the notion of a quality Hence those degrees of qualities which Hydroph you in your Philosophy and Medicks are apt to ascribe Concretes to are no more to be taken notice of than the qualities themselves so that all your Solutions of apparences by your supposed degrees of the Primary qualities will what is said being premis'd of their own accord fall to nothing Hence for instance Iron which you in your Scarb. Spaw repute to be of the third degree of driness is no more to be taken notice of as to a Philosophical Solution of the Essence of that Concrete than if you had said it had been in the third degree of nothing for both are alike unintelligible of which more particularly in our Hydrological Essays Hydroph Well Pyroph I might justly reply to you as formerly we in the Disputations of the Schools us'd to accost the Cartesians viz. Contra principia negantem non est disputandum These are new conceits which we that are grown old in the Philosophy of Aristotle and his followers are not at leisure to take notice of But what will you make Pyroph of the second qualities viz. those we call Density Rarity Gravity Levity Hardness Softness Thickness Thinness Aridity Lubricity Clamminess Friableness Asperity and Smoothness Are not these necessarily to be reputed Qualities by which we arrive to some knowledge of the nature of the Bodies they are found in Pyroph As to which query Hydroph concerning the second qualities I answer that as the first qualities are not in rerum natura as such so neither are the second for sublata causa tollitur effectus But the first are the supposed cause of the second which being by reasons aforesaid deducted out of the Catalogue of Entities nothing of the second qualities as such can remain For that that Texture of parts which makes Bodies appear to our Senses dense or rare heavy or light hard or soft rugged or smooth c. should be reputed Secondary depending upon the quaternary of the first qualities Heat Cold Driness and Moisture is I say as indemonstrable as unintelligible for all these as far as I apprehend depend meerly upon the different Texture of the constitutive parts of Bodies whereby they variously affect our Senses yea and many of them competible to the same Body as its parts are variously agitated by fire Ferments Sal s or Solvents whereby the same Body so differently acted and its parts transpos'd may very changeably affect our Senses after so many different manners as may make up all or most of those you call second qualities Hydroph Is not rarity a second quality arising chiefly from Heat having its parts extenuated as Herbs Pruinae Clouds And is not Density another from Cold having its parts bound up and solidly adhering to each other as Glass Stone Iron and the rest of the Metals And further is not Levity a quality arising from Heat making things capable of moving upwards and Gravity a quality from Cold which makes things move downwards towards a Center Pyroph I answer Hydroph that in what you term Rarity I see no necessity of giving the name of a second quality arising from the Primary Heat but that it is only such a Texture of parts in the composition of some Bodies as makes them appear thin and as it were finely woven being a rare Texture of parts with many Streiners Porosities or vacuolums interspers'd according to whose Fabrick of parts our Senses are generally affected so as they fall under such and such distinct perception thereof Thus Air is a rare Body in as much as its parts are of a fine thin tenuious plyable Texture as aforesaid And as Rarity so Density is no quality being no other than such a Body whose parts are closely set together with few Porosities thus Stone Glass Mealline and Mineral-Bodies are such whose constitutive parts are closely bound up and fast rivetted together and therefore no need of ascribing its original to cold As for Levity it is peculiar to such Bodies whose Texture is rare and finely woven and so the sequel of that we call Rarity Also Gravity is the contrary being the necessary product of such Bodies whose parts are closely put together I mean of those which are compact and dense Bodies And as to the rest of second qualities as Hardness Softness Thickness Thinness c. all which I say are but different Modifications of the parts of Bodies whereby they variously affect our Senses having the same way of solution as those I have already spoken of therefore shall forbear Now that these Hydroph are neither the Indexes nor the Products of the Quaternary of first qualities and consequently not to be reckoned as such in the Category of qualities is evident in that one and the same Body by a Metastasis of its parts by Fire Salts or Solvents may undergo all or most of those you call second and perhaps first qualities too so that to which of these the Essence of that Body should be attributed would prove a query too difficult for most of your Philosophy grounded upon these qualities to resolve Thus for instance suppose we take Antimony into our consideration which in its Minâ—ra is a stony dense heavy hard friable Body this being melted by Fire and thereby separated from its petrifique gritty and sabulous parts gives us that Body of Antimony usually fold in the Shops which still retains all the aforesaid properties which are the natural sequels of its present Texture of parts But suppose this by fire be forc'd in Fumes into Flowers adhering to the sides of Pots Ovens or other large receivers give a rare light soft and impalpable Body with a white colour which fluxed by further addition of Fire becomes a dense heavy hard friable but diaphanous Body called the Vitrum or Glass of Antimony where by the Vitrification of its parts it emulates that other product of the Fire made from Ashes and Sand flux'd together Concerning the reasons and causes of Vitrification in general and particular we discourse in our Tentamen Physiologic and Litholog Physica This glass prepared as aforesaid will by further addition of Fire and Salts become Metalline melt and run into a Regulus which melts and flows like Lead or Quick-silver call'd by Chymists the coagulated Mercury of Antimony is dense hard heavy and opacous which again may be sublim'd into Flowers out of which Flowers may a current Mercury begot by boyling with Salt of Tartar c. as is mention'd in Volum 4. Theat Chym. Nova disquisit de Helia Artista Also Antimony by addition of Salts with the help of Fire produceth that Mass we call hepar Antimonii which makes the frequently us'd Emetick Wine upon which dissolv'd in Water if distill'd Vinegar be poured it makes a speedy separation of a Red and Yellow Sulphur with a Fetid Sulphureous smell very like the Water of the Sulphur-Well at Knarsborough in York-shire But if in lieu of Vinegar more Salts be added and it be further
constantly succeed by a circular motion close in the rear of the moveable the impulse would immediately flag and the motion of the Body cease And although Democritus his two grand ingredients of the world were Atoms and that which he calls vacuum or inane which was nothing else but what we in the verge of our Atmosphere call Air and above is Aether yet certainly although the parts of Air are so tenuious and diaphanous as never to become visible to our eyes yet I say may no less be reputed matter in how different a Texture soever than that which enters the composition of natural Bodies as genuine Elements thereof Hydroph These are general considerations of Air as it falls in a large sense under our apprehension But pray Pyroph how do you apprehend of it in a more strict and particular sense in order to the intimate concerns of Animals and Vegetables which seem to have some near dependance thereon both as to their Generation Conservation in their Species and Metastasis too Pyroph Not so general considerations Hydroph as you may perhaps take them to be but may many of them very well serve to some Phaenomena of both Animals Vegetables and other Bodies as they fall under a Philosophick inquiry for that it should by its tenuious plyable fluid Texture be subservient to the motion of Bodies is thereby no less serviceable as for the general so the particular concerns of Animals and Vegetables both by concurring to the Motion Sensation Secretion and Perspiration of Animals as also by promoting the motion and Vegetation of Vegetables and that too as it is perforable and diaphanous admitting both of luminous as well as other Bodies which circulate in its Orb for the helping forward Animation and Vegetation and all this by invigorating the Essential Ferments of both which its congenial associate the Volatile nitrous Salt and Aetherial matter hid therein Without which the functions of Vitality could not be perform'd for without those jointly concurring neither would the Ferments be actuated the parts perspirable the Taper of Life set a flaming nor in fine the Body moveable without the help of that Organum as Trismegistus calls it which is further evident by what improvements the great Naturalist Esq Boyle hath made in the lately invented Pneumatick Engine into which if Animals be put and the Air pumpt forth they fall into Palpitations and in a very little time for want of the help of this Essential Organum the Ferments are damp'd the Spirits run counter flag and the Taper of Life is quickly extinct so that they speedily die of Spasms and Convulsions And as the Air with its Volatile Salt is an Essential Machine not as an Element necessary to promote if not also to excite the Functions of Vitality in Animals so it is no less effectual in the invigorating the seminal Ferments of Vegetables For neither are these brought on to maturity nor do they grow without the concurrence thereof Inasmuch as the superficies of the Earth which is the Matrix or Nursery of Vegetable Seeds is porous and spongy whereby the Air has access to Seeds even in their first openings and beginnings to motion concurring to the first workings of the seminal Principles by putting the Springs Ferments into Action and when they by the Vegetative Collision of their Principles put forth or spring out of the Earth still require the assisting influence of this fluid Aereal matter of which if they be denied their Ferments cease to act and the Body withers And as to what you ask Hydrop how the Air is concern'd in the Metastasis of Bodies out of one shape into another I answer that new Ferments are super-induc'd upon Bodies for the mutation thereof by the mediation of Air whereby the seminal Principles which by their intestine and Progressive Collisions have been the Mechanical Agents in the Production and Genesis of Bodies do now by the superinduction of new Ferments from the Air fall into other sorts I mean Retrogressive Collisions thereby takes the same Body they built before now in pieces by a putredinous Ferment For if some Bodies can but be secur'd from the Air or from what is contain'd in the Air before a putrid Ferment be introduc'd that is before the Principles be put into their reverse motion they may be preserv'd intire in their form the truth of which may be confirm'd by several Mechanical instances For besides the Additaments of Salts Sugars and Vinegars wherewith many sorts of things as food and all Confections may be preserv'd a considerable time for use and besides the Occlusions of the Pores of some Bodies especially Pullen and the like killed and hung up in the Feathers whereby those Bodies may be kept intire from putrefaction by the Frost Air as they preserve their kill'd Pullen for several Months sweet and good in New-England I say besides all these I know a peculiar Artifice of preserving Aprecocks Damsens Gooseberries Cherries c. without the addition of any thing save a skilful contrivance of excluding the Air of which more in our Zymolog Physic and Tentamen Physiologic Thus also Quinces by taking forth the Core which boyl'd with some other Quinces to a Mucilage with which they are to be fill'd and put into a close Vessel fill'd round with the same Mucilage will preserve them intire in their form for a whole year so flesh kept in a constant current of Water or in Spirit of Wine will be preserv'd a long time in its intire form as sometimes a Puppy has been kept intire and Embrio's are preserved from any putrid Ferment in Spirit of Wine Also Beef season'd and well bak'd and put in a Cask fill'd with despum'd Butter has thereby been kept good in long Voyages Thus by imbalming Fumes and Searcloths Cadaverous Bodies are kept a great while from putrefaction also by a constant heat the same Bodies may be Mummiz'd witness the Bodies both of Men and Beasts in sandy Deserts as those of Arabia being covered over with Sands by whirl-winds or Hurricanes are by the heat of the Sun constantly beating upon them and by being separated from the Air turn'd into Mummy found unbar'd by other contrary Winds So that you see hence Hydroph how Bodies are prevented of their otherwise sudden Metastasis into other shapes either by additional Saline or other sorts of Condiments Liquors Steams c. or other more solitary Exclusions of Air all which do anticipate the sudden Analysis of Bodies which frequently happen from new putredinous Ferments by arresting and suspending the Principles of Bodies in their Fermentative Collisions wherefore you see that the Air is not only of general but particular concern as in the production and conservation of Animals and Vegetables so also in the production or putredinous Analysis of them into other forms Besides all which Hydroph we are to consider the Air as the common Vehicle of Heat Cold and Moisture not as Qualities which are Essential to Air as their
calcin'd it turns from a yellow to a Carnation then to a white Colour which when edulcorated by washing the Salts therefrom becomes that Body we call Diaphoretick Antimony being a white with yellow reflection soft impalpable powder In like manner Antimony calcin'd with Aqua-fortis either becomes white or by another addition thereto with a slight Artifice is turn'd into a green Sulphur which flames and has all the properties of common Brimstone So Antimony with the addition of Mercury sublimate is by the help of the Salts therein contain'd brought into a glacial Oyl which as it becomes a fluid Body by the least Heat so it is congeal'd into Crystals frequently by Cold if upon this Oyl warm Water or Oyl of Tartar be poured precipitates into a soft powder call'd Mercurius Vitae if Spirit of Nitre or Aqua-fortis be distill'd therefrom it becomes after the passing away of a stifling Sulphureous Arsenical Fume another soft white impalpable powder call'd Bezoadicum Minerale Thus you see Hydroph how the same Body of Antimony is by the various application of Fire and Salts so altered in the Texture of its parts as to give that variety of apparences under which it arrives differently disguis'd to our Senses viz. as that which appears dense heavy hard of one colour c. shall presently discover it self to be rare light soft of another colour c. and which even now appear'd solid and permanent shall forthwith become soft and fluid where it will be difficult to judge truly of the nature of this Mineral Concrete by the present prevalency of any of these secondary qualities Yea and further to acquaint you what great alterations and changes may be made in the same Body by the transposition and sometimes volatization of the parts through the mediation of Fire and Solvents I know by a certain method how to make Antimony the Body we urge for instance as solid a Concrete as it is arise over the Helm in an easie Heat and in the form of a Liquor and by which sometimes I have known it come into the Helm even in the gentle heat of Balneum Mariae in the form not only of a limpid liquor but also sometimes of a Salt dissolvable per deliquium into an Oyl easily discernable by its lactescence and precipitation by the bare addition of simple water I might Hydroph confirm this by further instances of the like nature viz. by urging the various Phaenomena's of Vitriol Copper and other Metals whose different transposition of parts by Fire Salts and Solvents make up the great variety of those necessary sequels of Bodies which you term Qualities whether primary or secondary and yet are really no other than the different mutation of the constitutive parts of Bodies out of one Posture and Figure into another whereby the same Body differently smites our senses with those mechanical Affections of matter which Hydroph you ascribe to the first and second qualities For the further illustrating of which you may consult the works of that worthy and incomparable Philosopher and industrious searcher of Nature the Honourable Boyle especially his Treatise of the Origin of Forms But before we conclude this Section give me leave Hydroph to acquaint you that amongst other Instances we have and might urge how that from Metals by the mediation of Salts and help of Fire may result other sorts of concretions than usually appear by different modifications mask'd with various qualifications So that Mineral-gums if I may so call them may hence be made which are much different both in colour capacity of taking flame fusibility like water c. from any of the ingredients that enter the composition thereof Thus for instance from Sal Armoniack Mercury sublimate and cap. Mort. of Verdegreece left after the distillation of its Spirit mixed and put in a subliming Urinal after it fluxed together for it boyls like water for five or six hours when cool I found in the bottom a Cake of a kind of Rosin very hard somewhat red almost like Gum guttae the sublimate which arose was but very thin and inconsiderable which Rosin would take Fire and burn with a blue Flame and that chiefly from the Sulphur of the Copper which is opened by the Salts And not only Art but Nature her self exhibits us the various Phaenomena of Water under the disguise of Frost Snow Hail c. where for instance in Snow the otherwise liquid fluid ponderous and transparent Body of Water by the interposition of Frost or cold Atoms blowing from the North becomes by having the Texture of its parts so altered as so many Flats or Planes laid with layers of cold Particles stratum super stratum as I may not improperly say a white soft light opake continuous and unless it meet with heat dry body so that you plainly see Hydroph how humidity siccity fluidity continuity ponderousness levity transparency and opacity and in particular whiteness is competible to the same Body whose parts are variously altered and transposed per se or with additionals SECT XIV Hydroph BUt are there not Pyroph other qualities of Bodies whereby they become the Objects of the Senses as Colours Sapours Odours c. To begin with the first do not we rightly define colour to be extremitas perspicui in corpore terminato Pyroph Those you reckon Hydroph are no more to be accounted Qualities than the rest beforenamed But are to be look'd upon as different affections of Concrete Bodies as they stand in a relation to a perception by our senses and first as to the definition of colour whose genus is extremitas methinks Aristotle began at the wrong end For it is not the extremity of a Diaphanous Body which gives Essence to colour being only necessary thereto à Posteriori For if I mistake not light should be the genus of the definition of colour which admitting of various refractions and reflections in and from the extremities or surfaces of Bodies make those different apparences thereof we call colours Besides it should seem to me that what you call extremitas perspicui is not of that extent as to comprise the generality of colours although we should admit of it as the genus and that because we see colours as frequently made by simple reflections of light from the surfaces of bodies witness from all Vegetables Animals stain'd or dy'd Garments and the rest as well I say as by refractions of the same light the efficient of all colours in perspicuous bodies For that colour should be confin'd to the only extremity of a diaphanous body is methinks too strait every way both as to the genus as also to the specifical difference of the true definition of colour in as much as where a diaphanous body proves opake the luminous Rayes which before were refracted do now become terminated and reflected and yet doth no less produce variety of colours than before As for instance Suppose a Solution of Vitriol made in distill'd Water which is a perspicuous