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
Calcination for two days together without flying away However 't is probable that this was nothing else but some unalter'd part of the Sea-salt that season'd the Aliments that the person or persons whose the Blood was fed upon 6. The Earth also may be totally resolv'd into Elementary Water by being depriv'd of its seminal vertue by means of the Alcahest if we may believe Van Helmont Hence t is that dead Animals when they putrify are resolv'd into an Aqueous Substance And Helmont has deliver'd a notable Experiment to this purpose namely that if you dig up a Frog at full Moon in the coldest time of Winter atrocissimo hyemis borea wash it and tye it to a stick in the Fields the next morning 't will be turnd into a white and transparent Mucilage not unlike to liquifi'd Gum Tragacanth but retaining the figure of a Frog Yea he affirms that the Cadaver of a Man or Beast exposd all night to the Rayes of the Moon will in the Morning be almost fluid with rottenness putrilagine diffluet so great power has the Moon to reduce dead Bodies into an Aqueous Mucilage Secondly Vegetable Substances Chymically analys'd yield Phlegm Volatile Salt Spirit of several sorts Oyl Fixt Salt and Earth To the first second fourth and sixth may be apply'd what was said of the Phlegm Volatile Salt Oyl and Earth of Animal Substances The Fixt Salt may be totally resolv'd into Elementary Water by reiterated Solutions in the Air and Abstractions as above There are 4. sorts of Spirits afforded by Vegetable Substances 1. Vinous inflamable Spirits which were formerly prov'd to be nothing but Oyls dissolv'd in Phlegm by Fermentation as also that 2. Volatile Saline Spirits as Spirit of Soot Spirit of Beans that have been kept in a dry place for some Months c. are nothing but Volatile Salts dissolv'd into Phlegm And that 3. Acid Spirits as Spirit of Vinegar Spirit of Beans newly gather'd c. Are nothing but Acid Salts in a fluid state and united with Phlegm and being pour'd upon Fixt Salts they are together with them ultimately resoluble into Elementary Water 4. Adiaphorous Spirits of Box Guaiacum c. Which the judicious Mr. Boyle who was the first Observer of them suspects to be generated of the finer parts of the Oyl of the Wood reduc'd to an extraordinary smallness and by that means exquisitely mix'd with the Plegm the juice of Grapes affords all these 4 sorts of Spirits as Mr. Boyle has observ'd in his excellent Discourse concerning the Producibleness of the Chymical Principles Thirdly As for Minerals We must rely upon the testimony of Van Helmont whom Mr. Boyle concludes to be a veracious Author except in that extravagant Treatise of the Magnetical Cure of Wounds from the success he has had in trying some of his Experiments that might seem not the most likely to succeed and I think we may justly lay great weight upon the judgement of so experiencd and judicious a person as Mr. Boyle concerning the sincerity of any Chymical Author Helmont then in several places informs us that all Stones Gems Marcasites Metals c. may be transmuted into an aequiponderant Salt and this into Insipid Water And as for Metals it seems indeed that common Mercury is their nearest Matter into which they may be resolv'd by the separation of their Coagulating Salts and the famous Langelot has made an Experiment of this in the Regulus of Antimony Now if the other Metals also may be resolv'd into Mercury by depriving them of their Sulphurs and the Mercury it self be reducible into Water by robbing it of the Sulphurs yet remaining in it as Mr. Boyle somewhere affirms it may in great part and as several other Authors of good credit attest then it can no more be doubted that all Minerals are reducible into Water It will not be unseasonable in this place to mention a few Experiments deliver'd in Mr. Boyles Septical Chymist that do very much countenance the three last Propositions That excellent Author then informs us that about the middle of May he caus'd his Gardiner to dig out some good Earth dry it well in an Oven weigh it put it in a very shallow Earthen Pot and set in it a Seed of Squash a sort of Indian Pompion that grows apace which he water'd only with Rain or spring Water And tho the hastning Winter hinder'd it from attaining any thing near its wonted magnitude yet being taken up about the middle of October the Pompion together with the Stalk and Leaves weighed three pound wanting a quarter And yet the Earth being very well dry'd in an Oven was found to have lost little or nothing of its first weight He try'd the like Experiment with two Cucumbers which being taken out of the Earth wherein they had grown weighed together with the Roots and Branches fourteen pound and six ounces and yet the Earth had lost but a pound and a half of its first weight which the Gardiner judg'd to have been in great part wasted in the ordering But granting that some of the Earth or rather of the dissoluble Salt harbour'd in it was wasted in the nourishment of the Plant yet 't is plain that the main Body of it consisted of trasmuted Water This Experiment may be try'd with the Seeds of any Plant that is bulky and grows hastily Likewise A top of Spearmint of an inch long being put into a vial full of Spring-water with its lower part immers'd did in a few days shoot forth numerous Roots into the Water as if it had been Earth and display it self upwards into many Leaves with a pretty thick stalk The same Experiment has also succeeded with Marjoram tho' more slowly Balm and Peniroyal to name no more One of these Vegetables cherish'd only by Spring-water and that never renew'd afforded by distillation besides Phlegm an Empyreumatical Spirit an adust Oyl and a Caput mortuum that appearing to be a Coal consisted no doubt of Salt and Earth And if Helmont had distill'd the foremention'd Tree no doubt it would have afforded him the like distinct Substances as another of the same kind But a more considerable Instance to prove that all sorts of Bodies are nothing else but Water subdu'd by Seeds than any yet mention'd is afforded us by Mr. de Rochas who tells us that he took simple Water that he well knew to be mix'd with no other thing but the Spirit of Life and having with a heat Artificial Continual and Proportionate prepar'd it by the Graduations of Coagulation Congelation and Fixation which he had spoken of before untill it was turn'd into Earth this Earth produc'd Animals that mov'd of themselves Vegetables and Minerals The Animals he found by a Chymical Anatomy he made of them to be compos'd of much Sulphur little Mercury and less Salt and the Minerals which were solid and heavy and began to grow by converting into their own Nature one part of the Earth thereunto dispos'd of much Salt little
Action as on the contrary the Sadness of Melancholy persons proceeds from the Fixation of the Animal Spirits by a more Fixt Acid. But upon excessive Drinking that Volatile Acid ascends too copiously to the Brain conquers and fixes the Animal Spirits and so stupefies the Organs of Sense and Motion yea sometimes it may Suppress the Vital Acid or Innate Heat of the Blood and at length totally Coagulate it especially if the Wine be endow'd with a strong Acid as the French and chiefly the Hungarian Wines are wont to be And indeed that the Inebriating vertue of Wine and all other strong Drinks is entirely owing to a Volatile Acid may be prov'd by many Arguments 1. Hence 't is that Volatile Alcaline Salts do prevent Drunkenness especially Spirit of Salt-Armoniack if some drops of it be now and then mingled with the Drink 2. Bitter Almonds and other Oleous things do likewise prevent Drunkenness by weakning and suppressing the vaporous Acid of the Wine so that it cannot reach the Brain 3. The same Acid inflames Drunkards Faces and adorns them with purulent Pimples like so many Gems For the whitish colour'd Matter contain'd in these Pimples proceeds only from the Volatile Acid of the Wine that infects the ferment of the Muscles of the Face coagulates and precipitates the Blood that comes thither for Nutrition and so changes its Purple Colour into a whitish one For proof of this Assertion 't is to be noted that the Purple Colour of the Blood proceeds from the resolution of the Sulphurous Acid Parts by the ferment of the Heart which sets them at liberty so as that they may mix per minima and make a subtile effervescence with the Alcaline Spirits as when Spirit of Salt-Armoniack or of Harts-horn or any other that is Alcalical is digested with Spirit of Wine they produce together a very red Tincture because the Acid Sulphur of the Wine being by Digestion intimately mix'd and making a subtile effervesence with the subtil Alcaly is at length so resolv'd as to manifest it self by tinging the whole Liquor after the same manner in the Tincture of the Salt of Tartar the Spirit of Wine is ting'd by the Volatilis'd Alcaly of Tartar and common Sulphur boyl'd in the Lixivium of any Fixt Salt is thereby exalted to a Red Colour but because the Alcaline Salt is so ty'd to the Terrestrial Particles that it cannot penetrate the Sulphur per minima therefore the Colour is obscure and dark Now if you pour another Acid Liquor upon these Sanguine Tinctures immediately they become of a Milk-white Colour Just so it happens when the Blood is extravasated and putrefi'd in any Part of the Body the Acidity that arises from this Putrefaction Precipitates the Sulphur that ting'd the Blood and thereby turns it into white stinking Pus even as common Sulphur when it is Precipitated out of any Lixivium by the affusion of Vinegar strikes the Nose with an ungratefull Odour tho it was utterly inodorous before so that Pus is nothing but Blood whose vital Alcaline Balsamical Spirits are suppres'd by an hostile Acid and the tinging Sulphureous Particles Precipitated in Wounds Abscesses while the Pus is a making the motion of the Acid Particles do often produce a Symptomical Feaver an Inflammation in the Part affected Convulsive Motions in the Brain and Pains in the Nervous Parts but these Symptoms abate as soon as the Pus is made and the motion of the Particles ceas'd 4. Amongst the External Medicins that are wont to be apply'd to the foremention'd Pimples in the Face the Preparations of Saturn are the chief because they imbibe the Acid of the Wine or other Inebriating Liquor that inflames the Face For Saturn readily receives all sorts of Acids or Sulphurs even those of Metals as is well known to the Refiners Thus the unripe Sulphurs of Metals Coagulated in Saturn do compose Litharge Vinegar Coagulated in Saturn produces Sugar of Lead And all Acids in general Coagulated in Saturn Mars or any other Body whatsoever are wont to be dulcifi'd thereby For all Sugars are nothing but Acid Salts Coagulated in other Particles whence 't is that they are resolv'd by Distillation into a very Ardent and powerfully Inebriating Spirit and are extream sit to promote or even begin Fermentations and therefore 't is that the Syrups of the shops have a manifestly Acid Tast and Sugar is very hurtful to Scorbutical persons because upon the account of its Acidity it excites divers vitious Effervescencies produces Tumors of the Bowels c. And vitiates the Vital Ferment of the Stomach III. That the Particles of Fire are of an Acid Nature may evidently appear from all other Inflameable Substances especially those that are Oyly and Fat as well as from common Sulphur and Spirit of Wine For in the first place 't is certain that Oleous and Fat Bodies are really endow'd with an Acid as appears from the following Reasons 1. Chirurgions observe that Oyls and fat Substances are very noxious to the Bones especially the Skull which is a Porous Bone and particularly that they are apt to make them Carious which must happen upon the account of their Corroding Acid. And for the same reason they render Vlcers sordid by increasing the Corroding Acid. 2. What else is that Greenness that adheres to Lamps but the Acid of the Oyl-Olive Coagulated in the Particles of the Metal that it has Corroded whence comes the Blew Colour of Oyl of Camomil distill'd in Copper Vessels but from some Particles of the Veins Corroded by the Acidity of the Oyle 3. The Heart-burn Ardor Ventriculi is often occasion'd by Fat things especially if you drink after them because the Acid Salts are thereby dissolv'd and put into a swifter motion as well as by austere and sourish Wines and the Remedy in both Cases is to use things fitted to Precipitate the Acid. 4. Oleous and Fat things are hurtful in Erysipelatous Distempers which proceed from the Coagulation of the Blood by an Acid because they increase the Peccant Acidity whence the Putrefaction is increas'd the Bones are corroded and the Natural Heat of the Part is at last totally suppress'd and mortify'd Yet the Author denyes not but these Effects do also partly depend upon the Obstruction of the Pores of the Part by the foresaid Fat substances so that the Effluvia wont to transpire through the Pores being detain'd in the Body and inordinately mov'd do increase the Feaver 5. 'T is likewise upon the account of their Acidity that Oyls are hurtful to all Inflammations without such a Preparation as consumes or corrects their Acid. Thus Lin-seed Oyle mingl'd with an equal weight of Spirit of Wine and boyl'd with continual stirring till the Spirit be consum'd is us'd safely and successfully both inwardly and outwardly in Pleurisies Peripneumonies Inflammations of the Liver c. because the Coagulating Acid is readily imbib'd by this Oyl that has been depriv'd of its own Acid by the Spirit of Wine which being
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