lye towards the North Pole of the Heavens or of the Earth because it tends downwards withall Poles are vulgarly described to be the two extremities of an axis axeltree about which a Globe or Wheel moves round If so then properly a Loadstone cannot be said to have either Axis or Poles because according to the vulgar opinion it doth not move round Wherefore the former denomination is improperly attributed to it viz. the extreme central point of its tendency towards the Arctick Pole is termed the North Pole of the stone and the opposite extremity is called the South Pole of it Next remember out of the Ch. of Coct that all bodies in their decoction do run off their temperament through streams or small mixtures of the Elements gradually deserting the decocting bodies and taking their egress or fuming through their pores These pores tend most from the transcurrent Axis towards the North. That its pores tend most towards the North is evident by its intrinsick parts within as you may see when it is cut through running variously intorted towards the North in streaks these streaks are distinguisht from one another through interjacent porosities otherwise they would be continuously one That the Loadstone emits fumes is testified from its looseness and inequality of mixture For all parts as I have shewed before that are unequally mixt suffer a discontinuation of their mixture because one Element being predominant and having its force united through the said unequal mixture must needs make way for its effumation and afterwards break through by egressing fumes but such is the Loadstone Ergo. 2. That these fumes or effluvia do effumate through their Northerly pores the experiment it self doth confirm to us For we see that they attract Steel most at the North side besides they usually rub the cross wires of Sea-Compasses at the North side as being most effumous there Thus much for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and part of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now for the manner of its attraction and here it is disputed whether the Loadstone attracts Iron or Iron the Loadstone Hereunto I answer That neither the Loadstone doth properly attract Iron or Iron it However since Iron is moved toward the Loadstone but accidentally by means of his effluvia or steames therefore the Loadstone is said to draw Iron to it 2. Iron doth improperly move it self to the Loadstone being incited to the same motion through the steames of the Loadstone entring through its pores into its substance The streams of the Loadstone are through their particular form and external shape or figure fitted to enter into the pores of Iron which are in like manner fitted to receive the streams of the Loadstone they being admitted do reserate the substance of Iron or through their specifick penetrability do free the volatil parts of that Iron from the fixt ones whence they do immediately through their fiery principle dilate and diffuse themselves towards that part of the Circumference where they feel the continual effumations of the Loadstone yet more to unite them which reeking out and being further diducted by a continuation of succeeding parts do draw the course parts along with it as being still continuatly united to them Or plainer the said fumes of the Loadstone having entered the pores of Iron do immediately loosen the spirits of the Iron which being dilated and united to the fumes of the Loadstone must needs covet a greater place the want of which causeth them both to spout out at those holes which are most patent which must necessarily be those through which the Magnetical fumes entered This sudden spouting out must cause an attraction of the Iron because the extrinsick air doth suddenly enter its pores on the opposite side for to recover a place within the Iron which it had lost without by being driven back out of its place by the prorupting fumes This sudden irruption of the air on the opposite side drives the Iron forwards to that place whence it was first repelled This you will the better understand if you compare it with our discourse set down in the Chapter of Local motion and of a Vacuum These steams of the Iron do effumate through all the pores where the vertue of the Loadstone hath touched it especially at the Center of opposition to the stone whence they breaking out in great quantity do draw the body of Iron directly towards the Loadstone But if the objected Iron be defended by being besmeared with Oil or any other greasie substance or by being dipt into water it puts by and obtuses the Fumes of Loadstone That the Loadstone doth effuse Fumes from it is further made known to us 1. Through its inequality of mixture and looseness of Substance as I hinted before 2. Either it must act that is attract at a distance or else operate through steams it cannot at a distance that being only proper to supernatural Agents and denied to all natural ones ergo the last 3. If you burn it it will cast a visible blew sulphurecus smoaky Flame 4. It is not the Iron doth primarily effuse steams towards the Loadstone because it is more compact and less exhalable Hence Scaliger might now have resolved his Doubt whether the Loadstone drew Iron or Iron it Why these Fumes do exhale most towards the North we have told you already Do not let it seem strange to you that the emanations of this stone should reserate the mixture and Temperament of Iron it being common to many other bodies although Authors are not pleased to take notice of it The fumes of Mercury do open the body of Gold The heat of the Sun opens the body of water and attracts Vapours thence Amber through its Emissives attracts Dust Paper c. But of these elsewhere Why the stone moves steel variously according to its diverse position happens through the variety and obliquity of its Pores variously and obliquely directing its steames and variously withal entring the Pores of the objected Steel V. The Reason of the second Property is because two Loadstones being alike in mixture of body and in Effumations cannot act upon one another for all actions are upon Contraries But in case the one be more concocted then the other and in some wise dissembling in their mixtures then doubtless the one will act upon the other and the more concocted will attract the less The cause of the third is that the Emanations of the Loadstone being appelled and harboured in an extraneous body as that of Steel do with more ease and in greater smoakes as I have said before exhale out of it and consequently attract Iron stronger and work with a greater Bent towards the Northern Pole Besides steel collects all the egressing steames of the stone which being concentrated in the body of the said steel and consequently received in greater quantity must prove more forcible The solution of the fourth is containned in the first The Reason of the fifth is
in Judaa and in some parts of Silesia being friable and round like to an Olive of a pale ash colour having even streaks running down its length as if they were artificially marked upon it The greater of them are called Masculine the lesser Feminine The Leopard-stone is of a long round and pyramidal figure whereof some are whitish or of an ash-colour others blackish and transparent like to Muscadine wine IV. Common stones are either porous and spongy or solid and compact The first kind comprehends a Tophe a Pumice stone and a Sponge stone The latter is divided into a Rock a Rock-stone a Flint an Emrod a Whetstone a Gravel-stone an Amianth a Chalck-stone a Talck-stone a Glass-stone a Calaminar-stone and an Ostiocolla A Tophe is a stone something harder then clothy Sand and friable like to it A Pumice stone is cavernous like to a Sponge fit to make a thing smooth with A Sponge stone is concreased in a Sponge being of a whitish colour but friable it is otherwise called a Cysteolithe A Rock is vulgarly enough known and therefore needs no description Rock stones are great stones cut out of a Rock wherewith they build houses A Flint is unknown to none An Emrod is a stone wherewith Glasiers cut Glasses into pieces A Whetstone declares it self through its name whose finer sort is called a Touchstone and serves for to try Metals upon Gravel-stones are found every where upon the sides of Rivers and upon Hils An Amianth is somewhat like to Feather alume nevertheless differing from it in aptness to take fire whereas fire will not take hold of the Amianth besides alume is of an adstringent tast the other not A Chalck-stone is whereout they burn Lime for to build houses A Talck-stone is only commended for a Cosmetick The Glassestone otherwise called Muscovy Glass is transparent like to an ordinary glass and may be cut into very thin Leaves It is of various colours viz. white yellow brown black The Calaminar stone is of a yellow colour or rather a yellow mixt with ash red or brown It is of no great hardness V. Pbysiologists do usually adscribe great vertues to most stones especially to the most precious of them possibly because they are bought at a dear Rate and therefore they ought to respond in their internal virtues to their extrinsick value But let us make a just disquisition upon their Natures The Agathe is said to be good against all Venom particularly against the Bite of a Scorpion It makes a man wise prudent and eloquent I should be loath to rely upon the vertues of an Agathe were I bit of a Scorpion or to undertake to cure a Fool with it of his Phrensie its strength whereby it should produce these effects is very ocult Venoms admitted through the pores are to be expelled with the strongest Diaphoreticks but I could never hear an Agathe commended for any such effect To the contrary it hinders the Cure of all poysons because it is obstructive unless it be exhibited in a large Dose An Asterite comforts the Brain and cures all its distempers How can it since its spirits are fixed and do never reach the Brain An Amethist represses Vapours flying up from the Stomach and hinders Drunkeness This may be true supposing they take a great Dose of it and that they do not drink above a Glass or two A Beril is good to cure a superficial wound of the eye but Tutia is much better A pale Carbuncle Chrysolite and Topaze are registred to resist venom to comfort the heart and to drive away Melancholy and Lust I suppose it will scarce work upon a Satyre A Chalcedony is good against Melancholy and makes a man merry but not comparable to a Glass of Sack A Crysoprase is thought to be good against the trembling of the heart and to conduce to the cure of a misty and dim sight To the contrary it causes a palpetation of the heart and in a small quantity it is obstructive and for the sight I alwaies apprehended a green colour as of a Beril or Emerald to be more agreeable with it A Diamond is praised for its vertue of removing the palpitation of the heart and of producing Mirth but not through any intrinsick vertue but extrinsick value especially to a poor mans eye They say that it obtundeth the attractive power of a Loadstone very probably that it doth in case it is included close within the body of a great Diamond An Emerald and an Jacinth are commended for their Alexipharmacal vertues against poyson and for curing the falling sickness A Jaspis Saphir Topaze Onyx Sarda a Sardonix for chearing the heart flopping a fluxe of bloud preserving Chastity and promoting travel A Ruby and a Turcois for clearing the sight How these kinds of Precious stones should produce these admirable effects is unknown to me First let us enquire into the truth of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of them then of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As touching the certainty of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 falsely ascribed to them I must evidence from my own experience that I have oft prescribed the chiefest of them being besides artificially prepared viz. Magist. Perl Powders composed out of Fragm of Granates Jacinths Rub. c. in extream weaknesses and have very diligently observed their Effects The Effects which I perceived to flow from these immediately after the exhibition of them were a present refocillation of the vital spirits and as it were a more vigorous motion of the Arteries but then such pulses caused by the foresaid motion were very unequal sometimes remitting other times intending in their strength Besides this alteration of motion would last in some not above an hour or two at most in others not longer then a score of Pulses or frequently not above a Pulse two or three after the taking of it In the next place let us search into their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. We gather that the heart was affected by them but how not primarily and immediately as if some volatil spirits had been united to the Arterial spirits and so communicated to the heart because the spirits of these kind of stones are so much fixed to their matter that they are in a manner inseparable although endeavoured by Chymical diligence that they are so is undoubtedly true to those that have made trial of it If the real Tincture of Coral or of Gold is so difficult if not impossible to attain unto much more of these which exceeds the other by far in fixation of bodies That the spirits of these Precious stones are so entirely fixed their not wearing though much used is a manifest Argument which if their spirits were volatil would as much befall to them as to others They are much of the Nature of Gold which although you expose to the strongest heat of fire will not yield a Minim of its weight if so then we cannot imagine that any whit of their volatil Nature should be
hold of their Iron Pins II. Before we apply our selves to the enumeration of the properties of the Loadstone let us in the first place search into its internal principles The Loadstone is as it were imperfect Iron but not so neer resembling it as Iron resembles Steel It is between a Stone and a Metal and therefore in a manner is not perfectly concocted It s material principle is a loose earth rarefied by dense fire and incrassated air being unequally mixt and tempered It s forma ultima is sometimes a compleat Metal like to Iron other times like to a hard reddish blew stone Both these have been found by many not knowing what to make of them which in all probability were concocted Loadstones That they were Loadstones is evidenced by the remaining vertues although but very weak of attracting Iron It s body being throughout porous that is loose and not very solid its intrinsick parts must of necessity partake of a certain figure as all porous bodies do although in some more in others less Iron it self as also a Lyzzard stone consists of intrinsick parts Cuspidally or Pyramidally formed that is with streaks transcurring as it were into Pyramidal points In Alume likewise we see its parts are Hexagonal in Crystal the same and so in all bodies although it is not alwaies visible however appearing in our present subject The cause you know is from the manner of exhalation proruption of the ayry and fiery parts that have left it and minutely do still leave it Between these triangular pointings we do imagine insensible cavities or pores through which those emanations do continually pass and by whose figure they are directed to their passages outward those I say are continuous and very potent III. Now we have declared enough to demonstrate most of its properties which I shall instantly enumerate They are either Mechanical Nautical Medicinal or fabulous It s Mechanical property is of attracting Iron Nautical of inclining or moving towards the North Pole and thereby of directing Mariners in steering their course of which more anon Medicinal of adstriction and strenching blood AEtius lib. 2. tetrabl cap. 25. gives us this account of its medicinal vertues The Magnete or Herculean stone hath the same vertues which a blood stone hath They say that it doth asswage the pains of the Gout in the feet and in the wrist if held in the hand This is fabulous but if applied being mixt with other ingredients in a plaster it doth really give ease in some kinds of Gouts Serapio lib. de simpl part 2. cap. 384. commends the Magnete for curing wounds befaln by a venomous weapon it is to be powdered and mixt with other Oyntments and applied to the part affected besides the Patient is for some daies to take a Dose of it internally untill the venom is purged away by stool Parey lib. 7. Chir. cap. 15 attributes a very memorable cure of a bursted belly to it Fabr. Hildan Cent. 5. Observ. Chir. 31. obs rehearses a famous cure luckily done by it by the advice of his Wife at a dead lift I suppose upon a Merchant who was tormented with a miserable pain in one of his eyes caused by a little piece of steel that was accidentally peirced into it All kind of Anonynes were applied but to no purpose at last the Loadstone was thought upon which he caused to be held near to the eye whereby it was soon drawn out The fabulous properties of this stone are of losing its attractive vertue by the apposition of a Diamond of curing wounds at a distance for which purpose it is added to Bombasts sympathetical oyntment and of preserving youth for which end they say the King of Zeylan causes his victuals to be dressed in Magnete Dishes I return to its Mechanical property about which Authors are very various some as Nicander Pliny Anton. Mercat lib. 2. de occult prop. cap. 1. Matthiol in Dios. lib. 5. cap. 105. Encel. de re Metal lib. 3. cap. 8. fabr Hildan in the late quoted observ asserting it to attract Iron at one end and to repel it at another Others affirming the contrary viz. That it attracts Iron from all parts but by several impulses as it were moving in several Figures some being direct others oblique It is true in an oblique motion the Steel at the first impulse seems to recede because of its changing its position towards the Loadstone besides this change the Steel also varies according to its diverse position towards the stone we need not confirm the truth of this by arguments the experiment it self viz. placing small pieces of filings of Steel round about the stone will gâ—ve you a further proof of it Wherefore these forementioned Authors imagining the North part of this stone to be alone properly the Loadstone accused Pliny of an errour for affirming the Theamede stone to reject Iron which they affirmed was no other but the South part of the Magnete Whether the Theamedes doth repel Iron or no I know not only thus much I know that the description of it is altogether differing from that of the Loadstone neither can I believe that Pliny being so well versed in stones should so easily mistake in this Letting this pass it is certain 1. That in the North hemisphere it doth attract Iron most at its North part and more directly at the other sides its attractive vertue upon Iron is less potent and draws more oblique 2. One Loadstone doth not draw the other unless the one be more concocted than the other and then it doth 3. That a Loadstone capped with Steel attracts more vigorously than when naked 4. That it draweth Iron stronger at some places than at others at some seasons than at others 5. That it attracts Steel more potently than Iron 6. That it doth also attract Copper although but weakly 7. That its Mechanick and nautical vertue is communicable to Iron 8. That the Magnete loseth its vertue by rust by lying open in the air by moisture by lying near to hot Spices as the Indian Mariners who transport Pepper and other Spices do testifie by fire by being touched with the juyce of Garlick or Onions That in length of time its vertue doth intirely exhale leaving only a course rusty stone behind it 9. That a Loadstone being intersected by a section almost perpendicularly incident upon the supposed axeltree of the said stone and its pieces placed one against the other so that the faces of each section may constitute a side of an acute angle terminated by a common point of their South or North Pole doth attract Iron more potently by far than otherwise IV. I should now begin to demonstrate the first effect of the Loadstone through its proper cause but before I can arrive to its solution it will be requisite for you to know what is ordinarily meant by its North part The said Part is otherwise by Authors termed the North Pole of the Loadstone because it doth look or
because steel is purified from its grosser parts which did before somewhat hinder the ingress of the Influence of the Loadstone and cohibite the Effluvia of the affected body Sixthly It attracts Copper or Brass because of the likeness of its Pores and mixture to Iron whence it doth aptly receive the Energy of the Loadstone The Reason of the Seventh may be drawn from the Third 8. The Magnete happens to lose its strength through Rust because its decoction is thereby stayed and its temperament subverted Moysture and its being exposed to the air do lessen its vertue because the latter doth so much disperse its emanations and accelerate its decoction the former dissolves its temperament Spices weaken its attraction because through their heat they disperse and discontinuate the emanating spirits the like may be said of the juyce of Garlick and Onions Mercury doth also destroy the temperament of the stone It s vertue happens at last to relinquish it through the natural course of Decoction The Reason of the Eighth is because the emanations do in that position easily joyn together slowing in like course and figure from their bodies Many more Conclusions might be deduced from the Experiments of the Loadstone whose solution may easily be stated from what hath been already proposed VI. It s Nautical Vertue is the great wonder of Nature to all Naturalists to whom the Cause is no less stupendious This Property is whereby one part of the stone moveth towards the South the other to the North. Bodintu Lib. 2. Theat Nat. proposeth an Experiment relating to this Property somewhat different to what others have observed An Iron Needle saith he being gently rubbed against that part of the Magnete where it lookt towards the North whill◠it stuck to the Rock and placed in a Balance doth place that extremity which was rubbed against the stone towards the North. The same vertue it exerciseth towards the South if the Needle be rubbed against the South part of the Loadstone Neither is the strength of the Magnete less in its Eastern and Western part although the stone cannot turn it self towards the Regions of the world yet the Iron Needle can What we have said cannot be understood unless it be experimented for if you lay a piece of the Magnete upon a Board swimming in the water and lay that side of the Magnete which looked towards the South before it was removed out of its natural Seat against the side of another Loadstone which before it was cut out lookt likewise towards the South then will the swimming stone flee to the other side of the Vessel in the water If you should turn the North part of the Magnete to the South part of the other Magnete swimming in the water the swimming part would suddenly come near and through a wonderful consent be both joyned to one another although the wood of the Vessel be between The same will also happen if you put an Iron Needle into a Glass full of water being run through a piece of a Reed and hold a piece of a Magnete in your other hand one side of the Magnete will attract the Needle the other will repel it Thus far Bodinus The last Property of attraction doth not appertain to this place the cause of which may nevertheless be made clear to you by what is foregoing The former touching its Vergency is observable if it be true but I doubt he hath not made tryal of it Besides none else do make mention of it which were it real they would not omit the Observation That which may next be disputed upon is whether the Loadstone turns to the South or North Pole of the earth or to the said Poles of the Heavens or to neither In the first place I wonder what they intend by a North and South Pole of the Earth Those that agree to Copernicus hold that they are the extream points of the Axeltree whereon the Earth doth move Others who deny Earth a motion affirm them to be those points of the Earth that are responding to the Poles of the Heavens that is which do lie perpendicularly or diametrically under the said Poles The former Opinion states the Poles of the Earth different from those of the Heavens Among the latter some have consented to believe the Poles of the Earth to be where the extremities of the Compass-Needles do diametrically point to the arctick and antarctick Poles that is where the length of the Needle is according to a right Line coincident with the imaginary axletree of the Poles of the world The onely place of coincidence is concluded to be near the tenth degree beyond the Fortunate Islands but that is false since the same coincidence is also observed in other places from whence for that reason most do continue their mensuration of the Earths Longitude But grant the Poles of the Earth be at the points forementioned why shall we apprehend the Loadstone rather to move towards the Poles of the Earth then of the Heavens What the Earth say they attracts the points of the Loadstone to her Poles An Absurdity why should not the Earth through the same principle of attraction draw other terrestrial bodies to it or what is it they intend by a principle of attraction I had thought that among the wandering Philosophers nothing but Fire and Air had been attractive Moreover did the Magnete alwaies incline towards the Poles of the Earth then it must be exempted from all deviation which it is not for in divers Meridians it hath divers respects to the Poles of the World and consequently to those of the Earth In Nova Zembla it deflects 17 degrees towards the East In Norway 16. About Neurenburgh 10. So in the Southwest Climates its deviation is no less various Wherefore after all this we must be constrained to assert the Magnete not to incline directly either to the South or North Pole of the Heavens or of the Earth although as I said before its Vergency is towards the North and South The points of the Magnets Vergency are directly tending to the Poles of the Air That is The Poles of the Loadstone are directly coincident with those of the Air. You see its Poles are primarily neither perpendicular to those of the Heavens or of the Earth Ergo its Poles do appropriate a particular situation But before I prove their seat it will not be improper to prefer the probation of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of their Poles The emanations of the Loadstone move circularly ergo they must have real Poles or immoveable points for a Body is uncapable of a circular motion in all its parts A real Axis is no less necessary It being impossible to conceive two extream immoveable points in a globous body without being fastned or continuated to other fixt points which must likewise remain void of the same circular motion and so on from one extream point to the opposite extream point That the steames of the said stone affect a
and see with his ears likewise for other Creatures to hear and see by means of their feeding p. 183 184. 6. The difference of Sounds Why the Sound of a Bell or Drum ceaseth as soon as you touch them with your singer Why an empty Glass causes a greater Sound than if filled with water p. 185 186. 7. The reasons of Concords in Musick p. 187. 8. The Causes of the variation of Sounds Why celestial bodies Rain and Hail do make but little noyse in the ayr p. 188. 9. How Sounds are reflected How intended and remitted p. 189. 10. The manner of Refraction of Sounds What an undulating Sound is p. 190. 11. How a Voice is formed p. 191 192. CHAP. XXIV Of Tasts Smels and Tangibles 1. A definition of a Tast. The difference between the Tasting and Hearing faculty The manner of a Tasts action and passion p. 193. 2. The differences of Tasts Whether Tasts are not communicable through a medium p. 194. 3. What a Smell is The manner of a Sents action and passion ib. 4. VVhether Sents be nutritive How many have been kept alive without eating or drinking How Sents revive one in a swoon The distance requisite in Sents from the faculty That the Sent of excrements smell sweet to a Dog How a Dog Sents a Bitch at a great distance The manner of a Dogs winding the Sent of a Hare That Fishes do Sent by means of their Gills or Palate p. 195 196 197. 5. The causes of a sweet Smell Why most Beasts are pleased with the Smell of a Panther What a stinking Smell is The other kinds of Sents Whether the Plague gives a Smell and whether perceptible by a man Whether it be possible to poyson one by a Perfume of Gloves or of a Letter p. 198 199. 6. What the Tact is and the manner of its sensation p. 200. 7. The differences of tangible qualities Whether Titillation be distinguisht from the ordinary tact Whether man hath the most exquisite tact ib. 8. What a tangible quality is The causes of pleasing Tangibles Why a Kiss feels pleasing to ones lips That a Dog takes delight in kissing What Pain is and its cause of Titillation Why ones proper feeling doth not tickle but anothers doth p. 201 202. The SECOND PART The Second Book CHAP. I. Of the Commerce of the Earth with the other Elements 1. The Authors purpose touching his Method in the Preceding Book and a further Explication of some terms made use of there p. 204. 2. That the Earth is the Center of the world Copernicus his Astronomy examined p. 205 to 209. 3. The Earths Division into three Regions and their particular extent p. 210. 4. What Bodies are generated in the third Region of the Earth and the manner of their Production That the Coldness of the Earth is the principal efficient of Stones and Mettals How a Stone is generated in the Kidneyes and in the Bladder A rare Instance of a Stone taken out of the Bladder The generation of a Flint Marble Jaspis Cornelian Diamond Ruby Gold Copper Iron Mercury Silver The places of Mines p. 211 to 215. 5. Of the transmutation of Mettals Whether Silver be transmutable into Gold Whether Gold may be rendered potable The Effects of the supposed Aurum potabile and what it is p. 215 216. 6. Of earthy saltish Juices The Generation of Common Salt Salt-Gemme Saltpeter Allom Salt-Armoniack and Vitriol and of their kinds p. 217 218. 7. Of earthy unctious Juices viz. Sulphur Arsenick Amber Naptha Peteroyl Asphaltos Oyl of Earth Sea-coal and Jeatstone of their kinds and vertues p. 219 220. 8. Of the mean Juices of the Earth viz. Mercury Antimony Marcasita Cobaltum Chalcitis Misy and Sory Whether any of these mean Juices are to be stated Principles of Mettals p. 221 to 224. CHAP. II. Of Stones and Earths 1. A Description of the most Precious Stones p. 224 225. 2. A Description of the less Precious Stones that are engendred within Living Creatures p. 226. 3. A Description of the less Precious Stones that are engendred without the Bodies of Living Creatures p. 227 228. 4. An Enumeration of common stones p. 229 5. A Disquisition upon the vertues of the forementioned stones An Observation on the Effects of Powders composed out of Precious stones whether the Tincture of an Emerald is so admirable in a bloudy Flux ib. 230 231 232. 6. A particular Examination of the vertues of a Bezoar stone Piedra de Puerco Pearles c. p. 233 to 237. 7. The Kinds of Earth and their Vertues p. 237 238 239 CHAP. III. Of the Loadstone 1. The various names of the Loadstone and its kinds p. 240. 2. The Physical Essence of the Loadstone p. 241. 3. An enumeration of its Properties p. 242. 4. The demonstration of the first Mechanick property of the Loadstone p. 243 244 245. 5. The demonstration of the other Mechanical properties p. 246. 6. Of its nautical property What is intended by the Poles of the Loadstone p. 247 248. 7. The division of the Loadstone into Circles p. 249. 8. An enumeration of the nautical properties of the Magnete p. 250. 9. A demonstration of the said nautical properties p. 251 252 253. 10. The cause of the deviation of the Compass Needle p. 254. 11. An Objection answered p. 255. 12. Cartesius his Doctrine examined touching the Loadstone p. 256 257 258. 13. The fabulous property of the Loadstone p 259. CHAP. IV. Of Life and living Bodies 1. What Life is p. 260 261 262. 2. The Form of Life Why Vegetables are generated no where but near to the Surface of the Earth p. 263. 3. The properties of a Vital Form p. 264 265. 4. The definition of Nutrition and the manner of it Whether food is required to be like to the dissipated parts p. 266. 5. What Accretion is and the manner of it p. 267 268. 6. The manner of the generation of a Plant. p. 269 270 271. 7. The manner of the germination of a Plant. A delineation of all the parts of a Plant p. 272 to 277. 8. What the Propagation of a Plant is and the manner of it p. 278 279. CHAP. V. Of the particular differences of Plants 1. The differences of Roots and their vertues p. 280. 2. The differences of Flowers p. 281. 3. The differences of Leaves p. 282. 4. The three cordial Vegetables p. 283. 5. The three Cephalick Vegetables ib. 6. The three Hepatick Vegetables 284. 7. The three Splenick Vegetables ib. 8. The three Pulmonick Vegetables ib. 9. The three Stomachick Vegetables ib. 10. The three Lithontropick Vegetables p. 285. 11. The three Uterin Vegetables ib. 12. The three Arthritick Vegetables ib. 12. The specificks for the parts destined for the continuation of the species p. 286. 14. The description of some rare Plants ib. 287. CHAP. VI. Of Water in order to her commerce with the other Elements 1. The etymology of water That water naturally is hard and consistent and not fluid p. 288. 2.
parallel'd to any but to themselves have affected Philosophy and preferred its worth above the esteem of all others David and Solomon the greatest of Kings extolled the Pleasure and Contentment flowing from their Contemplations above them of Glory and Honour and other secular Pleasures which they enjoyed in greater measure than any before or since Ptolomy Philadelphus King of Africa having weighed Triumphs or the Glories following Conquests and Victories which in their splendor do overtop all other kinds of Glories and are reputed among the greatest of Contentments and Joyes judged them to be more troublesom than pleasing For he had observed them to have been attendants in their highest eminence to his late Predecessors Alexander the Great and Ptolomy Lagus his Father and that their Contentments and Joyes supposed to slow thence were subject to a continual Eclipse through their immoderate aspiring to greater and through every Alarum of an Enemy and through the daily News of their revolting Subjects although but lately vanquished discomposing their Spirits Wherefore he composed himself to a peace and applied his mind to the study of Philosophy which did so much cultivate his understanding and please his thoughts that he endeavoured to procure the helps of men most Renowned far and near by an universal Invitation VI. A man naked and unpolisht doth more resemble a Brute than himself What Proprieties are there in wild Beasts but which you may find in West-Indians I mean those which are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Men-eaters They slay and devour one another the shadow of each of them is a terrour to the other nothing begetteth tameness in them unless it be the presence of a Male with a Female which the Instinct of Nature and not their Reason doth compel them unto Nothing different from these should we be were it not that Philosophy did rectifie and redintegrate our Understandings To this we owe our right Reasoning Morality and Knowledge of all Natural and Supernatural Beings and without that we are nothing else but Ignorance and Barbarism A Divine will hardly reach to Theologick Vertues unless he be first endowed with Morals Neither is he like to compass the Knowledge of God unless he first admireth him in his Creatures and natural beings Civilians those who really merit that name grow expert in composing Differences between others by regulating Contentions arising between their own Soul and Body A Physitian incurreth a suspition of being a Mountebank or Astrologick Impostor in case he be not more than ordinarily versed in Natural Philosophy and questionless will be frustrated in his Cures unless he be exactly skilful in knowing the proportion of Animal Mineral and Vegetable Natures to the Nature of man which is demonstratively treated of in Natural Philosophy To this doth the great Hippocrates in his Book of Elegance elegantly exhort his Auditors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore we ought to apply Wisdom to the Art of Physick and the Art of Physick again to Wisdom for a Physitian who is a Philosopher is like unto God CHAP. II. Of the Nature of Philosophy 1. Whether Philosophy can be defined 2. Various Definitions of Philosophy How Plato did define it The Definition of Damascen 3. The Authors Definition of it That the Essence of God is as sensibly apprehended as the Essence of his Creatures 4. What is implyed by Knowledge 5. The Subjectum circa quod or Object of Philosophy 6. The Subjectum Inhaesionis or Subject wherein Philosophy is inherent MAny perswade themselves that Philosophy doth not admit a Definition that requiring an Unity in the Definitum or thing Defined which is not inherent in the Nature of Philosophy but rather a Multiplicity wherefore it can only be described To the contrary all Beings have an Unity for Ens unum convertuntur a Being and One are identificated so that whatever hath no unity is no Being But they granting Philosophy to be a Being cannot deny it an Unity and if it hath an unity it is definible A Being may be materially manifold and yet formally one and of that nature is Philosophy Philosophy is a knowledge of Beings by their Causes which is the Modus considerandi or Ratio formalis of it to wit of Philosophy But this is one Beings as they are the Materia are many nevertheless their universal Form in Philosophy is but one which is to be known by their Causes II. The Definitions of Philosophy are variously propounded by several Authors who disagree more in terms and words than in the thing it self Others again who seeming to define the Essence of a thing rather describe it by its Properties and Effects some of which serving to illustrate its Nature I shall not think amiss to produce Among these that of Plato is most cried up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philosophy is a Meditation upon death This Meditation upon death is that which goeth under the notion of a Platonick Extasie which is nothing else but a qualification requisite in a Philosopher whereby he doth withdraw his thoughts from singular and material things applying them to universal and immaterial beings or whereby he inclineth his Reason to his Fancy and diverteth his Mind from his senses So that in this Rapture a Philosopher hath his eyes open and seeth not and may be environed with Noyse and hear not Another Definition the said Divine Philosopher recommends approaching somwhat nearer to its Essence Philosophy is a likeness to God in as much as it is possible for a man to be like to God God is a Pattern to man in his actions according to the greatest perfection of vertue and in speculation or knowledge of all natural and supernatural Beings the habitual imitation of which is the true Philosophy Damascen in his Dialect Chap. 3. states this following Definition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philosophy is the Art of Arts and the Science of Sciences and the beginning of all Arts all which amounts to this Philosophy is a comprehension of all Arts and Sciences III. Philosophy is the knowledge of all cognoscible Beings By Knowledge understand a Habit of knowing a thing by its Definition or Essence that is by its internal and external Causes namely Matter Form and Efficient By internal Cause I intend a Principle through which a Being is constituted Some beings having only a single internal Cause as God and Angels are constituted by their Forms without Matter and for that reason are nominated Immaterial Others are constituted through a double internal Principle and from an efficient Cause as all Natural Beings Some obtain a single internal Principle and one efficient Cause as Angels God only consisteth of a single internal Principle which is his Form which is that which he is Hence God declares himself I am who I am Here may be offered an Objection That God cannot be known by the same Ratio Formalis cognoscendi as Naturals are since that these are considered in a distinct manner in their Matter and Form
beings derive their rise and original from one is evident in that all beings arised from the Chaos 2. In their several kinds as in man all men took their Original from one first man Adam God proposes among the perfectest living creatures a pattern of all the rest which is man Now he being multiplied through one although not from one man it is not improbable that all other Species of living creatures multiplied through one 3. We read in the first Chap. That God did first create the moving Creatures that is one of every kind for otherwise Moses would have written that God immediately and primarily had created two of every kind In v. 20. Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creatures and fowles In v. 21. He plainly expresseth that God created every living creature that moveth that is one of every kind as I said before And in the 24th Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind not living creatures after their kind And in the 29 v. Every Herb bearing Seed not Herbs So that this is not to be doubted of You may object that in the 24th v. It is said that God created great Whales ergo more then one I deny the Consequence for Whales here denotes the plurality of Species of great Fishes to wit Porposes Dolphins Whales strictly so named c. not the plurality of Individua in every kind 4. Nature is uniform and not various in acting ergo since she created the first man single and out of him a woman it is apparent that she observed the same order and manner of creating every other perfect moving creature You may object that according to the Antecedence which I offer as a Maxime man should be created in the same manner as Beasts I Answer If you consider him only as a moving Creature having a sensitive soul he was but if as he is man that is Mens sivo Substantia spiritualis rationalis in corpus hominis vivens sensitivum a Natura infusa a Mind or a spiritual rational substance infused by God into a living and moving body then no doubt but the action is various since it is in diversa actionis specie 5. God acteth by the fewest Meanes but one is fewer or less then more ergo If then all beings are multiplied through one then this one must necessarily be the greatest I prove the Consequence You are to apprehend that man as he is an Animal is propagated in the same manner as other Animals Being then propagated through one that one must have been indued with the greatest and strongest vertue of propagation because that wasting and weakning in progress of time could not be sufficient to last out a whole race this greatest vertue must be assixed to a proportionate subject or body which must then be the greatest body for the greatest vertue cannot be contained in a less subject then the greatest body this is evident in a great flame which must be maintained in a great place 2. We may remember out of History that the nearer men lived to the first man the greater and stronger bodies they had the longer they lived the more numerous issue they had and the more generous and the less exercised in wickedness all which proceeded from a stronger vertue and a greater body If so then it is not improbale that the first man and all the first of other kinds of Animals were the greatest for the same reason Besides we read in Joshua 14. 15. That Arba in some Bibles written Adam was the greatest among the Anakims Which most Interpreters judge to be spoken of the first man Adam But possibly you may reply that if Adam was the greatest man he must have been thought to be a Giant but a Giant is monstrous wherefore Adam was not the greatest man I deny the Minor for monstrous is that which doth degenerate from the Species so that it makes a difference between that which is adjudged to be a Monster and the Species as the abundance or defect of parts or a deformation in some or all parts through which its Subject is rendered different from the Species to which it was intended but a great greater or greatest man is no more a Monster then a little less or least man because there is no difference between either in number form or figure of parts 'T is true Giants have been generally received for Monsters but then they were differing from other men in number and figure of parts as the Cyclopes a great sort of people faigned by the Poets to have had but one eye in the midst of their Forehead and to be Vulcans Journeymen employed in making weapons for Jupiter Grandeur of body if actuated by sufficiency of vigorous spirits is a perfection denoting strength of all the animal and vegetative faculties fitted for long life and propagation which therefore must not be detracted from the first of all kinds II. Hence I may then safely infer that in the Firmament the greatest part of the heterogeneous elements and a great proportion of fire were coagulated into the greatest flame which was the Sun Out of the courser part of the Sun God created another great body next to the greatest the greatest which was the Moon For as Earth Waters and Animals were defaecated by having other bodies formed out of their courser matter so it was also in the Element of fire This is most obvious in Animals whose Female was formed out of the courser part of the Male whereby it becometh more excellent and vigorous in all its actions This may be contradicted in that a Lioness is taken to be more vigorous and fierce then a Lion I Answer that this kind of sierceness and apparent vigour is in all Females but it is not lasting more a spurt and shew of vigour and fierceness then real and durable III. These two great flames did by their hourly motion produce other great ones which again propagated as it were lesser and thence little ones which were those by us now called Stars But of these more particularly hereafter IV. In the Ayr the like coagulation formed the thin Clouds consisting of a great part of Ayr incrassated through a smaller quantity of water and punctually divided by the same proportion of fire balanced and incorporated with the least measure of earth These Cloudes have their continual abode in the ayr seldom vanishing Their Colour is blewish arising from its incrassation through water and incorporation with earth for the ayr of it self is so thin that it is insufficient to unite a light or cause reflection but being reduced to a thicker consistence by the co-expansion of water with it it becomes capable of uniting reflecting and propagating a light now were there no Particle of earth affixt to this mixture the colour would be transparent lucid or Chrystalline But being somewhat obtenebrated through the density of earth is changed into a light blew or light Sky-colour V. Thus did the great
from the proportion of Crassitude or Tenuity of the body reflecting causes a greenish light and if it be more transparent the splendor appears grayish 4. When fire is intended by addition of new degrees of external fire and so moves more forcibly towards the Circumference its name may aptly be implied by a tendency to Combustion I have formerly asserted that Coction was a tendency to Generation wherefore Order and Method require from me at present that I should illustrate the Nature of Generation and Corruption both which in a strict sense are the termini ad quem and end of Coction and Putrefaction X. Generation in a large sense imports the constitution or Production of a mixt being but since that all generated beings are in a continual motion it is strictly attributed to the middle term or a term of reflection as I may call it where the exceeding quality doth augment its force afterwards insensibly and sensibly decreasing Notwithstanding a mixt body at its first production is an entire mixt body although it is not yet arrived to its full extension of parts An Infant is as much a man as a Giant or is as perfect a mixt body consisting of matter and form as the same Giant Here I fall into a doubt whether the seed of a Plant or Animal is essentially distinct from a young Sprig or Plant or a new-born Animal Is there any more difference between a Seed and its germined body then between an Infant and a man What is a man but an Infant thrust out into length breadth and depth And so what is a young Plant but its seed protruded into all dimensions We say an Infant is a man because it bears all the Figures and Shape and acts rudely the same actions which a man doth Doth not the Seed within its Pellicle bear all the marks shape figures and exerciseth the same actions rudely that a Plant doth Doth it not attract retain concoct and expel in the same manner as a Plant Is there any substance or new quality advened to it and essentially joyned to its Minims To this Opinion I find Hipp. Lib. de Diat Galen Lib. 1. de Sem. Cap. 7. Argenter Lib. de art par tit de Temper Zabarel de anim fac ult Cap. 11. Picolhomin Lib. 1. Praelect Anat. 1. Prael Jonbert Licet and many others consenting You have this Controversie discussed more at large by that painful Collector of Collections Sennert in his Hypom Phys. Authors assert strongly that nothing can be computed to the number of Efficients of generation unless it be hot where if they do not find a particular hot Efficient they accur to an universal one the Suns efficiency or other Astral Influences Pray let them answer me By what Efficient many mixt bodies as plants Bears and others are generated in the Winter in Greenland which that they are is undoubted to many but supposing them to be generated in the Summer which is colder then our coldest winter they cannot comprehend the Suns heat for an extrinsick Efficient because the cold doth by far exceed the heat in those Countries as appeares by the great Islands of Ice wherefore the efficiency is rather to be imputed to an acute cold which through its acute weight doth divide and spread the included heat into the parts I do not deny but that there is an admitted Efficient in the juyce and food which they do suck in and ingest into their bodies which here as in all other coctions stirs up and diducts the innate heat and being adunited to it strengthens and augments the same But I pass by this to what is more plain Ice and many bodies generated thereon as stones c. are mixt bodies and is it the heat of the Sun that doth effect these Ergo Cold with the other qualities are equally to be stated Efficients XI Before I take my leave of this Subject I must discuss one Controversie more whether the innate heat be not indued with a power of changing extrinsick heat being admitted within the quantity of the containing body into its own nature and to convert it into innate heat On the one side we might judge it impossible that so little heat as is contained within the Seed of a Vegetable should be sufficient to perduce a Tree to that great bigness which many are of and continue so for many years On the other side Authors do unanimously conclude that the innate heat is destitute of such a vertue and that the heat advened to it is an influent and admitted heat essentially differing from it the one being of a celestial origin the other of an elementary Arist. Lib. 2. de Gener. Animal Cap. 3. declares his Judgment upon this matter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For in the Seed of all things there is that contained which makes them to be fruitful to wit that which we call heat Neither is it fire nor any such faculty but a Spirit which is contained in the Seed and in the spumous body and the nature which in the spirit is respondent to the Element of the Stars And a little further he repeats his mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is evident that the heat in Animals is neither fire nor any thing arising from fire If then it is according to the mind of Arist. to state the innate heat to be Astral and the influent heat to be elementary there must intercede a quidditative difference between them and consequently being of so distant natures the one cannot beget the other Before I conclude it will not be amiss to enquire what they intend by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Innate heat Galen Lib. advers Ly. writes that the innate heat is a body whence most Authors make a distinction between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 caliditas heat and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hot the former importing a nude quality the latter a body This body is constituted out of a primogeneous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Moysture Celestial heat and insited Spirits according to which Fernel Lib. 4. Physiol Cap. 6. sets down this definition Innate heat calidum innatum is the primogeneous moysture perfused throughout all parts with an insited spirit and heat But why ought this mixture not rather to be denominated a primogeneous moysture from the substance then innate heat from the quality since that a substance is counted to be more noble then an Accident 2. What difference is there between an insited spirit and innate heat Certainly none a spirit consisting of heat and moysture and so doth the other Or if you make a difference between them you are like to fall into an errour for if a spirit be a compleat substance as all Philosophers do grant and that be united to another substance namely a primogeneous Moysture they must constitute a Totuns per Accidens but none will assert the innate heat to be a totuns per Accidens Ergo. 3. I find a variance among them in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 connate
water be the cause of the propagation of this continuity in sounds or of the ayr admitted within the subtil invisible pores of glasse or of both I answer of both but of the one primarily and perse of the other secundarily and per accidens First I prove it is of the thick waterish parts for a great noise as perhaps of a Gun will bend the glass of a window which glass through its continuity again communicates the same impression to the adjacent ayr In little sounds the waterish part of a glass is not moved but the ayry parts contained within it which propagate the same motion into the next adjacent parts for it is improbable the motion of every small sound should move so solid a body as that of glass unless it were the ayr contained within its subtil porosities Likewise in water it self as it is now the sound which is propagated through it or from it is not alwaies the motion of water it self but of the ayr contained within the water for it is also improbable that every slight sound should be sufficient to move the weighty body of water Besides were it not through the ayr but through the water a sound could not be propagated in so short a space The reason why the sound caused by a soft percussion of the ayr upon one end of a long Beam or of a Mast is so readily heard by another applying his ear to the other end of it is because that sound is propagated by the percussed ayr slyding down along the Surface of the said Beam or Mast not because the sound is propagated through the internal continuity of the Beam or Mast for that were impossible for the sound to reach to the other end through so thick a body in so short a time or by so gentle a percussion But were the sound made by the force of a great Hammer it is not improbable but the sound would pass through the body of it The noise of a Troop of Horse marching over a plain hard sandy ground may be heard at a far distance because the sound is continuately propagated by the ayr impelled along the Surface of the earth there being no contiguous body interposed to dead its sound or interrupt its continuation for otherwise any length of grass or quantity of corn standing in the fields between the hearers and the horses would interrupt and dead the sound The same reason may be applyed to resolve one why a sound made in the ayr by one upon the water is heard from a further distance than if made upon the land because the earth being contiguous doth somewhat dead and interrupt the propagation of a sound but the water being continuous and smooth doth rather further it because it doth slide and reflect the sound from her and so makes it greater and swifter than otherwise it would be if propagated through the ayr alone Water attenuated by the ayr makes a real sound to those that are under water because it concusses the auditory ayr V. This plussing up of ayr in a sound is distinguisht from the obtension of it by light 1. In that in obtensions the ayr moves to the body obtending whereas in plussing the ayr moves from the percutient 2. A plussing is a more course action whereas the other is much more subtil for they are both motions almost of the same kind differing only in tenuity and crassitude Whence I infer That there is no other difference between the Optick and Auditory spirits or ayr than that the Optick ayr is by far subtiller the other more course both having Membranes to qualifie their Objects Hence let us examine whether it be possible for a man to see or discern a voice or sound with his eyes or to hear a colour A man who hath all his senses well qualified if he make trial of the query will bring in his verdict for the impossibility of it Wherefore let us propose the doubt in a more probable state to wit whether a man whose Optick spirits be thick and his Membranes thin and somewhat denser is capable of perceiving and discerning a voice or sound through his sight 2. Whether a man whose Auditory spirits are very thin and Membrane more thick and transparent than ordinary be capable of perceiving colours and light I affirm it and will make it appear to you by experience and reason I have oft been told that the Constable of Castile his brother could perfectly discern sounds and voices by his eyes How this came to pass I shall easily demonstrate by considering first the disposition of his ocular Membranes and Optick spirits The Membranes of his eyes were somewhat thin and course not overmuch transparent standing deep in his head Whence this hapned I do farther explain to you He was deaf in such a degree that the greatest Thunder could not be perceived by him when his Eyes were shut This deafness arose from a total coalition of his Auditory passage and want of a Tympanum The matter of this Tympanum was converted by the plastick vertue in his formation to the constitution of the membranes of his Eyes whence the said membranes appeared deadish course and skinny in short the Tympanum of his eare was in a manner transferred to his eyes His Optick spirits must then of a necessity be thicker or less thin than ordinary for to be proportionable to that membrane for all parts of the body are informated with spirits proportionable to their consistency and in effect their modus consistentiae is caused from the modus consistentiae spirituum fixorum His eyes stood deep in his head and so thereby framed a grove wherein the sound was congregated In fine his eyes were the greater half eyes and the less half eares That all this is agreeable his other acts did testifie because his sight was imperfect he could not see at a distance Objects unless they were great and lustrous could not be perfectly discerned by him on the other side his hearing through his eyes was by far more imperfect a moderate sound he did not perceive a loud sound or voice he was alone sensible of Since then he was capable of perceiving sounds through his eyes no wonder if he learned his speech from thence for speech is nothing else but an ecchoing of a voice spoken by another and perceived by spirits disposed to receive its impression by expressing the same impression again by the tongue in the same manner as it was impressed Now his speech being very imperfect and unequal did testifie that the voices perceived by his eyes were imperfect and unequal That it is possible for an Animal to see colours with its eares is evident in a Mole whose ears not being very deep but its Tympanum somewhat transparent is thereby disposed to distinguish light from darkness and one colour from another that it perceives colours and light is granted by all which it cannot do by its eyes for it hath none ergo it must
incrassated air Arsenick comprehends three sorts 1. Is yellow and is otherwise named Auripigmentum 2. Being red is called Sandaracha 3. Is singularly named Arsenick or crystalline Arsenick being of a whitish colour Their body is constituted out of a most dense fire united to a thick air from this extreme density of fire it happens to be of that corrosive and venomous nature that it proves an immediate poyson to man because through its intense dense heat it extracts expels and suffocates his natural heat in which respect it is but little less corruptive and hot than focal fire Of these three sorts Arsenick is counted the least caustick and malignant the next Auripigmentum Amber is known by three sorts 1. There is that which is particularly called Amber 2. Is called Succinum 3. Is whitish Amber otherwise called Sperma Ceti Whether there is any black Amber is doubted Some do affirm it as having seen it A mistake certainly either they took Jeat or some other substance made out of Musk Lign Aloes Styrax and Ladanum for it Grayish Amber otherwise called Ambergreece is thought to be the purest smoothest and of the best Sent. Succinum is of two sorts viz. white and yellow Spermaceti is by many deemed to be found supernatant atop the Sea who assert it to be rather the Seed of a Whale if so then it must have been generated in their Stomacks or Throats some having found some quantity sticking in their Throats but this doth more probably argue that it was supernatant atop the Sea and devoured by the Whale But for what I know this may be a Story nevertheless it is certain it hath been gathered in the Indian and AEthiopian Seas near to the Shore where Whales have scarcely ever appeared Neither can I imagine this to be that which ancient Physitians called the Flower of Salt there being too great a difference between their Descriptions Flower of Salt is described to be reddish and liquid and to be of a detergent Nature and saltish tast whereas the other is a white furfuraceous famess being of an emollient Nature and of a fat tast and in all particulars directly contrary Ambergreece happens to be supernatant upon the Sea and some Fountaines too from being communicated by the earth in bituminous and lixivious exbalations and exalted and purified by the motion and subliming faculty of the Sea coagulated atop through the exhaling of the hotter spirits and concreased by the ambient coldness The Succinum or common Amber wanting that exaltation and sublimation is found in Germany and Italy in Mines to be of an inferiour nature It is also gathered from the Sea The Spirits of Amber are rare and subtil consisting of a thick ayry body Naphtha and Peteroyl differ from Amber in consistency and greater quantity of fire and air these being liquid and more inflammable but in all other particulars agreeing Peteroyl and Naptha having oft been found to lodge in liquid substances within the body of common Amber Naptha is gathered in great quantity about Babylon the earth there being so tempered with the peregrine Elements that it protrudes abundance of this kind of Bitumon Peteroyl is most frequently collected flowing out of Rocks Asphaltus is a hard black and splendent Bitumen like unto shining Pitch heavy and of a strong Sent. It is gathered swimming atop of Lakes in other places it is taken out of the Earth near to its Surface The Mare mortuum in Judaea affords the best and greatest quantity This is different from the others through its containing a greater proportion of Earth and greater density of Fire As Peteroyl flowes out of the Rocks so doth Oyl of Earth out of the Earth and Hils in some parts of East-India It is of a transparent Red and a strong Sent like unto Peteroyl but more pleasing The vertues of all these Bitumens excepting Arsenick are praysed for their emollient discutient comforting the Brain the Nerves and Membranes thence healing wounds by comforting the calidum innatum of the said parts when wounded and for their anodine nature thence giving ease to the Joynts in Arthritical pains all which they perform through a Subtil and Balsamick Spirit Sea-coal is called by the Latinists Carbo Petrae and Terra Ampelitis notwithstanding the latter name denotes a thing somewhat distinct from the former in that it is more bituminous and less hard The other is nothing but Earth and Sulphur concocted and conglutinated into a stonish substance and is no where ingendred but where the Earth is hollow and foecundated with store of a sulphureous Bitumen Gagates or Jeat is a Bitumen of a more concocted body and more sulphureous The Proverb speaks it to be very black It is kindled and burnes assoon as Brimstone if toucht by fire and gives a Bituminous Scent It s vertue is the same with other Bitumens VIII Besides these there are some other mean bodies generated within the Earth which are neither Metals or Saline or unctious Juyces they are not so hard nor so much concocted as Metals neither are they so loose and rare as Saline and Unctious Bodies They are particularly these Mercury Antimony Marcasita Cobaltum Chalcitis Misy and Sory The first we have treated of above The next is Marcasita otherwise Bismuthum which is a heavy hard brittle whitish body shining within with little points of Gold and Silver It s Matter is too course to generate Gold or Silver but is as it were the Dross of them both and is separated from them as a Natural Excrement which is concocted into a Body of a courser Substance Its Spirits are more dense and Earth is more in proportion Water less This hath endued the Nature of Venom because of its dense heat You are not to conceive that this is only an Excrement of Gold and Silver but that it is also a perfect body primarily generated out of the same proportion of the Elements within a proper Matrix and therefore is to be found in Mines where there is no sign of Gold or Silver It is repercutient from its earth dissolving and detergent from its dense fire if applied externally It s water is a very potent dissolvent of Gold and Silver Cobaltum otherwise called Natural Cadmia is the courser Body or Excrement of Copper It is weighty and of a black colour It s fire is extreamly dense in such a manner that it is thence rendered to be the strongest Poyson It s caustick and corroding quality penetrates so violently through the Gloves and Shoes of the Diggers that it ulcerates their hands and feet Chalcitis Misy and Sory differ from one another in courseness of Substance and are oft found to grow one atop the other Chalcitis is like Copper and brittle in consistency of courseness it is between Sory which is thinner and Misy which is somewhat thicker then it Misy is of a Brass colour glistering through its body with Sparks like Gold growing about Chalcitis like an outermost Crust or like Rust about
separated by our weak heat if Aq. Regia is too inferiour to separate their spirits from their earth much less our mild Ferment But supposing an impossibility to be possible viz. that by length of time this might be effected yet it cannot answer to the cause of so immediate an effect neither must we fly to that worn out Sanctuary of ignorance Ocoult Qualities for it is denied to these also to act at a distance But to keep you nolonger in suspence the truth of the matter is this the Heart the Brain and the Liver do alwaies sympathize with the Stomack the one through commonness of Membranes and Nerves of the sixth pair the other through the Branches of the Coeliacal Artery the last through the Mesenterical and other Branches of the Vena Portae especially in extream weaknesses This is evident Drink but a Glass of Wine and immediately your vital spirits will pulsate more vigorously your Animal motion will be rendered stronger and your Veins will swell upon it Wherefore the Stomach being much relaxed in most weaknesses and filled with Damps and Vapours and sometimes partaking of a Malignancy doth through the same Relaxation by continuation relaxe the Arteries Nerves and Veines inserted into her body whence their spirits are necessarily rendered feeble and moist Now then the Stomack being somewhat cleared of these moist evaporations doth recover a little strength which in like manner the foresaid Channels and Spirits do immediately grow sensible of which if so the case is plain to wit that the benefit which the noble parts receive doth derive from the depression of these damps through the weight of those precious Powders the same sinking to the bottom to conglomerate and contract the stomach by which contraction they expel the aforesaid Vapours Exhibite any weighty Powders as of Coral Crystal Bole Armen c. they will refocillate the Spirits and prove as suddenly cordial although ex accidenti as others of the most precious Carbuncles or Magistery of Pearl which is an undoubted sign that it is nothing else but their dense weight whereby they operate those Effects Neither must you infer hence that I assert that all weighty bodies are cordial no but only such as are densely weighty and have no noxious quality accompanying of them provided also their weight be not so excessive as to overpress the stomach By all this it appears how far Jewels may be said to be Cordial as for any other effects that are adscribed to them they are fictitious and deceitful You may Object that the Tincture or rather Magistery of Emeralds is commended for its miraculous vertue of stopping a Looseness I Answer That it is not the Emerald which is the sole cause of this Effect but its being impregnated with Spirits and volatil Salt of Urine which being very detergent and almost as adstringent as Alume do principally work that Miracle as you call it for digest its Powder with any other Menstruum and its Operation will vary Or abstract the Tinctures of any other Stone or Mineral Earth provided they partake of no noxious quality with the same Menstruum of Spir of Urin and you will assuredly find the vertue to be the same Thus much touching their Intrinsick vertue As for their External Effects they are more certain and evident 1. They do clarifie the sight through their Lustre and splendor by obtending the optick air They do cheer the visive spirits by moving them gently and as it were quavering upon them through their flashes and glisterings of Light This is very true for when you look suddenly upon a great Jewel the sparkling of it will immediately quicken your eye-spirits and as it were by consent cheer you The same effect we do plainly perceive in our selves when wecome suddenly out of a dark Room into the Sun-shiny Light wherefore I say the production of stones are ordained by God for to remain entire and to please the eye by being lookt upon and not to be broken into pieces and spoiled when they are become scarce worth a Bodel whereas before their value was of a great price Before I leave this Subject I will only insert a word touching the cause of their glistering and splendor A Carbuncle and particularly a Pyrope is alone said to shine in the dark although Sennert in his Phys. doth ignorantly deny it The cause of its actual light in the dark is an actual flame kindled within the body of the stone and there remaining Catochizated whose Light is further intended by a Reflection upon the thick waterish parts of the stone and glisters through its refraction by angles adherent to the matter and dividing the intrinsick Light The same to wit reflection and refraction is also the cause of the shining and glistering light of the other most precious stones VI. Among the less precious stones the Bezoar or as the Persians call it Pa Zahar a word compounded out of Pa against and Zahar Venom that is a stone against all kinds of Venom or Poysons But we here in these parts have a way of commending a thing far above what it is esteemed beyond Sea and Quack-like of extolling it against all putrid and malignant Feavers the Plague Small Pox Measles malignant Dysenteries and what not There are many of these Goat-Stags in Persia which are fed in Fields near a place called Stabanon two or three daies journey from Laza a great City of that Countrey These Fields protrude a great quantity of an Herb very like to Saffron or Hermodactyls whereon those Beasts do feed out of the subsidence and faeces of whose juyce remaining in the stomach the foresaid stone concreaseth which doth very miserably torment their bodies But if the same beasts seed upon other mountainous herbs this stone doth happen to dissolve and comes away from them in small pieces Now that a stone engendred out of an unwholsom and poysonous herb should work such Miracles doth by far exceed the Extent of my Belief Moreover Physitians are very conscientious in dispensing the dose of it imagining that 5 or 6 Graines must be sufficient to expel all Malignancy out of the humoral Vessels through a great sweat but I have taken a whole Scruple of it my self to try its vertues and found it only to lye heavy at my stomach and that was all Besides I have several times prescribed it to Patients in whom I never could observe the least Effect of it Supposing this stone were exalted to such faculties there is scarce one amongst a hundred is right for those Mahometical Cheats have a Trick of adulterating them and so thrusting two or three one after another down a Goats throat they soon after kill him and take the same stones out before witness who shall swear they are true ones for they saw them taken out The Tair of a Stagge doth expel sweat extreamly and may be used against poysons and all contagious Diseases Horstius commends it besides to facilitate hard Labour in Women
The German Bezoar stone is fained to excel in the same faculties that were adscribed to the Oriental Bezoars Piedra de puerco some six or seven years ago had acquired a fame through the false imposition of a knavish Jew of excelling all other stones in vertue insomuch that there was no disease but would give way to it This Jew sought all the means imaginable to set out the vertues of the said stone that so he might intice some one or other to buy it from him at a high price It fell out as the learned Dr. Bate related to me accidentally that he came to one Mr. M. N. house whose wife had some hours before taken a vomit I suppose it was a Dose of the Infus of Croc. Metal against a double intenmittent tertian The last vomit made her very sick as usually it doth The Jew imagining her to be in an Agony ready to give up the Ghost called in great haste for a glass of Wine and infused his stone in it for a moment or two then gave it to the Patient perswading her it would stay her vomiting which had then already stayed of it self for the operation begun to tend downwards and infallibly cure her of the ague She drunk it off and her vomiting staid as I told you of it self and her sickness ceased withall because the vomit had done working her Ague left her because she had discharged the continent cause of the disease by her vomiting Immediately this stone was cried up for curing a woman like to die and for taking away her Paroxisms or fits in an instant Soon after one bade him a hundred pounds for the stone but as soon again slited it when he heard the case stated by a Physitian Even so is the Vulgar through the forwardness of their belief cheated and deceived every day by every Quacks Medicine among whom some pay dear enough and oft purchase it with no less than the loss of their lives This stone is good for nothing else but for curing the yellow Jaundise and particularly against the Cholera or Cholerick passion which is very frequent amongst the East-indians who usually take the infusion of this stone to appease it Pearls are accounted for the greatest cordial in the extreamest weaknesses and to have an alexipharmacal vertue against all putrefaction Venome and the Plague and to chear the mind all this is to be apprehended no otherwise than I have described the same properties to be imputable to the most precious stones The Alectorite is thought to encrease courage raise lust and quench a great drought if a man do but carry it about him but this is fabulous A Bufonite is praised for a present Antidote against all poysons insomuch that some do assert it to change its colour when ever a venemous draught is present Casp. Bauhin doth discourse very superstitiously upon this the Bezoar and other stones and adds I doubt something more of his own than ever he tried nevertheless I should be loath to confide upon it A Chelidony is said to cure Convulsion fits in Children if only worn about their neck but it is hard to be believed The two long stones and the throat stone of a Carp cure convulsion fits the triangular stone extends its vertue against the Collick Crabs eyes are cooling drying detergent discutient break the stone of the kidneys dissolve bloud bruised within the body and are good in a Plurisie Ptysick and in the Collick Besides they are used to cleanse the Teeth A Sourite is said to be an Antidote against all poysons A Limace stone is used against the Ptysick and consumption of the Lungs Perch stones are taken to break the stone of the kidneys and to cleanse the reines externally they use them for dentifrices and the drying of wounds The Eagle stone is by some believed to further labour if tyed to the thigh and staies it if tyed to the arm Coral is cooling drying and adstringent It comforts the Heart Stomack and Liver it púrifieth the bloud and is good against all kind of malignant Feavers the Plague and Poyson it chears the mind but that is doubtful stops a Gonorrhoea Menstrua and all loosenesses it prevents Convulsion fits in Children outwardly it heals Ulcers and brings them to a Cicatrix it dries up the rheumes of the eyes Paracelsus doth madly use it for an Amulet to prevent being bewitcht or ridden by devils Lightnings Frights Convulsion fits Melancholly and Poysons Crystall is adstringent good against any looseness or abundance of flowers in women it is further commended for conducing to the abundant increase of milk it breaks the Stone and dissipates any tartarous matter whence it is used against the gout The Bloud stone is of a cooling drying and restringent nature it stops the spitting of bloud and binds the belly in a bloudy Flux or looseness externally it cures the ulcers and rheumes of the eyes it consolidates the ulcers of the Lungs The Galactite comforteth the Infant in the Mothers belly increases milk and externally cures Ulcers and Rheumes of the eyes The Marble stone is only used for building and to cut Statues out of it The Ophite internally breaks the stone of the kidneys if tyed to the body it cures the Head-ach and preserves the body from the Plague there are Cups made out of it whose liquor infused in them they say expels Venome cures all Agues and Consumptions The stone warmed and applied outwardly cures the Chollick Pleurifie Gout Stone all this is but fabulous The Lazul stone purges Meiancholly hence cures all melancholy diseases viz. a Quartan Falling-sickness Apoplexy all diseases of the Spleen It is hung about Childrens necks for to prevent fights and to strengthen their sight women wear it about them to prevent miscarriages An Armene stone is commended for the same vertues against the same diseases but is counted more efficacious The Nephritick stone breaks the stone of the kidneys if only tied to the arm this seems to be dubious The Judaean stone is said to provoke Urin instantly and to break the stone of the kidneys The Leopard stone is used for the same intent A Tophe is of little or no use in Physick A Pumoise is cooling drying and adstringent it gently mundifies Ulcers and particularly those of the eyes and perduces them to a cicatrice it serveth besides for a Dentrifice A Spunge stone is used against the stone of the kidneys and against the Kings evil A Rock stone serves only for building A Flint is the great preserver of fire it provokes urin above all other things if oft heated red hot and quenched in white Wine An Emrald is of little use in Physick except in Chymistry its tincture precipitates and fixes Mercury in a moment The Glasiers make use of it to cut Glass with it The Amianth resisteth witchcraft externally it is detergent and cures the Itch internally if dissolved with a little sugar in Aqua vitae it cures women of the Whites A
a Porringer Poole or Lake striving no longer for a Center for it enjoyes one there doth not move downwards of it self or is thence circularly reflected as water is when it is deprived from its Center wherefore that motion downwards which is in the water in a Porringer Lake or Pool is not caused intrinsecally through a bent for a center but by an extrinsick impulse of the air striving downwards for it center and meeting with thick water which it cannot easily pass it bends and forceth the stronger upon it that so it may give way But the air in a Compass box is still detained from its center especially by the intercurrent emanations of the Needle about whose extremity both air and Magnetical steames move circularly together as upon one of the Poles More than all this the air within the Box is still continuated to the whole tract of the air whereby it is assisted and furthered in its circular motion Whereas water is discontinuated from its intire body But you may instance That the Box together with the glass atop doth interrupt the continuation of the air within the Compass from its Elementary body without or if that did not certainly the whole Compass Box being thrust deep under water would and nevertheless the Needle would point South and North. I answer That a thousand glasses or boxes would scarce be sufficient to hinder the communication of the air since they are all pervious Yet I cannot but grant that the water may which if it doth it doth only diminish the strength of the Needles Vergency but doth not quite abolish it unless the air within begins to be incrassated by water entring in vapours and then its circular motion and consequently the Needles Vergency is quite lost and abolished Wherefore I conclude That the air in the Box although under water doth continue in a circular motion because of its detention from a center untill it is incrassated by water XII But before I come too near to the conclusion of this Chapter let me take the leasure to balance what Cartesius sets down upon this matter After the enumeration of the properties of the Magnete he observes that there are striated particles that are sent down from the South part of Heaven and bowed quite into another kind of shape different from those that rain down from the North whence it is that the one cannot enter into those Channels and passages which the other can He further observes that the South particles do pass directly from their seat through the midst of the earth and when passed return back again with the air that is cast about the earth because the passages through which they pass are such that they cannot return back again through the same The like is to be understood of those particles that press through the earth from the North. In the mean time as many new parts as there do alwaies come on from the South and North part of the Heavens so many there do return or fall back through the East and West parts of the Heavens or else are dispersed in their journey and lose their Figures not in passing the middle Region of the earth because there their passages are made fit for them through which they flow very swiftly without any hinderance but in returning through the air water and other bodies of the outward earth wherein they find no such passages they are moved with much more difficulty and do constantly meet with particles of the second and third Element by which they labouring to expel them are sometimes diminisht Now in case these striated particles hit against the Loadstone lying in its natural position then they find a clear passage and go through because he saith a Loadstone is pervious in the same manner as the earth is and therefore calleth the Earth also a Magnete The Poles of the Loadstone he states to be the middle points of its passages on both ends That which is the middle point between those passages that are disposed to receive the particles descending from the North part of the Heavens is the North Pole and its opposite point is the South Pole But when the striated particles that come from the Poles of the Earth hit against the passages of the Magnete lying athwart then they do by that force which they have of persevering in their motion according to right Lines impell it untill they have reduced it to its natural position and so they effect that its South Pole provided it be not detained by any external force turns towards the North Pole of the Earth and its North Pole towards the South Pole of the Earth Because those particles that tend from the North Pole of the Earth through the air to the South came first from the South part of the Heavens through the midst of the earth and the others that return to the North came from the North. Here you have the chief of the forementioned Authors fansie upon the demonstration of the properties of the Loadstone In the first place how can any one probably conceive that there are striated parts sent down from Heaven for consider the immense distance which he agrees to the interposition of thick clouds filled up with dense exhalations and the continuous depth of the air Is not the air potent enough to dissolve all bodies contained within its bowels doth it not dissolve the thick frozen clouds into snow hail and thick rain Doth it not dissolve the coagulated exhalations of the earth that are so tenacious Much more those striated parts which he himself confesses are dissipated at their return through the force of the ambient air that in so short a time passage Why should these striated particles descend more from the polar Regions of the Heavens than from the East and West parts Are not the Poles of the Heavens immoveable of the least efficacy Are not those parts of the Firmament alwaies discerned to be clearest and most freed from obscure bodies Is not the North and South air so much condensed and congealed that it is impossible for it to give passage to such subtil bodies as the pores of the Magnet do require I say impossible to subtil bodies because they need force to press through and so much the more because they are discontinuated But had our Author asserted them to rain down from the East and West parts where the air is thinnest and less nebulous and where the Coelestial bodies exercise their greatest influences it would have deserved a freer reception but then his Chimera would have been rendred monstrous and unfit to explain the reasons of the Magnetical vertues The south streaks saith he are intorted in a form different from those of the North whence had he that news what Because one Pole of the Magnete inclineth to the North and the other to the South therefore these streaks must needs be sent down from the North and South Is this a Mathematical Demonstration to conclude
holes like to a five Some are hard as some kind of Grass and Ditch Dock others harsh as wild Cowcumber leaves others tender as Celandine others feel fat as Bears-breech Purslane some are glibe and smooth as Mandrake and Bears-breech others curling as some sorts of Cabbage 2. In shape some being round and long as some sorts of Housleek Venus Navel Monywort Trefoile c. are round Nettles Coltsfoot c. are angulous or dented about their extremities The leaves of Venus Novel and of wild Teasel are hollow Grass leaves Flower-de-luce and Sword-flag are pointed Leaves vary much in their incisures some being deeper as those of Radish leaves Licebane Bucks-horn Plantain Red Poppy Vervain others more shallow as those of Nettles Hercules wound-wort is markt only with five incisures others have few or none 3. In number The Unifoil is contented with one leafe the Satyrion with two the Tulip with three Herba Paris and Tetraphylon with four Other Plants are full of leaves as Thime Asparagus others are bare Besides some come forth after the flower as the Peach-leaves Others come out before the flowers Some come forth soon others late some in one month others in another viz. Asarabacca Asparagus Chast tree leaves ground-Ivy Violet leaves Willow leaves in the month of March Common Avens Barbery leaves Colts-foot Lettuce Plantaine Scurvy-grass Sorrel petty Sorrel Saxifrage yellow Violets in April Agrimony Bears-breech Borrage Bugloss Betony Celandine Fumitory Germander Marigold Purslane Rosemary Self-heal Wormwood Southernwood in May. Camomile Succory Endive Fennil Marsh-Mallow Melilot Mercury Piony Rue Sage water-Lilly water-Germander in June Bay leaves Lavender Lovage Mallow Mugwort Marjerom Garden-Cresses Strawberry leaves Savin Thime Tansie Vervain are in their prime in July Burnet Baume Card. Bened. Elder Eyebright Mullein Oake leaves in August Angelica Butter-burre Cypress Cumfry Cinquefoile Ellicampane Ellebor Polypody Solomons seal Valerian in September Because we will not be deficient in what may appertain to Natural Philosophy we shall insert a short description of the choicest Herbs appropriating three to every principal and less principal part of the body IV. The three Cordials are 1. Baume is cordial beyond all Vegetables excelling in faintnesses and extream weaknesses particularly in fainting fits proceeding from an uterin suffocation and is a singular herb in most uterin distempers In Melancholy Convulsion fits and an Apoplexy it is admirable 2. As the foregoing Vegetable is so much commended in cold distempers of the heart so is a Pome Citron in hot diseases cherishing the heart beyond expression when beset with fiery smoaks in an ardent Feaver resisting putrefaction defending the heart from all malignancy and poyson 3. Goats Rue is a most famous Cordial Alexipharmacal resisting and expelling all poysons Pestilential Malignancies and of an unparallel vertue in sported Feavers Small-Pox Measels Convufsion fits of Children and the Worms V. The three Cephalicks are 1. Male Piony all Ages have observed to be stupendious in curing distempers of the Brain particularly the Falling-sickness in men women and children chronical head-aches melancholy of the brain frights of Children palsie Night-mare It is of a moderate sharp heat and driness and somewhat adstrictive 2. Garden Rue hath been in great esteem among the greatest of Physitians for its admirable effects upon Epileptick Apoplectick and Paralytick brains and for curing inveterate head-aches it is incomparable It is very hot and dry sharp attenuating and discutient and flourisheth in June 3. Sage we may admire for its rare properties upon all moist brains in curing Catarrhes Palsies a lost Memory dulness of the Understanding and quickning all the senses to admiration being in its prime in July VI. The Hepaticks are 1. Agrimony is the strength life and preservation of the Liver removes its obstructions engenders the purest bloud cures all Dropsies and any kind of bad habit of body it is moderately hot and dry subtil apertive detergent and subadstringent 2. Succory Nature particularly created for the Liver and indued it with the greatest vertue of preserving and comforting its sanguification opening obstructions and of curing all its distempers It is moderately cool and dry detergent and attenuating 3. Fumitory never failes of removing all obstructions of the Liver purifying the bloud from its dross and melancholy curing the Itch Scurvy and yellow Jaundise and comforting the Liver through a specifick property it is gently hot and dry detergent and attenuating VII The Spleneticks are 1. Polypody is the great specifick against all splenetick distempers as obstructions scurvies black Jaundise Hypochondriac Melancholy It is hot and dry mundifying and gently purgative 2. The Bark of the Caper shrub being dry and hot bitter attenuating and somewhat adstringent doth thence exert its most noble faculties against all splenetick distempers particularly against Hypochondriack melancholy the Scurvy and all obstructions of the Spleen 3. Spleen-wort is dignified with that name from the certainty and excellency of its effects in all the forementioned diseases of the Spleen It is moderately hot and dry aperitive and detergent and is in its prime in September VIII The Pulmonicks are 1. Coltsfoot is a most singular simple in helping expectoration thence curing all Coughs Ptisicks and all other difficulties of breathing It is gently hot and dry and somewhat sharp 2. Ellicampane is very effectual in all difficulties of Respiration Coughs and comforts the Lungs It is very hot and dry cutting sharp and detergent 3. Red Poppy is the sole cold Pulmonick whose vertue is more then admirable in a Pleurisie IX The Stomachicks are 1. Roman Wormwood was never doubted to cure weaknesses of the stomach and to cleanse it from all its slimy and tartarous dregs It is very hot and dry bitter and adstringent 2. Zeâ—doary is very hot dry and adstringent thence proves a most excellent specifick to strengthen the stomach 3. Cinamon is commended beyond all Spices for a most excellent comforter of the stomach X. The Nephriticks are 1. Saxifrage The great benefit which Nephritick Patients have received hence occasioned the imposition of its name sounding an undoubted breaker of the Stone being the quickest and most forcible diuretick of all Vegetables whence it doth much conduce in all obstructions of the Kidneys and stoppages of urine It is very hot dry and attenuating and is an April herb 2. Winter-Cherry berries are of most subtil parts in a moderate cold and dry temperament and are purposely selected by Nature for those Nephritick Patients that are of a hot temperament breaking the stone in the Kidneys most powerfully and expelling Urine with no less force They are most effectual in August 3. Marsh-Mallow is an herb of a third sort of Nephrocatharticks being moderately moist hot emollient discutient mitigating all pains of the Kidneyes and abating the sharpness of Urine Even this Vegetable is in nothing inferiour to either of the foregoing effecting the same effects through its dissolving moisture XI The Uterin specificks are 1. Dictamnus Cretius or Dittany of Candia is
with bodies discontinuating its substance doth press those heterogeneous bodies together into clouds through its vertue of moving to an union and not through its coldness for air of it self where it doth in any wise enjoy its purity is estranged from cold and is naturally rather inclined to warmth The reason why clouds are less apt to concrease where the Sun hath power is because the parts of the air there are weakned through the rarefaction and discontinuation by torrid minima's These clouds according to their mixture vary in continuation viz. some are thicker and more concreased than others which through their greater renixe are propelled from the others of a less renitency Clouds containing much earth and thence rendred dense appear black if they are much expanded according to their diduction they refract the light variously appearing red white blew c. The clouds through their gradual proportion of renitency being disrupted and sinking gradually under one another refract the light of the Sun according to their graduall situation seeming to be illuminated with several and gradual colours whose appearance is called a Rainbow viz. The lower being more thick and dense than the rest refract the light blackish that above it being less dense brownish that above this purple or greenish the other reddish yellowish c. A Rainbow is not seen by us unless we be interposed between the Sun and the Clouds reflecting and refracting that is we must stand on that side of the clouds that is irradiated In Thomas's Island the Moon doth sometimes cause a light kind of a Rainbow after a rain Touching the figure of a Rainbow it is semicircular because the air is expanded in a circular figure and moved circularly towards us Many do make a scruple whether there ever appeared any Rainbow before the Floud gathering their ground of doubting from Gen. 9. 13. I do set my Bow in the cloud and it shall be for a token of a Covenant between me and the earth Hereunto I answer That these words do not seem to make out any thing else but that God did assume the Bow for a sign rather implying that the Heavens had been disposed to the susception of Rainbows from the Creation For even then were the Heavens filled up with clouds fit for the reflection of such a light That a Morning Rainbow doth portend wet and an Evening one fair weather is vulgarly reported which nevertheless is very uncertain For the most part it either doth precede rain or follow it The reason is because the forementioned gradual declination and incrassation doth cause a rain Rain is the decidence of clouds in drops Clouds although incrassated and condensed gathered and compressed by the ambient air striving to be freed of them yet cannot be expelled and protruded all at once because their extent is too large and their circumference obtuse whence they are unfit to be protruded at once unless they were most condensed into an acute or cutting Surface Why they cannot be compressed into a less compass and a greater acuteness is because of a great quantity of air contained within them Touching their diruption into drops it is to be imputed to the external compression of the clouds squeezing the internal air into particles which as they burst out do each protrude a drop of rain Or thus Suppose the clouds at such times to be puft up with bubbles of internal air and the diruption of each bubble to send down a drop of rain Oft times with rain a great wind blows down along with it which is nothing else but the air pent within the said clouds and bursting out of them A windiness doth oft hold up the rain because it shatters and disperses the parts of the said dense clouds wherby their consistency is broken Rains are very frequent in the Autumn and the Winter because the Sun casting its rayes obliquely towards those Countries where the seasons of the year are manifestly observed doth raise a greater abundance of vapours more than it can dissolve or disperse besides a great number of clouds are sent from other places where the Sun doth through its Summer heat raise such a great quantity of vapours which meeting and being impacted upon one another and etruded cause great rains at those times of the year The Moon hath also great power in dissolving a cloud into rain for she sending down and impelling great abundance of dense weighty minims doth very much further the descent of drops Frosty minims exercise a strong vertue in stifning the air whereby it is rendred more firm to contain the clouds and hinder their precipitation besides they do also disperse the clouds through their effective crassitude Whence it is that it rains so seldom in frosty weather But as soon as the thow is begun likely the clouds meet and fall down in a rain Which if sometimes pouring down in great showers is called a Nimbus if in small drops but descending close is called an Imber The cause of this difference depends upon the density of the clouds and the proportion of air pent within them Those rainy clouds do sometimes contain a great quantity of earthy minims which meeting are through a petrisick vertue changed into stones raining down at the dissolution of the said clouds Other contents consisting of reddish or whitish exhalations drawn up from the earth may give such a red or white tincture to the clouds which when dispersed into rain may appear bloudy or milky Frog or Fish-spawns have sometimes been attracted up into the air being inclosed within vapours where within the matrix of a close cloud they have been vivified and afterwards rained down again A Nebula is a small thin cloud generated in the lower Region of the air out of thin vapours The reason why those vapours ascended no higher is because they were concreased in the lower parts of the lower Region of the air through the force of the air in the night being rendred potent through the absence of the Suns discontinuating raies A mist is the incrassation of vapours contained in the lowermost parts of the air The dew is the decidence of drops from subtil vapours concreased through the privative coldness of nocturnal air III. Snow is the decidence of clouds in flocks whose production depends upon the concrescence of drops by frosty minima's and their attenuation through aerial particles whence they are soft and do reflect the light whitish It usually falls after a degelation when the congealed clouds are somewhat loosened It dissolves or melts through deserting the frosty minima's Hail is the decidence of drops in hard small quadrangular bodies Their congelation is also occasioned through the detention of frosty minima's within the drops of water Their hardness is from a less commixture of air whence the water doth the more enjoy her own crassitude and hardness IV. Wind is a violent eruption of incrassated air pent within the clouds puffing disrupting and taring the Element of air asunder Hence when
are disposed to be moved downwards because they cannot move themselves thither but concur to that motion only by their disposition V. This disposition is nothing else but the renitency or stubbornness of the weighty mixt body discontinuating the air or fire and resisting their motion to the center-wards the intension and remission of the said renitency depends upon the greater or lesser density or crassitude whence it is also that some bodies are moved swifter downwards because they consist of a greater density sustaining a more violent impulse of the air which were they less dense would be moved slower because of a less renitency 2. Or thus the air being discontinuated by an interposed weighty mixt body doth primarily strive from all parts to a reunion by its expansive vertue especially from above because of its greater strength there as being less discontinuated and weakened by exhalations and vapours whence the greatest force descending doth also direct the impulsion downwards Wherefore a weighty body as Mercury or any other Mineral is moved much swifter downwards or according to the ordinary Ideom of speech weighs much heavier on the top of high hills than below But you shall read more in the next Chapt. VI. All light bodies being seated in a weighty Element are disposed to be moved upwards whence it is that subterraneous air is oft forced upwards by the earths compressing vertue Likewise a piece of Cork depressed under water is by the waters gravity closing underneath in the same manner as we have explained it in the 2. Part. the 1. Book Chap. 16. 2. Par. squeezed upwards without any intrinsick propensity for otherwise the same Cork being also disposed to be pressed downwards in the air must be supposed to have two internal propensities which is absurd A flame burning in the ayry Regions is forced upwards by its disposition of levity tenuity and rarity Thus The air sinding it self injured by the discontinuating flame presses upon her and strives from all sides to squeeze her away The flame being over-powered is forced to slip or slide away whether its disposition may best yield downwards it cannot tend because there it is resisted by the courser air infested with weighty peregrin Elements Ergo upwards because there it finds the way most open to give free passage to its light rarity and tenuity On the contrary a weighty body because of its density and crassitude finds the passage clearer downwards by reason it is most driven from the tenuity of the air atop but supposing the air to enjoy its center doubtless those weighty bodies would be cast forth upwards to the Circumference VII Ayry bodies that are seated in a fiery Element are moved downwards because the rarity of the fire sinking downwards for a center doth impell them also thither whose disposition being continuous and thin are the better disposed to slide away from the fire compressing them all about downwards because upwards the said bodies striving to maintain their particular Centers would be more discontinuated where the force of fire must also be strongest Whence you may observe that weighty bodies and light bodies are both moved to one terminus ad quem in the fiery regions Touching the causes of refraction and reflection you shall read them in the next Chapter Hence a great part of the first Book of the second Part will be rendred much plainer which I did forbear to illustrate further because of avoiding needless repetitions intending to treat of these by themselves viz. why water or any other weighty body being violently detained is much intended in its strength or why water is more depressing atop or when it is most remote from her Center than underneath namely because of the depression of the air adding much to the drowning of a man as we have mentioned in 12th and 16th Chapters and so many other passages CHAP. XX. Of Attraction Expulsion Projection Disruption Undulation and Recurrent Motion 1. How air is attracted by a water-spout or Siphon 2. The manner of another kind of Attraction by a sucking Leather 3. How two flat Marble stones clapt close together draw one another up 4. How a Wine-Coopers Pipe attracts Wine out of a Cask 5. How sucking with ones mouth attracts water 6. How a Sucker attracts the water 7. The manner of Attraction by Filtration 8. The manner of Electrical attraction 9. How fire and fiery bodies are said to attract 10. What Projection is and the manner of it 11. What Disruption Undulation and Recurrent motion are 1. I Thought fit to subject these remaining kinds of motion to the preceding and to treat of them in a distinct Chapter viz. Attraction Expulsion Projection Disruption Undulation and Recurrent motion I shall only insist upon some particular kinds of attraction What Attraction is the name doth explain How air is attracted by water and water properly by air hath been proposed in the foregoing Chapters Attraction is further evident 1. In a Siphon or water-spout wherewith they usually cast up water for to quench a fire Here the water is attracted by the drawing up of the Sucker not through a bending for to avoid a Vacuum but through the natural cohesion in continuancy of the air to the Sucker or aerial parts contained within the Sucker Now the air doth cohere more strongly because there is no body to discontinue it within the Siphon but is rather assisted in a continuated cohesion by the continuity of the sides of the Siphon and of the Sucker Or otherwise if the air did strive to separate how could it For suppose it should be discontinuated from the Sucker then through that discontinuation there must be some certain void space effected if so then that air which did before fill up that void space must have been withdrawn into some other place or else it must through penetration have sunk into its own substance besides the air that was expelled up vards must have penetrated into its own body by condensation or into the body of the water all which is impossible since a penetration of bodies is an annihilation But here inquiry may be made whether it is the continuated cohesion of the air with the water causes the succession of the water upon the air or whether the air which through haling up of the Sucker is expelled upwards out of the Siphon doth for to procure a place protrude the air cohering about the external sides of the Siphon downwards into the water through whose insufflation the water is propelled upwards into the Siphon I answer both waies for it is impossible that such a great weight of water should ascend so easily with so little a force as the attraction of the Sucker unless it were assisted by the strong force of the air pomped out out of a necessity and impossibility of shrinking pressing down and protruding the water upwards That this is so the external circular pressure and dent which we see about the outsides of the water about the lower end
quieter in the night than in the day Answ. Because in the day the air being fluid and continuous is agitated into waves by the Suns fiery beams whose bodies clashing together cause a small noise in the day which the night season is freed of CHAP. IV. Containing Problems touching the fire 1. Why doth water cast upon unquencht chalk or lime become boyling 2. Why doth common salt make a cracking noise when cast into the fire 3. Who were the first inventers of Gunpowder 4. VVhat are the Ingredients of Gunpowder 5. VVhence arrives all that flaming fire that followeth the kindling of Gunpowder 6. Whence is it that Gunpowder being kindled in Guns erupts with that force and violence I. VVHy doth water cast upon unquencht chalk or lime become boyling Answ. Because fire in lime is detained or imprisoned within a thick glutinous moisture which being attenuated through the thinner moisture of water is forced to suffer the igneous parts before dispersed and imprisoned to unite whence being condensed and incompassed by a thin glutinous air is changed into a hidden flame whereby the water is rendred boyling hot II. Why doth common salt make a cracking noise when cast into the fire Answ. Because the flaming fire exufflating the spirituous air of the salt within its body doth also force it to burst out the report whereof is not unlike to a cracking noise III. Who were the first inventers of Gunpowder Answ. In the first place touching the dispute whether the invention of it is to be adscribed to the Chineses or the Europeans it is very probable the Chineses were the first Authors of Gunpowder because they were found practising upon it at the same time that it was first invented in Europe Next who was the Author of it among the Europeans is uncertain but certain that he was a German whose name some would call Berthold Swarts a Monck of Friburg said to have found it out accidentally by leaving a mixture of Saltpeter and Sulphur in a Mortar covered with a stone whereinto a spark of the candle lighting by chance forced the stone up with no small report from this he was also supposed to have taken the fabrick of a Gun IV. What are the ingredients of Gunpowder Answ. Its materials are ordinarily Saltpeter Sulphur and dust of Charcoal All which being very igneous do very much intend one anothers force in blowing up a fire V. Whence arrives all that flaming fire that followeth the kindling of Gunpowder Ans. The Saltpeter which is the chiefest of the ingredients consisting of very weighty dense and waterish parts contains a great proportion of fiery minims within its body but dispersed through those weighty parts and suppressed by them these being somewhat diducted and opened through the rarefying and expanding vertue of an external actual flaming fire give occasion to the fiery minims interwoven with incrassated air to unite and through the compression of the weighty parts to be condensed whence erupting into the air doth attract other fire latent or rather is forced to it by the accurss of the ambient air and dispersed throughout the air whereby its flame is much amplified and continuated for it seemeth very improbable that so much fire should have been latent in the Gunpowder as the flame requires 2. The dilatation of the said erupting flame is also attenuated by the accurss of the air expanding the thick and course erupting flame gradually into a thinner larger flame whence it is that the flame near where the Powder was kindled appears dusky red and further off light and flashy VI. Whence is it that Gunpowder being kindled in Guns erupts with that force and violence Answ. The Powder being kindled into a flame at the Touch-hole divides or discontinuates the air more than any other body imaginable whereunto the air accurrs from all parts especially from above with the greatest velocity and force for to expell the flame which being propagated further partly by its own force partly by the intrusion of the air causeth a more violent discontinuation of air within being pent up whereunto again a greater power of air accedes from without and attenuates the flame within whereby together with the compression of the sides of the Gun and the great access of air from without the flame is violently expelled effecting a great report through its disrupting and pluffing of the air Here observe 1. How the flame is augmented within the Gun not by a vertual rarefaction as if the parts of the Gunpowder could be augmented without access of other matter from without for that would suppose either a Vacuum and a new creation of parts or a penetration and an annihilation of foregoing parts Wherefore I say it is augmented by attracting fire out of the acceding air and secondly by being attenuated and diducted into a large flame by the parts of the irrupting air 2. That it is the air entring at the touch-hole that doth expell the flame is evident 1. Because the air is shut out before by the bullet and tow 2. The touch-hole being stopt at the next instant after the Powder begins to kindle the flame is immediately suppressed and extinguisht or at least bursleth up behind Whence it doth appear that it is the air entring doth attenuate vulgarly termed rarefie and expand the flame which the advenient fire doth augment and that the said air doth expell the flame out at the muzzel 3. That the air doth make use of the weighty minims of the salt-peter in compressing and expelling the flame outwards 4. Why is a hot glass bursted by casting a drop of cold water upon it Answ. Because the fiery minims contained within its pores are condensed and violently compressed by the gravity of the water whereby they are forced to disrupt the glass Why doth a woodden Arrow being shot out of a Gun pierce deeper than an Iron one Answ. Because the woodden one gives way into it self or shrinks as it makes a hole whence being rendred lesser passeth the easier through whereas an Iron one is stubborn and is rather somewhat flatned against the body aimed at whence being rendred more obtuse and bigger at the point is hindred in penetrating Labore constantia Soli Deo triuni gloria honos in Saecula Saeculorum AMEN Errata PAge 9. line 12. dele that p. 11. l. 3. read into p. 21. l. 20. after Pellines c. must be inserted those words below beginning l. 30. I was much abused c. ending at l. 34. at breathing p. 35. l. 14. r. Fire is rough p. 44. in marg r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fundo p. 135. l. 25. r. a man couragious p. 144. l. 13. r. Medicine p. 145. l. 28. r. procatarctick p. 148. l. 4. r. it s naturall p. 167. l. 18. r. the lumina p. 170. l. 21. for are r. is p. 191. l. 26. r. Cyzicum p. 194. l. 15. r. in oyl for that is a tast mixt out of a waterish and ayry tast The rest are