are form'd which are nourish'd at first by the grosser Part of the Seed and afterwards partly by the Mothers Blood and partly also perhaps by the Liquor contain'd in the Amnos or inner Membrane of the Foetus From this Process of Generation 't is easie to understand how that Disposition of some particular Part of the Parents Body which renders Him or Her obnoxious to any particular Distemper may be communicated to the same Part of the Foetus and render it obnoxious to the same Distemper Only the nature of the Impression which is made upon the Spirit that forms the Parts of the Foetus and which qualifies it to form them like the Parts of the Parents Body which it came from I say the particular nature of this Modification remains in the dark still Nor do I know how to illustrate it better than by comparing it to that which is little less obscure than it self namely the Modification which the Rayes of Light receive by being Reflected from various Objects and by which they are qualifi'd to produce in a darkned Room lively and distinct Representations of each of those Objects both as to their Figure and the Colour of their surface and 't is from the surface only that the Rayes receiv'd this Modification whereas the fore-mention'd Effluvia come from all the innermost Recesses of every Part and therefore from the correspondent Part of the Foetus like unto it not only in Figure and Colour but in the whole Nature and inward Textur of it That the Ideas of all the Parts do really exist in the Blood appears from the following Arguments 1. They have sometimes visibly appear'd in the Blood receiv'd into a Cucurbit immediately as it slows out of the Vein whilst it is warm and turgid with Spirits for some Medicinal Preparation See Borell Observ 2. Some that have drunk the Blood of any Animal or of another Man have been observ'd to partake of the Nature and Disposition of that Man or Animal Commodus his disposition was owing to his Mother who presently after his Conception drank the Blood of a cruel Gladiator that she was desperately in love with A certain Maid having drank some Cats-Blood as a Remedy for the Epilepsie did imitate Cats in her voice motion and Actions when the Fit was coming upon her watching silently at little Mouse-holes See Becker Microcosm Therefore to note that by the way the Transfusion of Blood seems not a safe way of curing Diseases 3. The Spittle of a Mad Dog makes other Dogs Men Horses or any other Animal wounded by his Teeth turn mad also and imitate his Actions and Gesticulations such as Barking Grinning Fearfulness of Water c. Now Spittle is an immediate production of the Blood that circulates through the Salivary Glandules therefore must have receiv'd from thence the Ideas that it infects the Spirits of the bitten Animal with Also other Venemous enraged Animals as the Tarantula c. communicate such Ideas by the little Wounds that their Teeth make in the Part they bite as transform the Spirits of the Party bitten to a ridiculous imitation of their Gesticulations Though every particular Part of the Foetus be form'd as has been said by the Evolution of its own Idea convey'd by the Circulation of the Blood from the Correspondent Part of the Parents Body unto the Testes where the Seed is made yet maimed Parents may have perfect Children namely if both Father and Mother be not mutilated at least not of the same Parts or if they have had perfect Seed in store before they were dismembred or if the defect of the Architect tonic Spirit that should have come to the Seed from the Part that is deficient be suppli'd by the strength of the Parents Imagination who by seeing daily other Infants Boys Girls Men Women all perfect without the defect of any Part may conceive so firm an Idea of a perfect Foetus as will by the Sympathy between the Imagination and the Seed formerly explain'd produce the very same Modification in the Seed that an Idea convey'd by the Blood from the deficient Part if it had not been wanting would have done For the Mothers Imagination may not only add to the Foetus a Spot representing the Thing Imagin'd in Figure and Colour but even the very Thing it self in its whole Nature How many Instances are there of Pregnant Women that have conceiv'd so strong an Idea of the Horns of some Beast that has terrifi'd them that the Impression thereby made upon the Foetus has produc'd not a Spot only representing it but a real substantial Horn though perhaps this Cause of the Phaenomenon be not always observed And hence it is that if the Parents be maimed from their Birth their Children are often mutilated of the same Part because they cannot easily conceive a firm Idea of the entireness of that Part which they never felt entire in themselves But if they were dismembred long after they can easily form a strong Idea of the Part that they have felt entire and known the use of in themselves and so supply the defect of that Idea in the Seed 'T is also probable that the Mothers Imagination is the principal Cause why the Childs Face sometimes resembles the Fathers sometimes the Mothers and sometimes some other Person according to the Idea that is prevalent in the Mothers Brain while she is with Child That the Mother as well as the Father is furnish'd with true Seed endow'd with the Ideas of the Parts of her own Body as well as the Fathers is with the Ideas of his and consequently that she does contribute part of the Plastick vertue that forms the Foetus as well as afford the Matter of which it is form'd and nourish'd in the Womb appears from several Parts of the foregoing Discourse as well as from the three following Considerations 1. The Ideas of the Masculine Seed can only be taken from the Parts of the Mans Body and therefore can never form the Organs peculiar to a Woman 2. The vitious Conformation of any Part of the Mothers Body as well as of the Fathers is often propagated to the Foetus 3. When a Male and Female of differing Species copulate the Foetus is of a mixt kind resembling the one in some of its Parts and the other in others We have besides the instance of Mules too many instances of this in the Monstrous Foetus's produc'd by the detestable Venery of some Men that copulate with Female Brutes The flowing of the Menstruous Blood to a young Womans Womb is a sign of Maturity because it signifies that besides the Seminal Idea of her own Sex which she was really furnish'd with before there is now also Aliment provided for the Evolution of that Idea whensoever it comes to be Foecundated by the Masculine Seed Death happens when the Vital Spirit or Calidum innatum that is the chief Mover in the Evolution of the Ideas and in all the Animal Functions is suppâ—â—ss'd
Imprimatur Tractatus Cui Titulus Curiosities in Chymistry Sept. 30. 1690. Ex Aedibus Collegij Guall Charleton Proefes Coll. Med. Lond. Censore Tho. Burwell J. Gordon Will. Dawes Tho. Gill. Curiosities in Chymistry BEING NEW EXPERIMENTS AND Observations Concerning the PRINCIPLES OF Natural Bodies Written by a Person of HONOUR and Published by his Operator H. G. LONDON Printed bâ— H.C. for Stafford Anson at the Three Pigeons in St. Paul's Church-yard 1691. NEW EXPERIMENTS AND OBSERVATIONS Concerning the PRINCIPLES OF NATURAL BODIES The Introduction THE Ingenious Author of this Treatise has herein laid a great many Experiments and Observations together in order to prove that Water is the only first Material Principle of Natural Bodies and that all the other pretended Hypostatical Principles are ultimate and reducible into mere Elementary Water Wherefore to give a brief and perspicuous account of his Reasonings upon this Subject he has thought it expedient to reduce them to the following Propositions Sect. I. The Ardent Spirits of Vegetables are nothing else but the Oleous Particles of these Vegetables subtilized by Fermentation and thereby dissolved in and united to some part of their own Phlegm FOR Lavender Rue Marjoram c. distilled without addition and without a previous Fermentation afford an Oyl but never yield any burning Spirit Whereas after Fermentation they yield an ardent Spirit but no Oyl which is a manifest proof that the inflamable Oyl is converted into an inflamable Spirit especially since by the lasting action of the Air upon this Spirit the Oleous part will at last be brought to separate it self from the phlegm and swim above it Moreover if you pour Oyls in small quantity upon Fermenting Vegetables they will come over in Distillation in the form of Spirits As for the Spirits of Aniseeds Wormwood and such other Oleous and Aromatick Vegetables that are prepared with Spirit of Wine without any previous Fermentation they are nothing else but the Oyls of these Vegetables that the Spirit of Wine has imbibed and carried up along with it in Distillation For this Spirit being it self no other thing than the Oyl of Wine Dissolv'd in Phlegm will presently imbibe any Aromatick Oyl dropt into it Hence it is that in the Preparation of Spirit of Aniseeds the Oleous part of the Spirit of Wine imbibes as much of their Oyl as it can receive and the rest for they abound with Oyl being joyn'd with the Phlegmatick part of the Spirit of Wine compose a Milk-coloured Liquor as all Oyls do when they are mixed with Water which we see daily in the Preparation of Emulsions whose Oily parts may be imbibed by fresh Spirit of Wine and by that means yield Spirit of Aniseeds anew Finally 't is upon the account of their Oleous nature that ardent Spirits are so Inflamable and that they so much weaken the Corroding Acidity of Aqua fortis as to render it innocent enough to be taken inwardly though they themselves be endowed with a certain Volatile Acid. Sect. II. The Spirits of Vegetables made by Incineration are nothing else but the Volatile Salts of the Tartar of these Plants dissolved in their own Phlegm FOR they consist of the Effluvia that ascend from the Plants while their Tartar is a Calcining into a fixt Salt kept from flying away into the Air by reason of the peculiar structure of the Furnaces c. imployed in this kind of Incineration and are therefore altogether of the same nature with Spirit of Soot or even with the genuine bitterish Alcaline Spirit of Tartar of Wine N.B. Since in the Juice of Grapes the Alcali and Acid mutually Coagulated obtain the name of Tartar Why should not the same Salts con-coagulated in the Juices of other Vegetables though endowed with very different Seeds obtain the same Appellation rather than that of Essential Salts For there is really in the Juices of all Vegetables a Tartar not unlike to that of Wine So that the Spirits prepared by the Incineration of Plants do like that of Vinous Tartar proceed from the Tartars of these Plants which seeing they consist of the same Salts namely Alcaly and Acid those Spirits are indeed nothing else but these Salts in a Fluid state Hence if genuine Spirit of Tartar be drawn off from an Alcalisate Salt the Volatile Acid being left in the fixt Alcaly it will strike your Nose with the pungent scent of a Volatile Urinous Salt Sect. III. The Alcaline Vrinous Spirits of Animals are nothing else but the Volatile Salts of these Animals dissolved in a little of their own Phlegm FOR 1. If you put Spirit of Urine or any other Urinous Spirit well rectified into a glass conveniently shaped a gentle heat will sublime good store of dry Volatile Salt into the slender neck of the Glass leaving a weak Phlegmatick Liquor in the bottom which would be mere insipid Phlegm if it could be perfectly freed from the Volatile Salt that 't is yet impregnated with and from the subtle Particles of Oyl that generally if not constantly ascend together with these Spirits and continue invisibly mixed with them though never so well rectified even to a perfect transparency for a long time 'till at length by the action of the Air or evaporation of the Volatile Salt if the Glass be not very well stop'd or the intestine motion of the parts of the Liquor though it be the Particles of Oyl begin to seperate themselves from the rest of the Liquor and gather together into numerous little drops which though they be singly invisible yet render the whole Liquor muddy and of a reddish colour 2. In the Distillation for instance of Fermented Urine or of Sal Armoniack mingled with a fixt Salt usually the Volatile Salt sublimes at first in a dry form but if you continue the Distillation so much of the Phlegm will ascend as shall dissolve all your Volatile Salt and wash it it down into the Receiver where you have it in the form of a Spirit 3. If you dissolve in common Water Distilled as much Volatile Salt of Human Blood for instance as it will take up and Distil this mixture you will by that means obtain a Liquor that by its smell tast and divers Operations appears to be a good brisk Spirit of Human Blood as that incomparable promoter of Experimental Philosophy Mr. Boyle has observed in his late useful Treatise about Human Blood The same is to be said of the Alcaline Spirits that are Distilled from Peas Beans and some other Vegetables For they appear by divers effects to be much of the same nature with Urinous Spirits Sect. IV. The Acid Spirits of Minerals as Sea-salt Vitriol Sulphur c. are nothing else but the Acid Salts of these Minerals freed from the more Terrestrial Parts united with a little Phlegm and so reduced into a fluid state by the force of the fire FOR you may reduce them to a dry Salt by pouring them upon an Alcaly For instance Spirit of Vitriol after it
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
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
Vniversal Spirit that flows from the Sun to all Parts of the Macrocosm is of the same Nature with this Particular Spirit that flows from the Heart to all Parts of the Microcosm and is therefore very fit to nourish and support it with constant new supplies 2. The same Vniversal Spirit is no less evident from what has been deliver'd under the former Proposition concerning the Generation of Animals To which I shall only add that Nature has solicitously provided to secure the Seed from External Air because if it were expos'd but a moment to the Air the Vniversal Spirit that dwells there would instantly suck up so to speak the Congeneal Spirit that foecundates the Seed as not being yet incorporated Wherefore the Seed of Oviparous Animals is carefully shut up from the Contact of the External Air within the Egg. And in Viviparous Animals presently after the Injection of the Masculine Seed into the Womb and the Union thereof with the Feminine the Orifice of that Part is exactly clos'd and the two united Spirits do presently fall to Work and begin the Evolution of the seminal Ideas and the Apposition of Aliment thereunto But this Work could never be accomplish'd nay nor even begun unless the seminal Spirit were excited cherish'd corroborated and supported by the Heat of the Womb and by constant supplies of the Mothers Vital Spirit convey'd with the Arterial Blood from her Heart to the Placenta Vterina and thence transmitted through the Vmbilical Vein into the Vena Cava and so into the Heart of the Foetus which is the Centre of Evolution and the chief Spring of all the Animal Actions both in and out of the Womb But no sooner is the Foetus separated from the Mother and thereby depriv'd of the supplies that the Vital Spirits residing in the Heart receiv'd from her in the Womb than it begins to draw supplies for maintaining of the same Vital Substance from the Vniversal Spirit lodg'd in the Air as was said before 3. 'T is the Vital Spirit residing in every particular Part of the Human or any other Animals Body maintain'd by the Influence of the Vniversal Spirit convey'd with the Air by Respiration into the Lungs and from thence communicated by means of the Circulation of the Blood first to the Heart and from that to the whole Body 't is this Spirit I say that Coagulates the Fluid Blood into the solid substance of that Part and is the true Efficient of all the Vital Functions belonging to it Those Animals that are destitute of Lungs are nevertheless endow'd with Organs of Resparation of an equivalent use For that excellent Anatomist Malpigius has happily discover'd that those blackish Points which we observe in Insects all along the length of their Body on both sides are really the Orifices of so many Tracheas or Wind-Pipes which convey the Air into the Stomach Spinal Marrow and all the other Bowels as well as the Heart so that the Air has immediate access to seed the Vital Spirit that resides in each of them because there is no Circulation of the Alimentary Juice in these Animals or if there be it is too slow to convey sufficient supplyes of the Vniversal Spirit from any one Part to all the rest as it doth from the Heart and Lungs in perfect Animals And the constant ingress and egress of the Air by these little Holes is so necessary to the life of Insects that if you immerge their whole Body into Oyl or but anoint these little spots with it they presently dye whereas if you anoint only the Intervals with Oyl without touching these little Holes they receive no harm And tho' Fishes have no Lungs nor Air Pipes because they live in the Water yet instead thereof they have Gils which are Dilated and Contracted by a perpetual Reciprocation to give ingress and egress to the Water as the Lungs of other Animals are to Inspire and Exspire the Air. Nor can Fishes live without Water any more than Land-Animals can do without Air. Whence 't is highly probable that the former receive constant supplyes of some vital substance from the Water as well as the later do from the Air especially if we farther consider that the Vital Liquor Circulates through the Gils of the one by the Ramifications of their Arteria Bronchialis as well as it do's through the Lungs of the other by those of the Arteria Pulmonaris Wherefore if in Land-Animals the said Vital Liquor divide it self into little Rivulets in its passage through the Lungs that every part thereof may at each Circulation receive fresh supples of Vital Spirit from the Air that is diffus'd through the whole substance of those Respiratory Organs by the numerous Ramifications of the Wind-pipe if this be so I say as we formerly prov'd it to be we may very reasonably suppose that in Fishes the same Vital Liquor Circulates in like manner through the Gils that it may receive constant fresh supplies of a vital substance from the Water that washes the Gils perpetually N. B. The Gils of Crusted Fish as Lobsters c. and of Shell-fish as Oysters c. are spongious and not only receive the Water into all their innermost parts where it communicates with the numerous Vessels that diffuse the Vital Liquor through the whole substance of the Gils but give it a Passage also into all the Internal Cavities of the Body where it is laid up as in Bottles to supply the foresaid Fishes with Vital Spirit when the Ebbing of the Sea leaves them in sicco whereas the Gils of sanguineous Fishes that live constantly in the Water are not spongious and the Water washes only their outward surfaces without penetrating any farther But instead of enlarging any more upon this point I shall refer the curious Reader to Dr. Willis's Book of the soul of Brutes Chap. 3. where he will find it very fully and accurately handled 4. The Existence of an Vniversal Spirit is evident from what has been said concerning the Growth of Vegetables For 't is a Particle of this Spirit in the seed excited strengthn'd and maintain'd by the Suns Vital Influence that Explicates the Seminal Idea and Coagulates the Water into solid substances as Wood Bark c. which could never be produc'd out of simple Water without this Coagulating Spirit 5. The same Argument may with equal if not greater force be applied to Minerals and especially to Metals which tho' they be the solidest substances yet known are nevertheless made of Mercury which of all Liquors is the most fluid In the next place To evince that the Sun is the chief Fountain of this Vniversal Spirit I need only put the Reader in mind of what was formerly observ'd concerning vegetable seeds namely that they would be perpetually barren if their Native Spirit were not actuated by that vital substance which is every where diffus'd with the Rayes of the Sun But to confirm this a little farther 't is evident beyond contradiction