Page:Loimologia 1721.djvu/63

 and a Contagion. 45 and is ferviceable in Preferving other Things from Putrefa&ion. FOR the Solution of this uncommon Pifficulty, it is to be taken Notice, that Corruption here is not in that Senfe ftri&ly as when it is the Produce of Humidity, but fomewhat more congruous to the pe- culiar Nature of a nitrous Spirit ^ which although it cannot, like fome other Bodies, putrifie, yet if it can be changed from its Nature and Figure, lb as not to be reducible into them again, it does not feem improperly faid that fuch a Change is equivalent to Corruption, its Vitality or EiTence being deftroyed, and a new Tex- ture being obtained. And this I ihall fur- ther endeavour to illuftrate by a twofold Argument. FIRST, It is not at all to be doubt- ed, but that what Art, which is the Ima- tator of Nature, can do, may be done by the Efficiency of a more powerful Agent j and the mo:ft expert Chymifts do fhew a certain -Corruption of Salt -, nor would it be any great Labour to difcover here the Method how it is done, were it not a Crime to expofe the Secrets of Nature on trilling