CHAP. I.

WHether we suppose with the Antient and Mo­dern Atomists, that all sensible Bodies are made up of Corpu­scles, not only insen­sible, but indivisible; or whether we think with the Cartesians, and (as many of that Party teach us) with Aristotle, that Matter, like Quantity, is indefinitely, if not infinitely divi­sible: It will be consonant enough [Page 4] to either Doctrine, that the Effluvia of Bodies may consist of Particles extremely small. For if we embrace the Opinion of Aristotle or Des-Cartes, there is no stop to be put to the sub-division of Matter, into Fragments, still lesser and lesser. And though the Epicurean Hypothesis admit not of such an interminate division of Matter, but will have it stop at cer­tain solid Corpuscles, which for their not being further divisible are called Atoms ( [...],) yet the Assertors of these do justly think themselves in­jured, when they are charged with taking the Motes or small Dust, that fly up and down in the Sun-Beams, for their Atoms; since, according to these Philosophers, one of those little grains of Dust, that is visible only when it plays in the Sun-Beams, may be composed of a multitude of Atoms, and exceed many thousands of them in Bulk. This the Learned Gassendus in his Notes on Diogenes Laertius makes probable by the instance of a small Mite, which, though scarce [Page 5] distinctly discernable by the naked Eye, unless when 'tis in motion, does yet in a good Microscope appear to be a compleat Animal, furnished with all necessary Parts; which I can easily allow, having often in Cheese-Mites very distinctly seen the Hair growing upon their Legs. And to the former Instance I might add, what I have elsewhere told you of a sort of Animals far lesser than Cheese-Mites themselves, namely those that may be often-times seen in Vinegar. But what has been al­ready said may suffice for my present purpose, which is only to shew, that the wonderful minuteness I shall here­after ascribe to Effluvia, is not incon­sistent with the most received Theo­ries of Naturalists. For otherwise in this Essay the Proofs I mean to employ, must be taken, not à Priori, but à Posteriori. And the Experi­ments and Observations I shall em­ploy on this occasion will be chiefly those, that are referrible to one of the following Heads.

• [Page 6] I. The strange Extensibility of some Bo­dies whilst their Parts yet remain tangible.
• II. The multitude of Visible Corpuscles, that may be afforded by a small portion of Matter.
• III. The smallness of the Pores at which the Effluvia of some Bodies will get in.
• IV. The small decrement of Bulk or Weight, that a Body may suffer by parting with great store of Effluvia.
• V. The great quantity of Space that may be fill'd, as to sense, by a small quantity of Matter when rarified or dispers'd.

But though to these distinct Heads I shall design distinct Chapters, yet you must not expect to find the Instan­ces solicitously mar­shall'd, This Essay was de­signed to be but a part of the Author's Notes upon his Essay about Salt-peter. but set down in the order they occurr'd to me; such a liberty being [Page 7] allowable in a Paper, where I pre­tend not to write Treatises, but Notes

CHAP. II.

AMong many things that are gross enough to be the Ob­jects of our Touch, and to be mana­ged with our Hands, there are some that may help us to conceive a won­derful minuteness in the small Parts they consist of.

I do not remember what Cardan, and since him another Writer have deliver'd about the Thinness and Slenderness to which Gold may be brought. And therefore without positively assenting to, or absolutely rejecting what may have been said about it by others, I shall only bor­row on this occasion, In a Paper about Improbable Truths. what I have men­tion'd on another upon my own Observation; namely, [Page 8] That Silver, whose Ductility and Tra­ctility are very much inferiour to those of Gold, was, by my procuring, drawn out to so slender a Wire, that, when we measur'd it, which was somewhat troublesom to do, with a long and accurate measure, we found, that eight Yards of it did not yet fully counterpoise one Grain: So that we might add a Grain more with­out making the Scale, wherein 'twas put, manifestly preponderate, not­withstanding the Tenderness of the Ballance. Whence we concluded, that a single Grain of this Wire a­mounted to 27 Foot, that is, 324 Inches. And since Experience in­forms us, that half an English Inch can by Diagonal Lines be divided into 100 parts great enough to be easily distin­guish'd, even for Mechanical uses, it follows, that a Grain of this wire­drawn Silver may be divided into 64800 parts, and yet each of these will be a true metalline, though but slender and short, Cylinder, which we may very well conceive to consist [Page 9] yet of a multitude of minuter parts. For though I could procure no Gilt Wire near so slender as our newly mention'd Silver-wire; yet I tryed that some which I had by me was small enough to make one Grain of it fourteen foot long: At which rate an Ounce did amount to a full Mile, consisting of 1000 Geometrical Paces, (of 5 foot a-piece,) and 720 foot over and above. And if now it be permitted to suppose the Wire to have been, as in probability it might have been, further drawn out to the same slenderness with the a­bove-mention'd Silver-wire, the In­stance will still be far more conside­rable; for in this case, each of those little Cylinders, of which 64800 go to the making of one Grain, will have a superficial Area, which, except at the Basis, will be cover'd with a Case of Gold; which is not only separa­ble from it by a mental Operation, but perhaps also by a Chymical one. For I remember, that from very slen­der gilt Wire, though I could get [Page 10] none so slender as this of meer Silver, I did more than once, for Curiosities sake, so get out the Silver, that the golden Films, whilst they were in a Liquor that plumpt them up, seem'd to be solid wires of Gold: But when the Liquor was withdrawn, they ap­pear'd, (as indeed they were) to be oblong and extremely thin and dou­ble Membranes of that Metal, which, with an Instrument that had been delicate enough, might have been ripp'd open, and displayed, and been made capable of further. Divisions and Subdivisions. To this I shall add, that each of the little silver Cy­linders I lately spake of, must not only have its little Area, but its Solidity; and yet I saw no reason to doubt, but that it might be very possible, if the Artificer had been so skilful and wil­ling as I wish'd, to have drawn the same quantity of Metal to a much greater length, since even an Animal substance is capable of being brought to a slenderness much surpassing that of our Wire, supposing the Truth [Page 11] of an Observation of very credible Persons critical enough in making Experiments, which, for a Confirma­tion and an Improvement of our pre­sent Argument, I shall now subjoyn. An Ingenious Gentlewoman of my Acquaintance, Wife to a Learned Physician, taking much pleasure to keep Silk-worms, had once the Curio­sity to draw out one of the Oval Ca­ses, (which the Silk-worm spins, not, as 'tis commonly thought, out of its Belly, but out of the Mouth, whence I have taken pleasure to draw it out with my Fingers,) into all the Silken-wire it was made up of, which, to the great wonder as well of her Hus­band, as her self, who both inform'd me of it, appeared to be by measure a great deal above 300 Yards, and yet weigh'd but two Grains and a half: so that each Cylindrically shap'd Grain of Silk may well be reckon'd to be at least 120 Yards long.

Another way, I remember, I also employed to help men by the exten­sibility of Gold the better to conceive [Page 12] the Minuteness of the Parts of Solid Bodies.

We took six beaten Leaves of Gold, which we measured one by one with a Ruler purposely made for nice Expe­riments, and found them to have a greater equality in Dimensions, and to be nearer true Squares, than could be well expected: The side of the Square was in each of them exactly enough three Inches and 2/8, (or 1/4,) which number being reduc'd to a Decimal Fraction, viz. 3125/100, and multiplied by it self, affords 10|5625/10000 for the Area, or superficial Content of each square Leaf: And this multi­plied by 6, the number of the Leaves, amounts to 63|3750/10000 square Inches, for the Area of the six Leaves. These being carefully weigh'd in a pair of tender Scales, amounted all of them to one Grain and a quarter: And so one Grain of this foliated Gold was extended to somewhat above fifty Inches; which differ'd but about a fifth part from an Experiment of the like nature, that I remember I made [Page 13] many years ago in a pair of exact Scales; and so small a difference may very well be imputed to that of the pains and diligence of the Gold-Beaters, who do not always work with equal strength and skill, nor upon equally fine and ductile Gold.

Now if we recal to mind what I was lately saying of the actual di­visibility of an Inch into an hundred sensible parts, and suppose an Inch so divided to be applied to each side of a square Inch of the Leaf-Gold newly mention'd, 'tis manifest that by subtle parallel Lines, drawn between all the opposite Points, a Grain of Gold must be divisible into five hun­dred thousand little Squares, very minute indeed, but yet discernible by a sufficiently sharp-sighted Eye. And if we suppose an Inch to be divided into two hundred parts, as I lately told you it was in a Ruler I employ, then, according to the newly recited way, the number of the Squares, into which a single Grain is capable of being di­vided, will amount to no less than two Millions.

[Page 14] There is yet another way that I took to shew, that the extensibility, and consequently the divisibleness of Gold is probably far more wonderful, than by the lately mention'd Tryal it appears.

For this purpose I went to a great Refiner, whom I used to deal with for purify'd Gold and Silver, and inquir'd of him, how many Grains of Leaf-Gold he was wont to allow to an Ounce of Silver, when it was to be drawn into gilt Wire as slender as an Hair? To this he answer'd me, that eight Grains was the pro­portion he allowed to an Ounce when the Wire was to be well gilt; but if it were to be more slightly gilt, six Grains would serve the turn. And to the same purpose I was an­swer'd by a skilful Wire-drawer. And I remember, that desiring the Refiner to shew me an Ingot of Silver, as he did at first gild it; he shew'd me a good fair Cylindrical Bar, whereon the Leaf-Gold, that overlaid the surface, did not appear to be by [Page 15] odds so thick as fine Venetian Paper; and yet comparing this with gilt Wire, which I also desired to see, the Wire appeared to be the better gilt of the two; possibly because the Gold in passing through the various Holes, was by the sides of them not only extended but polished, which made it look more vividly than the unpolish'd Leaves that gilded the In­got.

So that, if we suppose an Ounce of the gilt Wire formerly mention'd to have been gilt with six Grains of Leaf-Gold, it will appear by an easie calculation, that at this rate one Ounce of Gold, employ'd on gilding Wire of that slenderness, would reach between ninety and an hundred Miles. But if now we further suppose, as we lately did, that the slender Silver-wire, mention'd at the beginning of this Chapter, were gilt; though we should allow it to have (because of its exceeding slenderness,) not, (as the former) 6 Grains, but 8 Grains of Leaf-Gold to an Ounce of Siver, [Page 16] it must be acknowledged, that an hollow Cylinder or sheath of Gold weighing but eight Grains, may be so stretch'd, that 'twill reach to no less than 60 times as much (in weight) of Silver-wire as it covers: [I said 60 times, for so often is 8 contain'd in 480, the number of Grains in an Ounce;] and consequently (a Grain of that Wire having been found to be 27 foot long,) the Ounce of Gold would reach to seven hundred seven­ty seven thousand six hundred foot, that is, an hundred fifty five Miles and above a half. And if we yet further suppose this superficial or hollow Cylinder of Gold to be slit all along, and cut into as slender lists or thongs as may be, we must not deny that Gold may be made to reach to a stupendious length. But we need not this last supposition to make what preceded it an amazing thing: which yet though it be indeed Stu­pendious and seem Incredible, ought not at all to be judg'd Impossible, being no more than what upon the [Page 17] Suppositions and Observations above laid down, does evidently follow.

CHAP. III.

AFter what has been said of the minuteness of tangible Objects, 'twill be proper to subjoyn some in­stances of the smallness of such as yet continue visible. But in regard these Corpuscles are singly too little to have any common measure apply'd to any of them, we must make an estimate of their minuteness by the number of those into which a small portion or fragment of matter may be actually divided, the multitude of these being afforded by so inconside­rable a Quantity of matter, sufficiently declaring, that each of them, in par­ticular, must be marvelously little.

Among the instances, where the smallness of Bodies may be deduc'd from what is immediately the Object of Sight, it may not be unfit to take [Page 18] notice of the evaporation of Water, which though it be granted to consist of gross particles in comparison of the spirituous and odoriferous ones of divers other Liquors, as of pure Spirit of Wine, Essential Oyls of Spices, &c. yet to shew that a small Quantity of it may be dispers'd into a multitude of manifestly visible Corpuscles, I thought upon, and more than once try'd, the rarefa­ction of it into Vapors by help of an Aeolipile, wherein, when I made the Experiment the last time, I took the pains to register the Event as fol­lows.

We put an Ounce of common Water into an Aeolipile, and having put it upon a Chasing-dish of coals, we observ'd the time when the streams of Vapors began to be mani­fest. This stream was for a good while impetuous enough, as appear'd by the noise it made, which would be much increased, if we applied to it at a convenient distance a kindled brand, in which it would blow up [Page 19] the fire very vehemently. The stream continued about a quarter of an hour (sixteen minutes or better,) but afterwards the Wind had pauses and gusts for two or three minutes before it quite ceased. And by reason of the shape of the Aeolipile, (which be­ing fram'd chiefly for other purposes, was not so convenient for this) a great portion of the Vapors con­dens'd in the upper part of it, and fell down in drops; so that supposing that they also had come out in the form of Wind, and the blast had not been intermitted toward the latter end, I guess'd it might have continued uninterruptedly 18 or 20 minutes. Note, That applying a measure to the Smoak, that came out very visi­ble in a form almost conical, where it seem'd to have an Inch or more in Diameter, 'twas distant from the hole of the Aeolipile about twenty Inches; and five or six Inches be­yond that, though it were spread so much, as to have four or five Inches in Diameter, yet the not uniform [Page 20] but still-cohering Clouds (which was the form wherein the Vapors appear'd) were manifest and conspi­cuous.

After the rarefaction of Water when 'tis turn'd into Vapors, we may consider that of Fewel when 'tis turn'd into Flame; to which purpose I might here propose several Tryals as well of our own as others, about the prodigious Expansion of some Inflammable Bodies upon their being actually turn'd into Flame. But in this place to mention all these, would perhaps too much intrench upon another Paper; and there­fore I shall here propose to your con­sideration but one instance, and that very easie to be tryed; of which I find this account among my Adver­saria.

Having oftentimes burnt Spirit of Wine, and also Oyl in Glass-lamps, that for certain uses were so made, that the surface of the Liquor was still circular, 'twas obvious to ob­serve, how little the Liquor would [Page 21] subside by the wast that was made of it, in about half a quarter of an hour. And yet if we consider, that the naked Eye after some Exercise, may, as I have often tryed, di­scern the motions of a Pendulum that swings fast enough to divide a single minute of an hour into 240 parts, and consequently half a quarter of an hour into 1800 parts; if we also con­sider into how many parts of the time imployed by a Pendulum, the Vi­brations, slow enough to be discerni­ble by the Eye, may be mentally subdivided; and if we further con­sider, that without intermission, the Oyl is preyed upon by an actual Flame, and the particles of it do con­tinually furnish a considerable stream of shining matter, that with a strange celerity is always flying a­way; we may very well conceive, that those parts of Flame into which the Oyl is turned, are stupendiously minute, since, though the wasting of the Oyl is in its progress too slow to be perceived by the Eye, yet 'tis [Page 22] undoubted that there is a continual decrement of the depth of the Oyl, the Physical surfaces whereof are continually and successively attenua­ted and turn'd into flame; and the strange subtilty of the Corpuscles of flame would be much the stronglier argued, if we should suppose, that in­stead of common Oyl the flame were nourish'd by a fewel so much more compact and durable, as is that in­flammable substance made of a Me­talline Body, of whose lastingness I have elsewhere made particular mention, In some Papers about Flame. af­ter having taught the way of preparing it.

Having in a pair of tender Scales carefully weigh'd out half a Grain of good Gunpowder, we laid it on a piece of Tile, and whelm'd over it a vessel of glass (elsewhere describ'd, and often mention'd) with a Brass-plate to cover the upper orifice of it. Then having fir'd the Gunpowder, we observ'd that the smoak of it did opacate, and as to sense so fill the [Page 23] whole cavity of the Glass, though its Basis were eight inches, its per­pendicular height above twenty inches, and its figure far more ca­pacious than if it were conical, and this smoak, not containing it self within the vessel, issued out at two or three little intervals, that were pur­posely left between the orifice of the vessel and the plate that lay upon it. This cover we then remov'd, that we might observe how long the smoak would continue to ascend; which we found it would do for a­bout half a quarter of an hour, and during near half that time, (viz. the three first minutes) the continually ascending smoak seem'd to be, at its going out, of the same Diameter with the orifice at which it issu'd; and it would ascend sometimes a foot, some­times half a yard, sometimes two foot or more into the Air, before it would disperse and vanish into it.

Now if we consider, that the ca­vity of this round Orifice was two inches in Diameter, how many my­riads [Page 24] of visible Corpuscles may we easily conceive throng'd out at so large an out-let in the time above­mention'd, since they were conti­nually thrusting one another for­wards? And into so many visible Par­ticles of smoak must we admit, that the half Grain of Powder was shat­ter'd, beside those multitudes, which, having been turn'd into actual flame, may probably be suppos'd to have suffer'd a comminution, that made them become invisible. And though I shall not attempt so hopeless a work, as to compute the number of these small Particles, yet to make an estimate whereby it would appear to be exceeding great, I thought fit to consider, how great the Proportion was between the spaces, that to the Eye appear'd all full of smoak, and the dimensions of the Powder that was resolv'd into that smoak. Causing then the Glass to be fill'd with com­mon Water, we found it to contain above two and twenty Pints of that liquor, and causing one of those [Page 25] measures to be weigh'd, it was found to weigh so near a pound (of sixteen ounces,) that the computation of the whole Water amounted to at least 160000 grains, and consequently 320000 half grains. To which if we add, that this Gunpowder would readily sink to the bottom of Water, as being (by reason of the Saltpeter and Brimstone, that make up at least six parts of seven of it) in specie hea­vier than it, and in likelyhood twice as heavy, (for 'tis not easie to de­termine it exactly,) we may probably guess the space to which the smoak reach'd to exceed 500000 times that, which contain'd the unfir'd Powder; and this, though the smoak, being confin'd in the vessel, was thereby kept from diffusing it self so far as by its streaming out it seem'd likely that it would have done.

To these Instances from Inanimate Bodies I shall subjoyn one more taken from Animals. Whereas then men have with Reason wonder'd, that so small a Body as a Cheese-mite, [Page 26] which by the naked Eye is often­times not to be taken notice of, unless it move, (if even then it be so,) should by the Microscope appear to be an Animal furnish'd with all necessary parts; whereas this, I say, has given just occasion to conclude, that the Corpuscles that make up the parts of so small an Animal, must them­selves be extremely small; I think the Argument may be much impro­ved by the following Consideration. Those that have had the Curiosity to open from time to time Eggs that are sat upon by a hatching Hen can­not but have observed, how small a proportion in reference to the bulk of the whole Egg the Chick bears; when that, which the Excellent Har­vey calls Punctum saliens, discloses the motion of the Heart, and the colour of the Blood; and that even about the seventh or eighth day the whole Chick now visibly form'd, bears no great proportion to the whole Egg, which is to supply it with Aliment, not only for its nourish­ment, [Page 27] but speedy growth for many days after.

To apply this now to the matter in hand, having several times ob­served and shewn to others, that Cheese-mites themselves are genera­ted of Eggs, if we conceive, that in these Eggs, as in ordinary one, the Animal at its first formation bears but a small proportion to the bulk of the whole Egg, the remaining part being to suffice for the food and growth of the Embryo probably for a pretty while; since, if an Inge­nious person, that I desired to watch them, did not mis-inform me, they used to be about ten or twelve days in hatching; this whole Egg it self will be allowed to be but little in reference to the Mite it came from, how extremely and unimaginably minute may we suppose those parts to be, that make up the Alimental Liquors, and even the Spirits, that passing through the Nerves or Ana­logous parts, serve to move the Limbs and Sensories of but, as it were, [Page 28] the Model of such an Animal, as, when it rests, would not (perhaps) it self to the naked Eye be so much as visible; and in which we may presume the nobler sort of stabler parts to be of an amazing slender­ness, if we consider, that, though in other hairy Animals, the Optick or some other of the larger Nerves do, I know not how many times, in thickness and circuit surpass a hair of the same Animal; yet in a Cheese-Mite, though none of the largest of those Creatures, we have divers times manifestly seen, as is before intimated, single Hairs that grow upon the Legs.

Another way there is, that I im­ployed to give men cause to think, that the invisible Effluvia of Bodies that wander through the Air may be strangely minute; and this was, by shewing how small a fragment of matter may be resolved into parti­cles minute enough to associate them­selves in such numbers with a Fluid so much more dense than Air, as [Page 29] Water is, as to impart a determinate Colour to the whole liquor. What I did with Cocheneel in prosecution of this design, my Experiments about Colours may inform you; but I shall now relate the success of an attempt made another way, for which per­haps some of your friends the Chy­mists will thank me; though I was not solicitous to carry on the Experi­ment very far with Gold, not because I judged that less divisible into a number of colour'd particles, but because I found, as I expected, that the paleness of the native colour of the Gold may make it in the end less conspicuous, though, if I had then had by me a Menstruum, as I some­times had, that would dissolve Gold blood-red, perhaps the experiment with Gold would have surpass'd that, which 'tis now time I should begin to relate, as soon as I have hinted to you by the way, that, for varie­ties sake, I made a tryal with Cop­per calcin'd per se, that I might not be accused of having omitted to [Page 30] employ a Metal whose Body Chy­mists suppose to be much opened by Calcination. And though the event were notable even in Comparison of that of the experiment made with Cocheneel, yet my conjectures inclin'd me much to preferr the way describ'd in the following Account.

We carefully weigh'd out in a pair of tender Scales one grain of Copper not-calcin'd, but barely fil'd; and because, as we made choice of this Metal for its yielding in most Men­struums a Blew, which is a deep and conspicuous colour; we also chose to make a solution, not in Aqua fortis or Aqua regis, but the Spirit of Sal Ar­moniack (as that is an urinous Spirit,) having found by former tryals, that this Menstruum would give a far deeper solution than either of the others. This lovely Liquor, of which we us'd a good proportion, that all the Cop­per might be throughly dissolved, we put into a tall cylindrical Glass of about four inches in Diameter, and by degrees pour'd to it of distill'd [Page 31] Water, which is more proper in this case than common Water, which has oftentimes an inconvenient Sal­tishness, 'till we had almost fill'd the Glass, and saw the colour grow some­what pale, without being too dilute to be manifest; and then we warily pour'd this liquor into a conical Glass, that it might be the more easie to fill the vessel several times to the same height. This conical Glass we filled to a certain mark four times consecutively, weighing it, and the liquor too, as often in a pair of excel­lent Scales purposely made for Stati­cal experiments, and which, though strong enough to weigh some pounds in each Scale, would, when not too much loaden, turn with about one grain. These several weights of the Glass, together with the contained liquor, we added together, and then carefully weighing the empty Glass again, we deducted four times its weight from the above-mentioned summ, and thereby found the weight of the liquor alone, to be that, which [Page 32] reduc'd to grains amounted to 28534; so that a grain of Copper, which is not full half so heavy in specie as fine Gold, communicated a Tincture to 28534 times its weight.

But now if you please to take no­tice, that the scope of my Experi­ment was to shew, into what a num­ber of parts one grain of Copper might be divided, you will allow me to consider, as I did, that this multitude of parts must be estimated by the Proportion, not so much in weight as in bulk, of the tinging Metal to the tinged Liquor, and con­sequently, since that divers Hydro­statical tryals have inform'd me, that the weight of Copper to the weight of Water of the same bulk is proximè as 9 to 1, a grain-weight of Copper is in bigness but the ninth part of as much Water as weighs a grain; and so the formerly mention'd number of the grains of Water must be multi­plied by 9, to give us the Proportion between the tinging and tinged Bo­dies, that is, that a single grain of [Page 33] Copper gave a blewness to above 256806 parts of limpid Water, each of them as big as it. Which, though it may seem stupendious, and scarce credible; yet I thought fit to prose­cute the Experiment somewhat far­ther, by pouring all the liquor out of the tall cylindrical Glass into another clean vessel, whence filling the conical Glass twice, and emptying it as often into the same cylindrical Glass, the third time I fill'd the co­nical Glass with colourless distill'd Water, and pouring that also into the cylindrical Glass, we found the mixt liquor to have yet a manifest, though but a pale, blewness. And, lastly, throwing away what was in the cylindrical Glass, we poured into it, out of the same conical Glass, equal parts of distill'd colourless Water, and of the tincted Liquor we had for­merly set apart in the clean Vessel, and found, that, though the colour were very faint and dilute, yet an attentive Eye could easily discern it to be blewish; and so it was judg'd [Page 34] by an intelligent Stranger that was brought in to look upon it, and was desir'd to discover of what colour he thought it to be. Whereby it ap­pears, that one grain of Copper was able to impart a colour to above double the quantity of Water above mentioned.

This Experiment I have allow'd my self to be the longer and more particular in relating, both because I know not, that any such has been hitherto either made or attempted, and because it will probably gratifie your Chymists, that love to have the Tinctures of Metals believ'd very diffusive; and because, if Circum­stances were not added, it would seem to you as well incredible, as perhaps it does seem stupendious, that a por­tion of matter should be able to im­part a conspicuous colour to above 256806 times its bulk of Water, and a manifest tincture to above 385200, (for so it did, when the proportion of the ting'd part to the whole mixture, made of it and the unting'd [Page 35] part, was as 2 to 31,) and a faint, but yet discernible and distinguishable co­lour to above five hundred and thir­teen thousand six hundred and twenty times its bulk of Water.

CHAP. IV.

IT were easie for me (Pyroph.) to give you several Instances, to shew, that the Effluvia of Liquors may get in at the Pores of Bodies that are reputed of a close Texture, but I shall at present forbear to mention such Examples, not only because they belong to another place A Discourse of Pores of Bodies, and Figures of Corpuscles., where I take notice of them, but because many such would not seem so remarkable, nor be so considerable to our present pur­pose, as a few taken from Bodies that are not Fluid.

And first, it is deliver'd by Writers [Page 36] of good credit, that several Persons, (for the Experiment does not hold in all) by barely holding for some time dryed Cantharides in their hands, have been put to much pain at the neck of the Bladder, and have had some other parts ministring to the secretion of Urine sensibly injured. That this is true, I am induced to believe, by what I have elsewhere related to you of the unwelcome experiment I had of the effect of Cantharides applied but outwardly to my neck, and that unknown to me, upon the Urinary Passages; and that these Operations are due to material Effluxes, which, to get into the Mass of Blood, must pass through the pores of the skin, you will not, I presume, put me to prove.

Scaliger Exercit. 186. relates, that in Gascony, his Countrey, there are Spiders of that virulency, that, if a man treads upon them to crush them, their poyson will pass through the very soles of his Shooes. Which sto­ry, notwithstanding the Reputation [Page 37] of the Author, I should perhaps have left unmention'd, because of a much stranger about Spiders, which he relates in the same Section, but that I met with one that is analogous in the diligent Piso's late History of Bra­sile; where, having spoken of ano­ther venemous Fish of that Country, and the Antidotes he had successfully used to cure the hurts it inflicts, he proceeds to that Fish the Natives call Amoreatim, of one kind whereof, call'd by the Portugals Peize Sola, his words are these; Quae mira sanè effi­cacia non solum manum vel levissimo attactu, sed & pedem, licet optimè cal­ceatum, Piscatoris incautè pisciculum conterentis, Paralysi & Stupore afficit, instar Torpedinis Europaeae, sed minus du­rabili. Lib. 5. cap. 14.

What I shall ere long have occa­sion to tell you of the power of the Torpedo, and some other Animals, to affect the Hand and Arm of him that strikes them, seems applicable to the matter under consideration: For, though their affecting the striker at [Page 38] a distance, may very well be ascrib'd to the stupefactive or other venemous Exhalations that expire (and perhaps are as it were darted) from the Ani­mal irritated by the stroke, and are breath'd in together with the air they infect; yet their benumming, or otherwise affecting the Arm that struck them, rather than any other part, seems to argue, that the poy­sonous steams get in at the pores of the skin of the Limb, and so stupifie, or otherwise injure, the nervous and musculous parts of it.

Other Examples belonging to this Section may be referr'd hither from divers other places in these Papers about Occult Qualities, and there­fore I shall only add here that most remarkable Proof, That some Ema­nations, even of solid Bodies, may be subtil enough to get through the pores, even of the closest Bodies; which is afforded us by the Effluvia of the Load­stone, which are by Magnetical Wri­ters said to penetrate without re­sistance all kind of Bodies. And [Page 39] though I have not tryed this in all sorts, yet having tryed it in Metals themselves, I am apt to think, the general Rule admits of very few Ex­ceptions, especially, if that can be fully made out, which is affirm'd about the perviousness of Glass to the Effluxions of the Loadstone. For, not only Glass is generally re­puted to be as close a Body as any is, but (which weighs more with me) I have by Tryals purposely made, had occasion to admire the closeness of very thin pieces of Glass. But the reason why I just now express'd my self with an If, was, because I was not entirely satisfied with the Proof wont to be acquiesc'd in, of the perviousness of Glass; namely, that in Dials and Sea-Compasses that are cover'd with plates of Glass, the Needle may be readily moved to and fro by a Loadstone held over it. For these Plates being commonly but fasten'd on with Wax, or at best with Cement, a Sceptick may pre­tend, that the magnetical Effluvia [Page 40] pass not through the Glass, but through that much more pervious matter, that is imployed to secure the Commissures, only from the access of the Air. To put then the matter past doubt, I caused some Needles to be Hermetically seal'd up in Glass-pipes, which being laid upon the surface of water (whereon by reason of the bigness of the Cavities they would lightly float,) the included Needles did not only readily feel the virtue of an externally applied Load­stone, (though but a weak one) but complied with it so well, that I could easily, by the help of the Needle, lead, without touching it, the whole Pipe, this was shut up in, to what part of the surface of the water I pleased. And I also found, that by applying a better Loadstone to the upper part of a sealed Pipe, and a Needle in it, I could make the Needle leap up from the lower part as near to the Loadstone as the interposed Glass would give it leave.

But I thought it would be more considerable, to manifest that the [Page 41] Magnetical Effluvia, even of such a dull Body, as the Globe of the Earth, would also penetrate Glass. And though this seem difficult to be tryed, because no ordinary Loadstone, nor any Iron touch'd by it, was to be imployed to work on the included Iron; yet I thought fit to attempt it after this manner: I took a cylin­drical piece of Iron of about the big­ness of ones little finger, and between half a foot and foot long, (for I had formerly observed, that the quantity of unexcited Iron furthers its Opera­tion upon excited Needles,) and ha­ving Hermetically seal'd it up in a Glass-pipe but very little longer than it; I supposed, that if I held it in a perpendicular posture; the Magneti­cal Effluvia of the Earth, penetrating the Glass, would make the lower extreme of the Iron answerable to the North Pole; and therefore having applied this to the point of the Nee­dle in a Dial, or Sea-Compass, that look'd toward the North, (for Au­thors mean not all the same thing by [Page 42] the Northern Pole of a Needle or Loadstone,) I presum'd it would, according to the Laws Magnetical (elsewhere mention'd) drive it a­way, which accordingly it did. And having for farther tryal inver­ted the included Iron, (so that the end which was formerly the low­ermost, was now the uppermost) and held it in a perpendicular posture just under the same point of the Nee­dle, that extreme of the Iron-rod, which before had driven away this point, being by this inversion become (in a manner) a South-Pole, did (ac­cording to the same Laws) attract it: By which sudden change of Poles, meerly upon the change of situation, it also appear'd, that the Iron ow'd its Virtue only to the Magnetism of the Earth, not that of another Load­stone, which would not have been thus easily alterable. And this Ex­periment I the more particularly re­late, because this is not the only place, where I have occasion to make use of it.

CHAP. V.

ANother proof of the great Sub­tilty of Effluviums, may be ta­ken from the small Decrement of weight or bulk that a Body may suf­fer by parting with great store of such Emanations.

That Bodies, which infus'd in Li­quors impregnate them with new Qualities suitable to those of the im­mers'd Bodies, do so by imparting to them somewhat of their own Sub­stance, will, I presume, be readily granted by those that conceive not, how one Body should communicate to another a solitary and naked Quality, unaccompanied by any thing Corpo­real to support and convey it. But I would not have you think, Pyrophilus, that the only matter of fact I have to countenance this notion, is that Ex­periment, which has convinc'd divers Chymists and Physicians, otherwise [Page 44] not friends to the Corpuscular Philo­sophy, that Medicines may operate without any consumption of them­selves. For, though divers of these, some of them Learned men, have con­fidently written, that Glass of Antimony and Crocus Metallorum, being either of them infus'd in a great proportion of Wine, will make it vomitive; and if that liquor be poured off, and new be poured on, every new portion of such liquor will be impregnated with the same virtue, and this though the liquor be chang'd a thousand times, and yet the Antimonial Glass or Crocus will continue the same as well in weight as virtue; and though thence some of them, especially Chymists, ar­gue, that some Metals without impar­ting any thing substantial, but only, as Helmont speaks of some of his Ar­cana, by irradiation: Yet, I confess, I have some doubts, whether the Experiment have been competently tryed, and shall not fully acquiesce in what has been said, till some skil­ful Experimenter deliver it upon his [Page 45] own Tryal, and acquaint us too, with what Instruments and what Circum­spection he made it. For, besides that the Ingeniousest Physicians I have question'd about it, acknow­ledg'd the Tast, and sometimes the Colour of the Wine to be alter'd by the infus'd Mineral, I could not ac­quiesce in the affirmation of an ordi­nary Chymist or Apothecary, or even Physician, if he should barely averr, that he had weigh'd an Antimonial Medicine before 'twas put to infuse, and after the infusion ended, and ob­serv'd no decrement of weight. For I have had too much experience (as I elsewhere mention) of the difficul­ty of making exact Statical tryals; not to know, that such Scales, as are wont to be imployed by Chymists and Apothecaries in weighing Drugs, are by no means fit to make tryals with the nicety which that I am speaking of requires: It being easie, even with the better sort of such un­accurate Scales, especially if they be not suspended from some fixt thing, [Page 46] but held with the hand, to mistake half a grain or a grain; and perhaps a greater quantity, and at least more than by divers of the Experiments of this Essay appears necessary to be spent upon the impregnating of a considerable proportion of Liquor with Corporeal Effluxions. Besides, that if, when the beaten Crocus or Glass be taken out of the Wine to be weigh'd again, the Experimenter be not cautious enough to make allow­ance for the Liquor that will adhere to the Medicament, 'tis plain that he may take notice of no decrement of weight, though there may be really Effluviums of the Mineral amounting to several grains, imbib'd by the Li­quor. And though he be aware of this, and dry the powder, yet 'tis not so easie, even for a skilful man, to be sure that none of the more vi­scous particles of the Liquor stick to the Mineral, and being sensible upon the Ballance, though not to the Eye or Hand, repair the recess of those emetick Corpuscles that diffus'd [Page 47] themselves into the Menstruum. And the sense of these difficulties put me upon the attempting to make so no­ble an Experiment with excellent Scales, and the care that it deserves: But after a long tryal, an unlucky accident frustrated at last my endea­vours. But though, till competent Relators give us an account of this matter upon their own tryal, and repeat the Infusion very much oftener, than, for ought I find, any man has yet done, I must not acquiesce in all that is said of the Impregnation of Wine or other Liquors by Antimonial Glass and Crocus Metallorum; yet that after divers repeated Infusions the Mineral substance should not be sen­sibly diminish'd in bulk or virtue, may well suffice to make this In­stance, though not the only or chief that may be brought for our pur­pose, yet a pertinent one to it. For that there is a powerful Emetick Qua­lity imparted to the Liquor, is ma­nifest by experience; and that the Mineral does not impart this virtue [Page 48] as 'twere by irradiation, but by sub­stantial effluxion, seems to me very probable; not only because I conceive not, how this can be done otherwise, but because, as 'tis noted above, the Wine does oftentimes change colour by being kept a competent time upon the Mineral, as if it drew thence a Tincture; and even when it is not discolour'd, I think it unsafe to con­clude, that the Menstruum has not wrought upon it. For I have kept good Spirit of Vinegar for a consi­derable time upon finely powder'd Glass of Antimony made per se, with­out finding the Spirit to be at all ting'd, though 'tis known, that An­timonial Glass is soluble in Spirit of Vinegar, as mine afterwards appear'd to be, by a longer digestion in the same Liquor. But there may be a great number of minute particles dis­solved in the Menstruum before they be numerous enough to change the Colour of it. And with this agrees very well what is observ'd, That though too great a quantity of the [Page 49] prepar'd Antimony be put into the liquor, yet it will not be thereby made too strongly Emetick. For the Wine, being a Menstruum, will, like other Menstruums, be impregnated but to a certain measure, without dissol­ving the overplus of the matter that is put into it. And Mars, which is a harder and heavier body than Glass of Antimony, is it self in part solu­ble in good Rhenish or other white Wine, (and that in no long time,) and sometimes even in Water.

I do not therefore reject the Eme­tick Infusion, as unfit to have a place in this Chapter, but till the experi­ment have been a little more accu­rately made, I think it inferiour, as to our purpose, to some of the In­stances to be met with in the next Chapter, and perhaps also to that mention'd by Helmont, and tryed by more than one of my Acquaintance, concerning the Virtue of killing Worms, that Mercury imparts to the water or wine wherein it has been long enough infus'd, or else for [Page 50] a while decocted. Though Quick­silver given in substance is commen­ded as an effectual Medicine against Worms, not only by many profest As Quercetanus, Libavius, Zabata, Burggravius. Spa­gyrists, but by divers As Vidius, Pa­raeus, Caesalpinus, &c. Methodists of good Note. And though, some other things, Chymical and Philosophical, keep me from being of their opinion, who think that in this case the Mercury impregnates the li­quor as it were by Irradiation, ra­ther than in a Corporeal manner, yet the Eye does not perceive, that even limpid water takes any thing from clean and well purg'd Mercury, which we know that divers corro­sive liquors themselves will not work upon.

To this Instance I must add one that is yet freer from exceptions, which is, that having for Curiosity sake suspended in a pair of exact Scales, that would turn with a very small part of a grain, a piece of Amber-greece bigger than a Walnut, [Page 51] and weighing betwixt an hundred and six-score grains, I could not in three days and a half that I had opportu­nity to make the tryal, discover, even upon that Ballance, any decrement of weight in the Amber-greece; though so rich a perfume, lying in the open Air, was like in that time to have parted with good store of odoriferous Steams. And a while after suspen­ding a Lump of Assa foetida five days and a half, I found it not to have su­stain'd any discernible loss of weight, though, in spite of the unfavourable cold weather, it had about it a neigh­bouring Atmosphere replenish'd with foetid exhalations. And when twelve or fourteen hours after, perhaps upon some change of weather, I came to look upon it, though I found that in that time the Aequilibrium was somewhat alter'd, yet the whole Lump had not lost half a quarter of a grain; which induc'd me to think, that there may perhaps be Steams discer­nible even by our Nostrils, that are far more subtil than the odorous [Page 52] exhalations of Spices themselves. For, having in very good Scales su­spended in the Month of March an ounce of Nutmegs, it lost in about six days five grains and a half. And an ounce of Cloves in the same time lost seven grains and five eigths.

You will perhaps wonder, why I do not preferr to the Instances I make mention of in this Chapter, that which may be afforded by the Load­stone, that is acknowledg'd conti­nually to emit multitudes of Magne­tical Steams without decrement of weight. But though I have not thought fit to pass this wholly un­der silence; yet I forbear to lay so much stress on it, not only because my Ballances have not yet satisfied me about the Effluvia of Loadstones, (for I take them not all to be equally diffusive of their Particles;) but be­cause I foresee it may be doubted, whether Loadstones, like odorous Bo­dies, do furnish afresh of their own, all the Corpuscles▪ that from time to time issue from them? Or, whether [Page 53] they be not continually repaired, partly by the return of the Magnetical Particles to one Pole that sallied out of the other; and partly by the con­tinued passage of Magnetical matter (supplied by the Earth or other Mundane Bodies) it make the Pores or Channels of the Loadstone their constant Thorow-fares.

I doubt not but it will make it more probable, that a small Quantity of matter being scatter'd into invisible Effluvia may be exceedingly rarified and expanded, if it can be made ap­pear, that this little portion of mat­ter shall, for a considerable time, emit multitudes of visible parts, and that in so close an order among them­selves, as to seem in their Aggre­gate but one intire liquor, endow'd with a stream-like motion, and a distinct superficies, wherein no inter­ruption is to be seen, even by an Eye plac'd near it. To devise this Experiment, I was induc'd, by con­sidering, that hitherto all the (total) dissolutions that have been made of [Page 54] Pigments, have been in liquors natu­rally cold, and consisting probably of much less subtile, and certainly of much less agitated parts, than that fluid aggregate of shining matter that we call Flame; whereas I argued, that if one could totally dissolve a Body compos'd of parts so minute as those of a Metal into actual Flame, and husband its Flame so, as that it should not immoderatly waste, I should thereby dissolve the Metal in a far more subtil Menstruum than our common water, or Aqua fortis, or Aqua Regis, or any other known Menstruum I have yet imployed. And consequently the attenuation and expansion of the Metal in this truly Igneous Menstruum would much surpass not only what happens in ordinary Metalline solutions, but possibly also what I have noted in the third Chapter of this Essay, a­bout the strange diffusion of Copper dissolv'd in Spirit of Urine and Wa­ter. In prosecution of this design, I so prepar'd one single grain of that [Page 55] Metal, by a way that I elsewhere teach, that it was dissolv'd in about a spoonful of an appropriated Men­struum. And then having caus'd a small Glass-lamp to be purposely blown to contain this liquor, and fitted it with a socket and wieck, we lighted the Lamp, which, without consuming the wieck, burnt with a flame large enough and very hot, and seem'd to be all the while of a greenish blew, as if it were a but finer and shining solution of Copper. And yet this one grain of prepar'd Metal ting'd the flame that was from mo­ment to moment produc'd, during no less than half an hour and six mi­nutes. And now if we consider, that in this flame there was an uninter­rupted Succession of multitudes of colour'd Particles newly extricated, and flying off in every of those many parts wherein a minute of time may either actually or mentally be divided; and, if we consider Flame as a light and very agitated body, passing with a stream upwards through the Air, [Page 56] and if we also consider the quantity of liquor that would (as I shall by and by tell you) run through a Pipe of a much lesser diameter than that Flame, within the compass of the forementioned time: What a quan­tity of the streaming fluid we call Flame, if it could have been preserv'd and collected into one Body, may we suppose would appear to have issued out of one grain of Copper in the space of thirty-six minutes; and what a multitude of metalline Corpuscles may we suppose to have been supplied for the tinging of that Flame during so long a time? since a Cylindrical stream of water falling but through a very short Pipe of glass, constantly supplied with liquors, did pass at such a rate, that, though the aqueous Cylinder seem'd more slender by half, (or perhaps by two thirds or better) than the Flame, yet we estimated, by the help of a Minute-watch and a good pair of Scales, that, if I had had conveniencies to let it run long enough, the water efflux'd in thirty-six [Page 57] minutes (the time of the Flames duration) would have amounted to above nine gallons, or, (reckoning a pint of water to contain a pound of sixteen ounces) seventy-two pounds.

CHAP. VI.

THE last sort of Instances I shall propose to shew the strange Subtilty of Effluvia, is of such, as discover the great quantity of space that may by a small quantity of mat­ter, when rarified or dispers'd, be either fill'd as to sense, or, at least, made (as they speak) the sphear of its activity.

To manifest this Truth, and there­by as well confirm the foregoing Chapter, as make out what is design'd in this, I shall endeavour to shew, and help your imagination to conceive, how great a space may be impregna­ted with the Effluxions of a Body, oftentimes without any sensible, and oftener without any considerable de­crement [Page 58] in bulk or weight of the Body that affords them. And in or­der to this, though I shall not pretend to determine precisely how little the substances, I am to instance in, would waste upon the Ballance, because you will very easily see they are not that way to be examin'd; yet I presume, you will as easily grant, that the decrement of weight would be but inconsiderable, since of such light substances the loss even of bulk is so; which last clause I shall now attempt to make good, by setting down some Observations, partly borrow'd from the writings of approv'd Physicians, and partly that my friends and I have made about the durable Evaporation of such small particles of the Efflu­xions of Animals, as are actually not to be discern'd by the Eye to have any of those things sticking to them, which are so very long in flying suc­cessively away.

'Tis wont to be somewhat surpri­zing to men of Letters, when they first go a hawking with good Spa­niels, [Page 59] to observe, with how great sagacity those dogs will take notice of, and distinguish by the scent, the places where Partridges, Quails, &c. have lately been. But I have much more wonder'd at the quick scent of an excellent Setting-dog, who by his way of ranging the fields, and his other motions, especially of his Head, would not only intimate to us the kinds of game, whose scent he chanc'd to light on, but would discover to us where Partridges had been (though perhaps without staying in that place) several hours before, and assist us to guess how long they had been gone before we came.

I have had strange answers given me in Ireland, by those who make a gain if not an intire livelihood by killing of Wolves in that Countrey, (where they are paid so much for every head they bring in) about the sagacity of that peculiar race of dogs they imploy in hunting them; but not trusting much to those Relators, I shall add, that a very sober and [Page 60] discreet Gentleman of my acquain­tance, who has often occasion to imploy Blood-hounds, assures me, that if a man have but pass'd over a field, the scent will lye (as they speak) so as to be perceptible enough to a good dog of that sort for several hours after. And an ingenious Hun­ter assures me, that he has observ'd, that the scent of a flying and heated Deer will sometimes continue upon the ground from one day to the next following.

And now we may consider these three things; First, That the sub­stance left upon the grass or ground by the transient tread of a Partridge, Hare, or other animal, that does but pass along his way, does probably communicate to the grass or ground but some of those Effluxions, that transpire out of his feet, which be­ing small enough to escape the di­scernment of the Eye, may probably not amount to one grain in weight, or perhaps not to the tenth part of it. Next, That the parts of fluid Bodies, [Page 61] as such, are perpetually in motion, and so are the invisible particles that swim in them, as may appear by the dissolution of Salt or Sugar in water, and the wandering of a­queous Vapours through the Air, even when the Eye perceives them not. And thirdly, That though the Atmosphere of one of these small parcels of the exhaling matter we are speaking of, may oftentimes be ex­ceeding vast in comparison of the emittent Body, as may be guess'd by the distance, at which some Setters, or Blood-hounds, will find the scent of a Partridge, or Deer; yet in pla­ces expos'd to the free air or wind, 'tis very likely that these steams are assiduously carried away from their Fountain, to maintain the fore-men­tion'd Atmosphere for six, eight, or more hours, that is, as long as the scent has been observ'd to lye, there will be requisite a continual recruit of steams succeeding one another And that so very small a portion of matter as that which we were say­ing [Page 62] the fomes of these steams may be judg'd to be, being sensibly to im­pregnate an Atmosphere incompa­rably greater than it self, and supply it with almost continual recruits, we cannot but think, that the steams it parts with, must be of an extreme and scarce conceivable mi­nuteness.

And we may further consider, that the substances, which emit these steams, being such as newly belong'd to Animals, and were, for the most part, transpir'd through the pores of their feet, must be in likelihood a far more evaporable and dissipable kind of Bodies than Minerals or adust Vegetables, such as Gunpowder is made of; so that if the grains of Gunpowder emit Effluviums capa­ble of being by some Animals per­ceiv'd at a distance by their smell, one may probably suppose, that the small grains of this powder may hold out very many times longer to sup­ply an Atmosphere with odorable steams, than the Corpuscles left on [Page 63] the ground by transient Animals.

Now though it be generally a­gree'd on, that very few Birds have any thing near so quick a sense of smelling as Setting-dogs or Blood-hounds, yet that the odour of Gun­powder, especially when assisted by the steams of the Caput mortuum of Powder formerly fir'd in the same Gun, may be Fowls be smelt at a notable distance, particularly when the wind blew from me towards them, I often perswaded my self I observ'd, especially as to Crows, when I went a shooting; and was confirm'd in that opinion, both by the common Tradition, and by so­ber and ingenious persons much ex­ercis'd in the killing of Wild-fowl, and of some fourfooted Beasts.

I had forgotten to take notice of one Observation of the experienc'd Julius Palmarius: Whence we may learn, that Beasts may leave upon the Vegetables, that have touch'd their bodies for any time, such Cor­puscles, as, though unheeded by [Page 64] other Animals, may, when eaten by them, produce in them such dis­eases as the infected Animals had. For this Author writes in his useful Tract de morbis Contagiosis, that he observ'd Horses, Beeves, Sheep and other Animals, to run mad upon the eating of some of the straw on which some mad Swine had layn.

And now to resume and prosecute our former discourse, you may take notice, that the Effluvia, mention'd to have been smelt by Animals, are, though invisible, yet big enough to be the objects of sense; so that 'tis not improbable, that, among the steams that no sense can immediate­ly perceive, there should be some far more subtil than these, and con­sequently capable of furnishing an Atmosphere much longer, without quite exhausting the effluviating matter that afforded them.

Lib. 6. Ob­serv. 22. Forestus, an useful Author, re­cites an Example of Pe­stilential contagion long preserv'd in a Cobweb.

[Page 65] Alexander Benedictus writes also, that at Venice a Flock-bed did for many years harbour a pestiferous ma­lignity to that degree, that when afterwards it came to be beaten, it presently infected the by-standers with the Plague.

And the Learned Lib. 4. de Eeb. cap. 3. Sennertus him­self relates, that in the year 1542. there did in the City of Uratislavia (vulgarly Breslaw,) where he after­wards practised Physick, dye of the Plague, in less than six Months, lit­tle less than six thousand men, and that from that time the Pestilential Contagion was kept folded up in a linnen cloth about fourteen years, and at the end of that time being display'd in another City, it began a Plague there, which infected also the neighbouring Towns and other places.

Libr. 3. Con. 17. Trincavella makes mention of a yet lastinger Conta­gion, (which occasion'd the death of ten thousand [Page 66] persons) that lay lurking in certain Ropes, with which at Justinopolis those that dy'd of the Plague had been let down into their Graves.

But, though none of these Rela­tions should to some Criticks appear scarce credible, it may be objected, that all these things, wherein this Contagion resided, were kept close shut up, or at least were not expos'd to the Air. Wherefore having only intimated, that the exception, which I think is not irrational, would, though never so true, but lessen the wonder of these strange Relations, without rendering them unfit for our present purpose, I shall add, that though 'tis the opinion of divers Learned Physicians, that the matter harboring Contagion cannot last a­bove Twenty or a few more days, if the Body it adheres to be expos'd to the free air and the wind, and though I am not forward to deny, that their judgement may hold in ordinary cases; yet I must not deny neither, that a Contagion may some­times [Page 67] happen to be much more te­nacious and obstinate: Of which I shall give but that one, almost re­cent instance observ'd by the Learned Lib. 4. de Peste. Dimmer­brook in his own Apothe­cary, who having but remov'd with his foot, from one side to the other of a little Arbour (in his Garden) some straw, that had layn under the Pallet, on which near eight Months before a Bed had layn, wherein a Servant of the Apothecaries, that recover'd, had been sick of the Plague; the infectious steams pre­sently invaded the lower part of his leg, and produc'd a pungent pain and blister, which turn'd to a pe­stilential Carbuncle, that could scarce be cur'd in a Fortnight after, though during that time the Patient were neither feaverish, nor, as to the rest of his Body, ill at ease. This memo­rable instance, together with some others of the like kind, that our Author observed in the same City (of Nimmegen) obtain'd, not to say, [Page 68] extorted, even from him, this Con­fession; which I add, because it contains some considerable, and not yet mentioned Circumstances of the recited case: Hoc exemplo Medicorum Doctrina de Contagio in fomite latente satis confirmatur. Mirum tamen est, hoc Contagium tanto tempore in praedicto stramine potuisse subsistere, utpote quod tota hyeme ventis & pluviis, (he adds in another place) nivibus & frigori, expositum fuisset.

And now I will shut up this Chapter with an instance, that some will think, perhaps, no less strange than any of the rest, which is, that though they that are skilful in the perfuming of Gloves, are wont to imbue them with but an inconside­rable quantity of odoriferous matter, yet I have by me a pair of Spanish Gloves, which I had by the favour of your fair and virtuous Sister (F.) that were so skilfully perfum'd, that partly by her, partly by those, that presented them her as a Rarity, and partly by me, who have kept them [Page 69] several Years, they have been kept about eight or nine and twenty years, if not thirty, and they are so well scented, that they may, for ought I know, continue fragrant divers years longer. Which instance, if you please to reflect upon, and con­sider, that such Gloves cannot have been carried from one place to ano­ther, or so much as uncover'd (as they must often have been) in the free Air, without diffusing from themselves a fragrant Atmosphere, we cannot but conclude those odo­rous Steams to be unimaginably sub­tile, that could for so long a time issue out in such swarms, from a lit­tle perfum'd matter lodged in the pores of a Glove, and yet leave it richly stock'd with particles of the same nature; though, (especially by reason of some removes, in which I took not the Gloves along with me,) I forgot ever since I had them, to keep them so much as shut up in a Box.

CHAP. I.

THey that are wont in the Esti­mates they make of Natural Things, to trust too much to the negative informations of their Senses, without sufficiently consulting their Reason, have commonly but a very little and slight opinion of the Power and Efficacy of Effluviums; and imagine that such minute Cor­puscles (if they grant that there are such,) as are not, for the most part of them, capable to work upon the [Page 2] tenderest and quickest of Senses, the Sight, cannot have any considerable Operation upon other Bodies. But I take this to be an error, which, as it very little becomes Philosophers, so it has done no little prejudice to Philosophy it self, and perhaps to Physick too. And therefore though the nature of my design at present did not require it, yet the importance of the subject would invite me to shew, That this is as ill-gounded as preju­dicial a Supposition.

And indeed if we Consider the subject attentively, we may observe, That though it be true, that, caeteris paribus, the greatness of Bodies doth, in most cases, contribute to that of their Operation upon others, yet Mat­ter or Body being in its own precise nature an unactive or moveless Sub­ject, one part of the Mass acts upon another but upon the account of its Local Motion, whose Operations are facilitated and otherwise diversified by the Shape, Size, Situation and Texture both of the Agent and of the [Page 3] Patient. And therefore if Corpuseles, though very minute, be numerous enough, and have a competent degree of motion, even these small Particles, especially if fitly shap'd, when they chance to meet with a Body, which the congruity of its texture disposes to admit them at its Pores, and receive their either friendly or hostile impres­sions, may perform such things in the patient, as visible and much grosser Bodies, but less conveniently shap'd and mov'd, would be utterly unable (on the same Body) to effect.

And that you may with the less difficulty allow me to say, that the Effluviums of Bodies, as minute as they are, may perform Considerable things, give me leave to observe to you, that there are at least six ways, by which the Effluviums of a Body may nota­bly operate upon another; namely, 1. By the great number of emitted Cor­puscles. 2. By their penetrating and pervading nature. 3. By their cele­rity, and other Modifications of their Motion. 4. By the congruity and incon­gruity [Page 4] of their Bulk and Shape to the Pores of the Bodies they are to act upon. 5. By the motions of one part upon another, that they excite or oc­casion in the Body they work upon according to its Structure. And 6 ^ly, By the Fitness and Power they have to make themselves be assisted, in their Working, by the more Catholick Agents of the Universe. And though it may perhaps be sufficiently proved, that there are several cases wherein a Body that emits Particles, may act notably upon another Body by this or that single way of those I have been naming; yet usually the great mat­ters are performed by the association of two, three or more of them, con­curring to produce the same Effect. Upon which score when I shall in the following Paper referr an Instance or a Phenomenon to any one of the fore­mentioned Heads, I desire to be under­stood as looking upon that but as the Head, to which it chiefly relates, with­out excluding the rest.

CHAP. II.

TAking those things for granted, that have, I hope, been sufficiently proved in the former Tract about the subtlety of Effluviums, I suppose it will readily be allowed, That the Ema­nations of a Body may be extremely minute; whence it may be rightly inferr'd, that a small portion of matter may emit great multitudes of them.

Now that the great number of Agents may in many cases compensate their littleness, especially where they Act or Resist per modum unius, (as they speak,) men would perhaps the more easily grant, if they took notice to this purpose of some familiar Instances.

We see that not only lesser Land­floods that overflow the neighbouring Fields, but those terrible Inundations that sometimes drown whole Coun­treys, are made by Bodies singly so so small and inconsiderable as Drops [Page 6] of Rain when they continue to fall in those multitudes we call Showers.

So the aggregates of such minute Bodies as grains of Sand being heaped together in sufficient Numbers, make Banks wherewith greatest Ships are sometimes split, nay and serve in most places for Bounds to the Sea it self.

And though a single Corn of Gun­powder, or two or three together, are not of Force to do much mischief, yet two or three Barrels of those Corns taking Fire all together are able to blow up Ships and Houses, and per­form prodigious things.

But instead of multiplying such Instances, afforded by Bodies of small indeed but yet visible Bulk, I shall (as soon as I have intimated, that the above-mentioned drops of Rain themselves consist of convening Multitudes of Vapors most commonly Invisible in their Ascent,) endeavour to make out what was proposed, by two or three Instances drawn from the Operations of Invisible particles.

And first, we see, that though [Page 7] Aqueous Vapours be look'd upon as the faintest and least active Effluviums that we know of, yet when multi­tudes of them are in Rainy weather dispersed thorow the Air, and are thereby qualified to work on the Bo­dies exposed to it, their Operations are very considerable, not only in the dissolution of Salts, as Sea-Salt, Salt of Tartar, &c. and in the putre­factive changes they produce in many Bodies, but in the intumescence they cause in Oak and other solid Woods; as appears by the difficulty we often find in and before Rainy weather, to shut and open Doors, Boxes, and other Wooden pieces of work, that were before fit enough for the Cavities they had been adjusted to.

I might here urge, that though the strings of Viols and other Musical Instruments are sometimes strong e­nough to sustain considerable weights, yet if they be left screwed to their full tension, (as it frequently happens) they are oftentimes by the supervening of moist weather made to break, not [Page 8] without impetuosity and noise. But it may sute better with my present aim, if I mention on this occasion, (what I elsewhere more fully take notice of:) Being desirous to try what a multitude even of Aqueous Steams may do, I caused a Rope that was long, but not thick, and was in part su­stained by a Pully, to have a Weight of Lead so fastned to the end of it, as not to touch the ground, and after the Weight had leisure allowed it to stretch the Cord as far as it could, I observed that in the moist weather the waterish particles, that did invi­sibly abound in the Air, did so much work upon and shorten the Rope, as to make it lift up the hanging Weight, which was, if I mis-remember not, about an hundred Pounds.

The invisible Steams, issuing out of the Walls of a newly plaster'd or whited Room, are not sensibly preju­dicial to those that do but transiently visit it, or make but a very short stay in it, though there be a Charcoal-fire in the Chimney; but we have many [Page 9] instances of persons, that by lying for a night in such Rooms, have been the next morning or sooner found dead in their Beds, being suffocated by the multitude of the noxious Vapours emitted during all that time.

And here I think it proper to ob­serve, That it may much assist us to take notice of the multitude of Effluvia, and make us expect great matters from them, to consider, that they are not emitted from the Body that affords them all at once, as Hail-shot out of a Gun, but issue from it as the Va­porous Winds do out of an Aeolipil well heated, or Waters out of a Spring­head in continued Streams, wherein fresh parts still succeed one another; so that though as many Effluxions of a Body as can be sent out at one time were numerous enough to Act but upon its Superficial parts, yet the Emanation of the next minute may get in a little farther, and each smallest portion of time supplying fresh Re­cruits, and perhaps urging on the Steams already entred, the Particles [Page 10] may at length get into a multitude of the pores of the invaded Body, and penetrate it to the very innermost parts.

CHAP. III.

I Come now to shew in the second place, That the subtile and pe­netrating nature of Effluviums, may in many cases cooperate with their multitude in producing notable ef­fects; and that there are Effluviums of a very piercing nature, though we shall not now enquire upon what account they are so, we may evince by several Examples. For not only the invisible Steams of good Aqua Fortis and Spirit of Nitre do usually in a short time, and in the cold, so penetrate the corks wherewith the Glasses that contained them were stop'd, as to reduce them into a yellow pap; but also the emanations of Mer­cury have been sometimes found in [Page 11] the form of coagulated, or even of running Mercury in the heads or very bones of those Gilders, or Venereal Patients, that have too long or too unadvisedly been exposed to the fumes of it, though they never took Quick­silver in its gross substance. Chymists too often find in their Laboratories, that the steams of Sulphur, Antimony, Arsnick, and divers other Minerals, are able to make those stagger, or per­haps strike them down, that without a competent wariness unlute the Ves­sels wherein they had been distilled or sublimed; of which I have known divers sad Examples. And of the Pe­netrancy even of animal Steams we may easily be perswaded, if we consi­der, how soon in many Plagues the contagious, though invisible, Exha­lations are able to reach the Heart, or infect other internal parts; though in divers of these cases the Blood helps to convey the infection, yet still the Morbifick particles must get into the body before they can infect the mass of Blood. And in those stupefactions that [Page 12] are caused at a distance by the Terpedo, the parts mainly affected seem to be the Nervous ones of the Hand and Arm, which are of the most retired and best fenced parts of those members. And there is a Spirit of Sal Armoniack, that I make to smell to, whose invisible Steams, unexcited by heat, are of so piercing a nature, that not only they will powerfully affect the Eyes and Nostrils, and Throats, and sometimes the Stomachs too (yet without pro­ving Vomitive,) of the Patients they invade, but also when a great cold has so clog'd the organs of smelling, that neither sweet nor stinking odours would at all affect them, these piercing Steams have not only in a few minutes both made themselves a way, and which is more, so open'd the passages, that soon after the Patient has been able to smell other things also. And by the same penetrating Spirit, a per­son of Quality was, some time since, restored to a power of smelling, which he had lost for divers Years, (if he ever had it equally with other men.) I could [Page 13] easily subjoyn Examples of this kind, but they belong to other places. And here I shall only add, that the steams of Water it self assisted by warmth, are capable of dissolving the Texture of even hard and solid bodies, that are not suspected to be Saline; as ap­pears by the Philosophical calcination (as Chymists call it) wherein solid pieces of Harts-horn are brought to be easily friable into pouder, by being hung over waters, whil'st their steams rise in distillation and without the help of Furnaces. The Exhalations, that usually swim every night in the air, and almost every night fall to the ground in the form of Dews (which makes them be judged Aqueous,) are in many places of the Torrid Zone of so penetrating a nature, that, as Eye-witnesses have informed me, they would in a very short time make Knives rust in their sheaths, and Swords in their scabbards, nay and Watches in their cases, if they did not constantly carry them in their pockets. And I have known even in England [Page 14] divers hard bodies, into which the Vapours swimming in the air have insinuated themselves, so far as to make them friable throughout. But of the penetration of Effluviums, I have given, in several places, so many in­stances, that 'tis not necessary to add any here. And therefore to shew, that, as I intimated at the beginning of this Chapter, the Penetrancy and the multitude of Effluviums may much assist each other, I shall now subjoyn; That we must not for the most part look upon Effluviums as swarms of Corpuscles, that only beat against the outsides of the Bodies they invade, but as Corpuscles, which by reason of their great and frequently recruited numbers, and by the Ex­treme smallness of their Parts, insi­nuate themselves in multitudes into the minute pores of the bodies they invade, and often penetrate to the innermost of them; so that, though each single Corpuscle, and its distinct action, be inconsiderable, in respect of the multitude of parts that compose [Page 15] the body to be wrought on; yet a vast multitude of these little Agents working together upon a correspon­dent number of the small parts of the body they pervade, they may well be able to have powerful effects upon the Body, that those parts constitute; as, in the case mentioned in the former Chapter, the Rope would not pro­bably have been enabled to raise so great a weight, though a vehement Wind had blown against it, to make it lose its perpendicular straightness, but a vast multitude of Watery Par­ticles, getting by degrees into the pores of the Rope, might, like an innume­rable company of little wedges, so widen the pores as to make the thrids or splinters of Hemp, the Rope was made up of, swell, and that so forcibly, that the depending weight could not hinder the shortning of the Rope, and therefore must of necessity be rais'd thereby. And I have more than once known solid and even heavy Mineral Bodies, burst in pieces by the moisture of the Air, though [Page 16] we kept them within-doors carefully shelter'd from the Rain.

CHAP. IV.

THat the Celerity of the motion of very minute Bodies, espe­cially conjoyned to their multitudes, may perform very notable things, may be argued from the wonderful effects of fired Gunpowder, Aurum fulminans, of Flames that invisibly touch the Bodies they work on, and also Whirlwinds, and those streams of invisible Exhalations and other aerial Particles we call Winds. But because instances of this sort suit not so well with the main scope of this Tract, I shall not insist on them, but subjoyn some others, which, though less notable in themselves, will be more congruous to my present De­sign. That the Corpuscles whereof Odours consist, swim to and fro in the Air, as in a fluid Vehicle, will [Page 17] by most, I presume, be granted, and may be easily prov'd. But I have else­where shewn, That the motion of the Effluviums of some sufficiently odo­rous Bodies, has too little Celerity to make a sensible impression on the or­gans of smelling, unless those Steams be assisted to beat more forcibly upon the Nostrils by the Air, which hurries them along with it, when it enters the Nostrils in the form of a stream, in the act of Inspiration. And I have by familiar observation of Hunters, Fowlers, and partly of my own made manifest, that Setting-dogs, Hounds, Crows and some other ani­mals, will be much more affected with sents, or the odorous Effluvia of Par­tridges, Hares, Gunpowder, &c. when the Wind blows from the object to­wards the sensory, than when it sits the contrary way, which way soever the Nostrils of the animal be obverted, so the Air be imbued with the odorous Steams: And consequently the dif­ference seems to proceed from this, that when the Nostrils are obverted [Page 18] to the Wind, the Current of the Air drives the Steams forcibly upon the Sensory, which otherwise it does not.

That there is a briskness of motion requisite, and more than ordinarily conducive to Electrical attractions, may be argued from the necessity that we usually find by rubbing Amber, Jett, and other Electrical bodies, to make them emit those Steams, by which 'tis highly probable their action is performed: And though I have elsewhere shewn, that this precedent rubbing is not alwayes necessary to excite all Electrical bodies; yet in those that I made to attract without it, it would operate much more vi­gorously after attrition; which I con­conceive makes a reciprocal motion amongst the more stable parts, and does thereby as 'twere discharge and shoot out the attracting Corpuscles; whose real emission, though it may be probably argued from what has been already said, seems more strongly proveable by an Observation that [Page 19] I made many years ago, and which I have been lately inform'd to have been long since made by the very Learned Fabri. The Observation was this; That if, when we took a vigorously excited Electrick, we did at a certain nick of time (which circumstances may much vary, but was usually almost as soon as the body was well rubbed) place it at a just distance from a suspended Hair or other light body, or perhaps from some light powder; the Hair, &c. would not be attracted to the Ele­ctrick, but driven away from it, as it seem'd, by the briskly moving steams that issue out of the Amber or other light body.

This Argument I could confirm by another Phaenomenon or two of affi­nity with this, if I should not borrow too much of what I have elsewhere noted about the History of Electricity.

I know a certain substance, which though made by distillation, does in the cold emit but a very mild and inoffensive smell, but when the vessel [Page 20] that holds it is heated, though no separation of constituent Principles appear to be thereby made, (the Body being in all usual tryals homogeneous,) the Effluviums will be so altered, that I remember a Virtuoso, that, to satisfie his curiosity▪ would needs be smel­ling to it, when 'twas heated, com­plain'd to me, that he thought the Steams would have killed him, and that the Effluviums of Spirit of Sal Armoniack it self were nothing near so strong and piercing as those.

And even among solid Bodies, I know some, which, though abounding much in a substance wherein some rank smells principally reside, yet (if they were not chafed) were scarce at all sensibly odorous; but upon the rubbing of them a little one against the other, the attrition making them, as it were, dart out their Emissions, would in a minute or two make them stink egregiously.

And as the Celerity of motion may thus give a vigor to the Ema­nations of Bodies, so there may be [Page 21] other modifications of motion, that may contribute to the same thing, and are not to be wholly neglected in this place. For as we see, that greater Bodies do operate differingly accor­ding to such and such modifications; as there is a great difference between the effects of a Dart or Javelin, so thrown as that its point be alwayes forwards, and the same weapon if it be so thrown, that during its progressive motion the extremes turn about the Center of gravity or some inward parts, as it happens when Boyes throw sticks to beat down fruit from the tops of trees; so there is little doubt to be made, but that in Cor­puscles themselves 'tis not all one, as to their effects, whether they move with or without rotation, and whe­ther in such or such a line, and whe­ther with or without undulation, trembling or such a kind of conse­cution; and in short, whether the motion have or have not this or that particular modification; which how much it may diversifie the Effects [Page 22] of the Bodies moved, may appear by the Motion, that the Aerial par­ticles are put into by Musical In­struments. For, though the effects of harmony, discord and peculiar sounds be sometimes very great, not only in Human bodies, but, as we shall shew in the following Tract, in Or­ganical ones too; the whole efficacy of Musick and of Sounds that are not extraordinarily loud and different, seems, as far as 'tis ascribable to So­norous bodies, to depend upon the different manners of motion where­into that Air is put, that makes the immediate impression on our organs of hearing.

CHAP. V.

I Should now proceed to shew, how the Celerity and other modes, that diversifie the motion of Effluviums, may be assisted to make them operative by their determinate sizes and figures, [Page 23] and the congruity or incongruity which they may have upon that score with the Pores of the grosser Bodies they are to work on: But I think it not fit to entrench upon the subject of another Of the Pores of Bodies, and Figures of Cor­puscles. Tract, where the relation be­tween the figures of Cor­puscles and the Pores of grosser bo­dies is amply enough treated of. And therefore I shall only in this place take notice of those effects of Light­ning, which seem referable, partly to the Celerity and manner of Ap­pulse, and partly to the distinct sizes and shapes of the Corpuscles that compose the destructive matter, and to the peculiar relation between the particles of that matter and the stru­cture of the bodies they invade. I know that many strange things that are delivered about the Effects of what the Latins call Fulmen (which our English word Lightning does not adaequately render) are but fabulous; but there are but too many that are not so; some of which I have been [Page 24] an Eye-witness of, within less than a quarter of an hour after that the things happened. And though it be very difficult to explicate particularly many of these true Phenomena, yet it seems warrantable enough to argue from them, that there may be Agents so qualified, and so swiftly moved, that notwithstanding their being so exceedingly minute, as they must be, to make up a flame, which is a fluid Body, they must in an imperceptible time pervade solid Bodies, and tra­versing some of them without vio­lating their Texture, burn, break, melt, and produce other very great changes in other Bodies that are fitted to be wrought on by them. And of this I must not forget to mention this remarkable instance; That a person Curious enough to collect many rari­ties, bringing me one day into the Study where he kept the choicest of them, I saw there among other things a fine pair of Drinking-glasses that were somewhat slender, but extraor­dinarily tall; they seem'd to have [Page 25] been designed to resemble one another, and made for some drinking enter­tainment. But before I saw them, that resemblance was much lessen'd by the Lightning, that fell between them in so strange a manner, that, without breaking either of them, that I could perceive, it alter'd a little the figure of one of them, near the lower part of the Cavity; but the other was so bent near the same place as to make it stand quite awry, and give it a posture, that I beheld not without some amazement. And I cannot yet but look upon it as a very strange thing, and no less considerable to our present purpose, that Nature should in the free Air make of Exha­lations, and that such as probably when they ascended were invisible, such an aggregate of Corpuscles, as should without breaking such frail Bodies as Glasses, be able in its passage thorow them, that is, in the twinkling of an Eye, to melt them; which to do is wont even in our Reverberatory Furnaces to cost [Page 26] that active flames a pretty deal of time.

And this calls into my memory, that upon a time, hearing not far off from me such a clap of Thunder as made me judge and say, that question­less some of the neighbouring places were thunder-strook, I sent presently to make inquiry; which having justi­fied my conjecture, I forthwith re­paired to the house, where the mis­chief was done, by something, which those, that pretended to have seen it coming thither, affirm'd to be like a flame moved very obliquely. To omit the hurt, that seemed to have been done by a Wind that accompa­nied it, or was perhaps produced by it, to divers persons and cattel; that which makes me here mention it, was, that observing narrowly what had happen'd in an upper room, where it first fell, I saw, that it had in more than one place melted the Lead in its passage, (though that possibly outlasted not the twinkling of an Eye,) without breaking to [Page 27] pieces the glass-casements, or burning (that I took notice of) either the Bed or Hangings or any other combustible houshold-stuff; though near the win­dow it had thrown down a good quan­tity of the solid substance of the Wall, through which it seem'd to have made its passage in or out. And that, which made me the less scruple to mention this accident, is, that having curiously pry'd into the Effects of the Fulmen, not only in that little upper room, but in other parts of the House, beneath whose lowermost parts it seem'd to have ended its extravagant course, I could not but conclude, That if so be it were the same Ful­men, it must have more than once gone in and out of the House, and that the line of its motion was nei­ther straight, nor yet reducible to any curve or mixed line, that I had met with among Mathematicians; but that, as I then told some of my Friends, it moved to and fro in an extravagant manner, not unlike the irregular and wrigling motion of [Page 28] those fired Squibs that Boys are wont to make by ramming Gunpowder into Quills. But about Thunder more perhaps elsewhere. I shall here only add, That whereas 'tis a known Tra­dition, which my own Observations heedfully made seem now and then to confirm, that vehement Thunder, if Beer be not very strong, will usually (for I do not say alwayes) sowre it in a day or two; if this degeneration be not one of the consequences of the great and peculiar kinds of the con­cussions of the Air that happens in lowd Thunder (in which case the Phenomenon will belong to the next Discourse,) the effect may probably be imputed to some subtile Exhala­tions diffused thorow the Air, which, penetrating the pores of the Wooden vessels, whose contexture is not very close, imbue the liquor with a kind of acetous Ferment; which conje­cture I should think much confirmed by a tryal, it suggested to me, if I had made it often enough to rely upon it. For considering that the [Page 29] pores of Glass are straight enough to be impervious (for ought I have yet observed) to the Steams or spiri­tuous parts of Sulphur as well as to other odorous Exhalations, I thought it worth trying, whether there be any sulphureous Steams or other Cor­puscles diffused thorow the Air in time of Thunder, that would not be too gross to get in at such minute pores as those of Glass. And ac­cordingly having Hermetically sealed up both Beer and Ale apart, I kept them in Summer time till there hap­pen'd a great Thunder, a day or two, after which the Beer which we drank, that was good before, being generally complained of as sowred by the Thun­der, I suffer'd my liquors to continue at least a day or two longer, that the sowring Steams, if any such there were, might have time enough to operate upon them, and then breaking the Glasses, I found not that the li­quors had been sowred, though we had purposely forborn to fill the Glas­ses, to facilitate the degeneration of [Page 30] the liquors. Perhaps it will be par­donable on this occasion to mention a practice, which is usual in some places where I have been, and parti­cularly employ'd by a great Lady, that is a great house-keeper, and is very curious and expert in divers Physical Observations; for, talking with her about the remedies of the Sowring of Beer and other drinks by Thunder, which is sometimes no small prejudice to her, she affirm'd to me, that she usually found the pra­ctice, I was mentioning, succeed: And that before the then last great Thunder, of which I had observed the Effects upon Beer, she preserved hers by putting, at a convenient di­stance, under the Barrels, Chaffing-dishes of Coals, when she perceiv'd that the Thunder was like to begin, which practice, if it constantly suc­ceed, may put one a considering, whe­ther the Fire do not by rarifying the Air and discussing the sulphureous or other Steams, by altering them, or by uniting with them the Exhalations [Page 31] of the Coals, or by some such kind of way, render ineffectual these sowring Corpuscles, which perhaps require a determinate bulk and shape, besides their being crowded very many of them together, to have their full Operation on Barrell'd Liquors. But these things are but meer Conjectures, and therefore I proceed.

CHAP. VI.

THE fifth way whereby Efflu­viums may perform notable things, is the Motion of one part upon another, that they may excite or oc­casion in the Body they work on according to its structure.

I shall in the following Tract have occasion to say something of the Mo­tions into which the Internal parts of Inanimate Bodies may put one ano­ther; but the Examples now produ­ced are designed to manifest the Effi­cacy, that Effluviums may, on the [Page 32] newly mentioned accounts, have on Organical and living Bodies. To which Instances it would yet be pro­per to premise, That even Inanimate and Solid Bodies may be of such a structure as to be very much alterable by the appropriated Effluviums of other Bodies, as may be instanc'd in the power, that I have known some vigorous Loadstones to have, of taking away in a trice the attractive virtue of an excited Needle, or giving a verticity directly contrary to the for­mer without so much as touching it.

And we may pertinently take no­tice of the attractive virtue of the Loadstone, as that, which may afford us an eminent Example of the great power of a multitude of invisible Ef­fluviums, even from Bodies that are not great, upon Bodies that are Inor­ganical or liveless: For taking it for granted, what both the Epicureans, Cartesians, and almost all other Cor­puscularian Philosophers agree in, that Magnetism is performed by cor­poreal Emissions, we may consider, [Page 33] that these passing unresistedly thorow the pores of all solid Bodies, and even Glass it self, which neither the sub­tilest Odours nor Electrical Exhala­tions are observ'd to do, seem to be almost incredibly minute, and much smaller than any other Effluviums, though themselves too small to be visible; and yet these so incompara­bly little Magnetical Effluxions pro­ceeding from vigorous Loadstones, will be able to take up considerable quantities of so ponderous a Body as Iron; in so much that I have seen a Loadstone not very great, that would keep suspended a weight of Iron, that I could hardly lift up to it with one Arm; and I have seen a little one, with which I could take up above eighty times its weight. And these Effluvia do not only for a moment fasten the Iron to the Stone, but keep the Metal suspended as long as one pleases.

This being premised, I come now to observe, That the chief effects of Effluvia belonging to the fifth Head [Page 34] are wrought upon Animals, which by virtue of their curious and elabo­rate structure, have their parts so connected and otherwise contrived, that the motions or changes that are produced in one, may have by the consent of Parts a manifest operation upon others, although perhaps very distant from it, and so fram'd as to declare their being affected by actions that seem to have no affinity at all with the Agents that work upon the part first affected.

I have shewn at large in another The Ʋseful­ness of Expe­rimental Phi­losophy.Treatise, that a Humane Body ought not to be look'd upon meerly as an aggregate of Bones, Flesh, and other consistent parts, but as a most curious and a living Engin, some of whose parts, though so nicely fram'd as to be very easily affected by external Agents, are yet capable of having great Operations upon the other parts of the Body, they help to compose. Wherefore without now repeating what is there already de­liver'd, [Page 35] I shall proceed to deliver such Effects as are wrought on Human Bodies by these Effluviums without any immediate contact of the Bodies that emit them.

And first, not to mention Light, because its being or not being a Cor­poreal thing is much disputed even among the Moderns; 'tis plain, that our organs of Smelling are sensibly affected by such minute Particles of matter as the finest odours consist of. Nor do they alwayes affect us pre­cisely as odours, since we see, that many persons, both men and women, are by Smells, either sweet or stink­ing, put into troublesom Headaches.

If it were not almost ordinary, it would be more than almost incredi­ble, that the smell of a pleasing Per­fume should presently produce in a Human Body, that immediately be­fore was well and strong, such faint­nesses, swoons, loss of sensible respi­ration, intumescence of the Abdomen, seeming Epilepsies, and really con­vulsive motions of the Limbs, and [Page 36] I know not how many other fright­full Symptoms, that by the unskilful are often taken for the effects of Witchcraft, and would impose upon Physicians themselves, if their own or their Predecessors Experience did not furnish them with Examples of the like Phaenomena produc'd by Na­tural means. Those Symptoms ma­nifest, what the consent of Parts may do in a Humane Body; since even Morbifick Odours, if I may so call them, by immediately affecting the organs of Smelling, affect so many other parts of the genus Nervosum, as oftentimes to produce Convulsive motions, even in the extreme parts of the Hands and Feet.

Nor is the efficacy of Effluviums confined to produce Hysterical fits, since these invisible Particles may be able (and sometimes as suddenly as Perfumes are wont to excite them) to appease them, as I have very frequently, though not with never­failing success, tryed, by holding a Spirit, I usually make of Sal Armo­niack, [Page 37] under the Nostrils of Hysterical persons. My remedy did not only often recover, in a trice, those whose Fits were but ordinary, but did more than once, somewhat to the wonder of the By-standers, relieve, within a Minute or two, persons of diffe­ring Ages and Constitutions, that were suddenly fallen down by Fits, that the By-standers judg'd Epileptical, (but I, Hysterical.)

I attribute the good and evil Ope­rations of the fore-mentioned Steams, rather in general to the consent of the parts that make up the genus Nervosum, than to any hidden Sym­pathy or Antipathy betwixt them and the Womb, not only for other reasons, not proper to be insisted on here, but because I have known Odours have notable Effects even upon Men. I know a very eminent person, a Traveller, and a man of a strong constitution, but considerably Sanguine, who is put into violent Head-aches by the Smell of Musk. And I remember, that one day being [Page 38] with him and a great many other men of note about a Publick Affair, a man that had a parcel of Musk about him, having an occasion to make an application to us, this person was so disordered by the smell, which to most of us was delightful, that in spight of his Civility he was reduc'd to make us an Apology, and send the perfumed man out of the room, not­withstanding whose recess this per­son complained to me, a good while after, of a violent pain in his Head, which I perceived had somewhat unfitted him for the Transaction of the Affair whereof he was to be the chief manager. I know another person, whose happy Muse hath justly made him many Admirers, that is subject to the Head-ach upon so mild a smell as that of Damask-Roses, and some­times even of Red-Roses, in so much that walking one day with him in a Garden, whose Alleys were very large, so that he might easily keep himself at a distance from the Bushes, which bore many of them Red-Roses; [Page 39] he abruptly broke off the discourse we were engag'd in, to complain of the harm the Perfume did his Head, and desired me to pass into a Walk, that had no Roses growing near it.

If it were not for the Sex of this person, I could relate an Instance that would be much more considerable of the Operation of Roses. For I know a discreet Lady to whom their smell is not unpleasing, (for she answer'd me that 'twas not so at all,) but so hurtful, that it presently makes her sick, and would make her swoon if not seasonably prevented: And she told me that being once at a Court in which she was a Maid of Honour, though she her-self did not know whence it came, she found her self extremely ill on a sudden, and ready to sink down for faintness; but being then in discourse with a person, whose High Quality she payd her profound respect to, her Civility, that kept her from complaining or withdrawing, might have been dangerous if not fatal to her, had not the Princess [Page 40] who was speaking with her, and who knew her Antipathy to Roses, taken notice that her Face grew strangely pale, and was covered with a cold sweat. For thereby presently guessing what might be the cause, which the sick Lady her self did not, she asked aloud whether some body had not brought Roses (which were then in season) into the Bed-chamber, which question occasioned a speedy withdrawing of a Lady, that stood at a distance off, and had about her Roses, which were not seen by the Patient, who was by this means pre­served from falling into a swoon, though not from being for a while very much discomposed.

But this you may tell me was the case of a Woman, who complain'd her malady affected her Heart, not her Head. Wherefore returning to what I was speaking of before I mention'd Her, I shall proceed to tell you, that as Odours may thus give Men the Head­ach, so I have often found the smell of rectified-Spirit of Sal Armoniack [Page 41] to free Men as well as Women from the Fits of that distemper; and that sometimes in so few Minutes, that the person reliev'd could scarcely imagine, they could so quickly be so.

To which I shall not add the Tryals that I have successfully made upon my self, because being, thanks be to God, very seldom troubled with that distemper, the occasions I have had of making them have not been many. And though I have not alwayes found so slight a Remedy to work the de­sired Cure, yet that it does it often, even in Men, is sufficient to shew the Efficacy of Sanative Effluviums.

Now, to manifest, that Steams do not Operate only upon Hysterical Women, or persons subject to the Head-ach, I will add some Instances of the Effects they may produce upon other persons, and parts.

'Tis but too well known an Ob­servation, that Women with Child have been often made to miscarry by the stink of an ill-extinguisht Candle, [Page 42] though perhaps the smoak ascending from the Snuff were dissipated into the invisible Corpuscles, a good while before it arriv'd at the Nostrils of the unhappy Woman; and what violent and straining motions Abor­tions are frequently accompanied with, is sufficiently known already.

I think I have elsewhere men­tioned, that a Gentleman of my ac­quaintance, a proper and lusty man, will be put into the fits of Vomiting by the smell of Coffee, boyl'd in Wa­ter; I shall therefore rather mention, that I know a Physician, who having been, for a long time when he was young, frequently compelled to take Electuarium lenitivum, one of the gentlest and least unpleasant Laxa­tives of the Shops, conceived such a dislike of it, that still, as himself has complained to me, if he smell to it, as he sometimes happens to do in Apothecaries Shops, it will work (now and then for several times) up­wards and downwards with him.

I know another very ingenious [Page 43] persons of the same faculty, that has been a Traveller by Sea and Land, who has complain'd to me, that the smell of the Grease of the Wheels of a Hackney-coach, though it do but pass by him, is wont to make him sick and ready to Vomit.

Every body knows, that Smoak is apt to make mens Eyes water, and excite in the organs of Respiration that troublesom and vehement com­motion we call Coughing. But we need not have recourse at all to visible Fumes, for the production of the like Effects; since we have often observed them, and repeated Sneezings to boot, to proceed from the invisible Steams of Spirit of Sal Armoniack, when Vials containing that liquor, though they were perhaps but very small, were approached too hastily, or perhaps too near to the Nostrils.

And because in most of the fore­going Instances, the chief Effects seem to be wrought, by the consent of parts, on the genus Nervosum and the action of one of them upon the [Page 44] other, and thereby upon several other parts of the Body, I will subjoyn a remarkable instance of the Operation of a mild and grateful Odour upon the Humors themselves, and that in a Man.

A famous Apothecary, who is a very tall and big man, several times told me, that though he was once a great lover of Roses, yet having had occasion to employ great quantities of them at a time, he was so altered by their Steams, that now, if he come among the Rose-bushes, the smell does much discompose him. And the odour of Roses, (I mean Incarnate-Roses, which we commonly call Damask-Roses, though they be not the true ones,) makes such a colli­quation of Humors in his Head, that it sets him a coughing, and makes him run at the Nose, and gives him a sore throat; and by an affluence of Humors makes his Eyes sore, in so much that during the season of Roses, when quantities of them are brought into his House, he is oblig'd [Page 45] for the most part to absent himself from home.

CHAP. VII.

ONE may shew on this occasion, that as there might be consi­derable things performed by Efflu­viums, as they make one part of a living Engine work upon another by virtue of its structure, so the action of such invisible Agents may in divers cases be much promoted by the fa­brick and laws of the Universe it self, upon this account, that, by the Ope­ration of Effluvia upon particular Bo­dies, they may dispose and qualifie those Bodies to be wrought upon, which before they were not fit to be, by Light, Magnetisms, the Atmo­sphere, Gravity or some other of the more Catholick Agents of Nature, as the World is now constituted. But not to injure another Tract, I shall con­clude this, when I shall have taken [Page 46] notice, that in the Instances hitherto produced, there has been a visible Local distance between the Body that emits Steams, and that on which they work. But if I thought it necessary, it were not difficult to shew, that one might woll enough referr to the title of this Tract divers Effects of Bodies that are applied immediately to ours; such as are Blood-stones, Cornelions, Nephritick-stones, Lapis Malacensis, and some Amulets, and other solid substances applied by Phy­sicians outwardly to our Bodies. For in these applications the gross Body touches but the Skin, and the great Effects, which I elsewhere relate my self to have sometimes (though not often, much less alwayes) observed to have followed upon this External contact or near application, may reasonably be derived from the subtle Emanations, that pass thorow the Pores of the Skin to the inward parts of the Body: As is evident in those, who by holding Cantharides in their Hands, or having them apply'd [Page 47] to some remote External part, have grievous pains produc'd in their Urinary parts, as it has happen'd to Me as well as to many others. And to the insinuation of these minute Corpuscles, that get in at the Pores of the Skin, seems to be due the Effi­cacy of some Medicines, that purge, vomit, resolve the Humors, or other­wise notably alter the Body being but externally applied; of which I could here give several Instances, but that they belong more properly to another place, and are not necessary in this, where it may suffice to name the notorious Power, that Mercurial Oyntments or Fumes, either together or apart, have of producing Copious Salvations, to shew in general, that both the Steams and the Emanations of outwardly applied Medicinal Bo­dies may have some great Effects on Human ones.

CHAP. I.

THE Effluviums of Bodies, Pyrophilus, being for the most part invisible, have been wont to be so little consider'd by vulgar Philosophers, that scarce vouchsafing to take notice of their Existence, 'tis no wonder that men have not been solicitous to discover their distinct Natures and Differen­ces. Only Lib. 1. Meteor. cap. 3, & 4. Aristotle, and (upon his account) the Schools, have been pleased to [Page 4] think, that the two grand parts of our Globe do sometimes emit two kinds of Exhalations or Steams; the Earthy part affording those that are hot and dry, which they name Fumes, and very often, simply, Exhalations; and the Aqueous part, others that are (not as many of his Disciples mistake him to have taught, Cold and Moist, but) Hot and Moist Cap. 3. [...]., which they usually call Vapours, to discri­minate them from the Fumes (or Exhalations,) though other­wise, in common acceptation, those Appellations are very frequently con­founded.

But, though the Aristotelians have thus perfunctorily handled this Sub­ject, it would not become Corpuscu­larian Philosophers, who attribute so much as they do to the Insensible Particles of Matter, to acquiesce in so slight and jejune an account of the Emanations of Bodies. And since we have already shewn, that besides the greater and more simple Masses [Page 5] of Terrestrial and Aqueous matter newly mention'd, there are very ma­ny mixt Bodies, that emit Effluviums, which make, as it were, little Atmo­spheres about divers of them, it will be congruous to our Doctrine and Design, to add in this place, That besides the slight and obvious dif­ferences, taken notice of by Aristotle, the Steams of Bodies may be almost as various as the Bodies themselves that emit them; and that therefore we ought not to look upon them barely under the general and confused notion of Smoak or Vapours, but may probably conceive them to have their distinct and determinate Na­tures, oftentimes (though not always) suitable to that of the Bodies from whence they proceed.

And indeed the newly mentioned Division of the Schools gives us so slight an account of the Emanations of Bodies, that, methinks, it looks like such another, as if one should divide Animals into those that are Horned, and those that have Two Feet: [Page 6] For, besides that the Distinction is taken from a Difference that is not the considerablest, there are divers Animals (as many four-footed Beasts and Fishes) that are not comprised in it; and each member of the Divi­sion comprehends I know not how many distinct sorts of Animals, whose differences from one another are ma­ny times more considerable, than those that constitute the two supreme Genus's, the one having Bulls and Goats, and Rhinoceros's, and Deer, and Elks, and certain Sea-Monsters whose Horns I have seen; and the other Genus comprising also a greater Variety, namely, a great part of Four-footed Beasts, and, besides Men, all the Birds (for ought we know) whether of Land or Water. And as it would give us but a very slender Information of the Nature of an Elk or an Unicorn, to know that 'tis an Horned Beast; or of the Nature of a Man, an Eagle, or a Nightingale, to be told, that 'tis an Horn-less Beast; so it will but very little instruct a man [Page 7] in the Nature of the Steams of Quick­silver or of Opium, to be told, that they are Vapours Hot (or rather Cold) and Moist; or of the Steams of Amber or Cantharides, or Cinnamon, or Tobacco, to be told, that they are Hot and Dry. For, besides that there may be Effluviums, which, even by their Elementary Qualities, are not of either of these two supreme Genus's, (for they may be Cold and Dry, or Cold and Moist,) these Qua­lities are often far from being the Noblest, and consequently those that deserve to be most consider'd in the Effluviums of this, or that, Body; as we shall by and by have occasion to manifest.

CHAP. II.

ANd here it may not be impro­per to mention an Experiment, that, I remember, I divers years since [Page 8] employed to illustrate the Subject of our present Discourse.

I consider'd then, that Fluid Bo­dies may be of very unequal density and gravity, as is evident in Quick­silver, Water and pure Spirit of Wine; which, notwithstanding their great difference in specifick gravity, may yet agree in the conditions re­quisite to Fluid Bodies. Therefore presuming, that by what I could make appear visible in one, what happens analogically in the other, may be ocu­larly illustrated, I took some Ounces of Roch-allom, and as much of fine Salt-peter. I took some Ounces of each, because, if the quantity of the in­gredients be too small, the concoagu­lated grains will be so too, and the success will not be so conspicuous. These being dissolved together in fair Water, the filtrated solution was set to evaporate in an open-mouthed Glass, and being then left to shoot in a cool place, there were fastned to the sides and other parts of the Glass seve­ral small Crystals, some Octoedrical, [Page 9] which is the figure proper to Roch­allom, and others of the Prismatical shape of pure Salt-peter; besides some other Saline concretions, whose be­ing distinctly of neither of these two shapes, argued them to be concoagu­lations of both the Salts. And this we did by using such a degree of Ce­lerity in Evaporating the liquor, as was proper for such an effect. For, by another degree, which is to be employ'd when one would recover the Salts more distinctly and mani­festly, the matter may (as I found by tryal) be so ordered, that the alu­minous Salt may, for the most part, be first coagulated by it self, and then from the remaining liquor curiously shap'd Crystals of Nitre may be co­piously obtained.

Tryals like this we also made with other Salts, and particularly with Sea-Salt, and with Allom and Vitriol; the Phaenomena of which you may meet with in their due places. For the recited Experiment may, I hope, alone serve to assist the imagination [Page 10] to conceive, how the Particles of Bo­dies may swim to and fro in a Fluid, (which the Air is,) and though they be little enough to be invisible, may many of them retain their distinct and determinate natures, and their aptness to cohere upon occasion; and others may, by their various occur­sions and coalitions, unite into lesser Corpuscles or greater Bodies differing from the more simple Particles, that composed them, and yet not of inde­terminate though compounded Fi­gures.

CHAP. III.

THese things being premis'd, we may now proceed to the parti­cular Instances of the Determinate Nature of Effluviums; and these we may not inconveniently reduce to the three following Heads, to each of which we shall assign a distinct Chapter; the first of these I shall [Page 11] briefly treat of in this third Chapter, and treat somewhat more largely of the others in the two following.

In the first place then, That the Effluviums of many Bodies retain a determinate Nature oftentimes in an invisible smallness, and oftener in such a size as makes them little enough to fly or swim in the Air; may ap­pear by this, that these Effluvia being by Condensation or otherwise reuni­ted, they appear to be of the same nature with the Body that emitted them. Thus in moist weather, the Vapours of Water, that wander invisibly through the Air, meeting with Marble-Walls or Pavements, or other Bodies, by their Coldness and other Qualifications, fit to condense and retain them, appear again in the form of Drops of Water; and the same Vapours return to the visible form of Water, when they fall out of the Air in Dews, or Rains.

Quicksilver it self, if it be made to ascend in distillation with a con­venient degree of Fire, will almost all [Page 12] be found again in the Receiver in the form of running Mercury. Which strange and piercing Fluid, is in some cases so disposed to be strip'd of its Dis­guises, and re-appear in its own form, that divers Artificers, and especially Gilders, have found, to their cost, that the fumes of it need not be, as in Distillation, included in close Ves­sels to return to their pristine nature, Mercury having been several times found in the Heads and other parts of such People, who have in tract of time been killed by it, and some­times made to discover it self during the Lives of those that dealt so much in it; of which I elsewhere give some Instances. Wherefore I shall only observe at present, that 'tis a common Practice, both among Gil­ders, and some Chymists, that, when they have occasion to make an Amalgam, or force away the Mer­cury from one by the fire, they keep Gold in their Mouthes, which by the Mercurial fumes, that wander through the Air, will now and then, [Page 13] by that time 'tis taken out of their Mouths, be turned white almost, as if it had been silver'd over.

A mass of purified Brimstone being sublimed, the ascending fumes will condense into what the Chymists call Flores Sulphuris, which is true Sulphur of the same nature with that, for­merly exposed to sublimation; and may readily by melting be reduced into such another mass.

And to give you another like Ex­ample of dry Bodies; I tryed, that by subliming good Camphire in close vessels, it would all, as to sense, be raised into the upper vessel, or part of the Subliming-glass in the form of dry Camphire as it was before.

Nay though a Body be not by Na­ture, but Art compounded of such differing Bodies as a Metal and ano­ther Mineral, and two or three Salts; yet, if upon Purification of the mix­ture from its grosser parts, the re­maining and finer parts be minute enough and fitly shap'd, the whole liquor will ascend, and yet in the [Page 14] Receiver altogether recover its pri­stine form of a transparent Fluid, composed of differing Saline and Mi­neral parts. This is evident in the Distillation of what Chymists call Butter, or Oyl of Antimony, very well rectified. For, this Liquor will pass into the Receiver diaphanous and fluid, though, besides the Particles of the Sublimate, (which is it self a factitious compounded Body) it abounds with Antimonial Corpuscles, carried over and kept invisible by the corroding Salts; whatever Angelus Sala, and those Chymists that follow him, have affirm'd to the contrary; as might be easily here proved, if this were a fit place to do it in.

I found by inquiring of an Inge­nious person, that had an interest in a Tin-Mine, that I was not deceived in guessing, that Tin it self, though a Metal whose Ore is of a very diffi­cult fusion, and which I have by it self kept long upon the Cupel with­out finding it to fly away, would yet retain its Metalline nature in the form [Page 15] of fumes or flowers. For this expe­rienc'd Gentleman answer'd me, that divers times they would take great store of a whitish Sublimate from the upper part of the Furnaces or Chim­nies, where they brought their Ore to fusion, or wrought further upon it; and that this Sublimate, though per­haps elevated to the height of an or­dinary Man, would, when melted down, afford at once many Pounds of very good Tin. On which occa­sion I shall add, that I have my self more than once raised this Metal in the form of white Corpuscles by the help of an Additament, that did scarce weigh half so much as it.

CHAP. IV.

THe second way, by which we may discover the Determinate Nature of Effluviums, is, by the difference that may sometimes be ob­serv'd in their Sensible Qualities. For, [Page 16] these Effluviums that are endow'd with them, proceed from the same sort of Bodies, and yet those afforded by one kind of Bodies being in many cases manifestly differing from those that fly off from another, this evident disparity in their Exhalations argues their retaining distinct natures, ac­cording to those of the respective Bodies whence they proceed.

I will not now stay to examine, whether in the Steams, that are made visibly to ascend from the Terrestrial Globe by those grand Agents and usual raisers of them, the Sun, and the agitation of the Air, the Eye can manifestly distinguish the diversity of colours: But in some productions of Art such different colours may be discovered in the Exhalations, even without the application of any ex­ternal heat to raise them. For, when Spirit of Nitre, for example, has been well rectified, I have often observ'd, that even in the cold the fumes would play in the unfill'd part of the stop'd Vials it was kept in, and appear in [Page 17] it of a reddish colour, and, if those vessels were open'd, the same fumes would copiously ascend into the Air, in the form of a reddish or orange-tawny Smoak. Spirit or Oyl of Salt also, if it be very well dephlegm'd, though it will scarce in the cold vi­sibly ascend in the empty part of a Vial, whilst it is kept well stop'd; yet, if the free Air be allow'd access to it, it will, in case it be sufficiently rectified, fly up in the form of a whitish fume. But this is inconside­rable in comparison of what happens in a volatile Tincture of Sulphur, I have elsewhere taught you to make with Quick-lime. For, not only upon a slight occasion the vacant part of the Vial will be fill'd with white fumes, though the Glass be well stop'd; but upon the opening the Vial these fumes will copiously pass out at the neck, and ascend into the Air in the form of a Smoak, more white than perhaps you ever saw any. And both this and that of the Spirit of Salt-peter do by their operation, as well as smell, [Page 18] disclose what they are; the latter being of a Nitrous nature, (as is con­fess'd) and the former, of a Sulphu­reous: In so much that having for curiosities sake in a fitly shap'd Glass caught a competent quantity of the ascending white fumes, I found them to have conven'd into Bodies transpa­rent and Geometrically figur'd, where­in 'twas easie to discover by their sensible qualities, that there were store of Sulphureous particles mixt with the Saline ones. That the liquors of Vegetables, distill'd in Balneo or in Water, are not wont to retain any thing of the colour of the Bodies that afforded them, is a thing easie to be observ'd in Distillations made with­out Retorts or the violence of the Fire. But it may be worth while to make tryal, whether the Essential Oyl of Wormwood ascend colour'd like the Plant, whence 'tis first drawn over with Water in the Limbec, or recti­fied in Balneo. For, I forgot to take notice of it, when upon some parti­cularities, I observ'd in that Plant, [Page 19] my curiosity led me to find, that not only in the first distillation in a Cop­per Limbec, tinn'd on the inside, the Oyl came over green, but by a recti­fication purposely made in a Glass-vessel, the purified liquor was not de­priv'd of that colour.

The mention of these Essential Oyls, as Chymists call those that are drawn in Limbecs, leads me to tell you, that, though these liquors be but Effluvia of the Vegetables they are distill'd from, condens'd again in the Receiver into liquors; yet, as subtile as they are, many of them retain the genuine taste of the Bodies, whence the heat elevated them; as you will easily find, if you will tast a few drops of the Essential Oyl of Cinamon, for example, or of Wormwood dissolv'd by the intervention of Sugar or Spirit of Wine in a convenient quantity of Water, Wine, or Beer. For, by this means you have the natural taste of this Spice or Herb. And Wormwood is a Plant, whose Effluvia do so retain the nature of the Body that parts with [Page 20] them, that I must not forbear to al­ledge here an Observation of mine, that may shew you, that 'tis possible, though not usual, that even without the help of the Fire the expirations of a Body may communicate its tast. For, among other things, that I had occasion to observe about some quan­tity of Wormwood laid up together, I remember, I took notice, and made others do the like, that coming into a room, where 'twas kept, not only the organs of smelling were power­fully wrought upon by the Corpuscles that swarm'd in the Air, but also the Mouth was sensibly affected with a bitter tast. Perhaps you will scarce think it worth while, that after this instance I should add, that I found the expirations of Amber, kept a while in pure Spirit of Wine, tast upon the tongue like Amber it self, when I chew'd it between my teeth. But I choose to mention this instance, be­cause it will connect those lately men­tion'd with another sort, very perti­nent to our present purpose. For, [Page 21] the expirations that I have obtain'd from Amber, both with pure Spirit of Wine, and a more piercing Men­struum, did manifestly retain in both those liquors a peculiar smell, with which I found it to affect the Nostrils, when, for tryals sake, I excited the Electrical faculty of Am­ber by rubbing. And as for Odours, 'tis plain, that the Essential Oyls of Chymists, well drawn, do many of them retain the peculiar and genuine sent of the Spices or Herbs that af­forded them. And that these Odours do really consist of, or reside in certain invisible Corpuscles that fly off from the visible Bodies, that are said to be endow'd with such Smells, I have elsewhere prov'd at large; and it may sufficiently appear from their sticking to divers of the Bodies they meet with, and their lasting adhesion to them.

Other Examples may be given of the setled difference of Effluviums directly perceivable by Humane Or­gans of Sense, as dull as they are; [Page 22] which last expression I add, because I scarce doubt, but that, if our Sen­sories were sufficiently subtile and tender, they might immediately per­ceive in the size, shape, motion, and perhaps colour too of some now invi­sible Effluviums, as distinguishable differences, as our naked Eyes in their present constitution see, between the differing sorts of Birds, by their ap­pearances, and their manner of flying in the Air, as Hawks, and Partridges, and Sparrows, and Swallows. To make this probable I will not urge, that in fine white Sand, whose grains by the unassisted Eye are not wont to be distinguished by any sensible Quality, I have often observ'd in an excellent Microscope, a notable dis­parity as to bulk, figure, and some­times as to colour: And that in small Cheese-mites, which the naked Eye can very scarcely discern, so far is it from discovering any difference be­tween them, one may (as was noted in the last essay) plainly see, besides an obvious difference in point of bigness, [Page 23] many particular parts, on whose ac­counts the structure of those moving points may difference them from each other. And I have sometimes seen a very evident disparity even in point of shape between the very Eggs of these living Atoms, (as a Poet would perhaps stile them.) But these kinds of proofs (as I was saying) I shall forbear to insist on, that I may pro­ceed to countenance my conjecture by the effects of the Effluviums, that are properly so call'd, upon Animals.

And first, though the Touch be reckon'd one of the most dull of the five Senses, and be reputed to be far less quick in Men than in divers other Animals; yet the gross Organs of that, may, in Men themselves, even by accident, be so dispos'd, as to be susceptible of impressions from Efflu­via: Of this in another Paper I give some Instances. And I know not whether divers of the Presages of Weather to be observ'd in some Ani­mals, and the Aches and other pains, that, in many crazy and wounded [Page 24] men, are wont to fore-run great changes of Weather, do not often (for I do not say alwayes) proceed (at least in part) from invisible and yet incongruous Effluxions, which, either from the subterraneal parts, or from some Bodies above ground, do copiously impregnate the Air. And on this occasion it will not be imper­tinent to mention here what an ex­perienc'd Physician being (if I much misremember not) the Learned Dim­merbrook, relates concerning himself, who having been infected with the Plague by a Patient that lay very ill of it, though by Gods blessing, which he particularly acknowledges, upon a slight but seasonable Remedy, he was very quickly cured, and that without the breaking of any Tumor; yet it left such a change in some parts of his Body, that he subjoyns this memorable passage; Ab illo periculo ad contagiosos mihi appropinquanti in emunctoriis successit dolor, vix fallax Pe­stis indicium.

Two or three other Observations [Page 25] of the like nature you meet with in another of my Papers About Cosmi­cal Suspitions.. And I shall now add, that I know an ingeni­ous Gentlewoman (Wife to a famous Physician) who was of a very curious and delicate complexion, that has seve­ral times assur'd me, that she can very readily discover, whether a person, that comes to visit her in Winter, came from some place where there is any considerable quantity of Snow; and this she does, (as she tells me) not by feeling any unusual cold (for if the ground be frozen but not cover'd with Snow, the Effect succeeds not,) but from some peculiar impression, which she thinks, she receives by the organs of Smelling. I might add, that I know also (as I may have for­merly told you) a very ingenious Physician, who falling into an odd kind of Feaver, had his sense of Hear­ing thereby made so very nice and tender, that he very plainly heard soft whispers, that were made at a consi­derable distance off, and which were [Page 26] not in the least perceiv'd by the healthy by-standers, nor would have been by him before his sickness. Which (sickness) I mention as the thing, that gave his organs of Hear­ing this preternatural quickness, be­cause when the Feaver had quite left him, he was able to hear but at the rate of other men. And I might tell you too, that I know a Gentleman of eminent parts and note, who, du­ring a distemper he had in his Eyes, had his organs of Sight brought to be so tender, that both his friends and himself also have assur'd me, that when he wak'd in the Night he could for a while plainly see and distinguish Colours, as well as other objects, di­scernable by the Eye, as was more than once try'd, by pinning Ribbands or the like Bodies of several colours, to the inside of his Curtains in the dark. For if he were awaken'd in the Night, he would be able to tell his bed-fellow, where those Bodies were plac'd, and what colour each of them was of.

[Page 27] I have mention'd these Instances only to shew you, that if our Senso­ries were more delicate and quick, they would be sufficiently affected by Objects, that, as they are generally constituted, make no impressions at all upon them. For otherwise I know, that the Species (as they call them) both of Sounds and Colours, are not held by many of the Moderns, (from whom in that I dissent not,) to be so much corporeal Effluxions, trajected through the medium, as peculiar kinds of Lo­cal Motion convey'd by it. There­fore I shall now confirm the conje­cture I would countenance by the dis­crimination made by the organs of other Animals of such Effluvia as to us men are not only invisible but in­sensible. And therefore partly to strengthen what I deliver'd, and partly to confirm what I am now dis­coursing of, it will not be imperti­nent to subjoyn two or three Rela­tions, that I had from persons of very good credit, whom I thought likely to make me no unsatisfactory returns [Page 28] to my Questions about things they were very well vers'd in.

A person of Quality, to whom I am near allied, related to me, that to make a tryal, whether a young Blood-hound was well instructed, (or as the Huntsmen call it, made) he caus'd one of his Servants, who had not kill'd, or so much as touch'd any of his Deer, to walk to a Countrey-town, four Mile off, and then to a Market-town three Miles distant from thence; which done, this Nobleman did, a competent while after, put the Blood-hound upon the scent of the man, and caus'd him to be follow'd by a Servant or two, the Master him­self thinking it also fit to go after them to see the event; which was, that the Dog, without ever seeing the Man he was to pursue, follow'd him by the scent to the above-mentioned places, notwithstanding the multi­tude of Market-people that went along in the same way, and of Travellers that had occasion to cross it. And when the Blood-hound came to the [Page 29] chief Market-town, he pass'd through the streets, without taking notice of any of the people there, and left not till he had gone to the House, where the Man, he sought, rested himself, and found him in an upper Room to the wonder of those that follow'd him. The particulars of this Narrative the Nobleman's Wife, a person of great veracity, that happen'd to be with him when the tryal was made, con­firm'd to me.

Enquiring of a studious person, that was Keeper of a Red-dear-park and vers'd in making Blood-hounds, in how long time, after a Man or Deer had pass'd by a grassy place, one of those Dogs would be able to follow him by the scent? He told me, that it would be six or seven Hours: Whereupon an ingenious Gentleman, that chanc'd to be present, and liv'd near that Park, assur'd us both, that he had old Dogs of so good a scent, that if a Buck had the day before pass'd in a Wood, they will, when they come where the scent lies, [Page 30] though at such a distance of time after, presently find the scent and run directly to that part of the Wood where the Buck is. He also told me, that though an old Blood-hound will not so easily fix on the scent of a single Deer, that presently hides himself in a whole herd; yet if the Deer be chas'd a little till he be heated, the Dog will go nigh to single him out, though the whole herd also be chas'd. The above-nam'd Gentleman also af­firm'd, that he could easily distinguish whether his Hounds were in chase of a Hare or a Fox by their way of running, and their holding up their Nose higher than ordinary when they pursue a Fox, whose scent is more strong. These Relations will not be judg'd incredible by him that reflects on some of the Instances that have already (in the foregoing Essay) been given of the strange subtilty of Ef­fluvia: To which I shall now add, that I remember, that to try whether I could in some measure make Art imitate Nature, I prepared a Body [Page 31] of a vegetable substance, which, though it were actually cold, and both to the Eye and Touch dry, did for a while emit such determinate and piercing, though invisible, Exhala­tions, that having for Tryals sake applied to it a clear Metalline Plate (and that of none of the very softest kind neither) for about one Minute of an Hour, I found, that, though there had▪ been no immediate contact be­tween them, I having pursposely in­terposed a piece of Paper to hinder it; yet there was imprinted on the sur­face of the Plate a conspicuous stain of that peculiar colour, that the Bo­dy, with whose Steams I had imbued the vegetable substance, was fitted to give a Plate of that mix'd Metal. And though it be true, that in some circumstances, the lately mention'd Instances about Blood-hounds have a considerable advantage of this I have now recited; yet that advan­tage is much lessen'd, not to say coun­tervail'd, by some circumstances of our Experiment. For, not to repeat, [Page 32] that the emittent Body was firm and cold, the Effect produced by the Effluvium that guided the Setting­dog, was wrought upon the Senso­ry of a living and warm Animal; and such an one, whose organs of Smelling are of an extraordinary ten­der Constitution above those of Men and other Animals, and probably the Impression was but transient; whereas in our case the invisible Steams of the vegetable substance wrought upon a Body which was of so strong and inorganical a Texture as a (compounded) Metal, though it were fenc'd by being lapt up in Pa­per, notwithstanding which these Steams invaded it in such numbers, and so notably, as to make their Ope­ration on it manifest to the Eye, and considerably permanent too; since coming to look upon the Plate after the third day, I found the induced Colour yet conspicuous, and not like suddenly to vanish.

Hitherto in this Chapter I have argued from the constant and setled [Page 33] difference of the sensible Qualities of Effluviums, that they do not always lose their distinct natures, when they seem to have lost themselves by va­nishing into Air. But before I dis­miss this Subject, I must consider an Objection, which I know may be made against the Opinion we have been countenancing. For it may be alledg'd, that there may be many cases, wherein the Effluviums of Bo­dies are, in their passage through the Air, sensibly alter'd, or do affect the Organs of sense otherwise than each kind of them apart would do: Nor is this difficulty altogether irrational. For it seems consonant enough to Ex­perience, that some such cases should be admitted, and therefore in the fore­going Discourse I have, where I thought it necessary, forborn to ex­press my self in such general and abso­lute terms, as otherwise I might have done. But, as for such cases as I have insisted upon, and many more, I shall now represent, that the objected al­terations need not hinder, but that [Page 34] Effluviums at their first parting from the Bodies, whence they take wing (if I may so speak,) may retain as much of the nature of those Bodies, as we have ascribed to them, since the subsequent change may very pro­bably be deduc'd from the combina­tions or coalitions of divers Steams associating themselves in the Air, and acting upon the Sensory, either altogether and conjointly, or at least so near it, that the Sense cannot per­ceive their Operations as distinct. This I shall elucidate, but not pre­tend to prove, by what happens in Sounds and Tasts. For if, by way of instance, in a Musical instrument, two strings tun'd to an eight, be touch'd together, they will strike the Ear with a sound, that will be judg'd one, as well as pleasing, though each of the trembling strings make a di­stinct noise, and the one vibrates as fast again as the other. And if, into Oyl of Tartar per Deliquium, you drop a due proportion of Spirit of Nitre, and exhale the superfluous moisture, [Page 35] the Acid and Alcalizate Corpuscles, that were so small as to swim invi­sibly in those liquors, will convene into Nitrous Concretions, whose tast will be compounded of, but very differing from, both the tasts of the Acid and Tartareous Particles; which Particles may yet, for the most part, by a skilful Distillation, be divorc'd again. And so, if to a strong solu­tion of Pot-ashes or Salt of Tartar you put as much in weight of Sal Armoniack, as there is of either of those fixt Salts contain'd in the liquor; you may, besides a subtil Urinous Spirit that will easily come over in the distillation, obtain a dry Caput mortuum, which is almost totally a compounded Salt, differing enough from either of the ingredients, espe­cially the Alcalizate, as well in Tast as in some other Qualities: This Salt (free'd from its faeces) being that Di­uretick Salt, I several years ago gave quantities of, to some Chymists and Physicians, from the most of whom I received great thanks, accompanied [Page 36] with the (more acceptable) accounts of the very happy success they had employed it with, though usually but in a small Dose, as from six, eight or ten Grains to a Scruple. But this being mentioned only upon the by, I shall proceed to tell you, that, since I intimated to you already, that I would mention Examples of Sounds and Tasts only to illustrate what I had been delivering; I shall now add some Instances by way of Proof, of the Coalition and resulting change of Steams in the Air. 'Tis easily ob­servable in some Nose-gays, where the differing Flowers happen to be conveniently mix'd, that in the smell afforded by it, at a due distance, the Odours of the particular Flowers are not perceiv'd, but the Organ is af­fected by their joynt-action, which makes on it a confused but delightful impression. And so, when in a Ball of Pomander, or a perfum'd Skin, Musk, and Amber, and Civet, and other sweets are skilfully mix'd, the coalition of the distinct Effluvia of the [Page 37] ingredients, that associate themselves in their passage through the Air, pro­duce in the Sensory one grateful per­fume, resulting from all those Odours. But if you take Spirit of fermented Urine and Spirit of Wine, both of them Phelgmatick, and mix them together, they will incorporate like Wine and Water, or any other such liquors, without affording any dry concretions. But if you expose them in a convenient Vessel but to the mild heat of a Bath or Lamp, the ascending Particles will associate themselves, and adhere to the upper part of the Glass in the form of a white but tender Sublimate, consist­ing both of Urinous and Vinous Spi­rits, associated into a mixture, which differs from either of the liquors, not only in Consistence, Tast and Smell, but in some considerable Operations performable by this odd mixture; which, this is not the place, to take further notice of. And if Spirit of Salt and Spirit of Nitre be, by Distil­lation, elevated in the form of Fumes, [Page 38] so order'd as to convene into one li­quor in the Receiver, this liquor will readily dissolve crude Gold, though neither the Spirit of Nitre alone, nor that of Salt would do so.

And that you may have an ocular proof of the Possibility of the distinct­ness and subsequent Commixture of Steams in the Air; I shall now add an Experiment, which I long since devis'd for that purpose, and which I soon after shew'd to many curious persons, most of whom ap­pear'd somewhat surpriz'd at it. The Experiment was; that I took two small Vials, the one fill'd with Spirit of Salt, but not very strong, the other with Spirit of fermented Urine or of Sal Armoniack very well rectified: These Vials being plac'd at some distance, and not being stop'd, each liquor afforded its own smell, at a pretty distance, by the Steams it emitted into the Air, but yet these Steams were invisible. But when these Vials, (which should be of the same size) came to be approach'd [Page 39] very near to each other, though not so, as to touch; as when the two liquors are put together in the form of liquors, they will notably act upon one another; so their respective Ef­fluviums meeting in the Air, would, answerably to the littleness of their bulk, do the like, and, by their mu­tual occursions, become manifestly visible, and appear moving in the Air like a little portion of Smoak or of a Mist, which would quickly cease, if either of the Vials were remov'd half a Foot or a Foot from the other. And I remember, that, to add to the oddness of the Phaenomenon, I some­times made a drop of the Spirit of Salt hang at the bottom of a little stick of Glass or some other conve­nient Body, and held this drop thus suspended in the Orifice of a Vial that had Spirit of Sal Armoniack in it, and was furnish'd with a somewhat long neck; for by this means it hap­pen'd, as I expected, that the ascend­ing Urinous Particles, though invi­sible before, invading plentifully the [Page 40] Acid ones of the drop, produced a notable Smoak, which, if the drop were held a little above the neck of the Glass, would most commonly fly upwards to the height of a Foot or half a Yard: But if the drop were held somewhat deep within the Ca­vity of the neck, a good part of the produced Smoak would oftentimes fall into the Cavity of the Vial, which was left in great part empty, some­times in the form of drops, but usually in the form of a slender and some­what winding stream of a white co­lour, that seem'd to flow down just like a Liquor from the depending drop, till it had reach'd the Spirit of Sal Armoniack; upon whose surface it would spread it self like a Mist. But this only upon the by. As for the main Experiment it self, it may be, as I have found, successfully try'd with other Liquors than these; but 'tis not necessary in this place to give an account of such Tryals; though perhaps, if I had leisure, it might be worth while to consider, whether [Page 41] these Coalitions of differing sorts of Steams in the Air, and the Changes resulting thence of their particular precedent Quantities, may not assist us to investigate the causes of divers sudden Clouds and Mists, and some other Meteorological Phaenomena, and also of divers changes that happen in the Air in reference to the coming in and ceasing of several either Epidemi­cal or contagious Diseases, and par­ticularly the Plague, that seem to de­pend upon some occult temperature and alterations of the Air, which may be copiously impregnated by the differing subterraneal (not to add here, Sidereal) Effluviums, that not unfrequently ascend into it (or other­wise invade it,) with Pestiferous or other Morbifick Corpuscles, and sometimes with others of a contrary Nature, and sometimes too perhaps, neither the one sort of Steams, which may be suppos'd to have imbued the Air, is in it self deleterious; nor the other salutary, but becomes so upon their casual coalition in the Air. You [Page 42] will perhaps think this Conjecture of the resultancy of pestilential Steams, the less improbable, if I here add that odd Observation, which was fre­quently made in the formerly men­tioned Plague at Nimmegen by a Phy­sician so Judicious as Tract. de Peste, lib. 2. cap. 3. Dimmerbrook, whose words are these; Illud notatu dignum saepissime observavimus, nempa in illis aedibus in quibus nulla ad­huc pestis erat, si linteamina sordida aquâ & sapone nostrate (ut in Belgio mo­ris est) illio lavarentur, eo ipso die, vel interdum postridie, duos tres-ve simul peste correptos fuisse, ipsique aegri test a­bantur faetorem aquae saponatae illis pri­mam & maximam alterationem intu­lisse. Hoc ipsum quoque in meo ipsius hospitio infelix experientia docuit, in quo post lota linteamina statim gravem alterationem perceperunt plaerique dome­stici, & proximè sequenti nocte tres peste correptae, ac brevi post mortuae fuere. I omit the Instances he further sets down to confirm this odd Phaenome­non, of which, though perhaps some [Page 43] other Cause may be devised, yet that I lately assign'd seems at least a pro­bable one, if not the most probable; since, as 'tis manifest by daily expe­rience, that the smell occasion'd by the washing of foul Linnen with the Soap commonly used in the Nether­lands, produces not the Plague; so by our Learned Author's Observation it appears, either that there were not yet any Pestilential Effluxions in the Air of those places, which on the occasions of those washings became infected, or at least that by the addi­tion of the fetid Effluvia of the soapy Water, those Morbifick Particles, that were dispers'd through the Air be­fore, had not the power to introduce a malignant constitution into the Air, and to act as truly Pestilential, till they were enabled to do so by being associated with the ill-scented Effluvia of the Soap.

Whether also Salutary, and, if I may so call them, Alexipharmacal Corpuscles may not be produc'd in the Air by Coalition, might be very [Page 44] well worth our Enquiry: Especially if we had a competent Historical Account of the yearly ceasing of the Plague at Grand Cayro. For, as I have elsewhere noted out of the Learned Prosper Alpinus, who practis'd Physick there; and as I have also been inform'd by some of my Acquain­tance who visited that vast City, that almost in the midst of Summer as soon as the River begins to rise The Plague which here miserably rageth upon the first of the Flood doth in­stantly cease; in so much as when five Hundred dye at Cayro the day be­fore, which is nothing rare, (for the sound keep company with the sick, holding Death fatal, and, to avoid them, Irreligion,) not one doth dye the day following; says Mr. San­dys in his Travels, Lib. 2., the Plague has its malignity sudden­ly check'd, even as to those that are already infe­cted, and soon af­ter ceases; so if other Circumstan­ces contradict not, one might guess, that this strange Phaenomenon may be chiefly occasion'd by some Nitrous or other Corpuscles that accompany the overflowing Nile, and by asso­ciating themselves with what Hippo­crates [Page 45] somewhere calls [...], disable them to produce their wonted pernicious Effects. To which Hy­pothesis suits well what is deliver'd by more than one Traveller into Egypt, and more particularly by our Ingenious Countreyman Mr. George Sandys, who not only takes notice, that about the time of the overflow­ing of Nilus, whose abounding with Nitre has been observed even by the Antients, there is a certain moisten­ing Emanation dif­fus'd thorow the Air. To prove, sayes he Mr. Sandys in the Book above­cited., speaking of the over­flowing of Nilus, that it proceedeth from a natural Cause, this one, though strange, yet true Experiment will suffice. Take of the Earth of Egypt adjoining to the River, and preserve it carefully, that it neither come to be wet nor wasted, weight it daily, and you shall find it neither more nor less heavy until the seventeenth of June, at which day it beginneth to grow more ponderous, and aug­menteth [Page 46] with the augmentation of the River, whereby they have an infallible knowledge of the state of the Deluge, proceeding without doubt from the Humidity of the Air, which having a recourse through all passible places, and mixing therewith increaseth the same, as it increaseth in moisture.

That these Sanative Steams per­form their Effects meerly because they are moist, I presume Naturalists will scarce pretend; but that they may be of such a nature as by their Coalition with the Morbifick Cor­puscles to increase their Bulk and alter their Figure, or precipitate them out of the Air, or clog their Agility, or pervert their Motions, and in a word destroy all or some Tat least of those Mechanical▪ Affections which made those Corpuscles Pestilential: That, I say, these Antidotal Vapours (if I may so call them) may have these Effects upon those that formerly were Morbifick, and that so there may result from the Association of [Page 47] two sorts of Particles, whereof one was of a highly noxious nature, a harmless mixture, might here be made probable by several things; but that I hope what I have lately recited about the Coalitions of the Effluvia of Spirit of Salt and of Urine (Li­quors known to be highly contrary to each other) is not already forgot­ten by you.

And the Experiment with which I am to conclude this Essay will per­haps make you think it possible, that the Pestiferous Steams that have al­ready pass'd out of the Air, and in­vaded, but not too much vitiated, the Bodies of Men, may have their ma­lignity much debilitated by the su­pervening of these Antidotal Parti­cles. For in that Experiment you will find, that the Steams emitted into the Air from the Liquor there described, though that were actually cold, were able to reach, and mani­festly to Operate, (and that probably by way of Praecipitation,) upon Cor­puscles that were fenc'd from them [Page 48] by the Interposition of other Bodies; not more porous than those of living Men. Whether the fume of Sulphur, which by many is extoll'd to prevent the Infection of the Air, do by its acid or other Particles disarm, if I may so speak, the Pestilential ones, I have not now time to inquire: No more than whether in Ireland and some few other Countries, that breed or brook no poysonous Animals, that hostility may proceed, at least in great part, from the peculiar Na­ture of the Soyl, which both from its superficial and deeper parts, con­stantly supplies the Air with Corpu­scles destructive to venemous Ani­mals. And some other Particulars, that may be pertinently enough consi­der'd here, you may find treated on in other Papers. And therefore at present I shall only intimate in a word, that having purposely made a visible and lasting Stain on a solid Body barely by cold Effluvia, I did by the invisible and cold Steams of another Body make in two or three Minutes a [Page 49] visible change in the colour of that Stain.

And as for the other part of the Conjecture, (viz.) That Meteors may sometimes be produc'd by the Occursions of Subterraneal Effluvia, some of them of one determinate Na­ture, and some of another, I think I could, to countenance it, give you divers Instances of the plentiful Im­pregnation) of the Air at some times, and in some places, with Steams of very differing Natures, and such as are not so likely to be attracted by the Heat of the Sun, as to be sent up from the Subterraneal Regions, and sometimes from Minerals them­selves. But for Instances of this kind, I shall, for brevities sake, refer you to another Paper An Essay of Sub­terraneal Exhala­tions., where I have pur­posely treated of this Subject, and particu­larly shewn, That though usually the Effluxions that come from under ground are ill-scented, yet they are not alwayes so; and also that Sul­phureous [Page 50] Exhalations even from cold, and, for the most part, Aqueous Li­quors may retain their determinate nature in the Air, and act according­ly upon solid Bodies themselves, to whose Constitution those Effluvia chance to be proportionate.

But one memorable Story not men­tion'd [...] that Discourse is too much to our present purpose to be here omitted, especially having met with it in so approved an Author as the experienc'd Agricola, who having mention'd out of antient Historians the Raining of White and Red liquors, which they took (erroneously I doubt not) for Milk and Blood, subjoyns, Agric. de Nat. eorum quae effluunt è Terra, Lib. 12. pag. 236. Ut autem majorèm fidem habe amus An­nalium monumentis facit res illa decan­tata, quae Patrum memoriâ (in another place he specifies the Year of our Lord) in Suevia accidit; Aer enim ille stillavit guttas, quae lineas vestes crucibus rubris quasi sanguineis imbuebant. Which I the rather mention, because it does [Page 51] not only prove what I alledge it for; but may keep, what is lately and very credibly reported to have hap­pen'd in divers places of the King­dom of Naples soon after the Fiery Eruption of Vesuvius, from being judg'd a Phaenomenon either altogether fabulous, (as doubtless many have thought it,) or a Prodigie without all example, as is presum'd even by those that think it not miraculous. And to this I add, that 'twill be the less improbable, that the more agile Corpuscles of Subterraneal Salts, Sulphurs and Bitumens, may be rais'd into the Air, and keep distinct natures there, if so fixt a Body as common Earth it self can be brought to swim in the Air. And yet of this the worthy Writer newly quoted gives us, besides what Annals relate, this Testimony upon his own know­ledge: Agric. de Nat. eorum quae è Terra effluunt, Lib. 12. pag. 263. Certè hîc Kempnicii undeci­mum abhinc annum mense Septembri effluxerunt imbres, sic cum terra lutea [Page 52] commisti, ut eâ passim plateas scilicet stra­tas viderem conspersas.

And to shew you that in some cases the Particles even of Vegetable Bodies may not so soon perish in the Air as they vanish there, but may retain distinct natures at a greater distance, than one would think, from the Bodies that copiously emit them; I shall add, that having desir'd an ingenious Gentleman, that went on a considerable Employment to the East-Indies, to make some Observa­tions for me in his Voyage; he sent me among other things this Re­marque: That having sayl'd along the Coast of Ceylon, (famous for Cin­namon-trees and well-scented Gums,) though they Coasted it almost a whole day, the Wind, that then chanc'd to blow from the shoar, brought them a manifestly odoriferous Air from the Island, though they kept off many miles (perhaps twenty or twenty­five) from the shoar. Nor should this be thought incredible, because the diffusion seems so disproportionate to [Page 53] that of other Bodies dissolved by Fluids; as, for instance, though Salt be an active Body and resoluble into abundance of minute Particles, yet one part of Salt will scarce be tastable in an hundred parts of Water. For sensibly to affect so gross an Organ as that of our Tast, there is usually re­quired in sapid Particles a bigness far exceeding that which is necessary to the making Bodies fit Objects for the sense of Smelling, and, which is here mainly to be considered, there is a great difference between the power a Body has to impregnate so thin and fine a Fluid as Air, whose parts are so rare and lax, and that which it has to impregnate Liquors, such as Wa­ter or Wine, whose parts are so con­stipated as to make it not only visible and tangible, but ponderous. On which occasion I remember that having had a Curiosity to try how far a sapid Body could be diluted without ceasing to be so, I found by Tryal, that one drop of good Chy­mical, and, as Artists call it, Essential [Page 54] Oyl of Cinnamon being duly mix'd by the help of Sugar with Wine, re­tain'd the determinate tast of Cinna­mon, though it were diffus'd into near a quart of Wine. So that making a moderate estimate, I concluded, that upon the common supposition, ac­cording to which a drop is reckon'd for a Grain, one part of Oyl had given the specifick Tast of the Spice, it was drawn from, to near fourteen thou­sand parts of Wine. By comparing which Experiment with what I no­ted about the proportion of Salt re­quisite to make Water tast of it, you will easily perceive; that there may be a very great difference in point of diffusiveness between the little Par­ticles that make Bodies sapid: Which may serve to confirm both some part of the first Chapter of the foregoing Essay of the Subtilty of Effluvia▪ and what I was lately saying to shew it possible, that Antimonial Glass might impart store of Steams to the Eme­tick Wine, without appearing upon common Scales to have lost of its [Page 55] weight; since we see, that one Drop of so light a Body as Oyl may com­municate not insensible Effluvia, but tastable Corpuscles to near a Quart of Liquor. But this is not all for which I mention our Experiment: for I must now add, that besides the almost innumerable Sapid parts of a spicy Drop communicated to the Wine, it thence diffused a vast num­ber of odorous Particles into the Air, which both I, and others perceived to be imbued with the distinct scent of Cinnamon, and which perhaps the Liquor would have been found able to have Aromatized for I know not how long a time, if I had had leisure to prosecute the Observation.

CHAP. V.

THE third and last way I shall mention of shewing the Deter­minate Nature of Effluviums, is to [Page 56] be taken from the Consideration of their Effects upon other Bodies than the Organs of our Senses; (for of their Operations upon these we have already spoken in the foregoing Cha­pter▪) For the Effects, that certain Bodies produce on others by their Effluviums, being constant and de­terminate, and oftentimes very dif­ferent from those, which other Agents by their Emissions work upon the same and other subjects, the distinct nature of the Corpuscles emitted may be thence sufficiently gather'd.

We may from the foregoing Tract of the Subtilty of Effluvia, borrow some Instances very pertinent to this place. For the temporary benum­bedness or stupefaction, for example, produc'd in the Fish­erman's Foot by the Effluvia See the Essay of the Subtilty of Effluviums, Chap. 4. of the Fish (Amoreatim) men­tion'd by the Ingenious Piso, mani­fests, that those stupifying Emana­tions retain'd a peculiar and venemous nature during their whole passage [Page 57] through the Shoe, Stocking and Skin, interpos'd betwixt the Fish and the nervous part of the Foot benumb'd by it. And though there are very few other Bodies in the World, that are minute enough to pass through the pores of Glass, 'tis apparent, by the Experiment there recited of the oblong Iron Hermetically seal'd up in a Glass-pipe, that the Magnetical Effluvia of the Earth may retain their peculiar and wonderful nature in a smallness that qualifies them to pass freely through the pores of Glass it self.

But that I may neither repeat what you have already met with in the foregoing Tract, nor anticipate what I have to say in the next; I will employ in this Chapter some In­stances that may be spar'd from both.

That divers Bodies of a Venemous nature may exercise some such Ope­rations upon others by their Efflu­viums transmitted through the Air, as they are wont to do in their gross substance, is a Truth, whereof though [Page 58] I have not met with many, yet I have met with some Examples among Phy­sicians.

The Learned Lib. 6. parte 7. cap. 1. Sennertus observes as a known thing, that the Apprentices of Apothecaries have been cast into profound Sleeps, when in distilling Opiat and Hypnotick Li­quors they have received in at their Nostrils the Vapours exhaling from those Bodies.

'Tis recorded by the In Explicatione Herbarum Biblica­rum, cap. 2. Writers about Poysons, that the root and juyce of Mandragora casts those, that take it, into a deep Sopor not unlike a Lethargy. And though the Apples of the same Plant be thought to be much less mali­gnant; yet Levinus Lemnius relates that it happen'd to him more than once, that having laid some Man­drake-Apples in his Study, he was by their Steams made so sleepy, that he could hardly recover himself; but the Apples being taken away he [Page 59] regain'd alacrity, and threw off all drowsiness.

Among all Poysons there is scarce any whose Phaenomena are in my opi­nion more strange than those that proceed from a mad Dog; and yet even this Poyson, which seems to require Corpuscles of so odd and de­terminate a nature, is recorded by Physicians to have been conveyed by Exhalations. Aretaeus writes (as a Learned modern quotes him,) Quòd à rabido cane, qui in faciem, dum spiri­tus adducitur, tantummodò inspiraverit, & nullo modo momorderit, in rabiem homo agatur. And as there are rela­tions, among Physicians, of Animals, that have become Rabiosi by having eaten of the parts or excrements of rabid Animals; so Libro 3. Acutor. Morbor. Caelius Aurelianus, who writes, that some have been made to run mad, not by being bitten, but wounded only with the Claws of a mad Dog, tells us also of a man, that fell into a Hydro­phobia (which is wont to be a high [Page 60] degree of the Rabies, and by some of the antienter Writers was employ'd to signifie that Disease) without be­ing bitten by a mad Dog, but infected solo odore ex rabido cane attracto. By which Odours in this and other Narratives of Poysons I understand not a bare Scholastick species, but a swarm of Effluvia, which most com­monly are all or at least some of them odorous. And though it may justly seem strange to many, that the Ve­nom of a mad Dog should be com­municated otherwise than by biting, which is suppos'd to be the only way he can infect by, it may appear less improbable, because Matthaeus de Gra­dibus names a person, who, he says, prov'd infected after many days, by only having put his Hand into the Mouth of a mad Dog, who did not bite him. And the formerly men­tioned Matthiolus relates, that he saw two, that were made rabid without any would by the slabber of a mad Dog, with which they had the mis­fortune to be besmear'd.

[Page 61] Sennert. Libr. 6. part. 6. cap. 2. Sennertus himself affirms of a Pain­ter of his acquainance, that, when he had o­pen'd a Box, in which he had long kept included Realgar, a noxious Mineral, sometimes used by Painters and not unknown to Chy­mists, and had unfortunately snuff'd in the Steams of it, he was seis'd with a giddiness in his Head and fainting fits, his whole Face also swelling, though by taking of Antidotes he escap'd the danger.

Divers other Examples we have met with in the writings of Physi­cians, which I forbear to add to these, because, I confess, I very much doubt the Truth of them, though the deli­verers of some of them be men of Note. But the probability of most of the things already cited out of credible Authors may be strengthned by what I shall now subjoyn, as a further proof of the distinct Nature of Effluvia; of which it will be a very considerable Proof, if Medi­cines, which are of a milder and [Page 62] more familiar nature and operation than Poysons, shall yet be able in some cases to retain, in their invisible Par­ticles swimming in the Air, the same, (though not so great) power of Pur­ging, which is known to belong to them when their gross Body is taken in at the Mouth. Of this I have else­where, on another occasion, given some Examples. To which I shall now add, that I know a Doctor of Physick, that is usually Purg'd by the Odours or Exhalations of a certain Electuary, whose Cathartick Opera­tion, when it is taken in substance, is wont to be but languid. And ano­ther Doctor of my acquaintance, causing good store of the root of black Hellebore to be long pounded in a mortar, most of those, that were in the room, and especially the party that pounded it, were thereby purg'd, and some of them strongly enough. And the Learned Sennertus some­where affirms, that some will be purg'd by the very Odour of Colocyn­this. And 'tis not to be pass'd by [Page 63] unregarded; that in the cases I have alledg'd, Exhalations, that are en­dow'd with Occult Qualities, (for those of Cathartick Medicines are reckon'd among such) ascend into the Air without being forc'd from the Bodies they belong'd to by an External heat.

And if I would in this place al­ledge Examples of the Operations of such Effluvia, as do not pass into the Air, but yet operate only by the con­tact of the External parts of the Bo­dy, I could give Instances, not only of the Purgative, but the Emetick Qua­lities of some Medicines exerted with­out their being taken in at the Mouth, or injected with Instruments.

There are also other sorts of Exam­ples than those hitherto mentioned, that argue a Determinate Nature in the Effluxions of some Bodies emitted into the Air. Approv'd Writers tell us, that the Shadow of a Walnut-tree with the Leaves on it is very hurtful to the Head; and some Instances they give us of great mischief it has [Page 64] sometimes done. And though the Shadow, as such, is not likely to be guilty of such bad Effects; yet the Effluvia of the neighbouring Plant may be noxious enough to the Head. For I, that was not at all prepossess'd with an opinion that it was so, and therefore without scruple resorted to the Shade of Walnut trees in a hot Countrey, was by experience forc'd to think it might give others the Head-ach, since it did to me, who, thanks be to God, both was, and am still very little subject to that distem­per. And this brings into my mind an Observation that I have met with among some ingenious Travellers in­to the West-Indies, who observe in general, and of late a Country-man of our own affirms it in particular, of the poysonous Manchinello-tree, that Birds will not only forbear to eat of the Fruit of venemous Plants, but, as to some of them, will not so much as light on the Trees: Which I therefore mention, because proba­bly Nature instructs them to avoid [Page 65] such Trees by some noxious Smell, or other Emanation, that offends the approaching Birds. And I remem­ber, that some of our Navigators give it for a Rule to those that happen to land in unknown Islands or Coasts, that they may venture to eat of those parts of Fruits which they can per­ceive, the Birds, like kind Tasters, to have been pecking at before.

Nicolaus Florentinus (cited by Sen­nertus) tells us of a certain Lombard, that having in a House, that he nam'd, at Florence, burn'd a great black Spi­der at the flame of a Candle, so un­warily, that he drew in the Steams of it at his Nostrils, presently began to be much disorder'd and fell into a fainting fit, and for the whole night had his Heart much disaffected, his Pulse being so weak, that one could scarce perceive he had any; though afterwards he was cured by Treacle, Diamose, and the powder of Zedoary mixt together.

And I remember, that being some years ago in Ireland, I gather'd a [Page 66] certain Plant (peculiar to some parts of that Countrey) which the Natives call Maccu-buy, because of strange Traditions that go about it; the chief of which I found by tryal not to be true: But yet being satisfied, that its Operations were odd and violent enough, I was willing to gratifie the chief Physician of the Countrey, who was desirous I should propose to him some wayes of correcting it; and whilst I was speaking of one that re­quired the pounding of it, he told me on that occasion, that intending to make an extract of it with Vine­gar, he caus'd his man to beat it well in a Mortar, which the man soon re­pented he had begun to do: And the Doctor himself, though at a pretty distance off, was so wrought upon by the Corpuscles that issued out into the Air, that his Head, and particu­larly his Face, swell'd to an enormous and disfiguring bulk, and continued tumid for no inconsiderable time after.

I have not leisure to subjoyn many [Page 67] more Instances to shew the Deter­minate Nature of Effluviums, small enough to wander through the Air; nor perhaps will it be necessary, if you please but to consider these two things. The first, that many odorife­rous Bodies, as Amber, Musk, Ci­vet, &c. as they will, by the adhesion of their whole substance, perfume Skins, Linnen, &c. so they will in time perfume some Bodies disposed to admit their action, though kept at a distance from them. And the other is, that in Pestilential Feavers and divers other Contagious sicknes­ses, as the Plague, Small-pox, or Mea­sels, the same determinate Disease is communicable to found persons, not only by the immediate contact of the infected party; but without it, by the Contagious Steams that exhale from his Body into the Air. And having said this and desir'd you to reflect upon it, I shall conclude this Chapter with an Experiment, that possibly will not a little confirm a great part of it.

[Page 68] Considering then with my self, how I might best devise a way of shewing to the very Eye, That Ef­fluvia elevated without the help of Heat, and wandering in the Air, may both retain their own Nature, and upon determinate Bodies produce Ef­fects, that a Vulgar Philosopher would ascribe to Occult Qualities: I remember'd, that I had found by tryals (made to other purposes) that Volatile and Sulphureous Salts would so work upon some Acid ones sub­lim'd with Mercury, as to produce an odd diversity of Colours, but chiefly an Inky one; on which ac­count I judg'd it likely that my aim would by answer'd by the following Experiment.

I took an Ounce, or better, of such a Volatile Tin­cture of Sulphur, as I have elsewhere The Liquor here men­tion'd is, for the main, the same with that de­scrib'd by the Author in his Book of Colours, Experiment the [...] taught you to make of Quick-lime, Sul­phur and Sal Armo­niack, and stop'd it up in a Vial [Page 69] capable of containing at least twice as much; then taking a Paper where­on something had been written with invisible Ink, I laid it down six Inches off of the Vial, which, being un­stop'd, began, upon the access of the Fire, to emit white Fumes into it; and by these, what was written upon the Paper, notwithstanding its di­stance from the Liquor, quickly be­came very legible, though not quite so suddenly, as if a Paper, written with the same clear Liquor, were held at the like distance directly over the orifice of the Vial. And having caus'd several pieces of clean Paper to be written on, with a new Pen dip'd in the clear Solution of Subli­mate made in Water, 'twas pleasant to see, how divers of the Letters of several of these Papers, being plac'd within some convenient distance of the Vial, would be made plainly legi­ble, and some of them more, some less blackish, according to their di­stances from the smoaking Liquor, and other Circumstances. But 'twas [Page 70] more surprizing to see, that when I held or laid some of these Papers, though with the written side up­wards, just upon or over the orifice of the Vial, though the contained Li­quor did not by some Inches reach so high, yet the latent Letters would become not only legible but conspi­cuous in about a quarter of a Minute of an Hour (measur'd by a good Watch fit for the purpose, as more than one tryal assur'd me.) And as it may be observ'd, that in some Cir­cumstances the smoaking Liquor and the Solution of Sublimate will make an odd Precipitate almost of a silverish colour, so in one or two of our Try­als we found a like colour produc'd, by the Steams of that Liquor, in some of the colourless Ink. Nor is it so ne­cessary to employ a visibly smoaking Liquor for the denigrating of invisi­ble Ink at a distance. For I have, to that purpose, with good success, though not equal to that I have re­cited, employ'd a couple of Liquors, wherein there was neither Sulphur, [Page 71] nor Sal Armoniack, nor Sublimate. What other Tryals I made with our Volatile Tincture of Sulphur, 'tis not necessary here to relate, only one Ex­periment, which you will possibly think odd enough, I shall not omit; because it will not only confirm the precedent Tryals, but also much of the foregoing Essay, by shewing the great Subtilty and penetrating power of Effluviums that seem rather to issue out very faintly, than to be darted out with any briskness.

Causing then something to be written with dissolv'd Sublimate up­on a piece of Paper, we folded the Paper with the written side inwards, and then inclos'd this in the midst of six sheets of Paper, laid one upon another, not plac'd one within ano­ther, and folded up in the form of an ordinary Letter or packet to be seal'd, that, the edges of the enclosing Paper being inserted one within the other, the Fumes might not get into this written Paper but by penetrating through the Leaves themselves: This [Page 72] done, that side of the Packet, on which there was no commissure, and on which, were it to be sent away, the Superscription should be written, was laid upon the orifice of the Vial, which (as was before intimated) was some Inches higher than the surface of the Liquor, and left there about ten Minutes; after which taking off the folded Papers, and opening them, we found, that the Steams had perva­ded all the Leaves, in which the writ­ten Paper had been enclos'd. For, though the Leaves did not appear stain'd or alter'd, yet the formerly latent Characters appear'd conspi­cuous. I have not time to discourse, whether and how far this Experi­ment may assist us to explain some odd Effects of Thunder, or of that strange Phaenomenon, (glanc'd at in the foregoing Chapter,) which is said to have happen'd lately in the Kingdom of Naples after the great Eruption of Vesuvitus, which is said to have been follow'd by the appearing of the Crosses formerly mention'd, some of [Page 73] which have been found on the inner­most parts of Linnen, that had been carefully folded up. But of these and the like things, I say, I have now no time to discourse, whether any thing de­rivable from our Experiment may be pertinently apply'd to their Explica­tion. For which reason I shall add no more than that afterwards for further tryal we took a printed Book, that chanc'd to be at hand, and which we judg'd the fittest for our purpose, because the leaves being broad they might the better preserve a small Pa­per to be plac'd in the mid'st of them from being accessible to the Exha­lations sidewise, and having put the design'd Paper into this Book, and held it to the orifice of the Vial, though there were no less than twelve leaves between them; yet those Let­ters, that happen'd to be the most rightly plac'd, were made inky in the short space of three Minutes at the utmost; though this Liquor had been so long kept and so often un­stop'd to try Conclusions with it, [Page 74] that it had probably lost a good part of the most spirituous and piercing Particles.