{
  "id": "92a3fc2001a37854b3fb9753c7c8ccc2b445f594",
  "text": "their wales, to render them whiter than ordinary; which it doth even whiter than lime. Such wales conserve their saltness some few daies only, and then become insipid, even though they sweat forth a white excrescence in thin and light flakes like niter, many years after. But that Salt, which is collected from the stones, gravel and earth, by which the rivolets, descending from those Baths, do run, is without any tatt of Salt; though there be no difference in the form or colour from that which is gather'd with the wooden instruments, by me mentioned. This is the Sum of what I have to say at present of this particular. If you think the matter tanti, I will send you a more ample description thereof, with my thoughts upon it.\n\nReflections made by P. Francisco Lana S.J. upon an Observation of Signor M. Antonio Castagna, Superintendent of some mines in Italy, concerning the formation of Crystals: English'd out of the XI. Venetian Giornale de Letterati.\n\nIn the last month of September, being arrived in the Val Sabbia into a place call'd le Mezzane, where I knew that those Crystals are generated, I observ'd in a spacious round of a Meddow, seated on a hillock, some narrow places bare of all herbs, in which alone, and nowhere else thereabout, those Crystals are produced, being all sex-angular, both points of them terminating in a pyramidal figure, sex-angular likewise.\n\nI was told, that they were produced from the dews, because (forsooth!) being gather'd over night, the next morning there would be found others at such a time only, when it was a serene and dewy sky; and that upon the herbs of the meddow, and without the bounds of those bare and sterile places never any Crystals were to be found; besides, that the ground having been in some places bared of all greens, and reduced to the condition of those other naked places, yet no crystals were ever seen to have been form'd there. But I, when I had examined, that in the neighbourhood of that hill there was no mark at all of any Mines, did conclude, that it might be a plenty of nitrous steames, which might withal hinder vegetation in those places, and coagulate the Dew falling thereon. And that those exhalations were rather Nitrous, than of another kind, I was induced to believe, because Niter is not only the natural coagulum of water\nter, as is manifest in artificial glaciations; but also it ever retain\nthe above said sex-angular figure, altogether like that of those\nCrystals. Which may also be the very cause of the sex-angular\nfigure in snow; this being nothing else but water concreted by\nits natural coagulum, which is a nitrous exhalation. And to make\nit yet more manifest, that these are indeed expirations of niter;\nI digg'd up some of the earth, and drew a Salt from it, which had\nboth the tast and figure of Niter; though some grains of it were\nof a square, others of a pyramidal, figure.\n\nIt therefore ought not to be affirm'd, that a dewy vapour is\nof itself able to be form'd into a solid gem; because, if that were\nso, such vapours being easily carried by any motion of the Air\nfrom those narrow places, and falling down in dew far from the\nsame, Crystals would be formed in those other places; but they\nare only form'd there: Whence we may very probably infer,\nthat thence are raised the exhalations, which do concrete the\ndew, after such a manner as the vapour or exhalation of Lead\ncoagulates Quicksilver.\n\nA Relation of an Inland-sea near Danzick, yeilding at a certain sea-\nson of the year a green substance, which causeth certain death; toge-\nther with an Observation about white Amber: Communicated by\nMr. Kirkby, in a Letter written to the Publisher from Danzick\nDecemb. 19. 1671.\n\nNear a small village, call'd Tuckum, 2½ German miles distant\nfrom this City west-ward, there is an Inland Sea (made\nby the meeting of three rivolets, some springs from the adjoyn-\ning hillocks, and the descending rain and snow-water,) of about\nhalf a German mile long and an eight part of such a mile broad.\nIt stretches NNW and S SW. About the middle of the bow on\nthe East-side it dischargeth itself with a pretty stream; as it also\ndoth in another place more Southerly. The soil of the ground\nround about seems to be sand mixt with clay. Its shore gene-\nrally sandy, as is its bottom also. Its depth, where deepest, four\nfathoms; but for the most part but one, or one fathom and an\nhalf. 'Tis stored with wholesome and delicate Fish, as Pearch,\nRoch, Eles, &c. and famed for a small fish, much esteem'd\nhere, and not much unlike a Pearch; only not so party colou-\nred.",
  "source": "olmocr",
  "added": "2026-01-12",
  "created": "2026-01-12",
  "metadata": {
    "Source-File": "/home/jic823/projects/def-jic823/royalsociety/pdfs/100935.pdf",
    "olmocr-version": "0.3.4",
    "pdf-total-pages": 3,
    "total-input-tokens": 4796,
    "total-output-tokens": 1222,
    "total-fallback-pages": 0
  },
  "attributes": {
    "pdf_page_numbers": [
      [
        0,
        0,
        1
      ],
      [
        0,
        2315,
        2
      ],
      [
        2315,
        4558,
        3
      ]
    ],
    "primary_language": [
      "en",
      "en",
      "en"
    ],
    "is_rotation_valid": [
      true,
      true,
      true
    ],
    "rotation_correction": [
      0,
      0,
      0
    ],
    "is_table": [
      false,
      false,
      false
    ],
    "is_diagram": [
      false,
      false,
      false
    ]
  },
  "jstor_metadata": {
    "identifier": "jstor-100935",
    "title": "Reflections Made by P. Francisco Lana S. F. upon an Observation of Signor M. Antonio Castagna, Super Intendent of Some Mines in Italy, Concerning the Formation of Crystals: English'd Out of the XI. Venetian Giornale de Letterati",
    "authors": "Venetian Giornale de Letterati, P. Francisco Lana",
    "year": 1672,
    "volume": "7",
    "journal": "Philosophical Transactions (1665-1678)",
    "page_count": 3,
    "jstor_url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/100935"
  }
}