full of Gnats, though the Door and Windows were kept shut. He adds, that He
did not at first suspect, that those Gnats had any {36} relation to the
_Dew_, but after finding the Gnats to be multiplied and the little watry
Animals to be much lessened in quantity, and finding great numbers of their
empty skins floating on the face of his _Dew_, He thought, he had just
reason to perswade himself, the Gnats were by a second Birth produced of
those little Animals.

That vapouring away great quantities of his putrefied _Dew_ in Glass
Basons, and other Earthen glased Vessels, He did at last obtain, as he
remembers, above two pound of _Grayish Earth_, which when he had washed
with more of the same _Dew_ out of all his Basons into one, and vapoured to
siccity, lay in leaves one above another, not unlike to some kind of brown
Paper, but very friable.

That taking this Earth out, and after he had well ground it on a Marble,
and given it a smart Fire, in a coated Retort of Glass, it soon melted and
became a Cake in the bottom, when it was cold, and looked as if it had been
Salt and Brimstone in a certain proportion melted together; but, as he
remembers, was not at all inflamable. This ground again on a Marble, _he
saith_, did turn Spring water of a reddish purple Colour.

That by often calcining and filtring this Earth, He did at last extract
about two ounces of a fine small _white Salt_, which, looked on through a
good _Microscope_, seemed to have Sides and Angles in the same number and
figure, as _Rochpeeter_.

* * * * *

_The Motion of the _Second_ Comet predicted, by the same Gentleman, who
predicted that of the _former_._

Monsieur _Auzout_, the same Person, that not long since communicated to the
World his _Ephemerides_ touching the course of the former _Comet_, and
recommended several Copies of them to the _Royal Society_, to compare their
Observations with his Account, and thereby, either to verifie his
Predictions, or to shew, wherein they differ, hath lately sent another
_Ephemerides_ concerning the Motion of the Second _Comet_, to the same end,
that invited him to send the other. {37}

In that Tract he observes, first in _General_, that this second _Comet_ is
contrary to the precedent, almost in all particulars: seeing that the
_former_ moved very swift, _this_, pretty slow; _that_ against the Order of
the signs from East to West, _this_, following them, from West to East:
_that_, f