[ 3* 6 ] 
after water is laturated with one fait, it is fliil capable 
of diffolving fomewhat of a fecond kind, and being 
faturated with that, of a third, and fo on ; juft as a 
veffel filled as full as pofiible with fpheres or cylinders 
of one magnitude hath a capability of receiving 
fimilar bodies of an inferior fize, or bodies of a 
different figure. The opinion of Gaffendus ieems to 
have been generally adopted ; he endeavours to prove, 
from the experiment which hath been mentioned, 
not only the porofity of water, but a diverfity in the 
figures of the pores : Affero & aliud experimentum 
Jingulare , quo vifus fum mihi deprehendere interfperfa 
hujufmodt fpaiiola inania infra aquam dari. — Aiebam , 
cum Jint falls ccrpufcnla cubica , poferunt ea quidem 
replere fpaticla, qua & ipja cubica fuerint j at cum 
non modo commune fal y fed alumen etiam , quod eft 
oblahedricum , halinitrum item , & fal ammoniacum fac- 
char unique & alia qua ali arum funt figurarum eadem 
aqua exfolvi pofjunt ; eruni ergo etiam in aqua fpatiola 
o ffahedrica atque id genus alia ; adeo ut aqua , tametfi 
[ale faturata fuerit , nihilominus & alumen et cetera 
omnia exfolvere pofit ac in feje transf under e. Gaf. Phyf. 
1. i. fe<5h i. cap. iii. The reafon why warm water 
diffolves in general more fait than cold water, feems 
as if it might be derived from the fame principle, 
was it true j the interlaces between the elementary 
particles of water are enlarged by the expanfion of 
the fluid, and might therefore be fuppofed capable 
of admitting into them a larger quantity of fait. 
This dodrine hath been embraced by moll philofo- 
phers, efpecially by the late Abbe Nollet, in the 4th 
volume of his Lemons de Phyfique ; and I do not 
know that it hath been oppoled by any body. The 
late 
