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pure Air and Water, till these be concreted into peculiar Salts by more curious Strainers, and by more subtil Boylers than Art hath hitherto devised. And with no less probability Mineral Waters may acquire their proper Salts in their subteraneous passages by their Strainers and Conveyances, by the various Temper they meet with, and by their dashes, and following changes of contexture. But this I leave to further inquiry.
And this was my Ayme in your Tract 43. p. 855; where by a slight and cursory allusion I compared the Motion of Sap in Vegetables to the descent of Liquors in an Alembick. I had no thought of squaring the comparison to agree in all circumstances. And here also I pretend to very little more than allusions all along. It requires deeper work, a larger compass, and a closer attention to establish a General Theory upon the Intrigues of Vegetation, and of all Saline Operations: The very Air may (for ought I know) afford store and variety of Salt to dash the Foundations of my Overtures, at least as far as pertains to Vegetables. And the Mineral Salts have their recesses deeper, than I can dive, and their activities are swifter, than I have skil or leisure to trace.
Neither had I any phancy, that the Sap in Winter descended to the Root, since saw an Aple-tree, that yielded 4 or 5 Hogsheads of strong Cider yearly; and a Pear-tree, that yielded more Perry; yet both growing on a dry ground, where they could get no other liquor then what the Clouds and the Air afforded: Yet I conceive, that these Trees have an intercourse of peculiar Spirits some way linked together, and vigorously co-operating, from the very Fibers of the lowwest Roots to the Top-leaves. And of this I had some waririness, when I expressed the correspondence between the Timber and Seeds in these terms—more immediate and peculiar, Numb. 46. p. 920.
But I have no fondness for those Notes, which bear my name in your Tracts of N. 43. and 46; They were hastily dictated, neither reviewed, nor fitted for the publick; otherwise I should have promis'd less and perhaps prov'd more. If the Impertinences, Incoherences and dislcolations may be pardon'd I can ask no other favour for those Scribles.
Instan-
