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6)

In the letter at the end of Vol. 3 of [[underlined]] Spect. de la Nat. [[/underlined]] "There are a competent number of proofs, whose tendency is to shew, that the Physical [[blank space]] why the life of [[strikethrough]] men [[/strikethrough]] men before the flood was much longer than ours, is, because the sun not then leaving the Equator, it necessarily followed, that the tempterature of the air must be uniform, and the fruitfulness of the earth never interrupted. The sun ruled the year as now it does, and fixed both the progress and limits of it, by passing from one constellation to another. But neither the place of its rising & setting, nor the length of days in any time ever varied." Again "We have, in the said letter, collected a good number of scripture and prophane history, and from the vestiges still subsisting and scattered from one end of the earth to the other; whereby it appears, that there were before the flood no rainbows, nor any winds or great rains and meteors; but that a perpetual spring and universal serenity reigned all over the earth, except under the Equator, where the course of the air dilated or contracted by the alteration of the day and night, must needs have brought from either pole a continued collection of vapours, as it still happens under the Tropics, for several weeks together. After the flood, another heaven (2 [[underlined]] Pet.[[/underlined]] III. 7. ); a new disposition of the stars with regard to us, occasioned by the inclination of the axis of the earth; a vicissitude of seasons; rains new as the rainbow, which is but the consequence & necessary effect of them; troublesome meteors; inconstant winds; earthquakes, storms, inundations; perpetual crosses in all the operations of agriculture, frequent diseases; fertility diminished; man's life much shorte[[/strikethrough]] ned [[/strikethrough]]r than before."
Vol. I. p. 8.... & 73, 74. of the History of the Heavens Translated from the French of the Abbe PLUCHE. Author of the Spectacle de la Nature; or Nature Displayed. By J. B. DE FREAUS, Esq. 2 Ed.n 2 Vols. 8. vo 1741.

[[underlined]] Thales [[/underlined]] planted a willow of five pounds weight in a lixivial earth of 200 pounds weight.  That willow in 5 [[?]] years time came to weight 164 pounds exclusive of the leaves fallen each year, and the earth had lost nothing of its weight.  Peas, Beans, and other corns will open, blossom and fructify without the Assistance of any earth, by wrapping them up in a small quantity of wool, and by letting them shoot forth their fibers through a little grate to fetch all their nourishment from the water in a bowl placed directly under them.  D.o Vol. II. p. 119 & 120.

Copper utensils or those made of brass, which is the same metal incorporated with a fossil substance well known by the name of [[underline]] lapis calaminaris [[/underline]], or calamine stone, is very pernicious to Health; for the blue mould which grows upon them, by long standing, fries out to a much greater degree when filled with any substance and made hot over a fire; which mould is a strong verdigrease & very poysonous, by which some have lost their lives.  Universal Mag. Vol. XVI p. 73 for February 1755.

A Ladder being placed obliquely 32 feet high, a square pane of glass was fixed to each round; the [[strikethrough]]first [[/strikethrough]] [[underline]] Dew [[/underline]] first appeared upon the under surface of the lowest pane, then upon its upper surface, next upon the under  surface of the next higher pane, and so on in successive order.  Cloths was put instead of the panes and weighed, was also found to succeed in like order.  Again the Dew sticking to some bodies and not others, if a metalline cup (to which it does not stick) be set a whole night in the Air, there never will be found any the least dew within the cup.  Therefore the Dew [[underline]] Ascends [[/underline]] out from the earth in the form of vapour, but never descends.  Univ.! Magaz. V. XVI. p. 76.

To preserve the parabolic curve described by projectiles practical gunners almost unanimously agree, that from the great disproportion of the density of the bullets and of the air there is little or no resistance from the air and also that every shot flies in a straight line to a certain distance from the piece, which they call, [[underline]]"the extent of the Point blank shot! [[/underline]] But Gravity is never suspended therefore this rather makes it worse than mends it, besides Mr. Robins experimentally proves that the resistance to a cannon shot amounts to more than twenty times the weight of the shot. Ex. gr. a musket-ball 3/4 of an inch diameter, fired with 1/2 its weight of powder, from apiece of 45 inches long, moves with a velocity of near 1700 feet in a second. Now by common parabolic theory, its horizontal range at 45 degrees of elevation, =

Transcription Notes:
Paper in bottom right corner is folded up and appears to cover a small amount of writing. Unable to tell what.