DIGBY'S THEORY. 7 



so hard, obstructed and cold, as that it hath lost its 

 vegetable functions. Now, both these may be renie- 

 dy'd, in a great measure, by one and the same physick. 

 . . . The watering of soils with cold hungray springs 

 doth little good ; whereas muddy saline waters brought 

 to overflow a piece of ground enrich it much. But 

 above all, well-digested dew makes all plants luxuriate 

 and prosper most. Now what may it be that endues 

 these liquors with such prolifick virtue ? The meer 

 water which is common to them all, cannot be it; 

 there must be something else enclosed within it, to 

 which the water serves but for a vehicle. Examine 

 it by spagyric art, and you will find that it is nothing 

 else than a nitrous salt, which is dilated in the water. 

 It is this salt which gives foecundity to all things : 

 and from this salt (rightly understood) not only all 

 vegetables, but also all minerals draw their origine. 

 By the help of plain salt-peter, dilated in water and 

 mingled with some other fit earthy substance, that 

 may familiarize it a little with the corn into which 

 I endeavoured to introduce it, I have made the bar- 

 renest ground far out-go the richest, in giving a pro- 

 digiously plentiful harvest. I have seen hemp-seed 

 soaked in this liquor, that hath in due time made 

 such plants arise, as, for the tallness and hardness 

 of them, seemed rather to be coppice-wood of fourteen 

 years' growth at least, than plain hemp. The fathers 

 of the Christian doctrine at Paris still keep by them 

 for a monument (and indeed it is an admirable one) 



