114

Pneumatics.

Air is therefore a Fluid sui generis , if itproperly any Fluid at all (LXXXV).

That the Air was created at first wi$the Earth itself, is not to be doubted;that ever since there has been a confixGeneration of Particles of Air by the sofi'tual Action of Bodies upon each other, a5 ;in Ferment at ions , and all Rinds of natut&and artificial Chemfiry , Sir Isaac Newt^thinks very reasonable to suppose;

Mr. Boyle has given numerous Experimentrelating to the Production of artificial oifiaclitious Air (LXXXYI).

THA*

:/

(LXXXV) What is here said of the incongeala^Quality of the Air, relates to the Impossibility of chafesing it from a Fluid, to a Fixed State by Cold, as W a k

is congeal'd or converted into Ice ; and melted M e ^

are brought to their fixed Statd : And in this partiew'^limited Sense, the Air is incongealable , or uncapabl® jFixation. But yet it is not absolutely so ; for weby various Experiments, that Air has a fixed Stat®the Composition of natural Bodies, from which, vd 1set at Liberty, it becomes a fluid elastic Air, like <• fcommon Air; and this again, from a Fluid , ma}' ^reduced to a fixed State in Composition with otherter, though not per fie ; for we know, as yet,fixed Body consisting entirely of Air. , (

(LXXXVI) i. Since Air is absolutely necessarf ^the Life of Man, and most Animals, yea, andtables too, it was necessary at the first Formation ^the Earth to render it a Habitation for Animals, ^proper Matrix for the Production of Plants. Nowthere is a constant Generation of Air from all terl ' £ fi,Substances (as we shall shew by and by) it

that the original Atmosphere must be always increa

sing

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