42 Mayow 



asleep in the bosom of the fixed salt, and mindful 

 as it were of former wrongs, thrust it forth from its 

 saline shelter and set it in motion ; but the nitro- 

 aerial spirit, when violently torn from its saline 

 partner, throws everything into disorder by its im- 

 petuous motion and loosens the union of the com- 

 pound. But in order that what has been said may 

 be better understood, let us consider in how many 

 ways things rush to their destruction, for in all 

 these we shall find that internal movement is caused 

 by sulphureous particles and nitro-aerial spirit whether 

 the latter is derived from without or not. 



In the first place, the mode in which the structure 

 of things is most speedily dissolved is Fire. But this 

 is nothing else than an exceedingly impetuous fer- 

 mentation of nitro-aerial and sulphureous particles in 

 mutual agitation, as has been shown above. Thus, 

 in combustion, sulphureous particles, moving with 

 extreme velocity, throw into a most violent and 

 fiery motion the nitro-aerial particles which exist 

 in a state of fixation. This is evident when nitre is 

 burned, for in its burning, nitro-aerial particles which 

 were previously fixed and inert in the embrace of 

 the fixed salt, are thrown into fiery motion by the 

 agency of the sulphureous particles. And indeed 

 it is probable that even the nitro-aerial particles of 

 the air are in a fixed state previous to their being 

 roused into fiery motion, as I shall endeavour to 

 show elsewhere. 



As the destructive power of fire is due to nitro- 

 aerial particles, so also every internal movement 

 which things undergo seems to depend upon a 

 less violent agitation of the same particles. And 

 it is a proof of this that in putrefaction and in 

 nearly all fermentative movements some heat is 



