used by People in great Towns, than by The Rea- thofe in the Country. It must be in the figned. Quality, or in too great a Proportion of

fon af

volatile Salts, or Spirits in our Drink; or by their being too much freed by Fire, Distillation, Fermentation, &c. and made too volatile, active or sharp, and by exciting them too much in our Bodies with Heat by Fire, Cloathing, &c. or, by ufing the Liquors prepared by Fire too foon before the freed Corpufcles be fheathed; or, too late, when by long keeping, or new Fermentations, they are become acid, or those that are reftored by Mixtures of mineral Poifons, or for Want of ufing a neceffary Proportion of Sea Salt with our Meat, or to our Meat, fome Time before we eat it. It appears, that the more volatile Salts and Spirits we take, and the more they are freed, and the more Heat, the quicker the Ferment will be, and the opener the Pores, and the fooner the fine thin Fluid will go off. And when they are too much freed, 'tis likely they go off before their Work be done, and leave the craffer Matter not fufficiently diffolved, nor carry it off the Stomach. But if they did do that, one cannot discharge them when their Work is done, for they carry off the thin volatile

Matter,

Matter, out of the Guts and Blood-veffels, leave the Excrements in the Guts too crafs, and the Blood too thick, or deprived of proper Juices for difcharging the Excrements, fo heat and enflame the Parts, &c. Since Custom hath prevailed, and Men will ufe fuch Things as they have been accuftom'd to, what is the most likely Agent, to temper, blunt, or abate the Excefs in Quantity, or Sharpness or Volatileness of thofe Agents? Since Man-Sea Salt. kind did always ufe Sea Salt, and more lately than now; and fince Phyficians forbid the ufing as much of it as was used formerly, and almoft forbid it in all Diforders, and fince it is their Intereft to forbid all Things which preferve us in Health, for what End, did Man always ufe it? and what Effects hath the Ufe of it, firft, without the Body where we can fee it? If the Abyfs be as large as fome think, and replenished with the fame Proportion of Salt as the Ocean, and there be fuch vaft Rocks of Salts in many other Parts, as thofe difcovered, perhaps there may be one fourth as much Salt, as there is of all terreftrial Matter. And to what Ufes, God created fuch a Proportion of this Globe Sea Salt, hath not, that I know of, been hinted at. The mineVOL. X.

S

ral

ral Salts and Corpufcles rifing by Springs, and the mineral and vegetable Corpufcles rifing in Steam, fall down; fome, upon the Ground, and fome, run in the Water, and it carries them, and others it meets with, into the Sea, and those must be raised thence, or circulate through the Earth upward again. And the Water must leave, as well as take off mineral, Conjectu vegetable Matter, &c. Whether, the res about Salt be to make fome Ferment in the its Original Ufe. Abyfs, in order to fend up the Steams for Rain, Springs, &c. or to prevent Heat, and the more volatile Salts from afcending, and bearing up the Steam for Rain, &c. too faft, or to what other Ufes, befides those we make of it, I undertake not to determine; nor for what other Ufe, that fort of Salt or Spirit we call Bittern is defigned, which abounds fo in it. But doubtlefs these, and the feveral other forts are Agents, fome to excite, and fome to abate that Ferment, which raises the Steam, makes the Water circulate, and this Globe habitable. And the Heat of the Sun bearing off the Water, and leaving the Salt dry upon the Coafts of all hot Countries, where they cannot preferve their Flesh, Fish, &c. without it, seems to hint, that that was one of the Ufes for which

which it is prepared. We fee, that the volatile Salts in the Juices of the Flesh of dead Creatures, who used no Sea Salt whilst alive, agitated by the Heat of the Sun, and Preffure of the Air, expand the Tubes and Parts, burft them; cut, and diffolve the Flesh, and bear off Particles of the Fluid and Flesh, till none remain; and that they are fermented, freed, and fharpened to that Degree, that in small Quantity, they are very naufeous, and in great Quantity and Degree, infectious. And thofe Bodies have moft volatile Salts, or Spirits in them, or where they have been moft fermented by the Disease they died of, or where they have been killed by thofe volatile fharp Salts, which we call Poifon, which 'tis likely cut the Veffels in the Stomach and Guts, and lacteal and Blood-veffels in their Paffage; and where the Body is fooneft divided; they are most noxious. Nay, even they are volatilized and sharpened by the Ferment in fome Diseases in Man and Beaft to that Degree, that those which fly off, while the Man or Beaft is alive; are infectious, and most fo in the hottest, clofeft Seasons, when there is little Cold to clog them, or little Wind to difperfe them. Nay even fome Vegetables, fuch

Its Effects

as Cabbages, &c. have Juices in them, which agitated by the Heat of the Sun and Air, diffolve the Plants, and fend off Steams which are naufeous, and 'tis likely noxious. And 'tis likely those tender Parts in the Nofe, along which the Air we breathe paffes, and is an Effay whether it be wholesome or not, by that Senfe we call Smelling, is only affected by volatile Salts, and in various Degrees, by the Quantity, of the Corpufcles, and the Strength of the Agent which moves them, and in various Manners, by the various Corpufcles of the Matter which they bear in preferv. along with them. Sea Salt, well freed ing Flesh. from the mineral Salts in it, applied to the Flesh of any Creature, which had undergone any fuch Fermentation before, it was killed, and after it is cooled, and the Corpufcles of Fire, and the most volatile Salts are gone off, will, by the Pref fure of the Air, be infinuated into the Tubes and Interftices of the Flesh, ad-. here to, fix and clog the volatile Salts, fo that, the Heat and Air cannot agitate them when joint; and blunt them, that they cannot act, nor caufe any Diffolution of the Parts. When the volatile Salts have diffolved the Parts of the Body too much, Sea Salt will scarce fix them, or in great

Heat