steames, it shews it self to be of kin to Air; whereas I doubt whether
he ever saw a true fixt Salt (which to become so, must have already
endur'd the violence of an Incinerating Fire) brought by the Fire
alone to ascend in the Forme of Exhalations; but I do not doubt that
if he did, and had caught those Exhalations in convenient Vessels, he
would have found them as well as the Steames of common Salt, &c. of a
Saline and not an Aereal Nature. And whereas our Authour takes it also
for Granted, that the Fusibility of Salt must be Deduc'd from Water,
it is indeed so much the Effect of heat variously agitating the Minute
Parts of a Body, without regard to Water, that Gold (which by its
being the heavyest and fixtest of Bodies, should be the most Earthy)
will be brought to Fusion by a strong Fire; which sure is more likely
to drive away then increase its Aqueous Ingredient, if it have any;
and on the other side, for want of a sufficient agitation of its
minute parts, Ice is not Fluid, but Solid; though he presumes also
that the Mordicant Quality of Bodies must proceed from a fiery
ingredient; whereas, not to urge that the Light and inflamable parts,
which are the most likely to belong to the Element of Fire, must
probably be driven away by that time the violence of the Fire has
reduc'd the Body to ashes; Not to urge this, I I [Transcriber's Note:
extra "I" in original] say, nor that Oyle of Vitriol which quenches
Fire, burnes the Tongue and flesh of those that Unwarily tast or apply
it, as a caustick doth, it is precarious to prove the Presence of Fire
in fixt salts from their Caustick power, unlesse it were first shewn,
that all the Qualities ascribed to salts must be deduc'd from those of
the Elements; which, had I Time, I could easily manifest to be no easy
talk. And not to mention that our Authour makes a Body as Homogeneous
as any he can produce for Elementary, belong both to Water and Fire,
Though it be neither Fluid nor Insipid, like Water; nor light and
Volatile, like Fire; he seems to omit in this Anatomy the Element of
Earth, save That he intimates, That the salt may pass for that; But
since a few lines before, he takes Ashes for Earth, I see not how he
will avoid an Inconsistency either betwixt the Parts of his Discourse
or betwixt some of them and his Doctrine. For since There is a
manifest Difference betwixt the Saline and the insipid Parts of Ashes,
I see not how substances That Disagree in such Notable Qualities can
be both said to be Portions of an Element, whose Nature requires that
it be Homogeneous, especially in this case where an _Analysis_ by the
Fire is suppos'd to have separated it from the admixture of other
Elements, which are confess'd by most _Aristotelians_ to be Generally
150