Micrographia Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses with Observations and Inquiries Thereupon 6 – Hooke · Verses Across
Literature · Science
Micrographia Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses with Observations and Inquiries Thereupon 6Preface (part 6)
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Literature · Science
Micrographia Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses with Observations and Inquiries Thereupon 6
Preface (part 6)
HookeEnglish
And that the particles of Metalline colours are transparent, may be argued yet further from this, that the Crystals, or Vitriols of all Metals, are transparent, which since they consist of metalline as well as saline particles, those metalline ones must be transparent, which is yet further confirm’d from this, that they have for the most part, appropriate colours; so the vitriol of Gold is Yellow; of Copper, Blue, and sometimes Green; of Iron, green; of Tinn and Lead, a pale White; of Silver, a pale Blue, &.
And next, the Solution of all Metals into menstruums are much the same with the Vitriols, or Crystals. It seems therefore very probable, that those colours which are made by the precipitation of those particles out of the menstruums by transparent precipitating liquors should be transparent also. Thus Gold precipitates with oyl of Tartar, or _spirit of Urine_ into a brown Yellow, Copper with spirit of Urine into a Mucous blue, which retains its transparency. A solution of sublimate (as the same Illustrious Authour I lately mention’d shews in his 40. Experiment) precipitates with oyl of Tartar per deliquium, into an Orange colour’d precipitate; nor is it less probable, that the calcination of those Vitriols by the fire, should have their particles transparent: Thus Saccarum Saturni, or the Vitriol of Lead by calcination becomes a deep Orange-colour’d minium, which is a kind of precipitation by some Salt which proceeds from the fire; common Vitriol calcin’d, yields a deep Brown Red, &c.
A third Argument, that the particles of Metals are transparent, is, that being calcin’d, and melted with Glass, they tinge the Glass with transparent colours. Thus the Calx of Silver tinges the Glass on which it is anneal’d with a lovely Yellow, or Gold colour, &c.
And that the parts of Metals are transparent, may be farther argued from the transparency of Leaf-gold, which held against the light, both to the naked eye, and the Microscope, exhibits a deep Green. And though I have never seen the other Metals laminated so thin, that I was able to perceive them transparent, yet, for Copper and Brass, if we had the same conveniency for laminating them, as we have for Gold, we might, perhaps, through such plates or leaves, find very differing degrees of Blue, or Green; for it seems very probable, that those Rays that rebound from them ting’d, with a deep Yellow, or pale Red, as from Copper, or with a pale Yellow, as from Brass, have past through them; for I cannot conceive how by reflection alone those Rays can receive a tincture, taking any Hypothesis extant.
So that we see there may a sufficient reason be drawn from these instances, why those colours which we are unable to dilute to the palest Yellow, or Blue, or Green, are not therefore to be concluded not to be a deeper degree of them; for supposing we had a great company of small Globular essence Bottles, or round Glass bubbles, about the bigness of a Walnut, fill’d each of them with a very deep mixture of Saffron, and that every one of them did appear of a deep Scarlet colour, and all of them together did exhibit at a distance, a deep dy’d Scarlet body. It does not follow, because after we have come nearer to this congeries, or mass, and divided it into its parts, and examining each of its parts severally or apart, we find them to have much the same colour with the whole mats; it does not, I say, therefore follow, that if we could break those Globules smaller, or any other ways come to see a smaller or thinner parcel of the ting’d liquor that fill’d those bubbles, that that ting’d liquor must always appear Red, or of a Scarlet hue, since if Experiment be made, the quite contrary will ensue; for it is capable of being diluted into the palest Yellow.
Now, that I might avoid all the Objections of this kind, by exhibiting an Experiment that might by ocular proof convince those whom other reasons would not prevail with, I provided me a Prismatical Glass, made hollow, just in the form of a Wedge, such as is represented in the tenth Figure of the sixth Scheme. The two parallelogram sides ABCD, ABEF, which met at a point, were made of the clearest Looking-glass plates well ground and polish’d that I could get; these were joyn’d with hard cement to the triangular sides, BCE, ADF, which were of Wood; the Parallelogram base BCEF, likewise was of Wood joyn’d on to the rest with hard cement, and the whole Prismatical Box was exactly stopt every where, but onely a little hole near the base was left, whereby the Vessel could be fill’d with any liquor, or emptied again at pleasure.
One of these Boxes (for I had two of them) I fill’d with a pretty deep tincture of Aloes, drawn onely with fair Water, and then stopt the hole with a piece of Wax, then, by holding this Wedge against the Light, and looking through it, it was obvious enough to see the tincture of the liquor near the edge of the Wedge where it was but very thin, to be a pale but well colour’d Yellow, and further and further from the edge, as the liquor grew thicker and thicker, this tincture appear’d deeper and deeper, so that near the blunt end, which was seven Inches from the edge and three Inches and an half thick; it was of a deep and well colour’d Red. Now, the clearer and purer this tincture be, the more lovely will the deep Scarlet be, and the fouler the tincture be, the more dirty will the Red appear; so that some dirty tinctures have afforded their deepest Red much of the colour of burnt Oker or Spanish brown; others as lovely a colour as Vermilion, and some much brighter; but several others, according as the tinctures were worse or more foul, exhibited various kinds of Reds, of very differing degrees.
The other of these Wedges, I fill’d with a most lovely tincture of Copper, drawn from the filings of it, with spirit of Urine, and this Wedge held as the former against the Light, afforded all manner of Blues, from the faintest to the deepest, so that I was in good hope by these two, to have produc’d all the varieties of colours imaginable; for I thought by this means to have been able by placing the two Parallelogram sides together, and the edges contrary ways, to have so mov’d them to and fro one by another, as by looking through them in several places, and through several thicknesses, I should have compounded, and consequently have seen all those colours, which by other like compositions of colours would have ensued.
But insteed of meeting with what I look’d for, I met with somewhat more admirable; and that was, that I found my self utterly unable to see through them when placed both together, though they were transparent enough when asunder; and though I could see through twice the thickness, when both of them were fill’d with the same colour’d liquors, whether both with the Yellow, or both with the Blue, yet when one was fill’d with the Yellow, the other with the Blue, and both looked through, they both appear’d dark, onely when the parts near the tops were look’d through, they exhibited Greens, and those of very great variety, as I expected, but the Purples and other colours, I could not by any means make, whether I endeavour’d to look through them both against the Sun, or whether I plac’d them against the hole of a darkned room.
But notwithstanding this mis-ghessing, I proceeded on with my trial in a dark room, and having two holes near one another, I was able, by placing my Wedges against them, to mix the ting’d Rays that past through them, and fell on a sheet of white Paper held at a convenient distance from them as I pleas’d; so that I could make the Paper appear of what colour I would, by varying the thicknesses of the Wedges, and consequently the tincture of the Rays that past through the two holes, and sometimes also by varying the Paper, that is, insteed of a white Paper, holding a gray, or a black piece of Paper.
Whence I experimentally found what I had before imagin’d, that all the varieties of colours imaginable are produc’d from several degrees of these two colours, namely, Yellow and Blue, or the mixture of them with light and darkness, that is, white and black. And all those almost infinite varieties which Limners and Painters are able to make by compounding those several colours they lay on their Shels or Palads, are nothing else, but some compositum, made up of some one or more, or all of these four.
Now, whereas it may here again be objected, that neither can the Reds be made out of the Yellows, added together, or laid on in greater or less quantity, nor can the Yellows be made out of the Reds though laid never so thin; and as for the addition of White or Black, they do nothing but either whiten or darken the colours to which they are added, and not at all make them of any other kind of colour: as for instance, Vermilion, by being temper’d with White Lead, does not at all grow more Yellow, but onely there is made a whiter kind of Red. Nor does Yellow Oker, though laid never so thick, produce the colour of Vermilion, nor though it be temper’d with Black, does it at all make a Red; nay, though it be temper’d with White, it will not afford a fainter kind of Yellow, such as masticut, but onely a whiten’d Yellow; nor will the Blues be diluted or deepned after the manner I speak of, as Indico will never afford so fine a Blue as Ultramarine or Bise; nor will it, temper’d with Vermilion, ever afford a Green, though each of them be never so much temper’d with white.
To which I answer, that there is a great difference between diluting a colour and whitening of it; for diluting a colour, is to make the colour’d parts more thin, so that the ting’d light, which is made by trajecting those ting’d bodies, does not receive so deep a tincture; but whitening a colour is onely an intermixing of many clear reflections of light among the same ting’d parts; deepning also, and darkning or blacking a colour, are very different; for deepning a colour, is to make the light pass through a greater quantity of the same tinging body; and darkning or blacking a colour, is onely interposing a multitude of dark or black spots among the same ting’d parts, or placing the colour in a more faint light.
First therefore, as to the former of these operations, that is, diluting and deepning, most of the colours us’d by the Limners and Painters are incapable of, to wit, Vermilion and Red-lead, and Oker, because the ting’d parts are so exceeding small, that the most curious Grindstones we have, are not able to separate them into parts actually divided so small as the ting’d particles are; for looking on the most curiously ground Vermilion, and Oker, and Red-lead, I could perceive that even those small corpuscles of the bodies they left were compounded of many pieces, that is, they seem’d to be small pieces compounded of a multitude of lesser ting’d parts: each piece seeming almost like a piece of Red Glass, or ting’d Crystal all flaw’d; so that unless the Grindstone could actually divide them into smaller pieces then those flaw’d particles were, which compounded that ting’d mote I could see with my Microscope, it would be impossible to dilute the colour by grinding, which, because the finest we have will not reach to do in Vermilion or Oker, therefore they cannot at all, or very hardly be diluted.
Other colours indeed, whose ting’d particles are such as may be made smaller, by grinding their colour, may be diluted. Thus several of the Blues may be diluted, as Smalt and Bise; and Masticut, which is Yellow, may be made more faint: And even Vermilion it self may, by too much grinding, be brought to the colour of Red-lead, which is but an Orange colour, which is confest by all to be very much upon the Yellow. Now, though perhaps somewhat of this diluting of Vermilion by overmuch grinding may be attributed to the Grindstone, or muller, for that some of their parts may be worn off and mixt with the colour, yet there seems not very much, for I have done it on a Serpentine-stone with a muller made of a Pebble, and yet observ’d the same effect follow.
And secondly, as to the other of these operations on colours, that is, the deepning of them, Limners and Painters colours are for the most part also uncapable. For they being for the most part opacous; and that opacousness, as I said before, proceeding from the particles, being very much flaw’d, unless we were able to joyn and reunite those flaw’d particles again into one piece, we shall not be able to deepen the colour, which since we are unable to do with most of the colours which are by Painters accounted opacous, we are therefore unable to deepen them by adding more of the same kind.
But because all those opacous colours have two kinds of beams or Rays reflected from them, that is, Rays unting’d, which are onely reflected from the outward surface, without at all penetrating of the body, and ting’d Rays which are reflected from the inward surfaces or flaws after they have suffer’d a two-fold refraction; and because that transparent liquors mixt with such corpuscles, do, for the most part, take off the former kind of reflection; therefore these colours mixt with Water or Oyl, appear much deeper than when dry, for most part of that white reflection from the outward surface is remov’d. Nay, some of these colours are very much deepned by the mixture with some transparent liquor, and that because they may perhaps get between those two flaws, and so consequently joyn two or more of those flaw’d pieces together; but this happens but in a very few.
Now, to shew that all this is not gratis dictum, I shall set down some Experiments which do manifest these things to be probable and likely, which I have here deliver’d.
For, first, if you take any ting’d liquor whatsoever, especially if it be pretty deeply ting’d, and by any means work it into a froth, the congeries of that froth shall seem an opacous body, and appear of the same colour, but much whiter than that of the liquor out of which it is made. For the abundance of reflections of the Rays against those surfaces of the bubbles of which the froth consists, does so often rebound the Rays backwards, that little or no light can pass through, and consequently the froth appears opacous.
Again, if to any of these ting’d liquors that will endure the boiling there be added a small quantity of fine flower (the parts of which through the Microscope are plainly enough to be perceiv’d to consist of transparent corpuscles) and suffer’d to boyl till it thicken the liquor, the mass of the liquor will appear opacous, and ting’d with the same colour, but very much whiten’d.
Thus, if you take a piece of transparent Glass that is well colour’d, and by heating it, and then quenching it in Water, you flaw it all over, it will become opacous, and will exhibit the same colour with which the piece is ting’d, but fainter and whiter.
Or, if you take a Pipe of this transparent Glass, and in the flame of a Lamp melt it, and then blow it into very thin bubbles, then break those bubbles, and collect a good parcel of those laminæ together in a Paper, you shall find that a small thickness of those Plates will constitute an opacous body, and that you may see through the mass of Glass before it be thus laminated, above four times the thickness: And besides, they will now afford a colour by reflection as other opacous (as they are call’d) colours will, but much fainter and whiter than that of the Lump or Pipe out of which they were made.
Thus also, if you take Putty, and melt it with any transparent colour’d Glass, it will make it become an opacous colour’d lump, and to yield a paler and whiter colour than the lump by reflection.
The same thing may be done by a preparation of Antimony, as has been shewn by the Learned Physician, Dr. C.M. in his Excellent Observations and Notes on Nery’s Art of Glass; and by this means all transparent colours become opacous, or ammels. And though by being ground they lose very much of their colour, growing much whiter by reason of the multitude of single reflections from their outward surface, as I shew’d afore, yet the fire that in the nealing or melting re-unites them, and so renews those spurious reflections, removes also those whitenings of the colour that proceed from them.
As for the other colours which Painters use, which are transparent, and us’d to varnish over all other paintings, ’tis well enough known that the laying on of them thinner or thicker, does very much dilute or deepen their colour.
Painters Colours therefore consisting most of them of solid particles, so small that they cannot be either re-united into thicker particles by any Art yet known, and consequently cannot be deepned; or divided into particles so small as the flaw’d particles that exhibit that colour, much less into smaller, and consequently cannot be diluted; It is necessary that they which are to imitate all kinds of colours, should have as many degrees of each colour as can be procur’d.
And to this purpose, both Limners and Painters have a very great variety both of Yellows and Blues, besides several other colour’d bodies that exhibit very compounded colours, such as Greens and Purples; and others that are compounded of several degrees of Yellow, or several degrees of Blue, sometimes unmixt, and sometimes compounded with several other colour’d bodies.
The Yellows, from the palest to the deepest Red or Scarlet, which has no intermixture of Blue, are _pale and deep Masticut, Orpament, English Oker, brown Oker, Red-Lead, and Vermilion, burnt English Oker, and burnt brown Oker_, which last have a mixture of dark or dirty parts with them, &c.
Their Blues are several kinds of Smalts, and Verditures, and Bise, and Ultramarine, and Indico, which last has many dirty or dark parts intermixt with it.
Their compounded colour’d bodies, as Pink, and Verdigrese, which are Greens, the one a Popingay, the other a Sea-green; then Lac, which is a very lovely Purple.
To which may be added their Black and White, which they also usually call Colours, of each of which they have several kinds, such as Bone Black, made of Ivory burnt in a close Vessel, and Blue Black, made of the small coal of Willow, or some other Wood; and Cullens earth, which is a kind of brown Black, &c. Their usual Whites are either artificial or natural White Lead, the last of which is the best they yet have, and with the mixing and tempering these colours together, are they able to make an imitation of any colour whatsoever: Their Reds or deep Yellows, they can dilute by mixing pale Yellows with them, and deepen their pale by mixing deeper with them; for it is not with Opacous colours as it is with transparent, where by adding more Yellow to yellow, it is deepned, but in opacous diluted. They can whiten any colour by mixing White with it, and darken any colour by mixing Black, or some dark and dirty colour. And in a word, most of the colours, or colour’d bodies they use in Limning and Painting, are such, as though mixt with any other of their colours, they preserve their own hue, and by being in such very smal parts dispers’d through the other colour’d bodies, they both, or altogether represent to the eye a compositum of all; the eye being unable, by reason of their smalness, to distinguish the peculiarly colour’d particles, but receives them as one intire compositum: whereas in many of these, the Microscope very easily distinguishes each of the compounding colours distinct, and exhibiting its own colour.
Thus have I by gently mixing Vermilion and Bise dry, produc’d a very fine Purple, or mixt colour, but looking on it with the Microscope, I could easily distinguish both the Red and the Blue particles, which did not at all produce the Phantasm of Purple.
To summ up all therefore in a word, I have not yet found any solid colour’d body, that I have yet examin’d, perfectly opacous; but those that are least transparent are Metalline and Mineral bodies, whose particles generally, seeming either to be very small, or very much flaw’d, appear for the most part opacous, though there are very few of them that I have look’d on with a Microscope, that have not very plainly or circumstantially manifested themselves transparent.
And indeed, there seem to be so few bodies in the world that are _in minimis_ opacous, that I think one may make it a rational Query, Whether there be any body absolutely thus opacous? For I doubt not at all (and I have taken notice of very many circumstances that make me of this mind) that could we very much improve the Microscope, we might be able to see all those bodies very plainly transparent, which we now are fain onely to ghess at by circumstances. Nay, the Object Glasses we yet make use of are such, that they make many transparent bodies to the eye, seem opacous through them, which if we widen the Aperture a little, and cast more light on the objects, and not charge the Glasses so deep, will again disclose their transparency.
Now, as for all kinds of colours that are dissolvable in Water, or other liquors, there is nothing so manifest, as that all those ting’d liquors are transparent; and many of them are capable of being diluted and compounded or mixt with other colours, and divers of them are capable of being very much chang’d and heightned, and fixt with several kinds of _Saline menstruums_. Others of them upon compounding, destroy or vitiate each others colours, and precipitate, or otherwise very much alter each others tincture. In the true ordering and diluting, and deepning, and mixing, and fixing of each of which, consists one of the greatest mysteries of the Dyers; of which particulars, because our Microscope affords us very little information, I shall add nothing more at present; but onely that with a very few tinctures order’d and mixt after certain ways, too long to be here set down, I have been able to make an appearance of all the various colours imaginable, without at all using the help of Salts, or _Saline menstruums_ to vary them.
As for the mutation of Colours by Saline menstruums, they have already been so fully and excellently handled by the lately mention’d Incomparable Authour, that I can add nothing, but that of a multitude of trials that I made, I have found them exactly to agree with his Rules and Theories; and though there may be infinite instances, yet may they be reduc’d under a few Heads, and compris’d within a very few Rules. And generally I find, that Saline menstruums are most operative upon those colours that are Purple, or have some degree of Purple in them, and upon the other colours much less. The spurious pulses that compose which, being (as I formerly noted) so very neer the middle between the true ones, that a small variation throws them both to one side, or both to the other, and so consequently must make a vast mutation in the formerly appearing Colour.
Observ. XI. Of Figures_ observ’d in small Sand._
Sand generally seems to be nothing else but exceeding small Pebbles, or at least some very small parcels of a bigger stone; the whiter kind seems through the Microscope to consist of small transparent pieces of some pellucid body, each of them looking much like a piece of Alum, or _Salt Gem_; and this kind of Sand is angled for the most part irregularly, without any certain shape, and the granules of it are for the most part flaw’d, through amongst many of them it is not difficult to find some that are perfectly pellucid, like a piece of clear Crystal, and divers likewise most curiously shap’d, much after the manner of the bigger Stiriæ of Crystal, or like the small Diamants I observ’d in certain Flints, of which I shall by and by relate; which last particular seems to argue, that this kind of Sand is not made by the comminution of greater transparent Crystaline bodies, but by the concretion or coagulation of Water, or some other fluid body.
There are other kinds of courser Sands, which are browner, and have their particles much bigger; these, view’d with a Microscope, seem much courser and more opacous substances, and most of them are of some irregularly rounded Figures; and though they seem not so opacous as to the naked eye, yet they seem very foul and cloudy, but neither do these want curiously transparent, no more than they do regularly figur’d and well colour’d particles, as I have often found.
There are multitudes of other kinds of Sands, which in many particulars, plainly enough discoverable by the Microscope, differ both from these last mention’d kinds of Sands, and from one another: there seeming to be as great variety of Sands, as there is of Stones. And as amongst Stones some are call’d precious from their excellency, so also are there Sands which deserve the same Epithite for their beauty; for viewing a small parcel of East-India Sand (which was given me by my highly honoured friend, Mr. Daniel Colwall) and, since that, another parcel, much of the same kind, I found several of them, both very transparent like precious Stones, and regularly figur’d like Crystal, Cornish Diamants, some Rubies, &c. and also ting’d with very lively and deep colours, like Rubys, Saphyrs, Emeralds, &c. These kinds of granules I have often found also in English Sand. And ’tis easie to make such a counterfeit Sand with deeply ting’d Glass, Enamels and Painters colours.
It were endless to describe the multitudes of Figures I have met with in these kind of minute bodies, such as Spherical, Oval, Pyramidal, Conical, Prismatical, of each of which kinds I have taken notice.
But amongst many others, I met with none more observable than this pretty Shell (described in the Figure X. of the fifth Scheme) which, though as it was light on by chance, deserv’d to have been omitted (I being unable to direct any one to find the like) yet for its rarity was it not inconsiderable, especially upon the account of the information it may afford us. For by it we have a very good instance of the curiosity of Nature in another kind of Animals which are remov’d, by reason of their minuteness, beyond the reach of our eyes, so that as there are several sorts of Insects, as Mites, and others, so small as not yet to have had any names; (some of which I shall afterwards describe) and small Fishes, as Leeches in Vinegar; and smal vegetables, as Moss, and Rose-Leave-plants; and small Mushroms, as mould: so are there, it seems, small Shel-fish likewise, Nature shewing her curiosity in every Tribe of Animals, Vegetables, and Minerals.
I was trying several small and single Magnifying Glasses, and casually viewing a parcel of white Sand, when I perceiv’d one of the grains exactly shap’d and wreath’d like a Shell, but endeavouring to distinguish it with my naked eye, it was so very small, that I was fain again to make use of the Glass to find it; then, whilest I thus look’d on it, with a Pin I separated all the rest of the granules of Sand, and found it afterwards to appear to the naked eye an exceeding small white spot, no bigger than the point of a Pin. Afterwards I view’d it every way with a better Microscope and found it on both sides, and edge-ways, to resemble the Shell of a small Water-Snail with a flat spiral Shell: it had twelve wreathings, a, b, c, d, e, &c. all very proportionably growing one less than another toward the middle or center of the Shell, where there was a very small round white spot. I could not certainly discover whether the Shell were hollow or not, but it seem’d fill’d with somewhat, and ’tis probable that it might be petrify’d as other larger Shels often are, such as are mention’d in the seventeenth Observation.
Observ. XII. Of Gravel_ in Urine._
I Have often observ’d the Sand or Gravel of Urine, which seems to be a tartareous substance, generated out of a saline and a terrestrial substance crystalliz’d together, in the form of Tartar, sometimes sticking to the sides of the Urinal, but for the most part sinking to the bottom, and there lying in the form of coorse common Sand; these, through the Microscope, appear to be a company of small bodies, partly transparent and partly opacous, some White, some Yellow, some Red, others of more brown and duskie colours.
The Figure of them is for the most part flat, in the manner of Slats or such like plated Stones, that is, each of them seem to be made up of several other thinner Plates, much like Muscovie Glass, or English Sparr to the last of which, the white plated Gravel seems most likely; for they seem not onely plated like that, but their sides shap’d also into Rhombs, Rhomboeids, and sometimes into Rectangles and Squares. Their bigness and Figure may be seen in the second Figure of the seventh Plate, which represents about a dozen of them lying upon a plate ABCD, some of which, as a, b, c, d seem’d more regular than the rest, and e, which was a small one, sticking on the top of another, was a perfect Rhomboeid on the top, and had four Rectangular sides.
The line E which was the measure of the Microscope, is ¹⁄₃₂ part of an English Inch, so that the greatest bredth of any of them, exceeded not ¹⁄₁₂₈ part of an Inch.
Putting these into several liquors, I found oyl of Vitriol, _Spirit of Urine, and several other Saline menstruums_ to dissolve them; and the first of these in less than a minute without Ebullition, Water, and several other liquors, had no sudden operation upon them. This I mention, because those liquors that dissolve them, first make them very white, not vitiating, but rather rectifying their Figure, and thereby make them afford a very pretty object for the Microscope.
How great an advantage it would be to such as are troubled with the Stone, to find some menstruum might dissolve them without hurting the Bladder, is easily imagin’d, since some injections made of such bodies might likewise dissolve the stone, which seems much of the same nature.
It may therefore, perhaps, be worthy some Physicians enquiry, whether there may not be something mixt with the Urine in which the Gravel or Stone lies, which may again make it dissolve it, the first of which seems by it’s regular Figures to have been sometimes Crystalliz’d out of it. For whether this Crystallization be made in the manner as Alum, Peter, &c. are crystallized out of a cooling liquor, in which, by boyling they have been dissolv’d; or whether it be made in the manner of _Tartarum Vitriolatum, that is, by the Coalition_ of an acid and a Sulphureous substance, it seems not impossible, but that the liquor it lies in, may be again made a dissolvent of it. But leaving these inquiries to Physicians or Chymists, to whom it does more properly belong, I shall proceed.
Observ. XIII. Of the small Diamants, or Sparks_ in Flints._
Chancing to break a Flint stone in pieces, I found within it a certain cavity all crusted over with a very pretty candied substance, some of the parts of which, upon changing the posture of the Stone, in respect of the Incident light, exhibited a number of small, but very vivid reflections; and having made use of my Microscope, I could perceive the whole surface of that cavity to be all beset with a multitude of little Crystaline or Adamantine bodies, so curiously shap’d, that it afforded a not unpleasing object.
Having considered those vivid repercussions of light, I found them to be made partly from the plain external surface of these regularly figured bodies (which afforded the vivid reflections) and partly to be made from within the somewhat pellucid body, that is, from some surface of the body, opposite to that superficies of it which was next the eye.
And because these bodies were so small, that I could not well come to make Experiments and Examinations of them, I provided me several small stiriæ of Crystals or Diamants, found in great quantities in Cornwall and are therefore commonly called Cornish Diamants: these being very pellucid, and growing in a hollow cavity of a Rock (as I have been several times informed by those that have observ’d them) much after the same manner as these do in the Flint, and having besides their outward surface very regularly shap’d, retaining very near the same Figures with some of those I observ’d in the other, became a convenient help to me for the Examination of the proprieties of those kinds of bodies.
And first for the Reflections, in these I found it very observable, That the brightest reflections of light proceeded from within the pellucid body; that is, that the Rays admitted through the pellucid substance in their getting out on the opposite side, were by the contiguous and strong reflecting surface of the Air very vividly reflected, so that more Rays were reflected to the eye by this surface, though the Ray in entring and getting out of the Crystal had suffer’d a double refraction, than there were from the outward surface of the Glass where the Ray had suffer’d no refraction at all.
And that this was the surface of the Air that gave so vivid a re-percussion I try’d by this means I sunk half of a stiria in Water, so that only Water was contiguous to the under surface, and then the internal reflection was so exceedingly faint, that it was scarce discernable. Again, I try’d to alter this vivid reflection by keeping off the Air, with a body not fluid, and that was by rubbing and holding my finger very hard against the under surface, so as in many places the pulp of my finger did touch the Glass, without any interjacent air between, then observing the reflection, I found, that wheresoever my finger or skin toucht the surface, from that part there was no reflection, but in the little furrows or creases of my skin, where there remain’d little small lines of air, from them was return’d a very vivid reflection as before. I try’d further, by making the surface of very pure Quicksilver to be contiguous to the under surface of this pellucid body, and then the reflection from that was so exceedingly more vivid than from the air, as the reflection from air was than the reflection from the Water; from all which trials I plainly saw, that the strong reflecting air was the cause of this Phænomenon.
And this agrees very well with the Hypothesis of light and Pellucid bodies which I have mention’d in the description of Muscovy-glass; for we there suppose Glass to be a medium, which does less resist the pulse of light, and consequently, that most of the Rays incident on it enter into it, and are refracted towards the perpendicular; whereas the air I suppose to be a body that does more resist it, and consequently more are re-percuss’d then do enter it: the same kind of trials have I made, with Crystalline Glass, with drops of fluid bodies, and several other ways, which do all seem to agree very exactly with this Theory. So that from this Principle well establish’d, we may deduce severall Corollaries not unworthy observation.
And the first is; that it plainly appears by this, that the production of the Rainbow is as much to be ascribed to the reflection of the concave surface of the air, as to the refraction of the Globular drops: this will be evidently manifest by these Experiments, if you foliate that part of a Glass-ball that is to reflect an Iris, as in the Cartesian Experiment, above mention’d, the reflections will be abundantly more strong, and the colours more vivid: and if that part of the surface be touch’d with Water, scarce affords any sensible colour at all.
Next we learn, that the great reason why pellucid bodies beaten small are white, is from the multitude of reflections, not from the particles of the body, but from the contiguous surface of the air. And this is evidently manifested, by filling the Interstitia of those powder’d bodies with Water, whereby their whiteness presently disappears. From the same reason proceeds the whiteness of many kinds of Sands, which in the Microscope appear to be made up of a multitude of little pellucid bodies, whose brightest reflections may by the Microscope be plainly perceiv’d to come from their internal surfaces; and much of the whiteness of it may be destroy’d by the affusion of fair Water to be contiguous to those surfaces.
The whiteness also of froth, is for the most part to be ascribed to the reflection of the light from the surface of the air within the Bubbles, and very little to the reflection from the surface of the Water it self: for this last reflection does not return a quarter so many Rays, as that which is made from the surface of the air, as I have certainly found by a multitude of Observations and Experiments.
The whiteness of Linnen, Paper, Silk, &c. proceeds much from the same reason, as the Microscope will easily discover; for the Paper is made up of an abundance of pellucid bodies, which afford a very plentifull reflection from within, that is, from the concave surface of the air contiguous to its component particles; wherefore by the affusion of Water, Oyl, Tallow, Turpentine, &c. all those reflections are made more faint, and the beams of light are suffer’d to traject & run through the Paper more freely.
Hence further we may learn the reason of the whiteness of many bodies, and by what means they may be in part made pellucid: As white Marble for instance, for this body is composed of a pellucid body exceedingly flaw’d, that is, there are abundance of thin, and very fine cracks or chinks amongst the multitude of particles of the body, that contain in them small parcels of air, which do so re-percuss and drive back the penetrating beams, that they cannot enter very deep within that body; which the Microscope does plainly inform us to be made up of a Congeries of pellucid particles. And I further found it somewhat more evidently by some attempts I made towards the making transparent Marble, for by heating the Stone a little, and soaking it in Oyl, Turpentine, Oyl of Turpentine, &c., I found that I was able to see much deeper into the body of Marble than before; and one trial, which was not with an unctuous substance, succeeded better than the rest, of which, when I have a better opportunity, I shall make further trial.
This also gives us a probable reason of the so much admired Phænomena, of the Oculus Mundi, an Oval stone, which commonly looks like white Alabaster, but being laid a certain time in Water, it grows pellucid, and transparent, and being suffer’d to lie again dry, it by degrees loses that transparency, and becomes white as before. For the Stone being of a hollow spongie nature, has in the first and last of these appearances, all those pores fill’d with the obtunding and reflecting air; whereas in the second, all those pores are fill’d with a medium that has much the same refraction with the particles of the Stone, and therefore those two being contiguous, make, as ’twere, one continued medium, of which more is said in the 15. Observation.
There are a multitude of other Phænomena, that are produc’d from this same Principle, which as it has not been taken notice of by any yet that I know, so I think, upon more diligent observation, will it not be found the least considerable. But I have here onely time to hint Hypotheses, and not to prosecute them so fully as I could wish; many of them having a vast extent in the production of a multitude of Phænomena, which have been by others, either not attempted to be explain’d, or else attributed to some other cause than what I have assign’d, and perhaps than the right; and therefore I shall leave this to the prosecution of such as have more leisure: onely before I leave it, I must not pretermit to hint, that by this Principle, multitudes of the Phænomena of the air, as about Mists, Clouds, Meteors, Haloes, &c. are most plainly and (perhaps) truly explicable; multitudes also of the Phænomena in colour’d bodies, as liquors, &c. are deducible from it.
And from this I shall proceed to a second considerable Phænomenon which these Diamants exhibit, and that is the regularity of their Figure, which is a propriety not less general than the former, It comprising within its extent, all kinds of Metals, all kinds of Minerals, most _Precious stones, all kinds of Salts, multitudes of Earths_, and almost all kinds of fluid bodies. And this is another propiety, which, though a little superficially taken notice of by some, has not, that I know, been so much as attempted to be explicated by any.
This propriety of bodies, as I think it the most worthy, and next in order to be consider’d after the contemplation of the Globular Figure, so have I long had a desire as wel as a determination to have prosecuted it if I had had an opportunity, having long since propos’d to my self the method of my enquiry therein, it containing all the allurements that I think any enquiry is capable of: For, first I take it to proceed from the most simple principle that any kind of form can come from, next the Globular, which was therefore the first I set upon, and what I have therein perform’d, I leave the Judicious Reader to determine. For as that form proceeded from a propiety of fluid bodies, which I have call’d Congruity, or Incongruity; so I think, had I time and opportunity, I could make probable, that all these regular Figures that are so conspicuously various and curious, and do so adorn and beautifie such multitudes of bodies, as I have above hinted, arise onely from three or four several positions or postures of Globular particles, and those the most plain, obvious, and necessary conjunctions of such figur’d particles that are possible, so that supposing such and such plain and obvious causes concurring the coagulating particles must necessarily compose a body of such a determinate regular Figure, and no other, and this with as much necessity and obviousness as a fluid body encompast with a Heterogeneous fluid must be protruded into a Spherule or Globe. And this I have _ad oculum_ demonstrated with a company of bullets, and some few other very simple bodies; so that there was not any regular Figure, which I have hitherto met withall, of any of those bodies that I have above named, that I could not with the composition of bullets or globules, and one or two other bodies, imitate, even almost by shaking them together. And thus for instance may we find that the Globular bullets will of themselves, if put on an inclining plain, so that they may run together, naturally run into a triangular order, composing all the variety of figures that can be imagin’d to be made out of æquilateral triangles; and such will you find, upon trial, all the Surfaces of Alum to be compos’d of: For three bullets lying on a plain, as close to one another as they can compose an æquilatero-triangular form, as in A in the 7. Scheme. If a fourth be joyn’d to them on either side as closely as it can, they four compose the most regular Rhombus consisting of two æquilateral triangles, as B. If a fifth be joyn’d to them on either side in as close a position as it can, which is the propriety of the Texture, it makes a Trapezium, or four-sided Figure, two of whose angles are 120. and two 60. degrees, as C. If a sixth be added, as before, either it makes an æquilateral triangle, as D, or a Rhomboeid, as E, or an Hexangular Figure, as F, which is compos’d of two primary Rhombs. If a seventh be added, it makes either an æquilatero-hexagonal Figure, as G, or some kind of six-sided Figure, as H, or I. And though there be never so many placed together, they may be rang’d into some of these lately mentioned Figures, all the angles of which will be either 60. degrees, or 120. as the figure K. which is an æquiangular hexagonal Figure is compounded of 12. Globules, or may be of 25, or 27, or 36, or 42, &c. and by these kinds of texture, or position of globular bodies, may you find out all the variety of regular shapes, into which the smooth surfaces of Alum are form’d, as upon examination any one may easily find; nor does it hold only in superficies, but in solidity also, for it’s obvious that a fourth Globule laid upon the third in this texture, composes a regular Tetrahedron, which is a very usual Figure of the Crystals of Alum. And (to hasten) there is no one Figure into which Alum is observ’d to be crystallized, but may by this texture of Globules be imitated, and by no other.
I could instance also in the Figure of Sea-salt, and Sal-gem, that it is compos’d of a texture of Globules, placed in a cubical form, as L, and that all the Figures of those Salts may be imitated by this texture of Globules and by no other whatsoever. And that the forms of Vitriol and of Salt-Peter, as also of Crystal, Hore-frost, &c. are compounded of these two textures, but modulated by certain proprieties: But I have not here time to insist upon, as I have not neither to shew by what means Globules come to be thus context, and what those Globules are, and many other particulars requisite to a full and intelligible explication of this propriety of bodies. Nor have I hitherto found indeed an opportunity of prosecuting the inquiry so farr as I design’d; nor do I know when I may, it requiring abundance of time, and a great deal of assistance to go through with what I design’d; the model of which was this:
First, to get as exact and full a collection as I could, of all the differing kinds of Geometrical figur’d bodies, some three or four several bodies of each kind.
Secondly, with them to get as exact a History as possibly I could learn of their places of Generation or finding, and to enquire after as many circumstances that tended to the Illustrating of this Enquiry, as possibly I could observe.
Thirdly, to make as many trials as upon experience I could find requisite, in Dissolutions and Coagulations of several crystallizing Salts; for the needfull instruction and information in this Enquiry.
Fourthly, to make several trials on divers other bodies, as Metals, Minerals, and Stones, by dissolving them in several Menstruums, and crystalizing them, to see what Figures would arise from those several Compositums.
Fifthly, to make Compositions and Coagulations of several Salts together into the same mass, to observe of what Figure the product of them would be; and in all, to note as many circumstances as I should judge conducive to my Enquiry.
Sixthly, to enquire the closeness or rarity of the texture of these bodies, by examining their gravity, and their refraction, &c.
Seventhly, to enquire particularly what operations the fire has upon several kinds of Salts, what changes it causes in their Figures, Textures, or Energies.
Eighthly, to examine their manner of dissolution, or acting upon those bodies dissoluble in them; The texture of those bodies before and after the process. And this for the History.
Next for the Solution, To have examin’d by what, and how many means, such and such Figures, actions and effects could be produc’d possibly.
And lastly, from all circumstances well weigh’d, I should have endeavoured to have shewn which of them was most likely, and (if the informations by these Enquiries would have born it) to have demonstrated which of them it must be, and was.
But to proceed, As I believe it next to the Globular the most simple; so do I, in the second place, judge it not less pleasant; for that which makes an Enquiry pleasant, are, first a noble Inventum that promises to crown the successfull endeavour; and such must certainly the knowledge of the efficient and concurrent causes of all these curious Geometrical Figures be, which has made the Philosophers hitherto to conclude nature in these things to play the Geometrician, according to that saying of Plato, Ὁ Θεὸς γεομετρεῖ. Or next, a great variety of matter in the Enquiry; and here we meet with nothing less than the Mathematicks of nature, having every day a new Figure to contemplate, or a variation of the same in another body,
Which do afford us a third thing, which will yet more sweeten the Enquiry, and that is, a multitude of information; we are not so much to grope in the dark, as in most other Enquiries, where the Inventum is great; for having such a multitude of instances to compare, and such easie ways of generating, or compounding and of destroying the form, as in the Solution and Crystallization of Salts, we cannot but learn plentifull information to proceed by. And this will further appear from the universality of the Principle which Nature has made use of almost in all inanimate bodies. And therefore, as the contemplation of them all conduces to the knowledg of any one; so from a Scientifical knowledge of any one does follow the fame of all, and every one.
And fourthly, for the usefulness of this knowledge, when acquir’d; certainly none can doubt, that considers that it caries us a step forward into the Labyrinth of Nature, in the right way towards the end we propose our selves in all Philosophical Enquiries. So that knowing what is the form of Inanimate or Mineral bodies, we shall be the better able to proceed in our next Enquiry after the forms of Vegetative bodies; and last of all, of Animate ones, that seeming to be the highest step of natural knowledge that the mind of man is capable of.
Observ. XIV. Of several kindes of frozen Figures.
I have very often in a Morning, when there has been a great hoar-frost, with an indifferently magnifying Microscope, observ’d the small Stiriæ, or Crystalline beard, which then usually covers the face of most bodies that lie open to the cold air, and found them to be generally _Hexangular prismatical_ bodies, much like the long Crystals of Salt-peter, save onely that the ends of them were differing: for whereas those of Nitre are for the most part pyramidal, being terminated either in a point or edge; these of Frost were hollow, and the cavity in some seem’d pretty deep, and this cavity was the more plainly to be seen, because usually one or other of the six parallelogram sides was wanting, or at least much shorter then the rest.
But this was onely the Figure of the Bearded hoar-frost; and as for the particles of other kinds of hoar-frosts, they seem’d for the most part irregular, or of no certain Figure. Nay, the parts of those curious branchings, or vortices, that usually in cold weather tarnish the surface of Glass, appear through the Microscope very rude and unshapen, as do most other kinds of frozen Figures, which to the naked eye seem exceeding neat and curious, such as the Figures of Snow, frozen Urine, Hail, several Figures frozen in common Water, &c. Some Observations of each of which I shall hereunto annex, because if well consider’d and examin’d, they may, perhaps, prove very instructive for the finding out of what I have endeavoured in the preceding Observation to shew, to be (next the _Globular Figure_ which is caus’d by congruity, as I hope I have made probable in the sixth Observation) the most simple and plain operation of Nature, of which, notwithstanding we are yet ignorant.
I.
Several Observables in the six-branched_ Figures form’d on the surface of Urine by freezing._
1 The Figures were all frozen almost even with the surface of the Urine in the Vessel; but the bigger stems were a little prominent above that surface, and the parts of those stems which were nearest the center (a) were biggest above the surface.
2 I have observ’d several kinds of these Figures, some smaller, no bigger then a Two-pence, others so bigg, that I have by measure found one of its stems or branches above four foot long; and of these, some were pretty round, having all their branches pretty neer alike; other of them were more extended towards one side, as usually those very large ones were, which I have observ’d in Ditches which have been full of foul water.
3 None of all these Figures I have yet taken notice of, had any regular position in respect of one another, or of the sides of the Vessel; nor did I find any of them equally to exactness extended every way from the center a.
4 Where ever there was a center, the branchings from it, ab, ac, ad, ae, af, ag, were never fewer, or more then six, which usually concurr’d, or met one another very neer in the same point or center, a; though oftentimes not exactly; and were enclin’d to each other by an angle, of very near sixty degrees, I say, very neer, because, though having endeavoured to measure them the most accurately I was able, with the largest Compasses I had, I could not find any sensible variation from that measure, yet the whole six-branched Figure seeming to compose a solid angle, they must necessarily be somewhat less.
5 The middle lines or stems of these branches, ab, ac, ad, ae, af, ag, seem’d somewhat whiter, and a little higher then any of the intermediate branchings of these Figures; and the center a, was the most prominent part of the whole Figure, seeming the apex of a solid angle or pyramid, each of the six plains being a little enclin’d below the surface of the Urin.
6 The lateral branchings issuing out of the great ones, such as op, mq, &c. were each of them inclin’d to the great ones, by the same angle of about sixty degrees, as the great ones were one to another, and always the bigger branchings were prominent above the less, and the less above the least, by proportionate gradations.
7 The lateral branches shooting out of the great ones, went all of them from the center, and each of them was parallel to that great branch, next to which it lay; so that as all the branches on one side were parallel to one another, so were they all of them to the approximate great branch, as po, qr, as they were parallel to each other, and shot from the center, so were they parallel also to the great branch ab.
8 Some of the stems of the six branches proceeded straight, and of a thickness that gradually grew sharper towards the end, as ag.
9 Others of the stems of those branches grew bigger and knotty towards the middle, and the branches also as well as stems, from Cylinders grew into Plates, in a most admirable and curious order, so exceeding regular and delicate, as nothing could be more, as is visible in ab, ac, ad, ae, af, but towards the end of some of these stems, they began again to grow smaller and to recover their former branchings, as about k and n.
10 Many of the lateral branches had collateral branches (if I may so call them) as qm had many such as st, and most of those again subcollateral, as vw, and these again had others less, which one may call laterosubcollateral, and these again others, and they others, &c. in greater Figures.
11 The branchings of the main Stems joyn’d not together by any regular line, nor did one side of the one lie over the other side of the other, but the small collateral and subcollateral branches did lie at top of one another according to a certain order or method, which I always observ’d to be this.
12 That side of a collateral or subcollateral, &c. branch, lay over the side of the approximate (as the feathers in the wing of a Bird) whose branchings proceeded parallel to the last biggest stem from which it sprung, and not to the biggest stem of all, unless that were a second stem backwards.
13 This rule that held in the branchings of the Sexangular Figure held also in the branchings of any other great or small stem, though it did not proceed from a center.
14 The exactness and curiosity of the figuration of these branches, was in every particular so transcendent, that I judge it almost impossible for humane art to imitate.
15 Tasting several cleer pieces of this Ice, I could not find any Urinous taste in them, but those few I tasted, seem’d as insipid as water.
16 A figuration somewhat like this, though indeed in some particulars much more curious, I have several times observ’d in regulus martis stellatus, but with this difference, that all the stems and branchings are bended in a most excellent and regular order, whereas in Ice the stems and branchings are streight, but in all other particulars it agrees with this, and seems indeed nothing but one of these stars, or branched Figures frozen on Urine, distorted, or wreathed a little, with a certain proportion: Lead also that has Arsenick and some other things mixt with it, I have found to have its surface, when suffer’d to cool, figured somewhat like the branchings of Urine, but much smaller.
