tant Art of Navigation. To which may be added, which I fhall hereafter mention, that they serve to demonstrate the spherical Roundness of the Earth: So that I may well conclude with the Pfalmift, Pfal. 19. 1. The Heavens declare the Glory of God, and the Firmament fheweth his Handy-work.

Of Terreftrial and Inanimate Simple Bodies,

I come now to confider the Terrestrial Bodies; I fhall fay nothing of the whole Body of the Earth in general, because I reserve that as one of the Particulars I fhall more carefully and curiously examine.

Terreftrial Bodies, according to our Method before propounded, are either inanimate or animate, and the inanimate either fimple or mixt: Simple, as the four Elements, Fire, Water, Earth and Air: I call these Elements in Compliance (as I faid before) with the vulgarly-receiv'd Opinion; not that I think them to be the Principles or component Ingredients of all other fublunary Bodies: I might call them the four great Aggregates of Bodies of the fame Species, or four Sorts of Bodies, of which there are great Aggregates. Thefe, notwithstanding they are endued with contrary Qualities, and are continually encroaching one upon another, yet they are fo balanc'd, and kept in fuch an Equilibrium, that neither prevaileth over other, but what one gets in one Place it lofeth in another.

Firft

Fire cherisheth and reviveth by its Hexut which all Things would be torpid

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fo many,

pid and without Motion, nay, without Fire no Life, it being the vital Flame refiding in the Blood that keeps the bodily Machine in Motion, and renders it a fit Organ for the Soul to work by. The Uses of Fire (I do not here speak of the Peripateticks Elementary Fire in the Concave of the Moon, which is but a meer Figment, but our ordinary Culinary) are in a Manner infinite for dreffing and preparing of Victuals, bak'd, boil'd and roft; for melting and refining of Metals and Minerals; for the Fufion of Glafs, [a Material whose Uses are that it is not eafie to enumerate them, it ferving us to make Windows for our Houfes, Drinking-Veffels, Veffels to contain and preferve all Sorts of fermented Liquors, diftill'd Waters, Spirits, Oils, Extracts, and other Chymical Preparations, as alfo Veffels to distil and prepare them in; for Looking-Glaffes, Spectacles, Microscopes and Telescopes, whereby our Sight is not only reliev'd, but wonderfully affifted to make rare Discoveries] for making all Sorts of Inftruments for Husbandry, mechanick Arts and Trade, all Sorts of Arms or Weapons of War defenfive and offenfive; for fulminating Engines; for burning of Lime, baking of Bricks, Tiles, and all Sorts of Potters Veffels or Earthen Ware; for cafting and forging Metaline Veffels and Utenfils; for Diftillations, and all Chymical Operations hinted before in the Ufe of Glafs; for affording us Lights for any Work or Exercise in WinterNights; for digging in Mines and dark Caverns; and, finally, by its comfortable Warmth fecurin g

fecuring us from the Injuries of Cold, or relieving us when we have been bitten and benum'd with it. A Subject or Utenfil of fo various and inexplicable Ufe, who could have invented and formed, but an infinitely wife and powerful Efficient?

any

Secondly, The Air ferves us and all Animals to breath in, containing the Fewel of that vital Flame we fpeak of, without which it would speedily languifh and go out; fo neceffary it is for us and other Land-Animals, that without the Ufe of it we could live but very few Minutes: Nay, Fishes and other Water-Animals cannot abide without the Ufe of it; for if you put Fish into a Veffel of a narrow Mouth full of Water, they will live and swim there, not only Days and Months, but even Years; but if with your Hand or other Cover you stop the Veffel so as wholly to exclude the Air, or interrupt its Communication with the Water, they will fuddenly be fuffocated as Rondeletius affirms he often experimented. If you fill not the Vessel up to the Top, but leave fome Space empty for the Air to take up, and then clap your Hand upon the Mouth of the Veffel, the Fishes will presently contend which fhall get uppermost in the Water, that fo they may enjoy the open Air; which I have alfo obferv'd them to do in a Pool of Water that hath been almost dry in the Summer-Time, because the Air that infinuated itself into the Water did not fuffice them for Refpiration. Neither is it lefs necessary

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ceffary for Infects than it is for other Animals, but rather more, these having more Air-Veffels for their Bulk by far than they, there being many Orifices on each Side their Bodies for the Admiffion of Air, which if you ftop with Oil or Honey, the Infect presently dies, and revives no more. This was an Obfervation of the Ancients, though the Reafon of it they did not understand; (Oleo illitò Infecta omnia exanimantur. Plin.) which was nothing but the intercluding of the Air; for tho' for tho' you put Oil upon them, if you put it not upon or obftruct thofe Orifices therewith, whereby they draw the Air, they fuffer nothing: If you obftruct only fome, and not others, the Parts which are near and fupplied with Air, from thence are by and by convulfed and fhortly relaxed and deprived of Motion, the reft that were untouch'd ftill retaining it. Nay, more than all this, Plants themselves have a Kind of Refpiration, being furnish'd with Plenty of Veffels for the Derivation of Air to all their Parts; as hath been obferv'd, nay, firft difcover'd, by that great and curious Naturalift Malpighius. Another Ufe of the Air is to fuftain the Flight of Birds and Infects. Moreover, by its Gravity it raises the Water in Pumps, Siphons and other Engines, and performs all thofe Feats which former Philofophers through Ignorance of the Efficient Cause attributed to a Final, namely, Nature's Abhorrence of a Vacuity or empty Space. The elaftick or expanfive Faculty of the Air, whereby it dilates itself, when compreffed, (indeed

(indeed this lower Region of it, by Reason of the Weight of the Superincumbent, is always in a compreffed State) hath been made Use of in the common Weather-glaffes, in Wind-guns, and in feveral ingenious Water-Works, and doubtlefs hath a great Intereft in many natural Effects and Operations.

Against what we have faid of the Neceffity of the Air for the Maintenance of the Vital Flame, it may be objected, That the Fatus in the Womb lives, its Heart pulfes, and its Blood circulates; and yet it draws in no Air, neither hath the Air any Access to it. To which I anfwer, That it doth receive Air, so much as is fufficient for it in its prefent State, from the maternal Blood by the Placenta uterina, or the Cotyledons. This Opinion generally propounded, viz. That the Refpiration of the Dam did ferve the Fatus alfo, or fupply fufficient Air to it, I have met with in Books; but the explicit Notion of it I owe to my Learned and Worthy Friend Dr. Edward Hulfe, which, comparing with mine own Anatomical Obfervations, found so consonant to Reason, and highly probable, that I could not but yield a firm Affent to it. I fay then, That the chief Use of the Circulation of the Blood through the Cotyledons of a Calf in the Womb, (which I have often diffected) and by Analogy thro' the Placenta uterina in an Humane Fatus, feems to be the Impregnation of the Blood with Air, for the feeding of the vital Flame: For if it were only for Nutrition, what Need of two fuch great Arte

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