All Solid Bodies Are Not Absolutely Hard but They Are Either Fluent or Soft or Elastic

Abstract

The wonderful qualities of percussion, which must be explained and demonstrated at the end, require the structure of solid bodies to be known. This will be dealt with in the present chapter. The largest and principal part of the bodies subjected to our senses is fluid. Such are air, water, fire, quicksilver and countless others. These obviously have neither consistency nor hardness. They can be divided and penetrated by any body. Although the primary components of these fluids are absolutely hard and inelastic as seems logical, nevertheless their mass and their aggregate which compose a fluid body can be divided into particles which can in no way run and move. They offer, however, some resistance, not against division, but against movements in so far as they are heavy.