and what [Errata: yet] may be fit to work otherwise upon divers other
Bodies than meer Water can, and consequently to Disclose it self to be
of a Nature farr enough from Elementary. In Silke dyed Red or of any
other Colour, whilst many Contiguous Threads makes up a skein, the
Colour of the Silke is conspicuous; but if only a very few of them be
lookt upon, the Colour will appear much fainter then before. But if
You take out one simple Thread, you shall not easily be able to
discern any Colour at all; So subtile an Object having not the Force
to make upon the Optick Nerve an Impression great enough to be taken
Notice of. It is also observ'd, that the best sort of Oyl-Olive is
almost tastless, and yet I need not tell you how exceedingly distant
in Nature Oyle is from Water. The Liquor into which I told you, upon
the Relation of _Lully_, and [Errata: an] Eye-witness that Mercury
might be Transmuted, has sometimes but a very Languid, if any Tast,
and yet its Operations even upon some Mineral Bodies are very
peculiar. Quicksilver it self also, though the Corpuscles it consists
of be so very small as to get into the Pores of that Closest and
compactest of Bodies, Gold, is yet (you know) altogether Tastless. And
our _Helmont_ several times tells us, that fair Water wherein a little
Quantity f [Errata: of] Quicksilver has lain for some time, though it
acquire no certain Tast or other sensible Quality from the
Quicksilver; Yet it has a power to destroy wormes in humane Bodies;
which he does much, but not causelessly extoll. And I remember, a
great Lady, that had been Eminent for her Beauty in Divers Courts,
confess'd to me, that this insipid Liquor was of all innocent washes
for the Face the best that she ever met with.
And here let me conclude my Discourse, concerning such waters or
Liquors as I have hitherto been examining, with these two
Considerations. Whereof the first is, That by reason of our being wont
to drink nothing but Wine, Bear, Cyder, or other strongly tasted
Liquors, there may be in several of these Liquors, that are wont to
pass for insipid Phlegme, very peculiar and Distinct, Tasts [Errata:
distinct Tasts] though unheeded (and perhaps not to be perceiv'd) by
Us. For to omit what Naturalists affirm of Apes, (and which probably
may be true of divers other Animals) that they have a more exquisite
palate than Men: among Men themselves, those that are wont to drink
nothing but water may (as I have try'd in my self) Discern very
sensibly a great Difference of Tasts in several waters, which one
un-accustomed to drink water would take to be all alike insipid. And
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