| Boyle, Robert New experiments physico-mechanicall, touching the spring of the air and its effects 1660 |
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no reason why the minute parts of Wa
ter, and other Bodies, may not be so agi
tated or connected as to deserve the name
of Air.
For if we allow the Cartesian
Hypothesis, according to which, as we no
ted at the beginning of this Letter, the
Air may consist of any terrene or aqueous
Corpuscles, provided they be kept swim
ming in the interfluent Celestial Matter;
it is obvious that Air may be as often ge
nerated, as Terrestrial Particles minute
enough to be carried up and down, by the
Celestial Matter ascend into the Atmo
sphere.
And if we will have the Air to
be a congeries of little slender Springs, it
seems not impossible, though it be diffi
cult, that the small parts of divers Bo
dies may by a lucky concourse of causes
be so connected as to constitute such
little Springs, since (as we note in another
Treatise) Water in the Plants it nourishes
is usually contriv'd into Springy Bodies,
and even the bare alter'd position and con
nexion of the parts of a Body may suf
fice to give it a Spring that it had not be
fore, as may be seen in a thin and fiexible
Plate of Silver; unto which, by some
stroaks of a Hammer, you may give a
Spring, and by onely heating it red hot
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