(06) 
Hce defignedtomfo Observations about the Light of rotten Fifties,' 
and having in order thereunto caufed a competent number of them to 
be bought 0 not one of them all would Jhine, though they were bought by 
the fame f erf on F was was wont to employ , and hung up in the fame 
place where 1 ufe to have them put , and kept not only till they began to 
putrifie , but beyond the time that others ufed to continue to jhine 5 al- 
though a pah el of the fame kind of Fifies^ bought the week before , and 
another of the fame kind-fought not many days aft er^jhined according 
to expectation. What the reafon of this dif appointment was, I could 
■not determine • only 1 remember , that at the t imejt. happened \the wea- 
ther was variable , and not without fome days tf/^Froft and Snow. Nor 
is this the oddefl obfervation, I could relate to you about the uncer-' 
tain Alining 0 / Fifties, if I thought it neceffary to adde it in this place. 
Advertisement If. 
N otice muftalfobe taken in making Experiments with Shining 
Fifti, that their luminoufnefs is not wont to continue very many 
days. Which Advertisement may be therefore ufeful, bee aufe without 
it we may be apt fometimes to make Trials, that cannot be foon enough 
brought to an iffue 5 and fo we may mtjlake the lofs of Light in the Fijh 
to be a deprivation of it caufed by the Experiment , which indeed is but 
aceffation according toihe uf'uaicourfe of Nature. 
Experiment XIV. 
I Know not whether you wi’l chink it worth while to be told of 
a Trial, that we made to fave tfcofe Criticks a labour, that elfe 
might perhaps demand , W hy ’c was not made. W e put therefore' 
apiece of Shining Fijh into a wide- mouthed Glafs, about half 
filled with fair Water, and having placed chis Glafs in a Receiver, 
we exhaufted the Air for a good while, to obferve. Whether, 
when the preftiire of the ^ir wairemoved, and yet (by reafon of 
the Water that did before keep the Air from immediately touch- 
ing theiilh) the Exhauflion of the Receiver did not deprive the 
Fifti of that conta<51: of Air, which it had loft before ; Whether, 
I fay , in this cafe the abfence of the Air would have the fame in- 
fluence on the fhin'ng Body, as in the former Experiments 7 And 
! 7 ' ' here, 
