Hydrostatical and pneumatical lectures ... / Published with notes, by ... R. Smith.

  • Roger Cotes
Date:
1738
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hydrostatical and pneumatical lectures ... / Published with notes, by ... R. Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    mod eafy for performing the experiments, thofe be¬ ing ufually placed together which require a very lit¬ tle different apparatus, and molt conformable to the fuccefllon of times in which the experiments and the truths eftablilhed from them appeared in the world. In this firfl week then I dial! endeavour to fettle the grounds of hydroflaticks, and to account for thofe various efifedts which depend upon the prefiure of fluids againft other fluid and folid bodies. This fcience as it began firfl: to be cultivated and was brought to a confiderable degree of perfection by the fagacity of the great Archimedes, fo is it the moft folid foundation upon which our modern philofo- phers have built their admirable dodtrine of the air’s prefiure: which notion feems firfl to have been ftart- ed about an hundred years ago by the famous Gali- Iceo, and was happily profecuted by his ftholar Tor- ricellius, and after him by feveral of the moft emi¬ nent Virtuofi of Europe. Whoever fhall attentively confider the feveral phenomena which I fhall this week prove to depend upon the gravitation of fluids in general, will find it no difficult matter, when we come afterwards to the air, which is a particular fluid, and which I fhall prove to be not devoid of weight, as it was formerly thought to be, to explain by the gravitation of this fubtle fluid thofe once furprifing effedts which fo much puzzled the philofophers, and compelled them for concealing their ignorance to run into very great abfurdities. Having afligned to this firfl: week the bufinefs of hydroflaticks, in the next I fhall enter upon pneu- maticks, which furnifh us with the knowledge of the nature and properties of the air. I need not here in¬ lift upon the ufefulnefs of this fcience, fince it cannot but be well known to every one, how much all na¬ tural philofophy depends upon it* there being no one
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