Medical, philosophical, and vulgar errors, of various kinds, considered and refuted / by John Jones, M.B.

  • Jones, John, 1726?-
Date:
1797
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical, philosophical, and vulgar errors, of various kinds, considered and refuted / by John Jones, M.B. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    113/218 (page 109)
    That matter is divifible in infinitum. Though we cannot conceive the very minuted particle to be fo fmall as not to be divifible into two, and fo on ; yet fome philofophers would think it unreafonable, (though arithmetic does,) that nature can ad¬ mit of that infinite divifibility; for, in reality, mud there not be a vacuum to admit the fmalleft particle A. to move to the fmalleft particle B; or elfe there would be no motion whatever ? That on a trial for the murder of a child,\ \ the finking of its lungs in water, is a proof of its liever having breathed through them ; and their floating, of the contrary. This experiment is not conclufive, even fuppofing it were fairly made, and no por¬ tion of flefh left to adhere to them ; for un¬ inflated lungs will float, and become fpeci- fically lighter than water, as foon as any degree of putrefaction begins to take place in them; which, after death, takes no long time to commence.