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Of Mext. 
Ch. 5. 

The Diverfities Led. .VI- 

CHAP. Iv, 
Of the CAUSES of Tatts, 
Se O fpeak of the Canfes of Taffs, before we have 
F well enumerated and diftinguifhed them; is to 
provide Furniture for a Hou/é,before the Roowes 
have been counted and meafured out. But the 
ye) Varieties of Tafts having been firft laid down ; 
22 it will induce us to believe, and inveftigate as 
(OME great a variety in their Cau/és, 
Me 2. §. Now the Canjes of Fafts, particular- 
aS ‘lyrof the Tafts of Plants, whereof we chiefly 
fpeak,are.in general,thefe Four or Five, /c. The Bed out of which they 
grow 3 The Aer in which they ftand; The Parts of which they confift ; 
The feveral Fermentatjons under which their Fugees pafS 3 And the Or- 
&gazs by which their Taffable Parts are perceiv'd: as will appear upon 
In ftance. 
A §. But the immediate Cau/es, befides the Organs of Taffe, are 
the Principles of Plants. As many of which, as come under the notice 
of Sexfe, we have already fuppofed to be thefe Seven, Alkaline, Acid, 
Aer, Water, Oyl, Spirit and Earth. The Particles both of Alkaline and 
Acid Salts, are all angular and poynted. Thofe of Aer, properly and 
ftrittly fo called are Elaftick or Springy; and therefore alfo Crooked ; as 
I have likewife formerly conjectured. AndI find the Learned Borelli, 
in a Book of hisfince then publifhed,to be of the fame Opinion. Thofe 
of all Flizd Bodies, qua Fluid, and therefore of Water, Ol and Spirit, 
I conceive to be Globular, but hollow, and with holes in their Sides, 
Thole of Water, to be larger Globes, with more holes; thofe of Oyl, to 
be leffer, with fewer holes ; and thofe of Spzrit the leaft. Laftly, that 
the particles of Earth are alfo Round; yet angular; and nearer to a 
olid. 
. 4. §. Thefe Principles affe@ the Organs of Senfe, according to the 
variety of their Figures, and of their Mixture. So thole which are 
fharp or poynted; and thofe which are fhringy 5 are fitted to pro- 
duce any ftronger Ta/fe : and thofe which are round, are apt, of their 
own Nature, to produce.a weaker or fofier one. And fo by the diver- 
fitics of their Mixture; not only with refpe& to their Proportion, 
but alfo the very Mode of their Conjunifion. Hence it is, that many 
Bodies which abound with salt, as Avbar with an Acid, and the Bones 
of Land-Animals with an Alkaline, have notwithftanding but a weal: 
Taft; the Saline Parts being in the former drowned in the Oy/, and in 
the latter alfo buried in the Earth. - 
§. §. The fame is further confirmed by an Experiment mentioned 
in g former Difcourfe; fe. the Tranfimtation of Oyl of Anife-Seeds, 
with the help of Oj! of Vetriol, into a Rofiz, For both thofe Liquors, 
though fo ftrongly tafted, apart; yet the Rofiz made of them, being 
well wafhed, hath a very mild Tuffe, and without any {match of that 
in 

