Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society Part 42

17. Whether the Earth-quakes in _Zant_ and _Cephalonia_ be so frequent, as now and then to happen nine or ten times a Month? And whether these Isles be not very Cavernous?

18. What is the height of Mount _Caucasus_, its position, temper in its several parts, &c.

19. With what declivity the Water runs out of the _Euxine-Sea_ into the _Propontis_? With what depth? And if the many Tides and Eddies, so famous by the name of the _Euripi_, have any certain Period? {362}

20. If in the _Euxine-Sea_ there can be found any sign of the _Caspian Seas_ emptying it self into it by a pa.s.sage under ground? If there be any different Colour, or Temper as to Heat or Cold; or any Current or Motion in the Water, that may give light to it?

21. By what Inland pa.s.sages they go to _China_; there being now a pa.s.sage for _Caravans_ throughout those places, that would formerly admit of no Correspondence by reason of the Barbarisme of the Inhabitants?

22. Whether in the Aquaeducts, they make, they line the inside with as good Plaister, as the Ancients did? and how theirs is made?

23. To inquire after these excellent works of Antiquity, of which that Country is full, and which by the ignorant are not thought worth notice or preservation? And particularly, what is the bigness and structure of the Aquaeducts, made in several places about _Constantinople_ by _Solyman_ the Magnificent? &c.

_An Observation of Optick Gla.s.ses made of _Rock-Chrystal_._

This is contained in a Letter of _Eustachio Divini_, Printed in _Italian_ at _Rome_, as the _39. Journal des Scavans_ extracts it, _vid._

[Sidenote: * It may be queried whether those were true Veins, or only Superficial Strictures, and slight scratches.]

Though it be commonly believed, that _Rock-Christal_ is not fit for Optick-Gla.s.ses, because there are many Veins in it; yet _Eustachio Divini_ made one of it, which _he saith_ proved an excellent one, though full of Veins. *

_An Accompt of the Use of the Grain of _Kermes_ for Coloration._

This was communicated by the Ingenious Dr. _Croon_, as he received it from one Monsieur _Verny_, a _French_ Apothecary at _Montpelier_; who having described the Grain of _Kermes_, to be an excrescence growing upon the Wood, and often upon the {363} leaves of a Shrub, plentifull in _Languedock_, and gather'd in the end of _May_, and the beginning of _June_, full of a red Juyce; subjoyns two Uses, which that Grain hath, the one for _Medicine_, the other for _Dying of Wool_. Waving the _first_, notice shall only be taken here of the _latter_, vid. That, for _Dying_, they take the Grain of _Kermes_, when ripe, and spread it upon Linnen: And at first, whilst it abounds most in moisture, 'tis turn'd twice or thrice a day, to prevent its Heating. And when there appears red powder amongst it, they separate it, pa.s.sing it through a Searce; and then again spread abroad the Grain upon Linnen, untill there be perceived the same redness of the powder; and at the end, this red power appears _about_ and _on_ the surface of the Grain, which is still to be pa.s.s'd through a Searce, till it render no more.

And in the beginning, when the small red Grains are seen to move (as they will do) they are sprinkled over with strong Vinegar, and rubb'd between ones hands: afterwards little b.a.l.l.s are form'd thereof, which are expos'd to the Sun to dry.

If this red powder should be let alone, without pouring Vinegar or some other accid liquor upon it, out of every Grain thereof would be form'd a little Fly, which would skip and fly up and down for a day or two, and at last changing its colour, fall down quite dead, deprived of all the bitterness, the Grains, whence they are generated, had before.

The Grain being altogether emptyed of its pulp or red powder, 'tis wash'd in Wine, and then expos'd to the Sun Being well dryed, 'tis rubb'd in a Sack to render it bright; and then 'tis put up in small Sacks, putting in the midst, according to the quant.i.ty, the Grain has afforded, 10. or 12.

pounds (for a _Quintal_) of the dust, which is the red powder, that came out of it. And accordingly, as the Grain affords more or less of the said powder, Dyers buy more or less of it.

'Tis to be noted, That the first red powder, which appears, issues out of the Hole of the Grain, that is on the side, where the Grain adhered to the Plant. And that, which about the end appears sticking on the Grain, hath been alive in the husk, having pierced its covers though the hole, whence it commonly issues, remains close as to the Eye. {364}

_An Account of Some Books lately published._

1. _PINAX Rerum Naturalium BRITANNICARUM, continens VEGETABILIA, ANIMALIA & FOSSILIA in hoc Insula reperta, inchoatus, Auth._ Christophoro Merret, _Med. D. & utriusque_ Societatis Regiae _socio._

The Learned and Inquisitive Author of this Book, hath by his laudable example of collecting together, what Natural things are to be found here in _England_, of all sorts (which he has done upon his own expences) given an invitation to the curious in all parts of the world to attempt the like, thereby to establish the much desired and highly useful commerce among _Naturalists_, and to contribute every where to the composing of a genuine and full _History of Nature_.

In the _Preface_ he intimates, that his stock does still encrease dayly; and that therefore the Reader may expect an _Appendix_ to this collection.

In the Body of the Book, he enumerates all the _Species_, Alphabetically: And, as to _Vegetables_, he reckons up about 410 sorts; and gives their _Latine_ and _English_ Names, and the _Places_ and _Times_ of their growth: reducing them afterwards to certain _Cla.s.ses_, hitherto used by _Botanick_ Writers in their _Histories_ of _Plants_: Adding the _Etymology_ of their Generick Names, and a compendious _Register_ of the Time, _when_ and _how long_ the _English_ Plants do shoot and flourish.

As to _Animals_, he finds of them about 340 kinds in _England_, whereof the _fourfooted_ are about 50, _Birds_ 170, and _Fishes_ 120. _Insects_ are innumerable, which yet he endeavours to enumerate, and to reduce to certain _Cla.s.ses_; into which he also brings the three former kinds.

Concerning _Fossils_, he _first_ takes notice of the _Metals_ found in _English_ Mines; as _Silver, Tin, Copper, Iron, Lead, Antimony_, and some _Gold_ extracted out of _Tin_. Next of the _Stones_, of which he finds about 70 sorts; & amongst them, _Bristol Diamonds, Agates, Hyacinths, Emerods, Loadstones, Toad-stones_, (which last yet he affirms to be nothing but the grinding-teeth of the {365} Fish _Lupus_) _Pearls, Corals, Marble, Alablaster, Emery:_ To which he adds the various kinds of _Coals_; as also _Bitumens, Turfs_ and _Jets_. And _thirdly_ of the various kinds of _Allam, Vitriol, Niter, Sea-salt, Pit-salt_. But _fourthly_ of the various _Earths_, of which he reckons up 15. peculiar sorts (besides those that serve for _Husbandry_, which are not easily numbred;) and amongst them, _Read-lead, Black-lead_ and _Fullers-earth_.

He concludes all with mentioning the several _Meteors_ appearing in _England_; and the _Hot springs_; and _Medical Waters_; as also, the _Salin, Petrifying_, and some more unusual Springs: _Item, Subterraneous Trees, Subterraneous Rivers, Ebbings and Flowings of Wells_, &c.

II. _PLACITA PHILOSOPHICA Guarini._ The chief subject of this Treatise is Natural _Philosophy_; upon many important questions whereof it enlargeth, as those of the Motion of the Coelestial Bodies, of Light, of Meteors, and of the vital and animal functions; leaving sometimes the common opinions, and delighting in the defence of _Paradoxes_.

_E. G._ That the material substantial Form, is nothing but _mera potentia_, and subsists not by it self: by which means the Author judges, he can free himself from many great difficulties touching _Generation_ and _Corruption_, which do perplex the other Philosophers.

He holds _Epicycles_ to be impossible, and _Excentricks_, not sufficient to explicate the motion of the Stars; but that all the irregularities of this motion may be salved by the means of certain _Spiral_ Lines; largely proving this _Hypothesis_, and particularly explicating the motion of each Planet.

He denies the middle Region of the Air to be cold; and believes that cold is not necessary to condense the vapours into Water.

He admits not that received Axiome, _That the generation of one Body is the corruption of another_; maintaining that there are _Generations_, to which no corruption ever preceded; and that it may happen, that one Animal without dying may be changed into another Animal.

He alledges several reasons to evince, that the Air breathed in, enters not only into the whole capacity of the Chest, but also into the lower belly.

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He is of opinion that the Air, which is commonly believed to corrupt easily, is incorruptible; alledging among other reasons, this for one, that experience shews, that if a Bottle be exactly stop'd, there is never any mixt Body form'd in it; wherefore, _saith he_, the Air is not corrupted there.

He maintains, that 'tis not the _Magnet_ that draws the Iron, but rather the Iron that attracts the _Magnet_. To explain which he affirms, that the Load-stone spreads abroad out of it self many corpuscles, which the substance of the Iron imbibes, and that, as dry things attract those that are moist, by the same reason Iron drawn the Loadstone.

He rejects the _species intentionales_, _Vital_ and _Animal_ Spirits, and holds many other uncommon opinions, touching _Light_, the _Iris_, the _Flux and Reflux of the Sea_, &c.

III. _GUSTUS ORGANUM per _Laurentium Bellini_ novissime deprehensum._

The Author proposing to himself to discover both the princ.i.p.al _Organ_ of the _Taste_, and the nature of its _object_, begins with the latter, and examins first, what is _Taste?_ He judges that it is caused by nothing but Salts, which being variously figured, affects the tongue variously: alledging this for his chief reason, that the Salt which is extracted by _Chymists_ out of any mixt body whatever it be, carries away with it all its taste, and that the rest remains tasteless. He adds that the Teeth in grinding the Food, serve much to extract this Salt: And he notes by the by, that the Teeth are so necessary for preparing the aliment, that certain Animals which seem to have none, have them in their stomach; and that nature has put at the entry of the palat of those that are altogether dest.i.tute of them, certain moveable inequalities, which are to them instead of Teeth.

But then _secondly_, concerning the _Organ_ of Taste, he esteems, that 'tis neither the Flesh, nor the Tongue, nor the Membrans, nor the Nerves found there, nor the Glanduls, called _Amygdalinae_; but those _little eminences_ that are found upon the tongue of all Animals. To obtain which, he observes,

1. That from the middle of the Tongue to the root, as also towards the tip, there are found innumerable _little Risings_ {367} called _Papillares_; but that from the tip of the Tongue unto the string there is observed none at all.

2. He hath experimented, that if you put _Sal Armoniack_ upon the places of the Tongue, where those _Eminencies_ are not, you shall find no Taste; but that you will find it presently a.s.soon as you put any such Salt, where they are to be met with. Ergo, _saith he_, those _Eminencies_ are the princ.i.p.al Organ of Taste.

3. He a.s.sures, that with a _Microscope_, may be seen in those _Risings_ many little holes, at the bottom whereof there are small nerves, terminating there: But _he directs_, to observe this in live and healthy, not in dead or sick Animals.

Having laid down these Observations, he concludes, that the manner, after which Taste is perform'd, is this, That the particles of Salt pa.s.sing through those pores, which pierce the _Papillary Eminences_, and penetrating as far as to the nerves, that meet them there, do by the means of their small points p.r.i.c.k them; which p.r.i.c.king is called the _Taste_.

In the mean time he acknowledges, that before him Signior _Malphigi_, Professor at _Messina_, had made some of these discoveries.

The notice of these two last Books we owe to the _French Journal_.