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 lost; since, whether or no they contribute much to the establishment of the Mechanical Doctrine about Qualities, they will at least contribute to the Natural History of them.

III. I shall not trouble the Reader with a Recital of those unlucky Accidents, that have hinder'd the Subjects of the following Book from being more numerous, and I hope he will the more easily excuse their paucity, if he be advertised, that although the particular Qualities, about which some Experiments and Notes, by way of Specimens, are here presented, be not near half so many as were intended to be treated of; yet I was careful to chuse them such as might comprehend in a small number a great variety; there being scarce one sort of Qualities, of which there is not an Instance given in this small Book, since therein Experiments and thoughts are deliver'd about Heat and Cold, which are the chief of the four FIRST QUALITIES; about Tasts and Odours, which are of those, that, being the immediate objects of Sense, are wont to be call'd SENSIBLE QUALITIES; about Volatility and Fixity, Corrosiveness and Corrosibility, which, as they are found in bodies purely natural, are referrable to those Qualities, that many