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much rotted by eating sweet meates were Drawn out and the
teeth of a young boys being set in their place had fixed
there and grown very well - This was done by mr Gosling
here -
vpon a further query concerning chicken produced by stoues
whether they would be fruitfull & produce eggs and chicken
as other that were hatchd the naturall way. mr. Henshaw
affirmd that they were euery deale as fruitfull in those
respects as the other.
Herevpon was occasiond a Discourse about spontaneous
generation. mr. Hooke Related that he had been informed
by mr. wild that he could order earth soe as that wthout
setting or putting any pease at all into it it should
produce pease. As also that the same mr. wild had told him
that mor. Le Febre the Kings Chymist had assured him that he
hauing thrown out ^ /on a Dung hill/ a pretty quantity of the capet mortuu
of Fennell seeds from wch. he had extracted the oyle by
Disstillation had obserued the following year thatt all the
said Dunghill was ouergrown wth. young fennell as
if it had been sowed wth fennell seeds. concerning wch
it was coniectured that the sweepings of the Laboratory wch
were thrown to the same place were more probably the
cause of this great fruitfullnesse. -


vpon a Discourse about the strength of salt it was con
ceiued that sea salt was much stronger then salt made
by boyling by reason that the extraordinary heat of the
fire did make a considerable part of the spt of salt
rise in fumes whereas the naturall heat of the sun on
that wch. was made abroad was not powerful enough
to work the like effect
Sr. Iohn Louther added that Spring waters were much stron
ger then the sea water. soe that it commonly yealded a four
teenth part of salt sometimes an eighth, whereas sea water
yealded not aboue a two & fowrtyeth part.
He farther obserued that my Ld Lumblys salt was accounted the best.

Ref: CELL/RS/HF_278  © Centre for Editing Lives and Letters