320 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO I676. 



An Extract of a Jjetter of the learned Dr. Matthias Mangold, of Basil con- 

 cerning a Mathematico Historical Table, designed in tliat University; together 

 with a Description of the import of the same, N° 127, P- ^^7- 



This idea of a mathematico historical table is by M. P. Megerlin, professor of 

 mathematics at Basil, and which he proposes to regulate according to the revo- 

 lutions of the great conjunctions of Saturn and Jupiter. But it contains nothing 

 worth extracting here. 



An Account of some Books. N° 127, p. 669. 



I. Experiments, Notes, &c. about the Mechanical Origin of divers particular 

 Qualities; among which is inserted a Discourse of the Imperfection of the Che- 

 mist's Doctrine of Qualities; together with some Keflections upon the Hypo 

 thesis of Alcali and Acidum. By the Hon. Robert Boyle, Fellow of the Royal 

 Society. London, 1675, in 8vo. 



These tracts are a fresh proof both of the noble author's constancy in his 

 kindness to experimental philosophy, and of his sagacity in giving a more in- 

 telligible account of philosophical subjects, than is commonly received in 

 schools. The matters here presented, by way of specimen, comprehend in a 

 small compass a great variety; there being scarcely any one sort of qualities, of 

 which there is not an instance given in this small volume; since experiments 

 and considerations are there delivered about heat and cold, which are the chief 

 of the first four qualities; about tastes and odours, which are of those that, 

 being immediate objects of sense, are usually called sensible qualities; about 

 volatility and fixity, corrosiveness and corrosibility, which, as they are found in 

 bodies purely natural, are referrible to those qualities, that many physical writers 

 call second qualities, and which yet as they may be produced and destroyed by 

 the chemist's art, may be styled chemical qualities and the spagyrical ways of 

 introducing or expelling them may be referred to chemical operations, of which 

 here is given a more ample specimen in the mechanical account of chemical 

 precipitations. To all which are added some notes about magnetism and elec- 

 tricity, which are known to belong to the tribe called occult qualities, by dark 

 philosophers. 



Concerning these particular qualities the present design of the excellent au- 

 thor is chiefly, to give an intelligent and historical account of the possible me- 

 chanical origin of them ; though his secondary end is to become a benefactor to 

 the history of qualities, by providing materials for himself or others. And he 

 endeavours to prove that all the qualities of bodies may be derived from and ex- 

 plained by mechanical principles. 



