€o?tofit)enefe o? Co^oftWlitp. 39 



they are diluted by it, and ( which 

 is more confiderable } acquire a 

 new Texture , which renders them 

 unfit to operate, as they did before, 

 when the fretting Salts were not 

 joyn-d with a fufficient quantity of 

 the Mercury to inhibit their corro- 

 five activity. It may perhaps fome- 

 what help us to conceive^ how this 

 change may be made y if we ima- 

 gine, that a company of meer Knife- 

 blades be firft fitted with Hafts, 

 which will in fome regard leflen 

 their wounding power by covering 

 or cafing them at that end which is 

 defign'd for the handle 5 (though 

 their infertion intothofeHafts., turn- 

 ing them into Knives, makes them 

 otherwife the fitter to cut and pierce) 

 and that each of them be afterwards 

 iheathed, (which is, as it -were, a 

 hafting of the Blades too 5) for 

 then they become unfit to cut or 

 ftab, as before, though the Blades 

 be not deftroyed : Or elfe we may 

 conceive thefe Blades without Hafts 

 or Sheaths to be tied up in bundles, 



or 



