I must freely 〈◊〉 that though in living creatures and especially in the bodies of the perfecter sorts of Animals I do in divers cases allow arguments drawn from final causes yet where only inanimate bodies are concern'd I do not easily suffer my self to be prevail'd upon by such Arguments Nor is there any danger that Cold and Heat whose causes are so radicated in Nature should be lost out of the World in case each parcel of matter that happens to be surrounded with bodies wherein a contrary quality is predominant were not endowed with an incomprehensible faculty of self invigoration And Nature either does not need the help of this imaginary power or oftentimes has recourse unto it to very little purpose since we see that these Qualities subsist in the world and yet de facto the bottles of Water Wine and other Liquors that are carried up and down in the Summer are regularly warmed by the Ambient Air. And in Muscovy and other cold Northern Countries Men and other Animals have oftentimes their Vital Heat destroyed by the cold that surrounds them being thereby actually frozen to death And I somewhat wonder that the followers of Aristotle should not take notice of that famous Experiment which he himself delivers where he teaches that hot water will sooner congeal then cold For if the matter of fact were true it would sufficiently manifest that the heat harboured in the water is destroyed not invigorated by the coldness of the Air that surrounds it so that Themistius must I fear on this occasion take sanctuary in my observation and to keep Aristotle from destroying his own opinion with his own Experiment had best say as I do that it is not true And though it is not to be denied that white surrounded with black or black with white becomes thereby the more conspicuous yet 't is acknowledged that there is no real increase or intension of either quality but only a comparative one in reference to our senses obtain'd by this Collation Nor does a Pumice-stone grow more dry then it was in the fire or earth by being transferred into the Air or Water and consequently environed with either of those two fluids which Themistius and his Schools teach us to be moist Elements neither will you expect to find a piece of dim glass become really more transparent though one should set it in a frame of Ebony though that wood be so opacous as to be black And whereas 't is commonly alledged as a proof of the power Nature has given Bodies of flying their contraries that drops of water falling upon a Table will gather themselves into little globes to avoid the contrary quality in the Table and keep themselves from being swallowed up by the dry wood the cause pretended has no interest in the effect but little drops of water where the gravity is not great enough to surmount the action of the ambient fluid if they meet with small dust upon a Table they do as they roul along gather it up and their surfaces being covered with it do not immediately touch the board which else they would stick to And to show you that the Globular figure which the drops of water and other Liquors sometimes acquire proceeds not from their flying of driness but either from their being every way press'd at least almost equally for in some cases also they are not exactly round by some ambient fluid of a disagreeing Nature or from some other cause differing from that the Schools would give I shall desire you to take notice that the drops of water that swim in Oyl so as to be surrounded with it will likewise be Globular and yet Oyl is a true and moistening liquor as well as water And the drops of Quicksilver though upon a Table they are more disposed then water to gather themselves into a round figure yet that they do it not as humid Bodies is evident because Quicksilver broken into drops will have most of them Globular not only in Oyl but in Water And to show you that 't is from the incongruity it has to certain bodies that its drops will not stick upon a Table nor upon some other bodies but gather themselves into little sphaeres as if they designed to touch the woodden Plain but in a Point To manifest this I say we need but take notice that though the same drops will retain the same figure on Stone or Iron yet they will readily adhere to Gold and lose their Globulousness upon it though Gold be a far drier body then Wood which as far as distillation can manifest must have in it store of humid parts of several kinds I mean both watery and unctuous But this may relish of a digression my task being only to examine the Antiperistasis of cold and heat concerning which I think I had very just cause to pronounce the vulgar conceit very unconsonant to the nature of inanimate beings For the Peripateticks talk of Cold and Heat surrounded by the opposite quality as if both of them had an understanding and foresight that in case it did not gather up its spirits and stoutly play its part against the opposite that distresses it it must infallibly perish and as if being conscious to its self of having a power of self invigoration at the presence of its Adversary it were able to encourage it self like the Heroe in the Poet that said Nunc animis opus est Aenea nunc pectore firmo which indeed is to transform Physical agents into Moral ones 12. Eleuth The validity of the Peripatetick Argument drawn from Reason considered abstractedly from Experience I shall leave Themistius to dispute out with you at more leisure And since you well know that the only Arguments I alledge to countenance Antiperistasis were built upon Experience as judging them either the best or the only good ones I long to hear what you will say to the Examples that have been produced of that which you deny 13. Carneades That Eleutherius which I have to answer to the examples that are urged either by the Schools or by you in favour of Antiperistasis consists of two parts For first I might show that as reason declares openly against the common Opinion so there are Experiments which favour mine and which may be opposed to those you have alledged for the contrary doctrine And secondly I might represent that of those examples some are false others doubtful and those that are neither of these two are insufficient or capable of being otherwise explicated without the help of your Hypothesis But for brevities sake I shall not manage these two replies apart but mention as occasion shall serve the Experiments that favour my opinion among my other answers to what you have been pleased to urge on the behalf of Aristotle 14. To begin then with that grand Experiment which I remember a late Champion for Antiperistasis makes his leading Argument to establish it and which is so generally urged on that occasion
condens'd by Cold. The III. Discourse Containing The II. Paradox Viz. Touching the Cause of the Condensation of Air and Ascent of Water by Cold in Common Weather-glasses THough I thought here to end the Praeliminary Discourse as doubting it may be thought prolix enough already yet for confirmation of what I was lately noting about the incompleteness of the Theory of Cold and because the evincement thereof may give rise to many Trials that may inrich the History of Cold I will here subjoyn a Discourse formerly written on another Occasion For though upon that Account I am fain to leave out the beginning of It as not suted to the present Occasion yet the main Body of the Discourse may be I think not improperly annex'd to what has been already said about Weather-glasses since it examines the causes of the principal Phaenomenon of them and will perhaps help to discover the incompleteness of mens Notions about Cold by showing that the true cause ev'n of the most obvious Phaenomenon of Common Weather-glasses though almost every man thinks he understands It has not yet been sufficiently inquir'd into The discourse then that first part of It as forreign to our present purpose being omitted is as follows To prosecute our Disquisition satisfactorily it will concern us to consider upon what Account the water rises in Cold Weather and falls in Hot in common Weather-glasses whose Construction being so well known that we need not spend time to set it down we may forthwith proceed to take notice That concerning the reason why in these Weather-glasses the water or other Liquor in the shank or pipe ascends with Cold and descends with Heat there are three opinions that will deserve our Consideration The first is the common opinion of the Schools and Peripateticks and indeed of the generality of learned Men of differing Sects who teach that the Cold of the External Air contracting the Air included in the Weather-glass and thereby reducing it into a narrower Room then formerly it possest the water must necessarily ascend to fill the place deserted by the retired Air lest that space should become a vacuum which Nature abhors But against this Explication we have several things to object For first I am not satisfi'd that any of the Schoolmen or Peripateticks at least of those I have met with have solidly evinc'd that Nature cannot be brought to admit a vacuum Nor do I much exspect to see that assertion well prov'd by these or by any other that forbear to make use of the Argument of the Cartesians drawn from the Nature of a Body whose very essence they place in its having extension which I say because about this Argument I neither have yet published nor do now intend to deliver my thoughts Next it seems a way of Explicating that little becomes a Naturalist to attribute to the senseless and inanimate Body of water an Aim at the good of the Universe strong enough to make it act as if it were a free Agent contrary to the tendency of its own private Nature to prevent a Vacuum that as is presum'd would be hurtful to the Universe But these Arguments we have elsewhere urg'd and therefore need not insist longer on them here Thirdly if you take a Bolthead with a large Ball and long stem and do with that and Quicksilver make the Torricellian Experiment there will be an Instrument prepar'd like a Common Weather-glass save that the stem is longer and that the Liquor is Mercury instead of Water and yet in this case we see not that the Mercury which remains pendulous in the pipe at the height of about 30. Inches offers to ascend into the cavity of the Bolthead to fill up the space whence the Air was expell'd by the Mercury and which the Quicksilver also by its subsiding deserted And the outward application of Cold Bodies to the 〈◊〉 part of the head will not perhaps Occasion the rising of the Quicksilver a ¼ of an Inch is half so much though the like degree of Cold would make the water ascend in a Vulgar Thermometer though shorter to the height of several Inches But this Argument I also on another Occasion further display and vindicare Wherefore I shall add one more taken from the Consideration of these seal'd Weather-glasses that are describ'd in this 〈◊〉 History of Cold. For in these the Air does not shrink but rather seems to be expanded when the weather grows Colder If it be said that water being contracted by the Cold the Air follows it to prevent a Vacuum I answer that those that say this should explain why whereas in Common Weather-glasses the water ascends to follow the Air in these the Air must descend to follow the water And why since to avoid a Vacuum the one in common Weather-glasses and the other in seal'd ones resists contraction Nature does not rather make the Air in Common Thermometers retain the extension they conceive due to its nature then put her self to the double Labour of suffering the Air to be preternaturally condens'd and compelling the water to ascend contrary to its nature But these Arguments I will not urge so much as this other that in our present case the above propos'd Answer will by no means salve the difficulty For if the water be really condens'd into less and the Air expanded into more space then they respectively possest before I see not how a Vacuum or a worse Inconvenience will be avoided for I demand since Glass is granted to be impervious to Air and water as indeed else Nature would not need to make water ascend contrary to its own tendency in a Common Weather-glass what becomes of the Body that was harbour'd in the space deserted by the water upon its Condensation Which Question those that do not say any thing escaped away through the Glass or that any thing was annihilated will not easily answer But this is not all for I further demand when the Air expands it self to follow the water how by that expansion of the Air a Vacuum both coacervatum as the old Epicureans spoke and interspersum is avoided For the aerial Corpuscles cannot advance into this space deserted by the water without leaving either in whole or in part the spaces they fill'd before so that by this remove an aerial Corpuscle only changes place but does not adequately fill any more place then it did before But if it be said that the same Air without any substantial Accession may adequately fill more space at one time then at another If this I say be pretended I shall not urge that it appears not why it were not more easie for Nature in common Weather-glasses as well as in seal'd ones to rarifie the Air which they reach to be so very easily rarifi'd and condens'd then to make the heavy Body of water to ascend For I may very well reply that I scarce know any Opinion in Natural Philosophy that to me seems more unintelligible and more worthy to be
confidently rejected then This harsh Hypothesis of Rarefaction Of which I should think it injurious to so judicious a Philosopher as my Lord Brouncher to indeavour here to manifest the absurdity though I had not in another place shewn it already The next Opinion we are to consider touching the cause of the ascension of Water by cold in Weather-glasses is that of Mr. 〈◊〉 who in the last Chapter of his Book de Corpore Sect. the 12. having premis'd a delineation of a common Weather-glass subjoyns this Explication In the sixth and seventh Articles of the 27. Chap. where I consider the cause of Cold I have shewn that fluid Bodies are made colder by the pressure of the Air that is to say by a constant wind that presseth them For the same cause it is that the superficies of the water is press'd at F and having no place to which it may retire from this pressure besides the Cavity of the Cylinder between H and E it is therefore necessarily forced thither by the Cold and consequently it ascendeth more or less according as the Cold is more or less increas'd And again as the Heat is more intense or the Cold more remiss the same water will be depress'd more or less by its own gravity that is to say by the cause of gravity above explicated But however the Author of this Explication to prepare us to receive it tell us that however the above mention'd Phaenomenon be certainly known to be true by experience the cause nevertheless has not yet been discover'd yet I confess I think this newly recited assertion might as well have been plac'd after his explication as just before it For first whereas he remits us to the sixth and seventh Articles of the 27. Chapter for the reference is misprinted as containing the grounds of this Explication I must profess my self far from being satisfi'd with the general Theory of Cold deliver'd in that Chapter as being partly precarious partly insufficient and partly scarce intelligible as I shall elsewhere have Occasion to shew and as for what he particularly alledges in the sixth and seventh Articles of a constant wind that presses fluid Bodies and makes them Cold besides that that is prooflesly affirm'd we shall anon have Occasion to mention an Experiment where water was not only much refrigerated but turn'd into Ice though it were seal'd up in Glass Vessels and those suspended too in other Glasses wherein some of them had Air about them and some others were totally immers'd in unfreezing Liquors so that the water that was seal'd up was sufficiently protected from being raked by the wind as Mr. Hob's conceipt of the Cause of freezing requires Secondly I see no necessity that the Cold should press up the superficies of the Water into the shank of the Weather-glass especially since 't is manifest that the Water will rise with Cold in a Weather-glass kept in a still place and free from any sensible wind Besides that it should be prov'd and not barely affirm'd that an insensible Motion deserves the name of wind and that such a one is the cause of the refrigeration of water and it should be also shewn how this wind comes to be able to raise the water and that to the height of many Inches more in one part of the superficies then in another Besides all this I say we find by Experience that Water powred into a Bolthead till it have fill'd the Ball and reach'd a good way into the Stem will upon a powerful refrigeration short of freezing which is the case of water in Weather-glasses when the Air grows colder manifestly shrink into a narrower room instead of being impell'd up higher in the Pipe And if in an ordinary Weather-glass with a long shank you apply a mixture of Ice or Snow and Salt to the Bolthead the water will readily ascend in the shank to the height of divers Inches which how it will be explain'd by Mr. Hob's Hypothesis I do not well see Thirdly I wonder he should tell us that the reason why the press'd water ascends into the shank of the Weather-glass is because it hath no other place into which it may retire from the pressure of the wind since he rejecting a Vacuum and affirming the world to be every where perfectly full should not methinks have so soon forgotten that in the very Paragraph or Section immediately preceding this himself had told us that he cannot imagine how the same place can be always full and nevertheless contain sometimes a greater sometimes a less Quantity of matter that is to say that it can be fuller then full So that I see not why the water should find more room to entertain it in the Cylindrical cavity of the Weather-glass already adequately fill'd with Air then otherwhere And in the seal'd Weather-glasses we have above been mentioning and wherein the water descends with Cold 't will be very hard for Mr. Hobs to make out the Phaenomenon according to his doctrine Besides that his Explication gives us no account of the Condensation of the Air by cold in such Weather-glasses as those wherein the water descends with Cold and rises with Heat Fourthly and lastly whereas Mr. Hobs takes notice of no other cause of the 〈◊〉 of water in Weather-glasses by Heat but it s own gravity he seems to have but slightly consider'd the matter For though in some cases the gravity of the water may suffice to depress it yet in other cases that gravity alone will by no means serve the turn but we must have recourse to the expansive Motion or spring of the Air included in the Cavity of the Glass For if you place a Thermometer with a large Ball wherein the water ascends but a little way into the shank in a window expos'd to the warm Sun you will often perceive the surface of the water in the Pipe to be a good deal lower then that of the water on the outside of the Pipe which shews that this depression proceeds not from the bare sinking of the water but from its being thrust down by the pressure of the incumbent Air since the waters own weight would make the internal water fall but to a level with the surface of the external water and not so much beneath it And for further proof you may by keeping such a Weather-glass long enough in the hot Sun bring the Air so far to expand it self as to drive the water out of the shank and break through the external water in divers conspicuous Bubbles after whose eruption the remaining Air being again refrigerated by the removal of the Weather-glass into a cooler place the loss of that part of the Air that escap'd away in Bubbles will make the water ascend higher in the shank then in the like degree of Cold it would formerly have been impell'd And thus much may suffice to shew the unsatisfactoriness of Mr. Hob's conceipt The third and last opinion we shall mention is that of some
easily be broken there and having set the viol to freez as before without finding the water to descend in the Pipe we did with a forceps break off the slender seal'd end that the outward Air might come to press upon the suspended water and by it upon the cool'd Air in the viol whereupon as we expected the water was swiftly depress'd by our estimate eight or ten Inches but not so low by a pretty deal as the surface of the water in the viol After this by rarifying the Air in the Viol and by blowing into it through the pipe the water was rais'd within about half an Inch of the Top of the Pipe whose slender end being seal'd the viol was again plac'd in snow and salt but the spring of the Air at the Top which was rarifi'd before was by refrigeration so weakned that it was unable sensibly to depress the water wherefore breaking off the Apex as before the upper Air immediately drove it down divers Inches Our last Tryal therefore was to leave in the same Pipe about 3 ½ Inches of Air rarifi'd as little as we could and placing the viol in salt and snow as before we observ'd that the Air in the Pipe did upon the refrigeration of the Air in the viol expand it self very little though the water in the Viol were in part turned into Ice but upon breaking off the slender seal'd end the outward Air presently depress'd the water above two Inches beneath the last level and by removing the Glass into a warmer room we found that the water ascended a pretty deal above an Inch higher then the same uppermost level whereby we probably concluded our Weather-glass to be stanch Thus much I find together in one place among my promiscuos collections but after this coming to have the conveniency of Glasses so shap'd as to be easily seal'd I judg'd it fit to make use of some of them to keep ev'n the most suspicious from objecting that I should also have made some Trials with Glasses which being Hermetically seal'd would be sure most accurately to hinder all immediate Intercourse betwixt the internal and external Air. And I remember that once we took a Glass like the Bolthead of a common Weather-glass save that the small End was drawn very slender for the more easie breaking of the Apex And into this Glass a convenient Quantity of water was powr'd and then the Glass being seal'd up at the sharp end and inverted the water fell down to that end and possest its due space in the Pipe Then the round end of the Glass having a mixture of snow and salt appli'd about it though the internal air must needs have been thereby much refrigerated as will be readily granted and may be gather'd from divers of the Experiments mention'd in these papers yet we observ'd not the water manifestly to rise And though an attentive Eye should in such a Trial discern some sensible intumescence in the water yet that may well enough proceed from some little expansion of the Aerial particles which we have elsewhere shewn to be usually latitant in Common water upon the diminution of the pressure of the Air above the water caused by weakning that air's spring by the Cold. But when we had to complete the Experiment broken the slender end of the Glass under water the included air becoming then contiguous to water that had obtain'd immediate Intercourse with that water whose surface was every where prest by a pillar of the External air that leaned upon it the water was by the gravity of that outward air hastily impell'd into the Cavity of the Pipe the spring of whose air was as we said weakned by the Cold to the height if I misremember not of several Inches Another sort of Trials I remember we made after the following manner We took Glass Bubbles blown with a Lamp some of about the bigness of a Nutmeg and some much greater each of these Bubbles we furnished with a very slender stem often no bigger then a Ravens Quill which was usually divers and sometimes many Inches long Into this stem a drop or two of water being convey'd might easily enough by reason of the Lightness of so little Liquor together with the slenderness of the Cavity which permitted not the included air to penetrate the water at the sides but rather impel up the intire Body of it be kept suspended and so betray very small changes and much smaller then to be taken notice of by common Weather glasses as to rarefaction and condensation in the air it lean'd upon Now when in one of these Instruments if watching when the pendulous water was somewhat near the Top of the stem we nimbly applied to the Orifice of that stem the flame of a Candle we could by that Heat almost in a moment seal it up by reason of the thinness of the Glass and the slenderness of the stem And if then we plac'd the thus seal'd Glass in a mixture of snow and salt how much soever the air within the cavity of the Ball must be in all probability refrigerated by this operation yet it would scarce sensibly and not at all considerably shrink as we gather'd from the pendulous waters remaining in the same place or its falling at most but inconsiderably lower But if then with a pair of Scissars or otherwise we dexterously broke off the seal'd end of the stem and thereby expos'd the internal refrigerated to the pressure of the external air the water immediately would be hastily thrust down sometimes divers Inches below its former station and sometimes quite into the cavity of the round end of the Glass To which we shall add that not only when these Thermometers were seald neither the usual degrees of Cold nor those of the Heat in the Ambient Air would at all considerably depress or raise the pendulous water which if the Glass were not seal'd would as we formerly noted shew it self wonderfully sensible of the mutations of the Air as to those two Qualities But we sometimes purposely tri'd that though upon the refrigeration of the sormerly rarified air in the Glass the pendulous water were descending fast enough yet if ev'n then we nimbly seal'd up the open Orifice of the stem which may easily be done in a trice the descent of the water would be presently stopt and it would stay either just in or very near the same part of the shank wherein it chanc'd to be when by sealing of the Glass it came to be fenced from the pressure of the Atmosphaere and in that place it would continue till the seal'd end were broken off For then in case the ambient air were as cool as it was when the Glass was seal'd the water would for the reason already given be further deprest according as the weakned spring of the inward rarifi'd air was more or less remote from an equality to the pressure of the ambient air Besides for further Trial we took a large
but the interspersion of such bubbles The Observations I have been mentioning I find thus set down among my Notes A piece of Ice that to the Eye look'd clear like crystal being put into the great Microscope appear'd even there free from bubbles and yet the same piece of Ice being presently remov'd and cast into common water would swim at the top and if it were forcibly duck'd would swiftly enough emerge Another piece of Ice that to the naked Eye was not so clear as the former appear'd in the same Microscope to have store of bubbles some of them appearing there no bigger then a small pins head and some of them being yet lesser and scarcely visible in the Microscope it self And here because it seems a considerable doubt and well worth the examining whether or no water when frozen into Ice grows heavier or lighter not in reference to such water as it was generated of since it is evident that upon that it will float but more absolutely speaking we judg'd it not amiss to examine this matter by an Experiment but we could not discover any difference between the weight of the same parcel of water fluid and frozen as will appear by the ninth Paragraph of the Experiment to be a little beneath recited But since that whether or no we allow any other cause together with the bubbles to the levity of Ice it seems a thing not to be doubted that its expansion and lightness is mainly if not only due to the interspersion of bubbles the generation of them seems to be one of the considerablest Phaenomena of Cold and the Investigating by what cause those cavities are produced and in case they be perfectly full what substance 't is that fills them is none of the meanest enquiries that should exercise the industry of a searcher into the Nature of Cold. 4. Mr. Hobs and some others seem to think that the expansion of water by congelation is caus'd by the Intrusion of Air which constitutes those numerous bubbles wont to be observ'd in Ice we might here demand why in case that upon freezing there must be a considerable accession of Air from without when oyl is frozen it is notwithstanding the ingress of this Air not expanded but condens'd but because these conjecturers do not allow glass to be pervious to common Air we shall at present press them with this Experiment which we have divers times made We took a glass-Egg with a long stem and filling it almost with water we seal'd it Hermetically up to exclude the pretence that some adventitious Air might get in and insinuate it self into the water and yet such an Egg being exposed to congelation the frozen water would be manifestly expanded and swell'd by numerous bubbles which oftentimes gave it a whitish opacity To which we may add that new metalline vessels being fill'd with water and carefully stopp'd the liquor would nevertheless when exposed to the Cold be thereby expanded and turned into Ice furnished with bubbles 5. If it be objected that in the Experiment of the Hermetically seal'd glass the produced bubbles might come from the Air which being seal'd up together with the water might by the expansion of that water be brought to mingle with it I answer that this is very improbable For 1. if the bubbles must cause the expansion of the water how shall the water be at first expanded to reduce the Air to a Division into bubbles Next 't is evident by the Experiments we shall ere long relate that the Air as to the Body of it retains its station above the water and preserves it self together in one parcel since it suffers a compression that oftentimes makes it break the glass that imprisons 〈◊〉 which it would not need to do in case it dispers'd it self into the Body of the water for then there would appear no cause why the Air and water should after congelation require more room then they did before 3. In this Experiment we usually begin to produce Ice and bubbles in the water contiguous to the bottom of the vessel that part being by the snow and salt first refrigerated in which case there appears no reason why the Air which is a thousand times lighter then the water should against its nature dive to the bottom of the water and if it were disposed to dive why should we not see it break through the water in bubbles as is usual in other cases where Air penetrates water 4. In metalline vessels and in Glasses quite filled with water before they are stopped there is no pretence of the diving of the Air from the top there having been none left there 5. and lastly If all the bubbles of Ice were made by and filled with true Air descending from the upper parts of the vessels and only dispersed through the water then upon the thawing of this Ice the Air would emerge and we might recover as much of real Air as would fill the space acquired by the water upon the account of its being turned into Ice which is contrary to our Experience And this Argument may also be urged against any that should pretend for I exspect not to see him prove it that though Air as numerous experiments evince cannot get out of a seal'd glass yet it may in such a case as this get into it But we find upon trials that the Cavities of these bubbles are not any thing near filled with Air if they have in them any more Air at all then that little which is wont as we have elsewhere shewn to lurk in the particles of water and other liquors And the making good of this leads us to the second Enquiry we were proposing about these bubbles namely whether or no their cavities be fill'd and fill'd with Air. 6. The full resolution of this whole Difficulty would be no easie Matter nor well to be dispatched with so much brevity as my occasions exact For it would require satisfactory Answers to more then one or two Questions since for ought I know it may lead us to the debate of those two grand Queries whether or no Nature admit a Vacuum and whether a great part of the Universe consist of a certain Ethereal matter subtile enough to pass through the pores not only of liquors but of compact bodies and even of glass it self we should also be obliged to enquire whether or no Air I mean true and permanent Air can be generated anew as well out of common water as many other liquors and whether it may be generated by Cold it self and perhaps we should be oblig'd to inquire into the Modus of this production and engage our selves in divers other difficulties whose full Prosecution besides that they would as much exceed our present leisure as Abilities seems more properly to belong to the more general part of Physicks where such kind of general Questions are fittest to be handled Wherefore we will now only consider this Particular Question whether or no the Cavities of
we found the glass fill'd to the highest mark to weigh 4374. grains when it was fill'd but to the lowest mark 4152. grains and when quite empty'd 1032. So that the water contain'd betwixt the highest and lowest mark and rais'd by the Glaciation was about a fifteenth part of the water set to freez and probably would have amounted to much more if the water had been all frozen 12. A large glass-Egg being taken with a proportionably big stem we poured water into it till it reached about an inch above the bottom of the stem and fastning a mark there we exposed it all night to freez in snow and salt which was so placed as not to reach so high as the bottom of the stem the next day about ten of the clock we found the water risen in the stem about 15. inches above the mark the whole Cylinder of water being fluid by reason of the snows not reaching to it Then upon a design to be elsewhere mentioned we seal'd up the glass by a very slender pipe that had been before purposely drawn out to a pretty distance from the body of the Cylinder that the glass might be seal'd in a trice before the flame of a Candle could sensibly rarifie the Air and after a while we broke off the Apex of this slender pipe in prosecution of our former Design Then suffering the water to swell freely within seven or eight hours it reach'd the very top of the glass a drop or two running over at the slender Orifice thereof so that in all the water ascended about 19. inches above the first mark then we tried by the flame of a candle to seal the glass but by reason of the Rarefaction of some of the water by the Heat into vapours by which some of the other water was from time to time spurted against the flame of the Candle we found it troublesome enough to seal it up the vessel being removed into a warm place till next morning and all the ice in the belly of it for the water in the stem continued fluid being thawed the water subsided not only to its first mark but a little beneath it by reason of that which was thrown out upon occasion of the sealing of the glass but when we came to invert this after the manner above mention'd into a vessel of water to see how much of the space deserted by the thaw'd Ice was fill'd with Air and how much was fill'd with a subtiler substance or empty just then a mischance frustrated our Expectation 13. An Egg about the same bigness with the former was placed to freez in beaten ice and salt and in less then a quarter of an hour it was risen near an inch above the Mark where the surface of the water was at the first and the water in the ball and the joyning of the neck was frozen into Laminae After an hour and a quarter those Laminae that before appeared in the beginning of the neck now disappear'd but the ball seem'd frozen into a white ice and the water in the neck was risen above the first mark four inches and a half There now appear'd abundance of small bubbles continually ascending through the neck which so continu'd all the time after till it was quite thaw'd and the white ice appear'd full of bubbles The Experiment being further pursu'd the water ascended higher and higher till it had reach'd about eight inches above the first mark Then the top of the pipe being with a Lamp drawn out into a very slender Cylinder for the conveniency of sealing up the glass was again put into the ice that the Air heated by the Lamp might cool upon which the water continued swelling till it began to run over at the orifice of the slender pipe which being held by in the flame of a candle was in a trice seal'd up so that the whole glass now appear'd full of water bating an inconsiderable Quantity of rarifi'd Air not amounting to the bigness of half a small Pea that remain'd contiguous to the seal'd part the Egg being brought into a warm room was kept there all night and a good part of the next morning before the ice was quite thaw'd which when it was the water was found subsided to the first mark and which being done the glass was inverted and the seal'd end immers'd a good way under water where being broken the external Air impell'd the water in the Bason into the Cavity of the pipe insomuch that when we took it out which we did as soon as we thought nomore water was impell'd up reinverting the glass we found that the admitted water reach'd seven inches above the first mark and left an inch and a half of the stem before it began to be wire-drawn besides as much of the slender part of the stem as by guess amounted to a quarter of an inch or more so that it seem'd that the Bubbles which made the water swell and appear'd in the 〈◊〉 amounted to an inch and three quarters of Air which consequently seem'd to be for the most part generated by this operation and to seven inches either of a vacuum or some 〈◊〉 substance which by its having no spring to resist the Pressure of the outward Air appear'd not to be Air We could not exactly measure the Quantity of water we had in all and the proportion of it betwixt the marks 〈◊〉 having left the glass in the window to try whether time or Cold would make the admitted water shrink which we did not find it to do the weather was so sharp that beginning as we concluded to 〈◊〉 the water in the stem the increasing ice burst out the belly of the glass into many pieces Another time 14. A seal'd glass being broken under water there was impell'd into the Cylinder ten inches and a little above a half And the mark it should have risen to was eleven inches and a quarter above the first and lowest mark Another time 15. In the same Bolthead wherein the greatest condensation of the Air was tri'd the water was by the Cold made to swell very near a foot above the mark it rested at when it began to freez then the glass being 〈◊〉 up the contain'd water was removed and suffered leisurely to thaw and upon the Dissolution of the ice the water fell back to the former mark lastly the glass being inverted the Apex was broken off under water and the water in the stem was by the outward Air pressing upon the water in the Bason with some Impetus and noise driven up into the Cavity of the glass and the glass being seasonably and warily remov'd from the Bason we found there had been impell'd up of the water in the Bason a little more then eleven inches so that there seem'd to be near ⅞ of an inch of Air generated or separated by the former operation Another time 16. In the same glass we made the water to swell about ten inches and
Estimate above deliver'd of the Expansion of water and that grand Hydrostatical Theorem demonstrated by Archimedes and Stevinus That floating Bodies will so far and but so far sink in the Liquor that supports them till the immersed part of the Body be equal to a Bulk of water weighing as much as the whole Body For Captain James in his often cited Voyage makes mention of great pieces of Ice that were twice as high as the Top-mast-head of his Ship 6. And the Hollanders in their famous Voyage to Nova Zembla mention one stupendious Hill of Ice which I therefore take notice of here not only because it has been thought the greatest that men have met with but because they deliver its Dimensions not as Captain James and Navigators are wont to do by comparison with the unknown heights of some of the Masts of their Ships but by certain and determinate Measures which in the Icy Island we are speaking of were so divided by the surface of the water that there was 16. fathome extant above it though there were but 36. beneath it which though a vast depth in it self yet 〈◊〉 but little exceed double the height And the Danish Navigator Janus Munckius imploy'd by his King to bring him an Account of Greenland mentions some floating pieces of Ice that he met with and observ'd in that Sea which though but somewhat above 40. fathome under water were extant 20. fathome that is near half as much above water whereas it seems that according to our above mention'd Computation of the Expansion of water the part under the water ought to be eight or nine times as deep as that above the water is high 7. To clear this difficulty I shall represent these three particulars First that in our Computation the Ice that sinks so deep is suppos'd to float in fresh water whereas in the Observations of the above nam'd Navigators those vast pieces of Ice floated on the Sea-water which by reason of its saltness being heavier then fresh-water Ice will not sink so deep into that as into this And that salt may hugely increase the weight of the water wherein it is dissolv'd may be clearly gather'd from the ponderousness of common Brine and from the practise of several sorts of Tradesmen who to examine the strength of their Lixiviums and other Saline Liquors are wont to try whether they will keep an Egg floating which we know common water will not do And I have also by the Resolution of some Metalline Bodies in fit Menstruums made Liquors that are yet much more ponderous then is sufficient for the support of Eggs. But yet we must be so candid as to take notice of what some Modern Geographers deliver with probability enough namely That nearer the poles the Seas are not wont to be so salt as in the temperate and the Torrid Zones and those Northern being not so salt as our Seas there is the less to be allow'd for the difference in gravity and consequently in the power to keep Ice from sinking betwixt those Seas and ours 8. But secondly this lesser saltness of the water in the Northern Seas may as to our case be recompenc'd by the greater coldness of it For though as we have formerly observed the Condensation of fresh water effected here by a degree of Cold capable to make it begin to freez is not so great as most men would imagine yet besides that I have often taken pleasure to make the same Body to sink or ascend in the same water by a much less variation 〈◊〉 Cold then that we have been mentioning it is to be consider'd that the degree of Cold to which water was brought in the Experiment deliver'd in the fourth Section to which we are now looking back was but such a degree as would make fresh water begin to freez whereas the salt Sea-water being indispos'd to congelation may by so vehement a Cold as reigns in the Winter season in those gelid Climates be far more intensly refrigerated and thereby more condens'd then common water is here by such a measure of Cold as may begin to freez small portions of it But though what we have hitherto represented may well be look'd upon as not inconsiderable to the purpose for which it has been alledg'd yet the main thing that is to remove the scruple suggested by the height of Icy hills above the water is 9. Thirdly that such Hills of Ice are not to be look'd upon as intire and solid ones but as vast piles or lumps and masses of Ice casually and rudely heap'd up and cemented by the excessive Cold freezing them together by the intervention of the water that washes them which piles of many pieces of Ice are not made without great Cavities intercepted and fill'd only with Air between the more solid Cakes or Lumps so that the weight of these stupendious pieces of Ice is not to be estimated by the bigness they appear of at a distance from the Eye but considering how much Air there is intercepted between the Icy Bodies of which they are compiled there may be a hollow structure of Ice reaching high into the Air and yet the whole Aggregate or Icy pile will press the subjacent water on which it leans no more then would as much water as were equal in Bulk only to the immers'd parts as we see in Barges loaden with Boards which though pil'd up to a great height above the water make not the vessel to sink more then a Lading that would make a far less show and oftentimes be all contain'd within the Cavity of the vessel provided it be more ponderous in specie But to enter into any further Consideration of these Hydrostatical matters would be improper in this place especially since we have elsewhere treated of them And that these floating Hills and Islands of Ice are not intire and solid pieces of it we shall otherwhere have occasion to shew out of Navigators and even in the Observation we have mentioned out of Janus Munck the Learned Relator of it Bartholinus takes notice that those vast pieces of Ice we have been mentioning that reach'd 20 fathome above water were compiled of store of Snow frozen together 10. These Considerations may serve to render some Account of those stupendiously tall pieces of ice whose extant part bears so great a proportion to the immersed part when the whole mass does really float But I confess I doubt that not only in the Examples we have alledg'd but in other eminent ones of mountains of ice if I may so call them there may be a mistake and that the height of them above the water would be far less and the depth under water far greater if the ice had water enough to swim freely For Sea-men by reason of the difficulty are not wont to measure the height of those pieces that float at liberty in the Sea And as for those that are on ground as their heights lye far more convenient
be some unheeded flaw or crack of the glass at which the Air had stollen out we drew near the vessel and attentively prying all about it to try if we could discover any ground of our suspition we found as far as the divided list and other circumstances could inform us that the Air supposing none of it to have got away was reduc'd by our Estimate into the 19. part of the space it possess'd before And this our curiosity prov'd not unseasonable for whilest we were narrowly surveying the glass to spy out some flaw in it we were quickly satisfied there had been none by a huge crack made upon the Eruption of the included Air whose spring being by so great a compression made too strong for the glass to resist it did with a great noise break the ball of the glass into many pieces throwing the unfrozen part of the water upon me and also throwing off the stem of the Egg which yet I had the good fortune to recover intire and which I yet keep by me as a rarity 10. Thus far we then proceeded in compressing the Air which being done in vessels Hermetically seal'd where no Air can get in or out seems to me a more unexceptionable way then those that have hitherto been thought of But further we could not then prosecute it for want both of convenient glasses and of ice or snow of which if we were provided and particularly of strong glasses we should little doubt of reducing the Air to a yet more considerable degree of compression 11. We may add on this occasion that we look'd upon the same way as somewhat less unpromising then others that have been hitherto us'd to try the compression of water for though hitherto neither the Experiments of Ingenious Men nor those made by our selves have fully satisfi'd us that water admits any more compression then it may suffer upon the account of the little parcels of Air that is wont to be dispersed among it yet the unsuccesfulness may perhaps for I propose it but as a mere conjecture be imputed to the porousness of the vessels wherein by the ways already practis'd the Experiment must be made whereas in this new way of ours not only the force wherewith the compress'd Air presses upon the water grows at length to be exceeding great and is appli'd not with a sudden Impetus as when a Pewter vessel is knock'd with a Hammer but by slow and regular degrees of increase but the water is kept in a vessel impervious to its subtilest parts so that it may indeed crack the glass but cannot get out at the pores as water compress'd is wont to do at those of metalline vessels The prosecution of this Experiment to bring it to any thing of Accurateness we omitted partly through forgetfulness and Avocations and sometimes for want of conveniency to try it But by the first of the lately mention'd Experiments about the condensation of Air it seems by the strong multitude of Bubbles which upon the breaking of the glass appear'd in the water that had been compress'd betwixt the Air and the 〈◊〉 that those two Bodies had very violently compress'd it and this we are the more apt to believe because that another time when we had seal'd up some Air and water in a glass-Egg and permitted the water to swell by the operation of the Cold but till it had reduc'd the Air included with it to about three quarters of the space it possest before even then I say to try whether the subjacent water were not also compress'd by the Air it urg'd we broke off the seal'd Apex of the glass and perceiv'd as we expected the water to ascend and that to the height of a quarter of an inch as we found by measure But such trials having not been as we just now acknowledg'd duly prosecuted we shall at present content our selves to have nam'd this way of attempting the compression of water without grounding any Inferences upon it Title XIII Experiments and Observations touching the sphere of Activity of Cold. 1. THe sphere of Activity of Cold or to speak plainer the space to whose extremities every way the action of a Cold body is able to reach is a thing very well worth the enquiring after but more difficult to find then at first one would imagine For to be able to assign the determinate limits within which and not beyond them a cold Body can operate several things are to be taken into consideration as first what the degree of Cold is that belongs to the assigned Body For it seems rational to conceive that if a cold Body as such have a diffusive vertue those that have greater degrees of Cold as Ice and Snow will be able to diffuse it to a greater distance as we see that a coal of Fire will cast a sensible heat much further then a piece of wood that is heated without being kindled Secondly the Medium through which the Diffusion is made may help to enlarge the Bounds or straiten the Limits of it as that medium is more or less dispos'd to receive or to transmit the Action of the cold Agent Thirdly Not only the Consistence and Texture of the Medium but its Motion or Rest may be considered in this case For in frosty and snowy weather men observe the winds that come from frozen lands to blow more cold then winds from the same Quarter would do in case there were no Ice nor Snow in their Passage Fourthly There may be made very differing Estimates of the Diffusion of Cold according to the Instrument that is imploy'd to receive and acquaint us with the Action of Cold. For a liquor or other Body may not appear cold to him that examines it with a Weather-glass whilest he shall feel it cold with his hand and as we elsewhere also note to that sensory it self as 't is variously dispos'd the same object will seem more or less cold so much may the Predisposition of the Organ impose upon the unskilful or unwary Fifthly The very bulk of a cold Body may very much inlarge or lessen its sphere of Activity as we may have occasion to shew ere long And besides there may be divers other things that may render it very difficult to ascertain any thing in this matter And therefore I shall reserve them for other opportunities and observe now in general that in such small parcels of Ice it self as in our Experiments we are wont to deal with we have found the sphere of Activity of Cold exceeding narrow not only in comparison of that of heat in fire but in comparison of the Atmosphere if I may so call it of many odorous Bodies as Musk Civet Spices Roses Wormwood Assa dulcis Assa foetida Castoreum Camphire and the like nay and even in comparison of the sphere of Activity of the more vigorous Loadstones insomuch that we have doubted whether the sense could discern a cold Body 〈◊〉 then by immediate Contact 2. And to
he inform'd me that it was their usual way to turn water and snow into ice by pouring a convenient Proportion of that liquor into a great quantity of snow and having also inquir'd 〈◊〉 ice had not the like operation he told 〈◊〉 that t was usual and he had seen it practis'd in 〈◊〉 to cement Ice to Buildings and other things and also to case over Bodies as it were with Ice by gradually throwing water upon them But I doubt whether that Effect be to be ascrib'd barely to the Contiguity of the Ice because I learn'd of him that this way of increasing ice is practis'd in very frosty weather when water thinly spread upon almost any other Body would be frozen by the vehement sharpness of the Air. 7. The Glaciations that nature unguided by Art is wont to make beginning at those parts of Bodies at which they are expos'd to the Air it usually happens that they freez from the upper towards the lower parts But how far in Earth and Water the most considerable Bodies that are subject to be frozen the frost will pierce downwards though for some hints it would afford worth the knowing is not easie to be defin'd because the deepness of the frost may be much varied by the degree of Coldness in the Air by which the Glaciation seems to be produc'd as also by the greater or 〈◊〉 Duration of the frost by the looser or closer texture of the Earth by the nature of the Juices wherewith the Earth is imbu'd and by the constitution of the subjacent and more internal parts of the Earth some of which send up either actually warm or potentially hot and resolving steams such as those that make corrosive liquors in the bowels of the Earth so that the frost will not seiz upon or at least cannot continue over Mines and I have seen good large scopes of land where vast quantities of good Lime-stone lay near the surface of the Earth on which I have been assur'd by the Inhabitants that the snow will not lye There are divers other things that may vary the depth to which the frost can penetrate into the ground I say into the ground because in most cases it will pierce deeper into the water But yet that we may not leave this part of the History of Cold altogether uncontributed to we will add some of our Notes whereby it will appear that in our Climate the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 less into the ground then many are pleas'd to think 8. The notes I find about this matter are these that follow which I 〈◊〉 unaltered because 't were tedious and not worth while to add the way we imploy'd and the cautions we us'd in making the observations but we shall rather intimate that the following trials were made in a Village about two miles from a great City I. Jan. 22. After four nights of frost that was taken notice of for very hard we went into an Orchard where the ground was level and not covered with grass and found by digging that the frost had scarce pierc'd into the ground three inches and a half And in a Garden nearer the house we found not the Earth to be frozen more then two inches beneath its surface II. Nine or ten nights successive frost froze the grasless ground in the Garden about six inches and a half or better in depth and the grasless ground in the Orchard where a wall 〈◊〉 it from the south Sun to the 〈◊〉 of about eight inches and a half or better February the 9. we digg'd in an Orchard near a wall that respects the North and found the frost to have 〈◊〉 the ground 〈◊〉 a foot and two inches at least above a foot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the eight day since it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inches and a half A slender pipe of glass about 18. inches long and seal'd at one end was thrust over night into a hole purposely made with a Spit straight down into the ground the 〈◊〉 of the water being in the same level with that of the Earth the next morning the Tube being taken out the water appear'd frozen in the whole Capacity of the Cylinder but a little more then three inches But from this stick of ice there reach'd downwards a part of a Cylinder of ice of about six inches in length the rest of the water remain'd 〈◊〉 though it were an exceeding sharp night preceded by a Constitution of the Air that had been very lasting and very bitter The Earth in the Garden where this Trial was made we guess'd to be frozen eight or ten inches deep as it was in another place about the same house But is this Tube had not been in the ground the ambient Air would have frozen it quite through 9. Another Note much of the same import we find in another place of our Collections Finding that by reason of the mildness of our Climate I was scarce to hope for any much deeper Congelation of the Earth or Water I appli'd my self to inquire of an Ingenious Man that had been at Musco whether he had observed any thing there to my present purpose as also to find in Captain James's Voyage whether that inquisitive Navigator had taken notice of any thing that might inform me how far the Cold was able to freeze the Earth or Water in the Island of Charleton where that Quality may probably be supposed to have had as large a sphere of Activity as in almost any part of the habitable world And by my Inquiries I 〈◊〉 that even in frozen Regions themselves a congealing degree of Cold pierces nothing near so deep into the Earth and Sea as one would imagine For the Traveller I spoke with told me that in a Garden in Musco where he took notice of the thing I inquir'd about he found not the ground to be frozen much above two foot deep And in Captain James's Journal the most that I find and that too where he gives an Account of the prodigiously tall ice they had in January concerning the piercing of the frost into the ground is this that The ground at tenfoot deep was frozen Whence by the way we may gather how much sharper Cold may be presum'd to have reigned in that Island then even in Russia And as for the freezing of the water He does in another place occasionally give us this memorable Account of it where He relates the manner of the breaking up the Ice in the frozen Sea that surrounds the Island we have been speaking of It is first to be noted says he that it doth not freez naturally above six foot the rest is by accident such is that Ice that you may see here six fathome thick This we had manifest proof of by our digging the Ice out of the Ship and by digging to our Anchors before the Ice broke up The rest of that account not concerning our present purpose I forbear to annex only taking notice that notwithstanding our lately mention'd Experiment of freezing water in
qualities there will be no cause to bring in a Primum Frigidum upon whose account particular Bodies must be cold since to make this or that Body so it suffices that the Sun or the Fire or some other agent whatever it were that agitated more vehemently its parts before does now either cease to agitate them or agitate them but very remisly So that till it be determin'd whether cold be a positive quality or but a privative it will be needless to contend what particular Body ought to be esteem'd the primum frigidum in the sense above specifi'd 4. Secondly Though it be taken for granted not only by the Schools but by their Adversaries the Chymists that heat and moisture driness and gravity and I know not how many other qualities must have each of them a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a principal subject to reside in upon whose account and by participation of which that Quality belongs to the other Bodies wherein it is to be met with though this be so I say yet we have elsewhere fully enough manifested that this fundamental Notion upon which much of the Doctrine of Qualities is both by Aristotelians and vulgar Chymists superstructed is but an unwarrantable conceit and therefore not sufficient for a wary Naturalist to build the Notion of a primum frigidum upon there being indeed many qualities as gravity and figure and motion and colour and sound c. of which no true and genuine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can for ought I could ever yet discover be assigned and because heat and cold are look'd upon as Diametrically opposite Qualities we may consider that it will be very hard to show that there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of heat since stones and mettals and plants and animals and very few excepted all consistent Bodies we are conversant with may by motion be brought to heat which to attribute to the participation of some portion or other of the imaginary Element of fire is not only precarious being affirm'd by many and prov'd by none but erroneous or at least needless as we have more at large declar'd in other papers 5. A third thing that induces me to question whether there be a primum frigidum is that among those Bodies that the chiefest Sects of Philosophers whether Ancient or Modern have pitch'd upon there is not any that seems clearly to deserve the title of the primum frigidum But to make this appear we must distinctly though as briefly as our design will permit consider those four several Bodies which we have at the Beginning of this Section taken notice of to stand in competition in the Opinions of Philosophers for the title of primum frigidum 6. First then Plutarch and others contend that it is the Earth but to omit other Arguments we see that the Earth is frozen not by its own cold but by its vicinity to the Air as may be argued by this viz. that the congealing cold even in the midst of Winter affects but the surface of the Earth where it borders on the Air and seldom pierces above a few feet or at most yards beneath that part wherein the Earth is exposed and immediately contiguous to the Air as may appear by what we have formerly deliver'd concerning the small depth to which frosts reach in the ground And therefore if the Earth be protected from the Air though by so cold a Body as water it may be kept unfrozen all the Winter long as may be gathered from that remarkable practise in the great Salt-marshes of the French Islands of Xaintonge where as a diligent Writer of that Countrey very well vers'd in the making of the French Salt informs us when once the season of Coagulating Salt by the heat of the Sun is quite past the Owners are careful by opening certain Sluces to overflow all the Banks and Dams that make and divide the Salt-ponds and serve for the Workmen to pass to and fro for says my Author in his own language if they left those Marshes or Salt-works uncovered the frost would make such havock amongst them that it would be necessary to make them up again every year but by means of the water they are preserv'd or kept in repair from year to year which practise I the rather mention because the hint it affords as it is considerable to our present purpose so it may on some occasions be applicable to practises useful to humane society 7. Besides the Earth being according to those we reason with the coldest heaviest and solidest of Elements it is not so probable as to excuse them from the need of proving it that those excessively cold Agents that freez the Clouds into Snow and Hail should be 〈◊〉 Exhalations carried up to the middle Region of the Air especially since it must be done by Agents either hard to be guess'd at or considerably hot And 't is not easie to give a reason why if Elementary Corpuscles steaming from the Earth have such a congealing cold where they are disunited and but interspers'd among the particles of Air the Mass of the Earth it self whence those exhalations are suppos'd to proceed should not be able also to congeal water since the Terrestrial Corpuscles being more thick set and united in a Clod of Earth then in an equal portion of the Atmosphere it seems that where the frigorifick matter is more dense the cold should be more vehement as Philosophers observe that heat is more intense in a glowing bar of Iron then an equal portion of the flame of kindled Straw 8. But not to repeat what we formerly mention'd about Colds being a Privation there is another Argument against the Earths being the primum frigidum and that is taken from the Subterraneal fires which breaking forth in many places of the Earth as in Aetna Vesuvius Hecla the Pico of Tenariffe c. seem to argue a Subterraneal fire upon whose existence not only many Chymists build great matters but even divers Philosophers have adopted it and the learned Gassendus himself seems so far to countenance it as to imploy it as one Argument of the Earths being naturally neither hot nor cold The mention of this Subterraneal fire brings into my mind some things that I have met with amongst good though not Classick Authors and amongst men that have been either diggers of or conversant in Mines not improper to be here taken notice of For though I do not now intend to declare my opinion about the Central fire either of the Chymists or Cartesians and though the Examples newly mention'd and such other seem to me but very inconsiderable in reference to the whole Earth yet 't is observable to our present purpose that there should be so much Subterraneal heat or warmth at least generally to be met with For even where there appear no manifest signs of Subterraneal fires I have known those that were wont to go to the Bottom of deep Mines complain that a very
as our Author was descending into the golden Mine at Cremnitz he found in one place the heat to increase as he descended more and more which seems not to agree with a passage we lately mention'd out of him and to exceed any he had met with in any other Mine and afterwards the overseer bringing him into a room that abounded with smaragdine Vitriol the Mineral whence this heat proceeded though the room were spacious he found there besides a sharp spirit very offensive to his throat so troublesome a heat that he was ready to faint away with sweating and very much wondered how the diggers were able to work there And elsewhere the Author himself notes that such hot Mines of Vitriol or Sulphur may be found even in the first region of the earth as he calls that which is somewhat near the surface and which he thinks 〈◊〉 to name the cold region and within a large sphere of activity make it perpetually hot But this as I was intimating I mention but as a suspicion or a conjecture and notwithstanding that the degree of heat may be much increased in these Mines by the concurrance of accidental causes in case the conjecture be admitted yet since the frequency of a sensible degree of heat in very deep places does very little favour their opinion that will allow the earth to have no other heat but what it receives from the Sun beams or by the manifest fire of burning hills as Aetna and Vesuvius And if it should be objected that this Subterraneal heat is adventitious to the Earth which is supremely cold of its own nature Gassendus might reply that 't is as likely that the coldness of it near the superficies may be adventitious too and that it appears at least as manifestly that the one proceeds from the contiguous Air as it does that the other proceeds from some included fire and if I misremember not he hath this consideration that 't is somewhat strange that Nature should have intended the Earth for its summum frigidum and yet that a great part and for ought we know the greatest should be constantly kept warm either by the Sun as under the Torrid Zone or by the Subterraneal fires But the objection mention'd against Gassendus opposes but one of the Arguments we have alledg'd against the Earths being the primum frigidum and would leave the others in their force though it did more convincingly answer that against which 't is framed then it seems to do 10. And if the Patrons of the Earths coldness to evade the Arguments I have alledged should pretend that when they affirm the Earth to be the primum frigidum they mean not the Elementary Earth but some Body that is mingled with it I shall desire to know which 't is they mean of the many other Bodies that make up the Terrestrial Globe that we may examine what right it has to that Title and in the mean time I shall conclude against them that the Earth it self has none since they grant a colder Body then it and such a one as the earth must be beholding to for the greatest degrees of coldness it chances to possess 11. But though I presume enough has been said to make it appear unlikely that the Earth should be the primum frigidum yet I must in this dissent from the learned Gassendus that he thinks the Earth not only not to be the primum frigidum but not to be naturally cold any more then hot For the insensible parts of the Earth like those of other firm Bodies being heavy and perhaps gross and either having no constant motion at all or at least a far more remiss agitation then that of our Sensories it seems to follow that the Earth must seem cold to us unless it be by the communicated heat or motion of some extrinsick Agent put into a degree of agitation that belongs not to its nature and for the like reason I think it not improbable that pure Earth should in its own Nature be colder then either pure Water or pure Air since the Earth being a consistent Body its component particles are at rest among themselves or at least mov'd with an almost infinite slowness whereas Water and Air being fluids their component particles must be in a restless and various motion and consequently be less remote from heat which is a state wherein the various agitation of the minute particles is more vehement 12. And if those that plead for the Earth had declar'd that they meant not the pure or Elementary Earth but that part of the Terrestrial Globe that is distinct from the Sea and other Waters that make it up and would have Earth in that sense not to be the primum frigidum but only the summum frigidum perhaps they might have a better plea for their Opinion then they can urge for theirs who contend for the Water or the Air especially if to countenance their Opinion this memorable observation be added which I have met with among those Navigators that have had the greatest Experience of the Frigid Zone for the Dutch that sail'd thrice to Nova 〈◊〉 and once wintered there affirm in their first voyage that the highest degrees of Cold are not to be met with in the main Sea where yet men are most expos'd to the Operations of the Air and of the Water but either upon the Land or near it That accurate Geometrician and Hydrographer Fournier tells us that in 1595. the Hollanders being intercepted by Icy Scholes in the strait of Weigats and meeting with certain Muscovites demanded of them whether those Seas were always frozen and were answered that neither the Northern Sea nor that of Tartary did ever freez and that 't was only that strait with the Sea contiguous to the shores of some Bays and Gulphs that were frozen and our judicious Author not only adds that in effect all those that sail into those parts relate That all those Lumps of Ice are such as have been loosened and severed from the Islands and the Rivers of the Samojeds and Tartars but adventures to affirm in general terms that 't is certain the main Seas never freez and that 't is but the confines and shores of some of them that are frozen 13. That the water is the primum frigidum the Opinion of Aristotle has made it to be that of the schools and of the generality of Philosophers But I can as little acquiesce in this opinion as in the former not finding it agreeable to what experience teaches us 14. For not to mention that it would be very difficult to prove that divers very cold Bodies as Gold and Silver and Crystal and several other fusible stones have in them any water at all to which their coldness may with any degree of probability be ascribed nor to urge the Arguments that some Modern contenders for the supreme coldness of the Air are wont to imploy not I say to insist on such things
I shall content my self to make use of this obvious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Cold that in Rivers Ponds and other receptacles of water the congelation begins at the Top where the liquor is expos'd to the immediate contact of the Air which sufficiently argues that the Air is colder then the Water since it is able not only sensibly to refrigerate it but to deprive it of its fluidity and congeal it into Ice whereas if the water it self were the primum frigidum either it ought to be at least as to the major part of it always congeal'd or we may justly demand a reason why when it does freez the glaciation should not begin in the middle or at the bottom as soon as at the Top if not sooner And our Arguments against the precedency of the water in point of coldness may be strengthen'd by this That frosts are wont to be hardest when the Air is very clear and freest from Aqueous vapors whereas in rainy weather wherein such vapors most abound the cold is wont to be far more remiss To which we may add what we lately deliver'd from the observation of Navigators that even in the frigid Zone the main Sea where yet the water is in the greatest mass and so most likely as well as advantag'd to disclose its nature never freezes though the Straits and Bays and Gulphs be frozen over which argues that the greatest degrees of Cold are rather to be assign'd to the Air or to the Earth then to the Water which by the practise formerly mention'd of the Masters of the French Salt Marshes appears to be when it is of a considerable depth fitter to preserve Bodies from congelation then to congeal them which instance I the rather repeat because it seems to argue that the water is not so much as dispos'd to receive any very intense degree of cold at a remote distance from the Air for though Navigators tell us of exceeding thick pieces of Ice yet as we have already elsewhere noted we are not bound to believe that the congealing cold has pierced any thing near so much as that thickness amounts to from the superficies of the Sea directly downwards for though it were no great matter if it did in comparison of that depth of the Sea which though the water be naturally cold the sharpest Air is unable to congeal yet we have elsewhere proved that those thick masses of Ice are not solid and intire pieces but rather heaps of many 〈◊〉 and other fragments of Ice which running upon one another or sliding under one another are by the congelation of the intercepted water and perchance half thaw'd snow as it were cemented together into mis-shapen and unweildy masses which conjecture agrees very well with that observation of the Ingenious Captain James which he delivers in these words It seldom rains after the middle of September but snows and that snow will not melt on the lands nor sands At low water when it snows which it doth very often the sands are all covered over with it which the half tide carries 〈◊〉 ously twice in twenty four hours into the great Bay which is the common Rendezvous of it Every low water are the sands left clear to gather more to the increase of it Thus doth it dayly gather in this manner till the latter end of Octob. and by that time hath it brought the Sea to that coldness that as it snows the snow will lye upon the water in flakes without changing its colour but with the wind is wrought together and as the Winter goes forward it begins to freez on the surface of it two or three inches or more in one night which being carried with the half tide meets with some obstacle as it soon doth and then it crumples and so runs upon it self that in few hours it will be five or six foot thick the half tide still flowing carries it so fast away that by December it is grown to an infinite multiplication of Ice Thus far this Navigator to which I shall add another passage out of one of his Countreymen Mr. Hudson famous for the Northern Discoveries that bare his name by which added to what has been elsewhere deliver'd to the same purpose we may be invited to believe that the vast Hills and Islands of Ice that are to be met with about the Straits of Weigats and elsewhere are not generated of the Sea it self It s no marvel says he that there is so much Ice in the Sea towards the Pole so many Sounds and Rivers being in the Lands of Nova Zembla and Newland to ingender it besides the coasts of Pechora Russia and Greenland with Lappia as by proof I find by my Travel in these parts 15. But for all this I think not fit as does the Ingenious Gassendus and some others to make the water indifferent as to heat and cold For as I formerly noted concerning the Earth so I must now represent touching the water that setting aside the 〈◊〉 of the Sun which is but adventitious where it does operate and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many vast portions of that Element which it 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 reach the insensible parts of water are much less agitated then those of our Sensories temperately dispos'd and consequently may in regard of us be judg'd cold For though water being a Liquor I readily allow it a various Motion of its component Corpuscles that being requisite to make a Body fluid yet such an agitation which is sufficient for fluidity may be and often is far more remiss then that of the spirits Blood and other liquors of so hot a Sanguineous animal as Man as we see that Urine though after it has been long omitted it continues a fluid Body yet its parts are far less agitated then they were when it came hot and reeking out of the Bladder 16. And upon this occasion I shall add what by inquiry I have learned that except the parts somewhat near the superficies of the water which the heat of the Sun or the warmth of the neighbouring lower Region of the Air may give some warmth to the whole Body of the Sea is very cold for being very well acquainted with one that for some time got a livelihood by going down into the Bottom of the Sea to fetch up what could be recovered out of shipwrackt vessels I purposely inquired of him what cold he felt under water and he more then once told me that though near the Top of the water the cold were very moderate yet when he was necessitated to descend a great depth he found it so great that he could not very long support it and particularly he told me that having occasion to descend about twelve or fourteen fathom deep which is nothing in comparison of the depth of many Seas to fasten ropes to the Ordinance of a great ship that was some years since cast away near the coast of one of the Northern Countries though the Engine that was let down
with him supplied him so well with Air that he was not incommodated in point of Respiration and though he felt no other inconveniencies that might disswade his tarrying longer yet the cold was so great and troublesome that he was not able to endure it above two or three hours but was constrain'd to remount to a milder as well as a higher Region I wish'd several times he had had with him a seal'd Weather-glass for ordinary Thermometers would on that occasion have been unserviceable to prevent some little doubt that might be made whether the intense Cold he felt might not be only and chiefly in reference to his Body which might be so alter'd and dispos'd by this new Briny Ambient as to make such a disturbance in the course or texture of his Blood as that which makes Aguish persons so cold at the beginning of the fit though the temperature of the Ambient Body continue the same But this is not the only person that found the Sea Exceeding cold for I remember Beguinus relates from the mouth of a Marseillian Knight that was overseer of the Coral-fishing in the Kingdom of Tunis that having upon that coast let down a young man to feel whether Coral were hard or soft as it grew in the water when this man was come about eight fathom near the Bottom of the Sea he felt it exceeding cold To which we shall add the testimony of a sober Traveller Josephus Acosta who tells us That it is a thing remarkable that in the depth of the Ocean the water cannot be made hot by the violence of the Sun as in Rivers Finally he subjoyns even as Salt-Petre though it be of the nature of Salt hath the property to cool water even so we see by experience that in some parts and havens the salt water doth refresh the which we have observed in that of Callao where they put the water or wine which they drink into the Sea in Flaggons to be refreshed whereby we may undoubtedly find that the Ocean hath this property to temper and moderate the excessive heat For this cause we feel greater heat at Land then at Sea caeteris paribus and commonly Countries lying near the Sea are cooler then those that are farther off By all these testimonies it seems to appear that both in very cold Regions and very hot the deep parts of the Sea seem to be very Cold the Sun beams being not able to penetrate the Sea to any great depth for I remember that having enquired of the Diver I lately mentioned whether he could discern the light of the Sun at any great distance from the surface of the water he answered me that he could not but as he went down deeper and deeper so he found it darker and darker and that to a degree that would scarce have been expected in so Diaphanous a Body as water is 17. But this submarine cold if I may so call it though it be great and considerable is not so intense as to intitle water to be the primum frigidum since as cold as our Divers found it at the bottom of the Sea they did not find it cold enough to freez the water there as the Air often does at the Top. 18. The next Opinion we are to consider is that of the Stoicks of old and adopted by the generality of Modern Philosophers that are not Peripateticks who assert the Air to be the primum frigidum But being ere long more particularly to treat of the Temperature of the Air we will reserve till then to examine whether it be cold of its own nature or not but in the mean time we shall here take leave to question whether it ought to be esteem'd the primum frigidum For not to mention that Aristotle and the Schools with many other learned men think the Air so far from being the coldest of the Elements that they reckon it among the hot ones because I confels their opinion is not mine not to represent the heat of the Air in the Torrid Zone nor that by the generality of Philosophers the upper Region of the Air which is believed to make incomparably the greatest part of it is always hot and the lower Region is so too in comparison of the middle though the coldness even of this is not perhaps unquestionable not to urge any of these things I say I shall in this place mention only two observations 19. The one is that which I lately recited touching the great coldness of the water in the deeper parts of the Sea for'tis not easie to show how this great cold proceeds from that of the Air whose operation seems not as may be judg'd by that little way that frosts pierce into the moist Earth to reach very far beneath the surface of the water insomuch that Captain James who had very good opportunity to try allows not in case the Ice be not made by accumulation that the Frost pierces above two yards perpendicularly downwards from the surface of the water even in the coldest habitable Regions And this will seem the more rational if we consider that in case the coldness of the Sea proceeded constantly from the Air as such the cold would be greater near the surface where 't is contiguous to the Air then in the parts remoter from it and yet the contrary may appear by the passages lately recited 20. But if it be objected that this at best can prove no more then that the Air is not the primum frigidum notwithstanding which it may be the summum frigidum For answer I must proceed to my second Argument which will perhaps evince that it is not that neither for by the same way of arguing by which those I am now dealing with endeavour to prove the Air to be the coldest Body in the World I shall endeavour to prove that it is not so For their grand and as far as I remember their only considerable Argument is drawn from Experience which shows that water begins to freez at the Top where 't is exposed to the Air but to this vulgar Experiment I oppose that of mine which I have often mentioned already to other purposes that by an application of salt and snow I can make water that would else freez at the Top begin to freez at the Bottom or at any side I please and that much sooner then the common Air even in a sharp frosty night would be able to congeal it and when in exceeding cold weather the Ambient Nocturnal Air had reduc'd a parcel of Air purposely included in a convenient glass to as great a degree of condensation as it could I have more then once by the External application of other things been able to condense it much farther which argues that 't is not the Air as such but some adventitious frigorifick Corpuscles taking that term as I do in this Treatise in a large sense that may sometimes be mingled with it which produce the notablest degrees of
cold or upon whose Account the Air produces them And if these be duly applied water will be congealed whether Air comes to touch the surface of it or no nay though Bodies which the Air can never penetrte nor congeal any of their parts be interpos'd as may appear by the Experiments formerly mention'd of freezing water included in glass bubbles and suspended in oyl of Turpentine and other uncongealed Liquors and it is worth taking notice of by them that conclude the Airs being the primum frigidum from the waters beginning to freez at the Top where 't is contiguous to the Air that it is there also where the Ice begins to thaw 21. Besides the three Opinions we have hitherto examin'd there is a fourth that justly deserves to be seriously consider'd for the learned and ingenious Gassendus is suppos'd though I doubt how truly to be the Author of it and though according to his custom he speaks warily and not so confidently of it yet in his last writings he much countenances it yet some eminently learned men as well of our own as of other Nations have resolutely enough embraced it According then to these the congelation of Liquors and the cold we meet with in the Air Water and other Bodies proceeds from the admixture of Nitrous exhalations or Corpuscles introduc'd into them And as I have a great respect for divers of these mens persons so I like very well in their opinion that they do not ascribe the supreme degree of frigefactive Virtue to the Air it self but to some adventitious thing that is mingled with it but whereas they pitch upon Nitre as the grand Universal efficient of cold I confess I cannot yet fully acquiesce in that Tenent For though I am not averse from allowing Salt-Petre to be one of those Bodies that are endued with a refrigerating power and to be copiously enough dispers'd through several portions of the Earth yet for ought I know there may be not only divers other causes of cold but divers other Bodies qualified to be Efficients of cold as well as Salt-Petre 22. And first if cold be not a positive quality but the absence of heat the removing of calorifick Agents will in many cases suffice to produce cold without the introduction of any Nitrous particles into the Body to be refrigerated But because 't is disputable whether cold be a positive quality or no we will urge this Argument no further till the Controversie be decided and till then as it will remain not improbable we propose it as no other but proceed to the next 23. In the second place I see not as yet any proof that the great cold we have formerly mention'd to be met with in the depths of that vast Body the Sea especially when it is greater elsewhere then nearer the Top where the Air may better communicate its coldness to it must be the effect of Nitrous Atoms which must certainly swarm in prodigious multitudes to be able to refrigerate every drop and sensible particle of so stupendiously vast a Body as the Ocean Besides that I remember not to have found or known it observ'd that Nitre especially in vast quantities reaches near so deep in the Earth as those parts of the Sea that are found exceeding cold And as the halituous part of Nitre is more dispos'd to fly up into the Air then dive down into the Sea so we find no great documents of its having its grosser and sensible parts abounding in the sea-Sea-water since the evaporations of that leaves not behind it Salt-petre but common Salt But these though no light considerations are not those that most weigh with me 24. For in the next place I am not satisfied with the Experiences I find alledged to prove that 't is by Nitre that the Air and the neighboring parts of the Earth and Water not to repeat the objections I lately borrowed from the Sea receive their highest degrees of Cold. For when Gassendus and others tell us that 't is Nitre resolv'd into exhalations that make the gelid Wind which refrigerates all things it touches and penetrating into the water congeals it this I say to me will seem precarious untill Gassendus or some other for him tell us what Experiments they are which he seems in one place to intimate that this new Doctrine depends on for I confess that for my part I who have perhaps had more opportunity to resolve Nitre have seen no great feats that the steams of it have done more then those of other saline Bodies in the production of cold and the spirit of Nitre which is a liquor consisting of the volatile parts of that resolved salt not only does not that I have observed appear to the touch to have considerably if at all a greater actual cold then that of divers other Liquors but seems to have a potential heat For whether or no the Exhalations of Nitre be able to congeal water into Ice I have formerly observ'd serv'd that the spirit of Nitre or Aqua fortis will dissolve Ice into water very near if not altogether as soon as the spirit of 〈◊〉 it self which inflamable Liquor is generally acknowledg'd to be in a high degree potentially hot If Gassenaus did not mean such steams of 〈◊〉 as these which I have been 〈◊〉 of it had not been amiss to have signified what other kind of Corpuscles of resolved Nitre he meant without leaving his Reader to divine it and if we may judge of other Experiments which we lately took notice that Gassendus seems to intimate by that which he sets down a little after compar'd with that he had mention'd a little before I am not likely much to be convinc'd by them but shall rather be tempted to suspect that learned man might be impos'd upon by others to write that as matter of fact which he never had tried and yet own not the having it only by report For whereas he seems to 〈◊〉 that dissolved Nitre mingling it self with water freezes it and that in Summer yet I must freely 〈◊〉 that although 〈◊〉 other Learned Moderns teach the same thing but without any mans avouching it that I know upon his own experience I who am no 〈◊〉 to Nitrous Experiments have never been able to produce or so fortunate as to see any such effect and 〈◊〉 somewhat strange to me that Chymists who make such frequent solutions of Nitre and ofrentimes with less water then is sufficient to dissolve it all so that by consequence the proportion of the Nitre to the Water must have run through almost all the possible measures of proportion should never so much as by chance as I can hear have observ'd any such matter and that which makes me thus interpret Gassendus his meaning though in one of the two passages wherein he sets down this Experiment he mentions also snow or ice to be added to the Nitre is that in the first of those two passages he ascribes the congelation to
but scarce credible that though the Cold has such strange and Tragical effects at Musco and elsewhere in Cold Countries as we have formerly mention'd especially a little after the beginning of this 18. and somewhere in the 19. Section yet this happens to the Russians and Livonians themselves who not only by living in such a Countrey must be accustomed to bitter Colds but who to harden themselves to the Cold have us'd themselves and thereby brought themselves to be able to pass to a great degree of Cold from no less a degree of heat without any visible prejudice to their healths For I remember that having inquired of a Virtuoso of unquestionable credit whether the report of our Merchants concerning this strange custom of the Muscovites and Livonians were certainly true he assur'd me that it was so at least as to the Livonians among whom being in their Countrey he had known it practis'd And the same was affirmed to me by an ingenious person a Doctor of Divinity that had occasion some years since to make a journey to Musco And the Tradition is abundantly confirm'd by Olearius whose Testimony we shall subjoyn because this seems one of the eminentest and least credible instances that we have yet met with of the strange power that custom may have even upon the Bodies of men ' T is a wonderful thing says he to see how far those Bodies speaking of the Russians that are accustomed and hardned to the Cold can endure heat and how when it makes them ready to faint they go out of their Stoves stark naked both men and women and cast themselves into cold water or cause it to be pour'd upon their Bodies and even in Winter wallow in the Snow To which passage our Author adds from his own observation particular Examples of the Truth of what he delivers 6. I had several years since the curiosity to try whether there were any truth in that tradition which is confidently affirm'd and experience by some is pretended for it that the Beams of the Moon are cold but though I were not able to find any such matter either by the ununited beams of the Moon or by the same beams concentred by such Burning-glasses as I then had yet having some years after furnish'd my self with 〈◊〉 large and extraordinary good mettalline Concave I resolv'd to try whether those beams were not only devoid of cold but also somewhat warmish since they are the Sun-beams though reflected from the Moon And we see that his beams though reflected from glasses not shap'd for Burning may yet produce some not insensible degree of warmth But notwithstanding my care to make my Trials in clear weather when the Moon was about the full and if I misremember not with a Weà ther-glass I could not perceive by any concentration of the Lunar beams no not upon a black object that her light did produce any sensible degree either of cold or heat but perhaps others with very large glasses may be more succesful in their Trials 7. On this occasion I shall add that meeting the other day in a Booksellers shop with the works of the Learned Physician Sanctorius whom I look upon as an inquisitive man considering when and where he liv'd a Picture drew my eyes to take off an Experiment whereby he thinks to evince the light of the Moon to be considerably hot which he says he tri'd by a Burning-glass through which the Moons light being cast upon the Ball of a common Weather-glass the water was thereby depressed a good way as appear'd to many of his disciples amidst whom the observation was made But though this may invite me when opportunity shall serve to repeat my Trials yet I must till then suspend my assent to his Conclusion For my Burning-glass was much better then by the Narrative his seems to have been and my Trials were perhaps at least as carefully and impartially made as his Experiment in which this may probably have impos'd upon him That performing the Experiment a company of his Scholars whilest they stood round about his Thermoscope and stoop'd as in likelihood their curiosity made them to do to see by so dim a light the event of the Experiment the unheeded warmth of their breath and bodies might unawares to Sanctorius somewhat affect the Air included in the Weather-glass and by 〈◊〉 it cause that depression of the water which he ascrib'd to the Moon beams But because this is a conjecture I intend if God permit to repeat the Experiment when I shall have opportunity to do with a more tender Weather-glass then I had by me when I made my former Observations To the XI Title BY the unsuccesfulness of the former attempts made with an Iron instrument I was invited especially being at another place where I was unfurnish'd with such hollow Iron balls as are mention'd Num. the 10. to substitute the following Experiment I caus'd a skilful Smith to take a Pistol barrel guess'd to be of about two foot in length and of a proportionable bore and when he had by riveting in a piece of Iron exactly stopp'd the touch-hole I caus'd him to fit to the nose of the barrel a screw to go as close as well he could make it and then having fill'd it to the very top with water I caus'd the screw to be thrust in which could not be done without the Effusion of some of the water as forcibly as the Party I imploy'd was able to do it that the water dilated by Congelation might not either drive out the screw or get between it and the top of the Barrel and having then suspended this barrel in a perpendicular posture in the free Air in a very cold 〈◊〉 which then unexpectedly happen'd and gave me the 〈◊〉 of making the trial I found the next morning that the 〈◊〉 water had thrust out a great part of the screw notwithstanding that to fill up intervals I had oyl'd it before and was got out betwixt the remaining part of it and the barrel as appear'd by some ice that was got out and stuck round about the screw wherefore the bitter cold continuing one day longer I did the next night cause the intervals that might be left betwixt the male and female screws to be fill'd up with melted Bees wax which I presum'd would keep the screw from being turn'd by the water and having in other points proceeded as formerly I found the next morning that the screw held as I desir'd and the preceding night having been exceeding bitter the cold had so forcibly congeal'd and expanded the water that it burst the Iron barrel somewhat near the top and made a considerable and oblique crack in it about which a pretty quantity of ice appear'd to stick besides that there were three or four other flaws at some of which smaller quantities of water appear'd to have got out At the same time that I bespoke this Iron Barrel of the Smith I order'd him to get me a brass
may be very warrantably question'd For 't is evident in waters we expose to freez in large vessels that the congelations begin at the surface where the liquor is 〈◊〉 to the Air and thence as the cold continues to prevail the ice increases and thickens downwards and therefore we see that Frogs retire themselves in frosty weather to the bottom of ditches whence I have had many of them taken out very brisk and vigorous from under the thick ice that cover'd the water And I have been informed by an observing person that at least in some places 't is usual in Winter for shoals of Fishes to retire to those depths of the Sea if not of Rivers also where they are not to be found in Summer Besides if Rivers were frozen at the 〈◊〉 we must very frequently meet in the emergent pieces of ice the shapes of those irregular Cavities and Protuberances that are often to be found in the uneven soils over which Rivers take their course whereas generally those emergent pieces of ice are flat as those flakes that are generated on the surface of the water Moreover if even deep rivers freez first at the bottom why should not very many Springs and Wells 〈◊〉 first at the bottom too the contrary of which nevertheless is obvious to be observ'd In confirmation of all which we may make use of what we formerly noted in the Section of the Primum Frigidum about the 〈◊〉 of the Masters of the French Salt-works who by overflowing the Banks and Causeways all the winter keep them from being spoil'd by the srost which could not be done if the waters they stand under froze as well at the bottom as at the Top. But I find that that which deceives our Water-men is that they often observe flakes of ice to ascend from the bottom of Rivers to the Top and indeed it often happens that after the hard frost has continued a while these emergent pieces of ice do very much contribute to the freezing over of Rivers For coming in some of the narrower parts of them to be stopp'd by the superficial ice that reaches on each side of the River a good way from the Banks towards the middle those flat icy bodies are easily cemented by the violence of the cold and by the help of the contiguous water to one another and by degrees straitning and at length choaking up the passage they give a stop to the other flakes of ice that either emerging from the bottom or loosened from the banks of the River or carried down the stream towards them and these being also by the same Cold cemented to the rest the River is at length quite frozen over And the reason why so many flakes of ice come from the bottom of the River seems to be that after the water has been frozen all along near the banks either the warmth of the Sun by day or some of those many casualties that may perform such a thing does by thawing the ground or otherwise loosen many pieces of that ice together with the earth stones c. that they adher'd to from the more stable parts of the banks and these heavy bodies do by their weight carry down with them the ice they are fastned to but then the water at the bottom of the river being warm in comparison of the Air in frosty weather since that even common water is so we have manifested by experience where we show how much sooner ice will be dissolv'd in water then thaw'd in Air the dispers'd ice is by degrees so wrought upon that those parts by which it held to the stones earth or other heavy bodies being resolv'd the remaining ice being much lighter bulk for bulk then water gets loose and straightway emerges and may perhaps carry up with it divers stones and clods of earth that may yet happen to stick to it or be inclos'd in it the sight of which perswades the Water-man that the flakes of ice were generated at the bottom of the river whereas a large piece of ice may carry up and support bodies of that kind of a great 〈◊〉 in case the ice it self be proportionably great so that the Aggregate of the ice and heavy bodies 〈◊〉 not the weight of an equal bulk of water On which occasion I remember that Captain James Hall in a voyage extant in Purchas relates that upon a large piece of ice in the Sea they found a great stone which they judg'd to be three hundred pound weight But of the Tradition of the Water-men we shall say no more then that this hath been discours'd but upon no great information though the best we could procure so that for further satisfaction it were to be desir'd that either by sending down a Diver or by letting down some instrument fit to feel if I may so speak the bottom of Rivers with and to try whether ice if it met with any be loose from or uniformly coherent to the ground and also bring up parcels of whatever stuff it meets with there the matter were by Competent Experiments put out of doubt We took a seal'd Weather-glass furnish'd with spirit of Wine and though not above 10. inches long in all yet sensible enough and having caus'd a hole to be made in the Cover of a Box just wide enough for the smaller end of the Glass to be thrust in at we inverted the Thermometer so that the ball of it rested upon the cover of a Box and the pipe pointed directly downwards then we placed about the ball a little beaten ice and salt and observ'd whether according to our expectation the tincted spirit that reach'd to the middle of the pipe or thereabouts would be retracted upon the refrigeration of the liquor in the ball and accordingly the spirit did in very few minutes ascend in that short pipe above an inch higher then a mark whereby we took notice of its former station and would perhaps have ascended much more if the application of the frigorifick mixture had been continued by which and another succeeding Experiment to the same purpose it seems that the condensation of liquors by cold is not always effected by their proper gravity only which ordinarily may be sufficient to make the parts fall closer together but whether in our case the contraction be assisted by some little tenacity in the liquor or by the spring of some little aerial or other spirituous and Elastick particles from which the instrument was not perfectly freed when it was seal'd up or which happened to be generated within it afterwards will be among orher things more properly inquir'd into in another place where we may have occasion to make use of this Experiment There is a famous Tradition that in Muscovy and some other cold Countries 't is usual out of Ponds and Rivers to take up good numbers of Swallows inclos'd in pieces of ice and that the benumm'd birds upon the thawing of the ice in a warm room will come to
access to the Air was that which destroy'd Fishes in frozen Ponds I thought upon this Epedient I procur'd a glass vessel with a large belly and a long neck but so slender that it was only wide enough for the body of the Fishes to pass through and then having fill'd the vessel with some live Gudgeons and a good Quantity of water the neck of it was made to pass through a hole that was left or made for it in the midst of a metalline plate or wooden Trencher which could descend no lower then the neck because of the inferior part of the glass that would not suffer it and which serv'd to support a mixture of Ice or Snow and Salt which was appli'd round about the extant neck of the glass By this contrivance I propos'd to my self a double advantage the first that whereas in broad vessels 't is not always so easie as one would think to be sure that the surface of the water is quite frozen over in every part by this way I could easily satisfie my self by inverting the glass and observing that the ice had so exactly choak'd up and stopt the neck that no drop of water could get out not any bubble of Air get in and yet the Fishes had liberty enough to play in the subjacent water The other conveniency was that the frigorifick mixture being appli'd to the neck no water was congeal'd or extremely refrigerated but that which was contain'd in the neck so that there seem'd no cause to suspect that in case the Fishes thus debarr'd of Air should not be able to live in the water it was rather Cold then want of Air that kill'd them But though not having then been able by reason of a remove to prosecute these Trials to the utmost nor to register all the circumstances I shall not lay much weight upon it yet I remember that the included Fishes continued long enough alive to make me shrowdly suspect the Truth of the vulgar Tradition Another time being destitute of the conveniency of such glasses I caus'd some of the same kind of Fishes to be put into a broad and flat earthen vessel with not much more water then suffic'd perfectly to cover them and having expos'd them all night to a very intense degree of cold I found the next morning that some hours after day they were alive and seem'd not to have been much prejudiced by the cold or exclusion of Air. 'T is true that there was a very large moveable bubble under the ice but that seem'd to have been generated by the Air or some Analogous substance emitted out of the Gills or bodies of the Fishes themselves for that the surface of the water was exactly frozen over which does not in such Trials happen so often as one would think I found by being able to hold the vessel quite inverted without losing one drop of water And that this large bubble might possibly proceed from the Fishes themselves I was induc'd to suspect because having at different seasons of the year for divers purposes kept several sorts of Fishes and particularly Gudgeons for many days in glass vessels to satisfie my self about some Phaenomena I had a mind to observe I have often by watching them seen them lift up their mouthes above the surface of the water and seem to gape and take in Air and afterwards let go under water out of their mouthes and gills divers bubbles which seem'd to be portions of the Air they had taken in perhaps a little alter'd in their bodies And particularly in Lampries of which odd sort of Fishes I elsewhere make mention I have with pleasure both observ'd and show'd to ingenious men that being taken out of the water into the Air and then held under water again they very manifestly appear'd to squeez out and that not without some force at those several little holes which are commonly mistaken for their eyes numerous and conspicuous bubbles of Air which they seem'd to have taken in at their mouthes if not also at those holes But of these matters a fitter occasion may perhaps invite me to say more To return now to our Gudgeons I shall add that to satisfie my self further what cold and want of Air they may be brought to support I expos'd a couple of them in a bason to an exceeding bitter night and though the next day I found the ice frozen in the vessel to a great thickness and one of the Fishes frozen up in it there remaining a little water unfrozen the other Fish appear'd through the ice to move to and fro and the ice being afterwards partly thaw'd and partly broken not only that Fish was found lively enough but the other which I alone judg'd not to be quite dead though when the ice was broke it lay moveless did in a few minutes so far recover as to tow after it if I may so speak a good piece into which his tail remain'd yet inserted and though one of these and some other Gudgeons that had been already weakned by long keeping were once more expos'd in the Bason to the frost and suffer'd to lye there till they were frozen up yet the ice being broken in which they were inclos'd though their bodies were stiff and crooked and seem'd to be stark dead lying in the water with their bellies upwards yet one of them quickly recovered and the other not very long after began to show manifest signs of life though he could not in many hours after so far recover as to swim with his back upwards 'T is true that these Fishes did not long survive but of that two or three not improbable reasons might be given if it were worth while to name here any other then this that the ice they had been frozen up in or the violence that was offered them by the fragments of it when it was broken had wounded them as was manifest enough by some hurts that appear'd upon their bodies yet some other Gudgeons were irrecoverably frozen to death by being kept inclos'd in ice during if I misremember not the time three days And as for other Animals I caus'd a couple of Frogs to be artificially frozen in a wide mouth'd glass furnish'd with a convenient quantity of water but though they seem'd at first inclos'd in ice yet looking nearer I found that about each of them there remain'd a little turbid liquor unfrozen as if it had been kept so by some expirations from their bodies Wherefore causing either the same or two others for I do not punctually remember that circumstance to be carefully frozen and for a considerable while I found that notwithstanding the ice into which most part of the water was reduc'd not only one of them before the ice was broken appear'd to be perfectly alive but the other that was moveless and stiff and lying with the belly upwards in a Bason of cold water whereinto it was cast did in a very few minutes begin to swim about in it I
to the lower part of it among other particles of the liquor that remain'd uncongeal'd yet perhaps 't were not amiss to try whether in very large though not deep vessels this Experiment especially promoted by some expedients that practise may suggest may not in some seasons and places be brought to be of some advantage Whilest I was endeavouring by some of the above recited Experiments to make some separations in liquors by congelation I thought fit to try by the same means what separations I could make in some bodies betwixt liquors and those more stable parts among which they were ingag'd hoping upon considerations which 't were too long to enumerate that if such attempts should succeed they might afford hints of a Luciferous nature I took then divers vegetable substances of differing kinds as Turnips Carrets Beets Apples and tender wood freshly cut off from growing trees as also divers Animal substances as Musculous flesh Livers Brains Eyes Tongues and other parts and expos'd them to a very sharp cold that they might be throughly frozen Now one of the chief things that I propos'd to my self in this attempt was to try how far I could by congelation make discovery of any thing about the Texture of Animals and Plants that had not been taken notice of by Anatomists themselves and would scarce otherwise be render'd visible And I easily found that I had not groundlesly imagin'd that in divers Succulent bodies both vegetable and animal the sap or the juice that was so dispers'd among the other parts and divided into such minute portions as not to be manifestly enough discriminated might by congelation be both discern'd and separated from the rest For in divers Plants I found the Alimental juice to be congeal'd into vast multitudes of distinct Corpuscles of ice some of which when the bodies were tranversly cut with a sharp knife and left a while in the Air might be wip'd or scrap'd off from the superficies of the body upon which 't would after a while appear in the form of an Efflorescence almost like meal but in others I took a better and quicker course for by warily compressing the frozen bodies I could presently make the icy Corpuscles start in vast numbers out of their little holes and though some of these were so minute as to invite me to use a Microscope that magnifi'd a little not having then any of my best at hand yet in some bodies and especially in Carrets and Beets the icy Corpuscles were big enough to be distinctly or apart conspicuous insomuch that I was not mistaken in hoping that the figures as well as sizes for as to the Colour it was scarce discernible in the ice produc'd in so deeply crimson a Root as the Beet it self of these little pieces of ice might be guess'd at by the bigness and shape of the Pores that were left in the more stable part or if I may so call it the Parenchyma of the root though in making an estimate of these Cavities as well as in discovering the order wherein they are rang'd I found it useful to cut the frozen roots sometimes according to their length and sometimes quite cross For by that means there would appear in Carrets for example of the larger sort a great disparity in the order of the Pores which when the root was divided by a plain parallel to the Basis appear'd plac'd in lines almost streight tending almost like the spoaks of a wheel from the middle to the circumference But if the Carret were slit from one end towards the other the icy Corpuscles and pores would seem rang'd in an order that would appear very differing but which I have not now the leisure to describe no more then what I observed with a Microscope about the ice and pores of Apples the Tongues of Animals Chips of green and sappy wood c. expos'd to congelation only this I shall not pretermit That as I many years since made and as I now find too freely communicated an Experiment menon'd long after in other papers of freezing the eyes of Oxen and other Animals whereby the soft and the fluid humors of that admirable organ may be so hardned as to become tractable even to unskilful Dissectors So I did on this occasion apply that Experiment to the brains of Animals which though too soft to be easily dissected especially by those that are not dexterous may by congelation be made very manageable by them And besides that in dissecting the hardned brain it sometimes seem'd that the knife did cut through multitudes of icy Corpuscles as when one cuts a frozen Apple the substance of the brain seem'd also to the eye to be stuffed with them and the Ventricles of it did at least conspicuously harbour pieces of ice if it were not fill'd up with them and the manifest difference of Texture that there is between the white and yelk of a througly frozen Egg and also betwixt the Crystalline and the Aqueous and the Vitreous humors of the eye wherein by congelation the Crystalline alone loses its transparency but acquires no conspicuous ice whilest the others are full of ice and that diaphanous these and such like disparities I say may invite one to hope that some things may by congealing of bodies be discovered about their Texture that may afford sagacious Anatomists improvable hints I know not whether it will be thought worth while to take notice That neither an Eye nor a Liver nor a lean piece of flesh nor a live Fish nor a living Frog being frozen and put into cold water was observ'd to be upon its thawing cas'd with ice as frozen Eggs and Apples are wont to be because having forgot to make the Experiment above once I dare not much rely on it but whereas we have formerly observ'd that congelation does most commonly spoil or at least impair Eggs and Apples and Flesh and many other bodies I think it may not be unworthy to be consider'd how far and in what cases we may give a Mechanical account of this Phaenomenon For though the immersion of frozen bodies in cold water be allowed to thaw them with less prejudice then if they were thaw'd hastily by the sire or suffer'd to thaw themselves in the Air yet there have been complaints made That notwithstanding this expedient several bodies have been much the worse for having been throughly frozen now since I have lately shown that in many stable bodies the Alimental juice is by congelation turn'd into ice and have formerly evinc'd that water and aqueous liquors are expanded by congelation I see not why we may not suspect that the innumerable icy Corpuscles into which the Alimental juice is turn'd by the frost being each of them expanded proportionably to their respective bignesses may not only prejudice the whole by having their own constitution impair'd as has been formerly observ'd in Aligant and other Vinous liquors but may upon their expansion crush in some places and distend in others the
more stable parts in whose Cavities they were harbour'd and thereby so vitiate their Texture as to impair some of their qualities and dispose the Compositum to corruption How much Contusion may prejudice tender bodies and accelerate putrefaction is evident in many fruits especially the more tender ones which having been bruised quickly begin to rot in those parts that have been injur'd And 't is agreeable to what has been formerly shown to conceive that in congelation there seems to happen an almost innumerable multitude of little contusions made by the fluid parts harden'd and expanded by frost of the formerly more stable parts every where intercepted between them And though these icy Corpusces be but small yet the sides of that stable matter that separates them and which they indeavour to stretch or crush are oftentimes proportionably thin And we have formerly noted That besides that Eggs will be burst by having their Alimental juice frozen both shingles and stones themselves may have their Texture spoil'd by the congelation of the Mineral sap that is in exceeding minute and insensible particles dispers'd through those bodies and the violation of the Texture of Plants Herbs and Animals by the expansion of the aqueous and juicy particles which though they be not congregated do abound in them will be the less wonder'd at if it be remember'd that our former Trials manifest that a few ounces of water congeal'd did not only burst Glass and Pewter vessels but even the Iron barrel of a Gun Whilest I was upon these Trials I had also a curiosity to know whether by freezing Animals to death I could discover any such change in the qualities or structure of their parts as might help us to discover by what means it is that excessive colds kill men in Northern Countries since such a discovery might probably be of good use to the People that live in those gelid Regions But having taken a young Rabbet as the tenderest and fittest beast I could then procure for such a Trial and having expos'd him all night to an extraordinarily bitter frost without finding him otherwise mischiefed by it then that one of his legs was swell'd and grown stiff I was more inclin'd to resign over to others then to repeat my self what seem'd to be an ill natur'd Experiment though perhaps it may have much less of cruelty then one would think since some of our former observations have made it probable that oftentimes the extinction of life by cold is a more indolent kind of death then almost any other But in a Rabbet purposely strangled and presently expos'd intire to a bitter cold we found ice produc'd in such parts as would have made us prosecute the Trial had the want of such Animals and of leisure not hinder'd us It is affirm'd by divers eminent writers and those modern ones too that water impregnated with the saline parts of Plants and afterwards frozen will exhibite in the ice the shape of the same Plant And the learned but I fear too credulous Gaffarel tells us that this is no Rarity being dayly shewn by one Monsieur de la Clave But to what we have already publish'd in another Treatise to shew that this Experiment as it is wont to be deliver'd is either untrue or very contingent we shall need but to add that since the Experiments there mention'd we did again lately try what could be done with Decoctions that were richly imbu'd and highly ting'd with the spirituous parts of the Vegetables but this ice was by no means so figur'd as the Patrons of the Tradition promise And I remember that having also made for curiosity sake a Lixivium with 16. parts of water and but one of salt of Potashes that the mixture might be sure to freez and having expos'd the liquor in a thin glass vial to an exceeding cold Air we found the copious ice produc'd to lye on the top in little sticks not unlike those Prismatical bodies wherein Salt-petre is wont to roch and those parts of this ice that were beneath the water were shot in thin parallel plates exceeding numerous but as one of our notes expresly informs us no way in the shape of Trees by whose Incineration nevertheless Polonian Potashes as eye witnesses that deal in them inform me are made Long after the making of the newly recited Experiment I chanc'd to find that the learned Bartholinus in the Treatise we have often had occasion to take notice of says That the water wherein Cabbage has been decocted will when frozen represent a Cabbage the vegetable spirits being as he supposes concentrated by the cold How well this Experiment may succeed when made in a cold Countrey like his I do not know but not having my self when I first took notice of it the opportunity to try it satisfactorily by help of a frosty night all I could do was to take a good decoction of Cabbage and filtrate it through Cap paper that it might be though yellow yet clear and then by the circumposition of our frigorifick mixture we froze this liquor in a thin glass vial but the ice did not either to me or others appear to have any thing in it like a Cabbage or remarkably differing from other ice And being afterwards befriended with two or three frosty nights we expos'd a decoction of Cabbage to be congeal'd by the Nocturnal Air alone without the help of Art but neither this way did the Experiment succeed well And though once a few ounces of the decoction being lightly frozen in a vial there appeared in the thin ice that adher'd to the inside of the glass a figure not so very unlike that of a Cabbage leaf but that some such accident may have invited our learned Author to think that the representations of Cabbages would constantly appear in their frozen decoctions yet I was inclin'd to think this figuration rather casual by the curiosity I have had to freez the decoctions of several Herbs some of them spirituous enough as Rosemary and Penny-royal without being able to find in the ice I obtain'd from them any conviction of the truth of the Tradition we are examining And I have lately had more then once by freezing fair water alone after a certain manner ice that seem'd much more to exhibite the shapes of vegetables then any decoctions of them that I have made And particularly I found more then once that by putting hot water into a somewhat slender Cylinder of glass and agitating it in a frigorifick mixture consisting of beaten ice salt and water so that it was very speedily frozen thereby it was congeal'd into an ice much more regularly and prettily figur'd then I have seen it in divers of the waters impregnated with the fix'd salts of Plants though of these we are told such wonders Such particulars as these joyn'd with what I have elsewhere observ'd to the same purpose make me I confess somewhat surpriz'd to meet in Berigardus's forecited discourse upon Aristotles
so generally acknowledg'd that I cannot imagine what should make some men deny it except it be that they find all others to confess it For though in other cases they are wont to pretend Experience for their quitting the receiv'd Opinions yet here they quit Experience it self for singularity and chuse rather to depart from the Testimony of their senses then not to depart from the Generality of Men. 2. And to evince that this is not said gratis I might observe to you That there are no less then three grand inducements that have lead both the Vulgar and Philosophers two sorts of men that seldom agree in other things to consent in the acknowledgment of Antiperistasis Authority Reason and Experience But though I think fit to name them all three yet since the first of them by having as I just now noted invited our Adversaries to dissent from the Truth is a somewhat unlikely Medium to prevail on them to acknowledge it I shall insist only on the two latter having once declar'd that I lay aside the first not as worthless in it self but needless to my cause 3. To begin then with the Arguments afforded us by Reason What can there be more agreeable to the wisdom and goodness of Nature who designing the Preservation of things is wont to be careful of fitting them with requisites for that preservation then to furnish cold and heat with that self invigorating power which each of them may put forth when 't is environ'd with its contrary For the order of the universe requiring that cold and heat should reside in those Bodies that often happen to be mingled with one another those two noble and necessary Qualities would be too often destroy'd in the particular subjects that harboured them if provident Nature had not so ordered the matter that when a Body wherein either of them resides happens to be surrounded by other Bodies wherein the contrary Quality is predominant the besieg'd Quality by retiring to the innermost parts of that which it possesses and there by recollecting its forces and as it were animating it self to a vigorous defence is intended or increased in its degree and so becomes able to resist an Adversary that would otherwise easily destroy it 4. To illustrate as well as supply this Argument drawn from Reason we shall need but to subjoyn the other afforded us by Experience which does almost every day give us not only opportunity to observe but cause to admire the effects of this self invigorating power which when occasionally exerted we call Antiperistasis And these Phaenomena ought the more to be acquiesced in because they may safely be looked upon as genuine Declarations which Nature makes of Her own accord and not as confessions extorted from Her by Artificial and compulsory Experiments when being tortured by Instruments and Engines as upon so many Racks she is forced to seem to confess whatever the Tormentors please 5. To proceed then to the spontaneous Phaenomena of Nature I was recommending we see that whereas in Summer the lowest and highest Regions of the Air are made almost unsufferable to us by their heat the cold expelled from the earth and water by the Suns scorching beams retires to the middle Region of the Air and there defends it self against the heat of the other two though in the one that Quality be assisted by the almost perpendicular reflection of the Sun-beams and in the other it 〈◊〉 rendered very confiderable by the vastness of the upper Region of the Air and its Vicinity to the Element of fire And as the cold maintains it self in the middle Region by vertue of the intensness which it acquires upon the account of Antiperistasis so the Lightning that flashes out of the Clouds is but a fire produc'd in that midle Region by the hot Exhalations penn'd up and intended in point of heat by the ambient Cold to a degree that amounts to ascension 6. But though these be unquestionably the effects of that excessive coldness yet we need not go so far as the tops of mountains to fetch proofs of our doctrine since we may find them at the bottom of our Wells For though Carneades perhaps will not yet the earth as well as the Air doth readily acknowledge the power of Antiperistasis And if the reason above alledged did not evince it our very senses would For as in Summer when the Air about us is sultry hot we find to our great refreshment that the Air in Cellars and Vaults to which the cold then retreats is eminent for the opposite Quality so in Winter when the outward Air freezes the very Lakes and Rivers where their surfaces are expos'd to it the internal Air in Vaults and Cellars in Winter which becomes the sanctuary of heat as in Summer it was of Cold is able not only to keep our Bodies from freezing but to put them into sweats And not only Wells and Springs upon the account of their resting in or coming out of the deepest parts of the earth continue fluid whilest all the waters that are contiguous to the Air are by the excessive cold hardened into ice but the water freshly drawn from such Wells feels warm or at least tepid to a mans hand put into it And as if Nature design'd men should not be able to contradict the doctrine of Antiperistasis without contradicting more then one of their own senses she has taken care that oftentimes the water that is freshly drawn out of the deeper sorts of Wells and Springs should manifestly as I have seen it smoak as if it had been but lately taken off the fire And this may be said without a Metaphor to demonstrate ad ocnlum the reality of Antiperistasis there being no other cause to which this warmth can be attributed then the retiring of the heat from the cold external Air to the lower parts of the earth and water since both these Elements themselves being naturally cold and one of them in the supreme degree the heat we are mentioning is so far from being likely to be generated in so unfit a place that if it were not very great it must be extinguished there by the coldness of the superior Air and that of the inferior parts of the Earth Eleutherius 7. That Carneades may have but one trouble to answer the Allegations to be made in favour of Antiperistasis I hope he will give me leave according to my custom of siding with either party as occasion invites me to add to the familiar Observations mentioned by Themistius some others that are less obvious For I franckly confess to you that when I consider what interest the unheeded dipositions of our own Bodies may have in the estimates we make of the degrees of cold and heat in other Bodies I should not lay much weight upon the Phaenomena that are wont to be urg'd as proofs of Antiperistasis if some instances somewhat less lyable to suspicion did not countenance the doctrine they are urg'd for I know
possible cause of cold in those places that are near the Pole or where the obliquity of the Sun is great 4. How water may be congealed by Cold may be explained in this manner Let A. in the first figure represent the Sun and B. the Earth A. will therefore be much greater then B. Let E. F. be in the plain of the Aequinoctial to which let G. H. I. K. and L. C. be parallel Lastly let C. and D. be the Poles of the Earth The air therefore by its action in those parallels will rake the superficies of the Earth and that with a motion so much the stronger by how much the parallel Circles towards the Poles grew less and less From whence must arise a wind which will force together the uppermost parts of the water and withal raise them a little weakening their endeavour towards the Center of the Earth And from their endeavour towards the Center of the Earth joyned with the endeavour of the said wind the uppermost parts of the water will be press'd together and coagulated that is to say the top of the water will be skinned over and hardened and so again the water next the Top will be hardened in the same manner till at length the ice be thick And this ice being now compacted of little hard Bodies must also contain many particles of air receiv'd into it As Rivers and Seas so also in the like manner may the Clouds be frozen For when by the ascending and discendding of several clouds at the same time the air intercepted between them is by compression forced out it rakes and by little and little hardens them And though those small drops which usually make clouds be not yet united into greater bodies yet the same wind will be made and by it as water is congealed into ice so will vapours in the same manner be congealed into snow From the same cause it is that ice may be made by art and that not far from the fire for it is done by the mingling snow and salt together and by burying in it a small vessel full of water Now when the snow and salt which have in them a great deal of air are melting the air which is 〈◊〉 out every way in wind rakes the sides of the vessel and as the wind by its motion rakes the vessel so the vessel by the same motion and action congeals the water within it 5. We find by Experience that cold is always more remiss in places where it rains and where the weather is cloudy things being alike in all other respects then where the air is clear And this agreeth very well with what I said before for in clear weather the course of the wind which as I said even now rak'd the superficies of the Earth as it is free from all interruption so also it is very strong But when small drops of water are either rising or falling that wind is repelled broken and dissipated by them and the less the wind is the less is the cold 6. We find also by experience that in deep Wells the water freezeth not so much at it doth upon the superficies of the Earth For the wind by which ice is made entring into the Earth by reason of the laxity of its parts more or less loseth some of its force though not much So that if the Well be not deep it will freez whereas if it be so deep as that the wind which causeth cold cannot reach it it will not freez 7. We find moreover by experience that ice is lighter then water the cause whereof is manifest from that which I have already shown namely that the air is receiv'd in and mingled with the particles of the water whilest it is congealing 8. To examine now Mr. Hobs's Theory concerning Cold we may in the first place take notice that his very Notion of Cold is not so accurately nor warily deliver'd I will not here urge that it may well be Question'd whether the tending outwards of the spirits and fluid parts of the Bodies of animals do necessarily proceed from and argue heat Since in our Pneumatical Engine when the air is withdrawn from about an included viper to mention no other Animals there is a great intumescence and consequently a greater indeavour outwards of the fluid parts of the body then we see made by any degree of heat of the ambient Air wont to be produc'd by the Sun This I say I will not insist on but rather take notice that though Mr. Hobs tells us that to cool is to make the exterior parts of the body indeavour inwards yet our Experiments tell us that when a very high degree of Cold is introdnc'd not only into water but into Wine and divers other partly Aqueous liquors there is a plain intumescence and consequently indeavour outwards of the parts of the refrigerated Body And certainly Cold having an operation upon a great multitude and variety of bodies as well as upon our Sensories he that would give a satisfactory definition of it must take into his consideration divers other effects besides those it produces on humane bodies And even in these he will not easily prove that in every case any such indeavour inwards from the Ambient Aetherial substance as his Doctrine seems to suppose is necessary to the perception of Cold since as the mind perceives divers other qualities by various motions in the Nervous or Membranous parts of the sentient so Cold may be perceiv'd either by the Decrement of the agitation of the parts of the Object in reference to those of the Sensory or else by some differing impulse of the sensitive parts occasion'd by some change made in the motion of the blood or spirits upon the deadning of that motion or by the turbulent motion of those excrementitious steams that are wont when the blood circulates as nimbly and the pores are kept as open as before to be dissipated by insensible transpiration 9. It may afford some illustration to this matter to add That having inquir'd of some Hysterical Women who complain'd to me of their distempers whether they did not sometimes find a very great coldness in some parts of their heads especially at the Top I was answered that they did so and one of them complain'd that she felt in the upper part of her head such a Coldness as if some body were pouring cold water upon it And having inquired of a couple of eminent Physicians of great practise about this matter they both assur'd me that many of their Hysterical patients had made complaints to them of such great Coldness in the upper part of the head and some also along the Vertebra's of the Neck and Back And one of these Experienc'd Doctors added that this happen'd to some of his Patients when they seem'd to him and to themselves to be otherwise Hot. The noble Avicen also some where takes notice that the invenom'd Bitings of some kinds of Serpents creatures too well
in motion become vehemently cold in their passage For Mr. Hobs cannot as other Naturalists derive the coldness of freezing winds from the cold steams they meet with and carry along with them in their passage through cold Regions since then those steams rather then the wind would be the cause of that vehement coldness and so it might justly be demanded whence the coldness of those cold exhalations proceeds Besides that 't is very precarious and unconsonant to observation to imagine such a wind as he talks of to blow whenever great frosts happen since as we noted before very vehement glaciations may be observ'd especially in Northern Regions when the air is calm and free from winds 19. The account he gives in his seventh Section of turning water into ice is the most unsatisfactory I have ever yet met with for a good part of that Section is so written as if he were affear'd to be understood But whereas he supposes that by the indeavour of the wind to raise the parts of the water joyn'd with the indeavour of the parts of the water towards the Center of the Earth the uppermost parts of the water will be prest together and coagulated he says that which is very far from satisfactory For first ice is often produced where no wind can come to beat upon the uppermost parts of the water and to raise them and in vessels Hermetically seal'd which exactly keep out air and wind ice may be generated as many of our Experiments evince And this alone were a sufficient answer since the whole explication is built upon the action of the wind But this is not all we have to object for not to urge that he should have prov'd that the uppermost parts of the water must be raised in congelation especially since oyl and divers other liquors are contracted by it not to urge this I say what shew of probability is there that by the bare indeavour of the wind and the gravity of the superficiate parts of the water there should be any such forcible compression made as he is pleas'd to take for granted And yet this it self is less improbable then that supposing the upermost parts of the water to be pressed together that pressure is sufficient to coagulate as he speaks or rather congeal them into ice So bold and unlikely an assertion should at least have been countenanced by some plausible reason or an example in some measure parallel For I remember not any one instance wherein any degree of compression that has been imploy'd much less so slight a one as this must be considering the causes whence 't is said to proceed can harden any liquor into ice or any other hard body And in the Experiment we have elsewhere mentioned of filling a Pewter vessel with water and when 't is exactly clos'd compressing it by the knocks of a Hammer till the water be reduc'd to penetrate the very Pewter we found not that so violent a compression did give the water the least disposition to turn a hard body And as for the way Mr. Hobs assigns of Increasing the thickness of ice 't is very difficult to conceive how a cake of ice on the top of the water being hard frozen to the sides of the containing vessel and thereby severing betwixt the included water and the external air the wind that cannot come to touch the water because of the interposition of the hard and rigid ice should yet be able sometimes at the depth of nine or ten foot or much further to beat upon the subjacent water and turn it into ice And it is yet more difficult to conceive how the wind must do all this when as was lately noted the water does very often freez more and more downwards to a great depth in places where the wind cannot come to beat upon it at all And as to what Mr. Hobs further teaches that the ice must contain many particles of air receiv'd into it we have elsewhere occasion to show how 〈◊〉 he discourses about those Icy Bubbles 20. The reason he assigns of the freezing of water with Snow and 〈◊〉 does as little satisfie as the rest of his Theory of Cold. For not to mention that he affirms without proving it that Snow and Salt have in them a great deal of air it is very precarious to assert that this air must be prest out every way in wind which must rake the sides of the vessel for 't is strange that far more diligent observers then Mr. Hobs should take no notice of any such wind if any such wind there were but this is yet less strange then that which follows namely that this wind must so rake the sides of the vessel as to make the vessel by the same motion and action congeal the water within it For what affinity is there between a wind passing along the outside of a glass altogether impervious to it and the turning a fluid body included in that glass into a hard and brittle body The wind indeed may perhaps if it be strong a little shake or agitate the particles that compose the glass and those may communicate some of their motion to the contiguous parts of the water but why all this must amount to the turning of that water into ice is more I confess by far then I can apprehend Especially seeing that though you long blow upon a glass of water with a pair of Bellows where there is not an Imaginary wind as Mr. Hobs's but a Real and manifest one yet the water will be so far from being frozen that our formerly mentioned Experiments of blowing upon Thermometers make it probable that it will scarce be cool'd And if Sea-salt do contain so much air by vertue of which it as well as the Snow produces so intense a degree of Cold how chance that being resolv'd in a little water without Snow it does not produce at least a far greater degree of cold then we find it to do Besides in the Experiment we made and elsewhere mention of freezing water seal'd up in Bubbles though the Bubbles were suspended in other glasses whose sides no where touched them and the remaining part of whose cavities were fill'd some with air and some with unfreezing liquors what likelihood is there that Mr. Hobs's insensible Wind should be able to occasion so many successive Rakings through differing Bodies as there must be to propagate the congelative motion if I may so call it of the wind through the first glass to the included Air or Liquor and through that new Medium to the glass containing immediately the water and through that to the innermost parts of the seal'd up water And it might be further objected if it were worth while that Mr. Hobs does not so much as offer at a reason why spirit of Wine Aqua fortis or even Brine if it be of the strongest sort are not either by this mixture or here in England by the Wind in the open
Cochanele was boiled in water to a very high tincture and frozen and to twice four ounces of this decoction was added in one glass a little spoonful of spirit of Wine and in another as much Sea salt-water All these were frozen throughout and every part of this ice seemed to me of an equal colour though the edges as thinner and nearer the light appeared of a brighter colour as they do unfrozen but the glasses being broken shewed no discernable difference in any of them neither as to colour nor taste The like trials were made with Maddes weed and Indico and the success was the same Secondly I exposed a pint Porringer full of the decoction of soot which the air relaxing did only freez an inch thick this continued above a week consistent in a thawing season and very solid Some that saw it judged it to be brown Sugar Candy the taste whereof was near if not altogether as strong as the uncongealed liquor remaining at the bottom And in another trial when the whole was frozen no concentration was seen But though it was not my hap to find this effect my trials having been made in Vials square Cylindrical or round yet Mr. Hauk a worthy fellow of this Society happily lighted on it as you may perceive by his relation and Schemes of his Glasses hereunto annexed Some affirm as an effect of freezing an addition of weight made in the bodies frozen but this affirmation answers not my trials For in four Eggs and four Apples fully frozen I found the weight of them the same when frozen and thawed as they had before they were exposed each of the Eggs and Apples being weighed in this triple state both severally and joyntly with the particular weights I shall not trouble you Besides that freezing adds no weight 't is apparent in sealed Glasses from whence nothing can expire and by exact ponderation of them I could not perceive any the least difference in weight in the said triple state This I tried several times with as much exactness as possibly I could and still found the same event Another property of freezing is to render many bodies more friable and brittle as most woods as also Iron and Steel as every one knoweth that hath used Crosbows in frosty seasons and so likewise the bones of animals and 't is commonly observed by Chirurgions that more men break their legs and arms in such seasons then at any other time of the year especially such who have been tainted with the Lues venerea as Hildanus somewhere notes I shall now conclude the effects of freezing by ranging them into good and bad The good are the long preserving bodies most subject to putrifaction healthiness and confirming the tone of all animals and thickning the hairs and furs of such as have them fatten some Besides it exceedingly clears the air and other bodies as 't is manifest by the stinking seasalt-Seasalt-water before mentioned as also by this that follows namely I took six of the most musty stone-Bottles I could procure and competently fill'd them with water which after freezing and thawing again became as sweet as ever they were before Bad effects are the killing and destroying animals and vegetables by congealing and stopping their vital and nourishing juices rendring them totally immovable 'T is observable that in Greenland and Nova Zembla nothing but grass grows as also what was told me by Dr. Collins the present Physician of the Emperor of Russia that no thorny plant nor thistles grow in that Countrey And this present year most of the Rosemary and Sage about London was wholly destroyed besides most of the more tender Plants My fourth proposal was the properties and qualities of ice some whereof my task engageth me to enumerate only such are its slipperiness smoothness hardness whereby and by its bulk and motion it breaks down bridges c. its firmness and strength to bear carriages and burdens its diaphaneity which is much less then the liquor of which 't is made For I could never discern any object though but confusedly a foot beyond the clearest piece of ice by reason of the many bubbles and luminous parts within it Which bubbles shew only shadows but the ice its self interposed betwixt your eye and a candle appears in many round circles from which proceeds many rays of light four or five or more in the form of a Star of about a ¼ of an inch in diameter which so glase your eyes you can scarcely see any thing but bright light and shadow As for its penetration and thickness something hath been said above to which I shall add that I have seen the Thames ice of the thickness of eight inches or more near the middle of the River and on the sides much more And in Garden walks the earth frozen near two foot deep whereas on the sides of the same walks on a richer mould the frost did not reach much above one foot and ¼ and Pipes of Lead have been broken above a foot under the surface of the ground I shall not mention the huge mountains of ice found in the most Northerly Seas but proceed to its weight 'T is generally known that ice swims upon the water But I have seen snow-balls moistened only with water and then compressed with a strong force and afterwards frozen to sink besides the congealed oyl of Vitriol descends in water and common ice is frequently observed under water whether the solutions of salts frozen will sink was by me forgotten to observe and whether coagulated oyl will sink in unfrozen as Bartholine affirms Some affirm that snow-balls hard pressed without addition of water will sink but experience teacheth me the contrary As for its tactile qualities every one knows 't is colder then water which you may increase by adding salt unto it or rather snow Smell it hath none but it binds up that quality in all but most spirituous bodies which it also in some degrees refracts in them Lastly ice yields both reflection and refraction whereof I shall speak when I come to its uses My fifth head was lets and helps in freezing which I shall 〈◊〉 dispatch Those besides the North and North-east winds the absence of the Sun and the highest parts of houses or mountains are the mixture of snow and salt then which there 's nothing more painfully and unsufferably cold to my feeling as is apparant by the trick of freezing with snow and salt by the fire side as also by the ingenious way of making cups of ice invented by an incomparable person Add hereunto that water falling or thrown upon ice or snow soon becomes congealed A mixture also of ice beaten into powder and mixed with common Sea-salt which is best or with Kelp Alume Vitriol or Nitre And here note that vessels fill'd with water and set in these mixtures begin their freezing at the bottom of the liquor and consequently are not so subject to be broken as those are which are not set in these
Regards they be far less commodious then either a Watch or Clock Besides that in many cases a skilful Natur alist will by a variety and collation of Experiments make the same discoveries and perform the same things for which others are wont to be beholding to Instruments and perhaps do many things without them that have never been done with them And since Necessity is proverbially allow'd to be the Mother of Inventions even in Tradesmen and Vulgar heads why should we doubt but that the rich and inventive Intellect of a Philosopher may in cases of necestity turn it self and contrive the things it can dispose of into so many differing forms that it will often make its own Sagacity and Industry supply the want of exact Tools and Instruments And these Considerations that tend to keep ingenious Men from Dispondency I therefore think fit to Inculcate because the Common-wealth of Learning would lose too many useful Observations and Experiments and the History of Nature would make too slow a Progress if it were presum'd that none but Geometers and Mechanitians should imploy themselves about writing any part of that History But to return to those Trials of our own that occasioned this as I hope Seasonable Digression I was about to add That as the acknowledgement I was making that some of the Trials were 〈◊〉 want of Accommodations less Artificial then I could have design'd or wish'd them touches not all nor haply the greatest part of the following Experiments so it need not derogate from the Readers reliance on those which it does concern For though some of them might have been more Artificially performed to the manner yet they could not have been more Faithfully registred as to the Events Which though I dare promise my self that most Readers will be induc'd to believe upon the Considerations not long since intimated Yet I think it requisite to give this intimation on this occasion because that though I have 〈◊〉 largely manifested to what contingencies divers Experiments are liable yet I have found very few whose events are so subject to be varied by slight and not easily beeded circumstances as several Experiments concerning Cold Where oftentimes the degree of that Quality or the time during which it continues appli'd or the manner of Application or the thickness shape and bulk c. of the vessels that contained the matter expos'd to it may have a far greater influence on the success then those that have not tri'd can easily imagine And it increases the difficulty that these Experiments of ours being very few excepted the only that are yet made publick concerning Cold we cannot so easily as in other cases free our selves from the doubts that may be suggested by different events by comparing together several Experiments of the same kind though to obviate this inconvenience as far as I may I have divers times in cases where the Experiments seem'd like to be thought strange or to be distrusted set down several Trials of the same thing that they might mutually support and confirm one another Of those Contingent Experiments about Cold I was newly speaking of the Reader may meet with an eminent Example in the 21. Title where mention is made of the differing Effects of Air blown out of a pair Bellows upon a Weather-glass and as for the suspition I there conclude with though I yet doubt whether 〈◊〉 will reach All the Cases incident to that Experiment I have since been confirm'd in it by finding that by purposely varying the temper of the Bellows themselves I could divers times considerably vary the operations which the Winds blown out of them in their differing states had upon the Liquor in the Weather-glass Of this I expect to have an opportunity of saying more and therefore shall at present add but this one particular which may sufficiently justifie me for having said That Weather-glasses our Sensories may give very differing Informations about the Temperature of the Air turn'd into Wind by being blown out of the same pair of Bellows For having taken two Hermetically seal'd Weather-glasses furnished with highly rectified spirit of Wine and purposely made for my Experiments by a person eminently dexterous in making such Instruments and having likewise provided a large pair of Bellows I found that by blowing 20. blasts at a time on the Ball of one of them though the Pipe were not only slender but of an unusual length amounting to about 30. Inches yet the Liquor did not sensibly subside any more then rise And in the other Weather-glass whose Pipe was less long but whose Ball was purposely made far greater to be the fitter for short and nice Experiments we found more then once and that as well in the cold Air as in a close Room that the wind that was blown in divers blasts out of the Bellows against the lower part of the Instrument did not only make the spirit of Wine subside but did make it manifestly though but very little ascend And 't is not necessary for the making good of what I taught that such Trials should always succeed just as these did since it may suffice to prove what I pretended that a good seal'd Weather-glass did divers times discover the Wind to be rather warm then cold when upon Trial then purposely made it felt not only manifestly but considerably cold both to a By-standers Hand and to my own Hand and Face though my hand that was blown upon were immediately before more then ordinarily cold And I shall here add That judging it fit to make further Trial with an unseal'd Weather-glass I made one that was in some regards preferable to those mentioned in the second Praeliminary Discourse by making the Bubble large and the Cylindrical Pipe so proportion'd to it that instead of a Drop of water a Pillar about an Inch long of that Liquor was kept suspended and play'd as well conspicuously as nimbly up and down in the Pipe And having fastned this Instrument in an erected Posture with the Sphaerical part uppermost to the inside of a Window by blowing upon the Ball with the Bellows above mentioned which had lain some hours not very far from the Chimney-corner but without seeming to be sensibly warm'd by the neighbourhood of the fire a very few blasts made the suspended water hastily subside and thereby witness the Expansion and so the warmth of the included Air and upon my ceasing to blow the same water would reascend in the Pipe and that though I stood near it to watch it which shows that the former Depression was not caused by the approach of my warm Body and this I did more then once both alone and before witness notwithstanding that the Air blown at the same time out of the same Bellows upon our hand and face seem'd cool enough But fearing to insist any longer on this matter in a Preface I think it now unseasonable to add That as some contingent Experiments in subsequent Trials may Fail oftner
often impute that to 〈◊〉 whereof the Cause is in our selves and if this change in our selves be wrought by unsuspected Agents or by insensible degrees we do not easily take notice of it Thus though in Summer divers Cellars that are not deep are perhaps no colder then the External Air was when it was judg'd but Temperate in Winter or the Spring yet it will seem very Cold to us that bring into it Bodies heated by the Summer Sun and accustomed to a warmer Air nay cold does so much depend upon the degree of Agitation in the parts of the Object in reference to the Sentient that even when we may think the Sensory unalter'd it may judge an Object to have a degree of Coldness which indeed it hath not as I remember that to satisfie some Friends that 't is not every Wind which feels cold to us that is really more Cold then the still Air I have sometimes shewen that even in nice Weather-glasses Air blown out of a pair of Bellows does not appear to have acquired any Coldness by being turn'd into Wind though if it were blown against the hands or face it would produce a new and manifest sense of Cold of which the reason seems to be That though the Organ in general seems not to be alter'd yet the Wind by reason of its Motion is able not only to drive away the parts of the Air contiguous to the hand or face and the warm steams of the Body which temper'd its Coldness but to pierce deeper then the calm Air is wont to do into the pores of the skin where by comparison to the more inward and hotter parts of the Sensory it must needs appear less agitated and consequently colder Besides that sometimes we may meet with certain Steams in the Air that have in reference to the Blood and Spirits of humane Bodies though not perhaps to divers other Liquors a certain hidden power of chilling as Opium ev'n in outward applications for in such ways I have known a great Chirurgion much use it and highly extol it strikes a Coldness into the Body by the subtile Effluvium's that insinuate themselves at the pores of the Skin and perhaps too that Coldness is ascrib'd to External Bodies which is produc'd in us by some Frigorifick Vapour or other distemper which being too slight to be taken notice of as a disease may yet be of Kin to those Agents that produce what Physicians call horrors and Rigors at the beginning of Feavers and some other distempers or produce that strange and universal Coldness of the external parts which is frequently enough observ'd among other Symptomes in Hysterical Women Moreover Bodies may often appear colder to us then to a Weather-glass because our Sensories are more affected by the density and Penetrancy of the parts This may seem somewhat strange but being sutable enough to some of my Conjectures about Cold I have often made Tryals with very nice Weather-glasses that have assur'd me that at least oft-times when water seems to be cold enough to our touch it appears not to be colder to the Weather-glass then the Ambient Air. These Trials I have sometimes made with seal'd Weather-glasses but the most with another sort of Weather-glasses whose structure and use are by and by to be mentioned which though they seldom prove durable nor of any great use in any other then such nice and short Experiments yet they discover slighter changes of the Temper of the Air then would be notable not to say sensible in ordinary Thermometers But of multitudes of Trials that I sometimes made with these Glasses I can at present find among my loose Papers but a very few and though I remember that in one or two made about the same time with some of those that follow I observ'd Things that make me now wish I had had Opportunity to make those further Trials of Them which some of their Phaenomena seem to direct the making of yet I shall annex these that follow as I find them entred because they are not perhaps destitute of hints improvable by further prosecution June 26. between two and four in the afternoon the Weather moderate for the season I took a thin white glass-Egge blown at a Lamp about the bigness of a Walnut with a stem coming out of it about the bigness of a large Pigeons Quill four or five Inches long and open at the Top this slender pipe being dipp'd in water admitted into its Cavity a little Cylinder of Water of half an Inch long or somewhat more which the Glass being erected subsided by its own weight or the Temper of the Air in the Egge in reference to the outward Air till it fell to the lower part of the Pipe where it comes out of the Egge and thereabout it would rest Now if taking this Glass by the Top betwixt my Thumb and forefinger I deprest the Egge under the surface of a Bason of fair water cold enough to the touch the little Aqueous Cylinder that parted betwixt the Air in the Egge and the external would instead of being made to subside by the Eggs immersion into the Cold water presently rise up from the lower part of the Pipe till it reach'd about the middle of it though the Glass were in this and the following Trials held erected and as soon as it was taken out of the Water into the Air the water would again subside whether I held the Glass or let it rest upon the Boards or a Linen Carpet that cover'd the Table on which the Trials were made And this I did several times as well with as without witness I tried also that if instead of water I made use of Quicksilver though not big enough to cover the Egge much above half way and in the rest proceeded as above the cold Quicksilver would presently make the Aqueous Cylinder hastily ascend near three Inches sometimes almost and sometimes quite to the Top of the slender pipe whence the water would again quickly subside when the Glass was taken out into the free Air or set to rest upright as before Besides having set the vessel of Quicksilver and the Bason of water very near one another I did at least upon three or four several Trials find as I expected that when by immersing the Egge in water the pendulous Cylinder was rais'd so high that it did no longer sensibly ascend by nimbly taking the Egge out of the water and depressing it in the Quicksilver it would rise far higher and I also tri'd that nimbly removing the Egge out of the Quicksilver into the water the pendulous Cylinder would subside after plunging the Egge under water though not so fast nor near so low as it would do in case the Glass were remov'd from the Quicksilver into the Air. Upon another Trial made much about this time though not the self same day the pendulous water in the same Glass the day being for the most part windy and rainy did subside upon the
immersion of the Glass into water not only a while before noon but an hour or two after dinner and at distant hours afterwards though the Descent of the Pendulous water was neither so quick nor so considerable as it had been formerly in the Mornings June 27. In the morning a small Cylinder of Water pendulous in the above mentioned Glass upon the immersion of the Egge in a Bason of water would immediately and very considerably subside whereas the same glass being immersed in the Vessel of Quicksilver formerly mentioned 〈◊〉 presently ascend Both parts of this Experiment we several times tried and the Reason was suspected to be that the Quicksilver had stay'd all night in my Chamber which was somewhat warm whereas the water was brought up that morning and to the touch seem'd colder then the Quicksilver and a while after dinner the same water having been still kept in the room we divers times found that as well That as the Quicksilver did immediately upon immersion impel up the pendulous water in the slender pipe Another time in frosty weather and about the beginning of January we did with such a glass as has been already several times mention'd take somedrops of water out of a vessel wherein that Liquor had for a good while been kept that it might be reduc'd as near as we could to the Temperature of the Ambient Air then 〈◊〉 the suspended water to continue a convenient while in the long and slender stem of the Weather-glass that the internal Air might be reduc'd to the temper of the external we took up the Glass by the open end and immersing the obtuse part of It into a shallow Vessel containing some of the above mentioned Water we found the suspended drop suddenly impell'd upwards about half an Inch or more and the Ball of the Thermometer being taken out of the Water into the Air the pendulous drop did again though far more slowly then it ascended subside This was repeated three or four times with some intervals between and that in a Room where there was no Chimney and still with the like success save that in the two last Trials we took the Weather-glass out of the shallow water and plunging it into a deep vessel of the same water that stood very near the other we found for further confirmation of the Experiment that the pendulous water was upon these new immersions impell'd up near if not full as high again as when we had immers'd it only in the shallow vessel and taking it out of this deep Glass we found the Cold of the external Air to reduce It to its former humble station Thus far the notes I have yet been able to recover and though as I said I dare not build very much upon them yet by small seal'd Weather-glasses I find enough to invite me to suspect that of the degrees of heat and cold in the Air we may receive differing informations when we imploy only our Organs of Touching and when we make use of fit Instruments I shall add on this occasion that not only water it self but moist vapours abounding in the Air may make Us think it colder then the Weather-glass discovers it to be For though it be generally taken for granted that the Thermometer does only more exactly measure or determine the Effects which cold hath both upon it and upon our Sensories yet I have long suspected that there is somewhat else in the case And I have observ'd that sometimes the weather seem'd more or less cold to me then that which preceded when the contrary appear'd in the Weather-glass and that when upon consideration of the whole matter that difference did not appear to depend upon those circumstances of Exercise or Rest or the Temperature of the Air I came out of or any of those other things to which a considerate man that goes upon no better then the common opinions about Weather-glasses would be apt to impute to that Phaenomenon And I was the less dispos'd to think my self mistaken because having purposely enquir'd of others in the same house who were not told what Information the Weather-glass gave they agreed with me in the sense I had of the Temperature of the Weather And having since as occasion serv'd communicated my Observations and suspitions to divers Ingenious Men I have been by their recenter Observations confirm'd that what I have taken notice of was not the Effect of any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From which and other particulars that we may have elsewhere opportunity to mention we may plausibly enough infer that it were not amiss not only to take notice when we have opportunity of the sense that is Express'd of the degrees of Cold by Birds and other animals whose diet is more simple and regular then ours and whose perceptions are commonly more delicate and less diverted but especially to examine the coldness of the Air and other Bodies as well by Experiments and instruments as by the touch And on this Occasion I must not pretermit that memorable Account that is given us by Martinius in that Noble piece of Geography which he calls Atlas Chinensis where speaking of the Air of that populous Countrey he has this singular passage Ad Caeli says he solique temperiem quod attinet majus in hac provinciâ frigus est quà m illius poscat poli altitudo vix enim illa excedit gradum secundum supra quadragesimum tamen per integros quatuor saepe menses flumina omnia adeò durè concrescunt gelu ut currus equosque 〈◊〉 gravissima etiam onera glacies ferat innoxiè acsecurissimè transeant ex iis ingentia etiam glaciei frusta exscindūtur quae in futuram aestatem ad delicias servant His 〈◊〉 omnes naves ita in ipsâ glacie defixae sunt ut progredi nequeant ubicunque illas frigus occupat quod certo certius circa medium Novembris ingruere solet per quatuor illos menses immotae ibi perstare coguntur neque enim resolvitur glacies ante Martii initium haec plerumque glaciei concretio uno fit die cum non nisi pluribus fiat liquefactio to which he adds what makes most to our present purpose 〈◊〉 illud mirum tantum non videri aut sentiri illud frigus ut Europeos ad hypocausta subeunda videatur posse cogere aut in Europâ ad glaciem producendam 〈◊〉 unde ad subterraneas illic exhalationes pro harum rerum causis indagandis 〈◊〉 recurrendum est c. But all that I have been implying of the Necessity and Usefulness of the Weather-glass is no way inconsistent with the truth of the latter part of our formerly propos'd paradox namely that we are not rashly to rely upon the Informations even of common Weather-glasses themselves For though they be an excellent Invention and their Informations in many Cases preferable to those of our senses because those Dead Engins are not in such cases obnoxious to the same Causes of uncertainty
with our Living Bodies yet I fear they have too much ascribed to them when they are look'd upon as such exact Instruments to measure heat and cold by that we neither can have nor need desire any better For not yet to mention some inconveniences in the contrivance of them which makes them unapplicable to some purposes and less proper in others then Thermoscopes might be made even in divers cases wherein they are presum'd to be unexceptionable their Reports are not to me I confess quite exempt from suspicion For in ordinary Weather-glasses some part of the Liquor being contiguous to the External Air it is subject to be impell'd more or less upwards not only according as heat or cold affects the included Air but according as the incumbent Air happens to be heavier or lighter And though this be a thing not taken Notice of by those that have treated of Weather-glasses yet 〈◊〉 what we have elsewhere manifested concerning the weight and spring of the Air aud what we have probably 〈◊〉 concerning the varying height of the Mercurial Cylinder in the Torrecellian Experiment I see not why It should not much call in Question the Informations we receive from common Weather-glasses in those cases where the height or weight of the Atmosphaerical pillar that presses upon the Water in the Weather-glass is considerably longer or shorter lighter or heavier then is usual For besides the reason of the thing we have Experience on our side I might mention on this Occasion an Experiment I thought on and also attempted last winter to show ev'n upon a Ballance the varying gravity of the Atmosphaere in one and the same place by hanging a small Metalline weight at one End of a pair of Scales so strangely exact that they would turn with far less then the 500. part of a grain and counterpoising it at the other end with a Hermetically seal'd Glass Bubble which being blown as large and as thin as could possibly be procur'd of so small a weight might by its great disproportion in Bulk to the Metalline Body lose more of its weight then That would upon the Ambient Airs growing more heavy But the particular Account of this Attempt belonging to another place the trial ought not to be more then hinted here especially since it may suffice for our present purpose to alledge that having found as we have already in other papers noted that in a Weather-glass where the Water is not fenc'd from the External Air the weight of the Atmosphaere may make it alter considerably between the Top and Bottom even of a Church or Steeple though it appear'd by more certain Thermoscopes that 't was not the differing Temperature of the Air as to Cold and Heat but the differing gravity of the Atmosphaere which being shorter and lighter at the Top press'd less forcibly upon the subjacent Water and the included Air as is more fully made out in the Treatise above related to And having by the intervention of a Learned Acquaintance desir'd to have some Experiments made of the Effect of the Air upon Weather-glasses in deep Pits or Mines where the Atmosphaerical Cylinder is longer and heavier I receiv'd Information that an Ingenious Physician who had the Opportunity of trying what I desir'd had found that in the Bottom of one of those very deep Pits the water in a common Weather glass rose near three Inches higher then at the top in a shank or pipe of about thirty Inches long And this notwithstanding the warmth that is usual in such deep places which seems not any thing near so plausibly referable to any other cause as to the increas'd gravity of the Atmosphaerical Pillar incumbent on the Water that Pillar being heavier at the Bottom then at the Mouth of the Pit by the weight of an aerial Pillar equal in length to the pits perpendicular height or depth But these are not the only Cases wherein the differing gravities of the Atmosphaere may as well as Heat and Cold have an interest in the rising and falling of the Liquor in Common Weather-glasses For though you should not remove them out of one place and though consequently it may seem that the Atmosphaerical Pillar that presses upon the water must be still of the same length yet not to urge that That may alter unknown to us if retaining its length it retain not its gravity we may be easily impos'd upon and take that Ascension or Subsidence of the Liquor for the Effect of a higher or remiss degree of Cold which may either totally or at least in part and in what part we are left to guess be the Effect of the increas'd or lessened weight of the Atmosphaerical Pillar happening either by the copious dispersion of Vapours and other heavy Steams through the Air or upon other Occasions not necessary to be here discours'd of or by the Praecipitation of such vapours by rain or into dew or else by the Removal of the Occasions of the Augmented Gravity or Pressure of the Air. For we have often observ'd great Variations to happen in the height of the Mercurial Cylinder in the Torricellian Experiment upon great rains and fogs and other sudden and considerable mutations of the Incumbent Air. But since I my self thought fit notwithstanding the plausible ratiocination that led me to this Conjecture to examine it by Experience I can scarce doubt but that others may have the like Curiosity that I had And therefore because it may seem a paradox it will not be amiss of many to annex three or four Trials I made to examine the propos'd doctrine especially ours having been the first observations of this kind that for ought we know have been made by any And indeed others could scarce have well made such though they had lighted on the same thoughts for want of such seal'd Weather-glasses to make them with To omit then those that I made with a seal'd Weather-glass and an ordinary one in which the water remains suspended beneath the included Air I shall briefly relate that in a Room unfurnished with a Chimney I kept two Weather-glasses which for more exactness sake I caus'd to be made of a length far greater then ordinary so that the divisions of the one were half inches and those of the other not much less and yet were Numerous The one of these which was furnished with good spirits of Wine was seal'd the other not but this last I caus'd to be so made of the shape represented by the Scheme that the Air being shut up in the lower part of the Instrument not as in common Weather-glasses at the Top the Liquor might as well in this as in the seal'd Weather-glass rise with heat and fall with Cold. In these Thermoscopes where the Ascension and relapse of the Liquors were by reason of the length of the Pipes far more conspicuous then in Vulgar Weather-glasses I observ'd with pleasure that the Hermetical Thermoscope if I may for distinction sake so call
It by reason of its being Hermetically seal'd did regularly enough descend in cold weather and ascend in 〈◊〉 But the other which was not seal'd but had a little hole left open at the Top of the Pipe though when the Atmosphaere continued of the same weight it would like the other rise with Heat and fall with Cold yet when the Atmosphaeres gravity was alter'd they would not uniformly move together but when as we gather'd from other observations the Atmosphaere grew heavier the Liquor in the Pipe did not ascend as high as it would have done if the Atmosphaere had continued in its former degree of gravitation And on the contrary when the incumbent Air came to be lighter the Liquor would rise in the open Weather-glass in a proportion greater then the single increase of heat would have exacted so that by comparing the two Weather-glasses together I did usually foretel whether the Mercury in the Torricellian Tube which I keep purposely by me in a frame were risen or fallen and consequently whether the external Air were heavier or lighter then before As on the other side by looking on the height of the Mercurial Cylinder I could easily tell before hand whether the Liquor in the open Weather-glass were higher or lower then that in the Hermetical the rising or falling of the Mercurial Cylinder one quarter of an Inch the Temperature of the Air continuing as to heat and cold usually signifying a great disparity betwixt the Ascension or the falling of the Liquors in the two Instruments Among the several notes I find among my loose papers and in a Diary I kept for a while of these observations I shall content my self to transcribe the following two because though divers others were made by my Amanuensis whose care is not to be distrusted yet by reason of my absence I could not take notice of them my self The first of these Memorandums runs thus Last night I took notice that there was but one or two Divisions difference betwixt the two Thermometers but upon such a change of Weather that happened this day as made me imagine that the Atmosphaere would be lighter then 〈◊〉 consulting the Barometer if to avoid Circumlocutions I may so call the whole Instrument wherein a Mercurial Cylinder of 29. or 30. Inches is kept suspended after the manner of the Torricellian Experiment I found the Quicksilver lower then it had been a great while and thereupon concluding there would be a notable disparity between the seal'd and open Weather-glass I hastned to them and found that the latter being much alleviated from the weight of the Incumbent Air was no less then 17. Divisions higher then the others and comparing the height the two Instruments were this day at with an observation I my self made about a week ago when the Quicksilver was much higher then now it is I found that although this afternoon the seal'd Glass being at 41 the other was at 58 yet Then when the seal'd Weather-glass was five divisions higher namely at 46 the unseal'd Weather-glass was but at 27. So that betwixt that time and this the Liquor in the seal'd Weather-glass has descended five Divisions but that in the open Weather-glass has ascended 31. Thus far the first of the above mentioned Notes the second is as follows The Mercurial Cylinder being higher then it has been a good while and yet the Weather warm and Sun-shiny when the Liquor in the seal'd Glass stood very near the 50th division that in the unseal'd was fallen down as low as the 32. So that it is very possible that the unheeded change in the weight of the external Air may have a greater power to compress the included Air in an unseal'd Weather-glass then a not inconsiderable degree of warmth may have to dilate it and consequently in an ordinary Weather-glass where the Air is included at the Top it may often fall out that contrary to what men suppose must needs happen the pendulous Water may rise in warmer weather and fall in colder And ev'n since the writing of the immediately foregoing part of this page within a few days that interven'd I have my self made observations that do yet more clearly manifest this truth as may appear by the following notes The first of which speaks 〈◊〉 Memorandum that Yesterday night the Quicksilver being at 29 Inches the Liquors in the seal'd and unseal'd Weather-glasses were near about the same Division the former being at 40 and the other being but half a Division short of that Number But this night the Quicksilver being risen about ¼ of an Inch the Liquor in the seal'd is ascended to 45 and the other descended beneath 35 about half a Division so that there is now 10 Divisions between them This is the first Note to which the following night enabled me to add this other The Quicksilver being risen almost ¾ of an Inch above the station it rested at the night before last night the Hermetical Weather-glass being as it was then above the 40 Division the Liquor in the other which was open in two days and nights is fallen to the 17 and consequently is subsided about 23 Divisions whilest the other is about the same height at which it was at the beginning of that time Two or three days after being returned to the place wherein I had made this last observation and from which some urgent Occasions had for that time exacted my absence I found the Disparity betwixt the two Thermometers that is express'd in the following Memorial This day the Quicksilver being risen to 30 Inches when the Liquor in the seal'd Weather-glass was at about 41 Divisions that in the other was depress'd a pretty deal below the Ninth Division so that the difference between the two Thermometers was increas'd since the last Observation from 23 to near 33 Divisions all which the Liquor in the open Weather-glass had sunk down whilest that in the seal'd continued almost at a stand And the day after this Memorial I had occasion to register another which being the last I shall here think requisite to take notice of in this 〈◊〉 I shall subjoyn it with that which immediately preceded in order of Time This day the Quicksilver continuing at the same height at which I observ'd it yesterday but the Weather being grown much colder the Liquor appears in both the Glasses to have uniformly enough subsided that in the seal'd Weather-glass being about the 33 and the other being sunk quite below the lowest mark of all which was more then I apprehended it would have done when there was no frost especially since by my Diary it appears that one of the last times I observ'd the Hermetical Weather-glass to stand at near about the same height namely the 34 the Liquor in the other Glass was no lower then the 41 nor probably would there be now so great a difference if the Atmosphaere had not been this day very heavy whereas when this freshly recited observation was made I find
by the Diary the Quicksilver to have ascended but to 29 Inches and a pretty deal less then a half Since that time being forced by several Avocations to be often absent from the place where my Thermoscopes were kept I was not careful to prosecute such Observations those already set down not to mention those that are not here transcrib'd being judg'd abundantly sufficient to evince the Paradox propos'd to be prov'd by them Only to manifest that after I desisted from registring my Observations the Phaenomena may probably have been as remarkable as before I shall add That one of the last times I chanc'd to take notice of the Difference to be gather'd by comparing the two Weather-glasses I found the weather happening to be warmer then ordinary the difference between them to exceed any that I remembred my self to have then observ'd amounting to forty four if not to forty five Divisions And ev'n since the writing of the Last Line we have had opportunity to observe a Phaenomenon which if it had occurr'd to us in the place where we might have compar'd the Barascope with the Exact Weather-glasses hitherto mention'd and whereby we had been invited to rely upon it would perhaps appear more Considerable then any of the Observations yet recorded For not very many hours ago finding in the Morning the Quicksilver to be risen in a good Barascope of mine though another from that all this while referred to and elsewhere kept above ¾ of an Inch higher then the place it rested at the Night foregoing and a somewhat Nice Weather-glass where the included Air is kept in the lower part of the Instrument which is shaped like that already describ'd in this Discourse being consulted to show what Effect so great and sudden a change of the Atmosphaeres gravity would have upon it I saw the tincted Liquor in the shank depress'd a full Inch or more beneath the Surface of the Ambient Liquor in the Viol which strange depression of the Liquor in a pipe above 20 Inches long and where the alterations of the Air as to Heat and Cold are not wont to produce any thing near so great an Effect I could not but take much notice of Since the season of the year makes it no way likely that the night though Cold could have had so powerful an Operation on it especially since an Amanuensis that watch'd it much longer then I affirms that he saw the Liquor driven down quite to the very Bottom of the pipe and a Bubble of the outward Air to make its passage through the water and to joyn with the Air contain'd in the cavity of the Viol. The II. Discourse Containing some New Observations about the Deficiencies of Weather-glasses together with some Considerations touching the New or Hermetical Thermometers ANd since I had occasion to speak of the Deficiencies of Weather-glasses and the mistakes whereto men are liable in the Judgement they make of Cold and Heat upon Their Informations it will not perhaps appear impertinent to add three or four Considerations more to excite men to the greater Wariness and Industry both in the making and using Weather-glasses and in their Judging by them 1. And first I consider that we are very much to seek for a Standard or certain Measure of Cold as we have setled Standards for weight and magnitude and time so that when a man mentions an Aker or an Ounce or an Hour they that hear him know what he means and can easily exhibit the same measure but as for the degrees of Cold as we have elsewhere noted concerning those of Heat we have as yet no certain and practicable way of determining them for though if I use a Weather glass long 't is easie for me to find when the Weather is colder or when warmer then it was at the time when the Weather-glass was first finished yet that is a way of estimating whereby I may in some degrees satisfie my self but cannot so well instruct others since I have no certain way to know determinately so as to be able to communicate my knowledge to a remote Correspondent what degree of Coldness or Heat there was in the Air when I first finished my Thermoscope For besides that we want distinct Names for the several gradual differences of Coldness we have already declar'd that our sense of feeling cannot safely be relied upon to measure them and as for the Weather-glass that is a thing which in this case is suppos'd to be no fit Standard to tell us what was precisely the temper of the Air when it self was first finished since that does but inform us of the recessions from it or else that the Air continues in the Temper it was in at the making of the Instrument but does not determine for us that Temper and enable us to express it as indeed it is so mutable a thing ev'n in the same place and oft-times in the same day if not the same hour that it seems little else then a Moral impossibility to settle such an universal procurable Standard of Cold as we have of several other things And indeed there is scarce any Quality for whose differences we have fewer distinct Names having scarce any for the many degrees of Coldness that may be conceiv'd to be intermediate betwixt Lukewarmness and the Freezing degree of Cold and even these are undefin'd enough for that which to some mens senses will feel Lukewarm by others will be judg'd Hot and by others perhaps cold nor is even the glaciating degree of Coldness well determin'd since not only differing Liquors as oyl wine and water will manifestly freez much more easily one then another but even Liquors of the same denomination and of waters themselves some are more easily turn'd into Ice then others and I see no great cause to doubt but that there may be sufficiently differing degrees of Cold whereof the mildest may suffice for the congelation of some waters I must not forget to add that the same person that has made many observations with a Weather-glass is so confin'd by that numerical Instrument that if by the spilling of the Liquor or the cracking of the Glass or the casual intrusion of some Bubbles of Air or by any of divers other Accidents that may happen the Instrument should be spoil'd he would though he should imploy again the same Instrument be reduc'd to seek out 〈◊〉 new Standard wherewith to measure the varying temperature of the Air. And though it be not difficult to include in the Cavity of a Weather-glass some other fluid Body instead of Air yet it will be very difficult if not impossible to include a Body fit to resent and show the Alterations of the Ambient Air without being also liable to receive impressions from it at the time of its being first shut up Yet I will not here omit that I have sometimes consider'd whether the essential oyl of Aniseeds which is that that is distill'd by the intervention of water in a
Limbeck might not during a good part of the year be of some use to us in making and judging of Weather-glasses For this Liquor as we 〈◊〉 also note having the peculiarity of loosing its fluidity during almost all the Winter and a good part of the Spring and Autumn too when the Weather or the time of the day is colder this Liquor I say being such in case you very gently thaw it and then putting into it the Ball of a Weather-glass furnish'd with spirit of Wine that will burn all away you suffer the oyl to re-congeal leisurely of it self you may by observing the station of the spirit of Wine in the Thermoscope when the Oyl begins manifestly to curdle about it be in some measure assisted to make another Weather-glass like it For if you put such rectified spirit of Wine into a Glass the Cavity of whose Sphaerical and that of its Cylindrical part are as near as may be equal to the correspondent Cavities in the former Glass you may by some heedful Trials made with thaw'd and recongeal'd oyl of Aniseeds bring the second Weather-glass to be somewhat like the first and if you know the Quantity of your spirit of Wine you may easily enough make an estimate by the place it reaches to in the Neck of the Instrument whose capacity you also know whether it expands or contracts it self to the 40 the 30 or the 20 part c. of the 〈◊〉 it was of when the Weather-glass was made By the help of the same Oyl you may make some kind of estimate though a more uncertain one of the difference of two Weather-glasses of unequal bigness And though I know how much may be alledg'd to show the uncertainty of this way of making a Standard for Weather-glasses yet as what I have formerly represented may manifest me to be far enough from looking on it as an exact Standard of Cold so perhaps the way propos'd may not be altogether useless in the making and comparing Weather-glasses since in such cases where we are not to expect to hit the mark it self it is of some advantage to be able to shoot less wide of it then otherwise we should II. But not to insist any further on a difficulty which is so hardly 〈◊〉 as that which occurs about setling a perfect Standard of Cold there are unaccuratenesses in the measuring of Cold by Weather-glasses which may be avoided but are not For Men are not wont to take care that the Stems be even and Cylindrical enough but are wont to make use of such as are much wider at the upper part near the bubble then otherwhere nor do they observe as they might a proportion betwixt the Diameter of the Bore of the Cylinder and that of the Cavity of the Sphaerical Bubble and divers other circumstances are commonly neglected which if well order'd would make much towards the Certainty and instructiveness of the Informations afforded us by Weather-glasses To which may be added that even in those where some part of the Liquor is expos'd to the external Air there may be made Contrivances much more convenient in order at least to some particular purposes then that of the Vulgar Weather-glass some of which we have imploy'd and others have been either skilfully devis'd or also happily attempted by some eminently ingenious Members of the Royal Society And though that which we have already discrib'd in another Treatise be very simple yet it is much more commodious for several of the following Experiments of Cold then that which is commonly in use For in this where the included Air is as it were pendulous at the Top of the Glass 't is very troublesome and difficult so to apply Cold Bodies and especially Liquid ones to it as therewith to measure their Temper whereas the Thermometers I speak of being made by the insertion of a Cylindrical pipe of Glass open at both ends into a Viol or Bottle and by exactly stopping with sealing wax or very close Cement the Mouth of the Viol that the included Air may have no communication with the External but by the newly mentioned Pipe In this kind of Instrument I say by chusing a Viol as large as you please and fitting it with a Cylynder slender enough the proportion between the part of the Viol possest by included Air and the Cavity of the Cylinder in which the Liquor is to play up and down may be easily made so great as to make the Liquor in this Instrument with the same degree of Heat or Cold rise or fall four or five or more times as much as the pendulous Liquor is wont to do in an Ordinary Weather-glass where the cavity that lodges the Air is wont to be much too small considering the Bigness of the pipe whereinto the Air must when 't is rarifi'd expand it self But 't is not the greater sensibility if I may so speak of this very kind of Weather-glasses nor their not needing frames that makes me take notice of them in this place where I purposely pass by contrivances that I know to be more curious but this other Quality which makes them fit for divers of the following Experiments wherein we shall have occasion to mention them namely that with little or no trouble and inconvenience we may imploy Liquors or other Bodies to refrigerate the included Air by immersing the Viol if need be by a weight into the Liquor to be examin'd and letting it stand there as long as we please And so we may also measure the Coldness of Earth Snow powder'd Ice and other consistent Bodies which may be heap'd about the Viol or in which it may be buri'd III. I consider too that though men are wont confidently enough to conclude that in case for instance the Coldness of the weather make the Liquor in a Thermoscope yesterday an Inch higher then 't was the day before and this day an Inch higher then 't was yesterday the Air must be this day as cold again as it was yesterday or at least that the increase of Cold must be double to what it was yesterday and so in other proportions yet the Validity of this Collection may very justly be Question'd For though we should grant that Cold is that which of it self or by its own power contracts the Air yet how does it appear that a double degree of Cold must produce a double degree of condensation in the Air and not either more or less Since besides that 't is taken for granted but not prov'd that the differing Quantities of included Air in several Instruments and the differing bignesses of the Pipes and the differing degrees of Expansion wherein the included Air may happen to be when the Ascension of the Water begins to be reckon'd may render this Hypothesis very suspicious besides all this I say I am not inclin'd to grant what Philosophers have hitherto suppos'd that the Condensation of the Air and the ascension of the Water is only or so much
Theory of Cold which is not yet sufficiently clear'd Only because the former Experiments show That the various Agitation of the minute parts of a Liquor whereon its Fluidity depends may be hindred or suppressed by the intervention of adventitious 〈◊〉 But do not clearly show That the Liquor by being depriv'd of that Kind of Agitation does actually acquire a Coldness I might subjoyn thus much that by the Addition of a certain substance which for just reasons I must forbear to describe that would scarce sensibly refrigerate common Water I can make a certain and for ought I know one only Liquor that is wont to the touch to be much of the Temper of Water to conceive a considerable degree of Coldness This I say as strange as it may seem I might here subjoyn to countenance the Conjectures I have been delivering and afford some new Corrolaries but for the Reason newly intimated I forbear and the rather because I think it high time to return thither whence the Considerations I have offer'd about Weather-glasses have made me digress I was going then to take notice upon the Occasion offer'd by what I related of the Influence of the Atmosphaeres gravity upon common Weather-glasses of the difference between them and those that are Hermetically seal'd And indeed these are in some things so much more convenient then the others that if I be not mistaken it has already prov'd somewhat serviceable to the Inquisitive that I have directed the making of the first of them that have been blown in England At the Beginning indeed I had difficulty to bring men to believe there would be a rarefaction and condensation of a liquor Hermetically seal'd up because of the School Doctrine touching the impossibility of a vacuum and especially because I had never seen any Experiment of this kind nor met with any that had but after some Trials which my Conjectures led me to make succesfully enough that in Hermetically seal'd Glasses both Air and Water might be alternately rarifi'd and condens'd I found my work much facilitated by the sight of a small seal'd Weather-glass newly brought by an Ingenious Traveller from Florence where it seems some of the Eminent Virtuosi that enobled that fair City had got the start of us in reducing seal'd Glasses into a convenient shape for Thermoscopes But since that the Invention has in England by a dexterous hand that uses to make them for me been improv'd and the Glasses we now use are more conveniently shap'd and more Exact then the Pattern I caused the first to be made by But the filling of these long ones that we now use is a work of more niceness and difficulty then they that have not tried will be apt to imagine and therefore may elsewhere deserve either from our Pen or his that is most vers'd in making them a more particular account of the way of Performing it The advantages of these Weather-glasses being at no hand inconsiderable For the weight or pressure of the Atmosphaere which as we have noted may work very much upon others their being seal'd defends them from And by this Advantage they may be us'd in the highest and in the deepest places with as much certainty as any where else Next whereas in other Thermometers the Liquor is very subject to be spilt in case they be removed from place to place and which is worse though they be not remov'd is subject to be prey'd upon and wasted by the Air whereby informations of such Weather-glasses are rendred in Tract of time somewhat uncertain In seal'd Weather-glasses there is no danger that Liquor should either spill or evaporate And upon the same Account 〈◊〉 have this Advantage that you may safely let them down into the Sea and immerse them in any Liquor you please without excepting the most corrosive to examine their Coldness Not to mention that instead of the courser Liquors used in common Weather-glasses which are some of them not unapt to freez and others unapt enough to comply with the slighter alterations of the Air and instead of the colourless Liquor whether water or no I know not us'd in the Florentine Weather-glass I saw We imploy highly rectifi'd spirit of Wine whose being brought to a lovely red with Cochinele open'd by the most subtile volatile spirit of Urine by which means the included Liquor is not only very conspicuous and secur'd from freezing but so susceptible of even the slighter impressions of external Bodies which would work but faintly on water that 't is pleasant to see how many Inches a mild degree of heat will make the Tincture ascend in the very slender Cylindrical stem of one of these useful Instruments of which we have spoken the more particularly in this place because we shall have frequent occasions to mention them in the following Papers and no body as yet that we know has written any Account of them But though these Weather-glasses be much more to be relied on then those that are commonly in use yet we would have a Philosopher look upon both these and our Sensories but as Instruments to be imployed by his Reason when he makes his Estimates of the Coldness of Bodies And though perhaps it will signifie nothing in the Event yet I see not why it should misbecome a Naturalists Diligence and circumspection to try whether ev'n such weather-glasses ought to be so far allow'd of as to hinder men from looking after any other kind of ways of estimating Cold. For though the sealing of these Weather-glasses protect the included Liquor from the pressure of the Air and keep it from evaporating yet it will not follow from hence that they must be exempt from all the other imperfections which we formerly mention'd to be imputable to Weather-glasses I know not whether you will allow me to add on this occasion that the tincted spirit of Wine and the like may for ought we know be said of any such Liquor being a particular mixture in case it be allow'd possible that the subtile steams of such Bodies as we formerly noted to be frigorifick in respect to some Liquors may insinuate themselves through the pores of Glass as 't is granted that the Effluviums of the Loadstone do readily per-meat It in this Case I say though I willingly allow it not to be likely yet it is not absolutely impossible that some Steams that wander through the Air may be more or less Cold or may more promote or hinder an agitation among the minute parts in reference to It then in reference to other Liquors as we formerly noted that a grain or two of Opium will exceedingly allay the warmth and motion of the whole mass of Blood in a mans Body though ten times that Quantity will not sensibly refrigerate the tenth part of so much water And that this may appear the less extravagant I shall here add some mention of an odd Phaenomenon that as it were by some Fate has occur'd to me since I began the Discourse
I am now upon for whilest I was yesterday writing It I had occasion to Examine by such a Seal'd Weather-glass as I have been speaking of the Temper of a certain strange kind of mixture that towards the close of this Treatise I shall have Occasion to take special Notice of and though to the touch it appear'd but Lukewarm yet having put into it the Ball and part of the stem of the seal'd Weather-glass I found the Included Liquor slowly enough impell'd up so high that at length to my wonder it rose eight or nine Inches in a Stem which was not much above a foot long but that which I relate as the surprizing Circumstance is that when I had taken out the Thermoscope and remov'd it again into a deep Glass full of Cold water whence I had just before taken it out to put it into the Anomalous mixture I had a mind to examine the Tincture in the Weather-glass did not as it was wont and as any one would have expected begin to subside again towards its former station but continued within about half an Inch or less of the very Top of the Instrument though neither my own busie Eyes nor those of a person very well Vers'd in making and using Thermoscopes could perceive that the expanded Tincture was any where discontinued by any Air or Bubbles which at first we suspected might possibly though it were very unlikely have been generated by the Tepor of the mixture But that which continued our wonder if not increased it was that during four or five hours that the Instrument continued in the Cold water and during some hours also that it was expos'd to the Air the Tincture did not subside above half an Inch and which is yet more strange having left the Glass all night in the window of a Room where there was no Chimney I found in the morning that its descent was scarce sensibly greater for it continued about eight Inches higher then the mark it stood at when I first put it into the Lukewarm mixture and how long it will yet retain this strange expansion is more then I can tell But by this and what I may have occasion hereafter to relate concerning this mixture it may appear somewhat the more reasonable to suspect that even seal'd Weather-glasses furnished with high rectifi'd spirit of Wine may in some though very rare conjunctures of Circumstances and from some peculiar Agents either by their insinuating themselves through the Pores of the Glass or on some other Account receive impressions that as far as can easily be discern'd are not purely the genuine and wonted Operations of Heat and Cold. The Chymist Orthelius tells us that the Liquor distill'd from the Oar of Magnesia or Bismute which seems to be the same Mineral that we in English call Tin-glass will swell in the Glass 't is kept in not only manifestly but very considerably at the full Moon and shrink at the new Moon and if all my endeavours to procure that Oar had not prov'd fruitless I should be able by my own Experience to disprove or confirm so admirable a Phaenomenon but being as yet unfurnish'd to make the Trial my self lest it might appear a Vanity so much as to mention without rejecting it a thing so very unlikely I shall add that since I find the Thing for the main which was delivered by the Chymist imploy'd as an Argument by a famous Mathematician the Jesuite Casatus whose expressions are such as if he himself had observ'd that even in stopt Glasses the foremention'd Mineral spirit increased very sensibly in Bulk about the time of the full Moon which wonder being admitted may not only countenance what we were saying but hint some other very strange things in Nature This brings into my mind what I have elsewhere mention'd that a Tincture of Amber I had made with high rectifi'd spirit of Wine did for many Moneths in a well stopt Glass discover it self to be affected with certain changes which were thought to proceed from some secret mutations of the Air that did sensibly so work as I had not observed it to do upon other Liquors wherein the spirit of Wine abounded And perhaps upon long and diligent observation one might find a Disparity betwixt Weather-glasses kept in the same place but furnished with differing Liquors a Disparity I say that could not be so well ascrib'd to any thing as to the peculiar Nature of the Respective Liquors which though of divers kinds may to add that towards the facilitation of Trials be made of a very conspicuous colour by the self-same Metal Copper which not only gives the Known colour in Aqua fortis but affords a fair solution in Aqua Regis and it makes a Liquor of a most deep and lovely blew in spirit of Urine or of Sal Armoniack and the like nay I have found that in good Chymical Oyl of Turpentine for express'd oyls are too easily congeal'd the bare filings of it will yield a sufficient Tincture But because it is yet but a bare suspicion that Seal'd Weather-glasses made of differing Liquors but in other points alike may be otherwise then uniformly affected by the Temperature of the External Air I shall now add an observation already made to show that even the Seal'd Weather-glasses furnish'd with spirit of Wine are not so perfectly secluded from all commerce with external Bodies and liableness to their operations but that they may be wrought upon otherwise then we think For I have more then once observ'd that even in seal'd Thermoscopes made purposely at home for me and with great care by the expertest maker of Them after a good while and when no such matter was expected there have emerg'd Bubbles which whether they proceeded from some undiscernable Particles of Air harbour'd in the Pores of the Water which in process of time by their Union came to make conspicuous Bubbles or from some dispos'd particles of the spirit of Wine it self by successive alterations brought to a state of Elasticity I now examine not but only affirm that sometimes I have had of these Bubbles great enough to possess the space of many Inches in the shank of a long seal'd Weather-glass and I have been troubled with them in more Weather-glasses then one or two which I therefore take Notice of not only because it serves to prove what I was saying but because it is very fit an Advertisement should be given of it to prevent mistakes For when these Bubbles are small and are generated or happen to stay at or about the Place where the Sphaerical and Cylindrical parts of the Glass meet they may easily as I have observ'd lurk unheeded and reaching from side to side so divide the spirit of Wine in the Ball from That in the Stem that the latter shall not be able 〈◊〉 rise and fall according to the changes of the weather the Bubble notwithstanding its aerial nature being more indispos'd to be mov'd up and
down in the slender Stem of a small Weather-glass then the spirit of Wine it self as we have elsewhere shown that when Air is not forc'd a Bubble of it will not in several cases so readily pass through a very narrow passage as would that grosser fluid Water But all these difficulties not to call them extravagances which I have been mentioning about seal'd Weather-glasses I represent not to show that it is at least as yet worth while to suspect ours so far as to imploy all the Diligence and Inventions that were 〈◊〉 to prevent or silence the suspicions of a Sceptick or that might be thought upon in case the matter did require or deserve such extraordinary Nicety but only to give men a rise to consider whether it would be amiss to take in when Occasion presents it self as many collateral Experiments and Observations as conveniently we can to be made use of as well as our Sensories and Weather-glasses in the Dijudications of Cold. And perhaps an Attentive Enquiry purposely made would discover to us several other Bodies Natural or Factitious which we might make some use of in estimating the degrees of Cold. For though to give an instance 〈◊〉 be thought the Liquor that is most susceptible of such an Intensity of Cold as will destroy or suspend its Fluidity yet not here to repeat what we formerly deliver'd of the easie congealableness of Oyl of Aniseeds we have as we elsewhere note to another purpose distill'd a substance from Benzoin which becomes of a fluid a consistent Body and may be reduc'd to the state of fluidity again by very much lesser alterations of the Ambient Air as to Heat and Cold then would have produc'd Ice or Thaw'd it I could also here take notice of what I have sometimes observ'd in Amber-greese dissolv'd in high rectifi'd spirit of Wine or in other Sulphurous or Resinous concretions dissolv'd in the same Liquor for now and then though it seem'd a mere Liquor in warm Weather it would in Cold weather let go part of what it swallow'd up and afterwards redissolve it upon the return of warm weather some of these concretions as I have seen in Excellent Amber-greese shooting into fine figur'd masses others being more rudely congeal'd And I might also add what I have observ'd in Chymical Liquors not unskilfully prepar'd out of Urine Harts-horn c. which would sometimes seem to be totally clear Spirits and at other times would suffer a greater or lesser proportion of Salt to Chrystallize at the Bottom according to the Mutations of the Weather in point of Cold and Heat Such kind of instances I say I could mention but I shall rather chuse to prosecute my Examples in that obviousest of Liquors Water and add that even That may afford us other Testimonies of the increased or lessen'd cold of the Air then that which it gives us in Common Weather-glasses For in some parts of France the Watermen observe that the Rivers will bear Boats heavier loaden in Winter then in Summer and I have upon inquiry been credibly inform'd that Seamen have observ'd their ships to draw less water upon the Coasts of frozen Regions where yet the Sea is wont to be less brackish then they do on our British Seas which argues that water is thicker and heavier in Winter then in Summer Nay I shall add that not only in differing Seasons of the Year but even at several times of the same day I have often observed the Coldness of the Air to be regularly enough so much greater at one time of the day then at another that a Glass bubble Hermetically seal'd and pois'd so as to be exactly of the same weight with its equal Bulk of Water as that Liquor was constituted at one time of the Day would about Noon when the warmth that the Summers Sun produc'd in the Air had somewhat rarifi'd the water and thereby made it bulk for bulk somewhat lighter then before the Bubble would sink to the Bottom of the water which for the better marking the Experiment I kept in a Glass-Tube but when at night the coolness of the Air had recondens'd the water and thereby made it heavier it began by little and little to buoy up the Bubble which usually by morning regain'd the Top of the Water and at other times of the day it not unfrequently happen'd that the Bubble continued swimming up and down betwixt the Top and the Bottom without reaching either of them sometimes staying so long in the same part of the Tube that it much surpriz'd divers of the Virtuosi themselves who thought the poising of a weight so nicely not only a very great difficulty as indeed it is but an insuperable one But of this Experiment I elsewhere say more and because about other Weather-glasses I have said so much already I think it may not be improper to Sum up my thoughts concerning the Criteria of Cold by representing the following particulars 1. That by reason of the various and unheeded predispositions of our Bodies the single and immediate informations of our senses are not always to be trusted 2. That though Common Weather-glasses are useful Instruments and the informations they give us are in most cases preferrable to those of our sense of touching in regard of their not being so subject to unheeded mutations yet ev'n these Instruments being subject to be wrought upon by the differing weights of the Atmosphaere as well as by Heat and Cold may upon that and perhaps some other accounts easily mis-inform us in several cases unless in such Cases we observe by other Instruments the present weight of the Atmosphaere 3. That the seal'd Weather-glasses we have been mentioning are so far preferrable to the Common ones as especially they not being obnoxious to the various pressure of the external Air that there seems no need in most cases to decline their reports or postpose Them to those of any other Instruments But yet in some nice Cases it may be prudent where it may conveniently be done to make use also of other ways of examining the Coldness of Bodies that the concurrence or variance to be met with in such ways of Examination may either confirm the Testimony of the Weather-glass or excite or assist us to a further and severer inquiry 4. That I would not have Men too easily deterr'd from devising and trying various Experiments if otherwise not unlikely or irrational about the estimating of Cold by their appearing disagreeable to the vulgar Notions about that Quality For I doubt our Theory of Cold is not only very imperfect but in great part ill grounded And I should never have ventur'd at trying to make seal'd Weather-glasses if I could have been withheld either by the grand Peripatetick Opinion that to shun a void water must remain suspended in Glasses where if it fall the Air cannot succeed it or the general opinion ev'n of Philosophers as well new as old That Air must be far easier then any visible Liquor
ingenious modern Naturalists who acknowledging that the Air has a weight which Mr. Hobs also does in effect admit though he make not so good use of it as they do by that explicate the ascension of water in Weather-glasses teaching that the Cold of the Ambient Air making the included Air shrink into far less room then it possest before the water in the subjacent Vessel is by the weight of the incumbent Air which presses on it more forcibly in all the other parts of its surface then it is press'd upon in that included in the shank impell'd up into that part of the shank which was newly deserted by the self-contracting Air. But though this Account be preferable by far to those which we mention'd before it and though it be not only ingenious but as far as it reaches true yet to me I confess it seems not sufficient and therefore I would supply what is defective by taking in the pressure and in some cases the spring of the external Air not only against the surface of water for That the newly mention'd explication likewise does but also against the internal or included Air. For the recited Hypothesis gives indeed a rational account why the water is impell'd into the place deserted by the Air but then supposes that the Air is made to contract it self by cold alone when it makes room for the water that succeeds in its place whereas I am apt to think that both the effects may proceed at least in great part from the same cause and that the pressure of the contiguous and neighbouring Air does according to my Conjecture eminently concur to reduce the cool'd Air shut up in the Weather-glass into a narrower space This it does in common Weather-glasses because the Ambient Air retains the whole pressure it has upon the Account of its weight whereas the internal Air by its refrigeration even when but equal to that of the External Air looses part of the pressure it had upon the account of its now weakned spring But this as I newly intimated is not the sole account upon which the Air may in some sorts of Weather-glasses impel up the water and contribute to the condensation of the Air incumbent on the water For in some circumstances one or two of which we shall produce by and by it may so happen that the rest of the Air that bears upon the water to be rais'd will not be so much refrigerated as the included Air that is to be condens'd and consequently the other Air will have a stronger spring then this last mention'd Air will retain and therefore the former will have a greater pressure then the latter will be able to resist We shall not now examine whether the spring of the Air depend upon the springy structure of each aerial Corpuscle as the spring of wool does upon the Texture of the particular hairs it consists of or upon the agitation of some interfluent subtile matter that in its passage through the aerial particles whirles each of them about or upon both these causes together or upon some other differing from either of them but this seems probable enough that as when Air being seal'd up in a Glass is afterwards well heated though it acquire not any greater dimensions as to sense then it had before yet it has its spring much increased by the Heat as may appear if the seal'd Tip be broken under water by the eruption of Bubbles by the indeavour of the imprison'd Air to expand it self so upon the refrigeration of the Air so seal'd up though the additional spring if I may so speak which the Heat gave it will be lost upon the recess of that Heat or as soon as the effect of that heat is distroy'd yet there will remain in the included Air a considerable spring and sufficient to make it as well fill at least as to sense the cavity of the seal'd Glass as it did when its spring was stronger And proportionably we may conceive that though Cold at least such as we meet with in this climate of ours do make the spring of an included parcel of Air weaker then it was before the refrigeration of that Air yet it may not make it so much weaker but that the aerial Corpuscles may be kept so far extended as not at all or scarce sensibly to quit the room they possest before in case there be not contiguous to them any other Body which by its pressure indeavours to thrust them inwards and so make them desert part of that space which clause I therefore add because that if the case propos'd do happen 't is obvious to conceive that the weakned spring of the Air cannot retain so much force to resist an external pressure as it would have if the Cold had not debilitated it and consequently this cooled Air must yield and suffer it self to be condens'd if it come to be expos'd to a pressure to which it was but equal before its being weakned And such in common Weather-glasses is the pressure that is constantly upon the surface of the water without the Pipe upon the account of the gravity of as much of the Air or Atmosphaere as comes to bear upon it Having thus explain'd our conjecture we will now proceed to the Experiments we made to countenance it as we find them entred in our loose notes In one of which I find what follows We took a Viol capable of containing five or six ounces of water and having fill'd it almost half full with that Liquor we inverted into it a Glass-pipe of about 10. Inches long and much bigger then a large Swans Quill seal'd at one end and at the other fill'd top full with water so that the open Orifice being immers'd under the Vessell'd water of the Viol there remain'd no Air at the Top of the Pipe Then as much of the Orifice of the Viols neck as was not fill'd by the pipe being carefully clos'd with Cement that no Air could get in or out the Viol was plac'd in snow and salt till the vessell'd water began to freez at the Top and Bottom And according to our expectation we found that notwithstanding this great degree of infrigeration of the Air in the Viol the water in the Pipe did not at all descend So that either the Air did not shrink by so great a Cold or the water whether to avoid a vacuum or otherwise did not remove out of the Pipe to possess the place deserted by the refrigerated Air. Afterwards we endeavoured to repeat the Experiment with the same Glasses but having had occasion to be absent a little too long though not very long we found at our return the upper and seal'd part of the pipe beaten out which we suppos'd to have been done by the intumescence of the water in the Viol upon its glaciation Wherefore we fastned into the same Viol another Pipe some Inches longer then the former and drawn very slender at the seal'd end that it might
Glass-egg with a long stem which stem was purposely so bent that it represented a glass-Syphon in whose shorter leg the glass was drawn very small that it might be the more easily first seal'd and then broken This done we got in a convenient Quantity of water which ascended to a pretty height in both the legs of the bent glass after which the shorter leg being nimbly seal'd after the manner hereafter to be mention'd there remained a pretty Quantity of air above the water in that shorter leg which was purposely left there that it might by its spring impel up the water in the longer leg upon the refrigeration of the Air included in that longer leg All this being done the whole glass was so plac'd in a convenient frame that the oval part of it was supported by the frame beneath which the bended shank of the Weather-glass did hang so that a mixture of Ice and Salt might be conveniently laid upon this frame to surround and refrigerate the air included in the Egg without much cooling the air in the Cylindrical part of the Glass The account that I find of this Trial in one of my notes is this In the greater bent Egg that was seal'd up with water in both legs upon the application of Ice and Salt to the Ellipsis at a convenient time the water in the longer leg ascended a little but not by our guess above a barley Corns length if near so much and about four Inches of air as I remember that were left in the shorter leg expanded it self to sense as much but as soon as I broke off the slender wire wherein the shorter leg ended the external air rushing in made the water rise about two inches and a quarter in the longer leg and then there not being water enough broke through it in many bubbles Thus far the note to which I shall only add that in this case the ascension of the water in the longer leg cannot be attributed to the weight of the air in the shorter leg that being I know not how much too small to lift up so much water but to the spring of that air And also that we need not marvel the Expansion of that 〈◊〉 should be so small since some of the Experiments 〈◊〉 to be related will shew us that the refrigeration of the air in such Trials as that newly 〈◊〉 does not weaken the spring of it any thing near so considerably as one would expect So that the air in the longer leg could yield but a very little to that in the shorter leg especially since the smallness of this last nam'd portion of air made its spring to be more easily and considerably weakned by a small Expansion Thus far our Paradoxical Discourse which contains divers particulars that being added to the considerations whereunto we have by way of Appendix subjoyned It might afford us several Reflections But having dwelt too long on one subject already we shall now conclude with This upon the whole matter That there is somewhat or other in the Business of Weather-glasses which I fear we do not yet sufficiently understand and which yet I hope that by other Trials and more heedful Observations we shall discover The Paper that was prefixt by way of a short Prefatory Address to the ensuing History of Cold when being to be brought in and presented to the Royal Society it was put into the hands of its most worthy President the Lord Viscount Brounker was as followeth Little-Chelsey Feb. 14. 1662. S. A. My Lord THe time Your Lordship and the Society appoint me for the bringing in of my Papers concerning Cold is so very short that to give You the fruits of my Obedience as early as You are pleased to require them I must present them You very immature and I should say very unsit for your Perusal if you were not aswel qualified to supply Deficiencies and Imperfections as to discern them For of all the Old Observations I made divers years ago in order to the History of Cold I have not yet found enough to fill up one Sheet of Paper And as for those I made the last Frosty season besides that I was several times diverted by Avocations distracting enough the same sharpness of the weather which gave me the Opportunity of making some Experiments brought me an Indisposition which by forbidding me to be 〈◊〉 and stay long in the cold Air hindred me from making divers others and which is worst of all whilest I was confin'd to a place where I wanted divers Glasses and other Instruments I would have employ'd the ways both by land and water were so obstructed by the snow and ice that I could not seasonably procure them from London and was thereby reduc'd to leave several trials I should have made 〈◊〉 ther unattempted or unprosecuted But lest You should think that what I intend only to excuse my unaccurateness is meant to excuse my Pains I shall without further Apology apply my self to do what the shortness of the time will allow me which is little more then to transcribe into this Historical Collection most of the Particulars which Your Lordships Commands exact though haste will make me do it in the very words for the most part that I find them in a kind of Note-book wherein I had thrown them for my own private use which I the less scruple now to do not only because the haste that exacts from me this way of writing may serve to excuse it in me but that it may the better appear how little I had design'd to 〈◊〉 or byass them to any preconceiv'd Hypothesis THE EXPERIMENTAL HISTORY OF COLD Begun Title I. Experiments touching Bodies capable of Freezing others TO go Methodically to work we should perhaps begin with considering what subjects are capable or not capable of harbouring the Quality we are to treat of And to invite us to this it seems probable enough that among the Bodies we are conversant with here below there is scarce any except Fire that is not at some time or other susceptible of actual Cold at least as to sense And ev'n concerning Fire 〈◊〉 till that difficulty be clearly determin'd which we have elsewhere started namely whether Fire be not as Wind at least like such as is made by Air blown out of a pair of Bellows rather a state of Matter or Matter consider'd whilest it is in such a kind of Motion then a distinct and particular species of natural Bodies there may remain some Doubt since we see that Bodies which may be either in a Moment as Gunpowder or as far as sense can judge totally as high rectifi'd spirit of Wine turn'd into fire may yet immediately before their Accension be actually Cold And as to Gunpowder presently after Accension its scatter'd Parts caught in clos'd Vessels will also appear cold to the Touch. But such things nevertheless we must not now insist on partly because it requires the resolving of a somewhat difficult Question
which more properly belongs to the Considerations about Heat where we have already handled it partly because our Design in the following Collections was not so much to gather and set down Observations that were obvious to any that was furnish'd with a Mediocrity of Attention as Experiments purposely made in order to the History of Cold and partly too because in this Collection though we do as occasion serves take notice of some Experiments and Phaenomena that relate to Cold in General or indefinitely yet our chief work has been to find out and deliver the Phaenomena of Congelation or of that intense Degree of Cold which either does freez the Bodies it works upon or at least were capable of turning common water fitly expos'd to it into Ice And this may serve for a general Advertisement about the ensuing Papers and consequently having premis'd it we shall without any further Preamble proceed to the setting down such things as we have tri'd and observ'd concerning those Matters beginning with those that belong to the Title prefix'd to the first Part or Section of our History 1. The Bodies that are cold enough to freez others are in this climate of ours but very few and among the most remarkable is a Mixture of Snow and Salt which though little known and less us'd here in England is in Italy and some other Regions much employ'd especially to cool Drinks and Fruits which men may easily do by burying in this mixture Glasses or other convenient vessels fill'd either solely with Wine or other Drinks or else with water that hath immersed in it the fruits to be refrigerated 2. The Circumstances we are wont to observe in making and employing this mixture we shall hereafter in due place deliver and therefore here we shall only take notice that we could not find upon some trials that such Glasses filled with water as would be frozen easily enough by this mixture of Snow and Salt would be in like manner frozen in case we employ'd Snow alone without mingling any Salt with it I deny not that 't is very possible that in very cold Countries as well Snow as beaten Ice may freez water powred into the Intervals of its Parts But there is great odds betwixt water so intermingled with Ice or Snow and only surrounded with it in a vessel where the water is as it were in one entire Body and of a comparatively considerable thickness And there is also a great Difference betwixt the degrees of coldness in 〈◊〉 Air of Frigid Regions and of England And perhaps too there may be some Disparity betwixt the Degrees of Coldness of Ice and Snow in those Climates and in ours And we must have a care that in case a Vial full of water buri'd all night should freez we ascribe not the Effect to the bare Operation of the Snow which may be entirely or in great Part due to the coldness of the Air which would perhaps have perform'd the Effect without the Snow 3. But though Snow and Salt mixt together will freez water better then Snow alone yet we must not think that there is any such peculiar vertue in Sea-salt to enable Snow to freez but that there are divers other Salts each of which concurring with Snow is capable of producing the like Effect For we found upon trial that we could freez water without the help of Sea salt by substituting in its place either Nitre or Alume or Vitriol or Sal Armoniack or even Sugar for either of those being mingled with a due proportion of Snow would serve the turn though they did not seem equally to advance the congealing power of the Snow nor scarce any of them did do it so well as Sea salt But of this elsewhere more 4. When we had made the newly mentioned trials some particular conjectures we have long had about the nature of Salts invited us to try whether uotwithstanding the comminution and consequent change produced in Salts by Distillation the Saline Corpuscles that abound in the distill'd liquors of those concretes as well as in their solutions would not likewise by being mixt with it enable Snow to freez water at least in small and slender Glasses This we first went about to try with good spirit of Salt but we found as we fear'd that though it made a sufficiently quick dissolution of the Snow it wrought upon yet its fluidity hindered it from being retain'd long enough by the Snow to the bottom of which it would fall before they had stay'd so long together as was requisite to freez so much as a little Essence-bottle full of common water 5. Wherefore we bethought our selves of an expedient whereby to try the operation not only of those spirits but of divers other bodies which were unapt for a Due commixture of Snow after the way newly mention'd or of which we had too little or valued them too much to be willing to spend quantities of them upon these trials And this way that remains to be mention'd we somewhat the better lik'd because the Experiments made according to it would also prove Experiments of the transmission of Cold through the extremely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Glass And even in this way of trying we did at first meet with a discouragement which least it should happen to others we shall here take notice of namely that having put a convenient quantity of Snow into a somewhat thick green glass Vial though we copiously 〈◊〉 mixt with it a somewhat weak spirit of salt being loath to imploy the best we had and having well stopt the vessel did carefully 〈◊〉 together and thereby agitate the mixture in it yet the Glass appeared only bedew'd upon the outside without having there any thing frozen But suspecting that the thickness of the Glass might be that which hindred the operation of the included mixture we put snow and a convenient proportion of the self same spirit of salt into a couple of thin Vials one of which we clos'd exactly and the other negligently and having long shaken them we found that what adhered to them on the outside was though but somewhat faintly and thinly frozen 6. And as to this sort of Experiments we shall here observe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all that the Snow or Ice included 〈◊〉 with the Saline Ingredient whatever that were was always thaw'd within the Glass and that consequently 't was the condens'd vapor of the Air or other liquor that adhered to the outside of the glass which was turn'd into Ice which is the Reason why in mentioning these Experiments we often use the word freez in a transitive sense to signifie the operation of the frigorifick mixture upon other bodies 7. This premised let us proceed to relate that we afterwards took Oyl of Vitriol and mixing it with Snow in such an other vial as that last mentioned we found its freezing power far greater then that of spirit of salt And least it should be pretended that in these Experiments the cold was not transmitted
to freez liquors of more difficult conglaciation then fair water We took then some snow and mingled with it some of the newly mentioned spirit of Nitre in so luckly a proportion that it froze very vigorously and very suddenly insomuch that once almost as soon as it was set to the ground it froze the vial to the floor it was set on and the outside of the glass that contained this mixture we wetted with spirit of Vinegre which was frozen into pretty thick ice But yet not quite to forget that circumstance retaining the salt taste of spirit of Vinegre and though this mixture would not discernably freez spirit of Nitre on the outside yet it transmitted cold enough to freez weak spirit of Salt and to give Us the pleasure of seeing some Saline liquors presently turned into figur'd Ice as not only the last mentioned spirit exhibited some little as it were Saline Iceikles crossing each other and quickly vanishing but which was far prettier having often observed that Sal Armoniack being dissolved in water and the solution being put very slowly to evaporate in part but not too much away the remaining liquor would in the cold shoot into parcels ofsalt very prettily figur'd some of them resembling combs with teeth on both sides and others resembling feathers having observ'd this I say and being desirous to try whether the spirit of Sal Armoniack distilled by the help of quick Lime being put to congeal on the outside of a glass would not afford a Resemblingly figured Ice we found upon trial both that the mixture was able to freez that subtile spirit and also that it shot into Branches almost like those exhibited by such salts undistilled And it was not unpleasant to behold how upon the inclining the glass so that the freezing mixture rested a little near any part of the spirit this liquor would shoot into such branches as we have been speaking of so nimbly that the eye could plainly discern them as it were to grow and hastily overspread the surface of the glass but those Branches were wont quickly to vanish I had almost forgot to mention that I tried the freezing with snow and divers fermented Liquors undistilled instead of spirit of Wine and though the Experiments succeeded not with small Beer much less with water yet there was a glaciation though but slight produc'd not only by the addition of Wine but even by that of moderately strong Ale 18. Having observed that the Liquors and other bodies that assisted the snow to freez were generally such as hastned its dissolution we thought it not altogether unworthy the trial to examine what would be the Event of procuring a speedy dissolution of the snow by substituting bodies actually warm instead of potential hot ones Of this sort of trials I find among my Notes these two registred 1. Into a single vial almost filled with snow there was poured a pretty quantity of well heated sand that it might dissolve the snow in many places at once without heating the ambient Air or the outside of the glass but though the solution of the snow seemed to succeed well enough upon the shaking of the vessel yet the outside of the glass was only bedewed not frozen 2. Into another single vial almost filled with snow we poured some water which we judg'd of a convenient warmth and we poured it in by a funnel that had but a slender orifice beneath that the warm water might fall into the middle of the snow without Running to the sides and taking a convenient time to shake the glass we did by this way produce a very considerable degree of cold and much dew on the outside but were not satisfied that any of that dew was frozen though the success would have invited us to have made further trials in greater glasses if we had had any more snow at hand Wherefore This Experiment is to be further and more artificially tri'd 19. It is a common tradition not only among the vulgar but I presume upon their account among learned men that the oftentimes variously and sometimes prettily enough figur'd hoar frost which is wont to appear upon glass windows in mornings preceded by frosty nights are exsudations as it were that penetrating the glass-windows are upon their coming forth to the cold external Air frozen thereby into variously figured ice How groundless this conceipt is may be easily discovered if men had not so lazy a curiosity as not to try which they may do in a moment and without trouble whether the Ice be according to the tradition on the outside of the window and not contrary to it on the In-side where indeed it is generated of the aqueous Corpuscles that swiming up and down in the Air within the Room are by the various motion that belongs to the parts of fluid bodies as such brought to pass along the window and there by the vehement cold of the neighbouring external Air communicated through the glass condens'd into dew and frozen into Ice 20. And because divers modern Naturalists have taught I think erroneously that glass is easily enough pervious not only to Air but to divers subtile liquors lest the favourers of this Doctrine should object that we have ill assigned the natural cause of the ice appearing on the outside of the glass in the former Experiments which according to them may rather proceed from the subtler but yet visible parts of the excessively cold mixture of the snow and saline bodies penetrating the pores of the glass and setling on the outside of it To obviate this objection I say and to confirm what we have taught in another Treatise about the wandring of store of aqueous vapours through the Air we will add the following Experiments purposely made to evince these truths 21. At one time four ounces and a quarter of a mixture of Ice and Salt being inclosed in a vial and thereby enabled to condense the vapours of the ambient Air was by their accession increas'd 12. grains Another time a vial wherein snow weighing two ounces six drachms and an half was suffered to condense the vapid Air the dew that partly adher'd to it and partly fell from it made the whole weigh four grains more then the vial did when it was first put into the scale in which scale we found some water flowing from the dew which gave that increase of weight And here let me add by the way that the tip of This seal'd vial being broken under water suck'd in a considerable quantity of it whether because of some little rarefaction of the Air included in the sealing or because of the infrigidation of that Air by the snow or for both these Reasons or any other I shall not Now dispute 22. But other Experiments to the same purpose we made wherein the increase of weight was more considerable and that the way we used may be the better understood and the conclusion built upon it the more undiscuss'd we will add a couple
to that we here employed obtain Ice And though in this metalline Sugar we may well suppose the Saline parts of the spirit of Vinegre to be much more concentrated or united then they were in the spirit yet the solution must abound with aqueous parts and this Sugar seeming but a kind of Vitriol of Lead 't is worth our Notice that its solution would not freez as well as that of common Vitriol though in this latter concrete the metal be corroded by a spirit which as far as can be judged by the Liquors afforded in distillation is very much sharper and stronger then spirit of Vinegre 5. We likewise tried to freez Quick silver and for that purpose provided a bubble that being blown with a Lamp was but thin and so flat that the sides almost touched and it held but a little Mercury and that by the figure of the Glass being reduced to a large surface with but very little depth or thickness it was far more exposed then if it had been in a ordinary round Bubble to the action of the cold but we could not at all freez this extravagant liquor though we tried it more then once and though the last time we exposed it in the same 〈◊〉 to the same degree of Cold wherewith we made one of the following Experiments that required a very Intense degree of that Quality And in another thin glass-Bubble we long exposed Quicksilver to an extraordinary sharp air but though the cold had some operation upon it not here necessary to be mention'd yet we could not find that it did at all bring it to freez wherefore I could wish that trial were made in Muscovy Greenland Charles Island or some other of the most 〈◊〉 Regions where the Effects of cold which here are upon Quicksilver but languid are the most considerable and sometimes stupendious 6. It is very remarkable that though not only the solutions of other gross salts but as we have seen divers more saline and spirituous liquors were brought by snow and salt to Congelation yet a brine made very strong of Common salt could not be brought to freez at all though we kept it exposed with the other saline solutions that did freez during a whole night that was exceeding sharp Which Experiment I also tried many years since to draw thence an Argument in favour of the Cartestan Hypothesis about cold which I shall not now consider but rather add that being desirous to try with what proportions of Sea salt and water the congelation of them might be effected I found I could freez some Sea water that had been brought up in a Barrel to that Monarch of the Virtuosi the King for the making of trials with it and that having in a single vial exposed to the Air in a very bitter night a solution consisting of twenty parts of water and one of salt which is double the proportion of salt to be commonly found in our Sea-water the next day we found a good part of the Liquor frozen the Ice swimming at the top in figures almost like Broom spreading from the surface of the water downwards And to add That upon the by we suffered the Ice of salt-water to thaw to try whether it would yield fresh water but it seemed not devoid of some Brackishness which whether or no it proceeded from some parts of the contiguous brine that adhered to the Ice I leave to further and exacter observations since I am credibly informed that in Amsterdam there are divers that use the thaw'd Ice of the Sea-water to brew their Beer with instead of common fresh water 3. And since I made that Experiment I find in the industrious Bartholinus's newly publish'd Book De Nivis usu a Confirmation of the probability of the Report I just now mention'd his words being these De Glacie ex marinâ aquâ certum est siresolvatur salsum saporem deposuisse quod etiam non ita pridem expertus est Cl. Jacobus Finckius Academiae nostrae senior Physices Professor benè meritus in glaciei frustis è portu nostro allatis Title IIII. Experiments and Observations touching the Degrees of Cold in several Bodies 1. AFter having treated of the Bodies that are the most capable of producing Cold and of those that are most dispos'd or indispos'd to receive it it would be Methodical to take notice of the Degrees of Cold to be met with in differing Bodies But though a work of this nature might somewhat conduce to the Discovery of Cold in general yet it is so laborious a Task and to be well perform'd requires so much more of Leisure and Conveniency then I am Master of that I must resign it to those that are better furnish'd with them which I the freelier do because the Experiments which at this Time make the principal part of our History being chiefly of the highest Degrees of Cold we may seem to have done something of what more 〈◊〉 concerns our present Design by having made the Experiments anon to be subjoyn'd within this present Section or Title And yet thus much we elsewhere do towards the framing of a Table of the Degrees of Cold that we do on other occasions set down those hitherto unpractis'd ways that we have imploy'd to estimate the greater or lesser Coldness of Bodies by several kinds of Weather-glasses differing from the common ones and far more fit then they for such a Purpose For by Hermetically seal'd Thermoscopes furnish'd with high rectifi'd spirit of Wine we can estimate the differing degrees of Coldness in Liquors of which we shall presently mention an Example And by using such Weather-glasses as have their Air included not at the top but at the bottom of the Instrument we can within some reasonable Latitude measure the Coldness both of intire solid Bodies or minuter Bodies as Salts c. by beating them alike and very small and placing the Instruments at equal Depths in the powder of each of them And besides that the shape of these Thermoscopes does as we have elsewhere shewn make them proper for these uses for which the vulgar ones where the included Air is at the top of the Instrument are not fit besides this I say 't is easie in these we make use of to make the Pipe so slender in proportion to the Cavity of the Vial whereinto 't is inserted that very much minuter Differences of Cold will be manifest in these then are wont to be sensible in common Weather-glasses And besides these two sorts we have elsewhere propos'd and describ'd a third and new kind of Thermometer wherein a drop of liquor being suspended in a very slender Pipe of Glass betwixt the outward and the inward Air makes it far more fit for those Experiments wherein we either despair or care not to measure the Difference of Cold betwixt two Bodies but are only desirous to try whether or no they differ in Coldness and in case they do which of them has most For
made much lighter by the heat of the ambient Air we might obtain the Information we desir'd to which we shall add That we also recommended to some Virtuosi that were likely to have the opportunity of gratifying Us that such an Experiment might be procured to be made in the midst of Summer in some part of Italy by the help of the there not unfrequent Conveniency of a Conservatory of snow wherein the water might be reduc'd to freez before the end of the same hour at whose beginning the there warmer Air had given it its greatest Expansion and so the Difference betwixt the Density of the same parcel of water might be the more conspicuous But as I have not received any Account of my Desires from abroad so coming now 〈◊〉 home to review the Memorial I caused to be written of the newly mention'd Observation I find that through the Negligence or Mistake of an Amanuensis there must needs be a manifest oversight committed in the 〈◊〉 down the Numbers which my Memory does not now enable me to repair And the season being now improper to repeat the Experiment as well as the numerical parcel of water I had kept and I imployed both times being thrown away I think it may be sufficient if not too much to have thus particularly intimated the way we took without ading the Cautions where with we proceeded nor what Trials we made to the same purpose with high rectifi'd spirit of Wine since unlucky accidents frustrated our Attempts 11. Whether the making of these kind of Trials with the waters of the particular Rivers or Seas men are to sail on may afford any useful estimate if and how much Ships and other Vessels may on those 〈◊〉 be safely loaden more in Winter 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 may be an 〈◊〉 of which I shall not in this place 〈◊〉 any 〈◊〉 Notice then to intimate thus much That the difference betwixt water highly refrigerated and that which is but of an usual degree of coldness is not so great as some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seem to have thought For on a Day which though made cold by snow intermingled with the rain that then fell was not a frost we took common water and weighed in it a glass Bubble whose weight in the Air was 150. grains and this Bubble weigh'd in that water lost so much of its former weight as to weigh about 28 â… grains and then by snow and salt reducing that water to such a degree of Coldness that it began to be turned into Ice about the inside of a small open glass that contain'd it we found the same Bubble not to weigh at all above one eighth part of a grain less then it did before So that if we may judge of the shrinking and condensation of the water by the Increment of weight it shrunk but about a 230. part of its former Bulk and this according to a pair of scales that would turn with about the 32. part of a grain which may keep us from wondring at what we lately delivered concerning the very inconsiderable subsidence of the water we exposed to snow and salt in a small Bolthead And it may also make that the more probable which we not long since related about the oyl of Turpentines not losing much above a 100. part of its Bulk by being expos'd to such a degree of cold as made water begin to freez Whether we may from this and from the formerly recited Experiment of the great subsidence of spirit of Wine in a seal'd Weather-glass safely conclude these subtile distill'd Liquors to be much more sensible then water of Cold as well as of Heat further Trials will best resolve and these I have not now so much opportunity as I could wish to pursue 12. But they that have a mind to prosecute Experiments of this kind and others that relate to the Degrees of Cold may perchance be somewhat assisted even by these Relations and especially by those Passages that mention the use of the seal'd Weather-glass furnish'd with spirit of Wine and of those wherein a drop of liquor is kept pendulous For the former of these being not subject to the Alterations of the Atmospheres 〈◊〉 nor as may be probably suppos'd by reason of the strength of the high rectifi'd spirit of Wine to be frozen by sending the same Weather-glass which may be made portable enough as I have tried by transporting one of them in a Case that might be easily carri'd even in a Pocket from one Countrey to another one may make far better Discoveries of the differing Degrees of Coldness in differing Regions and know somewhat near how much the Air even of Muscovy or Norway or Greenland it self is colder then that of England or any other Countrey whence the Weather-glass shall be sent The Instrument being accompanied with a memorial of the Degree it stood at when expos'd to such a Cold as made water begin to freez 13. The other Thermometer where a drop of liquor is kept pendulous may not only be imploy'd in such cases where the Pipe and Bubble can be erected upon the Horizon but by reason that the outward Air will indifferently impel the Bubble laterally or upwards upon the Refrigeration of the inward and that the bubble will not barely by its weight drop out of the inverted Instrument because of the resistence of the subjacent outward Air for these causes I say such a Thermoscope may as we have tri'd be also us'd where the Pipe shall be held Horizontal or inclin'd or even Perpendicularly downwards so that the flat Part of the Bubble may be appli'd to discover the Coldness either of the Wall or of the Ceiling of a room or other Bodies however scituated And if the Pipe be made long and even as sometimes we imploy one above a foot long not only sensible but great Effects of very little Disparities in the Coldness of Bodies to which the Instrument is appli'd may with pleasure be observed And the same drop of liquor may be long enough preserv'd useful in the Pipe But this Advertisement I shall give that as sensible as this Instrument appears to be of the nicer Differences of Coldness as of Heat yet they that shall have the Curiosity to examine with it as I have done the Temperature I say not of more resembling Bodies but of Liquors that may be thought to have their parts so differingly agitated as common Water high rectifi'd spirit of Wine and even rectifi'd oyl of Turpentine I add not Dephlegm'd oyl of Vitriol because of some odd Phaenomena not here to be insisted on will perhaps find the Event so little in many cases answer the Expectation he would have had of uniformly finding great Disparities in their actual Coldness if he had not met with this Advertisement that he will not much wonder that a Person who wants not other Imployments for his Time was willing to decline so tedious and nice a Task Title V. Experiments touching the Tendency of Cold Upwards
or Downwards 1. THough after the consideration of the sphere of Activity of Cold it would be the most proper place to take some Notice of the Direction of its Activity yet because one of the Experiments that belong to This head is of great use to facilitate the trial of many of those that follow throughout this whole Collection we will no longer delay to say something of this matter namely in what Line or if you please towards what part the frigefactive vertue of cold Bodies does operate the furthest and the most strongly 2. 'T is a Known Doctrine among Philosophers that the Diffusion of Heat tends chiefly upwards as the flame of a Candle will burn many things held over it at a greater Distance then it would considerably warm them at in case they were held beneath its level or even by its sides and 't is true that in all cases vulgarly taken notice of the observation for reasons elsewhere discoursed of holds well enough and therefore it may be worth enquiry whether in Cold which is generally looked upon as the contrary Quality to Heat the diffusion from cold bodies be made more strongly downwards then either upwards or towards the sides About this matter I can as yet find among my Notes but the two following Experiments 〈◊〉 those not both together A very thin bubble was blown at a Lamp and purposely made flat at the bottom that it might be the more exposed to the cold and it was suspended by a string within a pretty deal less then an inch of a mixture of beaten Ice and Salt wherewith we had half fill'd a conveniently large wide-mouth'd glass but we could not find that a cold Capable of freezing did strike so high upwards for the water in the bubble remained altogether unfrozen which agrees very well with what we have observed that a mixture of ice and salt did not 〈◊〉 the vapours that wandered through the Air above half a barley corns breadth higher then the mixture in the Glass reached 3. A mixture of snow and salt being put into a vial with a long neck the round part of it was by a weight kept under water out of which being taken after a while the outside of the glass beneath the surface of the water was cased with solid Ice N B. especially about the bottom of the vial of greater hardness and thickness then one could easily imagine 4. Thus far the notes from which nevertheless I will not positively conclude though they seem to perswade it that the tendency of the cold produced by Bodies qualified to freez others is greater downwards then upwards For the satisfactory determination of that matter may for ought I know require Trials more artificial and nice then those we have been reciting And I could wish that I could find the last of them to have been carefully repeated and registred because it seems somewhat strange that the Ice should be much thicker at the bottom of the vial then elsewhere in regard that when we have as we very frequently have put mixtures of snow and salt into vials and left them in the open Air we generally observ'd that the outside of the Glass was cas'd with Ice or covered with hoar frost directly over against that part of the inside of the Glass wherein the frigorifick mixture was So that part of the snow and salt resolving one another and falling down in the form of a liquor to the bottom the unmelted part of the mixture would float upon this liquor and the external Ice would appear over against the floating mixture by which it was generated So that as the mixture grew thinner and thinner so would the Zone or girdle if I may so call it of external Ice grow narrower and narrower till at length when the snow was quite melted away the external Ice would quickly also vanish But from this observation which we frequently made That as in such vials 〈◊〉 Ice did not appear as I just now related above half a corns breadth higher then the mixture in the glass so I remember not to have observed it much lower beneath the mixture from those things I say it may be probably conjectured that even the coldest Bodies at least unless their Bulk alter the case do not diffuse their freezing vertue either upwards or downwards to any considerable distance 5. These trials as I was intimating may suggest some difficulties about the last of the two Experiments transcribed out of my notes But as 't is evident these observations were made in the open Air by the freezing of its roving vapours and the mentioned Experiment was made under water so how much this difference of mediums may alter the case as to the way of the Diffusion of cold I dare not till further trial boldly determine especially since one Circumstance to be under the next Title mentioned about the freezing of Eggs may pass for an addirional Experiment as to our present Enquiry For the Cases obtain'd by frozen Eggs suspended under water which seem to argue that the Diffusion of their cold was made every way since they were quite enclosed in the Ice they had produced 6. Though the Experiment of freezing water by the Intervention of salt and snow be not a new one for substance yet I hold it not amiss to make a further mention of it on this occasion Because that what I am to deliver about it is a Paticular not taken notice of that I know of by others the premising of which will according to what we lately intimated much facilitate the trial of many of the Experiments to be set down in the following part of these papers and will indeed appear to be of no small moment in our whole Attempt of Framing an History of Cold. For it has long seemed to me one of the chief things that has hindered men from making any considerable progress in this matter that whereas glass-vessels are generally much the most proper to freez liquors in because their transparency allows us to see what changes the Cold makes in the liquors exposed to it the way of freezing with salt and snow as it has been hitherto used does almost as little as the common way of barely exposing vessels to the cold Air in frosty weather prevent the unseasonable breaking of the glasses For in both these ways the water or other liquor usually beginning to freez at the top and it being the Nature of Glaciation as we shall see anon to distend the water and Aqueous liquors it hardens it is usually and naturally consequent that when the upper crust of Ice is grown thick and by reason of the Expansion of the frozen liquor bears hard with its edges against the sides of the glass contiguous to it the included Liquor that is by degrees successively turned into Ice requiring more Room then before and forcibly endeavouring to Expand it self every way finds it less difficult to burst the glass then lift up the Ice and
consequently does the former and thereby spoils the Experiment before it be come to perfection or have let us see what Nature would have done if she had not been thus hindred in her work 7. The consideration of this invited me to alter the common way of freezing and order the matter so that whensoever I pleased the exposed liquor should not begin to freez at the top or sides but at the bottom which I concluded it very easie to do by mingling the salt with that part only of the snow which was to lye beneath and about the bottom of the glass I placed in it For by this means the snow that was contiguous to the sides was able but to cool the water and dispose it to Glaciation whereas the mingled snow and salt on which the bottom of the glass rested did actually turn the neighbouring Liquor into Ice and lift up the incumbent liquor toward the higher and empty parts of the glass And this liquor also I could afterwards freez at pleasure without danger of breaking the vessel only by so applying salt and snow to the sides of the glass that they never reached except perhaps at the very conclusion of the Experiment so high by a reasonable distance as the upper surface of the liquor in the glass so that the superior parts of that liquor were always kept fluid and capable of being easily impell'd higher and higher by the Expansion of the freezing parts of the subjacent liquor 8. The Speculative inference that may be drawn from this Experiment of making water begin to freez at the bottom not the top will be more properly taken notice of in another place In the mean time I shall only intimate by the way that there is no great necessity of any nice proportion of salt to snow nor of any exquisite mixture of them a third or fourth part or thereabouts of Sea salt in reference to the snow will not do amiss nor do I usually put salt to all the snow at once unless in some case wherein I have a mind to freez a liquor quickly and make a speedy resolution of the snow and salt in order thereunto to which I shall only add that by the way above mentioned I do upon particular occasions make the exposed liquor freez not at the bottom or the top but next to what side of the Glass I please according to the Exigency of the Experiment But though it may suffice to have hinted the Speculative Inference that may be drawn from this way of freezing Liquors it will be expedient to give explicitely this practical Advertisement concerning it that whereas it seems to have been taken for granted that snow is necessary in this Artifice and we our selves were for some time led away with the rest by that supposition yet that is but a presumption and ought to be removed as one very prejudicial to those that with us design the prosecuting Experiments in order to the History of Cold. For snow is but seldom to be found on the ground in comparison of Ice and being but a Congeries of many small Icesicles with much Air intercepted among them it is not 〈◊〉 paribus near so durable as the more intire Body of solid Ice and yet we have found by frequent Experience that Ice well beaten in a Mortar will serve our turn for Artificial Glaciations as well if not in some respects better as snow and therefore in this History of Cold we indifferently prescribe Snow and Salt or Salt and Ice as the Ingredients of our Glaciating Mixtures Title VI. Experiments and Observations touching the Preservation and Destruction of Eggs Apples and other Bodies by Cold. 1. IT is a Tradition common enough though not here in England yet among those that have given us Accounts of very cold 〈◊〉 that if Eggs or Apples being frozen be thawed near the fire they will be thereby spoiled but if they be immersed in cold water the internal cold will be drawn out as they suppose by the external and the frozen Bodies will be harmlefly though not so quickly thawed This Tradition I thought fit to examine not only because it may be doubted whether it will succeed in our more Temperate Climate and because I love not to relye upon Traditions when I have the opportunity to examine them especially if no one Credible Author affirms them upon his particular knowledge but also because I thought the Experiment if true might be so varied and made use of as to become luciferous enough and afford us divers Phaenomena of cold not so easie to be produced by the more known ways of experimenting And accordingly having exposed some of these Bodies to a cold that was judged sharp enough we afterwards put them in water but found not the event answer our expectations no Ice appearing to be generated nevertheless we were not hereby so discouraged as not to repeat the Experiment which we judged to be not unlikely with more sollicitousness and advantage then before and having thereby brought it to succeed we afterwards made several trials of it with several distinct aims but 〈◊〉 now find any Entry of divers of them But those I have hitherto met with among my Notes I shall subjoyn as having in them some Particulars that may afford useful hints to an Enquirer into the History and Nature of Cold. And I shall set down together and that in this place though it would not otherwise be the most proper those I have met with because some Circumstances of one or other of them may be of use to us on several occasions in the present Treatise 2. An Egg weighing twelve drachms and one grain wrapt in a wax'd paper to keep it from the liquor of the thawing snow and frozen with snow and salt wanted four grains of that weight put into a dish of fair water there crusted as much Ice about the outside as made the Egg and Ice fifteen drachms and nine grains the ice being taken off from the shell and the shell very well dried the Egg was found to weigh twelve drachms and twelve grains the Egg being broken was found almost quite thawed the Egg frozen swam in water being thawed it sunk 3. We took two Eggs strongly frozen and in a room where there was a good fire we put one of them into a deep woodden-dish full of very cold water and set the other by it upon a table about two yards from the fire that they might be in Air of the same temper as to heat and cold then perceiving the Egg that lay under water to have obtained a thick crust of Ice we took it out and having first freed it from the Ice broke it and found that some part of the white was not yet freed from a pretty store of little parcels of Ice but the rest of the white which was much the greater part and the Yelk seemed to be much what of the same consistence as if the Egg had not formerly been
frozen whereas the other Egg that lay by upon the dry table had not only its whole white frozen into a consistent Body but the Yelk it self though we saw no distinct particles of Ice in it was grown so hard that it cut just like the Yelk of an Egg over boiled and being cut quite through shewed us certain concentrical circles of somewhat differing Colours with a speck much whiter then any of them in the middle of the Yelk which last circumstances whether they were accidental or no further observation must determine Note that though we have not found above once that frozen Eggs would swim yet when we had broken such Eggs the frozen white would swim but not the yelk 4. We afterwards repeated the Experiment of laying two frozen Eggs near together in the place above mentioned the one under water and the other out of it till that put in water had got a thick Icy crust and by breaking of them both presently after one another were confirmed in the Perswasion that frozen Eggs will thaw by great odds caeteris paribus faster when immersed in water then when surrounded only with Air. 5. We likewise took a frozen Egg and from a fix'd place suspended it so by a slender packthread that it hung quite under water without yet touching the vessel that the water was in This we did partly upon another Design and partly to observe whether or no the Ice would in this case be considerably thicker or thinner against the lower parts of the Egg as we formerly mention'd our selves to have observed it to be very manifestly at the lower parts of a glass which having Ice and Salt in it was immersed under water but when we took out the Egg after we saw that its Icy case had covered the packthread it was hung by we found the case upon breaking it of a thickness uniform enough to keep us from concluding any thing from this trial since though there were a pretty deal of Ice generated at so small a distance from the case of the Egg that it seemed to owe its Production to the same cause yet which was somewhat odd we did not find that this Ice stuck to that which did immediately embrace the Egg though we had some faint suspition that the Rudiments of it might have been very early parted from the Egg by some little shaking of the table occasioned by peoples passing to and fro in the room 6. We took some Pippins and exposing them to freez all night and putting them the next morning into a Bason of very cold water though in a warm room they were not long there without being inclosed with cases of Ice of a considerable thickness Where note 1. That that part of a floating Apple that was immersed under water had a very much thicker coat then the other part which remained above it 2. That the extant part seemed likewise to be harder then the immersed 3. That one of these Pippins being purposely left out of the Bason but layed by it seemed upon cutting to be harder and more frozen then those Apples which had been put into the water which scarce seemed to be at all harder then ordinary Pippins that had never been set to freez at least as to those parts of the Apples that were near the rinde and consequently near the Ice 4. That neither frozen Pippins nor frozen Eggs notwithstanding their great power of turning part of the contiguous water into Ice did appear to Us to detain or congeal any of the roving vapors of the Air as Ice or Snow included with Salt in glasses is as we have formerly observed accustomed very remarkably to do 7. We took Eggs and froze them with ice and salt till the shells of them were made to crack then we took them out and put one of them in Milk two of them in a wide Drinking Glass full of Beer and two more in a large Glass wherein we covered them with Sack that was poured in till it reached much higher in the Glass then the Eggs. But none of these trials produc'd as we could perceive one grain of ice And being desirous to see whether the Acid salt of Vinegre or the Cold in a well frozen Egg would have the chief Operation if those two Bodies were put together I found upon Trial that the Saline parts of the Vinegre began to dissolve the Egg-shell as appeared by the much altered Colour of it but the Cold of the ice in the Eggs was not able to freez any part of the water or phlegm of the Vinegre 8. We had also thoughts of trying whether or no pieces of Iron of several shapes and bignesses being for divers days and nights exposed to the freezing Air and afterwards immersed in water would produce any ice as frozen Eggs and Apples do For the Brittleness of the Laths of Stone-Bows in sharp frosts together with other observations elsewhere mention'd seem to argue that to use a popular phrase the Frost does also get into these Bodies And I have been assured by one whom the Trials I had made with Eggs and Apples invited me to consult that a great Cheese he immersed in water in a Cold Countrey was presently covered over with ice But though as I said I had thoughts of making the above mentioned Trials yet for want of a frost sufficiently durable I was not able to effect what I design'd But thus much I tri'd That though I kept good Lumps of Iron and as I remember of other Metalls besides pieces of Glass and a stone or two of a convenient size in snow and salt I know not how much longer then would have suffic'd to make Eggs or Apples or such kind of things fit to produce store of ice in water upon their being thaw'd therein yet we could not find that upon the immersing the several newly nam'd Mineral Bodies there was the least ice produced in the cold water where we kept them covered I must not nevertheless omit to make some mention of that which lately 〈◊〉 to happen at the door of our own Laboratory respecting the North East where some Glasses newly brought from the shop and not imployed lying in a Basket as they poured water into one of them to rince it part of it was presently turned into ice whilest one of my Domesticks held it in his hand who coming presently to show it me I suspected the ice might have come from or rather with the water that was poured into the Glass but upon enquiring was assured of the Contrary 9. But here I must not omit another trial relating to the former Experiments which may seem somewhat odd if its Event prove constantly the same as when we tried it For after these and divers other Experiments made with frozen Eggs and Apples we thought it might be worth the examining whether or no Ice and the Liquors of these Concretes would produce the like effects as Frozen Eggs and Apples and because 't is usually an easier
no pain save that when he came to himself again he felt such a pricking all his Body over as men are wont to find in an Arm or Leg benumm'd by having been long lean'd upon When I ask'd whether the sharpness of the Cold did not work upon the stones he answer'd That as to Flints he could not tell but as to other stones and such as are oftentimes us'd for Building the violence of the Cold made them frequently moulder into Dust. And to satisfie my Curiosity about the Effect of Cold upon Wood he told me that he had very often in the night especially when their keen frosts were unaccompani'd with Snow heard the Trees cleave and crack with very great and sometimes frightful noises and that the outside of the Fir-Trees that were laid upon one another in their Buildings and was expos'd to the Air would do the like and that he had often seen the gaping Clefts sometimes wide enough to put in his fingers which would remain in the Trees and in the Fir-wood till the thaw after which they would pretty well close of themselves Title VII Experiments touching the Expansion of Water and Aqueous Liquors by Freezing 1. THat water and other Liquors are condensed by Cold and so much the more condensed by how much the greater the degree of Cold is that condenses them has been for many ages generally taught by the Schools and taken for granted among men till of late some more speculative then the rest have called it in question upon the account of the levity of Ice since which I have met with two modern writers that have incidentally endeavoured to prove that Ice is water not condensed but rarified by the intumescence of water exposed to freezing in vessels fitly shap'd These Attempts of these learned Men putting me in mind of what I had tried to this purpose when I was scarce more then a Boy invited me to consider that by the usual ways of Glaciation such as these ingenious Men employ'd the Experiment is wont to meet with a Disaster by the breaking of the Glasses which not only makes the Event liable to some objections of theirs that befriend the common Opinion but which is more considerable hinders them from judging what this Expansion of water that is made by freezing may amount to wherefore we will now set down what we have done to ascertain and yet limit the Experiment as also to advance it further 2. Whereas then these two learned Men we have been mentioning do so expose the water to freez that it is turn'd into Ice at the top as soon as elsewhere the inconveniences of which way we have already noted we by freezing the water as we have formerly taught from the bottom upwards can easily preserve our Glasses entire and yet turn the whole contained water into Ice so that if according to this way You so place a Bolthead or a Glass-egg in whose Cavity the water ascends to the height of an inch or thereabouts within the stem or shank in a mixture of Ice or snow and salt as that the water is first turned into ice at the bottom and sides and not till the very last at the top you shall manifestly see that the ice will reach a good way higher in the neck then the fluid water did and that upon a gentle thaw of the ice the water it returns to will rest at the same height in the stem to which it reached before it was exposed to be frozen 3. We have likewise used other ways unspoken of by the lately mentioned writers to evince that water is expanded by being frozen as first that we took a strong earthen vessel of a Cylindrical form and filling it with water to a certain height we exposed it unstopped both to the open Air in frosty nights and to the operation of snow and salt and found that the ice did manifestly reach higher then the water did before it was congealed Besides if a hollow Pipe or Cylinder made of some compact matter be stopped at one end with wax or some things else which it may be more easie to drive out then to burst the Cylinder and if at the other end it be filled with water and that orifice also be stopped after the same manner this Pipe suspended in a sufficiently cold Air will have the included water frozen and by that change if the Experiment have been rightly made the water will upon congelation take up so much more room then it did before that the above mentioned stoppels or at least one of them will be thrust out and there will be produced a rod of Ice a good deal longer then the pipe at each of whose ends or at least at one of them a Cylindrical piece of Ice of a pretty length may be broken off without medling with the Pipe or the ice that fills it Divers other ways of proving the same Truth might be here alledged but that though these were not 〈◊〉 they are sufficient the matter would yet be abundantly confirm'd by divers of the Experiments that will here and there come in more opportunely in the following part of this Treatise 4. But here it will not be altogether impertinent or unseasonable to take notice that not only those School Philosophers who have considered the breaking of well 〈◊〉 Glasses in frosty weather an accident but too frequent in Apothecaries Shops and Laboratories but divers modern Virtuosi are wont to ascribe the Phaenomenon to this that the Cold of the external Air contracting the Air and Liquor within the Ambient Air must break the sides of the Glass to fill that space which being deserted upon the condensation of the included Air the liquor would otherwise leave a vacuum abhorr'd by nature and even those few Moderns that are loath to ascribe this Phaenomenon to Natures abhorrency of a vacuum either not being acquainted with the weight of the Air know not what probable account to give of it or if they acknowledge that weight are wont to ascribe it to that and to the great contraction of the internal Air made by the Cold of the External 5. But as for the Peripateticks the above mentioned Experiments sufficiently evince that in many cases 't is not the shrinking but the Expansion of the liquors contained in the stopt vessels that occasions their bursting and therefore in these cases we need not nor cannot fly to I know not what fuga vacui for an account of the Phaenomenon and whereas it may be objected that even glasses not half full of distill'd waters if they be exactly stopt are often broken by the frost in Apothecaries shops I answer That neither in this case do I see any need of having any recourse either to the fuga vacui or to the weight of the external Air for even here the Expansion of the freezing liquor may serve the turn for in such inartificial glaciations the liquor begins to freez at the top and the ice there
generated fastning itself as on other occasions we declare very strongly to the sides of the Glass contiguous to its edg as the liquor freezes deeper and deeper this crust of Ice increases in thickness and strength so that the water is included as in a vessel Hermetically sealed betwixt this Ice at the upper part and the sides and bottom of the Glass every where else and consequently the remaining water being uncapable of Congelation without Expansion when the ice is grown strong enough at the top to make it easier for the expansive endeavour of the freezing water to crack the sides or bottom of the Glass then to force up that thick cake of Ice the vessel will be broken how much soever there be of it empty above the surface of the Ice And this Conjecture may be confirmed by these two Particulars the one That when water is frozen in a broad vessel which is too strong to be broken or stretch'd by the frost the surface of the ice contiguous to the Air will be convex or protuberant because that though the glaciation began at the top the thickness and Compactness of the vessel makes it easier for the expansive endeavour to thrust up that cake of ice in those parts of it that are the remoter from the sides whereunto they are strongly fastned then to break so solid a vessel 6. The other Particular is afforded us by that Experiment of ours mention'd in the Vth Title foregoing wherein if a vessel half full of water be made to freez not first at the top but at the bottom that liquor may be turned into ice without danger to the glass But we will now add an Experiment on whose occasion we have set down these Considerations For being inclined to think that the spring of the Air shut up in a vessel stopped will preserve it expanded or at least keep it from considerably shrinking notwithstanding a very great degree of Cold in case the vessel be strong and close enough to fence it from the pressure of the external Air we conjectured that the bare weight of the outward Air added to the Refrigeration of the included Air would not be sufficient to break much weaker glasses then those we have been speaking of And therefore partly to satisfie some ingenious Men that this Conjecture made me dissent from and partly to show the Peripateticks and those that adhere to them in the question under consideration that either the Cold alone cannot always as they teach us contract the Air or that if it do the breaking of well stopp'd glasses in frosty weather is much fitter to evince that there may be a vacuum then that there can be none we made the following Experiment 7. We took three glass-bubbles of differing shapes and sizes which we caused to be blown with a Lamp that to make the Experiment very favourable for our Adversaries we might have them much thinner and consequently weaker then those glasses that are wont to be made use of to keep liquors in and which notwithstanding are wont to be broken though they be not full by the frost These Bubbles when the Air was at a convenient temper within were as easily they might be nimbly seal'd up with care to avoid the heating of the Air in them and being afterwards expos'd sometimes to the Air it self in very frosty weather and sometimes to that greater Cold which is produced by the placing them in a mixture of snow and salt we could not nevertheless find that any one of the three was at all broken or cracked so that in case the included Air were condensed into a lesser room the space it deserted may be concluded empty or else it will hardly appear what 〈◊〉 there can be that Nature should break as the Peripateticks pretend very much stronger glasses in Apothecaries shops to prevent a vacuum 8. Having shown that water it self acquires a considerable Expansion by Cold we will next shew that Aqueous Bodies or those that abound with waterish parts do divers if not 〈◊〉 of them the like We took Eggs and exposing them to a sufficient Degree of Cold we observ'd that when the contain'd liquors were turn'd into Ice they burst the shells asunder so that divers gaping Cracks were to be seen in them as long as they continu'd frozen 9. Milk Urine Rhenish-wine and good spirit of Wine being set to freez in distinct glass Eggs neither of the three former liquors 〈◊〉 observ'd to subside before it began to rise The Event in sum was that the Urine was much longer then either of the two other liquors before it began to swell but rose to a far greater height then they afterwards The Wine did not leave the mark above an inch beneath The Milk ascended about two inches and the Urine by guess six or seven 10. A strong solution of 〈◊〉 Vitriol being put into a Cylindrical Pipe seal'd at one end so that the liquor fill'd the Pipe to the height of about six or eight inches being frozen with snow and salt the congeal'd liquor grew very opacous and look'd as if it had been turn'd or shot into Vitriol save a little that remain'd fluid and transparent near the bottom And this Ice as appeared rose considerably higher then the liquor did before Congelation It were perhaps worth trying whether or no even several Bodies of a stable consistence and durable Texture might not be found to receive some though less manifest Dilatation by excessive Cold. And methinks those who attribute Glaciation to the plentiful Ingress of frigorifick Atoms into Bodies should by their Hypothesis have been invited to make some Trials of this kind since we see that the invisible Moisture of the Air against rainy weather does seem manifestly enough to alter the Dimensions of doors window-shuts and other such works made of wood not well season'd And even without supposing the truth of the Epicurean Hypothesis if we consider that in Bread though we are sure that much more water was added to the Meal or Flower then was exhal'd in the Oven yet there appears not the least drop of water distinct in the Concrete and that Harts-horn Sponges and many other Bodies that seem very dry will afford by distillation good store of phlegm or water and more then can probably be ascrib'd to any transmuting Operation of the Fire If I say we consider these and the like things it may seem worth while to try which I want the conveniency to do by accurate measures whether the invisible and interspers'd water its comminution notwithstanding will not upon freezing swell the Body that harbours it And I would the more gladly have been satisfi'd in this because I hop'd it might help me to unriddle a strange 〈◊〉 afforded us by the Narrative of the Dutchmens Voyage to Nova Zembla wherein they relate That the Cold was so great that their Clock was frozen and would not go though they hung more weight upon it then before So that they were
fain to measure their Time by hour-glasses For though this odd Effect might be suspected to proceed from some little Isicles sticking to some of the Wheels or the Line in regard they not far off tell us that the steams of their Bodies and other things within their close house did so fasten themselves to the walls to the Roof and even to their Cabins as to line them with Ice of no less then two fingers thick yet besides that it cannot be probably suppos'd that they who had so great need of their Clock during the tedious absence of the Sun for many weeks together should not all the Winter long be aware of this Besides this I say I find that in Captain James's wintering at Charleton his Clock and Watch were so frozen too That they could not go notwithstanding they were still kept by the fire side in a Chest 〈◊〉 in clothes So that in case it appear that according to what we 〈◊〉 noted out of Wormius the frost can get into Metals it can also distend them and other stable Bodies We might conceive that the stopping of the Clocks might proceed from the stiffness or the swelling of the line to which the weight was fastned or a swelling even of some of the wheels or other Metalline parts of the Clock that may spoil the necessary congruity between the Teeth c. as I have tri'd that some parts of an Iron Instrument I caus'd to be made would by no means fit one within another when expanded by much Heat and though Cold be the cause of the expansion the Effect may be the same though at other times they would And if we knew whether Springs lose any thing of their Elasticity by the violence of the Cold we might thence also be assisted to guess whether the frosts Operation upon the Spring of Captain James's Watch for he mentions that as distinct from his Clock might contribute any thing to the forcing it to stand still But these are bare Conjectures from which I will therefore pass on to the following Section Title VIII Experiments touching the Contraction of Liquors by Cold. 1. BUt notwithstanding all the former Experiments we must not conclude universally that all liquors are dispos'd to be expanded by Cold neither by a moderate degree nor even by so intense a degree of it as suffices to freez or congeal the liquors exposed to it this we have tri'd not only in spirit of Wine Aqua fortis Oyl of Turpentine and divers other liquors that we could not bring to freez but also in oyl congeal'd by the Vehemence of Cold so that as to the change of Dimensions produc'd in Liquors by Cold there must be a great difference allowed betwixt water and aqueous liquors on the one side and oyl and divers other liquors that are some of them of an oleaginous and some of a very spirituous or a very highly corrosive nature on the other side Nor have we yet made trials enough to reduce this matter to a certainty For though we could not bring some strong Saline spirits nor the most of Chymical oyls to freez yet in some our Attempts succeeded not ill But I remember not that in any liquor we could by Cold produce any sensible expansion but rather a manifest Condensation unless we could bring it actually to freez 2. The trials we made of the Efficacy of Cold to condense liquors were many but it may for the present suffice to set down two or three differing ones that occur to us in our Collections To the entry of the Experiment lately recited of the expansion of Milk Urine and the Rhenish Wine there are subjoyned these words But the Egg that held the spirit of Wine though it were much smaller then we usually employ and fitted with a proportionably slender stem and though it were kept divers hours partly in Ice and Salt and partly in Snow and Salt yet it froze not at all but subsided by degrees below the first mark to the quantity of ¾ of an inch in the stem and though it afterwards seemed to rise a little yet it never swelled up again to the said first mark 3. We took a round Bolthead of about in Diameter and poured in Mercury till it reached a pretty way into the neck which was purposely drawn more slender then ordinary and having without approaching it to the fire freed it from some of the larger bubbles of Air that appeared at the sides we put it into a mixture of Ice and Salt where the Cold so wrought upon it that watching it attentively we could discern not only its having moved but its motion downwards which it continued though not visibly in the progress as at the first till it was subsided in the neck two inches or better which was far more then could be attributed to the contraction of any sensible Aerial Particles though they had lost not only the 30. part of their Dimensions as we have sometimes observed of the Air but had been contracted to a point and we observed too that the Quicksilver once thus infrigidated though not frozen retained some of the acquired Cold for many hours after as appeared by its keeping below the mark of its first height though we had kept it all night in a warm room 4. We took a small Egg with a proportionably slender stem into which we poured common oyl till it rose a pretty way but not much above the oval part of the glass then having put a mark upon the station of the liquor we placed the vessel in snow and salt and observed it not to swell as other liquors but to subside with Cold till being quite frozen or congeal'd it appeared to be shrunk about an inch or more beneath the mark then being thaw'd it swelled again to the mark 5. The Experiment was repeated the second time with not much worse success but we found that if the glass were removed out of the snow into some place near the fire the hot Air would not only thaw it but so rarifie it as to make it ascend above the mark A third time we seal'd up the same oyl in the same glass and repeated the Experiment with like success to that we had the second time and that the frozen oyl was really condensed we found because it would sink in oyl of the same kind cold but unfrozen and this notwithstanding divers bubbles which we observed usually to be made about each lump of congeal'd oyl that we cast in upon its begining to sink in the fluid oyl This we tri'd both with oyl well congeal'd or if another word please better Incrassated or Curled by snow and salt and with oyl less congeal'd frozen by the bare cold of the Ambient Air but this latter seemed to sight to sink more slowly then the other as being less congealed and ponderous yet would not lumps of the mass of oyl sink or continue immersed I say not in common water but in Sack or
Claret-wine and if thrust down into either of these liquors they nimbly enough emerged 6. Whether or no Chymical oyls though like expressed oyls they shrink with a moderate degree of Cold would by congelation be like them contracted or like Aqueous liquors expanded we could not satisfie our selves by Experiment because we were unable to advance Cold to a degree capable of bringing such oyls to congelation only we had thoughts to make a trial with oyl of Aniseeds distilled with water in a Limbeck in regard that though it be a very subtile liquor and as Chymists call it an Essential oyl and though in the Summer time and at some other seasons if the weather be warm it will remain fluid yet in the Winter when the Air is cold it will if it be well drawn and genuine easily enough lose its fluidity and therefore we thought it might do well to pour some of it in moderate weather into a conveniently shap'd glass and then to freez it externally by the application of Ice and Salt that we might observe whether upon congelation it would shrink or be expanded And accordingly though we were not provided with any Quantity of this oyl yet in weather that was not sharp we did by the help of some Ice which we procur'd when the season made it a Rarity surround a glass pipe fill'd with fluid oyl of Aniseeds and found though the Pipe were but short yet the inclosed substance when it had lost its fluidity had considerably lost of the height which it reached to before 7. And because the Empyreumatical oyls that are driven out of Retorts by somewhat violent fires seem'd to be of a nature differing enough from those Essential oyls as Artists call them which are drawn in Limbecks by the help of water as well as fire And because we observ'd that some of the firmer oyls may be us'd in Physick in much larger Doses then 't is thought safe to give the latter in Conjecturing from hence that probably Empyreumatical oyls may be less hot and so less indispos'd to Congelation we thought fit to make trial no body else in probability having done it whether the Cold in our Climate could be brought to freez these oyls and whether it would expand or condense them wherefore exposing in conveniently shap'd vessels some good oyl of Guajacum that was diaphanous enough though very highly colour'd to the greatest Cold we could produce we attempted but in vain to deprive it of its fluidity All that we were able to effect being to make it very manifestly shrink Title IX Experiments in Consort Touching the Bubbles from which the Levity of Ice is supposed to proceed 1. SInce the first thing that made the Moderns suspect that water is expanded by freezing is the floating of Ice upon water it will not be 〈◊〉 for confirmation of that Argument to take some notice of the 〈◊〉 of Ice in respect of water This is best observed in great Quantities of Ice for whereas in small fragments or plates the Ice though it 〈◊〉 not to the bottom of the water will oftentimes sink so low in it as scarce to leave any part evidently extant above the surface of the water in vast quantities of Ice that extancy is sometimes so conspicuous that Navigators in their Voyages to Island Greenland and other frozen Regions complain of meeting with lumps or rather floating rocks of Ice as high as their main Masts And if we should meet with Cases wherein we might safely suppose the Ice to be as solid as entire pieces of Ice are wont to be with us and not to be made up of icy fragments cemented together with the interception of considerable Cavities filled with Air it would not be difficult for any that understands Hydrostaticks to give a pretty near guess at the height of the Extant part by the help of what we lately observ'd of the Measures of water's Expansion and by the knowledge of the immersed part which supposing that the Ice were of a prismatical figure and floated in an erected posture would in fresh water amount to about eight or nine times the length of the part of the Prisme superior to the surface of the water 2. But because perhaps the great disparity in the degrees of Cold whereby water is in this and in those gelid Climates turn'd into Ice may breed a difference in the expansion of the frozen water and because some other circumstances may be needful to be taken into consideration about the height of floating Ice above water and these will be more properly taken notice of under the following Title I shall only upon this head of the Levity of Ice subjoyn the ensuing transcript of one of our notes concerning That subject We found that pieces of Ice clear and free for ought the Eye could take notice of from bubbles would not be made to sink in spirit of Wine once distilled from Brandy and it floated likewise in strong spirit of Wine drawn from quick Lime but if the spirit of Wine were well warmed such Ice as I mentioned would sink in it though as it grew cold the same Ice would slowly ascend and sometimes remain for a while as if it were suspended without sensibly rising or falling But all this while the Ice thawed apace in the water whereinto it was dissolved did manifestly seem to run down like a stream through the lighter body of the spirit of Wine the Diversity of the Refractions making this easie to be taken notice of yet common water though heated as hot as I could indure to hold the glass in my hand would not let the fragments of the same parcel of Ice sink into it but in oyl of Turpentine and in thrice Rectifi'd spirit of Wine the Ice would sink like a stone 3. That the levity of Ice in respect of water proceeds from the bubbles that are produc'd in it and make the water when congeal'd take up more room then when fluid has scarce been doubted by any that has consider'd the Texture of Ice as well as taken notice of its levity But if this be the true and only reason we may conjecture that there must be great store of bubbles in Ice extremely minute and undiscern'd by the naked Eye For though in very many parcels of Ice the bubbles are as well conspicuous as numerous insomuch that they render the Ice whitish and opacous yet we have observed that other pieces would swim which yet were of an almost crystalline clearness And therefore we thought fit to look upon some clear pieces of Ice in a Microscope and we shall subjoyn the Event because that when we beheld some of this ice in one of our Microscopes which has been counted by several of the curious as good a Magnifier as perhaps any is in the world we could not discover such store of bubbles as it seemed there should appear upon the supposition that the adequate cause of the levity and expansion of frozen water is
the Bubbles wont to abound in Ice be filled with common Air and even this question though it seem but one comprizes two for to resolve it we must determine whether there be any true Air contained in those Cavities and whether in case there be they be adequately filled with that Air by true Air I mean such an invisible fluid as does permanently retain a spring like the common Air. 7. The former of these two Questions I must confess my self not yet resolved about my Experiments having not hitherto succeeded uniformly enough to satisfie so jealous an observer But yet I shall annex our trials not only because the thing has not been that we know of somuch as attempted by others and our ways of Experimenting if they be duly prosecuted seem as promising and hopeful if the Question be reducible to any certain Decision as perhaps will be easily lighted on but because also we have if we mistake not resolved the second Question by shewing that there is but a small part of true Air contained in the Bubbles of Ice whatever Ingenious men that rely upon probable Conjectures without consulting Experience have been pleas'd to believe to the contrary That the bubbles observed in Ice cannot all be filled with the Aerial particles lurking in the water seems evident enough by the expansion of the water and the Quantity of space taken up by those bubbles which how the interspers'd and formerly latitant Air can adequately fill unless the same parcel of Matter could truly 〈◊〉 much more space at one time then at another which I take to be physically impossible I do not yet apprehend But two ways of trial there are which we imployed to shew that the Icy bubbles are nothing near filled with true Air whether Men will have that pre-existent in the water or stollen in from without or generated anew the former of the two ways of trials probably arguing that these bubbles proceed not only for that they may proceed partly we do not at all deny from the Air pre-existent in the water and the latter concluding more generally that but a small part of the icy bubbles are filled with genuine Air. 8. And 1. we were invited to conjecture both that sometimes or in some cases the Air latitant in the water might contribute to generate icy bubbles though it was unable adequately to fill them and again that sometimes or in other cases such bubbles would be almost as numerously generated notwithstanding the recess of far the greatest part of that latitant Air by the three following Experiments taken verbatim out of our Collections I. We took fair water and having kept it in the exhausted Receiver of our Pneumatical Engine for a good while till we perceived it not to send up any more bubbles we presently transferred it into snow and salt where it was long enough before it began to freez and then we observed that the water did not swell near so much as common water is wont to do and the ice seemed to have few or no bubbles worth taking notice of but when I afterwards placed it between my Eye and the vigorous flame of a Candle I could perceive that it was not quite destitute of bubbles though they were extremely small in comparison of those that would probably have appeared in ordinary water Thus far the first Experiment the second follows which was made at another time II. The water that had been freed from the bubbles in the Receiver though it afforded an ice that seem'd to have smaller bubbles yet this ice being thaw'd part of the water was gently poured into a pipe of glass wherein being frozen it swell'd considerably enough above its first level and besides burst the glass being also very opacous by reason of the bubbles The third Experiment was more industriously prosecuted as may appear by this ample Narrative of it transcribed out of our Collections III. We took a small Egg with a pretty long neck and pouring in water till it reach'd an inch within the stem conveyed it into a long slender Cylindrical Receiver provided on purpose to make trials with such tall glasses the Air being by degrees drawn out of the bubbles appeared from time to time greater and greater and when the Receiver was well exhausted the water seemed to boil a longer time then one would have expected and sometimes the bubbles ascended so fast and great that we were in doubt whether the water did not boil over the top of the Pipe the exhausted Receiver was permitted to be so for a good while till the water had discharged it self in bubbles of its Air and then the glass-Egg was removed into a vessel furnished with ice and salt and there left ten or twelve hours that all the water save that in the neck might be throughly frozen and then we found it to have risen a great way above its first height and removing it into an Air temper'd like that wherein the first part of the Experiment was made having left it there in a quiet place for ten or twelve hours to thaw leisurely lest too warm an Air or too much stirring the glass might be an occasion of generating new bubbles in the exterior part of the ice near the glass we saw pretty store of bubbles but when that was thaw'd the rest of the ice appeared of a peculiar and unusual texture having no determinate bubbles that I could easily distinguish but seeming almost like a piece of frosted glass where the Parts that made the Asperity were exceeding thick set but this ice swam in the water whereinto the rest had been dissolved before it was all thawed when there yet remained a lump about the bigness of a small Walnut we reconveyed it into the Receiver to try whether upon the exuction of the Air the ice would be presently melted but the alteration produced was so small if any that we durst not ground any thing upon it The Receiver being exhausted there did at length appear some bubbles in the water but they were not numerous and a hundred of them seem'd not to amount to one of those larger ones the same water had yielded us the first time it was put in in the ice also some small bubbles disclosed themselves which we did not perceive there before wherefore we took out the Egg and found the ice being now thaw'd that the water was subsided to the mark we had made before it was expos'd to congelation if not some very little way beneath it Then we went about to find the Proportion wherein this dispirited water was expanded by glaciation but in pursuing this there hapned a mischance to the glass which kept the Experiment from being so accurate as we designed And therefore though it seemed to us that it amounted to about the twelfth part which is less then that of the undispirited water yet we designed the repetition of the Experiment Only in this we could not be mistaken that the
expansion wrs considerable since the water rose three inches and a half in the stem though the whole water in the Egg and stem too weighed but two ounces and a half 〈◊〉 the vessel had not been unluckily cracked we should have frozen the water once more and then sealing up the glass Hermetically and suffering the ice leisurely to thaw should have inverted it and broken it under water and have proceeded with it as we had done with some other glasses in the formerly mentioned Experiments 9. A little glass Cylinder open only at one end of a convenient length was thrust into a deep and wide mouth'd-glass about half filled with a mixture of Ice and salt but the Cylinder was neither so quite filled that the water should run over nor yet far short of being so that for all the opacous mixture of Ice and Salt we might guess at the freezing of that part of the water that we could not see by the changes appearing in the other Then conveying all into a Receiver that we had in readiness beforehand we quickly pumped out the Air upon which there came both from the upper lower parts of the water great store of Bubbles to the top where most of them brake into the Receiver having found upon trials purposely made that the Engine had continued stanch all the while and perceiving by the intumescence of the superior parts of the water that the other were frozen we let in the external Air and having removed the Receiver and taken out the mixture before the Ice was half melted we found the water as high as the mixture reached to be turn'd into ice which besides some large and conspicuous bubbles had small ones enough to render it opacous and upon the account of this expansion it was that the water did in the free Air continue a good deal higher then the mark it was but level with when the Cylinder was exposed to freez 10. The other way we employ'd to examine what was contained in icy bubbles and which seemed clearly enough to manifest that they are very far from being filled with true and springy Air is intimated in the last clause of the foregoing narrative but will be best understood by the annexed Experiments transcribed just as I find them registred in my Collections and though they be prolix and contain some few Particulars that make not directly for the purpose I alledge them for yet I think not fit to dismember or to epitomize them or otherwise to alter any thing in them partly that the inference I make from them may be the less mistrusted partly because the way of Experimenting being altogether new will be best apprehended by the subjoyned Examples and partly too because those Particulars that relate not directly to the occasion of our mentioning these trials may be useful to illustrate or confirm some thing that is already delivered or is hereafter to be delivered in the present History of Cold. 11. We took this day a glass of the form of an Egg but of double the capacity out of whose obtuse end rose up a long Cylindrical neck capable to receive the end of my little finger and no more this being fill'd with common water till the liquor reached a pretty way within the pipe and the surface of the water being carefully marked on the outside was placed in a vessel wherein ice very grosly beaten was mingled with a convenient Proportion of salt according to our way of Glaciation the Mixture not reaching up to the mark by above an inch The Experiment afforded us these Particulars I. A heedful Eye did not perceive the water sensibly to subside before it began to freez II. The water began to swell and some parts of it next the side or bottom of the glass to freez within a quarter of an hour III. The ascent of the water in the pipe increased so fast that within an hour from the time the glass was put in it did rise 4. inches and 2 9 above the mark afterwards the swelling connutied so that we took it out though a good part of the water remain'd unfrozen it had reach'd five inches and somewhat more then a half above the first Mark. IV. The ice and salt being purposely kept always beneath the surface of the water the lower parts of the water were frozen and never the upper surface V. During all this great Elevation of the water there appeared no bubbles worth taking notice of in the unfrozen parts of the liquor but the ice was very full of them divers of which toward the latter end of the Experiment were very large Bubbles but not all of them round some being about the bigness of hail shot some small like Mustard seed and others again not much inferior to little pease VI. Having taken out the glass when the water was at the highest mark we did upon a certain design pour in as much sallet Oyl as swam about two inches above it and then the glass was nimbly at the flame of a Lamp seal'd up during which time the included water subsided a little but the glass being again put into the ice and salt the Cold quickly restored the water to its former height and there remained about an inch and a half of the seal'd glass unpossessed by the two contain'd liquors VII Then with a good pair of scales we weigh'd the glass-Egg first in the Air and then in the water the better to discern whether any shrinking of the glass interven'd in the case where it hung freely and was left hanging in its Equilibrium with its opposite weight VIII Whilest it thus hung upon the thawing of the ice many bubbles great and small ascended the great ones with a wrigling motion and vanish'd at the top IX As the ice thaw'd the water and oyl descended till the whole ice was return'd to water at which time we observ'd these two remarkable things the one That the Equilibrium remain'd the same the other which was more considerable that the water was subsided again as low as the first mark with which it was level before it began to swell without falling beneath it notwithstanding the recess of such a multitude of Bubbles divers of which were very large X. The glass being inverted the seal'd end which was drawn slender was gently broken under water of which some being impell'd in did sensibly reduce the Air at the opposite end into a narrower room and as one of the spectators observ'd into a much narrower which is consonant enough to reason XI The glass being again inverted and held till it was setled we found that the water drawn in together with the water it found there and the oyl possess'd the same places as appeared by the marks in the Cavity of the Receiver that they did when it was seal'd up XII And lastly having thrown out the oyl and employing where need was a little water of the same kind we had made use of all this while
to be measured so the measurers not knowing how long they may have been on ground for ought I know much of that admir'd height may be attributed to the snows that from time to time fall very plentifully in those frozen Regions and are compacted together either by the Sun whose Beams sometimes begin to thaw it and sometimes by the water of the waves that beat against the Ice and being congeal'd with the snow does as it were cement the parts of it together and sometimes by both of these causes So in the instance alledg'd out of Captain James of pieces of ice that were twice as high as his Top-mast-head it is said also that they were on ground in 40. fathome And in the other Example mention'd out of Bartholinus though there be 40. fathome attributed to the immersed part of the ice yet that measure is not exclusive of a greater for it is said that the ice reach'd downwards above 40. fathome and how much downwards and whether as far as the ground we are left at liberty to guess And in that stupendious piece of Ice recorded in the Nova Zembla voyage to have been in all 52. fathome that is 300. and twelve foot deep though it be granted what they affirm that it was 16. fathome above the water which is almost a third part of the whole depth yet I observe that of this Icy mountain it is said that it lay fast on the ground So that as on the one side it seems probable that the upper part of Islands of ice may be increas'd by snow and as I remember that in that famously inquisitive Navigator Mr. Hudsons voyage for the discovery of the North-west passage 't is related that his company was so well acquainted with the Ice that when Night or foggy or foul weather took them they would seek out the Broadest Islands of Ice and there come to Anchor and run and sport and fill water that stood the Ice in ponds very fresh and good So on the other side we know not how much lower the Dutch-mens Ice and Captain James's would have reach'd into the Sea in case the ground they rested on had not hindred them For though one might probably think that these are the greatest depths that any Hills of Ice have been observ'd to attain that mention'd by the Hollanders reaching 36. fathome beneath the water and that mention'd by Captain James no less then 40. fathome yet I find in Mr. Hudsons Voyage that the English in the Bay that bears his Name met with more then one or two Islands of Ice of a fargreater depth underwater For among other things the Relator has this memorable passage In this Bay where we were thus troubled with Ice we saw many of those mountains of Ice a ground in six or seven score fathome water And if the Sea had been deep enough even these stupendious moles of Ice would probably have sunk much lower and so have lessened the heights of the mountains 11. I know that delivering the measure of the Expansion of water alone I have not said all that may be said about the Expansion of Liquors But because as it has not yet appeared to me that any Liquor is expanded by Cold unless by actual freezing I doubted whether Aqueous Liquors as Wine Milk Urine c. were otherwise expanded by congelation then upon the Account of the water or phlegmatick and in a strict sense congealable part contain'd in them and whether it were worth while for a man in haste to examine their particular Expansions Notwithstanding which I would not discourage any from trying whether or no by the differing Dilatations of Aqueous Liquors some of them of the same and some of them of differing kinds we may be assisted to make any estimate of the differing proportions they contain of phlegm and of more spirituous or useful Ingredients 12. After what has been hitherto delivered concerning the Expansion of Liquors by Cold it may be expected we should say something of the measure of their Contraction by the same Quality But as for water which is the principal Liquor whose Dimensions are to be consider'd I have formerly declar'd that I could seldom or never find its contraction in the Winter season when I tried it to be at all considerable And I shall now add that having for greater certainty procur'd the Experiment to be made by another also in a Bolthead the Account I received of it was that he could scarce discern the water in the stem to fall beneath its station mark'd at the upper part of the pipe when the water in the Ball was so far infrigidated as to begin to freez Though I will not deny that in warmer Climates as Italy or Spain the contraction of the water a little before glaciation begins may be somewhat considerable especially if the Experiment be made in Summer or in case either there or here the water expos'd to freez be put into a vessel very advantageously shap'd or brought out of some warm Chamber or other place where the heat of the Air that surrounded it had rarifi'd it But to examine the measures of Contraction in the several Liquors and with the nice Observations that such a work to be accurately prosecured would require would have taken up much more of my time then I was willing to imploy about a work which I look'd not on as important enough to deserve it And therefore I shall here add nothing to what I have said under the Title of the Degrees of Cold touching the contraction of spirit of Wine and of oyl of Turpentine by the differing degrees of that Quality And as for the condensation of Air the vastest fluid we deal with I did indeed think fit to measure how much Cold condenses it But the account of that Experiment will be more opportunely deliver'd in one of the following Discourses Title XI Experiments touching the Expansive Force of Freezing Water 1. HAving shewn that there is an Expansion made of water and Aqueous Bodies by Congelation let us now examine how strong this Expansion is and the rather because no body has yet that we know of made any particular trials on purpose to make discoveries in this matter so that although some unhappy Accidents have kept our Experiments from being as accurate as we designed and as God assisting we may hereafter make them yet at least we shall shew this Expansion to be more forcible then has hitherto been commonly taken notice of and assist men to make a somewhat less uncertain Estimate of the force of it then they seem to have yet endeavoured to enable themselves to make 2. And 1. we shall mention some Experiments that do in general shew that the Expansion of freezing water is considerably strong We took a new Pewter-bottle capable to contain as we guess'd about half a pint of water and having fill'd it top full with that Liquor we scru'd on the stopple and exposed it during
a very frosty night to the cold Air and the next morning the water appeared to have burst the Bottle though its matter were metalline and though purposely for this trial we had chosen it quite new the crack appeared to be in the very substance of the Pewter This Experiment we repeated and 't was one of those bottles fill'd with Ice that had crack'd it which a Noble Virtuoso would needs make me who should else have scrupled to amuse with such a Triffle so great a Monarch and so great a Virtuoso bring to his Majesty to satisfie him by the wideness of the crack and the Protuberance of the Ice that shewed it self in it that the water had been really expanded by Congelation 3. We also tried whether or no a much smaller Quantity of water would not if frozen have the like Effect and accordingly filling with about an ounce of water a scru'd Pewter box such as many use to keep Treacle Salves in quite new and of a considerable thickness we found that upon the freezing of the included water the vessel was very much burst Afterwards filling a Quart Bottle if I mistake not the capacity with a congealable liquor and tying down the Cork very hard with strong Packthread we found that the frost made the liquor force out the stopple in spite of all the care we had taken to keep it down But afterwards we so well fastned a Cork to the neck of a quart bottle of Glass that it was easier for the congealing liquor to break the vessel then to thrust out the stopple and having for a great many hours expos'd this to an exceeding sharp Air we found at length the bottle burst although it were so thick and strong that we were invited to measure the breadth of the sides and found that the thinnest place where it was broken by the Ice was 3 16 of an inch and the thickest ⅜ that is twice as much 〈◊〉 we also by the help of the frost broke an earthen bottle of strong Flanders metal of which the thinnest part that was broken was equal by measure to the thinnest part of the other 4. But the above mention'd Instances serving only to declare in general that the Expansion of water by Cold is very forcible I thought fit to attempt the reducing of the Matter somewhat nearer an Estimate less remote from being determinate and because the water expos'd to congelation may be probably supposed to be Homogeneous we judg'd that the quantity of it may very much vary its degree of Force and because some may suspect that the Figure also may not be inconsiderable in this matter we thought fit to make our Trials in a Brass vessel whose Cavity was Cylindrical and which to make it stronger had an orifice but at one of its ends and whose thickness was such that we had reason to expect that whilest the top remained covered but with a reasonable weight the included water would find it more easie to lift up that weight then break the sides To this Cylinder we fitted a cover of the same mettal that was flat and went a little way into the Cavity leaning also upon the edges of the sides for the more closer stopping of the orifice the cavity of this Cylinder was in length about five inches and in breadth about an inch and three quarters This Cylinder being fill'd top full with water and the cover being carefully put on was fastned into an Iron frame that held it erected and allowed us to place an iron weight amounting to 56. pound or half a hundred of common English weight which circumstance I mention because the common hundred that our Carriers c. use exceeds five score by twelve But this vessel being exposed in a frosty night to the cold Air the contain'd water did not the next morning appear to be frozen and the trial was another time that way repeated with no better success as if either the thickness or clearness of the mettal had broken the violence of the external Airs frigefactive Power or the weight that oppressed the Cover had hindred that Expansion of the water which is wont to accompany its Glaciation Wherefore we thought it requisite to apply to the outside of the vessel a mixture of salt with ice or snow as that which we had observed to introduce a higher degree of Cold then the Air alone even in very frosty nights and though this way it self the glaciation proceeded very slowly and sometimes scarce at all yet at length we found that the water was by this means brought so far to freez that on the morrow the ice had on one side swelled above the top of the Cylinder and by lifting the cover on that side had thrown down the incumbent weight but in this trial the cover having been uniformly or every where lifted up above the upper orifice of the Cylinder we repeated the Experiment divers times as we could get opportunity sometimes with success and sometimes without it and of one of the chief of our Experiments of this sort we find the following account among our Collections 5. The hollow brass weight being about one inch and thee quarters in Diameter and the brass cover put on was loaded with a weight of 56. pound upon the cover and expos'd to an excessively sharp night the next morning the cover and the weight were found visibly lifted up though not above that we could discern a small Barley-corns breadth but the thickness of the brass cover was not here estimated which was much less then half an inch which according to former observations one might exspect to see the ice ascend But that which we took particular notice of was that the inclosed Cylinder of ice being by a gentle thaw of the superficial parts taken out appear'd so full of bubbles as to be thereby made opacous Also when in the morning the Cylinder was brought into my Chamber before the fire was made the 56. pound weight being newly taken off at a little hole that seemed to be between the edge of the Brass and Ice there came out a great many drops of water dilated into numerous bubbles and reduced into a kind of sroth as if upon the removal of the oppressing weight the bubbles of the water had got liberty to expand themselves but this lasted but a very little 6. After this the difficulty we have often met with in the placing of great weights conveniently upon the cover of a Cylinder and the Expectation we had to find the Quantity of the water we made use of capable upon its Congelation to lift up a much greater weight invited us to make trial of its Expansive force by some what a differing way which was to fit a wooden plug to the Cavity of the Cylinder after we had suffered it to soak a convenient time in water that swelling as much as it would before it might be made to swell no more by the water which would lye contiguous
to it in the vessel and then to drive it forcibly in till by considerable weights appended to the extant part of the plug when the Cylinder was inverted we could not draw it out the success of one of these Trials is thus set down in our Collections 7. A Plug was driven into the Cavity of a Brass Cylinder first filled with water the Plug being also well soaked then the Cylinder being inverted the Plug took up half a hundred and a quarter of a hundred weight and would possibly have taken up much more and being exposed to a very sharp night the freezing water thrust out the plug about a barley-corns breadth quite round above the upper edge of the Cylinder and it freezing all that day and the next night it was again exposed the plug not being yet taken out and then the plug was beaten out a little more namely in all near a quarter of an inch 8. Thus we see that the expansive endeavour of the water forced a resistence at least equal to that which would have been made by a weight of 74. pound and probably as the note intimates would have appear'd able to do more if we had had convenient weights and Instruments wherewith to have measur'd the strength of the waters endeavour outwards which some subsequent Trials made us think very considerable though not finding their Events set down in our notes we think it fit at present to leave them unmentioned But one thing there is in these trials that I think not unworthy a Philosophers notice and his considering namely that this endeavour of the water to expand it self is thus vigorous though the uttermost term to which it would expand it self in case it were not at all resisted would be but to about a ninth or at most an eight part of the space it possest before it began to freez whereas Air may by Heat which yet we have elsewhere shewn will not reduce it to any thing near its utmost expansion be brought to possess though not to fill according to the diligent Mersennus's observation seventy times the Dimensions it had before Rarefaction and consequently the Air expanded by Heat does by its endeavours tend to acquire above 60. times the space that the water does when expanded by so high a degree of Cold as is capable to turn it all into Ice not to mention that the expansion to which the Air tends upon the Account of its own spring is as we shew in another place many times greater then that to which Mersennus could bring it upon the bare Account of Heat 9. There remains yet one way whereby we hop'd though not to measure the Expansive force of freezing water yet to manifest it to be prodigiously great or in case we fail'd of this aim to produce at least some other Phaenomena relating to Cold that would not be inconsiderable And though our endeavours succeeded not yet because a happier opportunity may bring them to be one way or other succesful we shall annex That we caus'd to be made an Iron Ball of between two and three inches in Diameter which Ball was solid save that in the midst there was a small Cavity left to place a little water in together with a female screw as they call it reaching from the outward surface of that internal cavity and to this was applied a strong Iron screw so fitted to the internal cavity of the other screw as to fill it with as much exactness as could be obtained And this screw was made to go so hard that it requir'd to be screw'd in by the help of a Vice that it might not be forc'd out without breaking the Iron it self Our design in imploying this Instrument was that having well fill'd the internal cavity with water and forc'd in the screw as far as it could be made to go the Instrument thus charg'd with water might be expos'd to the highest degree of Cold we could produce For having thus ordered the matter we thought we might expect either that the water how much soever we heightned and lengthned the Cold would not freez at all being hindred from the Expansion belonging to Ice in comparison of water or if it did freez that one of these two things would happen either that the expansive force of that little water would by forcing such an Iron Instrument manifest its strength to be stupendious or by not breaking it present us with ice without Bubbles or at least not rarer and lighter then the water it was made of but for want of a sufficient Cold our designs succeeded not so as to satisfie us though we more then once attempted it For the great thickness of the Iron being consider'd we were not sure that the waters not freezing might not proceed rather from the thickness and compactness of the metal then from its resistence to the expansion of water And therefore we must suspend the inferences this Experiment may afford us till we have opportunity to make trial of it with a Cold not only very intense but durable enough the want of which last circumstance keeps us from daring to build any thing on our Experiment 10. And here we may take notice that it may be an inquiry more worthy a Philosopher then easie for him whence this prodigious force we have observ'd in water expanded by glaciation should proceed For if Cold be but as the Cartesians would have a privation of Heat though by the recess of that Ethereal substance which agitated the little Eel-like particles of the water and thereby made them compose a fluid body it may easily enough be conceiv'd that they should remain rigid in the Postures wherein the Ethereal substance quitted them and thereby compose an unfluid Body like Ice yet how these little Eels should by that recess acquire as strong an endeavour outwards as if they were so many little springs and expand themselves too with so stupendious a force is that which does not so readily appear And on the other side in the Epicurean way of explicating Cold though the Phaenomenon seems some what less difficult yet it is not at all easie to be salv'd For though granting the Ingress of swarms of Cold Corpuscles the Body of water may be suppos'd to be thereby much swell'd and expanded yet besides that these Corpuscles stealing insensibly into the Liquors they insinuate themselves into without any shew of boisterousness or violence 't is not so easie to conceive how they should display so strange a force against the sides of those strong vessels that they break when they may as freely permeat or enter them besides this I say we observe that in Oyl which requires a far greater degree of Cold to be congeal'd to a good degree of hardness the swarms of frigorifick Atoms that invade it are so far from making it take up more room then before that they reduce it into less as may appear by those former Experiments which manifested that
Cold does not expand either oyl or uncongealable Liquors but condense them 11. After what I have thus largely delivered concerning the expansive endeavour of freezing water I hope I may be allow'd to leave to others if they shall think it worth the labour the prosecution of the like Experiments upon Wine Milk Urine and other Liquors abounding with Aqueous parts concerning which we shall only in general remind those that may have forgotten it That by some of our Experiments it appears that such Aqueous Liquors are expanded by congelation and that their endeavour outwards is considerably forcible seems more then likely from what we formerly noted out of the Dutch Voyage to Nova Zembla where 't is related that by the extreme Cold both some of their other Barrels and some of those that were hooped with Iron were as they speak frozen in pieces that is according to our Conjecture burst together with the Hoops whether of Wood or Iron by the expansive force of the imprison'd Liquors brought to freez 12. To which I shall add that when I asked an Ingenious person whether in Russia where he liv'd a good while Beer and Wine did not when brought to congelation break the vessels they were frozen in He Answered That he had not observed wooden vessels to have been broken by them perhaps because of their yielding but glass and stone Bottles often Title XII Experiments touching a New way of estimating the Expansive force of Congelation and of highly compressing Air without Engines 1. THere is yet another way that I bethought my self of at once to measure the force wherewith freezing water expands it self and to reduce the Air to a greater degree of condensation then I have as yet found it brought to by any unquestionable way of compressing it But whereas by this method to determine exactly the Expansive force of the water it were requisite not only to know the quantity of the water and that of the Air exposed to the Cold but to make the Experiment in vessels conveniently shap'd to measure the Dilatation of the one and the compression of the other our Experiments being made in a place where we were not provided of such glasses we were not able to make our trials so instructive and satisfactory as else we might have done nevertheless we shall not scruple to subjoyn those of them that we find noted down among our Collections allowing our selves to hope that will not be unacceptable or appear impertinent not only upon the account of their novelty but for two other reasons 2. The first because though they do not accurately define the Expansive force of freezing water yet they manifest that it is wonderfully great better perhaps then any Experiment that has been hitherto practised not to say thought of as may appear by comparing what we have delivered in another Treatise of the great force requisite to compress Air considerably with the great compression of Air that has already been this way effected 3. The second because this new way affords us one of condensing the Air much farther then hitherto it has by any method I have heard of been unquestionably reduced I say unquestionably because though the diligent Mersennus and others seem to have conceived himself to have reduced it in the wind-Gun into a very narrow room yet besides that by our Expedient we have compressed it beyond what these Ingenious Men pretend to Besides this I say I have long much questioned whether the way of compressing Air in a wind-Gun which both they and we have imploy'd may safely be relied on for the oyl or some other analogous thing that is wont this way to be imploy'd and the overlooking of several circumstances that are more necessary to be taken into diligent consideration then wont to be so may easily enough occasion no small mistake in assigning so great a degree to the compression of the Air but our Exceptions against this way of measuring it may be more opportunely discours'd of in another place And therefore we will now proceed to take notice that of the two known ways of compressing Air the clearest and most satisfactory seems to be that which is performed in the wind Fountain as 't is commonly called where yet I have seldom if ever seen the Air that I remember by all the violence men could use to syringe in water crowded into so little as the third part of the capacity of the vessel And an ingenious Artificer that makes store of these Fountains being consulted by me about the further compressing of Air in them he deterr'd me from venturing to try it by affirming to me that both he and another skilful Person of my Acquaintance had like to have been spoiled by such attempts for endeavouring to urge the Air beyond a moderate degree of compression it not only burst some Fountains made of Glass but when the Attempt was made in a large but thick vessel made of strong and compact Flanders Earth the same with that of Jugs and stone Bottles the vessel was by the over-bent spring of the Air burst with a horrid noise and the pieces thrown off with that violence that if they had hit him or his Friend that assisted him in the Experiment they might have maimed him if not killed him out right so that the greatest unquestionable Compression of the Air seems to have been that recorded in the Fifth Chapter of our Defence against the learned Linus where nevertheless we could reduce the Air by the weight of a Cylinder of Mercury of about 100. inches which consequently might near countervale a Cylinder of six score foot of water but into a little less then a fourth part of its usual extent but how much further the Air may be compressed by our new purposed way it is now time to shew by the ensuing notes of which we have not omitted any that we could find both that some scruples which might else arise about the way we imployed may be prevented or satisfied and that the way we imployed in practising this method might by some variety of Examples be the better understood 4. We took a large glass-Egg with a Cylindrical stem about the bigness of my middle finger and pouring in water till it reach'd about a fingers breadth higher then the bottom of the stem we set it to freez in snow and salt for some hours with the stop of the stem which was drawn out into a very slender pipe almost at right angles with the stem open and there left it for some hours and the water was risen betwixt six and a half and seven inches This we did in order to another Experiment but then easily and nimbly sealing up the slender pipe above mentioned that the Air in the stem might not be heated we let it continue in the snow sometimes adding fresh for about 24. hours to observe to what degree the water by expanding it self would compress the imprison'd Air. The length of the Cylinder of
Air to be condens'd at the time of the sealing was accounting by Estimation for the slender pipe newly taken notice of almost 9 â…ž inches This space we observed the ascending water as the ice increas'd below to invade by degrees for we watch'd it and measur'd it from time to time so much till at length the water reach'd to 8. inches and â…ž almost above the station which we had carefully mark'd with a Diamond in which we found it when the glass was seal'd up leaving but about an inch of Air at the top so that of the whole space before possess'd by the Air the water had intruded into near nine parts of ten then being partly apprehensive the glass would hold no longer but have its upper part blown off as it happened to us a little before with another vessel and partly being desirous to try that which follows we leisurely inverted the glass that the Air might get up to the ice for all the water in the stem had been purposely kept unfrozen and having provided a Jar to receive the water that should be thrown out we broke the slender pipe which we had seal'd up and immediately as we expected the compressed Air with violence and noise blew out of the stem into the Jar about ten inches of water which was somewhat more between half an inch and a whole inch by reason of the Impetus of the self expanding Air then the space possess'd by the Air before it began to be compress'd And besides this such a strange multitude of Bubbles that were formerly repress'd did now get liberty to ascend from the lower parts of the glass to the top of the remaining water that it somewhat emulated that which happens to botled Beer upon the taking out of the Cork N. B. when the Air was compressed beyond seven inches we observ'd divers times that the inside of the glass possess'd by the Air and nearest to the water was round about to a pretty height full of very little drops like a small dew but when we came to break the glass we took noe such notice whether the rising water had lick'd them up or their concourse made them run down into it or for some other reason we determine not Another 5. We took a single vial filled with water about half an inch above the lower part of the neck and leaving about two inches of Air in the remaining part of the neck which was drawn out into a slender pipe like that of the glass last mentioned we seal'd it up the Air being first well cool'd and exposing it to freez we observ'd a while after that it had by guess condens'd the Air into lesser room A while after being in another Chamber we heard a considerable noise and imagining what it was we went directly to the glass whose upper part consisting of about an inch of the neck besides the slender pipe we found had been blown off from the table upon the ground the body and part of the neck remaining in the snow but this glass was of a mettal that uses to be more brittle then white glass Another 6. A round white glass almost fill'd with water was seal'd up with care to avoid heating the included Air which amounted to a Cylinder of about two inches and â…ž after a while the water swell'd and compressed the Air almost two inches that is full two thirds and then as we conjectur'd because the snow reaching too high froze it in the neck we found the glass crack'd in many places of the Ball and the top thrown off at some little distance from it Another 7. A large single vial seal'd in whose neck the Air was not condens'd to half its former room just as we were going to break it under water to observe the sally of the compress'd Air suddenly blew off with a good noise and threw from the table almost the whole neck of the Vial in one intire piece which is near four inches long and at the Basis above an inch broad 8. A glass about the bigness of a Turkey Egg and of an oval form with a Neck almost Cylindrical but somewhat wider at the lower then the upper part was fill'd with water till there was left in the neck four inches and a half whereof the last quarter of an inch and a little more was much narrower then the rest being drawn into a conical shape that it might be easily seal'd at the Apex along this Cylinder from the surface of the water to the top of the glass was pasted a list of Paper divided into inches and quarters and then the glass being carefully and expeditiously seal'd up by the flame of a candle we observ'd that by holding the glass a while in a warm hand and a room where there was a good fire the water was swell'd up near a quarter of an inch but placing the glass amongst solid pieces of ice mixt with salt the water quickly began to subside upon the Infrigidation and a while after beginning to freez it began to swell and by degrees compress'd the Air till it had crowded it into less then a 17. part by what seem'd indisputable for by estimate it seem'd to some to be crowded into less then a 20. part is not a much lesser part of the room it formerly possess'd which difference of Estimates notwithstanding the divided Paper proceeded from the change of the figure of the upper end of the glass from the Cylindrical and to shew that there was no leak at the place where the glass was seal'd besides that by prying diligently we could discern none besides this I say when the pressure of the thus crowded Air grew too strong for the resistence of the glass it burst with a noise that made us come to it from several places of the house the vessel broke not in the Cylindrical part as I may so speak but in the oval the whole pipe with the seal'd end remaining entire the ice appear'd full enough of Bubbles which made it white and opacous and the water that had ascended into the neck upon the breaking was all driven out of it Thus far our Collections but because we had in another glass where the operation was sooner dispatch'd an opportunity of watching observing somewhat more exactly we will add 9. That the last and possibly the best Experiment we had of compressing Air by freezing was made in a short and strong glass Egg whose ball was very great in proportion to the stem that the expanding of the water might have the more forcible operation This vessel being exactly seal'd and having a divided list of paper pasted along the stem was set to freez with snow or ice and salt and the contain'd water did quickly begin to crowd the Air into a lesser room and for a good while ascended very fast till at length it having thrust the Air into so small a part of the Cavity of the pipe that we vehemently suspected there might
examine this having taken a piece of Ice we did not find upon trials that I partly made my self and partly caus'd in my presence to be made by others that if a mans Eyes were close shut he could certainly discern the Approach of a moderately siz'd piece of Ice though held never so near his fingers ends Nay which is more considerable having had the curiosity to make the Trial with one of those very sensible Thermoscopes I have formerly mention'd wherein a pendulous drop of liquor plays up and down in a slender pipe I found that by holding it very near to little Masses of snow somewhat compacted too the movable drop did not betray any manifest operation of so cold a neighbouring Body but if the glass were made to touch the snow the effect would then be notable by the hasty descent of the pendulous drop or its motion towards the obtuse part of the Instrument in case that were not perpendicularly but laterally appli'd to the snowy Lumps But this languidness of operation may perhaps proceed in great part from the smallness of the Pieces of Ice that were imploy'd For hearing of a Merchant that had made divers Observations about Cold in Greenland I desir'd by the mediation of a very learned Friend to be inform'd whether or no in the night they could perceive those vast heaps or rather mountains of ice that are wont to float up and down in that Sea by any new and manifest accession of Cold and was inform'd by way of Answer to that Question that being at Sea they could know the approach of Ice as well by the increase of Cold as by the glaring light which the Air seem'd to receive from the neighbouring Ice 3. But that which makes me suspect that there may in this account be some mistake is that I have not yet met with any like observation in any of the voyages into gelid Climates that I have had occasion to peruse though in some of them the Navigators frequently mention their having met with vast rands as some call them and Islands of mountainous ice in the night And 't is as I remember the complaint of one or two if not more of them that the Ship lay close by such vast pieces of ice without their being aware of it by reason of the fogs By which it seems that there was no sensible Cold diffused to any considerable distance whereby they might be advertised of the unwelcome neighbourhood even of so much ice But possibly the approach of far smaller masses of ice would have been sensible to them in such a Climate as ours where the organs would not have been indisposed to feel by a long accustomance of any thing near so intense a degree of Cold as that which then reigned in those Northern Seas 4. Whilest we were considering the Difference betwixt the operations of even the Coldest Bodies at the very nearest Distance and upon immediate Contact we thought it an Experiment not altogether unworthy to be tri'd whether though ice and snow alone that is unassisted by salts would not in some of our formerly mention'd Experiments freez water through the thickness even of a thin glass they may not yet do it when the water is immediately contiguous to them And I remember that we took a conveniently shap'd Glass and having frozen the contained water for some hours from the bottom upwards till the ice was grown to be of a considerable thickness we mark'd what part of the glass was possess'd by the unfrozen water and then removing the vessel to a little Distance from the snow and salt it stood in before we let it 〈◊〉 there to try whether the ice would freez any part of the contiguous and incumbent water but some intervening accidents hindred us from being able to derive any great satisfaction one way or other from our trial 5. Wherefore we shall add by way of Compensation that the diligent Olearius relates that at Ispahan the Capital City of Persia though it be seated in a very hot Climate and though it seldom freez there above a finger thick and the ice melt presently at Sun-rising yet the Inhabitants have Conservatories which they furnish with solid pieces of ice of a good thickness only by pouring at night great store of water at convenient intervals of time upon a shelving floor of Free-stone or Marble whereon as the water runs over it the most dispos'd of its parts are in their passage arrested and frozen by the contiguous ice which by this means says my learned Author may be brought in two or three successive nights to a very considerable thickness 6. We several times gave order to have this Experiment tried in England but partly through the negligence of those we imploy'd and partly upon the score of intervening circumstances our expectation was but ill answered And in this case I mention intervening circumstances because having caus'd a servant to pump in the night upon a not very thin plate of ice that was laid shelving upon a Board and another flat piece of Ice being about the same time laid under a place where water derived from a neighbouring spring is wont continually to drop he brought me word that not only in this last nam'd place the ice melted away but that under the pump instead of increasing in thickness by the waters running over it it was thereby rather dissolv'd At which somewhat wondring I went in the morning my self to the pump and causing a good flake of ice to be in a convenient posture plac'd under it I observed the water as it came out of the pump and was falling on the ice to smoak as if the depth of the Well had made the water though very Cold to the touch somewhat warm in comparison of the ice and thereby fitter to resolve then to increase it which inconvenience may be prevented by suffering the water of deep Springs and Wells to stand to cool in the Air before it be put to the Ice and this though the neighbouring Air were as I found by manifest proofs so cold that I was not tempted to impute the unsuccesfulness of the Experiment rather to its want of a sufficient coldness then the water's So that till I have an opportunity of making a further Trial I cannot 〈◊〉 more to the Persian way of augmenting ice But to proceed our having met with but an unsatisfactory Account of this Experiment which we were the more troubled at because this seem'd a promising way of trying that which otherwise is not so easily reduc'd to Experiment for the Temperature of the Air must be seriously consider'd in assigning the Cause of divers trials that may be made for the resolving of the same Question For to omit other Examples here in England we find that water poured on snow is wont to hasten the Dissolution of it and not to be congeal'd by it whereas having inquir'd of an Ingenious Person that liv'd a good while among the Russians
a glass Tube thrust into the Ground yet it seems that at least where Captain James winter'd the water was not much above half so thick frozen as the Earth But we have already noted the indisposition of salt-water to congelation and whether fresh water would not have been deeper frozen may be justly doubted Title XIV Experiments touching the differing Mediums through which Cold may be diffus'd 1. IN examining whether Cold might be diffus'd through all Mediums indefinitely notwithstanding their Compactness or the Closeness of their Texture we must have a Care not to make our Trials with Mediums of too great thickness least we mistakingly impute that to the Nature of the Medium which is indeed caus'd by the distance which the Medium puts betwixt the Agent and the Patient For the mixtures of Ice and Snow wherewith we made our Experiments will operate but at a very small distance though the Medium resist no more then the common Air as may appear by some of the Experiments recorded in this Treatise This premis'd we may proceed to relate that having plac'd a copious mixture of ice and salt in Pipkins glaz'd within and in white Basons glaz'd both within and without we observ'd that the outside of both those sorts of vessels was crusted over with ice though however the bak'd Earth had not been compact nor the vitrifi'd surfaces of a very close Texture the very thickness of the vessels was so great that it seem'd it would scarce have been able to freez at a greater distance 2. By the Experiments formerly mention'd of freezing water in Pewter bottles it appears that Cold is able to operate through such mettalline vessels 3. And this may be somewhat confirm'd by one of the prettiest Experiments that is to be perform'd by the help of Cold namely the making Icy Cups to drink in The way we us'd was this We caus'd to be made a Cup of Lattin by which I mean Iron reduc'd into thin plates and tinn'd over on both sides of the shape and bigness I intended to have the Cup of then I caus'd to be made of the same matter another Cup of the same shape with the former but every way less so that it would go into the greater and leave a competent interval for water betwixt its convex surface and the concave of the other This innermost Cup was furnished with a rim or lip by which it lean'd upon the greater and by whose help its sides and bottom were easily plac'd at a just and even distance from the sides and bottom of the other but the Distance between the two bottoms is made greater then that between the sides that the icy Cup might stand the firmer and last the longer The interval between the two parts of this Mould being fill'd with water and the Cavity of the internal Cup being fill'd with a mixture of ice and salt partly to freez the contiguous water and thereby cooperate to the quicker making of the Cup and partly by its weight to keep the water from buoying up so light a Cup the external part was surrounded with ice and salt whose Cold so powerfully penetrated to the internal metalline Mould that the water was quickly frozen and the Parts of the Mould being disjoyn'd appeared turn'd into an icy Cup of the bigness and figure design'd And these Cups being easily to be made and of various shapes and that in the midst of Summer if snow or ice be at hand are very pleasant triffles especially in hot weather when they impart a very refreshing coolness to the drink poured into them and though they last not long especially if they be imploy'd to drink Wine and such like spirituous Drinks in yet whilest some are melting others may be provided and so the loss may be easily repair'd all the difficulty we met with was to disjoyn the parts of the Mould which are wont to stick very fast to the ice they include And we tri'd to obviate this sometimes by annointing the inside of the Mould with some unctuous and not offensive matter to hinder the Adhesion of the ice and sometimes by applying some convenient heat both to the convex part of the external and the concave part of the internal piece of the Mould which last mention'd way is quick and sure but lessens the durableness of the Cup. We were lately inform'd that this way of making Cups of Ice is set down 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Argenis and 't is like enough that 〈◊〉 Man may have learn'd it amongst some of the Virtuosi of Italy he convers'd with But if we that learn'd it from none of them had not been taught it by Experience we should scarce have ventur'd to try it upon the Credit of a Romance that sort of Composures being wont to be fabulous enough to pass but for Poems in Prose 4. The learned and industrious Mathematician Erasmus Bartholinus mentions in his newly publish'd Discourse de Figura 〈◊〉 an Experiment by which he tells us that some Masters of Natures secrets do easily even in the midst of heat reduce water into Air. For they put a little snow or ice into a Funnel and thereby so refrigerate and condense the ambient Air that there will dew trickle down the sides of the Funnel By which means it has been said that some Ingenious Men have hop'd to make an artificial Fountain in the midst of Summer But I here mention this Experiment rather because 't is not unlikely to please those to whom 't is new and because having purposely tri'd it in large and thick funnels of glass it may be pertinently enough deliver'd in this place where we are treating of the Transmission or Propagation of Cold through close and thick Mediums then because we expect to make of it that use especially that Oeconomical use that has been lately intimated For first 't will be very hard to prove that 't is the very Air it self and not rather the vapours swimming in it that are by this means transmuted into water And secondly 't is true indeed that a mixture of snow and salt will condense vapours on the outside of a Funnel but either they that hop'd to make this use of the Experiment have little Experience of it and write conjecturally or else they have made it with a success very differing from ours For though we imploy'd a large Funnel and suspended it by a string artificially enough ti'd about it in the free Air And though the mixture of ice and salt we put in were sufficiently infrigidating as will appear by and by and far more so then ice or snow alone would have been yet that mixture being not able to condense the vaporous Parts of the Air into dew much if at all longer then the mutual Dissolution of the salt and snow lasted the liquor that was this way obtain'd and dropp'd down at the bottom of the Funnel whose internal Perforation ought to be carefully stopp'd least any of the resolved snow and salt should fall through
and spoil the other liquor was indeed sweet like rain water but so very little as well as so slowly generated that it amounted not any thing near to that which the snow imploy'd and spoil'd to make it would have afforded So that it may be question'd whether some cooling liquors which can as well as this mixture condense the vapid Air into water and whose Texture is not destroy'd in this operation as that of the snow is might not be more hopefully imploy'd to obtain water from the Air to which I shall only add this one thing That the mixture of snow and salt did turn the vapours that fasten themselves to the outside of the glass first into Ice before they dropt down in the form of water in almost all our Trials of this nature as well in thick Funnels as in other and thinner glasses 5. That in Hermetically seal'd glasses an included mixture of snow and salt will freez the vapours of the Air on the outside of the glass divers of the Experiments of the present Treatise do manifestly evince which argue that even so extremely close a Medium as Glasses is not able to hinder the Transmission of Cold. And this is not superfluously added because in vessels not Hermetically seal'd it may be pretended that 't is the internal Air that communicates its Coldness by some unheeded but immediate intercourse with the external After this we thought it worth an Experiment to try whether or how Cold would be diffused through a Medium that some would think a Vacuum and which to others would seem much less disposed to assist the Diffusion of Cold then common Air it self to compass this the Expedient we bethought our selves of was to suspend a slender glass full of water in one of the small Receivers belonging to our Pneumatical Engine and when the Air was very carefully pump'd out to bury the exhausted Receiver in a copious and ready prepar'd mixture of Ice and Salt to see whether notwithstanding the withdrawing of the Medium the water suspended in a kind of Vacuum as to Air or gross substances would yet be frozen by the Cold. That Event of our trials which alone I find among my Notes is registred in these terms 6. A small pipe seal'd at one end was at the other fill'd almost with water and was put into a Receiver consisting of a somewhat long and slender Tube of Glass seal'd at one end and inverted upon the Engine plate then the Air was carefully exhausted for the pump was ply'd a while after no Air appear'd to come forth in any bubble out of the Receiver through the external water nor did the water in the small pipe within disclose any number of bubbles worth taking notice of then by the help of an almost Cylindrical plate of Iron beaten Ice and Salt were heap'd against the outside of the Receiver about the height to which the water in the small pipe reach'd And at length though as we all thought much more slowly then such a Congelation would else have been perform'd the water was for the most part frozen in odd kind of flakes from the top to the bottom and the ice seem'd not to have any considerable number of Bubbles 7. There is one Experiment I have made about the Transmission of Cold through indispos'd Mediums which may not be unworthy to be here inserted For I had once a mind to try whether a cold Body could operate through a Medium that was as to touch actually hot and had its heat continually renew'd by a sountain as it were of heat that perpetually diffus'd through it new supplies of warm Liquor so that the cold Body could not here as in other cases first allay the heat of the Medium and then lessen it more and more till it had quite extinguish'd it To compass this I had soon after an opportunity of making some trials presented me For being at the Mineral Springs at Tunbridge to drink those wholsome waters for my healths sake I soon accustomed my self to drink them in considerable Quantities very early in the morning when they were exceeding Cold and sometimes drinking them in bed as well as sometimes at the Springs-head I had the Curiosity to observe whether in case I took them down very fast they would not through the warm Muscles and outward Parts of the Abdomen diffuse a sensible Coldness and upon more Trials then one I found that by laying my warm hands on the outside of my Belly I there felt at least as it seemed to me a manifest and considerable Degree of Coldness And when I related this to some ingenious Persons that were better acquainted with those Springs then I they told me that there was among those many that then resorted to those famous Springs a Knight whose Name I remember not whose Disease being judg'd formidable the Physicians enjoyned him to drink in a morning two or three times the Quantity that afforded me the Observation I was relating and that when this Knight had fill'd his Belly with so much water he us'd mightily to complain of the Coldness it diffus'd through his Abdomen insomuch that he was fain to ply those parts long with hot Napkins clapp'd to them one after another which yet as he complain'd were soon refrigerated by the excessive Cold that the water diffus'd to the outside of his Belly which yet nevertheless was not that I could learn at all prejudic'd no more then mine by so sensible and piercing a Cold. 8. It may be doubted whether in case water be not fluid upon the account of a congenite motion in the Corpuscles it consists of its fluidness may not proceed from the agitation of the ambient Air either immediately contiguous to the surface or communicating its agitation to the water by propagation of its Impulse through the vessel that interposes betwixt them To contribute to the clearing of this and some other things we devis'd the following Experiment We provided a glass-bubble of about the bigness of a Walnut and the form almost of a Pear whose stem was purposely made crooked for the conveniency of suspension This being fill'd with water which is troublesome enough to be done unless one have the knack we hung it at one end of a thread whose other end we past through a Cork by a perforation purposely made into which we afterwards fastned the thread by thrusting in a small peg to rivet it in Then filling a glass not very broad but yet furnished with a mouth wide enough to receive the bubble with oyl of Turpentine such as we bought it at the shops we stopp'd the orifice with the newly mention'd Cork so that the seal'd Bubble hanging at it was covered and every way surrounded by the oyl of Turpentine which being a liquor that at least in such Colds as we here have will not freez we plac'd the glass in beaten Ice and Salt and as it were buri'd it therein and at the end of about three
as it could to its temper and consequently to the same temper as to heat and cold and then with the warmth of ones hand the included ice being loosened from the glass as it was taken out and a ruler divided into inches and eights being laid alongst it with a knife a little warmed the ice was soon and yet not carelesly divided into several small Cylinders of three quarters of an inch a piece and these Cylinders thus reduced to as sensible an equality as we could were nimbly and carefully put into the several liquors hereafter to be mentioned and whilest we our selves watched very attentively till each of these icy Cylinders was quite and yet but just dissolved we caused others to keep time by the help of a Pendulum whose Vibrations were each a second minute or 60. part of a Common Minute whereof 60. go to make an hour and it was easie for those we appointed to watch the Vibrations of the Pendulum notwithstanding the Quickness of its Motion because it was fitted to a little Instrument purposely contrived for such nice observations wherein a long Index moving upon a divided Dyal plate did very manifestly point out the number of the Diadromes made by the Pendulum 3. This Experiment was afterwards repeated twice with Cylinders of ice each of them an inch long and though the successes of these trials were various enough yet we shall subjoyn both the last as being made with more advantage then the first that the more light may be gathered from them and that at least we may discover how difficult it is to make such Experiments in this matter as that all the nice circumstances of them may safely be relied on I. Trial. 1. Oyl of Vitriol where a Cylinder of Ice of an iuch long being put into lasted 5. minutes 2. Spirit of Wine in which the ice sunk lasted 12. minutes 3. Aqua fortis lasted 12 ½ minutes 4. Water lasted about 12. minutes 5. Oyl of Turpentine lasted not good 44. minutes 6. Air lasted 64. minutes II. Trial. 1. In Oyl of Vitriol where an inch of Cylindrical ice lasted 3. minutes 2. In Spirit of Wine lasted 13. minutes 3. In Water lasted 26. minutes 4. In Oyl of Turpentine lasted 47. minutes 5. In Sallet Oyl lasted 52. minutes 6. In the Air lasted 152. minutes 4. We likewise thought it worth trying whether there would be any difference and how much difference there would be in the Duration of pieces of ice of the same bulk and figure some of them made of common water and others of frozen Wine Milk Oyl Urine and other spirituous liquors these several pieces being exposed to be thaw'd in the same Air or other ambient liquor 5. We also tried whether Motion would impart a heat to ice by nimbly rubbing a strong piece of ice upon a plate of ice and though this seemed to hasten the dissolution in that part of the icy plate where the Altrition had been made yet we were unwilling to determine the matter till further and exacter trial have been made 6. And this brings into my mind an Experiment that has by some been thought very strange The occasion I remember was that I received the last Winter the honour of a visit from a Nobleman of great eminency and learning who chancing to come in while I was making some trials with ice would needs know what I was doing with it but the presence of a very fair Lady in whom Hymen had made him happy and of some other Company of that Sex that he brought along with him inviting me to give him the answer that I thought would be most suited and acceptable to his Company I merrily told him that I was trying how to heat a Cold liquor with ice and to satisfie him that was no impossibility I held out an open mouth'd glass full of a certain liquor which for some just reasons I do not describe but do plainly teach it in an opportuner place and desired them to feel whether it were not actually Cold and when they were satisfied it was so I chose among the pieces ofice that lay by me that I judg'd by the eye to be fit for my purpose for every piece was not so for a reason I elsewhere shew and throwing it into this liquor it did not only in a trice vanish in it but the Lady I was mentioning seeing the liquor smoak and advancing hastily to try whether it were really warm found it so hot that she was quickly fain to let it alone and had almost burnt her tender hand with which she had in spight of my 〈◊〉 wasion taken hold of the glass which Her Lord himself could 〈◊〉 indure to hold in his But this Experiment which for the main I have repeated before competent witnesses though it be not impertinent to the History of Cold yet I shall not build much upon it because how strange soever many have been pleased to think it I shall elsewhere shew that I made use of a certain unperceivable slight which in my opinion did as well as the nature of the liquor and the texture of the ice contribute to the suddenness and surprizingness of the Effect 7. But to return to the duration of the effects of Cold I think those much mistaken who imagine that the effects of Cold do continually depend upon the actual presence and influence of the manifest efficients as the light of the Air depends upon the Sun or Fire or other luminous body upon whose removal it immediately ceases For when cold agents have actually brought a disposed subject to a state of congelation though the manifest efficient cause cease from acting or perhaps from being the effect may yet continue For in most cases if a certain texture be once produced in a body it is agreeable to the constancy of nature that it persevere in that state till it be forceably put out of it by some agent capable to overpower it and though we usually see ice and snow as it were of their own accord to melt away when the frosty constitution of the Air ceases yet the cause of that may be not barely the cessation of frosty weather but that those easily dissoluble bodies are exposed to the free Air which being heated by the Sun beams and perhaps by calorifick expirations from the earth is furnisht with an actual cause upon whose account it destroys the texture of the ice and snow but even here above ground if snow be well compacted into great masses in which by reason of the closeness of the little icickles but little Air is allowed to get between them I have seen such masses of snow last so long not only in thawing but in rainy weather as to be wondered at and if such snow or ice be kept in a place where it may be fenced from the Sun and other external enimies though the place it is lodged in be not any thing near cold enough to produce ice yet it will as some trial
Nitre alone without speaking of either ice or snow and in the other place not only his words seem to import that notwithstanding the addition of the other ingredients the Corpuscles of the Nitre expiring out of the mixture and penetrating into the water are they that make it freez but the Exigence of his discourse seems to require such an interpretation for to say it is the Corpuscles of the Nitre that were harbour'd in the ice or snow that freez the water they invade is no better then to beg the Question For besides that he ought to prove that there are multitudes of the Corpuscles of Nitre lodg'd in snow and ice Besides this I say since these two Bodies are said to be water before they were congealed to grant what his Explication supposes about ice and snow is to grant in effect that Nitre alone without ice or snow can turn water into ice which is the thing that Experience warranted us lately to deny and if this be all that is meant by the Experiment the mixing of Nitre with the ice or the snow will signifie very little to evince what should be proved For if instead of Nitre you take Sea-salt or the spirit of Salt nay the inflamable part of Wine the Experiment will succeed and yet I think Gassendus would not have the Corpuscles of these Bodies to be frigorifick like those of Nitre which yet they may be prov'd to be by the same Argument which is imployed to show that the Corpuscles of the Nitre which is added as a distinct ingredient to the ice or to the snow are the Efficients of the Congelation 25. Having thus examin'd Gassendus his Experiments we will now as our next and last Argument touching this subject subjoyn our own as far as we can find any of them among our notes some of which follow in these words 26. As cold as they think Salt-petre to be who teach its spirituous parts to be the Grand and Catholick efficients of cold yet we found that it would dissolve ice readily enough as well as Sea-salt c. are wont to do as we collected from this That roch'd Petre mingled with ice would freez the vapors wandring in the Air to the outside of the single Vial wherein we made the Experiment which the ice alone would not have done and having placed some 〈◊〉 sie beaten Nitre of the same parcel in little heaps here and there upon plates of ice we manifestly found them to sink into the ice which argued their dissolving it and having put some of it upon a thick and smooth piece of ice we found that it had 〈◊〉 a hole quite through it whilest the surrounding part of the ice remain'd of a good thickness 27. We took a large single Vial almost full of water and put it into as much roch'd Petre as by keeping it a good while by the fires side we could dissolve in it of which one mark was that there remain'd a pretty deal of Salt intire 〈◊〉 the Bottom of the liquor this being expos'd to the Air during an extremely sharp night and a good part of the day the solution was 〈◊〉 so hard to the very Top of the liquor that having broken the glass we could hardly break the included mass But at the Bottom there 〈◊〉 pear'd some liquor with Crystals of Nitre well figur'd that seem'd to have shot in it and argued the Water to be sufficiently impreguated with the Salt 28. As for the spirituous parts of Nitre so far forth as their temper as to heat or cold can be judg'd by distillation and by Weather-glasses they are not actually more cold then some other Liquors and appear rather to be potentially 〈◊〉 then cold at least they seem indispos'd to turn water into ice since we have 〈◊〉 that the spirit of Nitre will readily enough turn ice into water 29. These three foregoing 〈◊〉 show that Salt-petre is no such 〈◊〉 derfully cold Body but that 〈◊〉 are others colder as being able to freez water which Nitre could not congeal Nay they manifest that Nitre which is said to be the efficient of ice does thaw and dissolve it and so seems at least in reference to It to be rather hot then cold 30. I shall now add one note more to show it does not always make water so much as equally cold with the common Air the Experiment I find thus recorded 31. We took a seal'd Weather-glass and by a little pulley fastned to a frame suspended it in a solution of roch'd-Petre as strong as we could make it without heat as appear'd by a pretty Quantity of Nitre that had continued some days undissolved in the vessel which was a Beer-glass with a flat Bottom After the Ball of the Weather-glass had been suspended in this liquor to try whether the Ambient Air were not at this time colder then the Liquor it being a cloudy and windy day and betwixt the hours of 11. and 12. though both the Weather-glass and it had stood some days in the same place I lifted up the glass out of the water by the string it hung by that I might not touch it with my warm hands and found the Liquor in the glass to descend by degrees about two divisions which were eights of an inch and then by the string lifting up the Weather-glass and putting again the solution of Nitre under it the included Liquor was impell'd up again two divisions and sometimes two divisions and a half for to satisfie my self the more fully I repeated the Experiment several times and observ'd that the included liquor usually ascended the first division so fast that the eye could perceive its progress and that the ascent upon the immersion in the dissolv'd Nitre was discernably quicker then the descent upon the removal of the Weather-glass into the open Air though the space both of the one and of the other were about either two divisions or two divisions and a half 32. If it be here demanded what then I think of the frigifactive Virtue of Nitre I must answer that I have not yet fully satisfi'd my self concerning it but thus much I am not willing to deny That among divers other Bodies that upon several occasions exhale from the Terrestrial Globe those Corpuscles that are of a Nitrous Nature may be for the most part well qualified to refrigerate the Air and I am not indispos'd to think that there may be store of little saline Bodies of kin to Nitre that especially at certain times 〈◊〉 in great multitudes to and fro in some parts of the Atmosphere but that this aerial salt which some moderns call volatile Nitre should be true and perfect Salt-petre is more then I am sure of and that this Salt alone should be the summum frigidum is more then as yet I am convinc'd of especially since for ought I know there may be in the bowels of the Earth whence I have seen many concretes digg'd out whose very names and
outsides are for the most part unknown even to Chymists themselves divers other Bodies besides Salt-petre whose steams may have a power of refrigerating the Air as great in proportion to their Quantity as those of Salt-petre and since common salt in artificial glaciations is found to cooperate as powerfully as Salt-petre it self and since it is undeniably a Body of which there is a vast quantity in the Terrestrial Globe and which by reason of the Sea where it abounds is exceedingly diffus'd I see no great reason why we may not aswel esteem that kind of Salt among the Catholick efficients of Cold and the rather because that the smallest Corpuscles our eye discerns of Sea-salt are wont to be though not exactly of a Cubical figure which is that figure Philoponus informs us the great Democritus of old justly admir'd by Gassendus assign'd to the Atoms of cold whereas according to Gassendus himself the Corpuscles of Nitre at least as far as sense has inform'd us are not the most conveniently shap'd to produce cold since he labours to show that the figure of frigorifick Atoms is to be Tetrahedrical or Pyramidal whereas the Crystals or Grains great or small into which good Salt-petre shoots are wont to be Prismatical having their base Sexangular but to return to what I was saying concerning the congealing of water with ice I shall subjoyn that the same Experiment countenances my conjecturing that oftentimes it may not be emanations of one Salt or other Body but a peculiar and lucky conjunction of those of two or more sorts of them that produces the intense degree of cold as we see that ice and snow themselves have their coldness advanc'd as to its effects by the mixture either of Sea-salt or Nitre or spirit of Wine or any other appropriated additaments Nay I may elsewhere have occasion to shew that actual Cold may be manifestly promoted if not generated by the addition of a Body that is not actually Cold. But to all this I must add that I doubt whether any of those saline or Terrestrial expirations either single or conjoyned be the adequate causes of cold since for ought I know there may be other ways of producing it besides the introduction of frigorifick whether Atoms or Corpuscles of which we may have occasion to take some notice hereafter In the mean time having discours'd thus long against the admitting a primum frigidum I think it not amiss to take notice once more that my design in playing the Sceptick on this subject is not so much to reject other mens probable opinions of a primum frigidum as absolutely false as 't is to give an account why I look upon them as doubtful Title XVIII Experiments and Observations touching the Coldness and Temperature of the Air. 1. I Have shewn in the former Section that the Air is not the Primum Frigidum but yet I cannot readily yield my assent to the Opinion of the learned Gassendus and some others who have written before and since him that the Air is of it self indifferent that is neither cold nor hot but as it happens to be made either the one or the other by external Agents For if we take Cold in the obvious and received Acception of the word that is for a Quality relative to the senses of a Man whose Organs are in a good or middle Temper in reference to Cold and Heat 〈◊〉 am hitherto inclinable to think that we may rather attribute Coldness to the Air then either Heat or a perfect Neutrality as to Heat and Cold. For to make a Body cold as to sense it seems to be sufficient that its minute Corpuscles do less agitate the small parts of our Organs of Feeling then they are wont to be agitated by the Blood and other fluid parts of the Body and consequently if supposing the Air devoid of those calorifick and frigorifick Atoms to which the learned Men I was naming ascribe its heat and cold it would constitute a fluid which either by reason of the minuteness of its parts or their want of a sufficiently vehement motion would less affect the sensory of Feeling then the internal liquors and spirits of the body are wont to do and so it would appear actually cold Nor is it necessary that all liquors much less all fluids should be as much agitated as the blood and vital humors of a humane body as we see to omit what in the last Section is mention'd about newly emitted Urine and to skip other obvious instances in those Fishes and other Animals whose Blood and analogous Juices are always and that in the state which passes for their natural state actually Cold to our Touch. And I see no sufficient reason why we should not conceive the Air even in its natural state at least as far forth as it can be said to have a natural state to be one of the number of cold Fluids For as to the main if not only Argument of Gassendus and others namely That as we see the Air to be easily heated by the Action of the Sun or the fire so we see it as easily refrigerated by ice and snow and Northerly winds and other Efficients of Cold and that heat and cold reign in it by turns in Summer and in Winter This only proves what I readily grant that the Air is easily susceptible at several times of both these contrary Qualities but it does not shew that one is not more connatural to it then the other as we see that the water may be easily depriv'd of its fluidity by the circumposition of snow and salt and reduc'd to be fluid again by the Sun or the Fire and yet according to them as well as others fluidity not Firmness is the natural quality of water But this is not that which I lay most weight upon for I considered that it is manifest and acknowledg'd by these learned Men themselves that the heat of the Air is adventitious to it and communicated by the beams of the Sun or of the Fire or by some other Agents naturally productive of heat as well in other Bodies as the Air And 't is also evident that upon the bare absence for ought else that appears of the Sun or Extinction of the Fire or removal of the other causes of heat the Air will as it were of its own accord be reduc'd to Coldness Whereas that there are swarms of frigorifick Atoms diffus'd through the Air from which all its coldness proceeds is but an Hypothesis of their own far from being manifest in it self and not hitherto that I know of prov'd by any fit Experiment or cogent reason And though in some cases I am not adverse to the admitting such Corpuscles as may in a sense be styl'd frigorifick yet I see not why we should have recourse to them in cases where such a bare cessation or lessening of former motion as may easily be ascrib'd to manifest causes may serve the turn as to a Sensible for
I now consider not the causes of the Intenser Coldness in the Air without taking them in And the opinion I incline to has at least this advantage that the Air seems to be as rightfully term'd cold as Iron Marble Mercury Crystal Salt-petre and such other Bodies which men unanimously look upon as such there being none of these to which the Argument imploy'd against the coldness of the Air is not applicable save that the Air being a fluid of a looser and finer Texture does sooner receive and lose the impressions of heat and cold And yet if a Block of Marble for instance or an Iron Bullet were remov'd into one of those empty spaces that Gassendus and some others suppos'd to be beyond the bounds of this world I see not why it should not be rather cold then either warm or in a state of perfect Neutrality Since when the Corpuscles of Heat and those of Cold had extricated themselves and were flown away into the neighbouring Vacuum the component Particles of the stone or metal whose implicated Texture would hinder their Dissilition remaining much less agitated then our Organs of feeling are by the warm blood and spirits that vivifie them must if applied to those sensories appear Cold. 2. But I shall not upon this subject spend any farther discourse since perhaps the dispute either may be or at least may easily be made Verbal For in case those I argue with should so explain their opinion as not to deny that in its own nature the Air left to its self may be reputed Cold in reference to the sensories of men who are warm animals But say that nevertheless comparing it indefinitely to other then humane bodies here below it is so easily susceptable of both the contrary qualities that neither of them seems predominant in it and that when it is considerably either cold or hot it is made so by adventitious agents I shall not much contend with them especially if it can clearly be made our that there are great quantities of such cold spirits as Cabaeus and Gassendus suppos'd to be universally productive of cold more or less in all bodies where they get admission but of these cold spirits more perhaps elsewhere Our principal business in this Section being to deliver Experiments and Observations and because we shall mention but few of the former sort we will dispatch them first 3. November the 20. 1662. we took a Weather-glass fill'd to a convenient height with well rectifi'd spirit of Wine and Hermetically seal'd this we inclos'd in a glass Receiver of a Cylindrical form of about two inches Diameter and about a foot and a half high and having cemented on the Receiver we let it alone for some hours that it might perfectly cool Then drawing out the Air and watching it narrowly we observ'd that the liquor in the Weather-glass descended a little though but a very little upon the first Exuction of the Air and a little though it seem'd somewhat less upon the second but afterwards we did not find it sensibly to descend This subsidence of the liquor in all amounting to about the length of a Barley corn we attributed to the stretching of the glass by the spring of the included Air when the ambient was withdrawn and accordingly upon our allowing a Regress to the excluded Air we saw the spirit in the Thermometer rise about half a Barley-corns length to the place whence it began to subside Afterwards we suck'd out and let in the Air of the Receiver as before with like success as to the descent and remounting of the liquor 4. N. B. We tri'd with a very hot Handkerchief appli'd in a convenient place to the outside of the Receiver whether the included Weather-glass would receive impressions from it the Air that was wont to be intermediate being remov'd but we did not find the liquor in the Weather-glass sensibly to swell either by this way or by casting upon it the concentrated beams of a candle trajected through a double convex glass But when the Air was readmitted into the Cavity of the Receiver then the same Handkerchief heated a fresh and applied made the spirit of Wine sensibly though but little more to ascend Of which yet it seem'd something difficult by reason of the Nicety of the Experiment to estimate with any thing of certainty the Cause So that upon the whole matter till the Experiment be repeated in Airs of differing tempers to verifie whether 't was the withdrawing of the wonted pressure or the recess of the substance of the Air that made the liquor included in the Thermoscope subside and till the Experiment be repeated with the further observation of other circumstances which reiteration of the Trial we intended but were by intervening accidents hindred the recited Experiment will not afford much more then good hints towards the Discovery of the Temperature of the Air. 5. I have elsewhere taken notice that air included in Vessels sufficiently strong and well clos'd was not sensibly or at least not considerably condens'd by Cold but when the Air was not so included as not to be in some part or other expos'd to the pressure of the outward Air or Atmosphere it would then by a degree of Cold capable to freez water be manifestly reduc'd into a less room But how much this Contraction or Condensation of the air may amount to I did not there subjoyn nor has the measuring of it been that I know of attempted by any man Wherefore we thought fit to indeavour something in this kind of which we shall annex a brief account whereby it will appear upon the whole matter that in the Climate we live in the Cold does not so considerably condense the Air as most men seem to have hitherto imagin'd 6. And first it will not be amiss to intimate that among other ways we tried to measure the shrinking of the Air by sealing it up in glasses furnish'd with long and very slender stems that by breaking off the tips of those glasses immers'd under water when by the Cold Air of a frosty night or the Circumposition of snow and salt the included air was highly refrigerated the water might by the pressure of the Atmosphere upon it be impell'd into the Cylindrical cavity of the broken glass and by its greater or lesser Ascent therein shew how much the internal Air had been made to shrink upon the account of the Cold. But this way for reasons too long to be here deduc'd we found it troublesome and difficult to practise with any thing of certainty Nor did we ever that I remember by this way bring the refrigerated air to lose above a 30. part of its former dimensions 7. We would have tried also to measure the Condensation of the air by the ascent of water into the stem of a Bolthead so inverted that the orifice of the stem might be under the surface of the water and the Bolt-head kept erected But this way we
disapproved because it was likely and indeed we found it so by experience that the external air would first freez the uppermost part of the water contain'd in the stem and thereby hinder its ascent and perhaps occasion the bursting of the lower part of the said stem 8. Wherefore though for want of a sufficient Quantity of some liquor that would neither freez like water and aqueous Bodies nor congeal like common oyl and the like unctuous Juices we found it for a while somewhat difficult to practise the Experiment yet bethinking our selves of the indisposition that Brine has to Congelation we made so strong a Brine with common salt that with it and as I remember with oyl of Turpentine also of which we chanc'd to have some quantity by us we made divers Trials of which I had two among our Collections which we shall here subjoyn whereof the one informs us that an Egg being inverted into salt water the Cold of a frosty night made the air shrink in the Pipe near five inches and the other which is the accuratest I meet with among my Collections gives me this account That January the 29. the Air extended into 2057. spaces was by the cold of the sharp and frosty night contracted into 1965. spaces so that in extraordinarily cold weather the most we could make the Air lose of its former dimensions by the additional Cold of the Atmosphere was a 22. part and a little more then a third And this was the greatest condensation of the Air that we remember our selves to have observ'd though we were so careful as after we had placed marks where the incongealable liquor reach'd in the pipe that when the internal air was expos'd abroad to the cold we caused servants to watch and from time to time to take notice by placing marks of the various ascents of the liquor especially early in the morning least we should omit taking notice of the greatest contraction of the air which omission by reason that the Coldness of the ambient air does oftentimes begin to be remitted before we can feel it to be so is not easily avoided without watchfulness 9. But having thus observ'd the Condensation of included air by the natural and unassisted Cold of the external air we thought fit to prosecute the trial somewhat further and in regard we conceiv'd the Cold of a mixture of snow and salt to be far more intense then that of the mere ambient air alone we endeavoured to measure as near as we could how much the one exceeded the other And though we found that by prosecuting the lately mention'd Trial in the glass-Egg by the application of ice and salt to the Elliptical part of the vessel the liquor rise by our Estimate near four inches more then those five which it had risen already upon the account of the Refrigeration of the included air by the bare cold of the external Yet by prosecuting the other Experiment made the 29. of January at the same time when we were making it we did somewhat more accurately determine the matter For by applying ice and salt to the outside of the vessel we found that the included air was contracted from 1965. spaces to which the Cold of the ambient air had reduc'd it into 1860. spaces so that the Circumposition of ice and salt did as much nay somewhat more condense it after the mere Cold of the external air had contracted it as far as it could then the bare though intense Cold of the ambient air could condense it at first and the greatest degree of adventitious Cold we were able to give by the help of nature or of art did not make the air expos'd to it lose a full tenth part of its former Dimensions on which occasion it may not be unworthy observation That there is no greater Disparity betwixt the proportion in which the Cold was able to condense the Air and that wherein the Cold was able to expand water 10. This is all that at present I think fit to say concerning the interest that Winds may have in the Temperature of the Air. And therefore I will now proceed to those other particulars wherewith I not long since said that I intended to close up this Section and I might on this occasion subjoyn many things but partly haste and partly other considerations will confine me to those that relate to the effects of Cold upon the Air in a more general way 11. And first we will observe that Cold may hinder in an almost incredible measure the warming operation of the Sun upon the Air not only in the hottest part of the Day for that may sometimes happen even in our Climate but at several times of the Day even in the heat of Summer 12. I remember I once accidentally met with an intelligent and sober Gentleman who had several times sail'd upon the frigid Zone and though an intervening accident separated us so suddenly that I had not opportunity to obtain from him the resolution of above two or three questions yet this I learned of him belonging to our present purpose That by the help of a Journal he kept he call'd to mind that upon the coast of Greenland he had observ'd it to snow all Midsummer night which affirmation of so credible a person imboldens me to add some other relations which I should else have scrupled at 13. Mr. Logan an English Merchant that Winter'd at Pecora one of the Northern Towns of Muscovy relates that being there at a great Salmon-fishing there hapned about the close of August which in many Countries is wont to be the hottest time of all the year so strong a Frost which lasted till the fourth day That the Ozera was frozen over and the Ice driving in the River to and again broke all the Nets so that they got no Salmon no not so much as for their own Victuals 14. Captain G. Weymouth mentions that in July though he was not near the Latitude of Nova Zembla much less of Greenland yet sailing in a thick fog when by reason of the darkness it occasioned he thought good to take in some of his sails when his men came to hand them they found their Sails Ropes and Tacklings so hard frozen that it did says he seem very strange unto us being in the chiefest time of Summer 15. In the fifth Voyage of the English to Cherry Island which lies betwixt 74. and 75. degrees of Latitude they observ'd that the wind being at North-east upon the 24. of July It freez'd so hard that the Ice did hang on their 〈◊〉 And in the seventh Voyage which was made three years after to the same Island they mention that on the 14. of July the wind being Northerly they had both snow and frost 16. The next thing that we shall take notice of is the degree of Cold which the Efficient causes of that Quality whatever they be are able to produce in the air but of this
we must not here treat indefinitely the strange effects of cold upon other bodies being most of them produc'd by the intervention of the cold first diffus'd in the Air and those are treated of in a distinct Section wherefore we shall now give two or three instances of the sudden operations of the Cold harbour'd in the Air. The formerly mention'd English Ambassador into Russia Dr. Fletcher gives us two instances very memorable to our present purpose When you pass says he out of a warm Room into a Cold you will sensibly feel your breath to wax stark and even stifling with the cold as you draw it in and out So powerfully and nimbly does the intensely refrigerated Air work upon the Organs of respiration And whereas a very credible person now chief Physician to the Russian Emperor being ask'd by me concerning the truth of what is reported sometimes to happen at Musco and is reputed the eminentest proof that is readily observable of the extreme coldness of the air assur'd me that he himself saw the water thrown up into the air fall down actually congeal'd into ice Dr. Fletcher confirms this Report For our Ambassador also says That the sharpness of the Air you may judge of by this for that water dropped down or cast up into the Air congeal'd into Ice before it come to ground And I remember that inquiring about the probability of such Relations he answered me That being at the famous Seige of Smolensko in Russia he observ'd it to be so extremely cold in the fields that his Spittle would freez in falling betwixt his mouth and the ground and that if he spit against a Tree or a piece of wood it would not stick but fall to the foot of it 17. Among the Phaenomena of Cold relating to the air I endeavour'd to observe whether upon the change of the Weather from warm or mild to cold and frosty there would appear any difference of the weight of the Atmosphere by its being plentifully furnish'd with a new stock of such frigorifick Corpuscles as several of the modern Philosophers ascribe its coldness to but though I several times observ'd by comparing a good Barometer and sometimes also unseal'd Weather-glasses furnish'd one with a tincted Liquor and the other with Quicksilver with a good seal'd Weather-glass furnished with pure spirit of Wine that upon the coming in of clear and frosty weather the Atmosphere would very early appear sensibly heavier then before and continue so as long as the cold and clear weather lasted yet by reason of some considerations and Trials that breed some scruple in me I refer the matter to more frequent and lasting observations then I yet have been able to make in which it will concern those that have a mind to prosecute such Trials not only to consider whether or no the increased gravity of the Atmosphere may not proceed from some other Cause then the coming of frigorifick Atoms into the Air but to have a special care that their Barascopes be more carefully freed from the Air that is wont to lurk in Quick silver it self as well as other Liquors then those in the making of the Torricellian Experiment Tubes usually are least that Air getting up into the deserted part of the Tube do by its expansion and contraction obtain an unsuspected interest in the rising and falling of the subjacent Mercurial Cylinder and so impose upon them 18. Another Effect that the Cold especially in Northern Countries has oftentimes upon the Atmosphere is the making the Air more or less clear then usually it is For in the Northern Voyages the Seamen frequently complain of thick and lasting Fogs whose causes I shall not now consider but some help to guess at them may be given by what we are about to add namely that it very frequently happens on the contrary That when the cold is very intense the air grows much clearer then at other times probably because the Cold by condensing precipitates the vapours that thicken the air and by freezing the surface of the earth keeps in the steams that would else arise to thicken the air Not to dispute 〈◊〉 it may not also somewhat repress the vapours that would be afforded by the water it self since some of our Navigators observe that even when it was not cold enough to freez the surface of the Sea it would so far chill and infrigidate it that the snow would lye on it without melting 19. I remember a Swedish extraordinary Ambassador and a very knowing person whom I had the honour to be particularly acquainted with would say when he saw a frosty day accompanied with great clearness that it then look'd like a Swedish winter where when once the frosty weather is setled the sky is wont for a very long time to be very serene and 〈◊〉 and here in England we usually observe the sharpest frosty nights to be the clearest But to confirm our Observation by a very remarkable instance I shall borrow it 〈◊〉 a Navigator very curious of Celestial Observations which circumstance I mention to bring the greater credit to the following observation of Captain James which in his Journal is thus delivered The thirtieth and one and thirtieth of January there appeared in the beginning of the night more Stars in the Firmanent then ever I had before seen by two thirds I could see the Cloud in Cancer full of small Stars 20. To determine what effect the coldness of the air may have upon the Refractions of the Luminaries and other Stars I look upon as a work of no small difficulty and that would require much consideration as well as time wherefore I shall only add two or three narratives supplied me by Navigators without adding at present any thing to the matters of fact 21. The first is that famous Observation of the Dutch in Nova Zembla who take great pains to evince by several circumstances some of them highly probable that they were not mistaken in their account of time according to which they concluded that they saw the Sun whom they had lost sight of eleven weeks before about fourteen days sooner then he ought to have appear'd to them which difference has been for ought I know to the contrary by all that have taken notice of it ascrib'd to the strangely great Refraction in that Gelid and Northern air 22. And as for that other extremely cold Country where Captain James wintered it appears by his Journal that he there made divers Celestial and other observations which gave him opportunity to take notice of the Refraction and he seems to complain that he found it very great though among the particulars he takes notice of there are some that seem not very strange nor are there any that are near so wonderful as that newly mention'd of the Hollanders in Nova Zembla however in regard of the extreme coldness of the Winter air in Charleton Island it may be worth while to take notice of the following passages
to treat in this place of Winds in general and much more to examine the several causes of winds that are assign'd by several Authors and therefore when I have once given this intimation that divers of these opinions may be more easily reconcil'd then the maintainers of them seem to have thought to the Truth if not to one another The causes that may produce wind being so various that many of those propos'd may each of them in some cases be true though none of them in all cases be sufficient having hinted this I say it may suffice on this occasion to subjoyn three or four observations to prove and illustrate the matter of fact delivered in the Proposition And first 't is a known Observation in these parts of the world that Northerly and Northeasterly winds do at all times of the year bring cold along with them and commonly if it be Winter Frost And here in England I have sometimes wondred at the power of the winds to bring not only sudden Frosts but sudden Thaws when the frost was expected to be setled and durable which yet seems to hold commonly but not without exception For during one of the considerablest Fits of Frost and Snow that I have taken notice of in England I remember that I observed not without some wonder that the Wind was many days Southerly unless it may be said That this Southerly Wind was but the Return of a stream of Northerly Wind which had blown for many days before and might by some obstacles and agents not here to be inquir'd after be made to wheel about or recoyl hither before it had lost the greatest portion of the refrigerating Corpuscles it consisted of before The formerly mention'd Prosper Alpinus attributes strange things to the Northerly wind that blows in Aegypt as to the cooling and refreshing the Air in spight of the violent 〈◊〉 that would otherwise be 〈◊〉 And many in Egypt ascribe to the Aetesian Winds that almost miraculous ceasing of the Plague at Grand Cairo of which we elsewhere speak Dominatur autem aer says he summè calidus ipsius caeli ut dictum est ratione quod haec civitas 〈◊〉 Tropico Cancri tantum 6. gradibus distet Quâ brevi inter-capedine dum sol ad illum accedit Tropicum illorum Zenith fit propinquior aer ille valdè incalescit nisi Aetesiae venti tunc à septentrione spirarent vehementissimus qui vix à nostris perferri possit caloris aestus sentiretur Advenae nostri iis provenientibus ad subterranea loca confugiunt in quibus morantur quousque ille ventorum ardor residerit atque cessaverit Conjunxit haec incommoda Deus Optimus cum aliis quibusdam bonis nam ubi calidissimi illi venti conticuere statim à Septentrione flare alii incipiunt qui subitaneum inflammatis atque laxatis corporibus solatium praestant Si enim illi diu perseveraverint nemo in eâ regione vivere possit Whence winds should have this power to change the Constitution of the Air and especially to bring cold along with them is not so easie to be determin'd Indeed the other Qualities and even the heat that is observable in winds may for the most part be probably enough deriv'd from the Qualities of the places by which they pass Of this we have already given an example or two in the passages lately mention'd And it may be further confirm'd by what Acosta says that he himself saw in some parts of the Indies namely That the Iron Grates were so rusted and consumed by a peculiar wind that pressing the mettal between your fingers it would be dissolv'd and crumbled as if it had been Hay or 〈◊〉 Straw And this Learned Traveller who seems to have taken peculiar notice of the winds affords us in divers places of his Book several Examples to confirm what we were saying though he take not the nature of the regions along which the wind blows to be alone in all cases a sufficient Cause of their Qualities of which yet we shall now mention but these two memorable passages In a small distance says he you shall see in one wind many diversities For example the Solanus or Eastern wind is commonly hot and troublesome in Spain and in Murria it is the coldest and healthfullest that is for that it passeth by the Orchards and that large Champiane which we see very fresh In Carthagene which is not far from thence the same wind is troublesome and unwholsome The Meridiâ—nal which they of the Ocean call South and those of the Mediterranean Sea Mezo Giorno commonly is rainy and boisterous and in the same City whereof I speak it is wholsome and pleasant And in his Description of Peru speaking of the South and South-west he affirms that this wind yet in this region is marvellous pleasing But though as we were saying many other Qualities of winds may be deduc'd from the Nature and Condition of the places by which they pass And though the heat also which Prosper Alpinus as we lately took notice attributes to the Southerly winds that blow in Egypt may be probably ascrib'd to the heated Exhalations and vapours they bring from the Southern and parched Regions they blow over yet whence the great coldness of Northern and Easterly winds should come may be scrupled at by many of the modern Philosophers who with divers Cartesians will not admit that there are any Corpuscles of Cold. And possibly I could about these matters propose some other difficulties not so easie to be resolved But not being now to discuss the Hypothesis about Cold I think it will be more proper in this place instead of entring upon disputes and Speculations to subjoyn an Experiment that I made to give some light about this matter Considering then that I had not met with any Trial of the Nature of that I am about to mention and that such a Trial might possibly prove Luciferous I caused a pretty large pair of ordinary Bellows to be kept a good while in the Room where the Experiment was to be made that it might receive the Temperature of the Air in that Chamber then placing upon a board one of those flat Bottom'd Weather-glasses that I elsewhere describe to contain a movable drop of pendulous water by blowing at several times with intermissions upon the bubble or lower end of the Weather-glass though the wind blown against my hand were as to sense very manifestly cold yet it did not cool the air included in the Bubble but rather a little warm'd it as appear'd by a small but sensible ascension of the pendulous drop each time that after some interpos'd rest the lower part of the glass was blown upon which seem'd to proceed from some small alteration towards warmth that the air received by its stay though short in the Bellows as seem'd deducible from hence that if by closely covering the Clack the matter were so ordered
that the Air that should come into the Bellows must come in all at the nose if this nose being held very near the bubble of the Weather-glass the Air were by opening the Bellows suddenly drawn in that stream of air or wind coming from a part of the window where the air was a little cooler then that which was wont to come out of the Bellows would not as the other make the pendulous drop rise but rather the contrary This done we proceeded to shew by Experiment That though a wind were nothing but a stream of Air yet in its passage it might acquire a considerable coldness distinct from that which it has by vertue of its motion though upon the score of that we see that air mov'd by a fan or as in our newly mentioned Trial by a pair of Bellows might to our touch feel Cold nor did we forbear to expect a good event of our Trial upon the doubt that may be rais'd whether there be frigorifick Corpuscles or no For whatever become of that question I thought I might expect that whether or no Ice emit Corpuscles that are universally frigorifick yet the air being either by them or upon what account soever highly refrigerated the Corpuscles that compose this cold Air being most of them driven on before it by the wind that meets them in its way will in a sense prove frigorifick in regard of a less cold body which they shall happen to be blown upon and accordingly having provided a ridge Tyle inverted and half fill'd the Cavity which look'd upwards with a mixture of ice and salt and having likewise put the Iron pipe of the Bellows upon that mixture and then covered it with more of the same that so the Pipe being surrounded as far as conveniently it could be with ice and salt the air contain'd in it might thereby be highly refrigerated I found that blowing wind out of the Bellows upon my hand that wind felt much more cold then that which had been before blown upon myhand out of the same Bellows before the frigefactive mixture was appli'd to it But for fear my sense of feeling should deceive me I caus'd a Weather-glass made after the common manner but with a more slender pipe to be so plac'd that the nose of the Bellows which together with the Tyle and Ice was upheld with a frame lay in a level with the bubble of the Thermometer and then blowing the refrigerated air of the Bellows npon the globular part of the glass I saw the water in the Cylindrical part and shank manifestly ascend as it was wont to do upon the refrigeration of the included air And as this Ascension of the liquor continued during three or four blasts of the Bellows so upon the cessation of the artificial wind the water subsided by degrees again till by fresh blasts it was made to ascend Lastly having repeated this Experiment we thought fit to trye how much the air refrigerated immediately by the frigorisick mixture would produce a colder wind then the former and accordingly drawing back the nose of the Bellows that the air that should be blown out might pass along the Cavity left in the frigorisick mixture by the Iron pipe of the Bellows which we had withdrawn the wind was manifestly more cold then before and had a greater operation on the Weather-glass it was blown upon This Experiment if carried on and prosecuted may possibly prove more Luciferous but I will not take upon me here to determine whether all cold winds must be necessarily made so by frigorifick Corpuscles properly so call'd since I have sometimes suspected that some winds may be cold only by consisting of or driving before them those higher parts of the Air that by reason of the languid Reflection of the Sun beams in that upper or perhaps Arctick region of the Air are for the most part very cold For it may be observ'd that Rains oftentimes very much and suddenly refrigerate the lower Air when no wind but what the clouds and rain make accompanies them as if they brought down store of cold air with them from that uper Region which Acosta and one I conversed with that visited far higher mountains then the Alps affirm to be in some places for I am not satisfi'd that 't is so every where exceedingly cold both in hot Climates and in hot seasons of the year And I observe that the Hollanders do in more places then one or two mention the Northerly and North-easterly winds to be those that brought them the prodigious colds they met with though Nova Zembla where they were expos'd to them be so Northwards that it lies within 16. or 17. degrees of the Pole it self This being a bare suspition it may suffice to have touch'd it But I shall subjoyn two or three instances on the occasion of our proposition concerning the influence of the winds upon the air and to show more particularly That even cold winds receive not always their Qualities so much from the Quarter whence they blow as from the Regions over which they blow I shall therefore begin with what is delivered by Mr. Wood in his New Englands prospect Whereas in England says he most of the cold winds and weathers come from the Sea and those situations are counted most unwholsome that are near the Sea-coast in that Countrey it is not so but otherwise And having added as his reason that the North-east wind coming from the Sea produces warm weather melting the snow and thawing the ground he subjoyns only the North-west wind coming over the Land is the cause of extreme cold weather being always accompanied with deep snows and bitter frosts c. To which passages we shall add only one out of Captain James as being considerable to our present purpose The winds says he since we came hither have been very variable and unconstant and till within this fortnight the Southerly wind was coldest The reason I conceive to be for that it did blow from the main Land which was all covered with snow and for that the North winds came out of the great Bay which hitherto was open Title XIX Of the strange Effects of Cold. 1. TO enumerate and prosecute all the several Effects of Cold being the chief work of the whole Book it is not to be expected that they should be particularly treated of in this one Section of it wherein I shall therefore confine my self to mention only those Effects of Cold that are not familiar but seem to have in them something of wonderful nor must I take notice of All them neither least I should be guilty of useless Repetitions but only of them which either are not at all or are but incidentally or transiently delivered in the foregoing Sections Nor is it to be expected that I should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credit for the truth of every 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Relations I am about to 〈◊〉 For if they had not something of extraordinary and consequently that may
beget some Diffidence in wary men they would not be proper for the title of this Section and most of them that they may be fit to be plac'd here must be the Effects of such extreme degrees of Cold that I cannot in this temperate Climate of ours examine the truth of them by my own Trials so that all I can do is to make choice of such Relations as are almost all of them delivered by the Relators as upon their own Knowledge And even this may perchance not only gratifie and excite the Curiosity of some who are pleas'd with no things so much as with those that have somewhat in them of Prodigy and which is more considerable their Narratives may afford the Ingenious such strange Phaenomena that the Explication of them may serve both to exercise their wits and try their Hypothesis 2. It seems not necessary in the marshalling these observations to be scrupulous about method but yet to avoid confusion we shall first mention the Effects of Cold as to those four great Bodies of that part of the Sublunary World we live in that are commonly reputed Elements and thence we will proceed to take notice of the Effects of Cold upon some other inanimate Bodies and for an instance of its operation on living Creatures upon men 3. Of the power of Cold either to straiten the sphere of activity of fire or to hinder its wonted effects the chief examples I have met with are recorded partly by the Dutch in Nova Zembla and partly by Captain James when he winter'd in Charleton Island These Hollanders in one place speak thus The twentieth it was fair and still weather the wind Easterly then we wash'd our Sheets but it was so cold that when we had wash'd and wrung them they presently froze so stiff that although we laid them by a great fire the side that laid next the fire thaw'd but the other side was hard frozen c. Elsewhere thus We were in great fear that if the extremity of the Cold grew to be more and more we should all dye there with cold for what fire soever we made it would not warm us And because it were tedious to transcribe all that their Journals afford us to our present purpose we will conclude with this passage Hereby we were so fast shut up into the House as if we had been prisoners and it was so extreme Cold that the fire almost cast no heat for as we put our feet to the fire we burnt our hose before we could feel the heat so that we had work enough to do to patch our hose and which is more if we had not sooner smelt then felt them we should have burnt them ere we had known it Though Captain James wintred in a Countrey many degrees remoter from the Pole then Nova Zembla yet in one place he gives us this account of the colds power to restrain or oppose the action of fire The Cooks Tubs wherein he did water his meat standing about a yard from the fire and which he did all day ply with melted snow water yet in the night season while he slept but one watch would they be firm frozen to the very Bottom And therefore was he fain to water his meat in a Brass Kettle close adjoyning to the fire and I have many times both seen and felt by putting my hand into it that side which was next the fire was very warm and the other an inch frozen I leave the rest to our Cook who will almost speak miracles of the Cold. 3. Thus far our Enlish Navigator whose relation compar'd with those of the Hollanders make me not so much wonder as I once did that men should relate to Marcus Polus that there is a certain Plain in Tartary situated between some of the highest mountains in the World where if fire be kindled it is not so bright nor so effectual to boil any thing as in other places For so Purchase renders that passage whence occasion has been taken to impute to Marcus Polus a writer not always half so fabulous as many think him that he affirm'd that there was a Countrey in Tartary where fire could not be kindled 4. And as for the other newly mention'd relations of Seamen and Travellers though to us that live in England they cannot but seem very strange yet I am kept from rejecting them as utterly incredible by considering that ice and snow having before their Congelation been water must in probability owe their Coldness to that which reign'd in the Air So that if in any place Nature has either so plentifully stock'd the Air it self with frigorisick exspirations or other Corpuscles if we will admit any such or have upon any other account rendred it as cold as it can make ice and snow to be even here amongst us I know not why the Northerness of the climate and perhaps some saline expirations from the Earth and Sea may not there diffuse through the air a cold superior to that which by small Quantities of ice or snow and salt can at a small distance be produc'd here And this cold is so intense that by pouring some water on a Joynt-stool and placing on it a silver Tankard or other convenient vessel we may as experience has assur'd me with beaten ice or snow and salt and a little water which is added to hasten the solution of the other nimbly stirr'd together in the pot make the mixture freez the external water quite through the Tankard and they may be by this way so hard frozen together as that by lifting up the pot you may lift up the Joynt-stool too and that which is the circumstance for which I mention this just by the fire which in this case is unable to hinder so difficult an operation of the Cold. 5. Thus much of the effects of cold in reference to fire What the same quality may perform upon Air we shall say but little of in this place because we treat of those Phaenomena partly in the foregoing Section of the coldness of the Air and partly in other places Only we shall not here pretermit a testimony of the learned Olearius who as an eye witness confirms what we elsewhere deliver of the high degree of cold to which the Air may be brought For he tells us That in Muscovy he experimentally found that which others left recorded in their writings That ones spittle would be congeal'd before it reach'd the ground and that water would freez as it was dropping down 6. Of the effects of cold upon water we shall not need to say much in this place since the two notablest of them being the power cold has to congeal water suddenly and the force it has to turn vast quantities of it into sollid ice Of the former I have newly given out of Olearius an example as eminent as almost any that is to be met with and of the latter also I have given several instances in the Section
that treats of ice Yet two or three notable instances which we do not elsewhere mention 't will not be improper to deliver in this place 7. The first declares that notwithstanding the warmth of the inside of a mans mouth his spittle may be frozen even there The 27. of September they are the words of Gerat de Veer it blew hard Northeast and it froze so hard that as we put a nail into our mouthes as when men work Carpenters work they use to do there would Ice hang thereon when we took it out again and make the blood follow The like relation if I misremember not I have met with in a modern English Navigator and it is very little if at all more strange then what is affirm'd by Queen Elizabeths Ambassador to the Russian Emperor In the extremity of winter says Doctor Fletcher speaking of Muscovia if you hold a pewter Dish or Pot in your hand or any other mettal except in some chamber where their warm Stoves be your fingers will stick fast to it and draw off the skin at the parting 8. The other instance I intended to mention is this that though Macrobius and other learned men both ancient and modern will not allow salt water to be congealable yet the Dutch at Nova Zembla relate that even in the midst of September and a the Marginal note says in a night It froze two inches thick in the salt water 9. As to the effects of violent colds upon the Earth what they would prove upon pure and Elementary Earth if any such there be I can but conjecture but as for that impure or mingled Earth which we commonly tread on the effects of extreme cold upon that may be very notable For Olearius relates that in the year 1634. the cold was so bitter at Musco that in the great market-place he saw the ground open'd by it so that there was made a cleft of many yards long and a foot broad And the present great Duke of Muscovies Physician being asked by me concerning the truth of such relations answered me that he himself had in those parts seen the ground reduc'd by the cold to gape so wide that a childs head might well have been put into the cleft 10. 'T is somewhat strange that the violent heat of Summer and the extreme cold of Winter should both of them be able to produce in the ground the like effects but whether to make these gaping chinks that we have been speaking of the surface of the ground expos'd to the air being first frozen is afterwards broken by the expansive force of the moist earth underneath to which the cold at length pierces and congealing it makes it swell and heave and so burst or cleave the hard and frozen crust of the ground which cannot sufficiently yield to it whether this I say may produce the clefts we were speaking of or whether they must be deriv'd from some other cause not having yet made the experiments I thought upon to clear the matter one way or other I do not as yet pretend to determine but will rather subjoyn the second observation I purpos'd to mention of a strange operation of Cold upon the ground and it is afforded us by the Dutch in their often quoted third voyage to Nova Zembla In one place of which they tell us That when they had built them a wooden house and were going to shut themselves up in it for the winter they made a great fire without the house therewith to thaw the ground that they might so lay it viz. the wood about the house that it might be the closer but it was all lost labour for the earth was so hard and frozen so deep into the ground that they could not thaw it and it would have cost them too much wood and therefore they were forced to leave off that labour 11. After what we have said about the strange effects of cold in reference to fire air water and earth we will now proceed to take notice of its effects upon confessedly compounded Bodies whether inanimate or living but of the former sort of mix'd Bodies I mean those that have not Life it will not be necessary to say much in this Section in regard that we have in many other places upon several occasions had opportunities to mention already most of the particulars that belong to that head For we elsewhere take notice that violent Colds will freez Beer Ale Vinegre Oyl common Wine and even Sack and Alegant themselves We have likewise noted that the Cold may have a notable operation upon Wood Bricks Stone vessels of Glass Earth and even Pewter and Iron themselves to which Bartholinus out of Janus Muncks Voyage to Greenland allows us to add vessels of Brass though these are not immediately broken by the Cold but by the included Liquors which it dilates and divers strange effects of Cold upon inanimate Bodies which 't were here troublesome to recapitulate may be met with dispers'd in several places of the present History Wherefore having only intimated in general that though many plants are preserv'd by a moderate cold yet it has been observ'd that most Garden-plants are destroy'd by excessive degrees of it we will pass on to consider the effects of Cold upon animals and of the many observations that we have met with among Travellers concerning this subject we shall to avoid prolixity deliver only the considerablest and those that we find attested by very credible Writers 12. Captain James speaking of the last of the three differences he makes of Cold namely that which he and his company felt in the woods gives this account of it As for the last it would be so extreme that it was not endurable no clothes were proof against it no motion could resist it It would moreover so freez the hair of our Eye-lids that we could not see and I verily believe that it would have stifled a man in a very few hours 13. Olearius giving an account of the Air of Muscovy and especially the Capital City of it The Cold says he is there so violent that no Furs can hinder it but sometimes mens Noses and Ears Feet and Hands will be frozen and all fall off He adds that in the year 1634. when he was there they could not go 50. paces without being benumm'd with cold and in danger of losing some of their Limbs And yet to add that remarkable observation upon the by the same Author near the same place speaking of Musco and the neighbouring Provinces distinguished from the rest of that vast Empire says That the Air is good and healthy so that there one scarce ever hears of the Plague or any other Epidemical diseases And he adds that for that reason when in the year 1654. the Plague made havock in that great City the thing was very surprizing nothing like it having been seen there in the memory of men 14. Our already divers times mention'd English
ascribes to the resolv'd ice may have proceeded from that which would not have been taken notice of by an ordinary Experimenter For as I not long since intimated I have sometimes purposely and sometimes by chance by thawing ice in clos'd vessels somewhat hastily produc'd a copious dew on the outside of the vessels which dew as being made by the condens'd vapours of the ambient Air ought to be wip'd off before the vessel be put into the scales to weigh the melted ice And 't is possible also that Helmont may have err'd in the manner of weighing his Lagena whatever he mean by it it being usual even for learned men that are not vers'd in Statick's to mistake in Experiments which require that things be skilfully and nicely weigh'd How far this excuse may be appli'd to a late Commentator upon Aristotles Meteors who says he tri'd that water frozen is heavier then unfrozen being a stranger to that Authors writings I shall not consider only whereas Helmont and He seem to agree very little in their Affirmations it will be perhaps more difficult to accord them then to determine by the help of our formerly register'd Experiments what may be thought of both their Relations Yet I shall add on this occasion That if I had not devis'd the above mention'd way of freezing water by Art in Hermetically seal'd glasses I should have found it difficult to reduce what is affirm'd by Manelphus which I then dreamt not of to an accurate Experiment for though I had imploy'd a seal'd glass which I have not heard that he or any other has yet made use of to that purpose yet if I had in that vessel expos'd the water to be frozen the common way 't is odds though it be not absolutely certain that the water beginning as 't is wont to congeal at the Top the Expansion of the subsequently freezing water would break the glass and so spoil the Experiment And for the same reason I have sometimes in vain attempted to examine the weight of water frozen by nature according to her wonted method in open vials And if insteed of glasses you make use of strong earthen vessels there is danger that something may be imbib'd or adhere to the porous vessel and increase the weight and by some such way or by some mistake in weighing 't is very probable Manelphus may have been deceiv'd which I am the more inclin'd to think if we suppose him a sincere writer not only because of some things I have taken notice of about congelations made in earthen vessels but because when I have instead of an earthen made use of a metalline pottinger both which sorts of vessels have in common this inconvenience that their ponderousness makes them less fit for accurate Scales there appear'd cause to suspect either that our Author did not use metalline vessels or which I rather suspect that he wanted skill or diligence in weighing For as I find no intimation of his having imploy'd any peculiar or artificial sort of vessels so if he us'd such as we have newly been speaking of and had weigh'd them carefully I cannot but think that instead of finding the ice heavier then the water 't was made of he would have rather found it lighter For I remember that having once expos'd all night a pottinger almost full of common water to an exceeding sharp Air and having caus'd it the next morning to be brought me when the liquor was throughly frozen I found it to have lost about 50. grains if I misremember not of its former weight and though this event were consonant enough to my conjectures yet for greater certainty I repeated the Experiments another 〈◊〉 night with this new caution that the pottinger and water together with the counterpoise were kept suspended in the Scales to be sure that no effusion of any part of the water in carrying it abroad to the open Air should be made without being taken notice of but the next morning somewhat late the vessel with the contain'd water now congeal'd appear'd to have lost about 60. grains and with the like success the Trial was reiterated once more and that in weather so sharp that I am not apt to think the water expos'd by Manelphus began to freez sooner then ours But the event was not unexpected for besides that I consider'd that in these kind of Experiments part of the water notwithstanding the exceeding coldness of the Air must in all likelihood fly away before the surface of it began to be congeal'd I judge it not improbable that not only the fluid part but even that which was already congeal'd might continually lose some of its Corpuscles and by their recess lose also somewhat of its weight And least these conjectures should seem too too unlikely 't will not be amiss to add in favour of the first of them that having purposely provided a large Pewter Box with a cover to screw on it and having fill'd it almost full of water I say almost because if the vessel had been quite full the congealing cold might have burst it and carefully weigh'd the Aggregate of both which amounted to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gr 11. whereof the vessel weigh'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and gr 8. we expos'd the water after the Top of the pot was screw'd on to hinder the Avolation of it to the freezing Air all night and the next morning found it frozen from the top to the bottom though not uniformly and perfectly but found not one grain difference betwixt its present and its former weight And as for the second conjecture newly propos'd though it may seem somewhat strange yet it is confirmable by this Experiment that having plac'd divers lumps of solid ice in a Pottinger which together with them weigh'd a pound consisting of 16 〈◊〉 and having exposed these things in the same scales wherein they were weigh'd to the free Air on a very frosty night we found the ice to have lost the next morning 24. grains of its weight and the weather continuing so cold that it froze hard all day long in the shade I gave order to have it kept out of the Sun in the same scales during all that time and a good part of the following night and then weighing it the second time found that the whole decrement of weight did now amount to five grains above two drachms though the weight of the ice without the pottinger were but about seven ounces and when we had kept about 13. ounces of ice in a very frosty night expos'd to the cold Air it had lost as early as the next morning a good deal above two drachms of its former weight But these Statical observations have perhaps already but too much swell'd this Appendix Title XXI Promiscuous Experiments and Observations concerning Cold. 1. I Hope it will not be imagined that I have such narrow thoughts of the subject I treat of Cold as to believe that I have compriz'd under those few Titles prefix'd to the
Sections of this Historical Treatise all the Particulars that I knew to belong to so comprehensive a Theme as would readily appear if I thought it convenient to insert here the Scheme of Articles of inquiry that I drew up to direct my self what inquiries and Experiments to make But though there were divers of those Heads to which I could say so little that I judg'd it improper to assign them distinct Titles because as to some of them I had not time and opportunity to make those Trials which if I had not wanted those Requisites might have been made even here in England and because also as to more of them I conceiv'd my self unable to produce in this temperate Climate so strong and durable a Cold as seem'd necessary to make the trials that might be referr'd to them succeed so far as to satisfie my doubts either affirmatively or negatively Though I say these and some other Considerations kept me from increasing the Number of the Titles among which I have distributed the Experiments and Observations that make up the foregoing part of this Treatise yet since divers particulars have occurr'd to me which though they seem not properly reducible to the foregoing Titles do yet belong to the subject and design of this Treatise I think it fit to annex them in this place and without any other order then that wherein they shall happen to occur to me throw them into this one Section together with some loose Experiments and divers Relations that I have met with among Navigators and Authors that have travell'd into the Northern Climates touching Cold not forbearing to insert promiscuously among them some few Paralipomena which if they had seasonably come to my hands or into my mind might have had a more proper place among the foregoing Sections or have composed a Title by themselves Wherefore though the Observations will not be altogether unaccompanied with Experiments yet for the reasons above intimated much the greater part of what is to be deliver'd under this Title will consist of Collections out of Voyages in which the strange things mention'd being such as we cannot examine by our own Trials I can equitably be thought answerable for the Truth of nothing but the Citations 2. I remember I tri'd at several times divers Experiments to discover whether or no congelation would by constriction of the pores of Bodies or vitiating their Texture or arresting the motion of their parts hinder them from emitting those Effluvia that we call odors but the Register of these Observations being unhappily lost in one of my late removes I dare add but these few wherein I have no cause to distrust my memory 3. I did in the Moneths of December and January at several times gather differing sorts of flowers in frosty weather but in most when they were freshly gather'd and hastily smelt to I could scarce perceive any sensible smell whether it were that the causes above hinted hinder'd the expiration of the odoriferous steams or that the cold had some undiscerned influence upon the Organ of smelling which made the sense more dull or that the same cold kept the Alimental juice of the flowers from rising in such plenty and abounding so much with spirituous parts as was usual at the more friendly seasons of the year and this seem'd the more likely to be one reason of the Phaenomenon because most of the flowers were flaggy and as it were ready to wither and because also a Primrose that was vigorous and fresh in its kind had an odor that was manifestly and 't will easily be believ'd that it was not strongly sweet and genuine 4. I took also about an ounce by guess of Rose-water and putting it into a small vial after I had smelt to it it was expos'd to freez in the open Air and when it began to have ice in it I then smelt to it again but found not the perfume considerably if so much as manifesty abated and lastly having suffer'd it to continue in the Air that was then very sharp till 't was quite frozen and discover'd no liquor when the vial was turn'd upside down the ice notwithstanding was not distitute of a graceful and genuine sent though it seem'd somewhat faint but after the ice was reduc'd to water again the fragrancy appear'd considerable But on this occasion 't will not be improper to subjoyn this Caution That care must be had in Trials of this Nature to make ones estimate betimes for if a man should stay too long about it there is danger that the warmth of ones breath and face may relax the pores or thaw the surface of the ice that is held near his Nose and both free and excite the Corpuscles of smell that are imprison'd there that so instead of ice he may smell a liquor The reasonableness of which advertisment may be justifi'd by an Experiment that I am about to annex For being pretty well confirmed by the casual and unwilling Observations of one of my friends curious in making sweet water That even Liquors more easie to be spoilt then Rose-water would not have their fragrancy destroy'd though perhaps impair'd nor so much as their odors for the time quite imprison'd and suppress'd by congelation and this appearing congruous to what I formerly noted of the Effluviums that may by the Decrement of weight be gathered to issue from ice it self I thought it worth while to try whether stinking Liquors would not be more alter'd by congelation then odoriferous ones and accordingly having procur'd some rain water that had been kept in a Tub till it stunck so strongly that I could hardly endure it near my nose I caus'd a pottinger 〈◊〉 of it to be expos'd all night to a very sharp Air and examining it the next morning when it was all turn'd into ice neither I nor some others to whom it was offer'd could perceive any stinck at all in it and having in another place but with as stinking water repeated the Experiment when the pottinger was the next morning brought to my beds side I found it to smell abominably whereupon guessing that this difference proceeded from some thaw made by the warmth of the room in the superficial parts of the ice I found it to be so indeed partly by the help of the light which discovered a little liquor upon the ice and partly by exposing the vessel with that liquor in it to the cold Air again by whose operations an ice was produc'd that was perfectly inodorous and I remember that one of these parcels of ice being thaw'd seem'd to be less stinking then before it had been frozen and if I had not been diverted I should have tried whether this ice that did not emit odors would emit like other ice Effluvia discoverable by the Scales for whether the ice would lose of its weight which seem'd the more probable or would not the event may afford a not inconsiderable hint 5. It is a thing not only remarkable
one fill'd up after the same manner to make the Experiment the more satisfactory But though he could not procure it yet the success was not unwelcome because it was manifest that there were cracks in the Iron in one place conspicuous and in others easily discoverable by blowing into the barrel and putting on the outside of the suspected parts either spittle or some fit liquor whose agitation plainly disclos'd the egress of the wind and there appear'd small cause to doubt but that these cracks were produc'd by the operation of the cold since not only the Smith was a skilful man in his trade and one that I us'd to imploy about Instruments and also the barrel had been sometimes kept many hours fill'd with water without appearing other then very stanch but which is the considerablest circumstance the night before the frost as I lately noted was not able to make the water break out at any of these clefts though it were able to force it self a way out at the screw in spight of all the care we had taken to make it go close I have only this circumstance to add about this matter that when by thawing one part of the ice some pieces of the rest were got out of the barrel all I took notice of appear'd to be full enough of Bubbles but yet such as seem'd lesser then ordinary whether they were so by chance or were determined to be so by the resistence or compression which the freezing water found upon its endeavouring to expand it self in the barrel Appendix to the XVII Title LOng since the writing of the foregoing Section meeting with a passage in Bartholinus where he vouches Cabaeus for the Experiment of congealing water without limiting it to any season of the year by putting Salt 〈◊〉 into it and shaking it strongly I was thereby confirmed that I was not mistaken in supposing that Gassendus mention'd in the former Section did not exclude that corporal and visible Nitre out of the number of the grand efficients of congelation For Cabaeus having publish'd his comment upon Aristotles Meteors whence this experiment is taken by Bartholinus before Gassendus publisht his Book 't is probable that he as well as others borrowed the Experiment from him and Cabaeus as Bartholinus quotes him prescribes the putting the Salt-petre its self into water which being a while put into a brisk motion will after some agitation not only refrigerate that water but bring it to a true and proper congelation Wherefore suspecting that this relation wherein Bartholinus says he will believe him without an oath may have given rise to the opinions and affirmations of those ingenious writers that have since ascrib'd such wonderful coldness to Nitre and finding in Bartholinus that Cabaeus's proportion betwixt the Nitre and the water was that of 35. to a 100. that is almost as one to three I thought it very well worth while to make Trial of an Experiment which seem'd to me little less unlikely then considerable I took then a pound of good Salt-petre and near 3. pound of common water to observe the more narrowly Cabaeus's proportion these being put into a large new Pipkin were kept constantly and nimbly stirr'd about sometimes by me sometimes by one or other of my Domesticks relieving one another when they were weary but though the mixture was with a kind of broad glass spattle kept in a brisk motion that for the most part was 〈◊〉 the manner of a whirle-pool and sometimes a more confus'd agitation and though we kept it thus stirring for almost an hour and a half till we saw no likelihood of effecting any thing by trying our selves any further yet not only we could not perceive that any Atom of true ice was produc'd whereas according to our Authors we might have expected a true and perfect congelation of all or the greatest part of the water but we did not find that there was so much as any freezing of the vapours on the outside of the vessel and for this reason we thought 〈◊〉 about the same time to try the Experiments by another kind of Agitation and mixing two ounces of Salt-petre with about six of water in a conveniently siz'd vial we did several of us successively vehemently shake the vial too and fro till we were almost tyr'd but neither this way was there produced the least ice within the glass or the least congelation of the vapours of the Air on the outside of it 'T is true that when so great a proportion of Salt-petre began to be dissolv'd in the Pipkin the water had a sensible increase of coldness which afterwards seem'd to diminish when once the Nitre was dissolv'd but not to mention that if I much mistake not we have observ'd the water to be refrigerated when upon the dissolution of common salt multitudes of actually cold and solid Corpuscles came to be every way dispers'd through it this coldness produc'd by the Nitre was very far short of the degree requisite to congelation for to satisfie my self that my sense did not misinform me I took a good seal'd Weather-glass of about ten or twelve inches long and immersing it into the cold mixture of Nitre and Water I observ'd the tincted spirit of Wine in the stem to descend not inconsiderably and when I perceived that degree of cold to have wrought its effect I remov'd the Thermoscope into a vial fill'd with common water about which I had caus'd to be plac'd a mixture of beaten ice and salt to 〈◊〉 the contained water in which the ball of the Instrument being plac'd the spirit of Wine hastily descended two or three inches below that place at which it stood when 't was remov'd out of the Nitrous solution And for further satisfaction removing the Thermoscope once again into that solution the spirit of Wine in the stem was hastily impell'd up as if the bubble had been put into warm water And once more the Weather-glass being remov'd into the formerly mention'd 〈◊〉 water the tincted liquor began to fall down hastily again and within a while subsided almost into the bubble whereupon to avoid injuring the instrument we thought fit to take it out so that upon the whole matter if the learned Cabaeus were not deluded by mistaking some Crystals of Nitre which I have observ'd easily to shoot again in water that has been 〈◊〉 with it for true and proper ice I cannot but wonder at his assertion and must take the liberty to think my self warranted by so many Harmonious Trials as I have found unfavourable to the suppos'd supremeness of Cold in Salt-petre to retain my former opinion about it till more succesful Experiments withdraw me from it 'T is a receiv'd Tradition among the Water-men and many others that the Rivers if not Ponds also are frozen first at the bottom and begin to thaw there But though I find this opinion to be in request not only among English Water-men but among the French too yet I think it
Criterion then the bare touch to judge of the coldness of liquors these being reduc'd to the same temper were expos'd to a very sharp Air and there watch'd by the person whom being not well and unable to support such weather my self I appointed to attend the Experiment and he according to direction finding them begin to freez as 't were at the very same time brought me in the two pottingers in each of which I saw the beginnings and but the beginnings of congelation where the upper surfaces of the waters were contiguous to the containing vessels so that having made this Experiment with much greater exactness then probably Berigardus did or for want of such instruments as I us'd could make it I cannot but suspect supposing the common waters he and I us'd to be of the same nature that he was either negligent or over-seen in affirming that heated and refrigerated water will cool so much sooner as he would perswade us then other And as I am not convinc'd by experience that it will freez sooner at all so till he have better made out the reason he seems to give of the Phaenomenon I must question whether he rightly ascribe after Cabaeus if I much misremember not the congelation of water to a certain Coagulum distinct from the cold spirits that plentifully mingle with the water which Coagulum it seems for his style is not wont to be very perspicuous that he would have to consist of certain dry Corpuscles no less necessary to conglaciate water then Runnet to curdle Milk And for what this Author says that he must have imploy'd boiling or scalding water who affirms it to be less congealable then other that mistake may be sufficiently disprov'd by the several above recited Trials wherein we found water moderately refrigerated to freez much later then cold and whereas Berigardus intimates that the person whoever he be that he dissents from does unskilfully suppose warm salt-water to be the less dispos'd to congelation for being salt our Author is therein also mistaken for though it be true what he alledges that salt outwardly appli'd promotes the congelation of water yet that dissolv'd in water it has a contrary effect may appear by the familiar observation that Sea-water is much more difficult to be congeal'd then fresh water and to show that 't is not a property of Sea-water but a water impregnated with common Salt I have several times tri'd that a strong solution of such salt in ordinary water will not at all be congeal'd by the being expos'd to the Air even in very sharp frosts as may be easily collected from some of the Experiments mention'd in the former part of this Book Another particular there is about the use of Allume in reference to freezing in this often cited passage of Berigardus which I might here examine if my hast and my indisposedness to ingage in a controversie of small moment did not injoyn me to defer it till a fitter occasion To confirm the power ascrib'd in the VI. Section to cold as to the long preservation of bodies from corruption 't will not be amiss to add these two remarkable passages the latter of which affords a good instance of the improvement that may be made of some degrees of cold to the uses of humane life The first observation is afforded us by some of our Countrey-men in a Voyage extant in Purchas where the writer of it speaks thus Of the Samojeds whose Countrey he visited Their Dead they bury on the side of the hills where they live which is commonly on some small Islands making a pile of stones over them yet not so close but that we might see the dead Body the Air being so piercing that it keepeth them from much stincking savour so likewise I have seen their Dogs buried in the same manner The other observation is given us in the description of Iceland made by one that visited it to be met with in the same Purchas's Collections where among other things he gives us this Account which if I mistake not I have had confirm'd by others of their strange way of ordering and preserving their Fish Having taken them they pluck out the bones and lay up their bowels and make Fat or Oyl of them They heap up their Fish in the open Air and the purity of the Air is such there that they are hardned only with the Wind and Sun without Salt better surely then if they were corned with Salt And if they kill any Beast they preserve the flesh without stinck or putrefaction without Salt hardned only with the Wind. I know not whether 't will be worth while to add to the fifth and sixth Numbers of the VII Title that for further confirmation of our opinion that 't is not Natures abhorrencie of a Vacuum but the distension of the water that breaks glasses when the contain'd liquors come to be congeal'd I did on set purpose fill several vials some at one time and some at another to the lower parts of their necks most of which were purposely made long with common water and though they were all left unstopp'd that the external Air might come in freely to them yet not only one of them that I stirr'd up and down in a mixture of beaten ice salt and water was hastily broken upon the congelation of the contain'd water but several others that were expos'd to be frozen more leisurely by the cold Air only were likewise broken to pieces by the expansion of the freezing water as appear'd both by the gaping cracks and also by this that the ice was considerably risen in the necks above the waters former stations which had been noted by marks before and if it had been more easie for the included water to make it self room either by stretching the glass or rather leaving the superficial ice congeal'd at first in the neck or by both those ways together then to break the vessel the vial would probably have remained intire I say probably because I am not sure that there may not sometimes intervene in these Experiments somewhat that may need further observation and inquiring For as it seems that what I have been lately saying may be confirmed by an unstopp'd vial which was expos'd at the same time to congelation with this success that without breaking the vial the water was frozen and the ice in the neck impell'd up a good way above the height at which the liquor rested before it began to congeal so on the other side I remember that I have sometimes had a good store of liquor frozen in a vial without breaking the glass though a vial were stopp'd as if the difference that I have on other occasions observed betwixt glasses whereof some are very brittle and others more apt to yield might have an influence on such Experiments or that some peculiar softness or other property of the ice that afforded me my observation or else some other thing not yet
taken notice of were able to vary their success In confirmation of what is delivered in the VII Section about the expansion of water by freezing I shall add that having caus'd some strong glass-Bottles of a not inconsiderable bignéss to be fill'd with a congealable liquor excepting the necks which were fill'd with Sallet oyl I observ'd that in a somewhat long and very sharp frost the contained water was so far expanded by congelation that it not only thrust up the corks but the cold having taken away the defluency of the oyl that liquor together with the water that could no longer be contain'd in the Cavities of the glasses being as it seem'd frozen as fast as it was thrust out of the neck there appear'd quite above the upper part of the Bottles Cylinders of divers inches in height consisting partly of concreted oyl and partly of congeal'd water having on their tops the corks that had been rais'd by them It is a Tradition very currant among us that when Ponds or Rivers are frozen over unless the ice be seasonably broken in several places the Fishes will dye for want of Air. And I find this Tradition to be more general then before I made particular inquiry into it I knew of For Olaus Magnus mentions it more then once without at all questioning the truth of it but rather as if the general practise of the Northern Nations to break in divers places their frozen Ponds and Rivers were grounded upon the certainty of it In the twentieth Book which treats of Fishes after having spoke of the reasons why the Northern Fishermen imploy so much pains and industry to fish under the ice and having said among other things that the nature of the Fish exacts it he adds this reason that Nisi glacie perforata respiracula susciperent quotquot in flumine vel stagno versantur subito morerentur Another passage of the same Author and taken likewise out of the same 20. Book you may meet with in the Margent though in another place he seems to intimate another and not an absurd reason of the death of Fishes in Winter where advertising the Reader that Ponds and Lakes did generally begin to freez in October he adds that Fishes are usually found suffocated when the Thaw comes where veins or springs of living water do not enter by which passage he seems to make the want of shifted water cooperate to the suffocation of the Fishes And to the same purpose I shall now add that having inquir'd of a learned Native that had had about Cracovia whose Territory is said to abound much in Ponds whether the Polanders also us'd the same custome he answered me that they did and that sometimes in larger Ponds they were careful to break the ice in eight or ten several places to make so many either vents or Air-holes for the preservation as they suppos'd of the Fish And when I inquir'd of the often mention'd Russian Emperors Physician whether in Muscovy the frost kill'd the Fishes in the Ponds in case the ice were not broken to give them Air he answered that in ordinary Ponds it were not to be doubted but that in great Lakes he could not tell because the Fishermen use to break many great holes in the ice for the taking of the Fish For at each of these holes they thrust in a Net and all these Nets are drawn up together in one great breach made insome convenient place near the middle of the rest It appears then that the Tradition is general enough but whether it be well grounded I dare not determine either affirmatively or negatively till trial have been made in Ponds with more of design or of curiosity and watchfulness then I have known hitherto done men seeming to have acquiesc'd in the Tradition without examining it and to have been more careful not to omit what is generally believ'd necessary to the preservation of their Fish then to try whether they would escape without it Wherefore though for ought I know the Tradition may prove true yet to induce men not to think it certain till experience has duly convinc'd them of it I shall represent That as much as I have in other Treatises manifested how necessary Air is to Animals yet whether Fishes may not live either without Air or without any more of it then they may find interspers'd in the water they swim in has not yet that I know of been sufficiently prov'd For what we have attempted of that nature in our Pneumatical Engine whether it be satisfactory or not is not yet divulged And I remember not to have hitherto met with any writer except Olaus be construed to intimate so much that affirms upon his own observation that the want of breaking ice in Ponds has destroy'd all the Fish Besides that possibly in frozen Ponds there may be other reasons of the death of the Fishes that are kill'd if any store of them be so by very sharp frosts For who knows what the locking up of some kinds of subterraneal steams that are wont freely to ascend through water unfrozen may do to vitiate and infect the unventulated water and make it noxious to the Fishes that live in it perhaps also the excrementitious steams that insensibly issue out of the bodies of the Fishes themselves may by being penn'd up by the ice contribute in some cases to the vitiating of the water at least in reference to some sort of Fishes For being desirous to learn from a person curious of the ways of preserving and transporting Fish whether some Fishes would not quickly languish grow sick and sometimes dy out-right if the water they swam in were not often shifted he assur'd me that some kinds of them would and it has not yet that I hear of been tri'd whether or no though Ponds seldom freez to the bottom yet the water that remains under the ice in which it self some Fishes may be now and then intercepted may not even whilest it continues uncongeal'd admit a degree of cold that though not great enough to turn water into ice may yet be great enough when it continues very long to destroy Fishes though not immediately yet within a less space of time then that during which the surface of the Pond continues frozen But 't is not worth while to be sollicitous about conjectures of causes till we are sure of the Truth of the Phaenomenon and these things are propos'd not so much to confute the Tradition we have been speaking of as to bring it to a Trial which having no opportunity to make in Ponds I endeavour'd as well this Winter as formerly to obtain what information I could from Trials made in small vessels with the few Fishes I was able to procure And I shall subjoyn most of these Trials not because I think them very considerable but because they are for ought I know the only attempts of the kind that have yet been made To satisfie my self whether the ices denying
another Treatise to which such matters more properly belong 'T is known that the Schools define cold by the property they ascribe to it of congregating both Heterogeneous and Homogeneous things I thought it not amiss to attempt the making some separations in bodies by the force of Cold. For if that hold true in this climate which has been observ'd by Travellers and Navigators in Northern Regions that men may obtain from Beer and Wine a very strong spirit and a phlegme by congelation it seems probable that in divers other liquors the waterish part will begin to freez before the more spirituous and saline and if so we may be assisted to make divers separations as well by cold as by heat and dephlegme if I may so speak some liquors as well by congelation as by distillation but I doubt whether the ordinary frosts of this Countrey can produce a degree of cold great enough to make such divisions and separations in bodies as have been observ'd in the more Northern Climates For though having purposely hung out a glass-bottle with a quart of Beer in it in an extraordinarily sharp night I found the next morning that much the greatest part of the Beer being turn'd into ice there remain'd somewhat nearer the middle but nearer the bottom an uncongeal'd liquor which to me and others seem'd stronger then the Beer and was at least manifestly stronger then the thaw'd ice which made but a spiritless and as it were but a dead drink yet in some other Trials my success was not so considerable as some would have expected For having put one part of high rectifi'd spirit of Wine to about five or six parts if I misremember not of common water and having put them into a round glass and plac'd that in beaten ice and salt though the mixture were in great part turn'd into ice yet I could not perceive that even two liquors so slightly mingled were any thing accurately severed from one another although once to enable my self the better to judge of it the spirit of Wine I imploy'd was beforehand deeply tincted with Cochinele and therefore I the less wonder that in Claret Wine I could not make any exact separation of the red and the colourless parts However I thought it not amiss to try how far in some other liquors this way of separating the waterish and more easily congealable part from the rest would or would not succeed And I remember that a large glass vessel wherein spirit of Vinegre was exposed to the cold a considerable part was turned into ice whose swimming argued it to be lighter then the rest of the liquor but though I put some of this ice in a glass by it self to examine by its weight and taste when thaw'd how much it differ'd from the uncongeal'd part of the spirit my hopes were disappointed by a misfortune which was not repaired by my exposing afterwards a smaller quantity of spirit of Vinegre to the Nocturnal Air for that proved so cold that the whole was turned into ice wherefore I must reserve for another opportunity the prosecuting that Experiment as also the trying whether a separation of the Serous or the Oleaginous parts of Milk may be effected For though once the frost seem'd to have promoted a separation of Creme notwithstanding that heat also may do it and though another time there seem'd to be another kind of divulsion of parts made by congelation yet for want of leisure to prosecute such Trials they prov'd not satisfactory no more then did some attempts of the like nature that I made upon blood by freezing it But notwithstanding these discouragements I resolv'd to try what I could do upon Brine For calling to mind the Relations mentioned in the XV. Title and elsewhere which seem to argue that in some cases the ice of the Sea-water may being thaw'd yield fresh water and being the more inclin'd to think it worth Trial by a Physician I since happened to discourse with about this matter who affirm'd to me that sailing along the coast of Germany he had taken out of the Sea ice that being thaw'd he found to afford good fresh water I began to consider whether we might not by cold free salt water at some seasons of the year from a great deal of the phlegme which 't is wont to cost much to free them from by fire and other means For a little help towards the diminution of the fresh water is look'd upon as so useful an Experiment by many that boil salt out of the salt springs that in some Countries that are thought the skilfullest in that trade they make their salt-water fall upon great bundles of small brush-wood that being thereby divided and reduc'd to a far greater superficies there may in falling through some of the purely Aqueous parts exhale away wherefore dissolving one part of common salt in 44. times its weight of common water that it might be reduc'd either exactly or near to the degree of saltness that has been by several writers observed in the water of our neighbouring Seas and having likewise caus'd another and much stronger Brine to be made by putting in to the water a far greater proportion of salt for so there is in many of our salt springs we expos'd these several solutions to the congealing cold of the Air in frosty weather where the last mention'd solution being too strongly impregnated with the salt continued some days and nights altogether uncongeal'd but that weaker solution which emulated Sea water being expos'd in a shallow and wide mouth'd vessel that shape being judg'd the most proper we could procure for our design the large superficies that was expos'd to the Air did as we expected afford us a cake of ice which being taken off and the rest of the liquor expos'd again to the Air in the same vessel we obtain'd a second cake of ice and taking the remaining which seem'd to be indispos'd enough to congelation we found that by comparing it with that which was afforded us by the first cake of ice permitted to thaw there appear'd a very manifest difference betwixt the water whereinto the ice was resolv'd scarce tasting so much as brackish whereas the liquor that had continued uncongeal'd was considerably salt in taste And if I had had the conveniency of examining my self these two liquors Hydrostatically as I was fain to have them examin'd by another I doubt not but by their weight I should have discovered precisely enough the difference between them which the person I employ'd found to be considerable and consequently should have been assisted to make an estimate of the advantage that might be afforded by the operation of the cold towards the freezing of the Brine from its superfluous water But though I had not a quantity of ice great enough to satisfie me whether that little brackishness of taste I have mention'd proceeded from some saline Corpuscles that concurr'd to the constituting of the ice it self or did only adhere
18. Title where I recited the Experiment of the infrigidating Winds I should more expresly have taken notice of this circumstance that to satisfie my self that 't was not the bare Wind as such whose operation upon the Air included in the Ball of a Weather-glass made the liquor to ascend we put a mark upon the height it stood at when we had a pretty while blown upon it and then without removing the Bellows put ice and salt about the Iron pipe of it By which mixture the Air that was afterwards blown through that pipe was so cool'd in its passage as to make the liquor very manifestly to ascend even in a Weather-glass where I did imploy as I have elsewhere declared that I often do Quicksilver instead of water or spirit of Wine And least the vicinity of the frigorifick mixture should be suspected to have caus'd this contraction of the included Air we did sometimes purposely intermit the moving of the Bellows without removing the Weather-glass and though notwithstanding that vicinity the liquor would begin a little to subside yet when ever the cold spirits or the Corpuscles of the highly refrigerated Air were by the playing of the Bellows anew approach'd to or rather brought to touch in swarms the globular part of the instrument the Mercury would manifestly ascend And since we are speaking of Weather-glasses I shall on this occasion subjoyn That certain circumstances may also vary the success of another Experiment somewhat of kin to that lately repeated about the pendulous Drop which is briefly mentioned not far from the beginning of the first Praeliminary Discourse For though the common Thermometers that are here wont to be sold in shops have usually the Pipe of the Bolthead very large in proportion to the Ball and therefore are in that place said to be Weather-glasses not nice and though on such instruments in certain Temperatures of the Air intimated by the word sometimes imploy'd in that passage the Air blown out of a pair of Bellows against some part of the included Air would not especially at the beginning make the Air sensibly contract it self and the liquor ascend though at the very first and second blast the coldness of this artificial Wind might be very sensible to the touch which was the thing intended to be taught in that passage yet having the curiosity with other Bellows at another season of the year to blow long upon the Ball of a not common but nice Weather-glass of my own making furnished with a pipe that was very slender I divers times but not always found the tincted liquor manifestly enough to ascend as if the Wind consisting of a more compress'd Air did by containing a greater number of cold particles in the same room more affect the internal Air then the contact of the calm and lax outward Air did before which disparity of events has given me the design of making further Trials with differing Thermoscopes at other seasons of the year to see if I can bring the matter to some certainty by discovering the cause of this contingency in which I afterwards suspected that some light degree of warmth or coolness in the Bellows themselves which as being unmanifest to the sense scap'd unheeded might have an interest When I was about some of the former Experiments I would willingly have had an opportunity of trying with a good seal'd Weather-glass what difference there would be betwixt the cold of the nocturnal Air in a frosty night in places where the Air was kept calm by being shelter'd from the wind not by inhabited buildings but by some Wall or other body whence any warm Effluviums were least to be expected and betwixt the cold of the same Air in places where cold winds especially Northerly or Easterly did freely and strongly blow But my occasions then confining me to a Town I had not conveniency to make any secure observations of that nature and even in a more commodious place unless it were determined whether there be Corpuscles properly and constantly frigorifick upon whose account some winds are so much colder then others there may arise more scruples about this matter then I must now stay to discuss There is one thing more that it may be is not impertinent to mention before I take leave of the XVIII Title for in confirmation of what is there delivered concerning the Vicissitudes of these troublesome degrees of cold and heat within the the compass of the same Natural day complain'd of by the Patriarch Jacob and by Olearius I shall add that having since had opportunity to inquire about such matters of a learned Physician lately come from the Indies he assur'd me that notwithstanding the violent heats of the day he usually observed the nights to be so very cold that he was perswaded some positively frigorifick steams did in the night ascend out of the Earth and make it very expedient if not necessary for those English that live in the warmer parts of America to imitate the Natives in keeping fires under their Hammacks or hanging Beds I thought it might be a Luciferous Experiment in relation to an Hypothesis that might be propos'd about cold to try whether if two such liquors were provided as by being mix'd together would so far forth lose their fluidity as to obtain at least the consistence of an Unguent this impediment put to the former confused and greater agitation of their parts would produce any sensible degree of cold this I thought fit to try by immersing for a competent time the Ball of a tender seal'd Weather-glass into each of the liquors apart and then into the soft mixture their coalition would compose To produce such a mixture more ways then one it was not difficult for me by the help of some Experiments I had provided to add to my History of fluidity and sirmness But though a strong solution of Minium or calcined Lead in spirit of Vineger or a very strong infusion of good quick-Lime in water will either of them and one of them I did make use of though I have forgotten which coagulate a just proportion of good Sallet Oyl to name no other made by expression into such a consistence as I have been speaking of yet for want of a seal'd Thermoscope tender enough I cannot now repeat the Experiment and till I do I dare not draw any conclusion from it though if I much misremember not when I show'd it an ingenious person neither he nor I could perceive that the liquors by being depriv'd of their fluidity had acquir'd any thing of coldness discoverable by the seal'd Weather-glass It is much controverted among the Curious whether water be capable of Compression and divers have of late inclin'd to the negative upon observing a want of cogency in the Experiments that have been brought to evince the affirmative What Trials and Observations we long since made about this matter may be met with in some of our other Treatises wherefore I shall now subjoyn that
having imagin'd that Cold might afford a hopefuller way then for ought I know any man has us'd of bringing this controversie to the dicision of an Experiment I made that attempt that is mention'd in the XII Title in prosecution of which as soon as I could procure some though but some of the accommodations which I long wanted I made an Experiment which I shall subjoyn because though it be not so considerable as with better implements I could have made it yet the way I chose has as I partly intimated elsewhere these two advantages that the force imploy'd to compress the Air is both very great and very gradually and slowly appli'd and that the vessel will not like those that have been hitherto made use of give any passage through its pores to water though violently compress'd We took then a Round Ball of glass furnish'd with a moderately long Pipe and having fill'd it with water till the liquor reach'd within some inches of the top it was Hermetically seal'd up and then the water by a mixture of beaten ice and salt was made to freez from the bottom upwards that without breaking the glass the unfrozen water by the expansive endeavour of that which was freezing might be impell'd upwards and so at once both compress the Air and be press'd upon by it having by this means condens'd the Air as far as we thought safe to do in a glass that was not strong we cropt of the small Apex of the glass and immediately the compress'd Air flew out with a great noise and that part of the Pipe which was unfill'd with water was fill'd with smoak that made it look white and great store of little bubbles hastily ascended from the lower parts of the water to the upper where most of them quickly broke in such a way as put me in mind of what usually happens upon the opening of vessels that contain'd bottled Beer But that which was principally to be noted was this that besides the bubbles or froth the water it self at least supposing that no little unheeded bubbles that did not quite emerge could sensibly contribute to its height immediately ascended in the Pipe about ¾ of an inch which having carefully mark'd the first and second stations with a Diamond on the outside of the glass 't was easie for us to measure I have elsewhere propos'd a suspicion that in the attempts that had been till then made to compress water the condensation in case there were really any might perchance proceed from the compression of the Aerial particles that I have shown to be wont to ly dispers'd in the pores of common water But though the considerable expansion of water notwithstanding the breaking of the bubbles in our present Experiment seems manifestly to argue that this could be but a concurrent cause if it had any sensible effect at all of our Phaenomena yet I dare not absolutely rely even upon an Experiment that seems so cogent till I have satisfi'd my self that no springiness which I have sometimes suspected might be in the ice had any interest in the produc'd effect and that the great pressure of the forcibly condens'd Air did not make the glass it self stretch or yield For if it were able to do so then the parts of the violently distended glass upon the removal of the forcible pressure of the Air which must cease upon the breaking of the Hermetical seal returning to their former straitness below will make the water ascend somewhat higher in the pipe But though I could not procure glasses as well very thick as conveniently shaped wherewith to examine this suspicion which I would likewise have tri'd by the bulk of the glass in water before and after the letting out of the compress'd Air yet because most Readers will probably think so much caution more then necessary I shall add that if I had not wanted conveniencies and had not had mischances the Experiment would in likelihood have been advanc'd especially care being taken that the Air left in the pipe should be well refrigerated before its being seal'd up as we sometimes did by ice and salt applied in a perforated Box to the outside lest part of its spring should depend upon an evanid degree of heat upon which account the pipe ought beforehand to be drawn so slender that the glass may be melted together in a trice For though for want of strong glasses the best sort of instruments to seal up such with the success was not still so considerable as I hop'd for yet as 4. or 5. other Trials made as well with another liquor as with water did exhibit a manifest intumescence of the liquors without computing the froth produc'd at the top so in the Experiment lately mention'd if we had judg'd them strong enough to indure such a compression of the included Air as we have often made on other occasions the effect would probably have been much more considerable For though the difference betwixt the length of the same water compress'd and uncompress'd amounted to an Aqueous Cylinder of ⅜ of an inch in height yet the Air that made this compression of the water was it self reduc'd but from 8. inches to 5. so that it took up almost half its former room whereas we have sometimes reduc'd it to an 18. or 20. part thereof If I had been accommodated with one of my Pneumatical Engines I should have tri'd whether water being first carefully freed from the latitant Air in the exhausted Receiver and then compress'd after the manner hitherto recited the event of the Trial would have been considerably varied I might add as other Phaenomena of our Experiment that when we broke off the seal'd Apex of the glass before the included Air was much compress'd there neither 〈◊〉 be any great noise made nor any considerable froth produc'd at the top of the water and that having had the curiosity to repeat the Experiment in one of the same glasses 〈◊〉 had been 〈◊〉 us'd and with the same 〈◊〉 that had been already compress'd in it we found that upon the breaking off the Hermetical seal the second time the water did nevertheless ascend in the Pipe betwixt ⅛ and ¼ part of an inch And to these particulars I could both add other circumstances that I took notice of in the same Experiment and subjoyn many other Experiments and Observations but that I am already tyr'd And though I have not found Cold to be a subject over-fruitful in Experiments Pleasing and Curious yet now I am grown somewhat acquainted with it I find it may suggest so many other new ones that since the Barrenness of my Theme will not easily put a period to this Treatise 't is fit that now at length I should let my Weariness and want of Leisure do it FINIS AN Examen of Antiperistasis AS It is wont to be Taught and Prov'd Themistius Carneades Eleutherius Themistius 1. AS for Antiperistasis the Truth of it is a thing so conspicuous and
that Aphoristical saying of Hypocrates Ventres hyeme esse calidiores together with the Observation whereon it seems to have been grounded I will not now examine whether any arguments for the contrary may be drawn from the heat and thirst men feel in Summer and the refreshment they then find by Drinks and Fruits and other Aliments that are actually cold For that which I principally intended to say is this That I much more doubt the matter of fact delivered in the Aphorism then that in case it be true it may be made out without the help of Antiperistasis in the vulgar and Scholastick notion of that Term. 24. I consider then first that the proof that is wont to be brought of the greater heat of mens stomacks in Winter is that men are wont to have then a greater appetite to their meat But though I pay so much respect to the great Hypocrates as to allow the Aphorism in a sense yet I admit it to be true but upon an Hypothesis that I do not admit to be so For the Aphorism supposes that the digestion of meat in the stomack is made by heat and consequently that the stronger digestion that is wont to be made in Winter is an argument of the stomacks being then hotter then at other seasons of the year But the Erroniousness of this supposition I think I need not solemnly prove to Eleutherius who I doubt not has taken notice of several things in Nature that agree not with it and particularly of the strong concoction that is made in the stomacks of divers ravenous fishes whose stomacks and blood are yet as I have purposely observed sensibly cold but if it should in some cases prove true that there is really in mens bodies a far greater heat in Winter then in Summer yet this would not infer an Antiperistasis in the sense wherein I oppose it For the vital heat lodg'd in the heart always generating out of the blood and juices that continually circulate through that part great store of spirits and warm exhalations which are wont to transpire through the pores of the skin in much greater quantities then notwithstanding the affirmations of Sanctorius any thing but my own Trials could have perswaded me these warm steams finding the pores of the skin straitned and shut up grow more and more copious in the body and thereby heat the stomack as well as the other internal parts of it And perhaps also the same frigorifick Corpuscles or Temperature of the Air that produce cold in Winter may by shutting in certain kinds of Effluvia or perhaps altering the motion or Texture of the blood reduce it to such a disposition as that the appetite shall be increas'd as well as the concoction in the stomack promoted by the Stomachical menstruum or ferment which either is newly generated in Winter or more copiously supplied by the circulating of the blood to the stomack in that season then in others And to show that a good appetite may be procur'd by agents endow'd with very distinct and contrary qualities do not we see that spicy Sauces Wine and Vineger do all of them in most men beget an appetite though the two former be confessedly hot and the latter cold And so Wormwood and juice of Lemmons have both of them frequently reliv'd dull and weak stomacks though the one be confessedly a hot simple and the other a cold And in some cases either the frigorifick Corpuscles themselves and perhaps some other unknown to us that they may bring along with them may so sollicite the stomack as to breed an eager appetite not precisely by their being cold or hot but by their peculiar nature as we have instances of some that in these parts by walking on the snow procure to themselves a Bulimus And the learned Fromundus relating how he himself by walking long on the snow was surpriz'd with such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 takes notice that the chief cause of the fainting was in the stomack And that he found by his own experience that that part was discompos'd convell'd and provok'd to cast To which he adds what makes much for my present purpose that he now thinks the chief cause of the Bulimia to consist in certain steams that do peculiarly affect the stomack which they gnaw and distend And just before he observes that straining to fetch deep coughs is a present remedy in this distemper by discharging the stomack and Lungs of those snowy spirits which were either attracted in respiration or had some other way insinuated themselves into those parts So that besides the cold abstractedly consider'd the stomack may be peculiarly affected by other either attributes or concomitants of the frigorifick Corpuscles that grow powerful in frosty weather with which it well agrees that divers have been observed to be subject to Bulimias's in these parts of the world though in our warmer Climates such men endure nothing near so great a cold nor are so much inconvenienced by it as multitudes of others that in Nova Zembla and other gelid Regions never complain'd of having contracted even in the midst of Winter any such disease 25. Another argument that is specious enough urg'd in favour of Antiperistasis is borrowed from the production of Hail which is presum'd to be generated in Summer only not in Winter and according to Aristotle and the Schools is made in the lowest Region of the Air by the cold of the falling drops of rain so highly intended by the warmth it meets with in the Air near the Earth as to congeal the water wherein 't is harbour'd But though I freely confess to you that I think the generation of Hail difficult enough to be solidly explicated yet I scruple not to reject the receiv'd doctrine about it for several reasons of which I will now name four 26. For in the first place 't is not universally true as is suppos'd and the Aristotelian doctrine requires that Hail falls not but in Summer or very hot weather For I have my self observ'd it within this twelve moneth to Hail at the latter end of November and that when some frosty days have preceded and when the coldness of the weather was complain'd of Nay the longest shower of Hail that either I or some others remember our selves to have ever known I observ'd to fall about a week before the end of January on a night preceded by a very frosty day which it self was preceded by a sharp fit of frosty weather And here I must notpreter mit this circumstance that when the tedious shower was over there came to the house where I then was a maid that is servant to one of my Domesticks and related to her Master and others how she was for a good while misled out of the beaten way where the storm found her by an Ignis fatuus which she followed till by its passing over a place where she found an unpassable hedge it both show'd her that she was out of her way
and that it was no candle though she had so confidently thought it one that she call'd out to the party she presum'd it to be carried by I will leave Themistius to unriddle how the Nocturnal Air could kindle a fiery Meteor by its coldness and at the same time congeal the falling drops of water into ice by its warmth and shall only add that I doubt not but other observations of the like kind have been often made though perhaps seldom recorded For within the compass of a very few weeks of the storm some servants of mine affirm'd themselves to have observed it to Hail two or three times besides that already mention'd 27. Next if Aristotle have rightly assign'd the cause of Hail 't is somewhat strange it should not fall far more frequently in Summer and especially in hot Climates then it does considering how often in all probability the drops of rain fall cold out of the second Region into the warm Air of the first And more strange it is That even in those parts of Aegypt where it rains frequently enough and plentifully for so Prosper Alpinus that liv'd long there assures us it does though not about Grand Cairo yet about Alexandria and 〈◊〉 sium it should never Hail no more then Snow as the same learned Physician a witness above exception affirms Besides whereas it is pretended that Snow is generated in the upper Region of the Air and Hail always in the lower my own observation has afforded me many instances that seem to contradict the Tradition For I have observed in I know not how many great grains of Hail that besides a hard transparent icy shell there was as 't were a snowy Pith of a soft and white substance and this snowy part was most commonly in the middle of the icy which made me call it Pith but sometimes otherwise And lastly whereas the favourers of Antiperistasis would have the Drops of rain in their descent to be congeal'd apart in the ambient Air not to urge how little the irregular and Angular figures we often meet with in Hail does countenance this doctrine Hail often falls in grains too great by odds to be fit to comply with Aristotles conceit For not to mention the grains of Hail I have observed my self to be of a bigness unsuitable to this opinion divers learned eye-witnesses have inform'd me of their having observ'd much greater then those I have done and particularly an eminent Virtuoso of unquestionable credit affirm'd both to me and to an Assembly of Virtuosi that he had some years ago at Lyons in France observ'd a shower of Hail many of whose grains were as big as ordinary Tennis-balls and which did the Windows and Tyles a mischief answerable to that unusual bulk And Bartholinus affirms that he himself observ'd in another shower of Hail grains of a more unwonted size a single grain weighing no less then a whole pound But though this it self is little in comparison of what I remember I have somewhere met with in learned Authors yet it may abundantly suffice to disprove the vulgar conceit about the generation of Hail till we meet in these Countries with showers of rain whose single drops prove to be of such a bigness which I presume those that ascribe Hail to Antiperistasis will not easily show us 28. I come now to consider the last and indeed the chiefest example that is given of Antiperistasis namely the coldness of Cellars and other subterraneal Vaults in Summer and their heat in Winter And as the Argument wont to be drawn from hence consists of two parts I will examine each of them by its self 29. And first as to the refreshing coldness that subterraneal places are wont to afford us in Summer I both deny that they are then colder than in Winter and I say that though they were that coldness would not necessarily infer an Antiperistasis 30. We must consider then that in Summer our Bodies having for many days if not some weeks or perhaps months been constantly environ'd with an Air which at that season of the year is much hotter then 't is wont to be in Winter or in other seasons our senses may easily impose upon us and we may be much mistaken by concluding upon their Testimony that the subterraneal Air we then find so cool is really colder then it was in Winter or at the Spring as they that come out of hot Baths think the Air of the adjoyning rooms very fresh and cool which they found to be very warm when coming out of the open Air they went through those warm rooms to the Bath and the deepness and retiredness of these subterraneal Caves keep the Air they harbour'd from being any thing near so much affected with the changes of the season as the outward Air that is freely expos'd to the Suns warming beams which pierces with any sensible force so little a way into the ground that Diggers are not wont to observe the Earth to be dried and discolour'd by them beyond the depth of a very few feet And I have found that in very shallow Mines not exceeding six or seven yards in depth though the mouth were wide and the descent perpendicular enough the Air was cool in the heat of Summer so that the free Air and our Bodies that are always immers'd in it being much warmer in Summer then at other times and the subterraneal Air by reason of its remoteness from those causes of alteration continuing still the same or but very little chang'd it 's no wonder there should appear a difference as to sense when our bodies pass from one of them to another 31. And supposing but not yielding that the Air of Cellars and Vaults were really colder in Summer then in Winter that is were discovered to have a greater coldness not only as to our sense of feeling but as to Weather-glasses yet why should we for all that have recourse for the solution of the difficulty to an Antiperistasis which 't is much harder to understand then to find out the cause of the Phaenomenon which seems in short to be this That whereas which I shall soon have occasion to manifest there are warm Exhalations that in all seasons are plentifully sent up by the subterraneal heat from the lower to the superficial parts of the Earth these steams that in Winter are in great part repress'd or check'd in their ascent by the cold frost or snow that constipates the surface of the Earth and choaks up its pores these Exhalations I say that being detain'd in the ground would temper the Native coldness of the Earth and Water and consequently that of Springs and of the subterraneal Air are by the heat that reigns in the outward Air call'd out at the many pores and chinks which that heat opens on the surface of the ground by which means the water of deep Springs and Wells and the subterraneal Air being depriv'd of that which is wont to allay their Native or wonted
coldness are left to disclose a higher degree of it and seem to have that quality increas'd when indeed it is but freed from the mixture of its contrary that weakened it 32. As for the heat we find in Cellars and Vaults in Winter the solutions already given will be applicable to that Phaenomenon also which by this way is yet more easie to be accounted for then the other For having first question'd the matter of fact 't will not be difficult to show that though it were true it need not be ascrib'd to Antiperistasis 33. I think then that it may be justly question'd whether Cellars in general are hotter in Winter then they are in Summer For as for the Testimony of our senses upon which alone men are wont to conclude the affirmative it may in this case easily and much delude us For those places being shelter'd from the winds and kept from a free communication with the outward Air are much less expos'd then others to the action of those agents whatever they be that produce cold in the Air. So that our bodies being constantly immers'd in the Air refrigerated by the Winter and consequently brought nearer to the temper of that Air when we bring those bodies into Cellars the subterraneal air must seem warm to us though in it self it were really invaried as to its temper 34. Now that many Cellars are indeed colder in the midst of Winter then in the heat of Summer though not in respect of our senses yet in respect of other bodies that have not the same predispositions I am induc'd to believe by some Experiments of mine own purposely made And first in a frosty evening having hung out in a Garden two seald Weather-glasses that they might be reduc'd as near as could be to the temper of the ambient Air I brought one of them into a Cellar and it soon began manifestly to rise and in two or three hours ascended five or six divisions whilest the water in another seal'd Weather-glass that continued suspended in the same part of the Garden did rather a little subside then at all rise which is agreeable to the first part of what I was saying namely that the Air harbour'd in Cellars is not so powerfully affected by the ordinary efficients of cold as the free and external air And now as to the second part of what I was saying that the subterraneal Air though it be less affected by the outward cold may be somewhat affected by it instead of growing hotter by Antiperistasis I shall add that early in the morning in frosty Weather the liquor in the same Weather-glass appear'd more subsided then over-night which shows that the external air did lessen not increase the warmth of the air in the Cellar And having there plac'd a wide mouth'd glass of oyl which in thawing weather remain'd all night fluid as before the same liquor the very next night which was a bitter frost was so far frozen and congeal'd as to sink in other oyl and keep its surface exactly though the glass were inclined and turned upside down And prosecuting my Trial I found that in a sharp frost and great snow the liquor that on the Thursday night was beneath the fourth knub or mark of division a sudden thaw coming with a South wind the next morning in the same Cellar the liquor was ascended to the eighth mark And continuing the Weather-glass in the same Cellar for a good while to watch its alterations every night and morning I remember I met with and registred more observations that confirm'd me in my opinion though 't is so long ago that I have forgot the particular circumstances And after these Trials meeting with a learned Polander I did without declaring my opinion inquire of him whether in his Country he had at any time observ'd Beer to freez in Cellars in frosty weather to which he answer'd that in the coldest Winters if the Beer were small the Barrels would oftentimes be frozen but not if it were strong But I need not have recourse to forrain Testimony having my self observed here in England more then one Barrel of Beer to be frozen in the Cellar in exceeding cold weather Insomuch that one of the Barrels being full and the liquor expanded by freezing was forc'd out at certain chinks which seem to have been made by that expansive force and the liquor so ejected adhered in a considerable lump to the outside of the vessel and yet this Cellar had its Windows carefully shut and not only was near a Kitchin where fire was constantly kept but which was more considerable it had this principal mark of being a good Cellar that in the heat of Summer it us'd to afford me drink sufficiently cool And now to requite Eleutherius with the Testimony of that very person Physician to the Russian Emperor whose authority he lately alledg'd against me I shall confess that as he suspects I had conference with this Doctor and when I diligently enquired of him whether their Cellars at Musco were really very cold in Summer he answered me that they were not and that they had distinct Cellars for Summer and for Winter that their small Beer would quickly grow sowr in their Cellars in Summer if their vessels were not kept in Snow that therefore their way was to make at the bottom of their Summer Cellars to which belong'd a Well to receive the water dropping from the melted Snow a deep layer of snow on which they afterwards cast a convenient quantity of water that the whole mass might be turn'd into a kind of ice In this snow they keep their Casks making sometimes a layer of Snow and a layer of Cask and digging out their vessels as they had occasion to use them By all which it may appear how groundlesly it 's universally affirm'd of Cellars that as they seem to the sense so they really are hotter in Winter then in Summer 35. But if it should happen as in some places 't is not impossible but that it may that some Vaults and Cellars are really warmer in Summer then in Winter yet I see not why this should reduce us to the acknowledgment of an Antiperistasis for neither could the effect be made out by that nor would there be any necessity to have recourse to it 36. And first I might content my self to repeat what I have formerly said to shew the incongruity of Antiperistasis in general to Natures ways of acting And I might add that to imagine with some late Peripateticks whom all their reverence to Aristotle has not so far blinded as not to let them see the unreasonableness of his conceit that in Winter the warmth of the ambient air retreats into Cellars and Vaults to shun its contrary is to make meer accidents or at best inanimate agents act with knowledge and design But I will rather represent that though Antiperistasis were intelligible it were improper to alledge it in our case For to invigorate the warmth
readily diffus'd in imperceptible particles through the air And I have observed upon the opening of issues in some mens arms that though no smoak be visible in Summer it will be very conspicuous in exceeding sharp weather though mens arms at least the external parts of them seem to have less heat in frosty weather then in Summer since in the former of those seasons they are wont to be manifestly more slender the fleshy parts and juices being condensed by the coldness of the Air. And though the insensible Transpirations that continually exhale from all the parts of our bodies are not wont to be visible here even in Winter yet in extremely cold Countries as Nova Zembla or Charleton Island those Effluvia have been observ'd not only to be thickned but to be turned into ice it self sometimes within the Sea-mens shooes And here in England having not long since imployed a labouring man to dig a deep hole in very frosty weather two Servants of mine that stood by to see him work did both of them assure me when they return'd that the steams of his heated body were frozen upon the outside of his Wastcoat which one of them whilest the other was about to give me notice of it inconsiderately wip'd off 43. And since we see how fast the water in Ponds and Ditches wastes and decreases in Summer there is no cause to doubt but that it does then continually emit Exhalations as well if not much more 〈◊〉 then in Winter which may be manifestly confirmed by this that in the Summer one shall often see in the mornings or evenings the face of the water cover'd with a mist or smoak that rises out of it And I have sometimes taken pleasure to see this aggregate of Exhalations hover over the water and make as it were another River of a lighter liquor that conform'd it self for a considerable way to the breadth and windings of the stream whence it proceeded And I think it will be easily granted that the water in Summer time is at least as warm at noon when such Exhalations are not visible as in the morning when they are though the Air be colder at this part of the day then at that which observation gives us the true reason of the Phaenomenon 44. And though notwithstanding all this it were made to appear that in some cases the smoaking water of Springs may be really warmer in Winter then in Summer yet a sufficient reason of the Phaenomenon may be fetch'd from what I have already delivered about the detention of the warm subterraneal vapours by the frost and snow and rain that make the earth less perspirable in Winter 45. And because I know Themistius will look upon a thing so disagreeable to the vulgar opinion Of the Coldness of the whole Element of Earth as a Paradox I will take this opportunity to add a further confirmation to what I have been saying 46. And first that there arise copious and warm steams from the lower parts of the Earth may be prov'd not only by what I have already mentioned touching the Hangarian Mines but by the common complaint of Diggers in most though not in all deep Mines That they are oftentimes troubled and sometimes endangered by sudden damps which do frequently so stuff up and thicken the subterraneal Air that they make it not only unfit for respiration but able to extinguish the Lamps and Candles that the Miners use to give them light to work by And I remember that I have visited Mines where having inquired of the diggers whether those hot exhalations that compose their damps did not sometimes actually take fire within the bowels of the Earth I was answered that in some of their Pits and particularly in one that they show'd me though not in all they did insomuch that the exhalation suddenly kindling would make a report at the mouth of the Pit like a Musquet or a small piece of Ordinance and the flame would actually burn off the hair and scorch the skins of 〈◊〉 workmen that did not seasonably get out of the Pit when the exhalation appear'd to be near an ascension or did not nimbly fall down flat with their faces to the ground till the flame was gone out And one of these workmen that I ask'd affirm'd himself to have been several times to his no small trouble so burned and that if I much misremember not twice in one day And it seems to me as well as to Morinus very probable that those great quantities of rain and snow and storms and perhaps some other Meteors that are taken notice of in Winter may rather consist of these subterraneal steams then the vapours and exhalations attracted by the Sun or at least may as much consist of the former as the latter For his heat is then very languid and acts upon the ground but during the day time which is very short whereas those Meteors are generated indifferently at all hours of the day and night and the sky is oftentimes for many days together quite overcast with clouds and the surface of the ground so constipated with frost that it will sometimes freez even in the Sun-shine So that 't is not near so likely that the heat of the Sun in the midst of all these disadvantages should be able to elevate so great a plenty of exhalations and vapours as are requisite to compose the rain and snow and storms that sometimes last almost all the Winter as that they should be suppli'd by subterraneal steams copiously sent up from the heat that continually reigns in the lower parts of the Earth and by traversing the Sea and at other vents get up into the Air. 47. To make out this my formerly quoted French Author relates a very memorable thing that was told him by the Masters of those Mines in Hungary which are at least as deep as any that I remember I have seen or read of namely that the Miners were able certainly to foretel sooner then any other mortals the Tempests and sudden mutations that were to happen in the Air. For when they perceived by the burning blew of their Lights and by other manifest signs that they could easily take notice of in their Grooves that store of the Tempestuous Damp if I may so call it was ascending from the lower parts of the Earth though the sky above were clear and the Air calm yet they conld assuredly foretel the approach of a storm or some other great alteration in the Air which would accordingly ensue within no very long time aster And to confirm this Narrative I shall add not only that 't is agreeable to what I lately told you was affirm'd to me by other Mine-men but that having enquir'd of a very ingenious Physician who liv'd many years in Cornwall a Country you know famous for Tin-Mines some of which are infamous for the damps that infest them he told me that divers of the experienced Fishermen assur'd him that oftentimes they did perceive
that which makes mainly for my present purpose beginning contrary to vulgar thaws from the bottom upwards 50. And having thus manifested that the lower parts of the Earth do send up great store of Exhalations and Vapours to the upper parts it will be obvious to conceive that as in divers places of the Terrestrial Globe these steams get into the Air either by the advantage of finding vents such as those I have already mentioned or by growing copious enough to force themselves a passage So in most other places where the ascending steams find no commodious vents or are too faintly driven up to gain themselves a passage they must be repress'd or detain'd beneath the surface of the Earth which has its pores in Winter usually choak'd up with snow or rain or its surface constipated and hardened with ice or frost so that these exhalations being pent up and receiving fresh supplies from time to time from beneath 't were no wonder if they should somewhat warm deep Cellars and Wells where they are thus detain'd and therefore our Husbandmen do not speak altogether so improperly when they say that the snow keeps the ground warm And I remember that Dr. Smith the learned English 〈◊〉 into Musco makes it to be one of the principal reasons of the great fertility he justly ascribes to the Country there about that during almost all the Winter the ground is to a great height covered with snow which does not only inrich it by the fertilizing salt which the Earth gains from the snow when that comes to be melted but does also contribute to its improvement by choaking up or obstructing the pores at which the Nitro-sulphureous and other useful Corpuscles that are sent up by the 〈◊〉 heat would easily get away And least Gentlemen you should think that 't is only by the Ratiocination that I conclude that there is really great store of warm steams detain'd under ground in the Winter I shall add this sensible observation receiv'd from the Russian Emperors Physician already often mention'd by whom I have been assured that about Musco where the surface of the ground is far more constipated in Winter this 't is in these parts and where they are wont to keep their Cellars much closer the subterraneous Exhalations being hinder'd to fly abroad will in time multiply so fast that he assures me that upon the unwary opening of the doors of Cellars that have been long kept shut there would sally out a warm smoak and very thick almost like that of a furnace and sometimes the steam that issues out will be so gross and plentiful that it has brought men into danger of being suffocated by it 51. And now Gentlemen having shown that though Experience be so confidently appeal'd to by the maintainers of Antiperistasis yet she has not hitherto afforded them any thing that much favours their Cause it remains that I show that she bears witness against it For besides that some passages of my late Discourses do really contain Phaenomena that not only do not favour Antiperistasis but may justly be imploy'd as Experiments against it I shall ex abundanti as they speak present you with something which I necessitated Experience to supply me with that seems expresly to overthrow it 52. I might urge against those who though they begin to be asham'd of the Doctrine of the Schools would establish an Antiperistasis upon the account of what they call a fuga Contrarii that the very instance they are wont to bring for their opinion may be retorted upon them For when they tell us that in Winter the heat to fly the cold of the external Air retires it self into the lower parts of the Earth and there harbours in Cellars and Wells as may be prov'd by the smoaking of water drawn from deep Wells which argues its heat the vapours which fly away being as vapours hot in comparison of the outward Air we may easily answer by demanding why if the heat that was harbour'd in a smoaking Bucket of water have the wit or instinct to fly from its Contrary it does not in the Bucket as 't is said to do in the Well retire it self as far as it can from the surrounding cold of the ambient Air but instead of retiring to the innermost parts of the water those being remotest from that it needlesly flies abroad with the vapours it excites and does as it were of its own accord cast it self into the arms of the enemies it should shun And indeed what I just now mention'd to you as related to me by the great Duke of Muscovies Physician does sufficiently manifest that the cause why the Corpuscles that keep Cellars warm abide beneath the surface of the Earth in Winter is not that they fly the cold as their enemy but that they are pent up beneath the ground since when vent is given them they immediately rush into the open Air without fearing the cold even of Russia in the very midst of Winter 53. But I shall press this no further but rather add that the doctrine of Antiperistasis is as little beholding to the following Experiment which I sometimes tri'd in order to the disabusing some Abetters of Themistius I took then an Iron-rod of about the bigness of a mans finger having at one end of it a very broad and thick piece of Iron shap'd almost like a spattule that the quantity of the matter might upon the ignition of the Iron make the heat very considerable then having caus'd this thick end to be made red hot in the fire and having suddenly quench'd it in cold water I could not perceive that the other end of the rod by which it was wont to be held did at all grow sensibly hot as a favourer of Antiperistasis would have expected it should do to a very high degree as presuming that the innumerable particles of heat that swarmed in the compact body of the red hot part of the Iron must to fly the cold of the water retire in throngs towards the other extreme of the Iron and make it exceedingly hot And least any preexistent warmth should hinder me from perceiving an increase of heat in case any were produc'd in the handle of the Iron I caus'd it the next time the Trial was made to be kept in cold water and yet even then the immersion of the broad and candent end into the cold water brought as little of sensible heat to the other end that I held in my hand as it had done the time before and having caus'd the Experiment to be tri'd by another the account I receiv'd was that it succeeded with him as it had done with me 54. But this is not the main thing Gentlemen that I intended to acquaint you with there being an Expedient that I purposely devised to make one Experiment more considerable against Antiperistasis then are the several mistaken observations of the Peripetaticks to establish it 55. I took then a good seal'd Weather-glass 12. or
then in Summer For the instances produced by Carneades seem plainly enough to manifest the contrary and my own observations made in a Cellar with a seal'd Weather glass do keep me from dissenting from Carneades as to that point I would therefore make a distinction of subterraneal places for some are deep as the best sort of Cellars other deeper yet as the Hungarian Mines mention'd by Carneades out of Morinus and some again are but shallow as many ordinary Cellars and Vaults of these three sorts of subterraneal Places the deepest of all do not as far as the Authority of Mineralists above alledg'd may be reli'd on for I am yet inquiring further grow hot and cold according to the several seasons of the year as the vulgar doctrine of Antiperistasis requires but are continually hot The shallower sort of subterraneal places though by reason of their being fenc'd from the outward Air they are not so subject to the alterations of it whether to heat or cold as open places are yet by reason of their vicinity to the surface of the Earth they are so far affected with the mutations which the outward Air is liable to in several seasons of the year that in Winter though they be warm in respect of the colder Air abroad yet they are really at least some of them as far as I have tri'd colder in very cold weather and less cold in warm weather And in this opinion I am confirm'd by two things the one that having purposely inquir'd of the Polonian Nobleman mentioned by Carneades whether he had observ'd in his Country that in sharp Winters small Beer would freez in Cellars that were not very deep but would continue fluid in those that were he assured me he had taken notice of it The other thing is the Confession of the Anonymous Jesuite lately mention'd who acknowledges that he found but little difference between the Temperature of the water in the Well he examin'd in Summer and in Winter though it were a considerably deep one and adds a while after that at Florence where the subterraneal Vaults are shallower the Air is observ'd to be colder in Winter then in Summer though at Rome in their deep Cellars the contrary has been found So that the lower-most sort of subterraneal cavities being for ought appears perpetually hot and the upper or shallower sort of them being colder not hotter in cold weather then 't is in warm 't is about the Temperature of the middle sorts of them such as are the deeper and better Cellars that the question remains to be determined And thus much of my first consideration The next thing I shall offer to be consider'd is this That 't is not so easie a matter as even Philosophers and Mathematicians may think it to make with the weather-glasses hitherto in use an Experiment to our present purpose that shall not be liable to some exception especially if the Cellars or Wells where the observations are to be made be very deep For the gravity of that thick and vapid subterraneal Air and the greater pressure which the Air may there have by reason of its pressing according to an Atmospherical Pillar lengthened by the depth of the Cellar or Well may in very deep Cavities as well alter the height of the water in common Weather-glasses as heat and cold do and so make it uncertain when the mutation is to be ascrib'd to the one and when to the other or at least very difficult to determine distinctly what share is due to the pressure and what to the temperature of the Air. And this uncertainty may be much increas'd by this more important Consideration that not only in places where the heights of the Atmospherical Cylinders are differing the pressures of the Air upon the stagnant water in the Weather-glasses may be so too but even in the self same place the instrument remaining unmov'd the pressure of the Atmosphere may as I have often observ'd hastily and considerably alter and that without any constant and manifest cause at least that I could hitherto discover so that the erroneous estimate that may be hereby suggested of the temperature of the Air can scarce possibly be avoided without the help of a seal'd Weather-glass where the included liquor is subject to be wrought upon by the heat and cold not pressure of the Air. So that to apply this to Zucchius his Experiment unless he had been aware of this and unless I knew that he had divers times made his observations with the assistance of a seal'd Weather-glass it may be suspected that he might accidentally find the water in his common Weather-glass for such a one it appears he us'd as probably knowing no other to be higher when he look'd on it in Summer then when he look'd on it in Winter not because really the subterraneal Air was colder in the former season then in the latter but because the Atmosphere chanc'd then to be heavier and when I remember in how few hours I have sometimes and that not long since observ'd the Quicksilver both in a good Barometer and even in an unseal'd Weather-glass furnished with Quicksilver to rise almost an inch perpendicularly without any manifest Cause proceeding from cold I cannot think it impossible that in long Weather glasses furnish'd only with water or some such liquor the undiscerned alterations of the Atmospheres pressure may produce very notable ones in the height of the water in such instruments But this is not all that a jealous man might suspect For Zucchius having for ought appears made his Observations but in one place we are not sure but that may be one of those whereof there may be many on which the subterraneal Exhalations have a peculiar and not languid influence as Carneades has towards the close of his Discourse made probable out of the Relations of Olaus Magnus and Martinius touching the great and sudden thaws that sometimes begin from the bottom and thereby argue their being produc'd by copious steams that ascend from the lower parts of the Terrestrial Globe which may be further confirm'd by what he formerly noted of the sudden Damps that happen in many Mines But that which is of the most importance about our present inquiry remains yet to be mentioned which is that having had the curiosity to inquire whether no body else had made Experiments of the same kind I find that the learned Maignan had the same curiosity that Zucchius had but with very differing success and therefore though this inquisitive person do admit in his Disputation about Antiperistasis a Notion that I confess I cannot approve since to ascribe as he does a fuga Contrarii to Cold and Hot spirits is in my apprehension to turn inanimate Bodies into intelligent and designing Beings yet he does justly and rationally reject with Carneades the vulgar doctrine of Antiperistasis and confirms his rejection of it by two Experiments For first he says that he found with a Thermometer that when
known in the Hot Countries where he liv'd made those that were bitten by them either become or think themselves very cold But that will perhaps seem more remarkable which I shall further add namely that I know a Nobleman who follow'd the Wars in several Countries and has signaliz'd his Valour in them and yet though his stature be proportionate to his courage yet when this person falls as frequently he has done in a fit of the stone he feels an universal cold over his whole body just like that which begins the fit of an Ague And though he assures me that the stones that torment him and which he usually voids are but very small yet whilest the fit continues which oftentimes lasts many hours he does not only feel an extraordinary Coldness but which is more strange and which I particularly inquir'd after cannot by clothes or almost any other means keep himself warm 10. I elsewhere take notice of some other Observations agreeable to these by some of which we may be perswaded that there may be other ways besides those already mention'd of perceiving cold though the outward parts of our bodies were not prest inwards And whereas Mr. Hobs infers that He who would know the cause of cold must find by what motion or motions the exterior parts of any body indeavour to retire inwards that seems but an inconsiderate direction For in compressions that are made by surrounding bodies there is produc'd an indeavour inward of the parts of the comprest body though no Cold but sometimes rather Heat be thereby generated And I hope Mr. Hobs will not object that in this case the parts do not retire but are thrust inwards since according to him no body at all can be moved but by a body contiguous and mov'd But what I have hitherto taken notice of being chiefly design'd to shew that the notion of cold in general is not so obvious a thing to be rightly pitch'd upon as many think and that therefore it needs be no wonder that it hath notbeen accurately and warily propos'd by Mr. Hobs I shall not any further prosecute that discourse but proceed to what remains Next then the Cause he assigns why a man can blow hot or cold with the same breath is very questionable partly because he supposes in part of the breath such a simple motion as he calls it of the small particles of the same breath as he will not easily Prove and as eminent Astronomers and Mathematicians have Rejected and partly because that without the suspected supposition I could by putting together the Conjectures of two learned Writers and what I have elsewhere added of my own give a more probable account of the Phaenomenon if I had not lome scruples about the matter of Fact it self which last clause I add because though I am not sure that further Trials may not satisfie me That the Wind or Breath that is blown out at the middle of the compress'd Lips has in it such a real coldness as men have generally ascrib'd to it yet hitherto some Trials that my jealousie led me to make incline me to suspect there may be a mistake about this matter and that in estimating the Temper of the produc'd Wind our senses may impose upon us For having taken a very good and tender seal'd Weather-glass and blown upon it through a glass-Pipe of about half a yard long that was chosen slender to be sure that my breath should issue out in a small stream by this wind beating upon the ball of the Weather-glass I could not make the included spirit of Wine subside but manifestly though not much ascend though the Wind that I presently blew through the same Pipe seem'd sensibly cold both to the hand of by-standers and to my own and yet mine was then more then ordinarily cold So that having no great enencouragement to enter into a dispute about the cause of a Phaenomenon whose Historical circnmstances are not yet sufficiently known and cleared I will now proceed to add that whatever be the cause of the effect there are divers things that make Mr. Hobs's Hypothesis of the Cause of Cold unfit to be acquiesc'd in For we see that the grand cause he assigns of cold and its effects is wind which according to him is Air moved in a considerable quantity and that either forwards only or in an undulating motion and he tells us too that when the breath is more strongly blown out of the mouth then is the direct motion prevalent over the simple motion which says he makes us feel cold for says he the direct motion of the breath or air is wind and all wind cools or diminishes former heat To which words in the very next line he subjoyns that not only great but almost any ventilation and stirring of the Air doth refrigerate But against this doctrine I have several things to object 11. For first we see there are very hard frosts not only continued but 〈◊〉 begun when the Air is calm and free from winds and high and boisterous Southerly winds are not here wont to be near so cold as far weaker winds that blow from the North-east 12. Next if Mr. Hobs teach us that 't is the direct motion of the stream of breath that is more strongly blown out that makes us feel Cold he is obliged to render a reason why in an Aeolipile with a long neck the stream that issues out though oftentimes far stronger then that which is wont to be made by compressing the Lips at a pretty distance from the hole it issues out of is not cold but hot 13. Thirdly Mr. Hobs elsewhere teaches that when in our Engine the pump has been long imploy'd to exhaust as we say the Receiver there must be a vehement wind produc'd in that Receiver and yet by one of our other Experiments it appear'd that for all this in a good seal'd Weather-glass plac'd there before the included Air begins to be as we say emptied there appear'd no sign of any intense degree of cold produc'd by this suppos'd wind so that either the wind is but imaginary or else Mr. Hobs ascribes to winds as such an infrigidating efficacy that does not belong to them 14. Fourthly we find by experience that in hard frosts water will freez not only though there be no wind stirring in the ambient Air but though the liquor be kept in a close room where though the wind were high abroad it could not get admittance and some of our Experiments carefully made have assured us that water seal'd up in one glass and that glass kept suspended in another glass carefully stopt to keep out not only all wind but all Adventitious Air may nevertheless be not only much cool'd but turn'd into ice 15. Fifthly we found by other Experiments that a frozen Egg though suspended in and perfectedly surrounded with water where no wind can come at it will be every way crusted over with ice in which case
there is no probability that the ice should be generated according to the way propos'd by Mr. Hobs. For he will scarce prove nor is there any likelihood that a wind pierc'd the shell and closer coats of the Egg to get into the contain'd liquors and freez them and a more unlikely assertion it would be to pretend as he that maintains Mr. Hobs's doctrine must that so very little Air if there be any as is mingled with the juices of the Egg is by the Cold which is not wont to expand Air nor water till it be ready to make it freez turn'd into a wind subtile enough freely to penetrate the shell and coats of the Egg and great enough to diffuse it self every way and turn on every side the neighbouring water into ice and all this notwithstanding that not only it appear'd not by bubbles breaking through the water that there is any Adventitious Air that comes out of the Egg at all but that also supposing there were some such contain'd in the Egg yet what shadow of reason is there to conceive that the Air which was engag'd in and surrounded with the substances of the white and the yelk of the Egg must needs be a wind since according to Mr. Hobs that requires a considerable motion of most of the parts of the mov'd Air the same way and according to him also a body cannot be put into motion but by another body contiguous and mov'd 16. Sixtly Mr. Hobs does indeed affirm that all wind cools but is so far from proving that the highest degrees of Cold must needs proceed from wind that he does not well evince that all winds refrigerate Nor are we bound to believe it without proof since wind being according to him but Air mov'd in a considerable quantity either in a direct or undulating motion it does not appear how Motion should rather then Rest make Air grow cold For though it be true that usually winds seem Cold to us yet in the first place it is not universally true since some that have travelled into hot Countries and particularly the learned Alpinus have complain'd that the winds coming to them in the Summer from more torrid Regions have appear'd to them almost like the steam that comes out at the open mouth of a heated Oven And if Marcus Polus Venetus be to be credited for I mention his Testimony but ex abundanti the Southern winds near Ormus have been sometimes so hot as to destroy an Army it self at once And secondly even when the wind does feel cold to us it may oftentimes do so but by accident for as we elsewhere likewise teach the steams that issue out of our bodies being usually warmer then the ambient Air whence in great Assemblies even those that are not throng'd find it exceeding hot and I have several times observ'd a hot wind to come from those throngs and beat upon my face and the more inward parts of our bodies themselves being very much hotter then the ambient Air especially that which is not yet full of warm steams the same causes that turn the Air into a wind put it into a motion that both displaces the more neighbouring and more heated Air and also makes it pierce far deeper into the pores of the skin whereby coming to be sensible to those parts that are somewhat more inward then the Cuticula and far more hot the Air turn'd into wind seems to us more cold then the restagnant Air if I may so speak upon such another account as that upon which if a man has one of his hands hot and another not the same body that will appear luke-warm to this will appear cold to the other because though the felt body be the same yet the Organs of feeling are differingly dispos'd And to confirm this doctrine by an Experiment which has succeeded Often enough and need not succeed Always to serve our present purpose we will add that though Air blown through a pair of Bellows upon ones hand when 't is in a moderate temper will seem very cold yet that the ambient Air by being thus turn'd into wind does indeed acquire a relative coldness so as to seem cold to our senses but yet without acquiring such a cold as is presum'd may appear by this that by blowing the same air with the same Bellows upon Weather-glasses though made more then ordinarily long and by an Artist eminent at making them we could not observe that this winds beating upon them did sensibly refrigerate either the Air or the liquor Though 't is not impossible but that in some cases the wind may cool even inanimate bodies by driving away a parcel of ambient air impregnated with exhalations less cold then the air that composes the wind But this is not much if at all more then would be effected if without a wind some other body should precipitate out of the air near the Weather-glass the warmer Effluvia we have been mentioning especially if the Precipitating Body introduce in the room of the displaced Particles such as may in a safe sense be term'd Frigorifick 17. Seventhly Nor can we admit without a favourable construction Mr. Hobs his way of expressing himself where he says as we have lately seen that All wind cools or deminishes former heat For if we take heat in the most common sense wherein the word is used not only by other writers but also by Philosophers to make wind the adequate cause of cold it must in many cases do more then diminish former heat For water for instance that is ready to freez is already actually cold in a high degree and yet the wind if Mr. Hobs will needs have that to be the efficient of freezing must make this not hot but already very cold liquor more cold yet before it can quite turn it into ice 18. These things thus establisht it will not be difficult to dispatch the remaining part of Mr. Hobs his Theory of Cold for to proceed to his sixth Section we shall pass by what a Cosmographer would perhaps except against in his doctrine about the generation and motion of the wind upon the surface of the Earth and shall only take notice in the remaining part of that Section of thus much That the most of what Mr. Hobs here shews us is but that there is an expansion of the air or a wind generated by the motion and action of the Sun but why this wind thus generated must produce cold I do not see that he shews nor does his affirming that it moves towards the Poles help the matter for besides that we have shewn that wind as such is not sufficient to produce far less degrees of cold then those that are felt in many Northern Regions there must be some other cause then the motion of the air or steams driven away by the Sun to make bodies not in themselves cold for so they were suppos'd not to be when the Sun began to put them
Air turn'd into Ice as well as many other Liquors are 21. The reason why Cold is wont to be more remiss in rainy or cloudy weather then in that which is more clear is not better given by Mr. Hobs then by some others that have written before him for not to mention that I have seen great frosts and lasting enough in cloudy and sometimes very dark weather that which he talks of the winds being more strong in clear weather then in cloudy is of no great importance since common Experience shews that in clear weather the Air may be very cold and the frost very great where no wind is felt to rake as he would have it the superficies of the Earth Nor does experience bear witness to what he not warily enough pronounces that the less the wind is the less is the Cold. There are but two Phaenomena more which in this Section Mr. Hobs pretends to explicate The one is that in deep Wells the water does not freez so much as it does upon the superficies of the Earth But the reason of this we elsewhere take occasion to consider therefore in this place we need only note that Mr. Hobs has not rightly assigned it by ascribing it to the winds entring more or less into the Earth by reason of the laxity of its parts since besides that it is very improbable that the wind should not as he says it does not lose much of its force by entring into the Earth at its pores and other lesser cavities for that seems to be his meaning by the laxity of the Earths parts to so great a depth as water lies in several Wells subject to freezing besides this I say Experience teaches us that Wells may be frozen though their Orifices be well covered and the wind be thereby kept from approaching the included water by divers yards and very many Wells that are subject to freez when Northerly and Eastwardly winds reign will likewise be frozen in very cold Winters whether any wind blows or not 22. The other and last Phaenomenon Mr. Hobs attempts to explicate is That ice is lighter then water the cause whereof says he is manifest from what I have already shewn namely That air is receiv'd in and mingled with the particles of the water whilest it is in congealing But that this is not the true reason may be argued from hence that if a conveniently shap'd glass-vessel be fill'd top full with water and expos'd either unseal'd or seal'd to congelation the ice will have store of bubbles which at least in the seal'd vessel cannot by Mr. Hobs who will not affirm glass to be pervious to the Air be pretended to proceed from bubbles that got from without into the water whilest it was in congealing And we have sometimes had occasion to manifest by particular Experiments purposely made how little of Air there is even in those bubbles that are generated in ice made in vessels where the Air was not kept from being contiguous to the water 23. And thus have we gone through Mr. Hobs's Theory of Cold. In his Proposing of which we wish'd he had in Divers places been more Clear and in our cursory Examination of which we have seen that most of the particulars are either precarious or erroneous and were they neither yet the whole Theory would I fear prove very insufficient Since an attentive Reader cannot but have marked that this learned Author has past by far the greatest part even of the more obvious Phaenomena of Cold without attempting to Explicate them or so much as shewing in a general way that he had Consider'd them thought them explicable by his Hypothesis By which he that will fairly explain all the Phaenomena recited in the Notes we have been drawing together and which yet contain but a Beginning of the History of Cold shall give me a very good opinion of his Sagacity A Postscript THough the hast I am obliged to comply with keep me from annexing the Historical Papers wherewith I had thoughts to Conclude this Book concerning Cold yet since the Nature of the past Examen gave me but little Opportunity to teach the Reader any thing more considerable then that Mr. Hobs's Doctrine is Erroneous I am very inclinable to make him here some such little amends as the Time will permit for that Paucity of Experiments And therefore since in the last Section of the foregoing History upon occasion of an Experiment very Imperfectly and not intelligibly deliver'd by Berigardus I intimate my having elsewhere Plainly set down either the same he meant or one of that Nature and that with considerable Phaenomena unmention'd by him I chuse rather to borrow some Account of it from another Treatise to which it belongs then not gratifie some of the Curious to whom the Phaenomena I shew'd them of it seemed no less pretty then surprizing The way then that I us'd in making this Experiment may be gathered from the following directions Take of good unslak'd Lime three parts or thereabouts of yellow Orpiment one part of fair water 15. or 16. parts beat the Lime grosly and powder the Orpiment with care to avoid the noxious Dust that may fly up and having put these two ingredients into the water let them remain there for two or three hours or longer if needs be remembring to shake or stir the mixture from time to time By this means you will obtain a somewhat faetid Liquor whereof by warily Decanting or by Filtrating it the Clear part must be severed from the rest In the mean time take a piece of Cork and having lighted it so that it is kindled throughout remove it from the fire whilest 't is yet burning and by a quick immersion quench it in fair water And having by this means reduc'd it to a coal you may in case you have not err'd in the Operation by grinding it with a convenient Quantity of Gum-water bring it to the colour and consistence of a good black Ink that you may use with an ordinary Pen. Whilest these things are doing you may take what quantity you think fit of common Minium and two or three times its weight of spirit of Vineger which needs not be for this purpose much stronger then phlegm and to which even undistill'd Vineger may be a succedaneum and putting the powder and liquor into a glass Vial or any other convenient vessel let them infuse over hot Embers or in some considerably warm place for two or three hours more or less till the liquor have acquir'd a very sweet taste All things being thus prepar'd take a new 〈◊〉 at least a clean Pen and write with it some such thing as you either desire or need not fear to have read between if you please or which is safer Over the Lines which contain your secret and which are to be trac'd with the solution of 〈◊〉 for this Liquor if it be either well decanted or filtred
of some liquors will shew none in a greater The method I shall follow in delivering my observations shall be first to run over the various liquors or bodies whether fluid or consistent simple or compound c. used in this work Secondly what figures observable in those ices Thirdly some effects arising 〈◊〉 Fourthly some properties and qualities Fifthly some lets or helps both to freezing and thawing Sixthly some uses 〈◊〉 ice In pursuance of which particulars I had recourse to those ingenious 〈◊〉 of Mr. 〈◊〉 registred in your Cimelia and then to Bartholinus his late Book De Nive and to my own collected notes from various Authors adding whatsoever trials I thought meet And in all these I have barely set down matter of fact neither mentioning the Authors nor their errors which would have been both nauseous and tedious nor 〈◊〉 I endeavour to render a reason of the various 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which cannot be done without a volume but shall leave that province to an Honourable person of this Society who hath had much experience and reflections on this subject And now to my task As to my first head of things used I shall begin with common water which I exposed in a triple 〈◊〉 in like quantities and in open 〈◊〉 viz. first cold secondly boiling hot thirdly an equal mixture of both the former The effect was this the cold was frozen in one hour the boiling hot in two hours and the mixt in hour 1 and ½ but with this difference that the cold did freez first at the top and sides and had a large thick crust before there was any shew of ice in the boiling hot but the mixt and boiling hot began to freez first at the bottom of the vessels and when the top was cold then it freezed there also leaving betwixt the bottom and top of the vessel a cavity for the water which in time was wholly converted to ice The same succeeded most manifestly in these waters powred on a smooth table where the cold water was presently frozen before the boiling hot water could become cold at the bottom Water exhausted of air in Mr. Boyles engine was frozen almost as soon as a like quantity expos'd in an open pan The ice whereof appeared white and to consist purely of bubbles The glass used was a four ounce round vial and a small Tube one foot long half filled with water Fair water wherein Arsnick had been infused eight moneths congealed much sooner then a like quantity of water into very white ice Solutions of all the sorts of Vitriols freezed sooner in pans and Tubes then water or any other solution of the other salts by much though that of Alume came very little short of it The ice kept both colour and taste upon the least touch of the tongue in all of them A solution of Alume did freez into an ice whiter then milk and stuck so close to the sides of the pan that it could hardly be separated from it this was the firmest ice offered to me in all my trials next to which in both these qualities were the Vitriols especially the Roman Sandever quickly freezeth Frit sooner then it and Kelp then them both all of them into lumps very white and consequently not Diaphanous Sal Armoniac shewed some variety in point of time for in the same pan quantity and place with the other salted waters 't would for the most part freez long after the former though once it did freez before them Common salt two drachms dissolved in four ounces of common water for that proportion I observed in all my solutions did in 30. hours space in the hardest season turn to pretty hard and white ice whereas the former solutions became so in two or three hours at the most A beer-glass was filled with stinking Sea-water full of salt which within 26. hours acquired at the top a plate of ice of the thickness of an ½ a Crown piece with few bubbles in it This tasted salt and stinking as before but being dissolved at the fire or thaw'd of its self the stinking taste was gone but the saltish continued The residue in the glass within four days the season continuing and plates taken off once in 24. hours was frozen throughout but that at the bottom of the glass seem'd to have a much brisker taste then that at the top neither was it so firm and friable as that I tried another beer glass with the same water which froze most part of it but the season continued not so constantly sharp so long together as in the former experiment and therefore I could conclude nothing therefrom But in small broad earthen-pans set in ice in 36. hours the same water became ice throughout and with the addition of a parcel of ice or snow much sooner Some water was impregnated with as much bay-salt some with as much Salt Petre some with as much Sal Armoniac as the water was capable to receive and neither of these did congeal with the highest degree of cold continued six days together A solution of salt of Tartar soon converted into ice but in much longer time then common water I observed that it began to freez in a Tube at the top bottom and sides first leaving the liquor in the middle unfrozen whereas other solutions and liquors congealed uniformly by descending or ascending or both at the same time from side to side through the middle of this I made but one Trial. Salt Peter required 28. hours in a very cold season and in that time became in the open pan a most pure white ice perfectly like Sal Prunellae which an Apothecary mistook it for This ice thrown into the fire after the aqueous humidity was evaporated did sparkle as that salt useth to do A strong Lixivium made hereof with an addition of Copperas or Alume singly or mixt set in snow and salt or snow alone was froze in one night Sal Gem alone of all the salts though snow and ice were mixed with it in great proportion and though the pan was set in salt and snow could not all that time be brought to congelation an odd experiment Phlegm of Vitriol did freez sooner then the solutions before mentioned Oyl of Vitriol begins congelation or coagulation rather near as soon as fair water A pretty large Tube was fill'd ¾ full with this oyl and about ¼ thereof was frozen the rest remaining at the bottom uncongealed This Tube was broken in the presence and by the command of this Honourable society the coagulated part whereof was tasted by many then present and concluded by all those that it was a strong Vitriolate taste This coagulated part was of a paler colour then the other and both these mixed and powred into a vial-glass heated it so hot that none there could hold it This coagulated part kept so in the air a week after all my other liquors had been thaw'd and would in probability have continued so much longer had not the
falling as the received opinion of Philosophers asserts 10. Snow abounds with fat This I understand not 11. Snow with ice swims on water This is a clear consequence from the seventh assertion 12. Snow-water boils meat sooner and makes the flesh whiter I tried this in flesh and fish but could find no manifest difference either to their sooner boiling or whiteness 13. Snow newly fallen hath no taste but lying long on the ground or frozen somewhat bites the tongue My taste was not so acute as to distinguish the biting of one from the other T is true indeed that snow frozen doth more affect the tongue with its coldness then snow alone 14. Worms are sometimes found in snow This neither my own observation nor relation from others can make out 15. From snow by a peculiar art a salt of wonderful strength is drawn He saith not this of his own observation nor teacheth the way to extract it 16. After much snow plenty of Nuts This frequently suits with the Country-mans observation but many times fails such years also commonly produce plenty of Wheat other seasons concurring I shall here also insert two remarks out of the same Authors concerning freezing The one is that the great Duke of Tuscany distilled spirit from Wine only by putting snow upon the Alembick without help of fire The second that the Duke of Mantua had a powder which soon congealed water into ice even in the Summer And to conclude take these general observations made by the command of the Royal Society with Weather-glasses fram'd after the Italian mode and fill'd in part with tinged spirit of Wine Which I shall deliver briefly and in gross and not each days alteration apart I took then two of the said glasses of equal dimensions as near as might be and fill'd them with the same spirit of Wine one of them I placed in my Study-window standing North-west the other in Mr. Pulleyns Warehouse under St. Pauls-Church and chose there a small recess or room which was most remote from the entrance and the warmest in the whole Warehouse both the glasses were setled in their stations the 15. of October 1662. the spirit in both having the altitude of three inches just When the glass in my Study was depress'd by the cold an inch I went and observed that in the Warehouse to have received no manifest change in its station And at a second visit the spirit was depressed ¼ of an inch below when that above-ground was depressed near two inches And during the long continuance of all that hard Winter it never descended above ¾ of an inch and never was higher there then three inches and ¼ in a mild season in April following by which time the papers fixed to the glass and whereon were fixed the degrees was quite rotten and the characters scarcely legible And at the same time that in my Study was raised to four inches ¾ By which it appears that the said Warehouse was in the coldest season as warm as in a mild March for at that station the glass in my Study stood commonly betwixt two inches and 2. and ½ And so indeed this place appeared to one that went into it at the coldest season And to this purpose I several times sent in at night my hardest frozen liquors which were constantly thawed in the morning though it freezed exceeding hard above ground The glass in my Study after two days hard freezing was sunk below my marks into the very ball so that I could make no farther observations concerning the cold above ground From the former observations that popular error is manifestly refuted viz. that Cellars and Subterraneous places are hotter in the Winter then in the Summer which though they appear so to us because they warm us in the Winter and cool us in the Summer yet they are not so in themselves for it appears by the former Experiment that in the coldest season the spirit was depressed to two inches and ¼ and rose in April to 3 ½ and no doubt would have risen about ¾ of an inch higher had it continued there till the hottest season of the year One thing more I observed viz. that the tinged spirit of Wine had in this subterraneous Vault totally lost its colour whereas that in my Study two years after still retains its former tincture Since the printing of the foregoing Papers viz. 1664. there being no frosts in England 1663. I made these following Experiments Finding the third of January the season disposed to freezing I exposed a Pint bottle of Claret and a glassCane filled with Canary a solution of Sal Gem Train-oyl and the Oyl of Fructus musae and on the fourth of the same month the night being the coldest and sharpest that I ever felt which all I spake with the next day confirmed the wind then blowing hard at South-west I found in the morning all the liquors frozen except the Sal Gem exposed in an earthen pan which shewed at the bottom of the dish some seemingly Crystallized salt the oyl of the said fruit became very friable and of a milky white colour but the Train-oyl only lost its fluidity and became of the consistence of soft greese And the same night a bottle of the Rhenish Wine called Backrag and another of lusty White-wine standing in a room a story high exposed to the said wind had most of the Wine frozen in them the ices whereof being taken out tasted somewhat weaker then the Wine it self All the same things happened the sixth night of the same month It is to be observed that the pint of Claret and the Sack in the tube were both frozen throughout these two nights and after their double freezing and thawing they lost nothing of their spirit colour and taste nay the Claret being a strong Burgundy Wine though it often suffered glaciation and thawing for three weeks together yet in all that time suffered no manifest alteration but appeared the same to sence as when it was exposed in colour taste and strength As to the concentration of coloured liquors Mr. Haak shewed me an Oval glass having at one end a narrow Cane above an inch long almost filled with water tinged with Cochineel frozen throughout the ice round about towards the sides of the glass shewed wholly colourless but that in the midst was of an exceeding high dye but the ice that was raised to the neck of the glass was lightly tinged with a scarlet hue Hereupon having some flasks by me I put into one a strong decoction of Cochineel and into another a like decoction of Soot which being exposed to the air and incompassed in a vessel with snow and salt they did freez to the thickness of an inch or more and the air then beginning to relax I broke the flasks and the desolved ice yielded a water totally colourless I made also an Experiment with a very strong decoction of Gentian roots which being exposed in a four ounce vial the ice thereof had