ns to evince, that the Air breathed in, enters not
only into the whole capacity of the Chest, but also into the lower belly.
{366}

He is of opinion that the Air, which is commonly believed to corrupt
easily, is incorruptible; alledging among other reasons, this for one, that
experience shews, that if a Bottle be exactly stop'd, there is never any
mixt Body form'd in it; wherefore, _saith he_, the Air is not corrupted
there.

He maintains, that 'tis not the _Magnet_ that draws the Iron, but rather
the Iron that attracts the _Magnet_. To explain which he affirms, that the
Load-stone spreads abroad out of it self many corpuscles, which the
substance of the Iron imbibes, and that, as dry things attract those that
are moist, by the same reason Iron drawn the Loadstone.

He rejects the _species intentionales_, _Vital_ and _Animal_ Spirits, and
holds many other uncommon opinions, touching _Light_, the _Iris_, the _Flux
and Reflux of the Sea_, &c.

III. _GUSTUS ORGANUM per _Laurentium Bellini_ novissime deprehensum._

The Author proposing to himself to discover both the principal _Organ_ of
the _Taste_, and the nature of its _object_, begins with the latter, and
examins first, what is _Taste?_ He judges that it is caused by nothing but
Salts, which being variously figured, affects the tongue variously:
alledging this for his chief reason, that the Salt which is extracted by
_Chymists_ out of any mixt body whatever it be, carries away with it all
its taste, and that the rest remains tasteless. He adds that the Teeth in
grinding the Food, serve much to extract this Salt: And he notes by the by,
that the Teeth are so necessary for preparing the aliment, that certain
Animals which seem to have none, have them in their stomach; and that
nature has put at the entry of the palat of those that are altogether
destitute of them, certain moveable inequalities, which are to them instead
of Teeth.

But then _secondly_, concerning the _Organ_ of Taste, he esteems, that 'tis
neither the Flesh, nor the Tongue, nor the Membrans, nor the Nerves found
there, nor the Glanduls, called _Amygdalinae_; but those _little eminences_
that are found upon the tongue of all Animals. To obtain which, he
observes,

1. That from the middle of the Tongue to the root, as also towards the tip,
there are found innumerable _little Risings_ {367} called _Papillares_; but
that from the tip of the Tongue unto the string there is observed none at
all.

2