Experimental philosophy, in three books containing new experiments microscopical, mercurial, magnetical : with some deductions, and probable hypotheses, raised from them, in avouchment and illustration of the now famous atomical hypothesis / by Henry Power ...

OBSERVAT. LI. Of Aromatical, Electrical, and Magneti∣cal Effluxions.

SOme with a Magisterial Confidence do rant so high as to tell us, that there are Glasses, which will re∣present not onely the Aromatical and Electrical Efflux∣ions of Bodies, but even the subtile effluviums of the Load-stone it self, whose Exspirations (saith Doctor Highmore) some by the help of Glasses have seen in the form of a Mist to flow from the Load-stone. This Experiment indeed would be an incomparable Evicti∣on of the Corporeity of Magnetical Effluviums, and sen∣sibly decide the Controversie 'twixt the Peripatetick and Atomical Philosophers.

But I am sure he had better Eyes, or else better Glasses, or both, then ever I saw, that performed so subtle an Experiment: For the best Glasses that ever I saw, would not represent to me, the evaporations of Camphire (which spends it self by continually effluvia∣ting its own Component Particles;) nay, I could never see the grosser steams that continually perspire out of our own Bodies, which you see will foil and besmear a polished Glass at any time; and which are the fuligi∣nous Eructations of that internal fire, that constantly burns within us.

Indeed if our Diopticks could attain to that curiosi∣ty as to grind us such Glasses, as would present the Ef∣fluviums of the Magnet, we might hazard at last the discovery of Spiritualities themselves: however it would be of incomparable use to our Modern Corpus∣cularian Philosophers, who have banished Qualities out of the list of the Predicaments. And truly, as the Lear∣ned Doctor Brown hath it; The Doctrine of Effluxi∣ons, their penetrating Natures, their invisible paths, and unsuspected effects, are very considerable: for (be∣sides the Magnetical One of the Earth) several Effusions there may be from divers other Bodies, which invisibly act their parts at any time, and perhaps through any Medium: A part of Philosophy but yet in discovery; and will, I fear, prove the last Leaf to be turned over in the Book of Nature.

Some Considerations, Corollaries, and De∣ductions, Anatomical, Physical, and Op∣tical, drawn from the former Experi∣ments and Observations.

FIrst, Therefore, it is Ocularly manifest from the for∣mer Observations, that, as perfect Animals have an incessant motion of their Heart, and Circulation of their Bloud (first discovered by the illustrious Doctor Harvey;) so in these puny automata, and exsanguineous pieces of Nature, there is the same pulsing Organ, and Circulation of their Nutritive Humour also: as is de∣monstrated

by OBSERV. fourth, sixth, seventeenth, &c.

Nay, by OBSERV. sixth, it is plain that a Louse is a Sanguineous Animal, and hath both an Heart and Au∣ricles, the one manifestly preceding the pulse of the o∣ther; and hath a purple Liquor or Bloud, which circu∣lates in her (as the Noblest sort of Animals have) which though it be onely conspicuous in its greatest bulk, at the heart, yet certainly it is carried up and down in Cir∣culatory Vessels; which Veins and Arteries are so ex∣ceeding little, that both they and their Liquor are in∣sensible: For certainly, if we can at a Lamp-Furnace draw out such small Capillary Pipes of Glass that the reddest Liquor in the World shall not be seen in them (which I have often tried and done;) how much more curiously can Nature weave the Vessels of the Body; nay, and bore them too with such a Drill, as the Art of man cannot excogitate: Besides, we see, even in our own Eyes, that the Sanguineous Vessels that run along the white of the eye (nay and probably into the diapha∣nous humours also) are not discernable, but when they are preter-naturally distended in an Ophthalmia, and so grow turgent and conspicuous.

To which we may adde, that in most quick Fish, though you cut a piece of their flesh off, yet will no bloud be discernable, though they be sanguineous Ani∣mals; but the bloud is so divided by the minuteness of their Capillary Vessels, or percribration through the habit of the Parts, that either it has lost its redness, or our eyes are not able to discover its tincture.

Secondly, It is observable also from the former Ex∣periments, that in these minute Animals their nutritive Liquor never arises to the perfection of bloud, but con∣tinually

as it were remains Chyle within them, for want of a higher heat to dye it into that Spirituous Liquor: Nay, you shall observe in perfect Sanguineous Animals a Circulation of an albugineous chylie-matter (before the bloud have a being) if you take Nature at the rise, and critically observe her in her rudimental and ob∣scure beginnings.

For view but an Egge, (after the second day's Incu∣bation, and you shall see the cicatricula in the Yolk, di∣lated to the breadth of a groat or six-pence into trans∣parent concentrical circles; in the Centre whereof is a white Spot, with small white threads, (which in futurity proves the Heart with its Veins and arteries) but at pre∣sent both its motion and circulation is undiscernable to the bare eye, by reason of the feebleness thereof, and also because both the Liquor and its Vessels were con∣colour to the white of the Eggs they swum in; but the Heart does circulate this serous diaphanous Liquor, be∣fore (by a higher heat) it be turned into bloud.

And one thing here I am tempted to annex, which is a pretty and beneficial Observation of the Microscope, and that is, That as soon as ever you can see this red pulsing Particle appear (which Doctor Harvey conceit∣ed, not to be the Heart, but one of its Auricles) you shall most distinctly see it, to be the whole Heart with both Auricles and both Ventricles, the one manifestly pre∣ceding the pulse of the other (which two motions the bare eye judges to be Synchronical) and without any interloping perisystole at all: So admirable is every Organ of this Machine of ours framed, that every part within us is intirely made, when the whole Organ seems too little to have any parts at all.

Thirdly, It is peculiarly remarkable from Observa∣tion

xxxi. That not onely the bloud in perfect Animals, and the chyle in imperfect ones; but also the Animal Spi∣rits have a Circulation, which singular observation hath often provoked and entised our endeavours into a fur∣ther enquiry after the Nature of these Spirits, as to their Origin or Generation, their activity and motion, with some other eminent properties belonging to them: we shall draw our thoughts together, and so present them to your View: I will not say, that our discourse hereon, shall pass for an un-controllable authentick Truth; it is all my ambition if it attain but to the favou∣rable reception of a rational Hypothesis at last.

A Digression of the Animal Spirits.

FIrst, then, we have not those narrow conceptions of these subtle Spirits to think that they are onely in∣cluded within the Bodies of Animals, or generated (much less created) there, but we doe believe that they are universally diffused throughout all Bodies in the World, and that Nature at first created this aetherial substance or subtle particles, and diffused them through∣out the Universe, to give fermentation and concretion to Minerals; vegetation and maturation to Plants; life, sense, and motion to Animals; And indeed, to be the main (though invisible) Agent in all Natures three Kingdoms Mineral, Vegetal, and Animal.

And lest they should (because of their exceeding volatility and activity) be of little or no use, Nature hath immersed them in grosser matter, and imprisoned them in several Bodies, with which she has intermixed them,

the better to curb the boundless activity of so thin and spirituous a substance, and therefore the Spirits (of all compound Bodies especially) ought to be considered under a triple notion:

Viz. Under the state of

• 1. Fixation.
• 2. Fusion.
• 3. Volatilization.

First of Fixation, when they are so complicated with the grosser Particles of Matter, and lockt therein so fast, that they can hardly be separated, and dis-impriso∣ned as in Minerals, but most especially in Gold.

Secondly, The state of Fusion, I call that, when the Spirits by any kind of help have so wrought themselves towards a Liberty, that they are in the middle way to Volatility, as in half-concocted Minerals, fermenting Vapours or Liquors, and half-ripned Fruits, &c.

Thirdly, The Spirits are in their third state of Vola∣tility, when after a colluctancy with the grosser Parti∣cles they have so subjugated and overcome them, that they are just upon wings, and ready to fly away; as in Wine when it is in the height of its fermentation, and in some part of our arterial bloud alwayes. Now we ob∣serve that those Bodies that relax and open the grosser composition of other Bodies, do presently create a fer∣mentation; for, being like so many Keys, they set the imprisoned Spirits at Liberty, which presently fall on working, and by attenuating the grosser parts, separating the Heterogeneous, volatilizing some, precipitating of others, digesting of others, expelling of others, do at last mould it and work it to such a Body, as the parts of it are fit to make up: In all which interval of time, there is a pal∣pable

and sensible heat produced: Thus this Spirit be∣ing embowelled in the Earth, and meeting there with convenient matter and adjuvant causes, doth proceed to produce Minerals, creating an actual heat, whereso∣ever it operates, as in Allum or Copperase Mines, which being broken, exposed, and moistned, will gather an actual heat, and produce much more of those Minerals, then else the Mine would yield, as Agricola and Thurni∣seer do affirm, and is proved by common experience.

The like is generally observed in Mines, as Agricola, Erastus, and ••ibanius, &c. do affirm and avouch out of the dayly experience of Mineral men, who affirm, that in most places they find their Mines so hot, as they can hardly touch them; although it is likely that, where they work for perfect Minerals, the heat which was in fermentation whilst they were yet in breeding, is now much abated, the Mineral being grown to their per∣fection, as the skilful and excellent Doctor Jordan very well infers.

The like heat we observe constantly to be in our Cole-Pits: Nay, we sometimes observe in our Brass-lumps (as our Colliers call them) which is a kind of Marcasite, a very great heat; for being exposed to the moist Air, or sprinkled with water, they will smoak and grow exceeding hot; and if they be layd up on a heap and watered, they will turn into a glowing red hot fire, as I have seen them my self.

And it was a Casualty once terrible to our Neigh∣bour-Town of Ealand; for there, one Wilson a Patient of mine, having pil'd up many Cart-loads of these Brass-lumps in a Barn of his, (for some secret purposes of his own) the Roof letting rain-water fall copiously in amongst them, they all began to smoak, and at last to

take fire, and burnt like red hot Coals; so that the Town was in an uproar about quenching of them; and one thing further I took special notice of in this un∣lucky Experiment, that the Water which drained from the quenching of them, left little pieces and Crystals of Copperase sticking all along to the Piles of Grass, that grew in the Croft it run down.

Thus Antimony and Sublimate being mixed toge∣ther, will grow so hot (the one relaxing the fermenting spirit in the other) that they are not to be touched.

Thus in the Corrosion of Mettals by Aqua fortis, what a strong heat is there in the Liquor, and what a steam constantly evaporates during their fermentation. In the Commixtion of Oyl of Vitriol with Oyl of Tartar per deliquium, what a violent heat and effervescence do presently arise, besides a sharp and acrimonious vapour that strikes our nostrils. Nay, and we see our Subter∣raneous Damps do sometimes with intermixtion with the moist Air, grow to that over-height of fermentati∣on, that they fire of themselves and strike down all be∣fore them.

Thus the Spirit of Niter mixed with Butter of Anti∣mony, grows so hot, that it is ready to rise in a flame.

Thus certainly do all Baths receive their heat from Mineral Vapours, or the Minerals themselves, being in solutis Principiis, and so the fermenting Spirit sets a play∣ing in them, as the Learned Doctor Jordan did most ra∣tionally conjecture.

This universal fermenting Spirit does not onely play these feats in the Mineral; but also operates in the same manner in the Vegetable Kingdome, which we ocular∣ly behold in the Artifice of Malt, where the Grains of Barly being moistned with water, the parts are relaxed,

the internal Spirits in them are dilated, and put into action; and the superfluity of water being removed (which might choak it) and the Barly being layd up in heaps, the fermentation and heat presently appears, with a kind of vinous steam and effluviums which passe from it, and therefore it shoots forth into Spires. Thus we see in wet-Hay, how the spirits work not one∣ly to a heat, but (if they be not cooled and prevented by Ventilation) they break out into a flame also; Nay, in all Vegetables there is this constant Heat (though it be below our Sensation) as it is in some Fishes and colder Animals also, and a constant steam and transpi∣ration of particles, as we have experimentally proved in our XXV. Observation.

And now let us pursue these Spirits into the Animal Kingdom, and we shall see that they have the like effects and operations there also, as is formerly obser∣ved; onely, being there in greater plenty, and more purely refined, and in a constant state of Fusion and Volatility, they work nobler effects.

Now the Spirits that are lodged in all the meats and drinks we receive, being more or less fixed therein; What does the Soul, but (like an excellent Chymist) in this internal Laboratory of Man, by a fermentation of our nourishment in the stomach and guts, a filtration thereof through the Lacteae, a digestion in the Heart, a Circulation and Rectification in the Veins and Arte∣ries: what does she, I say, by these several Physico-Chy∣mical operations, but strive all this while to unfix, ex∣alt, and volatilize the Spirits conteined in our nutri∣ment, that so they may be transmitted to the Brain, and its divarications, and in that reconditory kept and repo∣sited for her use and service.

So that these we now call Animal Spirits are the purest, subtlest, and most volatile particles and acti∣vest Atoms of the bloud, which by continual pulsation of the Heart are carried with the bloud by the carotidal Arteries up into the Brain, and there by that lax and boggy substance are imbibed and separated from the bloud, and thence by the Spinal Marrow and Nerves transmitted to all the parts of the Body.

Now as the Chyle is perfected in the stomach and guts, and their appendent Vessels, the lacteal Veins; and as the bloud is perfected in the Heart, and its an∣nexed Vessels, the Veins and Arteries: so the Animal Spirits are separated, preserved, and perfected in the Brain, with its continued trunk and branches, viz. the Spinal Marrow, Nerves, and Fibers, for the uses here∣after to be declared.

Now the two former Liquors, the Chyle and the Bloud (because of their grosser liquidity) need to be conveyed in hollow Pipes and Channels (viz. the Veins and Arteries;) but the Spirits which is the quintessence of them both, can easily pass by a swift filtration, through the Brain, Spinal Marrow, and Nerves, Mem∣branes, and Fibers, which are as it were the Cords, Sayls, and Tackling, to move this Engine or Vessel we call the Body.

Nay, though we can give you no sensible eviction of it, Why may not all those long filaments of which the substance of the Brain, Spinal Marrow, and Nerves consists, be tubulous and hollow; so that the Animal-Spirits may be channelled through them, as the bloud through the Veins and Arteries? I am sure, we see by Observation xxxi. and L. what infinitely small filaments and vessels there are in Animals, and yet all tubulous

and perforated; so that the suddain inflation of all those capillary threads or pipes, may serve for Motion of the Body, and the constant though flower filtration of the Spirits through their Coats and Cylindrical Mem∣branes may serve for Sensation. So that it seems, this Cottage of Clay, with all its Furniture within it, was but made in subserviency to the Animal Spirits; for the extraction, separation, and depuration of which, the whole Body, and all the Organs and Utensils therein are but instrumentally contrived, and preparatorily de∣signed. Just as the Chymical Elaboratory with all its Furnaces, Crucibles, Stills, Retorts, Cucurbits, Ma∣trats, Bolt-heads, Pelicans, &c. were made for no other end by the ingenious Chymist, than for the extraction and depuration of his Spirits and Quintessences (which he draws from those Bodies he deals with) in the ob∣tainment of which he hath come to the ultimate design of his indeavours.

Now as in Minerals and Vegetables the colluctancy of these fermenting Spirits with the grosser matter, does both create a constant heat and evaporation of Atoms: So in Animals, the like is more eminently conspicuous, to wit the vital heat, or calidum innatum, and those fuli∣ginous effluviums which pass constantly out of us by insensible transpiration; which Sanctorius hath proved to exceed the bulk and weight of all our sensible Evacu∣ations whatsoever.

Having thus demonstrated how the Soul obtains these Spirits after her several operations of Digestion, Chy∣lification, Sanguification, Circulation, &c. the like now let us see what use she makes of so pretious a sub∣stance.

First, therefore we affirm, that this thin and spiritu∣ous

matter, which is called the Animal Spirits, is the immediate Instrument of the Soul, in all her operations both of Sense and Motion. First, for sense, it is plain by what is discovered in a Vertigo; for the Brain it self is not of such a fluid substance, as to turn round, and make all objects to do so too; wherefore tis a sign that the immediate corporeal instrument of conveying the images of things, is the Spirits in the Brain. Secondly, That they are the chief Engine of Sight, is plain; not onely because the eye is full of these livid Spirits, but also because dimness of sight comes from deficiency of them, though the parts of the eye otherwayes be en∣tire enough, as in sick and old persons, and in those troubled with an Amaurosis, or Gutta Serena. I had the last year a Patient, a young Boy of seventeen years old, who fell casually stark blind of his right eye; in which you could outwardly discover no fault at all (the Dis∣ease being an Amaurosis, or obstruction of the Optick Nerve) for, that Nerve being by successful means dis∣obstructed and relaxed, so that the Animal Spirits were able to flow done to the Retina again, he shortly after perfectly recovered his sight again, without any relapse at all, to this present day. Thirdly, If you cast a Ligature upon any Nerve, you destroy both the sense and motion of that part whither that Nerve was pro∣pagated (as by that pleasant Experiment by tying the recurrent Nerves in a living Dogg, we have tryed) till by relaxing the Ligature the Spirits may have the free∣dome to channel into the Nerves again: Which truth is also handsomely made out, by that ordinary example of a mans Leg being asleep (as we call it) for by com∣pression of the Nerves, the propagation of the Spirits into the part is hindred; for, as sense and motion is re∣stored,

you may feel something creep into the Leg, tingling and stinging like Pismires (as Spigelius com∣pares it) which is the return of the Animal Spirits into that part again. Fourthly, That Spontaneous motion is performed by continuation of the Animal Spirits, from the common Sensorium to the Muscle, (which is the gross Engine of Motion) is sensibly evinced in dead Palsies, where one side is taken away.

To all which add, the former Observation of the Spi∣rits circumundulation when the Snail at any time mo∣ved, and of their joint quiescency together.

Having now shown you how these Animal Spirits are generated in our Body, or, to speak more properly, dis∣imprisoned and separated from our nutriment, and so from fixation, brought through Fusion to Volatilizati∣on; having also shown you what use Nature makes of them in Sensation and Motion: let us screw our Enqui∣ry a little further, and see if we can discover how the Spirits move in the Brain and Nerves, to perform the same operations. First, therefore, we affirm that a lesser quantity and slower motion of the Spirits is re∣quired for Sensation, than there is for Motion; for in this the Muscle swells that moves the part, which is a plain Indication of a greater influx of Spirits directed thither; a greater, I say, for I do not deny but there is re∣quired to sensation a moderate quantity and diffusion of the Spirits into all the parts of the Body, else we should alwayes be benummed and stupid (as when our Leg is asleep) by an interception of the Spirits. Se∣condly, that their motion is slower in sensation then motion; the former Experiment of the Snail does also manifest: whose Animal Spirits never begin to undulate till she begin to move, whereas she is sensible when they

are in Quiescency, as you may, by pricking her with a Needle, easily observe. Thirdly, in the return of the Spi∣rits into the stupefied Leg, we plainly perceive by the prickling, what a flow motion the Spirits have. All which Phaenomena do seem to favour our former Conjecture, that for Motion the Spirits move impetuously down the nervous filaments, (which are hollow;) but for Sensation they onely creep by a filtration down their Coats and Membranes.

Now these Spirits being so subtle and dissipable, the Soul spends them every day in using of them, and they being much spent, she can hardly move the Body any longer: The sense whereof we call Lassitude; For certainly, as Doctor More very ingeniously inferrs, if it were an immediate faculty of the Soul to contribute Motion to any matter; I do not understand (that Fa∣culty never failing nor diminishing, no more than the Soul it self can fail or diminish) that we should ever be weary.

Thus are the Phaenomena of Sense and Motion best salved, whilst we are awake; now what happens when we sleep, is a matter of further enquiry: Some have defined Sleep to be a migration of all the Spirits out of the Brain, into the exteriour parts of the Body; whereas by our former Observations, it may rather seem to the contrary; that is, The retraction of the Spirits into the Brain, or at least a restagnation of them in the nervous parts, does (till Nature being recruited by a new sup∣ply and regeneration of them in the Brain) direct them into the Spinal Marrow and Nerves, which being re∣plenished with them again, they run their current as be∣fore; so the whole Animal thereby is made capable of feeling the Impulses of any external object whatever

(which we call, Walking) and during this Interval and Non-tearm of sensation (for so we may without a Com∣plement call Sleep) why may not the Soul be retracted, and wholly intent upon, and busied about, her Vegeta∣tive and Plastical Operations? So that when she has locked up the doors of this Laboratory the Body, she may be busie in augmenting, repairing, and regenerating all the Organs and Utensils within, and painting and plaistring the Walls without. This I am sure we ob∣serve to be the greatest part of her obscure employ∣ment in the Womb, where the Embryo for the most part sleeps, whilst the Soul is in full exercise of her Pla∣stick and Organo-Poïetical Faculty.

Now these Animal Spirits being continually trans∣mitted from the Brain, through the Spinal Marrow, Nerves, Tendons, & Fibers, into all the parts of the Body (especially whilst we are awaking) may, some of them at least, have a kind of circulation; for those which perspire not, having lost their motion, may either mix with the bloud in habitu partium, or relapse into a kind of insipid phlegm, as Chymical Spirits do, that are not purely rectified, and to be returned back by the Lym∣phiducts again.

Lastly, I have but one paradoxical and extravagant Quaere to make, and that is this; That since we have pro∣ved these Animal Spirits to be the ultimate result of all the concoctions of the Body, the very top and perfection of all Nature's operations, the purest and most aetherial particles of all Bodies in the World whatsoever, (and so consequently of nearest alliance to Spiritualities) and the sole and immediate instrument of all the Soul's ope∣rations here, even in statu conjuncto (the Body and the Organs thereof, being but secondary and subservient

Instruments to the Spirits:) These things being thus pre∣mised, may it not be probable enough that these Spirits in the other World, shall onely be the Soul's Vehicle and Habit, and indeed really that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, mentioned by the Apostle; by a vital re-union with which, it may supereminently out-act all that ever she was able to do in this earthly Prison and heavy Cottage of the Body; since also (which I may super-adde) those volatile Spirits (being freed by a constant and perpe∣tual dissipation from the Body) are diffused through this great aetherial Ocean, as into their proper Element, ready to be united to the Soul at the instant of her Se∣paration.

Fourth Deduction.

FOurthly, The Physiologist also may gather some∣thing from the former Observations, touching the nature of Colours; that they are indeed nothing but the various modification of Light. For most, if not all, Bo∣dies in their minute particles (through which the Sun's Rays have more freedome to penetrate) seem to lose their Colours, and grow diaphanous, as you may ob∣serve in the Microscope.

Secondly, Is it not shrewdly probable, that since mo∣tion is the cause of sight, (which is nothing else, but the impulse that the Luminous Atoms make upon the Reti∣na:) Is it not, I say, shrewdly probable, that Colours are nothing else but a various modification of this motion, since we see that they are both naturally and artificially made by light, to which we can imagine nothing to be added or deducted to super-induce those fine Tinctures

as in the Rain-bow, the Prisme, crystal Pendents, Glass-Globes filled full of water, and in those arenulous A∣toms in the former Experiment xxxiii. except some change in the motion of the Luminous Atoms, which must necessarily follow from the diversities of Objects and Mediums they either hit upon or pass thorow; and so consequently do either accelerate or retardate the Solary Atoms in their Dinetical and progressive Moti∣on; whence arises both the diversity and variety of all colours whatsoever, as that profoundest Master of Me∣chanicks (Des-Cartes) hath both subtilly excogitated, and ingeniously illustrated by the Prisme.

To which we shall add some further experimental E∣viction:

First, If the Hole (through which the Species is transmitted into a dark room) be covered with a leaf of Beaten Gold, it will not onely look of a pure green co∣lour, but all the light trajected through it will put on the same Tincture.

Secondly, If with a Prisme you strike the Rainbow-colours upon a wall, and observing where a red is proje∣cted, you there place an Eye, the Spectator shall judge it to be another colour; because that the Solary Atoms, which shot through the Prisme upon the wall, and there painted that colour, being again and again refracted by the Diaphanous Humours of the Eye, must needs, in all reason, exchange their motion, and so consequently paint the Retina with another colour: both which Ex∣periments shew, that Colour is nothing else but the mo∣dification of Light, which by the alteration of its moti∣on is dyed into colours. The like Artificial alteration of the Colours may be made by interposing a Burning-Glass

'twixt the Prisme and the Light, and 'twixt the Prisme and the Paper.

But this Cartesian Theory of Colours we shall further make out by several Experiments in the Extraction, Commixtion, and Transcoloration of Tinctures. First therefore,

If into the Infusion of Violets you put some few drops of the oyl of Tartar per Deliquium, it will present∣ly strike it into a green Tincture: now, if instead of that oyl you put in oyl of Vitriol, it strikes it into a purple Colour: to which if you super-add some drops of Spirit of Harts-Horn, it strikes it green again.

Secondly, If into the Tincture of dryed Roses (drawn in Hot-water with oyl of Vitriol after the usual manner) you drop a few drops of Spirit of Harts-Horn, or of Urine, or of oyl of Tartar per Deliquium, it will pre∣sently strike the red into a green Colour; which by a su∣per-addition of the oyl of Vitriol, you may re-tincture as before.

Thirdly, If into an Infusion of Copperose you shave a little Gall, it presently puts on a Sable inky Colour; into which if you put a few drops of the Spirit or oyl of Vi∣triol, it strikes out the Colour immediately, and the wa∣ter becomes white again; to which if you super-add a few drops of oyl of Tartar per Deliquium, it re-denigrates it again.

Thus a Glass of the Sweet-Spaw-water also, upon the Infusion of Gall, turns into a Claret-colour: but if you drop but a little of the said oyl or spirit into it, it present∣ly eats out the Colour, and the water returns to its primi∣tive clearness again.

Draw a faint Tincture of Brasil wood, bruised or ra∣sped in luke-warm water, filter it, and clarifie it; then if

you add a little sharp vineger to a good quantity of it, it will strike it into the exact colour of good stale Eng∣lish Beer, and it will partly have the smell of it also.

Secondly, If into another quantity of the said reddish Infusion you add a few drops of the oyl of Tartar per Deliquium, it will turn it to a pure purplish red, like ex∣cellent Claret.

Thirdly, If into this Artificial Claret you drop a few drops of the oyl of Vitriol, it will turn it into a pale Am∣ber colour (like Sack as may be) which with addition of fair water you may empale as you please. By which ingenious commixtion of Spirits and Liquors did Floram Marchand, that famous Water-Drinker, exhibit those rare tricks and curiosity's at London, of vomiting all kind of Liquors at his mouth.

For, first; Before he mounts the Stage, he alwayes drinks in his private Chamber, fasting, a gill of the De∣coction of Brasil; then making his appearance, he pre∣sents you with a pail full of luke-warm water, and twelve or thirteen glasses, some washed in vineger, others with oyl of Tartar, and oyl of Vitriol; then he drinks four and twenty glasses of the water, and care∣fully taking up the glasse which was washed with oyl of Tartar, he vomits a reddish liquor into it, which present∣ly is brightned up and ting'd into perfect and lovely Claret.

After this first assay, he drinks six or seven glasses more (the better to provoke his vomiting) as also the more to dilute and empale the Brasil Decoction within him, and then he takes a glass rinsed in vineger, and vo∣mits it full, which instantly, by its acidity is transcoloured into English Beer; and vomiting also at the same time into another glass (which he washes in fair water) he

presents the Spectators with a glass of paler Claret, or Burgundian wine; then drinking again as before, he picks out the glass washed with oyl of Vitriol, and vo∣miting a faint Brasil-water into it, it presently appears to be Sack; and perchance if he wash'd the one half of the glass with spirit of Sack, it would have a faint odour and flavour of that Wine also.

He then begins his Carouse again, and drinking fif∣teen or sixteen glasses, till he has almost extinguished the strength and tincture of his Brasil water, he then vomits into a Vineger-glass again, and that presents white Wine. At the next disgorgement (when his sto∣mack is full of nothing but clear water indeed (which he has fill'd so, by the exceeding quantity of water which at every interval he drinks) he then deludes the Spe∣ctators by vomiting Rose water, Angelica water, and Cinamon water into those glasses which have been formerly washed with those Spirits. And thus was that famous Cheat perform'd, and indeed acted with such a port and flowing grace, by that Italian Bravado, that he did not onely strike an Admiration into vulgar heads, and common Spectators, but even into the judicious and more knowing part of men, who could not readily find out the ingenuity of his knavery.

The Chymical Elaboratories likewise do teach us this Truth in Fumes and Smoaks, as well as Liquors (which indeed are but rarified and expaused Liquors;) for Ni∣ter it self, though nothing a kin to redness doth in di∣stillation yield bloud-red Fumes (called by the Chy∣mists Salamanders-bloud) which fall again into a Li∣quor which hath nothing of red in it.

So Soot (though black) yet when it is pressed and forced up into an exhalation by a strong fire, will fill

the Receiver with Milk white Fumes; thus Sall-Armo∣niack, and black Antimony, being equally mixed and gradually sublimed in an Urinal, will exhibit a Scene of Colours, and will make a transition out of one into another with a delectable variety.

By all which pleasant Observations, it palpably ap∣pears that the nature of Colours consists in the free ad∣mission, transition, refraction, or reflection of light, from the Objects discoloured; For first, you see seve∣ral Colours introduced into Liquors by those Ingredi∣ents, that neither had nor could communicate any such tincture. Secondly, 'tis as plain, that the minute Parti∣cles and Atoms of those Bodies that were imbibed by the Liquors, and filled up their smallest Cavities or In∣terstices, accordingly as they were altered in their site, position, and motion; so were the Luminous Beams variously transmitted, refracted, or reflected, and so consequently thence resulted those several Scenes of Colours.

Thus when the Atoms wherewith the Liquor is fully impregnated do relax and open themselves, that the light may fairly penetrate, then is the Liquor limpid and clear; but if they draw up a little closer one to another, so that the light be refracted, then is the Liquor yellow; if closer yet to a greater refraction of the Light, then is the Liquor red: but if in this randezvouz they draw up into a very close Body indeed, so that by reason of their contiguity, both in rank and file, no light can be trajected through them; then opacity and darkness a∣rises: If the Rays cannot break the front of them, then is a milky-Whiteness presented there.

The Fifth COROLLARY▪ Anatomical Considerations about the Eye.

OUr next Reflections shall be made upon the Eye, to admire as well as contemplate Nature's variety in the constructure and conformation of so excellent an Organ: The two Luminaries of our Microcosm, which see all other things, cannot see themselves, nor discover the excellencies of their own Fabrick: Nature, that ex∣cellent Mistress of the Opticks, seems to have run through all the Conick Sections, in shaping and figu∣ring its Parts; and Dioptrical Artists have almost ground both their Brain and Tools in pieces, to find out the Ar∣ches and Convexities of its prime parts, and are yet at a loss, to find their true Figurations, whereby to advance the Fabrick of their Telescopes and Microscopes: which practical part of Opticks is but yet in the rise; but if it run on as successfully as it has begun, our Posterity may come by Glasses to out-see the Sun, and Discover Bodies in the remote Universe, that lie in Vortexes, beyond the reach of the great Luminary. At present let us be content with what our Microscope demonstrates; and the former Observations, I am sure, will give all ingenious persons great occasion, both to admire Na∣ture's Anomaly in the Fabrick, as well as in the number of Eyes, which she has given to several Animals: We see the Tunica Cornea in most Insects is full of perforati∣ons, as if it were a Tunica Vvea pinked full of Holes, and whereas perfect Animals, have but one Aperture, these Insects have a thousand Pupils, and so see a

Hemisphere at once: and indeed 'tis worth our conside∣ration to think, that since their Eye is perfectly fixed, and can move no wayes; it was requisite to lattice that Window, and supply the defect of its Motion, with the multiplicity of its Apertures, that so they might see at once what we can but do at several times, our Eyes having the liberty and advantage to move every way (like Balls in Sockets) which theirs have not.

Secondly, We observe no diaphanous parts in those lattic'd Eyes, since it is probable, that the Horney Coat of the Eye serves also for a Pericranium for their Brain: For, that the Brain of most Insects lies in their Eyes, seems to me more than a probability. First, because in Flies, Butter-flies, Bees, &c. you can find no other place in their Heads, wherein any matter analogous to the Brain, can be lodged. Secondly, in the Eyes of those Insects you shall alwayes find great store of a pul∣pous substance, like to be Brain in those Creatures. Thirdly, the Eyes in all Insects are very large, and seem disproportional to so small Bodies, if intended for no other use than Vision. Fourthly, why may not this lattic'd film of their Eye be their Tunica Retina, which as it is concave in us, is convex in them; and as it is made of the Brain in us, so it is in them, and therefore lies contiguous to it, and may indeed be over-cast, by a trans∣parent Cornea, through which the Net-work of this in∣teriour film may thus eminently appear; For certainly such Animals as have distinction of Senses, as Seeing, Feeling, &c. must needs have an Animal-Sensation; an Animal, I say, for I hold also a natural Sensation, which is performed without a Brain, and such an one is disco∣verable even in Animals, and in our own Selves; for besides the Animal-Sensation (whose original is in the

Brain) the Stomach, Guts, and the Parenchymata of the Body, yea and the Bloud too has a natural Sensation of what is good, and what is bad for them, as Doctour Harvey has excellently proved, Lib. de Gener. and so some of the lowest rank of Animals (as the Zoophyta and plant-Animals) may perchance be utterly devoid of Animal, and have onely a Natural Sensation; but this belongeth to some Anatomical Observations I have by me, where I may perchance prove that all Vegetables (as well as the Sensitive and humble Plants) have this latter kind of Sensation, as well as Animals.

But let us return to the Eye again, of which curi∣ous Organ I am tempted to say much more; but that I have reserved that discourse as more proper for my Telescopical Observations. Onely for the present, to encourage the Lovers of free Philosophy, and to let them see that even the greatest Oculists and Dioptri∣cal Writers, that the World ever saw, Kepler, Des-Cartes, Schemar, and Hugenius, have not yet discovered all Nature's Curiosities, even in that Organ; I will here deliver one or two Optical Experiments: The first hints whereof, I must ingeniously confess, I received from some Fragments and Papers of our famous, and never to be forgotten Country-man, Master Gascoign of Midleton near Leeds, who was unfortunately slain in the Royal Service for His late Majesty; a Person he was of those strong Parts and Hopes, that not onely we, but the whole World of Learning suffered in the loss of him.

Take a fresh Eye, and, in a frosty Evening, place it with the Pupil upwards, where it may be frozen through, then in the Morning you may cut it as you please. If you cut it with a plain Parallel to the Optick Axis (which

Section Des-Cartes thought impossible) then shall you see all the Parts, as he has pictured them pag. 92. and each part will be very different in colour, and remain in their natural Site, which may be pricked forth in an oyled Paper: By this trick also you shall find, that there is a dou∣ble Crystalline humour, one circum-included within the other; if you do but thaw the Crystalline you shall see the outward will pill off from the inward: The right Figures of both which Crystallines are monstrous diffi∣cult, if not impossible, to find out; hence it follows that every Ray of incidence is seven times refracted in the Eye before it reach the Retina, whatsoever Scheinar says to the contrary.

The second Experiment, is one of the ingenious Ex∣cogitations of M. Gascoign's, and it is to delineate the prime parts of the Eye; after this manner: Having a Glass and Table fitted to observe the Eye's spots, place an Eye with the Horny Tunicle either upwards or downwards, between the inmost Glass and Table; so near the Glass, as the Eye will almost fill up the com∣pass of the Eye's Image, then the representation of the Eye will be very large (proportionable to the Eye's Image) upon the Table, and thus you may prick out the three Figures of the Cornea, and the outward and in∣ward Crystallines. Many other neat wayes with my Dioptrical Glasses can I take the Figures of the prime Parts of the Eye, which shall be discovered in their fit places.

And now having done with the Fabrick, the Obser∣vations lead us to the Consideration of the Number and Plurality of Eyes, that Nature hath afforded some Crea∣tures. I must confess though I have been very curious and critical in observing; yet I could never find any

Animal that was monocular, nor any that had a multi∣plicity of Eyes, except Spiders, which indeed are so fair and palpable that they are clearly to be seen by any man that wants not his own. And though Argus has been held as prodigious a fiction as Polypheme, and a plurality of Eyes in any Creature, as great a piece of monstrosity, as onely a single one; yet our glasses have refuted this Errour (as Observat. viii. and ix. will tell you:) so that the Works of Nature are various, and the several wayes, and manifold Organization of the Body, inscru∣table; so that we had need of all the advantages that Art can give us, to discover the more mysterious Works of that divine Architectress; but especially, when she draws her self into so narrow a Shop, and works in the retiring Room of so minute an Animal.

Lastly, Many more hints might be taken from the former Observations, to make good the Atomical Hy∣pothesis; which I am confident will receive from the Mi∣croscope some further advantage and illustration, not onely as to its first universal matter, Atoms; but also, as to the necessary Attributes, or essential Properties of them, as Motion, Figure, Magnitude, Order, and Dis∣position of them in several Concretes of the World; especially if our Microscopes arise to any higher perfecti∣on: and if we can but, by any artificial helps, get but a glimpse of the smallest Truth, it is not to tell what a Fa∣brick of Philosophy may be raised from it; (for to con∣clude with that Patriark of Experimental Philosophy, the Learned Lord Bacon,* 1.1) The Eye of the Under∣standing, saith he, is like the Eye of the Sense; for as you may see great Objects through small Cranies or Levels; so you may see great Axioms of Nature, through small and contemptible Instances and Experiments.

These are the few Experiments that my Time and Glass hath as yet afforded me an opportunity to make, which I hasten out into the World to stay the longing thereof; But you may expect shortly from Doctor Wren, and Master Hooke, two Ingenious Members of the Royal Society at Gresham, the Cuts and Pictures drawn at large, and to the very life of these and other Microscopical Representations.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Sir Fran∣cis Bacon Nat. Hi∣story Exp. 91.