Miscellanea Curiosa.

one unalter'd Body, as having constantly at the Earth's Surface the 800th part of the weight of Water, and being capable of Rarifaction and Condensation in infinitum; neither of which Hypotheses are rigidly true: For here in England it is notoriously known, that the weight of the whole Atmosphere is various, being counterpoised sometimes by 28½ Inches of Mercury, and at other times by no less than 30½; so that the under parts being pressed by about a 15th part, less weight, the specifick Gravity of the Air upon that score will sometimes be a 15th part lighter than another; besides Heat and Cold, does very considerably dilate and contract the Air, and consequently alter its Gravity; to which add the mixture of Effluvia, or steams arising from almost all Bodies, which assimulating into the Form of Air, are kept suspended therein, as Salts dissolv'd in Liquors, or Metals in corroding Menstrua; which Bodies being all of them very much heavier than Air, their Particles by their Admixture must needs encrease the weight of that Air they lie incorporated withal, after the same manner as melted Salts do augment the specifick Gravity of Water. The other Consideration is, that the Rarifaction and Condensation of the Air is not precisely according to the proportion here laid down; for the Experiment very nearly agrees thereto, as may be seen in the 58th Chapter of Mr. Hook's Micrography; yet are the Condensations not possible beyond certain degrees: For being compressed into an 800th part of the Space it takes up here, its consistence would be equally dense with that of Water; which yields not to any force whatsoever, as hath been found by several Experiments tried here, and at Florence, by the Academia del Cimento. Nor can the Rarifaction proceed in infinitum; for supposing the Spring whereby it dilates it self, occasion'd by what Texture of Parts you please, yet must there be a determinate Magnitude of the natural State of each Particle, as we see it is in Wool, and the like, whose