An Extract of a Letter, Written by a Friend to the Publisher out of the Country, July 24. 1675; Relating to the Contents of the Tract Next Foregoing

PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. July 26. 1675. The CONTENTS. An extract of a Letter, relating to the Essay Instrument described in the foregoing Tract. A way, of making all sorts of Fruits, Kernels, &c. grow to an extraordinary bigness. Advertisements, occasioned by Numb. 114; upon Frosts in some parts of Scotland; of black Winds; of the warm and fertilizing Steams of the surface of the Earth, Stones, Rocks, Waters; of Petrifying and Metallizing waters, with some Notes for the Gardening of Scotland: by Dr. J. Beal. Mr. Flamstead's Letter concerning Mr. Horrocks Lunar Systeme. An account of Mr. Flamstead, and Mons. Bouliardus, touching the late Eclipse of the Moon. An Account of a Book; viz. The Planters Manual, &c. by Charles Cotton Esquire. An extract of a Letter, written by a Friend to the Publisher out of the Country, July 24. 1675; relating to the Contents of the Tract next foregoing. I am very much obliged for the last pacquet which came safe, and I was not a little transported with Joy in the perusal of Honourable Mr. Boyles Essay Instrument, as he hath expressed the five principal uses of it, which obliges Mankind (that hath a regard for Honesty or Justice; or hath any concernment for Coins, or Metals) to return him grateful Acknowledgments. Few of us are not sometimes cheated with counterfeit Money, and I think there is scarce a Housekeeper which is not abused by false Metals. We are all at the mercy of Pewterers, and, in the Country, we begin to be in no better case in our dealings with Goldsmiths and Silversmiths. Long since I took notice, how light and Silver-like the Pewter was, which descended to us from our great Grandmothers; but as soon as (to follow the fashion) we changed it, the weight and the very colour was altered. And, as they have had the wit to lead us on to change the fashion of our Pewter, as oft as we change the fashion of our Hats, our Pewter is in every change more and more embased: And, if our Silversmiths hold on their degrading mixtures, I shall question, whether our Silver-plate may not shortly come down to approach our Fore-fathers Pewter: I mean in the Country, where 'tis never or seldom tried. But, Sir, since our honourable Philosopher hath discovered the pure Gold, and digged out the Oar; I hope, you and others of the R. Society will find out some ingenious and docible persons, who, for reasonable gain to themselves, and for common good, will furnish us with store of these Instruments, fitted, and ready prepared for all the uses. I have marvelled, That the want of willing Persons to execute, and to furnish for Common practice the excellent discoveries and instructive Instruments, which some great Philosophers have lately brought to light, have not discouraged the Inventors themselves. Let me offer to you two or three Instances. If the same Mr. Boyles Statical Baroscope, described and published in your First Vol. N. 14. p. 231; or perhaps, if the Mercurial Baroscope had been more generally spread in the hands of many Sagacious Gentlemen, I conceive, we should have heard less noise against the Gravity and Gravitation of the Air. I cannot see what place the Statical Baroscope would give, either for the Funicular or for the Hobbian Objections, or yet for the Difficiles Nage. Both the said sorts of Baroscopes do shew to the eye the Gravitation of Air from the heaviest to the lightest, in all changes, to every degree, and mutually explain and confirm each other: And the small Hydrostatical Instrument may make some resemblance of the same or like importance, in Liquids. I guess, that in a very long clear Glass one may see, whether the Bladders of those Fishes which have the thinnest and clearest film, do expand and contract, as they ascend and descend with the Hydrostatic Instrument. My next Instance may be the Celestial and Aerial Magnets, as proposed, and to some effects discovered by Mr. Boyle. But this will hardly be throughly investigated by any other than the Sons of Art. We see, with what confidence some men pretend to Astrology, even even in trifles; yet how lazy or unwilling the whole Tribe is to make proof, either of that force or kind of Subterranean Steams, or of Celestial or Ethereal Influences; no, not of the Moon, or any Planet or Constellation, to any considerable accurateness. The Sun indeed will not permit all his Power to be concealed from the dullest of Mankind; but certainly, as the Temperate weather of the Spring differs, in efficacy, from the Temperate weather of the Autumn; the Sunshine of the East, from the Sunshine of the West; May dew, from the dew of August; the keen winds of March, from winds of the same keenness in January, &c. So one would be apt to think, the Increase or Decrease of the Moon, the Perigee or the Apogee, and perhaps the Libratures, lately discovered, as the Aspects of other Planets, and those Constellations to which all the Old Geographical Writers do attribute so much, may have their peculiar effects, if duly and luckily examined. We can hardly imagine, that at Farnham, and other places, where many hundreds of Acres of strong-scented Hops are fully ripe, be given no peculiar indication besides odour in the Air; or when large fields of Beans and Pease are in full blossom, that they have no effect, besides the Odour. And for Mineral and other Subterranean Steams, the Baroscopes, with comparing other circumstances, may seem to indicate, when they ascend with more than ordinary impetuosity, and when rebated. In all my Observations, I always found the Air lightest in the greatest Storms, and a little before, and at the beginning of great falls and continued Rain. Thirdly, I instance the Statical Hygroscope, which is so fully expressed and directed by the same Mr. Boyle, that 'tis easy for an ordinary Capacity, with a little diligence, to make considerable Discoveries by it, for the near concernments of Man's health. Many other Instances I could name, which, if we had such a Man as Mr. Sellar, who could employ Workmen to perfect the Instruments, and to sell them off, it would (doubtless) procure us many Operatours, and many free Discoveries in some points of Philosophy, of which we have yet heard but little Tydings.