the two former, divided into Chapters; but confifts chiefly of Letters and Differtations, with fome Particulars of which, we shall now endeavour to entertain our Readers.

IT opens with a Letter written by Mr. Chauvin, M.D. to the Marchionefs de Senozan, on the Methods that were employ'd to discover the Accomplices in a Murder committed in Lyons, July 5, 1692...

THE Doctor, after the preliminary Compliments, obferves that the Relation he is going to publish, was given by the Abbé de la Garde, a Gentleman of undoubted Veracity; and then proceeds as follows.... On the 5th

of July, 1692, about ten in the Evening, a Man and his Wife who fold Wine were murthered in their Wine-Vault in Lyons; and robb'd of Money which was lodg'd in their Shop; and the whole was perpetrated with fo much Secrecy, that there was no difcovering, or even fulpecting the Villains who committed this horrid Crime. The famous James Aymar was therefore fent for, who going down into the abovemention'd Cellar, his Wand turned inhis Hand, and afterwards directed him out of the City to the House of a Gardener, where he infifted that the three guilty Wretches had been. Two of the Gardener's Children confeft that three Persons, fuch as they described, had come privately into their House, but were gone from it. Upon this, Aymar went to. the Rhone's- fide, where he faw the Print of the Murtherers Feet in the Sand, and found they were embark'd.

THEN he and his Company continued to trace them by Water, and landed at the feveral Places where the Villains had gone afhore;

nay, pointed out the very Beds where they had lain. At laft the Purfuers arrived at the Camp de Sablon, when the Conjurer declared that he faw the Affaffins; but being afraid of em-ploying his Stick, for fear left the Soldiers fhould fall upon him, he return'd to Lyons. He again left that City, and purfu'd them to Beaucaire; and stopping before a Prifon, affirmed that one of them was there, whom he difcover'd by his Stick; and this Wretch afterwards confeffed, that he had been hired by the Ruffians as their Servant; was in their company when the Murther was committed; that the two Villains had bought or ftole, that very day, two Bills: that about ten that Night they all went together to the Habitation of the unhappy Perfons, upon pretence of filling a large Bottle they brought with them that his two Companions went down, but without him, into the Wine-Vault, where they murther'd the unhappy Man and his Wife with their Bills; after which, he faid, they return'd back into the Shop; broke open a Trunk, and ftole from thence 130 Crowns, eight Louis d'Ors, and a Silver Girdle. That they then left Lyons; ftopt at the Gardener's, and at the several other Places above-mention'd... Their Bills and Bottle were afterwards found in the Wine-Vault.

Two Days after, Aymar and the Sheriff's Officers went in search of the other Accomplices. His Wand again directs him to the Prison abovemention'd in Beaucaire, where he finds that one of them had been fince, to enquire after the Wretch who was taken. They then proceed to Toulon; go on board a Ship; trace 'em from Coast to Coaft,to the feveral Places where they had landed; come to one where they had

refted

refted under Olive-Trees, and afterwards purfue them during eleven Days to the Extremities of the Kingdom, but to no purpose... During this Search the Trial of the Fellow who had been feiz'd at Beaucaire was going on, and he was condemned to be broke alive upon the Wheel. As he was paffing before the Houfe of the unhappy People, in his way to Execution, he begg'd pardon; and confefs'd that he had been the cause of the Murther, by prompting the Ruffians to the Robbery; and watching at the Cellar-Door, while the barbarous Scene was acting... Since the Execution of that Wretch, feveral Experiments were made in the Wine-Cellar above-mention'd.

AFTER the Story, the Letter-writer proceeds to account mechanically for the several extraordinary Circumstances of it. And laying it down as Fact; First, that whenever Aymar came to any Place where a Murther or Theft had been committed, he was immediately reftlefs; fweated; was feized with a kind of Fever, &c. and fecondly, that his Stick directed him perpetually towards the Place whither a Murtherer had fled for Shelter, &c. He goes on to account for this Difcovery, from the Materia Subtilis, and other Principles of Des Cartes, &c. and is of opinion, that a certain Number of little Corpufcles, fpread on the Earth, and in the Interstices of the Air, with which we are furrounded, may penetrate the Blood or animal Spirits; and act upon them fo as to caufe Uneafineffes; Endeavours at Reaching, &c, as in the case of Aymar.

THE next Piece is a phyfical Differtation, by Peter Garnier, M. D. of the University of Montpellier, &c. to prove, that the extraordiE 4

nary

nary Talents with which James Aymar was endowed, are owing to a very natural and very common Cause. As a Specimen of this Philofophy, we fhall fubjoin the Doctor's whimfical Hypothefis, which is as follows.

Ift, THAT in whatfoever Place thro' which Murtherers have paft, a prodigious number of Corpufcles remain, which iffued by the Perfpiration of the Body of the Murtherer.

2d, THAT thefe Corpufcles differ in the Shape, and in the Difpofition of their Parts, from what they were before the Murder was committed.

THAT thefe Corpufcles which iffued from the Body of the Murderer, were fo formed as to be able to fhake very ftrongly the Contexture of Aymar's Skin, and to raise a great Fermentation in his Blood; at the fame time that they did not produce any fuch Effect, in a Man who was differently difpos'd with refpect to them; and that they are alfo form'd in fuch a manner, as to fuffer the Materia Subtilis to enter freely into the Pores of the Wand or Stick; into which they infinuate themfelyes, &c. and determine it by fome Particle to be moved in a circular Line.

4. THAT this fhaking the Contexture of the Skin, and this great Fermentation, caus'd Contractions in the nervous Fibres, and a Diffipation of the animal Spirits in James Aymar; which were the true Caufes of the Swoonings and Convulfions he was then afflicted with.

5. THAT by the extraordinary Fermentation of the Humours, a greater Perfpiratione than ufual enfues; and that 'twas to the Corpufcles which then iffued in prodigious quartities from Aymar's Body; and which giving

free

free Admiffion to the Materia Subtilis, intercepted a little their iffuing forth, and determin'd it to be moved in a circular Line; 'tis to thefe, fays he, that the circular Motion of the Wand is to be afcribed.

THE Writer of this Letter endeavours to enforce the Doctrine of Corpufcles, by an Experiment or two; one of which is borrowed from Mercury. 'Tis well known, fays he, by Experience, that a Pound, for inftance, of Quickfilver, being boiled for feveral Years in Water; the latter fhall kill Vermin, and yet the Mercury fhall not be fenfibly diminished in its Weight; tho' 'tis manifeft, that the Water could not poffibly have imbib'd this Quality, had it not received feveral mercurial Corpufcles; and how many more Experiments, continues he, might be cited, to prove that invifible Corpufcles are perpetually flying off from all Bodies in the World? Did moft Men but know how myfterious Nature is; that her Artifice confifts always in minimo Organico; and that this is not perceptible to our Eyes: they undoubtedly would change the ftrong Propenfion they have, to believe nothing but what they fee or feel; and not be perfuaded, that whatever they don't fee or feel, is really non-exiftent.

THE Microfcope, only, is a Remedy proportionate to their Weakness. By its affiftance merely, they, by their own Senfes, may cure their Minds of the Errors into which they are fo often milled by them; fince they perceive a multitude of things by this Inftrument, that otherwife would have been imperceptible to the naked Eye; which yet would have exifted as truly and as certainly, had not the Microscope difcover'd them. We must not therefore, con

cludes