492 NATURAL HISTORY. 



follow. All operations by transmission of spirits and 

 imagination, have this ; that they work at distance, 

 and not at touch ; and they are these being dis 

 tinguished. 



904. The first is the transmission or emission of 

 the thinner and more airy parts of bodies ; as in 

 odours and infections ; and this is, of all the rest, 

 the most corporeal. But you must remember withal, 

 that there be a number of those emissions, both 

 wholesome and unwholesome, that give no smell at 

 all : for the plague, many times when it is taken, 

 giveth no scent at all : and there be many good and 

 healthful airs that do appear by habitation and other 

 proofs, that differ not in smell from other airs. And 

 under this head you may place all imbibitions of 

 air, where the substance is material, odour-like, 

 whereof some nevertheless are strange, and very 

 suddenly diffused ; as the alteration which the air 

 receiveth in Egypt, almost immediately, upon the 

 rising of the river of Nilus, whereof we have spoken. 



905. The second is the transmission or emission 

 of those things that we call spiritual species : as visi- 

 bles and sounds ; the one whereof we have handled, 

 and the other we shall handle in due place. These 

 move swiftly, and at great distance; but then they 

 require a medium well disposed, and their trans 

 mission is easily stopped. 



906. The third is the emissions, which cause at 

 traction of certain bodies at distance, wherein though 

 the loadstone be commonly placed in the first rank, 

 yet we think good to except it, and refer it to 



