| Boyle, Robert New experiments physico-mechanicall, touching the spring of the air and its effects 1660 |
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(as we have else-where also noted) any
such boundless thing as men have been
pleas'd to imagine.
And the reason, why
in the former Experiments, mentioned
in favour of the Plenists, Bodies seem to
forget their own Natures to shun a Va
cuum, seems to be but this; That in the
alleadged cases the weight of that Wa
ter that was either kept from falling or
impell'd up, was not great enough to
surmount the pressure of the contiguous
Air; which, if it had been, the Water
would have subsided, though no Air could
have succeeded.
For not to repeat that
Experiment of Monsieur Paschal (for
merly mention'd to have been try'd in a
Glass exceeding 32 Foot) wherein the
inverted Pipe being long enough to con
tain a competent weight of Water, that
Liquor freely ran out at the lower Orifice:
Not to mention this (I say) we saw in
our nineteenth Experiment, that when
the pressure of the ambient Air was suffi
ciently weaken'd, the Water would fall
out apace at the Orifice even of a short
Pipe, though the Air could not succeed
into the room deserted by it.
And it were
not amiss if tryal were made on the tops
of very high Mountains, to discover with
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