“ And those modern Atomists, that think, there is in our exhausted Receiver very many times more Vacuum than Body, would, I presumed, be glad to be supplied with an Argument against the Peripateticks, to shew, That at the motion of Bodies, viz. the Corpuscles of Light, may be freely made in Vacuo, and proceed without the assistance of a Vehicle.
Wherefore having Hermetically sealed up a small piece of Shining Wood in a slender Pipe, and placed it in a small Receiver that was likewise made of clear Glass, we exhausted it of Air, and afterwards let in again that which we had excluded. ”

“ Wherefore we let in the outward Air by degrees, and had the pleasure to lee the seemingly extinguisht Light revive so fat and perfectly, that it look to us all almost like a little flash of Lightning, and the splendour of the Wood seemed rather greater, than at all less, than before it was put into the Receiver. ”

“ I scarce doubt, but these Experiments will occasion among the Virtuosi several Queries and Conjectures, according to the differing Hypotheses and Inquisitions, to which men are inclined. And particularly 'tis probable, that some will make use of this Discourse to countenance their Opinion, That notwithstanding the Coldness (at least as to sense) of Fishes and other Animals, there may he in the Heart and Blood a Vital kind of Fire, which needs Air, as well as those Fires that are sensibly hot: Which may lessen the wonder, that Animals should not he able to live when robbed of Air. ”

“ This, compar'd with some of my former Observations about Putrefaction, put me upon a Trial, which, though it miscarried, I shall here make mention of, that in case you, who are better furnish'd with Glasses, think it worth while, you may get reiterated by the Society's Operator; considering then, how great an interest Putrefaction hath in the shining of Fishes, and Air in the Phænomena of Putrefaction, I thought it might be somewhat to the purpose, to take a Fish that was, according to the common course I had observed in Animals, not far from the state, at which it would begin to shine ”

“ The other of the two neighbouring Experiments I lately mention'd (viz. the ninth) I told you, when I sent it you, needed a reiteration to confirm it, since we had but once tried it (and that without all the convenience we desired) that a shining Body, which upon the first withdrawing the Air loseth much, but not all its Light, may be deprived of the rest by continuing in that unfriendly place, though the Air be no further exhausted. ”

“ Of the motions and configurations of the Mouth of Man; and how a Man, born deaf, and consequently dumb, may come to understand, both them, and by them the mind of him that forms them; where 'tis observ'd, that a Man born deaf is not altogether destitute of all motion of his Tongue, and that he may be taught to understand others by the motions of the Mouth and Tongue, much after the manner as others are taught to read; but that this is much more easily practicable in those wide-mouth'd Languages, which do remarkably expose to the Eye the motions of the Tongue, Lips, Throat, &c. ”

“ To which is subjoyn'd, first, a disquisition of Reason, why the Radical Words in the Hebrew Tongue can consist of no more than three Consonants? Secondly, a Discourse touching the Hebrew Accents, shewing, that 'tis a new Invention, and that the ancient Art of Musick being lost; and consequently to us unknown, the modern Hebrew Accents cannot reasonably be said to have been the Musical Notes of the Ancients, since especially all sorts of Hebrew Books and even their Chapters are marked therewith; though the Author acknowledges, that the newness deprives them not of the advantage of being useful. ”

“ This done, we plied the Pump again, and observed, That as the Air in the Pipe did by its own Spring expand it self more and more, and grow thinner and thinner, the Shining Wood grew dimmer and dimmer, till at length it ceased to shine, the internal Air being then got a good way lower, than the surface of the external Quicksilver; whereupon opening the commerce between the cavity of the Receiver, and the Atmosphere, the Quicksilver was driven up again, and consequently, the Air above it was restored to its former density ”

“ But being desirous to make what trial we could by the least unfit means we had in our power, we got an old, but thin Glass, sealed at one end, whose shape was pretty Cylindrical, and whole bore was about the bigness of a man's little finger, and whole length was about a foot or more. ”

“ What the greatest Expansion of this Air was, we could not certainly determine, because the Expansion raised the external Quicksilver so high, as to hinder us to see and measure it. But we guessed, that the Air reached to about a foot or more from the top of the Pipe to the surface of the Quicksilver near the bottom of it. ”

“ Thinking fit to try, Whether a small quantity of Air, with out being ventilated or renewed, might not suffice to maintain this cold Eire, though it will not that of a Live Coal, or a piece of Match, we caused a piece of shining Wood to be Hermetically sealed up in a pipe of clear and thin Glass ”

“ New Experiments. to the number of 16, concerning the Relation between Light and Air (in Shining Wood and Fish) ; shewing, That the withdrawing of the Air from those and the like Bodies, extinguishes their Light, and the readmission of the Air restores it. ”

“ Where he shews, how by inspiring, the Breath is distributed through the Lungs (the nature of which he also describes) , and how the same circulates through the whole Body.
5. Of the Animation of the Voice of Man by his Masculine and Generative Power. Where he discourses of the difficulty found in little Children, to pronounce certain Letters ”