Some Observations and Experiments Made, and in a Letter Communicated to the Publisher, for the R. Society, by the Learned and Inquisitive Mr. Martin Lister

Wherefrom (applying and considering the Refractions in both,) I found the Sun at hor. 6. 55' to be 74°. 30' in consequence of the lower Head of II. The difference of Longitude betwixt these two Stars, is 17°. 59': And therefore now the Sun in consequence of the Lucida calcis II 92°. 29'. So that the Sun's Apparent motion betwixt the Year 1582, the 5th of March at hor. 4. 45', and the year 1585, the 15th of Septemb. at hor. 6. 55' mane' (besides the whole revolutions) was 187°. 16': But the Mean Motion is 191°, 2'; greater than the Apparent by 3°. 46': Which, parted in proportion to the Equation of the Earth's Motion, collected for those Times from my New Tables, gives the greatest Equation of the Orb, 1°. 54'. 15''; consenting, to my wonder, (without any wresting of the Observations) with that, which I deduced from Cassini's correct Meridional Altitudes. I had not had time to examine any of those others, he hath related; nor indeed are they any ways convenient: But by this what I have done you may see, that if once we get Instruments to our purpose, that then it will not be difficult to correct the Sun's Motions without the consideration of the Meridional Altitudes, in which 24 Seconds error, gives the Place above one Minute amiss. At present I use Tables, for the Sun's Motion, grounded on this Equation, which is less than Tycho's by no less than 9 Minutes: Which must needs cause great Alterations in our Numbers for all the other Planets; in correcting of which, I shall employ some of those Minutes I can spare from my more necessary Studies; and have hopes of good Success. Tycho's great Equation made him commit no small Errors, and put him upon strange shifts to hide and salve them. All his Observations of the Planets in their Oppositions to the Sun, are to be corrected, before we may attempt to represent them by Numbers: For, his Errors in the Sun's place made him err sometimes 5 or 6 hours in the time of the Opposition; which must be reformed. And that I may perform my Discourse of the Parallax of Mars observ'd, I shall fall upon it at my spare hours after Christmas. Some Observations and Experiments made, and in a Letter communicated to the Publisher, for the R. Society, by the Learned and Inquisitive Mr. Martin Lister. I shall venture to entertain you at present with a few loose Notes, which you will be pleas'd to take in good part, and dispose of them as you think fitting. 1. Of the Efflorescence of certain Mineral Glebes. I keep by me certain big pieces of crude Allom-Mines, such as it was. was taken out of the Rock. I had also in the same Cabinet like pieces of the ordinary Fire-stone or Marcasite of the Coal-pits, which here we call Brass-lumps. In process of Time both these Glebes shot forth Tufts of long and slender fibres or threads; some of them half an inch long, bended and curled like Hairs. In both these Glebes, these Tufts were in some measure transparent and crystalline. These Tufts did as often repullulate, as they were struck and wiped clean off. Herein these Fibres differ'd in Taste; the Alluminous very Allomy and pleasantly pungent; the Vitriolick steptique and odious. Again, the Allom-ones, being dissolv'd in fair water, raised a small ebullition; whereas the Vitriolick Fibres dissolved quietly. The Allom-fibres were generally smaller, and more opaque, Snow-like; the Vitriolick larger, many Fibres equalling an Horse-hair in thickness, and more crystaline. The Water, wherein the Allom-fibres were dissolv'd, did give no red Tincture with Gall; not by all the Means I could devise to assist them; whatever hath (and that with great confidence) been said to the contrary, by some of the Writers of our Yorkshire Spaws: The Vitriolick did immediately give a purple Tincture with Gall. Having laid pieces of the same Marcasite in a Cellar, they were in a few Months cover'd over with green Copperas, which was these Fibres shot and again dissolved by the moist Air, clodder'd and run together. Exposing other pieces of the same Vitriolick Glebe in my Window, where the Sun came, they were cover'd over with a white farinaceous Matter, that is, with these Fibres calcined by the Rays of the Sun and warm Air, beating upon them. Of what Figure these Fibres were, whether round or angular, I could not well discern. But I take these fibrous and thread-like shootings of Allom and Vitriol to be most genuine and natural; and their angular shootings, after solution, into Cubes and Rhomboides, to be forc'd and accidental; Salts of very different natures, as well Vegetable as Fossil, by a like process in crystallizing of them, being observ'd to shoot into like Figures. But this is not my Purpose at this Time. II. Of an odd figured IRIS. See Fig. 3. and 4. I have not observ'd any Rock or sort of Stone, whether Metallic or more Vulgar, which hath not its different sort of Sparr, shot in some part or other of its Bed or Seams. And these Sparrs differ not only in their Colours and other Accidents, but eminently too in their Figure. Figure. To pass by divers, which I have collected, I shall describe one of a very curious Figure, and which (though very common in our blew Lime-stone Rocks, out of which, plenty of Lead-Ore is got,) yet is not, that I know of, mention'd by any Author. These Crystals are mostly of a black Water, like the black flint in Chawk-hills; but there are of them, which have a purplish or amethystine colour; and some there are as clear as crystal. They adhere to the Seams of the Rock, be it betwixt Bed and Bed, or where-ever there are crofs and oblique Veins through the very Substance of the Bed. The smaller the Veins, the less the Iris. You will find of them as small as Wheat-corns, and others an hundred times bigger. They shoot from both sides the seam, and mutually receive one the other. They are figured thus, viz. a column of six Plains, very unequal as to Breadth; the end adhering to the Rock is always rugged, as a thing broken off; the other end of the Column consists of three quinangular Plains, very little rais'd in the middle: These Plains too are very unequal. Let them hug one another, or be any ways straightned and compressed in their shooting; yet the number of Plains mentioned, both of the column and top, is most certain. The Places, where infinite of them may be had, are Rainsborough Scar upon the Rible: also in a Stone-quarry near Eskton Tarn in Craven. III. Glosopetra tricuspis non-serrata. Fig. 1. and 2. Mr. Ray in his Travels, hath these Words concerning the Glosopetrae, pag. 115. Of the Glosopetrae (saith he) I have not yet heard, that there have been any found in England; which I do not a little wonder at, there being Sharks frequently taken upon our Coasts. I have had out of the Isle of Shepy in the River of Thames, very Sharks Teeth dug up there; which could not be said to be petrified; though, as to the Colour, they were somewhat guilded with a Vitriolick taint at our first receiving them; but they were white, and in a short Time came to their natural Colour. In the Stone-quarries in Hinderskelf-Park, near Malton, I had this Stone (the Scheme whereof I send you; Fig. 1.) the greatest rarity of this kind I ever met with, and which I took out of the Rock there myself. It is a fair Glosopetra with 3 points, of a black liver-colour, and smooth; its edges are not serrate; its basis is (like the true Teeth) of a rugged Substance; it is carved round the basis with imbossed Work: It hath certain eminent ridges or lines like Rays, drawn from the Basis to each Point. IV. Of IV. Of certain Daëtili Idæi, or the true Lapides Judaici, for kind found with us in England. Fig. 5. The Stones call'd Daëtili Idæi and Lapides Judaici, are brought over to us from beyond Seas in divers shapes; and some of them are described in Authors. We have plenty of them for bind in these Parts, as in the Stone-quarries at Newton near Hemley, and at Hellingley by Malton. There is some variety in the figure of them here also; but the most common one in these Rocks, is after the fashion of a Date-stone, round and long, about an inch, and sometime longer. They are a little swelled in the middle, and narrower towards each end: They are channelled the length-way, and upon the ridges knotted or purled all over with small knots, set in a quincunx-order. The inward Substance is a white opaque Spar, and breaks smooth like a flint; not at all hollow in the middle, as are the Belemnites. V. Of the Electrical power of Stones in relation to a Vegetable Rosin. It so happen'd, that having Occasion in July, to view certain Fossils, which I had dispos'd of into divers Drawers in a Cabinet made of Barbadoes Cedar, I observ'd many of the Stones to be thick-cover'd over with a liquid Rosin like Venice Turpentine. Examining further, there was not a Drawer, wherein there was not some more some fewer Stones thus drenched. That this could be no Mistake, as from dropping, the bottoms of the Drawers are of Oak. Again, many Stones, which were lapped up in Papers, were yet wholly infected and cover'd with this Rosin. Besides, after diligent Search there appear'd no manner of exudation in any part of the Cabinet. Two things I thought very remarkable: 1. That of the many sorts of Stones I therein had, divers escaped, but not any of the Hamatites-kind; having therein Manganes, Scifos, Botryades, &c. which were all deeply concern'd. 2. That amongst perhaps 500 pieces, of the Astroites, here and there one or two in an Appartment, and sometimes more, were seised, and the rest dry; as it fares with People in the time of the Plague in one and the same House. I further observed, that Stones of a soft and open Grain, as well as those of a hard and polish'd Superficies, were concern'd in a manner alike. 'Tis certain, that the whole body of the Turpentine of the Cedar-wood was carried forth into the Air, and floating therein, was again condensed into its own proper Form upon these Stones. This makes it more than probable, that Odoriferous Bodies emit and spend their very Substance. Thus Camphir is said, if not well secured, totally to fly away. Again, it is hence evident, that there is great great difference betwixt the Distillation of Vegetable Juyces, and the Emission of Effluviums or this natural Distillation; that really separating and dividing the Substance into different Parts; but this carrying out the whole entirely and unalter'd in its Nature. VI. Of the Flower and Seed of Mushrooms. The general and received Opinion of Batonists concerning Mush- rooms is that, which Caspar Bauhinus in his Pinax expresses in these few Words, viz. Fungi neq; plantæ, neq; radices, neq; flores, neq; semina sunt; sed nihil aliud quam terræ, arborum, lignorum putridorum, alia- rium; putrilaginum humiditatis superflue. I am of the Opinion, that they are Plants of their own kind, and have more than a chance-origin- al. We will instance in that species, called Fungus porosus crassus magnus I.B. The texture of the Gills is like a Paper prick'd full of Pin-holes. In August this is very frequent under Hedges, and in the middle of the Moors in many Places of this Country. It seems to me (and no doubt it will to any Person that shall well examine it,) that the Gills of this Mushroom are the very Flower and Seed of this Plant. When it is ripe, the Gills here are easily separable from the rest of the Head: Each Seed is distinct from other, and hath its Impression in the Head of the Mushroom, just as the Seeds of an Artichoke hath in the bot- tom of it. The bigger end of the Seed is full and round; and they are disposed in a spiral Order just as those of the Artichoke. The like we do think of all other Mushrooms, however differently figured. And if it shall happen to him that shall sow them, that these will not produce this kind, but be steril; it is no strange Thing amongst Plants, there being whole genus's of Plants that come up, and flower, and seed, and yet their Seed was never known to produce Plants of their Kind, being naturally steril, and a volatile Dust, as all the Orchids or Bee-flowers. We shall not here omit to tell you farther concerning this Mush- room, that, when fresh gather'd, it is of a Buff-colour inside outside; and yet, cut through the middle, it will in a Moment change from a pale-yellow to a deep purple or blew, and stain Linnen according- ly. A drop of the Juice leisurely squeezed out, will change, holding it betwixt your Eye and the Light, through all the Colours of the Rainbow, in the very Time of its falling, and fix in a Purple, as it doth in the springing out of its Veins. VII. Of the speedy vitrifying of the whole Body of Antimony by Cawk. The several vitrifications of Antimony are either opaque or trans- parent. To the first kind I shall add one, which is in itself very curi- ous, and hath these Advantages above the rest, that it is done with great Ease and Speed; and by it I have performed some Things upon Minerals and Metals, which with crude Antimony alone I could not effect. Take of Antimony one Pound; flux it clear: Have an Ounce or two of the Cawk-stone (by and by to be described) in a Lump red-hot in readiness. Put it into the Crucible to the Antimony; continue the Flux a few Minutes: Cast it into a clean and not greased Mortar, decanting the melting Liquor from the Cawk. This Process gives us above 15 Ounces of Vitrum of Antimony, like polish'd Steel, and as bright as the most refined Quicksilver. The Cawk seems not to be diminish'd in its Weight, but rather increased; nor will be brought to incorporate with the Antimony, though flux'd in a strong blast. This Cawk-stone is a very odd Mineral, and I always looked upon it to be much a-kin to the white milky Mineral Juyces, I formerly sent you a Specimen of: And this Experiment is demonstrative that I was not mistaken; for, the milky Juice of the Lead-Mines vitrifies the whole Body of Antimony in like Manner. That this Vitrification is from the proper Nature of Cawk, I little doubt; for, I could never light upon any one Mineral Substance, which had any such Effect upon Antimony; and I have tryed very many, as Lapis Calaminaris, Stone-Sulphur or Sulphur vitrum, Galactites, Sulphur Marcasite, Allom-glebe, divers Sparrs, &c. Cawk is a ponderous white Stone, found in the Lead-Mines; it will draw a white Line like Chalk or the Galactites: And though it be so free, that it is more firm, and hath a smooth and shining Grain, Sparr-like, yet not at all transparent. Of the Spirit, it yields by Distillation, another time. I am, York, Novemb. 20. 1674. Sir, Yours, &c. An Account of some Books. I. TRACTS, containing 1. Suspicious about some Hidden Qualities of the Air, with an Appendix touching Celestial Magnets, and some other Particulars. 2. Animadversions upon Mr. Hobbs's Problemata de Vacuo. 3. A Discourse of the Cause of Attraction by Suction: By the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE Esq; Fellow of the R. Society, London, 1674. in 8vo. In the first of these Tracts, the noble Author, passing by those obvious Qualities of the Air, Heat, Cold, Dryness and Moisture, and such others, as are now also well enough known, I mean Gravity, Springiness, Refractiveness, &c. enquires into, and delivers his Conjectures about, some yet more Latent ones. And the chief Account,