might discern in it sensible signatures of all the Parts of the Body alltogether making up a lively representation and as 't were exact Model of an entire Woman The Idea of every particular Part in this Seed is a Particle of the Idea that resides in that same part of the Womans Body that generates this Seed For every Part of a Womans Mans or any other Animals Body whether Similar or Organical has its own Idea residing in it in which Idea is imprinted upon or which is all one communicates a Particle of it self unto the Blood that Circulates through the Part and the Blood carryes all these Ideas to the Testicles where they are gather'd together dispos'd into the same Order that the Parts they come from have in the Womans Body and so united into one entire Idea which is inclos'd within the Tunicles of the Egg that being defended from Injuries thereby the particular Parts of it may be able to retain their due situation and may not be lyable to be confounded one with another or misplac'd This Idea is endow'd in the Testicles with a particle of that moving Vital Spirit which is the Principle of all Vital Actions and the only Mover of all Seeds which without this are Barren and Unfruitful because they cannot unfold themselves But yet this Plastick Spirit in the Feminine Seed is too weak for to accomplish the evolution of the Ideas without it be strengthen'd Actuated and Fecundated by that more powerfull Spirit which the Masculine Seed is impregnated with All that has been said of the Feminine Seed is applicable also to this saving that it contains Ideas of all the Parts of a Human Body of the Male Sex only not of the Female and that these Ideas are confounded one with another because the Seed not being inclos'd in Tunicles in the form of Eggs but contain'd in the Testicles in a liquid form they fluctuate and cannot retain any certain Order Hence it is that as the Feminine Seed alone can never be fruitful till its weaker Spirit be corroborated by Conjunction with the Masculine so neither can the Masculine Seed alone ever produce a Foetus till its confus'd Ideas be reduc'd into due Order by conjunction with the Feminine each Idea taking its own proper place by applying it self to the correspondent Ideas of the Feminine Seed In short the Masculine Seed cannot reduce the confus'd Ideas into Order but being set in Order by the Feminine it can explicate or unfold them which the Feminine cannot Wherefore the Masculine Seed must be injected into the Womb whence it emits a Seminal and Vital Spirituous Exhalation through the Tubi Fallopiani into the Testes or Ovarium where one or more of the Eggs being impregnated with this Exhalation and foecundated thereby is thrust out of its place and falls into the extremity of the Tubus Fallopianus which conveys it to the Womb. For tho' the two Seminal Spirits be now united into one yet even this is not sufficient for the Evolution of the Ideas till it be excited to motion by the Heat of the Womb and then it begins the Evolution of the Ideas by Coagulating the approximated Aliment into a substance agreeable to the particular Ideas and applying it to them by which means the Ideas that were utterly insensible before do quickly acquire a visible bulk insomuch that Kerkringius tells us of a Foetus but four days old wherein the distinction of the Parts was plainly discernible This Apposition of Aliments to and gradual Evolution of the Ideas begins at the first Conception and continues after the Child has left the Womb till the Body have attain'd its full stature that is to a perfect Evolution of the Ideas for when the Ideas are not capable of any further Evolution the Growth of the Body must cease So that Ganeration is really nothing else but the first Nutrition or the Apposition of Aliment to and Evolution of the Ideas while they are yet insensible and on the other side Nutrition is nothing but a continued Generation For 't is the same Plastick Spirit guided by the same Ideas that Coagulates and Applyes the Aliment to every Part both in and out of the Womb. And the immediate Aliment of all the Parts in both states is the same namely Blood but with this Difference that the Embryo is nourish'd with the Mothers Blood communicated to it by the Vmbilical Vein from the Placenta Vterina whereas after the Child is born it takes in various Aliments by the Mouth and makes Blood of them it self for its own
Philosophical work of Transmutation because its Sulphur being once Coagulated loses all Power of Motion for the future and therefore is unfruitful and dead But 't was this same Seminal Sulphur that when the Gold was produc'd did Coagulate it self with Mercury and thereby convert it into Gold And there appears not any solid Reason against the possibility of the Transmutation so much sought after since though Seeds cannot be converted into other Seeds yet those that are endow'd with a weaker Mover may be overcome by and brought under the Dominion of such Seeds as are furnished with a stronger And now having establish'd the Material and Formal Principles of Natural Bodies the Efficient only remains to be consider'd Prop. XVIII The chief Mover under God of all Natural Bodies that actuates and foecundates all Animal Vegetable and Mineral Seeds that Coagulates Elementary Water into all sorts of Bodies according to the various Ideas of those Seeds that applies the same Water to those Ideas and in a word the chief Efficient in all the Phaenomena of Nature is a certain subtil Spirit of an Igneous nature diffus'd through the whole visible World but chiefly treasur'd up at the Center thereof in the Sun N.B. 1. BY Spirit here is not meant an Immaterial Substance but a Body consisting of very Minute and very Active Particles peculiarly fitted for Motion and endow'd with a great measure of it 2. By the visible World I understand here that part of the Corporeal Universe which contains the Earth with the other six Planets and makes up one great Vortex whereof the Sun is the Center As for the rest of the Universe it is altogether unknown to us only as that most ingenious conjecture of the incomparable Des Cartes concerning it is very likely to be true namely that every one of the fixt Stars we see is the Center and Sun as 't were of a distinct Vortex So 't is no less likely that each of them has the same relation to its own Vortex and the same Influence upon the Planets or whatever Bodies they are which it contains that the Sun has to our Vortex and upon the Bodies comprehended there in particularly the Terraqueous Globe And though this Part of our Authors Hypothesis concerning the Anima Mundi or Vniversal Spirit may be applicable in the sense newly explain'd to the whole Universe of Bodies yet his other Principles of Water and Seeds are not so comprehensive and whatever he says of them must be limited to the Bodies contain'd in this little Point of the Universe that the Almighty Creator has given to Mankind for an Habitation And the truth is we have but little certain knowledg of the other Parts of the World and that little we have is very superficial 3. This Vniversal Spirit is actually Igneous in its Fountain the Sun and after it is incorporated in Terrestrial Bodies even the coldest of them it differs but in the slower Motion of its Particles from actual Fire and therefore when-ever they are put into a rapid motion it turns into actual Fire again And those Particles of Combustible Bodies that being in a vehement Agitation do chiefly constitute our Culinary Fire were once Particles of this Vniversal Spirit and came Originally from the Sun 4. This is the Spirit that mov'd upon the Water at the beginning of the Creation For when God created the Matter of which he intended to form this Terraqueous Globe namely a great Mass of simple Elementary Water he endow'd it with all sorts of Seeds and made use of this Spirit to Coagulate a great part of the foresaid Mass according to the Signatures of those Seeds into Mineral Vegetable and Animal Bodies of all kinds And the Word in the Original which our Translators render Mov'd seems to agree very well with this Hypothesis For it properly belongs to Birds sitting upon and fluttering over their Eggs and young ones to excite quicken and foecundate the Seed contain'd in the Eggs and so bring forth the young ones and to cherish them when they are brought forth so that in this place the Word may be very reasonably suppos'd to imply that the Vital Spirit which God had Created did as 't were sit upon and move it self in the Waters to actuate the Seeds they contain'd and by this means Hatch'd as 't were and brought forth the after-mention'd Bodies 5. Tho' this Spirit by Coagulating the Elementary Water into several Bodies was it self Coagulated and Incorporated together with it and tho' it has been propagated to all sorts of Bodies that have been produc'd by Generation ever since the Terraqueous Globe was first Created so that every fruitful Seed has a Particle of this quickning Spirit connate with it Yet this Particle is not sufficient to accomplish the Evolution of the seminal Ideas and actuate the Body in all the Functions that belong to it unless it be maintain'd corroborated and multipli'd by constant fresh supplies from that Inexhaustible Treasure of this Vital Fire which is plac'd in the Sun and thence diffus'd with the Rayes of that glorious Body to all Parts of the visible World and particularly to the Terraqueous Globe where it maintains and actuates the fore-mention'd Native Spirit of all Animals Vegetables and Minerals 6. The Vital Substance that flows continually from the Sun is equally capable of all Forms and unites it self indifferently with all Seeds But when 't is once united it loses its indifferency and is specifi'd according to the determinate nature of every particular Seed that it incorporates with Hence the Sulphurs of Vegetables are quite different from those of Animals and both from the Sulphurs of Minerals nor can they be transmuted into one another by humane Art So streightly does the Vniversal Spirit unite it self with particular Seeds The reason of this so close an union is because the Native pre-existent in every Seed is of the same Spirit Nature and Original with this Vniversal Spirit As for the Proof of the Proposition hitherto explained the Vniversal Spirit asserted in it is manifest 1. From the absolute necessity of constant Respiration to Men and most other Animals for hence it is evident that there is a certain Vital Substance in the Air that they cannot live a Minute without fresh supplies of now that the Air is but the Vehicle of this Vital Substance flowing continually from the Sun and the Medium through which it is convey'd to sublunary Bodies shall be prov'd hereafter So that it must be the Vniversal Spirit cloath'd with Air that is constantly receiv'd into the Lungs by Inspiration and thence transmitted to the Heart which being the chief Fountain of the Animal Life that constantly diffuses a Vital Spirit through the Arteries together with the Blood to all Parts of the Body and thereby maintains and cherishes the Native Heat and Vital Spirit residing in each of them must have constant supplies from the Vniversal Spirit to Corroborate Maintain and Multiply its own Particular Spirit For the