The Anatomy Book VL 
3. §. Now ofthefe, [have formerly, and as I conceive upon good 
ground, fuppofed, the chief Governing Principle, to be the Saline, 
whether Alkaline, Acid, or of any other Kind: being in fome fort as 
the Mold ofa Button, to which the other Principles, as its Attire, do 
all conform. Or the Salts are, as it were, the Bones; the other Prin- 
ciples, as the Flefh which covers them. 
4. $. A further Argument hereof may be deduced from the Cuti- 
cular and other Concretions, commonly called Mothers, in Diftill’d Y 
ters, Vinegar, and other Liquors. For in thefe Concretions, there is all- 
ways a tendence to Vegetation, and many of them are true Vegetables 
in their Kind 5 as fhall hereafter be feen, Now the Liquors, in which 
thefe are generated, do always, wholly or in part, lofe their Taf? and 
smell, and fo become Yapid. The more fenfible Principles therein 
having made their Tranfit from the Fluid, into the Concrete Parts. So, 
I have known, fometimes, Vinegar it felf, to become by thefe Comere- 
tions, almoft as Taflefs as Common Water. Whereby it feems evident, 
That of vegetable Principles, there are fome, more Malterly than others: 
and that of thefe, the Salime isthe chief. The fame is likewile argued, 
from the frequent Experiment of many good Husband-men 5 that moft 
Bodies which abound with Salt, are the greateft Nonrifhers of Plants. 
5. $. This Salime Principle, as is above hinted, is to be under- 
ftood, a Generik Name, under which divers Species are comprehen- 
ded 5 and of fome whereof, it is always compounded, asin other Bodies, 
foin Plants. As (hall be made to appear, by divers Experiments, when 
we come, hereafter, to {peak of Vegetable Salts. Whereby we are con- 
duéted, yet further to enquire, What are the Princinples of this Prin- 
ciple? 
6. $. NOW thefe feem to be Four 5 a Nitrous, an Acid, an Alka- 
line, and a Marine. The Admixture of the Firft, is argu’d from the 
Place, which Nature hath afligned for the Generation and Growth of 
molt Plants, fè. neither in Caverns under Ground, as for Minerals ; nor 
above it, as for Avimals; but the Surface of the Earth, where this 
Sort of Salt is copioufly bred. And doth therefore prove, not only a 
Mixture, but a good Proportion hereof with the other Principles of a 
Plant. Hence it is,that Dew or Water on Windows or Plain and Smooth 
Tables, by virtue of a Nitro-Aerial Salt, is often frozen into the refem- 
blance of little Shrubs. And the like Figure I have often feen in a well 
filtred Solution of the Salt of any of our Purging Waters, as of Epfom, 
&e, being fet to fhoot, Produced, as I conceive, by the Nitre, which 
with the Raíz or other Waters, is washed down from the Surface of the 
Earth, and fo mixed with the Mineral Salts: 
7. $. The other Three Salts are exhibited, by the feveral ways of 
Refolving the Principles ofa Plant. Many Plants,even in their Natural 
Eftate, do yield an Acid Fuyce. And the Fuyces of many more, by Fer- 
mentation, Will become Acid. And molt, by Diflillation in a Sand- 
Furnace, yield an Accid Liquor. 
8. g. By Calcination, all Sorts of Plants, yield more or lef, both of 
a Fixed and a Volatile Alkaly : the former, in the Ajhess the latter, in the 
Soot. And, at leaft the generality, by Fermentation alfo, yield a Volatile 
one; or fuch a kind of Salt, which, whether we call an Urinows, ot 
otherwife, hath the like Odour and Taft with that of Urine, Harts- 
Horn, Soot, and the like, : 
5 
