

s 



^ t 



I. 



SUN 



extremely well in the open air, and produce frui: in 

 great plenty. When the plants have grown three or 

 tour years in pots, and are become ftrong, fome of 

 them may be turned out of the pots, and planted in 

 the full ground, againft a wall to the fouth afpect, to 

 which their branches Ihould be trained in the fame 

 manner as is pradtifed with fruit-trees, in which fitu- 

 ation they will bear the cold of our ordinary winters 

 very well -, but in very ievere froft, it will be proper 

 to cover the branches either with macs. Straw, or other 

 light covering to proteft them. 



The gum of this tree is ufcd in medicine, which is 

 obtained by making incifions in the tree. It is brought 

 from Turkey, but is fo adulterated by mixing faw- 

 duftor other ftuffwith it, that it is very difficult to 

 meet with any that is pure. It has a moft pleafant 

 fragrant odour-, it is called Styrax calamita, becaufe 

 it was tranfported in hollow canes. 

 There is another fort of Storax, which is called Styrax 

 liquida, which is a thick tenacious fubftance like tur- 

 pentine, of a reddifh brown colour. It has'been much 

 difputed among the writers oh the Materia Medica, 

 what this is, fome believing it to be the gum or refin 

 of a tree, and 6thers thought it to be a fiftitious 

 thing ; but Mr. Petiver fays, in the Philofophical 

 Tranfaftions, N'' 313, it is a kind of bird-lime made 

 of the bark of a tree, by boiling it in fait water. The 

 tree grows on the ifland of Cobrofs, at the upper end 

 of the Red Sea, near Cadelh, which is within three 

 days journey of Sues. ^ It is called Rofa mallas, and 



by the Turks Cotta mija.. ■ . '.' "" .'. "" ' ' 

 Of late years there has been another fpccies of Storax 

 imported from North America, which is coUefted 

 from the liquid Amber-tree; this has been titled liquid 

 ■ Storax by fome, but is very different from that which 

 is brought from Turkey, and is clear, inclining to 

 yellow ; it is brought fometimes lii^uid, and at others 

 it is dried in the fun to a concrete refin before it is 



tranfported. 

 SUBER. See Quercus. 

 SUBTERRANEOUS is that which is under or 



within the* furface, bowels, or caverns of the earth, 

 or the hollow places of the earth, that are under 



ground. 



SUCCORY. 



See CiCHORiuM. 



^\ 



ber of planets, 



1 t 



SUCCULENT PLANT S are fuch whofe leaves 



are thick, and abound withjuice. V; ". 

 SULPHUREOUS is of a brimftone colour./^^ ^ 



SUMACH. See Rhus. V ^ 



SUMMIT S, or apices, are thofe bodies which con- 



' tain the prolific powder, analagous to the male fperm 



in animals \ thefe generally hang upon the ftamina or 



threads, which furround the ovary m flowers. . 



The SUN has ufually been reckoned among the num- 



but he ought rather to be numbered 



among^ the fixed ftars. ' , _ t.- u • 



AccordincT to the Copernican hypothefis, which is 

 now generally received, and which has even demon- 

 ftration on its fide, the fun is the center of the plane- 

 tary and cometary fyftem, round which all the p anets 

 and comets, and our earth among the reft, revolve in 

 difi^'ercnt periods, according to their different diftances 



from the Sun. " , , \. , ' ,• • 



But the Sun, though thus eafed of that prodigious mo- 

 tion whereby the antients imagined him to revolve 

 daily round our earth, yet he is not a perfeftly quiel- 



cent body. ',.' " , ■ ' > v • 



From the phjenomena of his maculfe or fpots, it evi- 

 dently appears, that he has a rotation round his axis, 

 like that of the earth, whereby the natural day is mea- 



fured, only flower. * . . ^ o 



Some of thefe fpots have made their firft appearance 

 near the edge or margin of the Sun, and have been 

 feen fome time after on the oppofite edge ; whence, 

 after a flay of about fourteen days, they have re-ap- 

 pcared in their firft place, and taken the fame course 

 over again, finifliing their entire circuit in twenty-Ie- 

 ven days time, which is hence deduced to be the pe- 

 riod of' the Sun's rotation round his axis. 



This motion of the fpots is from weft to eaft, whence 



y,-^ 



UN 



r 



it is concluded, that of the Sun, to which tlie other 

 IS owing, is from eafl: to weft. 



Dr. Hook thinks it reafcnable to conclude. That the 

 fuperficies of the Sun is covered with air, or atmo- 

 fphere, or fome other fluid body, and that its atmo- 

 fpherc, though pofllbly eighty times thicker than that 

 about our earth ; yet, in comparifon of the vaft dia- 

 meter of the Sun's body, becomes wholly inviuble to 

 us, though affilted by the beft tclefcopes. 

 He fuppofes it alfo to look as bright as the body of the 

 Sun itfelf, and that it is really the fhell of this atmO- 

 fphere, and not the very body of the Sun that fliines ; 

 and from hence he fays. That all the pk^nomena of 

 the macule and fseculas of the Sun will be folved, 

 and that they are only clouds or fmokes in this at- 



mofphere. 



Heconcludesi That the Sun itfelf within this atmo- ■ 

 fphere is a folid and opacous body, from thefe reafons ; 

 i4 The conftancy of its rotation. ' ;: ' ; 



2. The fixednefs of its axis. 



3, The power of its gravitation or ilttraftidn towards 



its center. - 



He concludes. That thefe prove its folidity and opa- 

 city frbrh the difappearing of the folar fpots in the 

 • limb, and their not returning backwards, as they would 

 ' feem to do, if the body were tranfparent, as the at- 

 - mofphere is, or the flame of a candle, or the radia- 

 tion of hazy light about the nucleus of a cometj 

 through which, as well as through its beard, the 

 fmall fixed ftars may be feen. ^ 



He thinks the fuperficial parts of the Sun to confift of 

 bodies fimilar to our nitre and fulphur, and that thefe 

 are fet" on fire, and confequently, that the phyfical 

 caufe of its light is the aftual burning or fire of its fu- 

 perficial falts.. . ' . - 

 Nor can^here be any objeftion of moment brought 

 agamffi'this hypothefis, from the danger of the Sun's 

 fire being burnt quite out in fo many thoufand years 

 it hath been in being, for (fays he) fuppofing it to 

 ' have grown fome minutes lefs, fince it began to give 

 light, none can contradidt it by any obfervations we 



have upon record. , ^ 



For, fuppofing we had aftronomical obfervations of 

 4000 years fl:anding, as we have none of above 2000 

 of that kind, and allowing that the Sun's diameter had 

 then been obferved to be as many minutes as it is now, 

 yet it could not thence be concluded, that the Sun did 

 ; not lofe a mile in ' diameter every year, and confe- 

 quently be now 4000 miles lefs in diameter than it 

 then was. 





Vox fince his diameter is near.87 times greater than 

 that of the earth, which latter he fuppofes 8000 miles, 

 then the Sun's muft be 696,606 miles. '■ Now 4000 ■ 

 is but the 1 74th part of the diameter, and confe- 

 quently would have diminiflied it but one eighth of 

 'a minute, which is a much lefs quantity than the an- 

 tients pretended to obferve to. 



'But fuppofing they could, have obferved even to fe- 

 conds, yet that could nqt have contradifted it, becaufe 

 it is poflible the Sun may have approached as much 

 nearer us as that diminution amounts to, and for which, 

 he faith, he could ftiew a reafon. 

 Sir Ifaac Newton alfo, in his optics, gives good rea- 

 fon to fuppofe the Sun and fixed ftars to be great 

 earths, vehemently hot, 'whofe heat is confervcd by 

 the greatnefs of their bodies, and the mutual adtion 

 and re-adlibn between them and the light which they 

 emit • and whofe parts are kept from fuming away, 

 not only by their fixity, but alfo by the vaft weight 

 and denfity of the atmofpheres incumbent on them, and 

 everyway ftrongly compreffingthem, and condenfing 

 the vapours and exhalations which arife from them. 

 The li^ht feems to be emitted from the Sun and fixed 

 ftars (which probably are Suns to other fyftems,) much 

 after the manner as iron, when heated to fuch a 

 degree, as to be juft going into fufion by the vibrating 

 motion of its parts, emits with force and violence co- 

 pious ftreams of liquid fire all around. Great bodies 

 muft preferve their heat longeft, and that, perhaps, 

 in the proportion of their diameters, ;. . . 



