“ The promoting of Experiments, according to the Model of the Royal Society will be so far from injuring Education, or from being dangerous to the the Universities, that it will both introduce many things of greater concernment and benefit to supply the place of what may be laid aside; and be mainly conducive to recover that Divine Dignity of Humane Nature, which consists in the Knowledge of Truth, and the Doing of Good.
The First years of Men being secured by this new Experimental Way ”

“ But he hopes and presages, that the English Nation will lay hold on this opportunity, to deserve the Applause of Mankind for having encouraged and supported a Work, which, instead of barren Terms and Notions, is able to impart to us the Uses of all the Creatures, and to enrich us with all the Benefits of Real Knowledge, true Honour, great Plenty, and solid Delight. ”

“ He pretends, that as half, or at least, a third of the bloud of an Animal is conveighed into the Brain, where yet it cannot be consumed, the finest Serum of this bloud is filtrated through the exteriour part, and then entring into the Fibres of the brain, is thence conveighed into the Nerves: which he affirms to be the reason, that the Head is so often found full of water, when the Brain hath received a wound, or an alteration by some distemper. ”

“ Propense to things, which are no where in use in the world; and careless of their own present times, by dating on the past: This Experimental Philosophy will turn men to Trials and Works; cure their minds of Romantick swelling, by shewing all things familiarly to them, just as large as they are ”

“ He adds the Number, Shape, and Use of these Placentas; and first observes that those that are Kernel-bearing Animals, or chewing the Cud, have many, and those that are Cake-bearing, have for the most part, one Cake for each Fœtus; but a woman commonly but one, though she happen to have many Embryo's.
He annexes a particular description of the Placenta of a Woman, as the most considerable, and teaches, how it may be most conveniently severed from the Vessels, to render them conspicuous, which are a numerous off-spring of Arteries, Veins, and Fibres ”

“ That the Sun did heat the Air, and exhale the Vapours, which after did settle on those hills, and as they grew cold, took up more room than before, and so made a wind by their pressure; as water, put hot into a Cask and closed, would, he said, as it cooled, break the Cask.
It is commonly affirmed, That the Seasons of the Year betwixt the Tropicks are divided by the Rains and Fair weather, and six Months are attributed to each Season. ”

“ There is no manner of Earth, but Sand, at the Point; yet I have eaten admirable Melons, Musk and Water-Melons, that have grown there, A great many trees also grow there, especially Mangranes and Prikle-pears, In other parts it is ordinary to ride through woods, that are full of very large Timber, and yet have nothing of Earth, only firm Rock, to grow in. ”

“ All the Tortoises from the Caribes to the Bay of Mexico and Honduras, repair in Summer to the Cayman Islands, to lay their Eggs and to hatch there. They coot for fourteen daies together, then lay in one night some three hundred Eggs, with white and yolk, but no shells: then they coot again, and lay in the sand, and so thrice. Then the Male is reduced to a kind of gelly within, and blind, and is so carried home by the Female. Their fat is green, but not offensive to the stomach, though you eat it as broth, stew'd. Your Urine looks of a yellowish green, and oily, after eating it. ”

“ An account of some Experiments of injecting Liquors into the Veins of Animals, lately made in Italy by Signior Fracassati Professor of Anatomy at Pisa. 1 . Having infused into the Jugular and Crural Vein of a Dog some Aqua fortis diluted, the Animal died presently; and being opened, all the bloud in the Vessels was fixed, but that in the guts not so well. It was also observed, that the great vessels were burst, perhaps by an effort of Nature; even as in the greatest part of those that die of an Apoplexy, the vessels of the Lungs are found broken. ”

“ Something perhaps may be imputed to the difference of the waves, which are short, and make a Copling Sea in the Bay of Biscay (yet we came not within 80 Leagues of Cape Finis Terræ:) in the Long-reach it is along rolling wave, but never breaks. About Florida, Virginia, and New-England it is a great rolling wave, but breaks. And as the Sea coloureth from green to darkish, and so to blue; so in our return it colour'd from blue to dark, and so to green. ”

“ He observes also, that most of Oviparous Fishes have Eggs or Spawn, as to sense one only colour, and but one humor; yet that the Spawn of a Skate hath a White and a Yolk. Birds have mostly three nutritious substances, that are visible, viz. a Yolk and a double White: to which upon incubation, comes a fourth, colliquated out of the former; the tender Embryo feeding upon the two Whites, till they being consumed, the Yolk of the Chick now to be hatcht, is shut up in the Abdomen, and thence by a peculiar Ductus conveighed into the guts ”

“ On the contrary, he finds the Bloud unfit for taking Fire, and judgeth it very difficult to assign either the place or the manner of this accension; which is not made in the Lungs, nor in the Heart, which he holds to be destitute of all ferment. To which he adds, first, that the Heat of the Bloud is not sufficient to cause such an inflammation, seeing how much even good Spirit of Wine must be heated, before it will flame, which it doth not without the actual application of fire. ”

“ But (to return to Jamaica) that this night-wind depends much upon the Mountain, appears by this, that its force extends to an equal distance from the Mountain, so that at Portmorant, which is the Easter-most part of the Island, there is little of Land-brise, because the Mountain is remote from thence, and the brise spends its force along the land thither. I shall further illustrate this kind of Attraction. In the harbor of Jamaica there grow many Rocks, shap'd like Bucks and Stags horns: there grow also several Sea-plants, whose roots are stony. ”

“ Many things receive damage by the Air: Not only Iron rusts, but even Linnen rots, and Silks once exposed to the Air do rot without losing their colour. If a Lancet be once exposed to they air it will rust, though you presently put it up again ”

“ During that space I could not perceive my self or others more dry, more costive, or to make less urine, than in England. Neither does all that sweat make us faintish. If one be dry, it is a thirst generally arising from the heat of the Lungs, and affecting the Mouth, which is best cooled by a little Brandy. ”

“ The Lungs, he saith, serve chiefly, by their constant agitation to comminute the bloud, and so to render it fit for a due circulation; which office he thinks to be performed in Fishes by the continual motion of their Gills, a Succedaneum to Lungs.
Sanguification, according to him, is chiefly performed and perfected by the frequent pulsions of the Heart, and the repeated ccontractions of its left Ventricle at the passing of the Sanguineous liquor from thence into the Aorta. ”

“ The hottest time of the day to us, is Eight in the Morning, when there is no Brise. I set a weather-glass in the window, to observe the weather, and I found it not to rise considerably at that time, but by two of the clock it rose two inches. ”

“ And here the Historian hopes, that all reasonable men will find satisfaction, when they shall consider, First, That besides that this Society hath past through the first difficulties of their Charter and Model, and overcome all oppositions, which use to arise against the beginnings of great things ”

“ And as this Experimental way will afford much help to our Publick duties, and Civil actions, so it is proved to be very useful for the Cure of mens Minds and the management of their private motions and passions, by keeping them from idleness with full and earnest employments, and by possessing them with innocent, various, lasting, and even sensible delights. ”

“ And at Cignatea (otherwise called Eleutheria) in the Gulph of Barbadoes it rains not sometimes in two or three years; so that that Island hath been twice deserted for want of rain to plant in.
At the Point of Jamaica, where-ever you dig five or six foot, water will appear, which ebbs and flows as the Tide. It is not salt but brackish, unwholsome for men, but wholsome for Hogs. At the Caymans there is no water, but what is brackish also; yet is that wholsome for men, insomuch that many are recovered there, by feeding on Tortoises, and yet drink no other water. ”

“ Lower, using to open sometimes the right side of the Thorax, and with his fingers to break the Receptacle; and sometimes on the left side the Ductus Thoracicus, a little under the Subclaviar; whereby it hath come to pass, that Dogs, well fed all the while, have thrown out all the Chyle into the opened part of the Thorax, and, though plentifully fed, were starved within three daies: there appearing mean time in the Veins opened a crass blond, destitute of Serum, but not any mixture of transmitted Chyle. ”

“ Infinite might the observations be, if I had alwaies enjoyed my health, for the speculative Philosophers; almost every thing there being new, and Nature being luxuriant in her Productions in those parts: But I shall not trouble you with imperfect Memorials, &c.
So far this curious observer; whose laudable Example may both quicken and direct other Travellers in the Particulars, to be taken notice of in their Voyages.
Extract of a Letter, written by Mr. Sam. Colepress to the Publisher, containing an Account of some Magnetical Experiments ”

“ Mean time, the Author esteems, that, since the Society promises no Miracles, nor endeavours after them, and since their Progress ought to be equal and firm, by Natural degrees, and thorow small things, as well as great, going on leisurely and warily, it is therefore fit, that they alone, and not others, who refuse to consider the nature of their work, and to partake of their burthen, shou1d be Judges by what steps and what pace they ought to proceed. ”

“ When any bloud is become cold in a dish, that part which is beneath the superficies appears much blacker, than that on the top; and 'tis vulgarly said, that this black part of the bloud is Melancholy bloud, and men are wont to make use of this example to shew that the Melancholy humor as 'tis called, enters with the 3 others into the composition of the bloud. ”

“ This our Author undertakes to disprove; and having asserted the mildness of, at least, many parts of the bloud, and consequently their fitness for nutrition, he defends the Harveyan doctrine, of the Colliquation of the Nourishing Juyce by the Arteries, and its conveyance to the Fœtus by the veins.
In the third Chapter, the Membranes and Humors of Embryo's are considered, The Membranes are in some, three, in others, four, in an Egg, six. All Placentiferous Animals (if I may assume this word) he affirms to have three Membranes, and Sows, Mares, and Women also; but only two Humors. ”

“ All three here described by the Author, who also compares, as Harvey does, the Fœtus yet in the Womb with the manner of operation of those Animals, that are provided but with one cavity in the Heart, and with no Lungs; the bloud of the Fruit, as long as it is unborn, passing neither through the Parenchyma of the Lungs, nor that of the Liver. Lastly, the necessity of Respiration is explicated, and how the defect of the Lungs, and of one of the Ventricles of the Heart, is supplied in Fishes, viz. ”

“ Then he proceeds to the description of the Allantiodes (the Membrane immediately encompassing that skin, wherein the Fœtus is wrapped) and thence to that of the Amnion, wherein the Embryo it self lieth, swimming in its alimental liquor. And lastly to that which is observed to be in Bitches, Cats, and Rabbets, and contains a very good and nourishing Juyce; which how it comes thither, is a difficult inquiry, as well as that other, how the liquor gets into the Amnion. ”

“ Most Creatures drink little or nothing there, as Hogs; nay, Horses in Guanaboa never drink, nor Cows in some places of the Island for six months; Goats drink but once perhaps in a week, Parrots never drink, nor Parrokets ”

“ But here is not to be omitted the Observation of Fracassati, importing, that as the Tongue hath towards its point many Eminences, by the means whereof it goes, as it were, to meet objects of Taste; so on the contrary, it hath many cavities towards its root, wherein it receives them. All which cavities terminate in nerves, and seem to serve for Funnels to conveigh the aliment into them. ”

“ Whether there be any ground of hope from Experiments towards this Work?
4. Whether, if such Arts shall hereby happen to multiply, they are likely to prejudice those Trades, that are already setled?
In these Particulars our Author doth so answer his Readers doubts, that it will easily he granted him, That it is not in vain or impossible Design, to endeavour the increase of Mechanick contrivances; that the enterprise is proper for a Mixt Assembly of Experienced Naturalists and Mathematicians; that the Course which the Royal Society observes towards it, will be effectual ”

“ First, simply from the Membrane of the Uterus to the Membrane of the Fœtus, as in all Oviparous Creatures; and among Viviparous, in a Sow all the time of her bearing; in a Mare, for half the time; and in a Woman, the first month only. Secondly, by a Mass of flesh, filtring the Juyce; as in all Cake-bearing (called by the Latines, Placentifera) and in all Kernel-bearing (called Glandulifera) or Ruminating Animals. Where he giveth a particular account of the double Placenta or Cake, to be found in Rabbets, Hares, Mice, Moles, &c. and examines the learned Dr. ”