Page:Micrographia - or some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses with observations and inquiries thereupon.djvu/171

Rh though perhaps many of those small Bubbles might proceed from some small parcels of Air which were driven out of the pores of this petrify'd substance by the insinuating liquid menstruum.

Sixthly, in its rigidness, and friability, being not at all flexible but brittle like a Flint, insomuch that I could with one knock of a Hammer break off a piece of it, and with a few more, reduce that into a pretty fine powder.

Seventhly, it seem'd also very differing from Wood to the touch, feeling more cold then Wood usually does, and much like other close stones and Minerals.

The Reasons of all which Phænomena seem to be,

That petrify'd Wood having lain in some place where it was well soak'd with petrifying water (that is, such a water as is well impregnated with stony and earthy particles) did by degrees separate, either by straining and filtration, or perhaps, by precipitation, cohesion or coagulation, abundance of stony particles from the permeating water, which stony particles, being by means of the fluid vehicle convey'd, not onely into the Microscopical pores, and so perfectly stoping them up, but also into the pores or interstitia, which may, perhaps, be even in the texture or Schematisme of that part of the Wood, which, through the Microscope, appears most solid, do thereby so augment the weight of the Wood, as to make it above three times heavier then water, and perhaps, six times as heavie as it was when Wood.

Next, they thereby so lock up and fetter the parts of the Wood, that the fire cannot easily make them flie away, but the action of the fire upon them is onely able to Char those parts, as it were, like a piece of Wood, if it be clos'd very fast up in Clay, and kept a good while red-hot in the fire, will by the heat of the fire be charr'd and not consum'd, which may, perhaps, also be somewhat of the cause, why the petrify'd substance appear'd of a dark brown colour after it had been burnt.

By this intrusion of the petrifying particles, this substance also becomes hard and friable; for the smaller pores of the Wood being perfectly wedg'd, and stuft up with those stony particles, the small parts of the Wood have no places or pores into which they may slide upon bending, and consequently little or no flexion or yielding at all can be caus'd in such a substance.

The remaining particles likewise of the Wood among the stony particles, may keep them from cracking and flying when put into the fire, as they are very apt to do in a Flint.

Nor is Wood the onely substance that may by this kind of transmutation be chang'd into stone; for I my self have seen and examin'd very many kinds of substances, and among very credible Authours, we may meet with Histories of such Metamorphoses wrought almost on all kind of substances, both Vegetable and Animal, which Histories, it is not my business at present, either to relate, or epitomise, but only to set down some Observation I lately made on several kind of petrify'd Shels, found about Keinsham, which lies within four or five miles of Bristol, which are commonly call'd Serpentine-stones. Rh