The Diverfities Lea. VI 
OF Mixt. 
Ch. 5. 
CHAP. Iv. 
Of the CAUSES of Tatts, 
9 O fpeak of the Canfes of Tafts, before we have 
well enumerated and diftinguithed them 5 is to 
provide Furniture for a Houfé,before the Roomes 
have been counted and meafured out. Butthe 
Varieties of Tafts having been firft laid down; 
it will induce us to believe, and inveltigate as 
fi great a variety in their Canfes, 
2. $. Now theCanjos of Tafts, particular- 
> = ly of the Tafts of Plants, whereof we chiefly 
fpeak,are,in general,thefe Four or Five, fe. The Bed out of which they 
grow; The Aer in which they ftand; The Parts of which they confit; 
The feveral Fermentations under which their Juyces paf ; And the Op 
gans by which their Taftable Parts are perceiv'd: as will appear upon 
Inftance. 
des $. But the immediate Caufes, befides the Organs of 7a le, are 
the Principles of Plants. As many of which, as come under the notice 
of Senf, we have already fuppoled to be thefe Seven, Alkaline, Acid, 
Aer, Water, Oyl, Spirit and Earth. The Particles both of Alkaline and 
Acid Salts, are all angular and poynted. Thofe of Aer, properly and 
ftriétly fo called,are Elaftick or Springy 5 and therefore alfo Crooked 3 as 
I have likewife formerly conjectured. And I find the Learned Borelli, 
in a Book of his fince then publifhed,to be of the fame Opinion. Thofe 
of all Fluid Bodies, qua Fluid, and therefore of Water, Oyl and Spirit, 
I conceive to be Globular, but hollow, and with holes in their Sides, 
Thofe of Water, to be larger Globes, with more holes, thofe of Oyl, to 
be leffer, with fewer holes ; and thofe of Spirit the leaft. Laftly, that 
the particles of Earth are alfo Round; yet angular 3 and nearer to a 
flid. 
£ 4. $. Thefe Principles affect the Organs of. Senfe, according to the 
variety of their Figures, and of their Mixture. So thofe which are 
fharp or poynteds and thofe which are fpringy 5 are fitted to pro- 
duce any ftronger Tafte : and thofe which are round, are apt, of their 
own Nature, to produce a weaker or fofter one. And fo by the diver- 
fities of their Mixture; not only with refpe& to their Proportion, 
but alfo the very mode of their Conjunifion, Hence it is, that many 
Bodies which abound with salt, as Ambar with an Acid, and the Bones 
of Land-Animals with an Alkaline, have notwithftanding but a weak 
Taft; the Saline Parts being in the former drowned in the Oyl, andin 
the latter alfo buried in the Earth. 
5. $. The fame is further confirmed by an Experiment mentioned 
in a former Difcourfe 5 fe. the Tranfimtation of Opl oF Anifisseeds, 
with the help of Oylof Vitriol, into a Rofin. For both thofe Liquors, 
though fo ftrongly tafted, apart; yet the Rofiz made of them, being 
well wafhed, hath a very mild Tafle, and without any finatch of that 
in 
