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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29057	Tracts written by the Honourable Robert Boyle containing New experiments, touching the relation betwixt flame and air, and about explosions, an hydrostatical discourse occasion'd by some objections of Dr. Henry More against some explications of new experiments made by the author of these tracts : to which is annex't, An hydrostatical letter, dilucidating an experiment about a way of weighing water in water, new experiments, of the positive or relative levity of bodies under water, of the air's spring on bodies under water, about the differing pressure of heavy solids and fluids.; Selections. 1672	Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691.	1672 (1672)	Wing B4060; ESTC R10383	110,756	442

from me a promise that after I should have answer'd the two first that should expresly write against me which happen'd to be the Learned Linus and Mr. Hobbs to shew that I was not altogether unacquainted with a way of defending Truths I would afterwards write no Book in answer to any that should come forth against mine for not only my friends but I thought it enough for a person that never was a Gown-man to communicate freely his thoughts and Experiments to the Curious without despairing that those things that should be evidently true would be able to make their own way and such as were very probable would meet with Patrons and Defenders in so inquisitive an age as ours And indeed I do not find that either upon the account of my Writings or Ingenious mens opinion of them I have had much cause to repent the keeping of my promise notwithstanding the Writings that have impugn'd some of mine but without much prejudice that I know of either to the propos'd Truths or the Proposer of them And therefore I should not at all have enter'd upon a defence of what is attaqued of mine by the Learned Doctor More if I had not suppos'd that it would not require a Book but might be dispatch'd in a Preface For having by me some little Tracts that should though the Doctor had never engag'd me have been imparted to the Publick and observing that the new Experiments contain'd in one or other of them would 〈◊〉 an easie application be brought to co●●●●● my formerly deliver'd explications of other Phaenomena and enervate the Doctors Objections against them I thought I might without long troubling the Reader or my self defend what I look'd upon as Truth by answering some incidental passages of the Doctors discourse and referring the Reader for the main points in Controversie between us to those Experiments of the following Tracts which clearly contain the grounds of deciding them But yet this Consideration would not perhaps have engaged me to write the following Preface if the Objections I was to answer had not been by a Person of so much Fame propos'd with so much confidence and though with very great Civility to me yet with such endeavours to make my Opinions appear not only untrue but irrational and absurd that I fear'd his discourse if unanswer'd might pass for unanswerable especially among those Learned men who not being vers'd in Hydrostaticks would be apt to take his Authority and his Confidence for cogent Arguments and who not observing how liberal some men are of titles to the Arguments that please them would make a scruple of thinking that what is with great solemnity deliver'd for a Demonstration in a Book of Metaphysicks can be other than a Metaphysical Demonstration The Care therefore that what I judge to be true should not be made to pass for Absurd which is a degree beyond what is meerly Erroneous by being so severely handled by a person of Doctor More 's fame and Learning induc'd me to begin the following Paper which should have been shorter than now it is but that I was perswaded to lengthen it beyond what was either necessary or design'd that I might by the addition of some few thoughts and Experiments on the occasions that were suggested to me endeavour to clear up and confirm some Hydrostatical Truths that I fear are but by very few either assented to or perhaps so much as understood and so might make the Reader amends for the trouble I was forc'd to give him in a Dispute which I apprehended he might otherwise think himself but little concerned in And he will I hope easily discern that I have no mind to burthen him in my Preface with things not pertinent to the scope of it if he take notice that both for his sake and the Learned Doctors whose Civility I would not leave unanswered I have restrain'd my self to the Defensive part forbearing to attaque any thing in his Enchiridium Metaphysicum save the two Chapters wherein I was particularly invaded But though I have declin'd the delivering my Opinion of the Doctors Book yet I dare not forbear owning my not being satisfied with that part of his Preface which falls foul upon Monsieur des Cartes and his Philosophy For though I have often wish'd that Learned Gentleman had ascrib'd to the Divine Author of Nature a more particular and immediate efficiency and guidance in contriving the parts of the Vniversal Matter into that great Engine we call the World and though I am still of Opinion that he might have ascrib'd more than he has to the Supreme Cause in the first Origine and Production of things Corporeal without the least injury to Truth and without much if any prejudice to his own Philosophy and though not confining my self to any Sect I do not profess my self to be of the Cartesian yet I cannot but have too much value for so great a wit as the founder of it and too good an opinion of his sincerity in asserting the existence of a Deity to approve so severe a Censure as the Doctor is pleased to give of him For I have long thought that in Tenets about Religion though it be very just to charge the ill consequences of mens opinions upon the Opinions themselves yet 't is not just or at least not charitable to charge such Consequences upon the Persons if we have no pregnant cause to think they discern them though they disclaim them And since men have usually the fondness of Fathers for the Off-spring of their own Brains I see not why Cartesius himself may not have over-look'd the bad inferences that may be drawn from his Principles if indeed they afford any such since divers Learned and not a few pious persons and profess'd Divines of differing Churches have so little perceiv'd that the things objected are consequent to such Principles that they not only absolve them as harmless but extol them as friendly and advantageous to natural Religion And I see not why so great and radiant a Truth as that of the Existence of a God that has been acknowledg'd by so many meer Philosophers might not as well impress it self on so capable an intellect as that of Monsieur des Cartes or that so piercing a wit may not really believe he had found out new Mediums to demonstrate it by And since the Learned Gassendus though an Ecclesiastick had been able as well safely as largely to publish the irreligious Philosophy of Epicurus himself it seems not likely that so dextrous a wit as that of Monsieur des Cartes could not have propos'd his notions about the Mechanical Philosophy without taking so mean a course to shelter himself from danger as in the most important points that can fall under mans consideration to labour with great skill and industry to deceive abundance of ingenious men many of which appeared to be Lovers of Truth and divers of them Lovers of Him also And I am the more averse from so

very fit subjects whereon to make the following Experiment Partly to try whether at least an animal already living and moving in our Vacuum may be able to attain the perfection due to it according to the course of Nature and partly to examine whether in case he should attain it at least the lighter sort of winged Insects may be able to fly in that place and partly to discover whether an animal that had long liv'd in our Vacuum would when turn'd to a Flie be able to continue alive without a Respiration he had never been accustom'd to in its pristine form or state we took divers of those little swimming Creatures which in Autumn especially towards the end of it are wont to be turn'd into Gnats and having put a convenient number of them together in a fit quantity of Rain-water wherein they had been found and kept into a small Receiver the Air was pumpt out and the vessel secur'd against its return and then set aside in a place where I could observe that the day after some of these little animals were yet alive and swimming to and fro not without minute bubles adhering to them but at the end of a day or two after that I could not perceive any of them to survive their dead Companions nor did any of them recover when fresh Air was let in upon them But though this Experiment were the best I was then able to make yet I resolv'd if God should vouchsafe me life and health to repeat it the ensuing Autumn that wherein it was made proving so cold and unseasonable that a number of these little Creatures put up with water into another small Receiver died all within a few days though none of the Air was exhausted and several that I kept in an ordinary Glass that was divers times unstop'd to give them fresh air did yet perish at no ordinary rate And I confess as unkind as this trouble of mine may seem to the Air that the failing of this and some other Experiments of producing Animals in our exhausted Receivers was the more unwelcome to me because I had and have still a great desire to see if it be possible what would happen to Animals which had been produc'd in a place free from the pressure of the Atmosphere as if they had been born in Epicurus's imaginary intermundane spaces upon their coming to be suddenly surrounded with our heavy Air and having their tenderly fram'd bodies expos'd to its immediate pressure NEW EXPERIMENTS ABOUT Explosions Annex'd by way of Appendix to the former Papers NEW EXPERIMENTS ABOUT EXPLOSIONS Annex'd by way of Appendix to the former Papers FOr as much as some of the Learned men that are the grand Assertors of the Flamma Vitalis whose opinion occasion'd my presenting you the foregoing Experiments do also with the justly famous Doctor Willis explicate many of the motions of Animals especially those performed in the Muscles by the Explosions made of certain juices or fluid substances of the Body when they come to mingle with each other And for as much also as I do not remember I have heard the Maintainers of this Hypothesis insist on other instances in favour of it than the going off of Gunpowder which being not a liquor but a consistent and brittle body and requiring for its explosion either Actual Fire or a far intenser heat than can be supposed natural in Men and other Animals I was induc'd to suspect they were not yet provided with better Examples and therefore I presume it will be look'd upon as a thing neither useless nor altogether impertinent if without offering to determine any thing about the truth of the opinion I supply the embracers of it with two or three examples of Explosions made by the bare mingling of liquors which I shall borrow from the else-where mention'd Notes that I drew up some years ago in order to the improvement of some parts of Physick EXPER. I. Of an Explosion made with the Spirits of Nitre and Wine WE took Spirit of Nitre so strong that the fumes made the upper part of the Glass it was kept in always reddish and having put but one ounce of it into a bolt-head with a long neck capable to contain as we guess'd twelve or sixteen times as much we caus'd an equal weight of Alkhool or highly rectified Spirit of Wine to be taken and a little of it being put to the Spirit of Nitre it presently made so strong and quick an expansion or explosion that some of it flew out of the Glass and hit against the cieling of the room where I saw the mark of it and falling upon his face that held the Glass made him think as he told me that fire had fallen upon it and made him run down the stairs like a mad man to quench the heat at the Pump Wherefore bidding the Laborant proceed more warily I order'd him to put into the Bolt-head but part of a spoonful of Spirit of Wine at a time and yet at each of a pretty many affusions that I stay'd to see the effect of there would be a great noise as of an ebuilition though no store of froth produc'd and accompanied with so great a heat that I could not hold the Glass in my hand and immediately there would issue out a copious and red smoak to which when I caus'd a little Candle to be held though at near half a foot distance from the top of the bolt-head it would presently take fire and burn at the top of the bolt-head like a flame at the upper end of a Candle till I caus'd it to be blown out that fresh Spirit of Wine might be pour'd in which when it was all mingled with the other liquor the heat and conflict caused Divers other Phaenomena relating to this Experiment by which I intended to make out more things than one belong not to our present subject and are already set down in other Papers But yet 't will be pertinent to shew in this place that the noise and ebullition produc'd in this mixture is not unaccompanied with a briskly Expansive or an Explosive motion To make then an Experiment to this purpose and yet avoid the danger whereto the making of it unwarily might expose both the vessels and us we put an ounce of such strong Spirit of Nitre as is above mentioned into a moderately large bolt-head furnish'd with a proportionable stem over the orifice of which we strongly tied the neck of a thin Bladder out of which most part of the Air had been express'd and into which we had conveigh'd a small Viol with a little highly rectified Spirit of Wine Then this Viol that before was clos'd with a cork being unstopp'd without untying or taking off the Bladder a small quantity by guess not a quarter of a spoonful of the Alcohol of Wine was made to run down into the Spirit of Nitre where it presently produc'd a great heat and commotion and blew up the Bladder as far as

it would well stretch filling also the stem and cavity of the Glass with very red sumes which presently after forced their way into the open Air in which they continued for a good while to ascend in the form of an Orange-colour'd smoak EXPER. II. Of an Explosion made with Oyl of Vitriol and Oyl of Turpentine IF I had at hand the Papers you have divers times heard me speak of about Heat I could give you the particulars of some Tryals about Explosion that perhaps you would think more pertinent than despicable but for want of those Papers I must content my self to tell you in general That I remember that I have more than once taken strong Oyl of Vitriol and common Oyl of Turpentine and warily mix'd them in a certain proportion by shaking them very well together and that thereupon insued what I had reason to look for so furious an agitation of the minute parts of the mixture and so vehement or sudden Expansion or Explosion as did not only seem strange to the Spectators but would have prov'd dangerous too if I had not taken care before-hand that the Tryals should be made in a place where there was room enough and that even the Operator that shook the vessel should stand at a convenient distance from the mixture EXPER. III. About an Explosion made by two Bodies actually Cold. I Remember not that I found the Assertors of Explosions in Animals to have taken notice of a difficulty which to me seems not uneasie to be observ'd and yet very worthy to be cleared For 't is known that Fishes and those especially of the vaster sort can move and act in the waters with a stupendious force and yet it is affirm'd by those that pretend to know it that the Blood of most Fishes is still actually cold And I remember I found the blood even of those I dissected alive to be so From whence most men would argue that even in the vast Sea-monsters there can be made no Explosions these being still effected by or accompanied with an intense degree of heat 'T were incongruous to my design to examine this difficulty as it directly regards the Explosions said to be made in Animals But speaking of Explosions in general perhaps I might do the favourers of vital ones if I may so term them no unacceptable piece of service by experimentally shewing that 't is not impossible though it seem very unlikely that Explosions should be made upon the mixture of bodies which whilst they seem to put one another into a state of Effervescence are really cold nay colder than before their being mingled Of these odd kind of mixtures I remember I have in another * About the Preduction or Extrication of Air. paper set down some Tryals that I made to other purposes as well with two liquors as with a liquor and a solid body which later sort I there mention my having made by an improvement of an experiment of the excellent Florentine Virtuosi And among those Tryals I find one whose pertinency to the matter in hand invites me to annex as much of it as is proper in this place There were put two ounces of powder'd Sal Armoniac into a pretty large Glass-tube Hermetically seal'd at one end into the same a slender Glass-pipe furnished with two ounces of Oyl of Vitriol was so put that when we pleas'd we could make the liquor run out into the larger Tube which after these things were done was clos'd exactly so that nothing might get in or out My design was that this instrument should be so warily inverted that the Operator might get out of the way and the Oyl of Vitriol falling slowly upon the Sal Armoniac should without producing any heat produce an explosion not dangerous to the By-standers But whilst I was withdrawn to a neighbouring place to write a Letter the Operator not staying for particular directions rashly inverted the instrument without taking care to get away whence it happen'd that as soon as ever the contained liquor being too plentifully poured out came to work on the Sal Armoniac wherewith it is wont to produce cold there was so surprizing and vehement an Expansion or Explosion made that with a great noise which as the Laborant affirmed much exceeded the report of a Pistol the Glasses were broken into a multitude of pieces many of which I saw presently after and a pretty deal of the mixture was thrown up with violence against the Operators Doublet and his Hat which it struck off and his face especially about his eyes where immediately were produc'd extreamly painful tumors which might also have been very dangerous had I not come timely in and to add that upon the by made him forthwith dissolve some Saccharum Saturni in fair water and with a soft spunge keep it constantly moisten'd by very frequently renewed applications of the Liquor By Gods blessing upon which means within an hour or two the pain that had been so raging was taken away and the fretting Oyl of Vitriol was kept from so much as breaking the skin of the Tumors that it had made The first part of the Relation of this tryal might have been omitted or at least shorten'd unless I had design'd to communicate unto you a way of doing what I do not know to have been attempted by others namely to put bodies together when and by what degrees one pleases after the Glass that contains them has been Hermetically seal'd up which Mechanical contrivance especially as it may be varied may be as I have try'd usefully apply'd to more purposes than 't were proper here to take notice of But to conclude with a word or two touching the foregoing Experiment I shall only add That another time we made a like tryal a safer way by tying a Bladder so to the top of a Bolt-head into which we had before-hand put the Sal Armoniac that by warily moving the Bladder whence the Air had been express'd we could make some of the Sal Armoniac we had lodg'd in its folds to fall upon the liquor with which it presently made an Explosive mixture that quickly blew up the Bladder But these Sir are bare Conjectures left to be after a farther discussion if you think them worthy of it determin'd by You to whom as these Papers are address'd so they are also submitted by the Writer of them Who is Sir Your most c. AN HYDROSTATICAL Discourse Occasioned by The Objections of the Learned Dr. Henry More AGAINST Some Explications of New Experiments made by Mr. Boyle AND Now publish'd by way of PREFACE to the Three ensuing Tracts ADVERTISEMENT THis Hydrostatical Discourse distinguished by small letters for the Signature is to be placed immediately before the Title New Experiments of the Positive and Relative Levity of Bodies under Water TO The Reader WHen I determin'd to write this Polemical Discourse I did not forget that when I first ventur'd some of my trisles abroad into the world my friends obtain'd