i8 s>f tl?e #ecl>am'cal Ppitttftioit 



by fome occafions calPd out otLondm* to 

 lock it up, with forne other rarities, in a 

 Cabinet, whereof I took the key along 

 with me, and ftill kept it in my own 

 Pocket. But my ftay abroad proving much 

 longer than I expe&ed, when, being re- 

 turned to London-, I had occafion to make 

 ufe of this Loadftone for an Experiment, 

 I found it indeed where I left it, but fo 

 exceedingly decayed, as to its attractive 

 power, which I had formerly examin'd 

 by weight, by having Iain almoft a year in 

 an inconvenient pofture, that if it had not 

 been for the circumftances newly related, 

 I fhould have concluded that fome body 

 had purpofdy got it out in my abfence, 

 and fpoiled it by help of the fire, the ver- 

 tue being fo much impaired, that I cared 

 little to employ it any more about confi- 



derabl^Jtxperiments. 

 EXP ER. XIF. And this corruption of 



theMagnetical vertue, 

 which may in tra6t of time be made in a 

 Loadftone it felf, may in a trice be mide 

 by the help of that Stone in an excitjed 

 Needle, For 'tis obferv'd by Magnetital 

 Writers, and my own Trials purpofely 

 made have affured me of it, that a well 

 pois'd Needle, being by the touch of a 

 good Loadftone, excited and brought to 

 turn one of it$ ends to the North and the 



other 



