An Accompt of Some Books

An Accomp of some Books. I. GEORGII SINCLARI ARS NOVA & MAGNA GRAVITATIS et LEVITATIS. Ro- terodami in 4° A. 1669. The Argument of this Book is the Spring and Pressure of the Air, together with some Considerations touching the Weight and pressure of Water, as also concerning a Vacuum, the effects of Pumps; item Pendulums, Hygroscopes &c. Whether the Doctrine or Experiments, here deliver'd, be new and unheard of (as the Author is pleased to think, they for the most part are) we leave to the well-read and Intelligent to Judge. Only we find ourselves obliged to take notice that that excellent Treatise of the Honorable Robert Boyle, entitled, New Experiments Physico-Mechanical, touching the Spring of the Air and its Effects, was printed two years before that time, about which the Author of this Book saith, in his Preface to the Reader, he came to London, and there committed his then un-printed papers to the Censure of the Philosophical College there, meaning the Royall Society, of whom he complains in the said Preface, pag. 2, that he expected an Answer from them for almost two years in vain; adding, that he afterwards found, in divers Books printed in English, many things taken out of his Manuscript. But to undeceive the Reader in this particular, we shall first desire him, to compare the date of the Edition of Mr. Boyle's Book above-mentioned with that of the Time of this Author's visiting London, and there exposing his Manuscript; that done, it will easily appeare, which party hath the priority in the Ex- plication of this Doctrine touching the Air: where it must not be left un-mentioned, that Mr. Sinclair, when he was in Lon- don, in his visits of Mr. Boyle discoursed much with him on that subject, and by his own acknowledgment, then made to that Gentleman, received much light from him concerning the same. Secondly, we shall take notice, that 'tis so great a mis- take, that this Author commended his Manuscript to the Judg- ment of the R. Society, that 'tis not so much as mention'd any where where in their Register-book, that such papers came ever before them (which yet is their constant and careful practice to doe of all things of that nature;) to which we must adde, that the person with whom he left those Papers of his, Sir Robert Moray (perhaps with a desire to recommend them to that Illustrious Body) affirms, that he did not at all judge them proper to be exhibited there, because they seem'd to him to containe nothing new or extraordinary. II. OBSERVATIONES MEDICÆ, Mich. Leyseri, Henr. a Moinichen, Mart. Bogdani, Jac. Seidelii, & Musæo Th. Bartolini Hafnia in 8°. Though these Observations have been abroad these several years, yet coming but lately to our view, we could take no sooner notice of them. Divers are not inconsiderable, e.g. Of a Pleurisy, ending in an Abscess in the Thigh: Of an Abscess in the Thigh evacuated by Vrine: Of a great clew of wormes voided by crude Mercury taken inwardly: Of a Pleurisy cured without Blood-letting: Of the Bones of a fetus drawn out of the Mothers belly, she surviving and bearing several children afterwards: Of the opening of an uterus closed from the birth: Of a bigg Stone found in the Emulgent veins of a Boy of 9. years old: of a Pin swallow'd and breaking out of the Thigh 4. years after: Of a Nose cut off by the hand of Justice, and happily set and healed on again, by receiving it, when it fell off, into a warm loaf of bread cut in the middle, and so sowing it on: Of a Hen, bringing forth 5 well-formed and live chickens immediately out of her belly, which kill'd her: Of an odd heat in the extreamest parts of the body, whilst the intermediate ones betwixt them and the heart were very cold: Of a Quartan cured by drinking very new Beer, and sweating largely upon it: Of an Eye taken out of the Head of a living man, which being examin'd had all its humors converted into a tallowy matter: Of strange Convulsions-fits, accompanied with vomitings of odd matter, happily cured: Of an unusual case of Melancholy, in which the Patient abhorred most kinds of meat, drink, vessels, and almost all people, fancying them to have have toucht or been toucht by Epileptical persons: Of a Stone generated in the Tongue: &c. Having inquired of an observing Correspondent, living in the Country, Whether he had met with any such Instances as was mentioned above, of a Viviparous Hen, he returned this Answer, that at Wackton in Norfolk, 2. or 3. years since, there was a Hen, which bigg with Eggs, upon some account could not lay, but after a time dyed; and then being opened, there was found in the Ovarium a perfect chick, which was offered to a Physician in those parts to preserve. III. OTTONIS TACHE NII HIPPOCRATES CHYMICUS. Venetis in 12°. And this Author, though printed 2. or 3. years agoe, came not to our knowledge, till now: He in this Tract, endeavours to justify the Antients, blamed by Zwefler in his Pharmacopoea Augustana for having committed severall faults in the preparation of a certain Salt call'd Theriacal because extracted out of Vipers and divers other Ingredients composing Theriac. And having done this, he thence takes occasion to treat of the nature of Salts, especially of the Alcaly's and Acids, which he, with some other Chymists, holds to be the first Principles of all mixt Bodies. And being perswaded, that Hippocrates was also of this opinion, and a great Chymist too, he entitles this Book Hippocrates Chymicus. Though the Salt Alcaly properly signifies that Salt which is drawn out of the Ashes of an Egyptian herb, named Kaly; yet Chymists take it in a larger sense, and understand by that word all the Salts, which, like that of the said herb, draw and impregnate themselves with Acid ones. To this Salt our Author refers almost all the Operations of Nature, and having examined its proprieties, relates divers not Un-curious Observations concerning it. For Example: That nothing pierces so much as Alcaly's, and that therefore Nature hath stored the Sweat of Animals so plentifully with it. For, that the ordure, which continually gathers on the skin, would soon stop the pores of it, if the Sweat were not furnish'd with some efficacious dissolvent to open and pierce them. Where he observes, that the best liquored Boots, and such as are water-proof, will be quickly pierced by the sweat of Horses; adding, that though Riding Post he had, to avoid that inconvenience, rubbed his Boots with a Vernice, which resisted even to \textit{Aqua fortis}, yet the sweat of the Horses, he rode on, dissolved that fence after the second day of his voyage. Next, he holds it to be an error, to use \textit{Spirit of Vitriol} for Whitening the Teeth, Experience shewing, that from the mixture of an \textit{Alcaly} and the \textit{Spirit of Vitriol} there results a yellow, and that there is an Alcaly continually transpiring out of the Gumms, as of all the other parts of the Body; whence it must follow, that the Spirit of Vitriol employed to rubb the Teeth, when mixt with that Salt, must tinge them of the same colour. Then he affirms, that wood rotten hath no Alcaly in it, and that it rots not but upon the account of the exhaling of that Salt. Whence 'tis faith he, that the Venetians, to harden the Timber design'd for building of Ships, sink it green in water, and there leave it many years; which is the cause, that the Alcaly having been hindred from exhaling, the Timber rots not, and becomes as hard in a manner as stone. We cannot pretermitt taking notice, that this Author finds occasion in this Book to explain the way, by which the famous \textit{Turnheisser}, a German Chymist, made that celebrated Nil, half Gold and half Iron, which is shew'd at Florence, in the Repository of the Great Duke of Tuscany. 'Tis said, that that Chymist, having in the presence of that Prince immersed in a certain Oyle the one halfe of a Nail, which appear'd to be all Iron, that part, which touched the Oyle, was instantly found to be good Gold. Several persons having examin'd this Nail, and seeing the Gold and Iron exceeding well conjoyned, were perswaded, that that could not be effected but by a true change of one of those two metals into the other, believing it impossible, they could be solder'd together. But the Author of this Book maketh that a very easy thing, if the Iron be before prepared after a certain manner, which he teacheth; and he pretends, that that was the whole Secret of Turnheiffer, the rest being nothing but illusion. For, after he had by that means soldered together a piece of Gold with halfe a Naile, he knew so well to give the color of Iron to Gold, that men believed, that the whole Naile was of Iron; and having afterwards put this Naile into the fire, and held it in the Oyle to take off that colour, he made appear that Gold, which was hid before. IV. TH. BARTHOLINI Dissertatio de CYGNI- ANATOME, nunc aucta ac ASP. BARTHOLI- NO F. Hafniae in 8°. A. 1668. In this Discourse the Author chiefly observes the wonderfulness of the internall fabrick of this Stately Bird; and more especially of the admirable structure of its Wind-pipe, which is so framed, that together with the Oesophagus or Weasand it reaches down to the Sternum, into which, as a safe case, it winds itself, and being gone down to the bottom of that cavity is turned up again, and gets out of the streights of the Sternum, and climbing up the intermediate clavicles, on which it leans as on a base, it bends to the thorax. But before it comes to the Thorax and the Lungs, it forms a kind of Larynx with an Os Hyoides, covered with a large membrane, and resembling a musical pipe, wide above, but with a narrow flt, and straight and depressed below. Under which Larynx, before the Wind-pipe enters into the Lungs, it is divaricated into two branches, like unto bronchia thicker in the middle, but narrower where they are near the Lungs: In which particular it differs from the human Arteria aspera, which, 'tis true, is also divided into branches, but not before it be entred into the Lungs. After this description of the structure of this Organ he considers the fitness of its contrivance for such a Respiration, as was requisite for an Animall, that by long diving and sinking its neck to the bottom of waters was to find its food. V. AEgidii V. ÆGIDII STRAVCHII BREVIARIVM CHRONOLOGICVM. Witebergæ in 12°. VI. ABREGE CHRONOLOGIQUE DE L'HISTOIRE SACREE et PROPHANE, par le P. Labbe dela Comp. de Jésus, Paris. in 12. in 5. Volumes. WE put these two Books together, because of the likeness of their Argument; and we esteem also, that both these may deserve to be Joyned to and compared with, that of Mr. Beverige, of which an Accompt was given in the Transactions of May last. The former of these two is divided into two parts, a General and a Particular. The General considers Time in general, and its various denominations and Characters, and especially explains that common Receptacle of all Epochas, the Julian Period, enlarging upon its Uses and Advantages. The Particular considers time in particular, demonstrating the certainty of Epochas, and enumerating the Calendars of the several Nations. The latter Author, considering with himself, that of the writers of Chronology, some have contented themselves to teach only the Precepts thereof; others, to reform the dates of it, and to marke the Characters of Times, without rehearsing the considerable passages passages of them; others on the contrary confounding Chronology with History, have recited the remarkable Events, without much troubling themselves about the time, wherein they hapned; this Author, I say, hath attempted to joyn them altogether in this Work. And, First, He gives an Introduction, in which he explains, what is the Indiction, the Cycle, the Epocha, and all the other terms of Chronology. Secondly, Forasmuch as the Epochas, whence we begin to reckon the Years, are the foundations of Chronology, he treateth accurately of the Year of our Saviours Nativity and Death; of the Years of the Kings of France of the first and second Race, and of the other celebrated Epochas. Thirdly, He delivers in short all the more remarkable passages of every Year since the Creation of the World till the Year 1666, indicating the Authors, whence an ampler information may be taken. And to establish certain principles of Chronology, he placeth at the beginning of all Years the Names of the Consuls, Cycles, Indictions, Eclipses, and all the other Characters, that distinguish the Years from one another. And he often does not content himself with marking the Year, in which the more notable things have hapned, but he adds also the Month and Day, especially in the latter Ages; which is a great relief upon many occasions. Fourthly, He Fourthly, He hath a particular Discourse, wherein he examineth, in what time Dido lived, and shews, that she was dead before the Birth of Æneas, against the opinion of a modern Author; and consequently that whatsoever Virgil hath said of the Marriage of that Queen with this Prince, is fabulous. FINIS Printed by T. N. for John Martyn Printer to the Royall Society, and are to be sold at the Bell a little without Temple-Bar, 1669