of matter, and the particular _Schematisms_ and _Textures_ of Bodies.

And as _Glasses_ have highly promoted our _seeing_, so 'tis not
improbable, but that there may be found many _Mechanical Inventions_ to
improve our other Senses, of _hearing_, _smelling_, _tasting_, _touching._
'Tis not impossible to hear a _whisper_ a _furlongs_ distance, it having
been already done; and perhaps the nature of the thing would not make it
more impossible, though that furlong should be ten times multiply'd. And
though some famous Authors have affirm'd it impossible to hear through the
_thinnest plate_ of _Muscovy-glass_; yet I know a way, by which 'tis easie
enough to hear one speak through a _wall a yard thick_. It has not been yet
thoroughly examin'd, how far _Otocousticons_ may be improv'd, nor what
other wayes there may be of _quickning_ our hearing, or _conveying_ sound
through _other bodies_ then the _Air_: for that that it not the only
_medium_, I can assure the Reader, that I have, by the help of a _distended
wire_, propagated the sound to a very considerable distance in an
_instant_, or with as seemingly quick a motion as that of light, at least,
incomparably swifter then that, which at the same time was propagated
through the Air; and this not only in a straight line, or direct, but in
one bended in many angles.

Nor are the other three so perfect, but that _diligence_, _attention_, and
many _mechanical contrivances_, may also highly improve them. For since the
sense of _smelling_ seems to be made by the _swift passage_ of the _Air_
(_impregnated_ with the steams and _effluvia_ of several odorous Bodies)
through the grisly _meanders_ of the Nose whose surfaces are _cover'd_ with
a very sensible _nerve_, and _moistned_ by a _transudation_ from the
_processus mamillares_ of the Brain, and some adjoyning _glandules_, and by
the moist _steam_ of the _Lungs_, with a Liquor convenient for the
reception of those _effluvia_ and by the adhesion and mixing of those