Plant unprepared poisoneth, but prepared, is the very Bread of the Weft-Indies (g). Vipers and Scorpi ons, and many Minerals, as deftructive as they are to Man, yet afford him fome of his beft Medicines. Or if there be many Things of little, imme late Ufe to Man, in this, or any other Age; yet to oiner Creatures they may afford Food or Phyfick, or be of fome neceffary Ufe. How many Trees and Plants, nay, even the very Carcafes of Animals, yea, the very Duft of the Earth (b), and the most refufe, contemptible Things to be met with; I fay, how many fuch Things are either Food, or probably Medicine to many Creatures, afford them Retreat, are Places of Habitation, or Matrixes for their Generation, as fhall be fhewed in proper Place? The prodigious Swarms of Infects in the Air, and in the Waters, (many of which may be perhaps at prefent of no great Ufe to Man) yet are Food to Birds, Fishes, Reptiles, Infects themselves, and other Creatures (2), for whofe happy and comfortable Subfiftence, I have faid the bountiful Creator hath liberally provided, as well as for that of Man. fo in all great Inflammations. Dos. Hj. to ZB. 4. The Semen Stramonia is a very good Anodyne, useful in Vigilia's, Rheumatisms, Hyfterick Cafes, in all the Orgasms of the Blood or Spirits, and where-ever there is an Indication for a Paregorick. Def. j. to 3. 5. Elaterium thus corrected, may be given from gr. x. to xv. in Hydropical Cafes, without any fenfible Evacuation or Disturbance. So may the Soldanella and Gratiola in greater Dofes. 6. Opium corrected as afore-mentioned, lofes its Narcotick Faculty, and may be given very fafely in great Dofes, and proves more than ufually prevalent in Convulfive Cafes, Fluxes, Catarrhs, and all painful Paroxyfms, &c. (g) It is of the most general Ufe of any Provifion all over the Weft-Indies, especially in the hotter Parts, and is used to Victual Ships. Dr. Sloan's Nat. Hift. of Jamaica, Vol. 1. Chap. 5. §. 12. (b) I have fhewn in the Phil. Tranf. that the Pediculus fatidicus, Mortifaga, Pulfatorius, or Death-Watch there defcribed," feedeth upon Duft; but that this Duft they eat, is powdered Bread, Fruits, or fuch like Duft, not powdered Earth; as is manifeft from their great Diligence and Curiofity in hunting among the Duft. See more in Phil, Tranf. No. 291. (i) Vid. Book IV. Chap. 11. BOOK 60 BOOK III. Of the Terraqueous Globe in particular, more especially the Earth. H Aving thus taken a general Profpect of our Terraqueous Globe, I fhall in this Book come to its Particulars. But here we have fuch an immenfe Variety prefenting it felf to our Senfes, and fuch amazing Strokes of Power and Wisdom, that it is impoffible not to be at a Stand, and very difficult to know where to begin, how to proceed, or where to end. But we must however attempt. And for the more clear and regular proceeding on this copious Subject, I fhall diftribute the Globe into its own grand conftituent Parts. I. The Earth and its Appurtenances. II. The Waters and Theirs. The first of these only, is what at present I fhall be able to take into this Survey. And in Surveying the Earth, I intend, 1. To confider its conftituent Parts, or Things peculiar to its felf. 2. The Inhabitants thereof, or the several Kinds of Creatures that have their Habitation, Growth, or Subfiftence thereon. 1. As to the Earth it felf, the most remarkable Things that present themselves to our View, are, 1. Its various Moulds and Soils. 2. Its feveral Strata, or Beds. 3. Its very Subterraneous Paffages, Grotto's and Caverns. 4. Its Mountains and Vallies. CHA P. I. Of the Soils and Moulds in the Earth. HE various Soils and Moulds are an admirable TH and manifeft Contrivance of the All-wife Creator, in making this Provifion for the various Vegetables (a), and divers other Ufes of the Creatures. For, as fome Trees, fome Plants, fome Grains dwindle and die in a disagreeable Soil, but thrive and flourish in others; fo the All-wife Creator hath amply provided for every Kind a proper Bed. If fome delight in a warm, fome a cold Soil; (a) It is not to be doubted, that although Vegetables delight in peculiar Soils, yet they owe not their Life and Growth to the Earth it felf, but to fome agreeable Juices or Salts, c. refiding in the Earth. Of this the great Mr. Boyl hath given us fome good Experiments. He ordered his Gardener to dig up, and dry in an Oven fome Earth fit for the Purpose, to weigh it, and to fet therein fome Squash Seeds, (a kind of Indian Pompion). The Seeds when fown were watered with Rain or Spring-water only. But although a Plant was produced in one Experiment of near 3. and in another of above 14 l. yet the Earth when dried, and weighed again, was fcarce diminished at all in its Weight. Another Experiment he alledges is of Helmont's, who dried 200 l. of Earth, and therein planted a Willow weighing 5 . which he watered with Rain or diftilled Water: And to fecure it from any other Earth getting in, he covered it with a perforated Tin Cover. After five Years, weighing the Tree with all the Leaves it had born in that time, he found it to weigh 169 . 3 Ounces, but the Earth to be diminished only about 2 Ounces in its weight. Vid. Boyl's Scept. Chym. Part 2. pag. 114. fome L fome in a lax or fandy, fome a heavy or clayie Soil; fome in a Mixture of both, fome in this, and that and the other Mould, fome in moift, fome in dry Places (b); ftill we find Provifion enough for all thefe Purposes: Every Country abounding with its proper Trees and Plants (c), and every Vegetable flourishing and gay, fomewhere or other about the Globe, and abundantly answering the Almighty Command of the Creator, when the Earth and Waters were ordered to their peculiar Place, Gen. i. 11. And God faid, Let the Earth bring forth Grafs, the Herb yielding Seed, and the Tree yielding Fruit after bis kind. All which we actually fee is fo. To this Convenience which the various Soils that coat the Earth are of to the Vegetables, we may add their great Ufe and Benefit to divers Animals, to many Kinds of Quadrupeds, Fowls, Infects, and Reptiles, who make in the Earth their Places of Repofe and Reft, their Retreat in Winter, their Security from their Enemies, and their Nefts to repofe their Young; fome delighting in a lax and pervious Mould, admitting them an eafy Paffage; and others delighting in a firmer and more folid Earth, (6) Τις ἢ τόπες ζητεῖ τὰς οικείας, ε μόνον τὰ περιπλὰ τῶν δένδρων, &c. Τα μαρί γδ φιλεί ξηράς, τα ἢ ἐνύδρες, τα 5 χειμερι μες, τὰ ἢ προσήλες, τὰ ἢ παλισκίες, καὶ ὅλως, τὰ μὴν ὀρεινές, τὰ ἢ ἑλώδεις. Ζητώ γδ τα πρόσφορο και το κράσιν, ἔτι 3 ασθενή, κι έχυρα, και βαθύρριζα, καὶ ἐπιπολαιόρριζα, καὶ εἴτις άλλη διαφορά καὶ τὰ μέρη · Πάντα γδ ταῦτα, ἔτι ἢ τὰ ὅμοια ζητεῖ τὸ ὅμος ον, καὶ τὰ ἀνόμοια μὴ τ αὐτὸν, ὅταν ᾖ τις παραλλαγὴ ἡ φύσεως, Theophraft. de Cauf. Plant. 1. 2. c. 9. (c) Nec verò Terra ferre omnes omnia poffunt. that that will better secure them against Injuries from without. CHA P. II. Of the various Strata or Beds obfervable in the Earth. THE HE various Strata or Beds, although but little different from the laft, yet will deferve a diftinct Confideration. By the Strata or Beds, I mean those Layers of Minerals (a), Metals (b), Earth, and Stone (c), lying under that upper Stratum, or Tegument of (a) Altho' Minerals, Metals and Stones lie in Beds, and have done fo ever fince Noah's Flood, if not from the Creation; yet it is greatly probable that they have Power of growing in their respective Beds: That as the Beds are robbed and emptied by Miners, fo after a while they recruit again. Thus Vitriol, Mr. Boyl thinks, will grow by the Help of the Air. So Alum doth the fame. We are affured (he faith) by the experienced Agricola, That the Earth or Ore of Alum, being robbed of its Salt, will in tract of Time recover it, by being exposed to the Air. Boyl's Sufpic. about fome Hid. Qual, in the Air, p. 18. (b) As to the Growth of Metals, there is great Reason to fufpect that alfo, from what Mr. Boyl hath alledged in his Obfervations about the Growth of Metals: And in his Scept. Chym. Part 6. pag. 362. Compare alfo Hakewil's Apol. pag. 164. And particularly as to the Growth of Iron, to the Inftances he gives from Pliny, Fallopius, Cafalpinus, and others; we may add, what is well known in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire: That the beft Iron, and moft in Quantity, that is found there, is in the old Cinders, which they melt over again. This the Author of the Additions to Gloucesterfhire in Cambd. Brit. of the laft Edition, p. 245. attributes to the Remiffness of the former Melters, in not exhaufting the Ore But in all Probability it is rather to be attributed to the new Impregnations of the old Ore, or Cinders, from the Air, or from fome feminal Principle, or plaftick Quality in the Ore it felf. (c) As for the Growth of Stone, Mr. Boyl gives two Inftances. One is that famous Place in France, called Les Caves Goutieres: |