An Account of Some Books

An Account of some Books. 1. Marcelli Malpighii ANATOME PLANTARUM; cui subjungitur Appendix, iteratas & auctas ejusdem de OVO IN CUBATO Observationes continens. Londini, Impensis Joh. Martyn, ad insigne Campana in Cimiterio D. Pauli, 1675. in fol. The Excellent Author undertakes in this Treatise to exhibit the Inward structure of Plants both by Discourse and Schemes, according to the Observations, himself hath made thereof by a Microscope; with a design, thereby to discover the causes of the several appearances, qualities and effects of Plants, as they may depend upon the various Position, Size and Shape of their parts, and upon the different ways of Percolation, Fermentation, and the like operations in the same. He begins with the Bark, and proceeds to the Woody part, and the Knobs, and so on to the fabric of the Buds, Blossoms, Leaves and Seeds: Promising at the end to prepare another Work about the Roots and Excrescences of Plants; that so, having surveyed and well considered the History and matter of fact, he may proceed to make an Essay of what is thence deducible touching the Cause and Manner of Vegetation. Concerning the Bark, he finds it to be made up of several parts, of which the prime ones are those he calls Ligneous or Woody fibres, in his opinion analogous to Nerves, which he faith are pipes pervious to a clear liquor; the structure of which Pipes consist in many square partitions, opening into one another. These vessels he finds to lie neither straight nor parallel, but to be for the most part compacted like little fagots; of which some do make a kind of Net-work, whereby the Bark becomes to be an aggregate of reticular coats, surrounding the Woody part of the plant: And as to what passes through them, he faith, that the Juice being entred into them, is, by the heat of the Season striking upon the Soil and forcing up the liquor, made to ascend a little way; and then by the survening night and cold stopt for the time, but is again, by the heat of the next day, sending up more Juice, thrust up higher from time to time, till it gets to the top, climbing thither as were by steps: To which ascent it is marvellously assisted by the structure of these Pipes, being divided into square partitions, opening into one another, and furnish'd with something that performs the part of Valves, endowed with a Spring. From these Pipes, he faith, do depend and break forth Horizontal ranks of Baggs or Bubbles, crossing those Fibres; into which bubbles the ascending Juice, like a chyle, is discharged, and being stay'd there a while, and mixed with the old Juice there residing, comes to be fermented, and advanced to the nature of an Aliment: Whence it comes to pass, that in many of those Bubbles there fall out due precipitations of a tartareous matter, which is condensed and hardned in these vessels. And 'tis in these Bubbles, faith he further, that much of this Juice is digested, which afterwards is distributed to the Woody, and other parts of the Plant. But, besides this preparation of the Aliment made in the Bark, there is another office, which that part seems to be appointed for; and that is the increase of the bulk of Plants, by adding yearly a coat or ring of Fibres, which being interwoven by these Horizontal ranks of Bubbles, and by degrees consolidated and hardned, do put on the nature of Wood. The Stem or Trunk of Plants consists, according to him, of Ligneous fibres, transverse ranks of Bubbles, and Air-pipes. In young Trees, he faith, the ranks of these Bubbles pass into the very Pith; which pith is abounding in young Twigs, until by the growth and hardning of the ligneous fibres it wastes away. Now the clear Juice, which through the Woody filaments riseth up into the stem and branches, is discharged into the lateral appendages of the Bubbles, and there advanced, as hath been said already, into a nourishing Juice: And as in Animals the new Aliment enters under the form of Chyle into the Veins, where being mingled with the old blood, which is endow'd with several ferments, as the lymph and others, and so circulated into the habit of the whole body, it enters into all the parts of it, in which it meets again with determinate ferments raising them to the peculiar nature of every part, transpiring transpiring and precipitating what is useless; so in Plants the Juice, conveyed through the ligneous pipes, is carried to the old Juice harbour'd in the said Bubbles, and is there and in the Pith fermented and further prepared, and kept to furnish matter for future Buds and Leaves. The Air-pipes, called also by him spiral fibres, are, in his opinion, a kind of Silver-colour'd plate, wreathed spirally, and so constituting an open hollow pipe, of a scaly texture, made up of little pipes and bladders, very like the Lungs of Insects, admitting contraction and dilatation. Whence he concludes the great necessity and use of Air and Respiration in all those Creatures that have even but the least degree of life: Which Air, he saith, is in Plants taken-in chiefly by the Root out of the Earth, there being no such conspicuous Air-pipes in the Bark or Leaves, whereas the Roots are exceedingly stored with them. This Air, contained in these pipes, and subject to compression and rarefaction, presses by its swelling upon the contiguous Woody fibres and their adhering bubbles, and so squeezes out their Juice into the neighbouring parts; which being relaxed and emptied, they admit and take in fresh liquor. Such Plants, as instead of clear liquor contain in their fibrous pipes a colour'd Juice, have a peculiar vessel, as in the Ebulus (Dane-wort) fig. 30, and in all Lactiferous and Resinous plants, fig. 31. And each Plant seems to our Author to have a peculiar vessel to contain and prepare the last and specific nourishment for that plant; such as are those, that hold the Turpentine and Rozin in some Trees; there being as many several sorts of Juices as there are species of Plants, and therefore peculiar Vessels, preparing the last and proper juice for each respective Plant. The Stems of Trees and their Branches increase by the external addition of a new Coat of Fibres and Air-pipes, growing about them every year, and thereby giving them a new Ring of wood. As to the Knobs of Plants, they are to our Author nothing but the productions of new Off-springs upon a new implication of Fibres and Air-pipes, for the shooting out of new Leaves, and young Sprouts or Buds. A Bud is, as 'twere, the new Fetus or birth of a Plant, or a Sprout contracted in small, including a tender woody part (raised from ligneous fibres and medullar bubbles) and the rudiments of the Leaves. Here our Author takes notice, that Nature, in ordering the several kinds of Living things, constantly proceeds in almost the same, or at least in an analogous method: Considering, that in Animals, that are called perfect, she raises them from Eggs by a continual augmentation and nutrition to their due magnitude, joyning from time to time new particles to the former; yet so, that in every state of increase, that form, which was first of all in being, is still maintained, no part emerging anew in the Animal but Teeth and Horns; whereas in Insects, besides the increase, there come forth parts, whose rude lineaments lay hid before, in the Infancy of those Creatures; such as are Wings, Feelers, and the like: And to Plants she gives a daily increase by investing the trunk and branches with a Woody supercrescent Coat, but so, that from the tender Branches there spring forth every year young sprouts out of a precedent bud. And as in a Caterpillar the rudiments of some parts, being yet fluid, lye a pretty while concealed in little bags, until by the repose of the Insect, under the form of an aurelia, they grow and come forth more solid; so, saith our Author, the parts of a Branch lye at first hid in the bud, till afterwards being enlarged by the moisture and warmth of the Spring, they extend themselves into the form of a Sprout. The Leaves are, to our Author, a considerable part of the Plant, seeing that all those parts, that are wrapt up in the stem or trunk, do, when opened in the extremum and younger parts, break out into Leaves; so that these seem to be nothing but appendances to the Trunk lengthened and opened; the ligneous Pipes and Air vessels, derived from the midst of the Woody cylinder of the tender Ring, running together into a bundle, and forming the Stalk, and at length upon their dilatation compleating the Leaf. The great variety of Leaves our Author deduces from the transverse ranks of Bubbles appendant to the woody pipes of the Stem, upon the opening of the Stalk. The Office of the Leaves seems to him very considerable, forasmuch forasmuch as, in his opinion, they perform the part of the skin in Animals, which in them is so made up of Nerves, Veins, Arteries, Lymphducts, Tendons, and Glandulis, that the nourishing Juice, by small passages conveyed into it, acquires a new texture and a new kind of fluidity, whereby what is useless is separated, and the rest, being returned into the inner habit of the Animals body, nourishes and repaires it. Thus, saith he, there are found in Leaves all the sorts of Vessels to be met within the body of Plants, as Air-vessels, Woody-fibres, and Vessels of Transpiration. This he illustrates by Observations taken from Insects, and upon whose skin abundance of moisture gathers together; they also frequently casting their skin, as Plants do their leaves. This opinion of his, viz. that the Nutritious Juice is further concocted in the Leaves, he endeavours to render more probable by the consideration of the little Seminal Plant, which contains two Leaves; insinuating also, that from the Leaves there is a regrefs of the concocted Juice into the stem, and consequently a peculiar circulation. But to proceed; our Author esteeming the Branches to be produced for the generation of the Vegetable Egg, he teaches, suitably thereunto, that a Blossom or Flower is, as 'twere, the Uterus together with the Egg or fetus of the Plant, which in due season is exposed to the Air, to make it grow at length into a new Offspring. In explaining the manner of the production of Flowers, and their variety, he is very curious; as he also is in that of Seeds; which latter he observes to be lodged in divers Cases or Caskets, performing the office of an Uterus and the parts thereof. And seeing the Seed grows in very many Plants to an edible Fruit, he describes the structure and parts of several Fruits, viz. Figs, Cherries, Grapes, Pears, Citrons, Limons, Oranges, Gourds, Strawberries, Nuts, Almonds, Acorns, Chesnuts, Legums, Corn, &c. taking notice of the singular apparatus, formed by Nature for the sake of the Seed, which he calls the Fetus and the true compendium of a Plant, made up of all the principal parts thereof. Upon all which he enlarges with great accurateness. But his Observations about Galls, and other Excrescences and Appendages of Trees, he reserves for another Discourse (which (which we have reason to expect within a little time;) yet noting here in short, that those Excrescences are not the Wombs, in and by which, Trees and other Plants produce Insects; but only the Nests of the Egg cast thereby by the Animal parent, and not at all furnish'd by the Plant itself. As to the Use of the parts of Plants, especially the passage of the Aliment, he is very sparing, and modest in giving his opinion about it, judging it difficult not to mistake herein. Mean time, he intersperses, in the Explication of their structure, his thoughts concerning it, having well considered the diversity of Vessels in Plants, viz. the great number of pervious Fibres in the Bark, the abundance of other Fibres in the Ligneous part, some of which are compos'd of a Spiral zone, others made up of roundish Bubbles, opening, as 'twere, into one another; there being also a peculiar vessel, that yields Milk or Rozin. Thus far of our Authors ANATOME OF PLANTS: Touching his Appendix of Incubated Eggs, he therein shews, with what care he hath repeated his former Observations upon that subject*; though he still scruples to determine, which of these two, the Heart or the Blood, hath the priority of existence in the Formation of a Chick: This only being certain to him, that there may be observed the prima flamina or first lineaments of the Chick even before Incubation, and that afterwards, by virtue of the Incubation there are first manifested the vertebrae, and the beginnings of the Brain and the Spinal marrow, together with the Wings, and some Flesh; the Heart, Vessels, and Blood yet lying then concealed: But yet, because that some rivulets do appear in the umbilical area, he thinks it probable, that the Heart is then also appendant to the carina of the Chick, he having seen the Heart before the thirtieth hour: But 'tis a considerable time, he saith, before the Liquor passes through the Heart and the Vessels; which Liquor he hath observed to be first of a yellowish, then of a ruddy, and at last of a Blood-red colour. Whence he again offers his conjecture, that the Liquor, the Vessels and the Heart do exist before the Blood. II. Epistle II. Epistolae ad D. Joelem Langelotum de Alcali & Acid Insufficientia ad gerendum munus Principiorum Corporum naturalium: Conscripta à Joh. Bohn Phil. & Med. D. in Acad. Lipsiensis. Lipsiae, A. 1675. in 8°. In this Epistle, as the Author declareth himself highly dissatisfied with the Peripatetick and Chymical Elements of Bodies natural, and affirms the Weakness of them to have been sufficiently laid open, and chiefly by the Experiments of those two great English Philosophers, Bacon and Boyle; so he undertaketh to prove the Insufficiency of that lately celebrated duumvirat of Principles, the Alcali and Acid, by the congress and conflict of which the Maintainers of them presume to give an account of all the phænomena of Nature. This Undertaking of our Author is here performed, 1. By representing the Obscurity of these two Principles; 2. By examining some Instances in which they are alleged to perform all the effects thereunto belonging. 3. By shewing the Necessity of at least one Principle more, as active as any of those two. The first of these he endeavours to make out by taking notice in the first place, that as yet we have not so much as competent Definitions of an Acid and Alcali, and that those which are taken from our Senses are unsatisfactory for explaining the inward constitution of Bodies; there being some substances endow'd with certain virtues or powers not discernable by any of our senses, and the Acids and Alcali's being capable of being reduced into such minute particles, as also of being sometimes thus dissociated by mixtures, that the Taste shall not at all be able to discover them, and that even in such Concrets, whose activity depends from one or other of those Principles. Next, he considers, that that affection, which is ascribed to these Salin Principles, namely, their mutual Effervescence, is is not of that latitude, as to explicate by it all the phenomena of Nature, though he denies not, that by means of their powers very many effects, and those admirable ones, may be explicated, such as are solutions, precipitations, distillations, sublimations, calcinations, &c. But that all cannot be by such a reaction accounted for, he instances first in the known virtue of Alcaly's upon Mineral Sulphurs, such as Salt of Tartar or fixed Nitre and Common Sulphur, which may be reduced into white powder, out of which may be extracted a Tincture as well by these fixed Salts, as by the volatile ones of Sal Armoniac and Harts-horn, and by their means a Sulphur out of Antimony; yet without any sensible effervescence, even when they are prepared in formâ humidâ. Secondly, he instances in divers Rozins dissolved by the Whites of Eggs without any observable Effervescence, and in Turpentin dissolving several Gums without any commotion. To these he adds the Instance of the Coagulation of Quick-silver by the fume of melted Lead, without any reaction of an Acid and Alcali, that is perceivable. Besides, he observes, that 'tis doubtful, whether all those Substances that do tumultuate with an Acid, are Alcaly's, or that do boil up with Alcaly's, are Acid. For 1. Acids do boil up with Acids, and mutually render turbid and do precipitate their Solutions; as Spirit of Salt or Vitriol works upon the Solution of Silver or Copper made by Aqua-fortis or Spirit of Nitre; as also Spirit of Vitriol, and Spirit of Salt heats, and turns into a whitish Offa, by a Solution of Saturn, made with distilled Vinegar; And Aqua-fortis and Spirit of Nitre, though they make no sensible ebullition in the said Liquor, yet they cause the particles of Saturn to subside at the bottom in the form of a whitish powder. Moreover, he notes, that an Acid is put into commotion by that which is neither an Acid or Alcaly; as Oyl of Vitriol mingled with either common or distilled Water, and likewise with spirit of Wine and oyl of Turpentine. Again, he finds also, that neither all what boils up with an Alcali, or receiveth it into itself, is therefore presently to be taken for an Acid; because the liquor of Nitre fixed by coals, and Oyl of Tartar, do as well as juice of Citron, Vinegar, &c. separate the parts of Milk; which, he faith, he hath also often seen done by putting Gall into Milk. Having dispatcht these particulars, he proceeds to shew secondly by divers Instances, that many effects are commonly ascribed to Acids and Alcay's, which are not due to them, because they are either not at all to be found in those bodies, whence such effects proceed, or not in that quantity, which is necessary to master and subdue the power of the other parts of the Concret. Lastly, to evince, that there is at least a third principle in Concrets, that hath as great a power to act, as those two; he instances in the Amalgamation of Gold and other Metals, that is performed with Quick-silver, which is so mixed with them per minima, that they are changed together into an unctuous mass; whereupon, the Mercury being separated again, either by passing it through Leather, or by distillation, or by flowers of Sulphur kindled, the Metals appear again in the form of a very subtle calx. But now, that there should proceed from Mercury, or any Acid ingredient thereof, a calcining power, the known effect of Acids being Corrosion, our Author cannot assent to: Especially since, as he affirms, Mercury highly rectified and freed from all its acidity, retains notwithstanding its former amalgamating and corroding virtue. What this third ingredient of Concrets should be, our Author thinks difficult to determine; he offers only to call it the Sweet and Inflammable Principle in Combustible bodies: Yet would not be understood to esteem it a Catholick principle, nor to exclude a fourth or more Principles. All which he concludes with a discourse tending to evince, that the Inflammability of Bodies depends not upon their Acidity. IV. Zymologia Chymica, or a Philosophical Discourse of Fermentation, from a New Hypothesis of Acidum and Sulphur; With an additional Discourse of the Sulphur-Bath at Knarfbrough: By W. Sympon M.D, London, 1675, in 8°. The Learned Author, not being satisfied with anything he had yet seen extant upon this argument of Fermentation, propounds in this Tract a New Hypothesis, as an Essay towards the further improvement of that noble Doctrine; endeavouring to solve, from the inward conflicts of Acidum and Sulphur, the phenomena of all Hot-Baths, the generation of Minerals, the production of many Spa-waters, the grand appearances of Heat, Fire and Light; as also various other Subterranean phenomena, as Damps, Earthquakes, Eruptions; likewise the appearances of Meteors, and divers other both remarkable and entertaining effects. In the doing of this he first explains, what he means by Fermentation; and secondly sets forth the large extent thereof in the whole orb of Nature. He defines Fermentation to be nothing else but an intestine Collision betwixt Acidum and Sulphur, put together by Nature or Art, and set into a combating motion, in order to the production of Concrets, or to some other equivalent end. This definition he applies first to the productions in the Mineral kingdom, undertaking to solve from those two Principles the phenomena of Hot-baths, and the production of Minerals, and other subterranean appearances. Where he lays down two positions, whereof one is, that there is no Hot-bath without Sulphur; the other, that an Acid is necessarily requisite in all Mineral fermentations: Declaring withal, what he means by Sulphur, and how Hot-baths differ chiefly according to the difference of their Sulphurs; and which of them are safely, or not safely to be taken inwardly: Endeavouring also to show, how from the principles specified, put into fermentation, the waters passing through them must necessarily become hot; confirming this by an induction of Experiments, shewing, how Sulphur by Fermentation becomes to be comminuted, nuted, volatilized, and made capable of Solution in Water, as happens in all Baths: All which he illustrates by a Parallel betwixt Mineral and Vegetable Fermentations; esteeming, that Vegetation is nothing but a natural slow-paced Fermentation from each Plants peculiar principles of Acid and Sulphur. In this part he examines and disallows both Tachenius his Hypothesis of Acids and Alcalys's, and the Cause assigned by divers Authors of the Heat in Natural Baths, viz. Subterranean fires; and withal removes the grand Objection alleged against Sulphurs being the cause of Heat in Baths, viz. that if Sulphur can give actual heat, it must burn; asserting, that Sulphur may be one of the efficients of Heat in Baths, and yet its flagration not requisite at all. Discoursing of the Acidum, as the other cause of all Mineral Fermentations, he declares, that he means here by acidum either such as is inbred in the same Mineral concretion, whilst in succoflato, in the beginning of its generation; or an extrinsick supervening one, which is powerful in the reduction of Minerals already solid and compleated. This done, he proceeds to prove, that there are Acid juices in the bowels of the Earth, and that these are either embryonative to the same Mineral where the Sulphur is, or else peculiar to some other body by which the transient Waters become acuated. Explaining, How the waters in Hot-baths become hot, he endeavours to shew, first, that some sorts of Acids have so powerful an operation upon Sulphurs, as that being put into motion they are sufficient causes of fermentation in Mineral Juices; and next, that heat is the necessary and immediate result of such fermentation: Where he takes notice, that the fermentation, made betwixt Spirit of Nitre and Butter of Antimony, is not from the Salts in the sublimate mixing with the Acid in the dissolvent, because, saith he, the same, poured upon the same Salts while incorporated with Mercury in the form of Sublimate, causeth no such fermentation; yea, he affirms to have seen Sublimate, wherein the aforesaid Salts that are in Butter of Antimony are lodged, dissolve in an acid, without the least sensible ebullition, near as soon as Ice in warm water. To this he adds, that 'tis water that sets the inbred principles of acidum and sulphur into a greater inward commotion, and makes the fermentation the stronger, stronger, and consequently the heat greater; witness that a little water, put to Oil of Vitriol, presently sets the fermental principles of acidum and sulphur, connatural to that Oil, into a strong ebullition, whence results so great a heat, as the glass, 'tis done in, can hardly be endured by the hand, especially if the Oil be well rectified; which he confirms by the Observation of good Authors, asserting that in many places Mines are found so hot, that they can hardly be touch't: As the Minera of Alom, or Vitriol, being broken and expos'd to the Air, contracts so strong a heat, as sometimes to cause an actual ignition, by which (he saith) not long since a Barn at Yeland near Halifax was burnt. Having thus deliver'd his Hypothesis of the causes of Hot Baths from the fermentation of mineral Juices, caused by acids and sulphurs, he goes on to solve from thence various other subterranean Effects, such as are Damps, Poisonous springs and Lakes, as also those of Earth-quakes, Eruptions, Concrete sulphurs, Spaw-waters; concerning the last of which he saith, that where there is a current of water irrorating some Earths or mineral beds of Iron or Alom-stone, there are made Vitrioline or Aluminous Spaws. Hence he desires his Reader to consider, whether from the same supposition of causes may be solved the diversity of Winds, the vicissitudes of Heat and Cold, the appearances of Meteors, Snow, Hail, &c. He offers also, from the same principles to explain the two great phenomena of Heat and Light, found in concrete bodies; yet leaving it to further examination, whether in that great Fountain of Light, the Sun, its perpetual emanation of Light may not consist in a peculiar fermentation of its own, set a work by the Creator, and kept a foot by a continual circulation of Ethereal matter: Endeavouring in the meantime to shew, 1. How Heat is produced from fermentation in all such bodies where 'tis found. 2. How from the same Principles of Acid and Sulphur Light is made. Whereby thereby, he labours to prove, that the Fermentation in Mineral Juices, whether natural or artificial, proceeds not from the Contrariety of Salts, because there is no such ebullition among Salts, but what is from the conflict of Acids and Sulphurs, whereas it never yet could be made appear (faith he) that these minerals contain'd any sort of Aceties, either fixt or volatile, though it be certain to him from irrefragable experiments, that Sulphurs and Acids are separable from them. And as he shews this in Minerals, so he undertakes to do it in the Fermentation of Animals in all the degrees of digestion made in their bodies; deriving also those spurious fermentations of the Blood, that cause Feavours of all sorts, from Acids not congenial, but wholly disagreeable, and heightening the natural gentle fermentation to an inflammation of the blood and other Juices: ascribing likewise all the poisonous properties of Venemous Animals to the invigorated ferments of their juices, raised to that height, as to become poisonous fire, which by a bite or sting getting admission into the blood of a human body, will, according to their several degrees, in their passage bear down and mortifie the spirits thereof. Whence he endeavours to give an account of the effects of those Fiery Serpents, we read of in Holy Writ, and of that matter called Gecco, vomited by some sort of venemous creatures, upon their being whip: and hung up (which exasperates their ferments;) which matter is used by some Indians as a speedy death to their Malefactors, by prick- ing the skin under a nayl of the hand, and applying a little quantity thereof to it, which immediately getting into the blood, presently suspends the natural fermentation thereof, and mortifying the spirits, kills presently. Having shew'd this in Minerals and Animals, he attempts also to verifie it in Vegetables, viz. that Vegetation is nothing else but a gentle collision of the Vegetable Acid and Sulphur in every seed, after the loosening of the body in the Earth; which ceaseth not, till the body, shap'd according to the form of those minute types wrapt up in the seedlings, and often visible by Microscopes, is in all its pourtrayings brought upon the visible stage of the world. And from such a fermentation he would also deduce the Colors, Savors, Odors of Vegetables, and their Medicinal qualifications, and their Propagation by seeds; as also the reduction of Corn, Grapes, Fruits, &c. into Bread and Drink; observing, that if the acidum of Paste, Must, Wort, or the like fermentable liquors, be by the addition of any other thing precipitated, alter'd, or mortified, then will those liquors never ferment; since that Quick-lime, Coral, Crabs-eyes, or any sort of fixt Lixivial Salts, being added thereto, before it begin, will prevent, or, if while fermenting, will stop the fermentation. He proceeds to explain, that the most violent of Fires is no other than this Fermentation in the most rapid manner; the said Principles furiously driving up each other; alleging, for the evidencing hereof, the Experiment of taking of Spirit of Venice Turpentine four ounces, and of Aqua fortis six ounces, both recently drawn, which, being mixt together in a Glass-vial, will presently fall into a furious fermentation, arising to that height, as actually, among the thick fumes, to burn and blaze out of and above the outside of the Glass in a visible flame. And thus he would have all actual Flagrations, whether from the violent assaults of fiery Acido-sulphureous Liquors (as in the newly recited Experiment) or from Acids and Sulphurs, set in to intestine conflicts in combustible concretes, (as in all usual fire,) to be no other than his described Fermentation in a most violent hurry, the principles acting furiously upon each other; whilst other slower fires are maintained by lighter and more gentle touches of the same principles. And as to those Fermentations, that are said to be made betwixt Acids and all kinds of Alcaly's, whether lixivial or alkalifate, fixt or volatile; the heat also caused from the attrition or collision of solid and hard bodies; our Author is of opinion, that those fermentations are referable to his principles, and that upon a double account; either, that Acids, when mixed with these Alcaly's, do meet with the Sulphur close bound up with the Acid and Urinous spirit or Salt in the compasses of the Alcali, and so cause an ebullition; or that they meet with the volatile urinous Salt close riveted with the Sulphur and acid, and so cause an effervescence. Where yet he shews the difference, that is to be noted in the Fermentations made between Acids and Sulphurs as they happen in Petrifick concretions and fixt Lixivial Alcaly's, from those that happen in the general course of Nature, among Animals, Vegetables and Minerals. To which he adds an account of the fermentation in Quick lime upon the effusion of water, and how that the acidum in that substance owes its original to no other than that of the Fire, contracted in the calcination of the stone, and was not praexistent before calcination. To which power of the acidum in Quick-lime, communicated thereto by Fire in the calcination, our Author imputes it, that the Water of Lime will will perform what other more usual Acids cannot: E.g. that Lime-water mixed with any volatile Urinous Salts, and distilled therefrom, fixes the Salt, and even turns it into an insipid powder, or indissoluble calx, &c. After which, he spends a Chapter in explaining, how the Heat and Ignition, which is caused from the Collisions and Attritions of hard bodies, may be easily solved from the Principles delivered by him. And having run through the Causes of Heat and Fire, as the result from all sorts of Fermentations, and shew'd, Heat to be Fire in a remiss, and Fire Heat in an intense degree, as also, that these Fermentations proceed from a conflict of Acidum and Sulphur, excepting those made from an intestine combat of an Acid and a fixt Alcali, or an Acidum and Urinous spirits; he comes to explain, How from his doctrine of Fermentation may be solvèd that grand phenomenon of Light; and first, the Light from Culinary fire or ordinary combustible concretes, put into that rapid fermentation we call Fire: Next, the Light of all Sulphurous matters; whether in the dry form of Mineral sulphurs, resinous Gums, Turpentine, Axungia's, &c. or in Liquids, as Bitumens, Oyls. Vinous spirits, &c: Then, the Light of rotten Wood, long-dried Fish, Glowworms, Cats eyes; as also that from Attrition of Wood, and of steel and Flint; from the friction or combing of Animals; and likewise the Light of subterranean Lamps: Upon which last Head he somewhat enlargeth by discoursing of the possibility in nature of such a kind of Fire, that may be maintained and perpetuated without Air; affirming, that himself hath seen a Flame or Fire in the cavity of a Glass, which as soon as the stoppè was taken out, was (contrary to all other fires) immediately extinguish'd. To which he subjoyns an explication of the Light of some precious Stones, the Bononian stone, and likewise of Meteors; all which give light in the Air not illuminated by any light from the Sun, but by an excitation of their intrinsic Ferments, setting above-board their inside tepor. He concludes the whole, partly by confirming his Principles from collateral authority; partly by shewing, How that all manner of Coagulations, Congelations, Condensations, Salifications, Petrifications, and all sorts of Concretions of bodies (or of Juyces into bodies,) are primarily ascribable to Acids; and that by these Concretions the connate Acidum so combines with the Sulphurous parts it closeth with, as that both pass into a tertium quid, or neutral result, partaking of both, and yet distinguishable by neither; insomuch that the Acidum by such sort of coagulations and concretions looses its sting, and becomes altogether unperceivable: Whence he draws the reason, why, though Acids be the very foundation of all coagulations and concretions of bodies, yet are themselves to our taste in many things the least discoverable: Which particular he endeavours to make out by artificial mixtures, resembling the natural, seeing we cannot easily get to the insides of bodies in their natural productions. As to his discourse of the Sulphur-Bath at Knarsborough in Yorkshire, concerning its Causes and Vertues, we shall refer the Reader to the Tract itself. Errata in Numb. 116. In the Contents l.5.r. bleak for black, noting the same p.357.l.4.and 23. p.357.l.numb.179. for 176, p.360. l.6.r.tritire for mixture, p.362.l.15. r.take the better. ibid.l.ult.r.work, p.363.l.21.r.walking speed, ibid.l.29. r.from the steepest. N.B. in Numb.112. p.273.l.3 and 4.read, is by the Cycloid: which, upon a fresh perusal of that Extract, we took notice of, though too late. LONDON, Printed for John Martyn, Printer to the Royal Society.