20 Mayow 



flame of a candle so that the igneous particles deeply 

 penetrating the said plate make it hot. But that the 

 igneous particles entering the plate are the nitro- 

 aerial particles of fire and not sulphureous is evi- 

 dent from this, that the sulphureous particles adhere 

 to the outer surface of the plate in the form of soot 

 and do not at all penetrate the plate. And yet we 

 cannot doubt but that the sulphureous particles adher- 

 ing to the plate were on fire, as far as their nature 

 allows. For it must be supposed that the sulphureous, 

 particles which ascend from the wick into the flame are 

 on fire from their first entrance into the flame, since 

 the flame could not be produced without the burning of 

 sulphureous particles. Nay, the black colour of these 

 particles indicates a burning of some sort. But this 

 will be made clearer by what will be said below. 



Finally, the nitro-aerial particles in the flame pro- 

 duced by solar rays collected by a burning-glass are 

 particularly bright. This celestial flame appears to 

 be due merely to the nitro-aerial particles of the 

 atmosphere set in fiery motion by the action and 

 intense impulse of light. And this we must suppose 

 is the reason that antimony, when calcined by the 

 solar beams, is fixed and made diaphoretic, just as 

 if it were changed into Bezoardicum minerale by 

 spirit of nitre poured upon it and drawn off again 

 and again. Indeed, it is probable that it is the 

 nitro-aerial particles with which that spirit abounds, 

 and in some motion of which the solar rays consist^ 

 that fix antimony and render it diaphoretic. It 

 favours this view that antimony acquires a diaphoretic 

 virtue, not only from the spirit of nitre and the solar 

 rays, but also from the flame of nitre in which nitro- 

 aerial particles are more densely collected. Nor 

 should it be overlooked that antimony, calcined by 



