An Account of Some Books

not inferior to the oriental ones of the same size, I should not fail to endeavour to make the observation myself. An Accompt of some Books. I. An Attempt to prove the MOTION of the EARTH from Observations; made by Robert Hook Fellow of the R. Society. London in 4° printed for J. Martyn at the Bell in St. Pauls Church-yard, 1674. The ingenious Author of this Attempt, having consider'd with himself, that the grand Controversie about the Motion of the Earth remains yet undetermin'd, and finding, there was no other means left for human Industry to decide it but by observing, whether there be any sensible Parallax of the Earth's Orb amongst the Fixt Stars; did thereupon resolve to employ himself in making some Observations concerning so important a point in Astronomy. And, after he had examined the ways and instruments for all manner of Astronomical Observations, hitherto made use of, and consider'd of the inconveniences and imperfections of them; and having also duly weighed the great accurateness and certainty, that this Observation of the Earth Parallax required: He next contrived a way of making Observations, that might be free from all the former inconveniences and exceptions, and, as near as might be, fortified against any other that might be invented or raised against it. This way he gives an Account of in this present Tract, which is; To observe by the passing of some considerable Star near the Zenith of some place, whether such a Star doth not at one time of the year pass nearer to that Zenith, and another, farther from it; thus reasoning with himself, That, if the Earth doth move in an Orb about the Sun, and that this Orb hath any sensible Parallax amongst the Fixt Stars, this must necessarily happen, especially to those Fixt Stars, which are nearest the Pole of the Ecliptique. Accordingly he affirms to have actually made four Observations, in this Tract described; by which, he saith, 'tis manifest, that there is a sensible Parallax of the Earth's Orb to the Fixt Star in the Dragons head, and consequently a Confirmation of the the Copernican System against the Ptolemaic and Tycho nic. Yet, like a rigid Philosopher, not being fully satisfied with these Observations, he declares his extraordinary desire to have made others with more accurateness, than, by reason of inconvenient weather and want of health, he was able to make those. However, he thinks he hath given sufficient occasion and direction to others to prosecute this noble undertaking. At the end of the explication whereof he mentions some things, which he looks upon as very remarkable, occurring in those Observations; one of which was, that in the day time, the Sun shining very clear, he observed the bright Star in the Dragons head to pass by the Zenith as distinctly and clearly as if the Sun had been set: which he esteems to have been the first time that the Fixt Stars were seen when the Sun shined very bright without any obscuring of its light by Eclipse or otherwise; that Tradition, of seeing the Stars in the day with the naked Eye out of a deep Well or Mine, being by him Judged a meer fiction, the thing being thought by him impossible. Last of all, he promises, that he will explain to the Curious a System of the World differing in many particulars from any yet known, but answering in all things to the common rules of Mechanical Motions: which System he here declares to depend on three Suppositions: 1. That all Celestial bodies whatsoever have an Attraction or Gravitating power towards their own Centers, whereby they attract not only their own parts, and keep them from flying from them (as we may observe the Earth to do;) but also all other Celestial bodies that are within the Sphere of their activity: 2. That all Bodies whatsoever, that are put into a direct and simple motion, will so continue to move forward in a Straight line, till they are by some other more effectual power deflected and bent into a motion that describes some Curve line. 3. That these Attractive powers are so much the more powerful in operating, by how much the nearer the body, wrought upon, is to their own Centers. II. *MEDICINA MILITARIS*, or a Body of Military Medicines experimented, by Raymundus Mindererus, late chief Physitian of the Electoral Court of Bavaria, &c. English'd out of High-Dutch. London, in 8°. 1674. This Tract, though it be small in bulk, seems to deliver matters of no small use, both in War (which it was chiefly calculated for,) and in Peace; forasmuch as it comprehends Medicines, and Medical and Chirurgical Practices, for all sorts of common diseases, and other defects and infirmities of the Body; and is especially recommendable upon the account of the easy and cheap preparation of the remedies and helps requisite to cure and relieve diseased and wounded bodies; though they are not easily to be used without the direction of some good Physitian or Chirurgeon. The Author was a person of great note in his time, and seems to have been a man of much Experience as well as Charity; delivering the particulars, contained in this Book, chiefly upon his own tryal and success, though partly also upon that of his skilful Collegues and other honest persons. III. *EPHEMERIDUM* These Miscellanies consisting of so great a number of Observations as amount to 350; the narrow bounds of this Tract will permit us to take notice but of a few of so many; viz. That a Stone hath been successfully cut from under the Tongue*: That the powder of the Mucius terrestris clavatus is a good Antepileptic: That, in an Epidemical Dysentery of more than four hundred persons afflicted with that distemper, not one woman with child, and sick of the same disease, dyed: That a girl, after she was recovered of the small pox, did sweat blood out of the toes of both her feet: That a man, being opened after his death, was found to have not above ten pound of flesh about him, all the rest being fat, and very slender bones, and the Muscles rather membranes than flesh: Of one, that had so copious and strong a transpiration, that his hand, being a pretty while inclosed in a glass, appeared moist all over, and the sides of the glass bedewed with small drops; he also never voiding any thing by siege above once a week: Of an Heart altogether wasted, and dried up like an empty purse, shrunk together: That one of the best remedies against the Pleurisie is Antimonium Diaphoreticum, prepared as 'tis here prescribed in Obs. 74: That Balsom of Peru is of great efficacy in Dysenteries: Of a woman, in whom, after she had been brought to bed, and cured of grievous Epileptique fits, were left by a crisis several glands in her left arm, which as often as they disappeared and vanished, she felt very great head-ache and other troublesome distempers, but when they re-appeared, she found her self well again: Of many, cured of a Tertian ague by an infusion of stircus suillum in Rhinish wine: Of a female-child without any brains, (as appeared afterwards, when it was dead, dead, and open'd) the mother having, about the middle time of her child-bearing, seen men fight, and one of them wounded in his head, the blood trickling down on every side, at which she scratched her head: Of one, that having sneezed, at three several nights, above 300 times each night without intermission, was freed for a while from that sneezing by a Palsie of her left side; yet as soon as her head was heated by Motion or the Sun, or affected by a cold air and wind, fell a sneezing again; which was cured by applying some leaven and amber to the crown of her head; on which there was at length found a soft tumor, got by a grievous fall and knock, the matter of which being heated, did by dilatation, or, being cooled, did by constriction, and both wayes by its acrimony, vellicate the parts, to cause the symptom: Of divers diseases removed by a change into other distempers; as Convulsions into a Fever, a Fever into the yellow Jaundice, Frensie into a Dysentery, Headache into an Hæmorrhagy of the nose; Deafishness, Spitting of blood and Soreness of eyes into a Looseness, &c: Of a child, that had by mischance swallow'd a piece of lead, such as is commonly fastned for a mark to cloath, which child was saved by giving it some vinegar, which open'd the body of the Lead: Of one that cured himself of the Hungarian distemper by drinking large draughts of Rhinish wine, and thereby provoking copious sweats: Of several persons of such a temper, that they were purged, some of them, by the meer smell of a purgative, one, by the bare hearing, another by only dreaming, of the medicine*: That in Livonia the people are very seldom afflicted by the Stone; which is ascribed to their way of brewing their beer all over the Country with red-hot flints: That Fontanels or Issues are very powerful to remove Head-aches, stubborn Defluxions, Podagrical humors, Sciatica's; as also to prevent Apoplexies, Epilepsies, Palsies, &c: That 'tis a vulgar error, that Hares do change their sex: Of an odd effect of Lightning, which striking into the Turret of a Castle, did no mischief, but only made a small hole in a silver coin, kept in the purse of the watchman's wife: wife: Of a grievous Megrim, removed by Vesicatories, and Spirit of Sal Armoniac drawn in by the nose; which proved so effectual, that the patient soon after voided at the nose a whole quart of water, and so was cured: Of a man, that spent a whole fortnight without any sleep, and yet found no inconvenience in his vital and animal functions by it: Of one, that for several weeks had had an ague only in his right Arm, which came regularly about seven o'clock in the morning, the rest of his body remaining all the while in its natural temper: Of one, that upon plunging himself several times, when he had fits of a Tertian upon him, into a river near him, was cured; (but beware of imitation:) Pleurifies, and Hydropical swellings, cured by the use of Lin-seed oil: Hemorrhoids cured by the smell of Myrrhe, Frankincense and Mastick: Of one in Denmark, whose spitle is as sweet as sugar, though he love things acid: Of Salts concreted into a Glassy flexil plate *, by mixing Spirit of wine camphorated with spirit of Harts-horn, and pouring it upon ignited parts of Iron; from which mixture the Camphire first, being got out of the pores of the Spirit of wine, made the whole body of the liquor troubled and look like a snowy lanugo or cloud; and then it subsided, leaving the liquor all clear; but, some days after, the said mixture being gently stirred, a very thin plate, like Muscovia Talk, perfectly diaphanous, like glass, was observed to swim therein; and to shew, that this proceeded not from the refraction of the rays from the surface of the liquor, the Observer did several ways change his position, and that of the supposed glass, towards the light; whereupon not only the appearance of the said plate did not disappear, but a manifest undulation and flexibleness of its own in the midst of the liquor, it answer'd to every undulation of the liquor, caused by the gentle agitation of this glass. But to proceed to some other observations, we shall further take notice; Of one, that once in all his life-time, for the space of a whole moon (which was that of March,) could see nothing at all by Candle-light, but saw very well as soon as the Sun was risen: Of a Lixivium of Quick-lime sulphurated, that changed Spirit of Niter into a solid lapideous salt, whereas, when the Lime was not sulphurated, it changed it only into a saline gum: Of a young man, who, without an apparent cause, was after his sleep found both speechless, and destitute of all feeling, in what part of his body soever he were pricked with pins, though all his other senses were unviolate, and he did eat, drink, walk, and sleep very well; which distemper, both of his speechlessness, and want of feeling, was perfectly cured by bleeding him in the ranula's of his tongue: Of two Puppys, cut out of their dams belly, that not only lived a quarter of an hour after their hearts had been cut out †, but also made a kind of creeping noise: Of three child-bearing women, whereof one, longing for Strawberries, and having got them, was the next day deliver'd of a child, whose back seemed to be sprinkled with whole and fresh strawberries; the other, who longing for green herbs, after she had eat some, was the next day brought to bed of a child, the crown of whose head lookt as cover'd with small pieces of green herbs cut; the third, who at the instant of her travel longing for wheaten flower, and being satiated therewith, brought forth a child, half an hour after, that held in his knit fist something like dry flower: Of leggs broken, perfectly healed with a kind of Moss, called by Botanists Muscus pulmonarius terrestris sanguineus, made into an unguent with the roots of Confolida major, finely pulverised together, and boiled with hoggs-grease in a glased and well-closed pipkin: Of a boy, that quite lost his tongue by spitting it out, when he had the small pox, but was yet able, without the help of any art, not only to taste, swallow, and spit, but to speak so as to be well understood; which is the same History with that of Jac. Rolandus de Beletad, Chirurgion of Saumur, who publisht it in French under the Title of Agloso-Stomographia, which is by our Ephemerist turned into Latin. Besides Besides these Authors, we are concerned to take notice of those Generous persons of London, who shew their Love to their Country by devising, proposing and soliciting the best Expedients for the Improvement of England and other his Majesties Dominions, by Trade, Agriculture, or any Commerce, Artifice, or Manufacture. At present I shall only name two: The first is, Englands Interest and Improvement, consisting in the Increase of the Store and Trade of this Kingdom, by SAMUEL FORTREY Esquire. Which Tract was first published A. 1663; and is again newly addressed to his Majesty. In two or three sheets it contains, I think, a great Treasury. And secondly, as a principal branch of Englands Treasury we must recommend, A Discourse of the FISHERY, briefly laying open not only the ADVANTAGES and FACILITY of the Undertaking, but likewise the absolute NECESSITY of it, in order to the Well-being both of the King and People; asserted and vindicated from all material Objections, by ROGER L’ESTRANGE Esquire. In one single sheet he saith, in our opinion, more to the purpose than some would have done in a large Volum. Let me add, on this occasion, in reference to Georgicks, that some have had the boldness to affirm, that there is surer and more useful Physiology in Learned Varro’s three books De re Rustica, than in Aristotle’s eight Books Physicorum, or in Plato’s intricate Sublimities. And we have not been wanting, upon occasions to cast in our small mite, in recommending the Culture of Gardens, n. 45. n. 46. n. 53. n. 84. Vineyards, n. 15. Cider-Orchards, Groves, the Improvements of Forests, Mulberries, n. 2. n. 5. n. 12. n. 53. Agriculture in general, n. 5. Granaries, to provide corn in times of plenty for years of dearth, n. 25. Remedies or Preventions of Dearth proposed, n. 90. The salubrity of an unwholesome place, how to be recover’d, n. 66. Sand-flouds by land, how to be stopp’d, stopp'd, and improvements in such places. n. 37. Salt, who made in the coasts of France by the Sun, n. 51. The Salt-works at Nantwich described, n. 53. and 54. Tidings of a Salt-rock in Cheshire, n. 66. Materials for Ships offer'd from Virginia, to preserve the Timber of England against a time of need, n. 93. And such extraordinary Artifices, as Ingenious Travellers have communicated to us. Our aim being for the general benefit of Mankind, it is fit, we should begin at our own doors, and offer an Example, or, at least, follow the best. Errata in Numb. 100. Pag. 6194. l. 26. r. reasons of Sounds. p. 6197. l. 2. r. proportion half of the double. LONDON: Printed by T. R. for John Martyn, Printer to the Royal Society. 1674.