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THE second way of producing Fixity, is by expelling, brea∣king, or otherwise disabling those volatile Corpuscles that are too in∣disposed to be fixt themselves, or are fitted to carry up with them such par∣ticles as would not, without their help, ascend. That the Expulsion
of such parts is a proper means to make the aggregate of those that re∣main more fixt, I presume you will not put me solicitously to prove; and we have a manifest instance of it in Soot, where, though many active parts were by the violence of the fire and current of the air carried up together by the more volatile parts; yet, when Soot is well distilled in a Retort, a competent time being gi∣ven for the extricating and avolation of the other parts, there will at the bottom remain a substance that will not now fly away, as it formerly did. And here let me observe, that the recesse of the fugitive corpuscles may contribute to the fixation of a body, not barely because the remaining matter is freed from so many unfixt, if not also volatilizing, parts; but, as it may often happen, that upon their recesse the pores or intervals, they left behind them, are filled up with more solid or heavy matter, and the body becomes, as more homogeneous, so more close and compact. And
whereas I intimated, that, besides the expulsion of unfit corpuscles, they may be otherwise disabled from hindering the fixation of the masse they belong to, I did it, because it seems very possible, that in some ca∣ses they may, by the action of the fire, be so broken, as with their frag∣ments to fill up the pores or intervals of the body they appertained to; or may make such coalitions with the particles of a convenient additament, as to be no impediment to the Fixity of the whole masse, though they re∣main in it. Which possibly you will think may well happen, when you shall have perused the Instances an∣next to the fourth way of fixing bo∣dies.
The third means of fixing, or lessening the Volatility of, bodies, is by preserving that rest among the parts, whose contrary is necessary to their Volatilization. And this may be done by preventing or checking that Heat, or other motion, which ex∣ternal Agents strive to introduce
into the parts of the proposed body. But this means tending rather to hin∣der the actual avolation of a portion of matter, or, at most, procure a tem∣porary abatement of its volatility, than to give it a stable fixity, I shall not any longer insist on it.
The fourth way of producing Fixity in a body, is by putting to it such an appropriated Additament, whether fixt or volatile, that the Corpuscles of the body may be put among themselves, or with those of the additament, into a complicated state, or intangled contexture. This being the usual and principal way of producing Fixity, we shall dwell somewhat the longer upon it, and give Instances of several degrees of Fixation. For, though they do not produce that quality in the strictest acceptation of the word, Fixity; yet 'tis usefull in our present inquiry, to take notice, by what means that volatility comes to be gradually aba∣ted, since that may facilitate our understanding, how the Volatility
of a body comes to be totally aba∣ted, and consequently the body to be fixt.