Page:Philosophical Transactions - Volume 001.djvu/380

 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 Allum, 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; 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 inlargeth, as those of the Motion of the Celestial 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 preceeded; 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.

Rh