moderate aftringent plaifter, which repelleth new humour from falling. The poultis alone would make the part more foft and weak, and apter to take the defluxion and impreffion of the humour. The fomentation alone, if it were too weak, without way made by the poultis, would draw forth little; if too ftrong, it would draw to the part, as well as draw from it. The plaifter alone would pen the humour already contained in the part, and fo exafperate it, as well as forbid new humour. Therefore they must be all taken in order, as is faid. The poultis is to be laid to for two or three hours: the fomentation for a quarter of an hour, or fomewhat better, being used hot, and seven or eight times repeated: the plaister to continue on still, till the part be well confirmed. Experiments folitary touching cure by cuftom. 61. THERE is a fecret way of cure, (unpractifed) by affuetude of that which in it felf hurteth. Poisons have been made, by fome, familiar, as hath been faid. Ordinary keepers of the fick of the plague, are feldom infected. Enduring of tortures, by cuftom, hath been made more eafy: the brooking of enormous quantity of meats, and fo of wine or ftrong drink, hath been, by custom, made to be without furfeit or drunkenness. And generally dif eafes that are chronical, as coughs, phthificks, fome kinds of palfies, lunacies, &c. are moft dangerous at the firft: therefore a wife physician will confider whether a difeafe be incurable; or whether the juft cure of it be not full of peril; and if he find it to be fuch, let him refort to palliation; and alleviate the fymptom, without bufying himself too much with the fect cure and many times (if the patient be indeed patient) that courfe will exceed all expectation. Likewife the patient hin:felf may ftrive, by little and little, to overcome the fymptom in the exacerbation, and fo, by time, turn fuffering into nature. Experiment folitary toucking cure by excess. per 62. DIVERS diseases, especially chronical, (fuch as quartan agues) are fometimes cured by furfeit and exceffes: as excess of meat, excefs of drink, extraordinary fafting, extraordinary ftirring or laffitude, and the like. The caufe is, for that diseases of continuance get an adventitious ftrength from cuftom, befides their material caufe from the humours: fo that the breaking of the custom doth leave them only to their firft caufe; which if it be any thing weak will fall off. Befides, fuch exceffes do excite and fpur nature, which thereupon rifes more forcibly against the disease. Experiment folitary touching cure by motion of confent. 63. THERE is in the body of man a great confent in the motion of the feveral parts. We fee, it is children's fport, to prove whether they can rub upon their breaft with one hand, and pat upon their forehead with another; and straightways they fhall fometimes rub with both hands, or pat with both hands. We fee, that when the fpirits that come to the noftrils, expel a bad fcent, the ftomach is ready to exp.Î by vomit. We find that in confumptions of the lungs, when nature cannot expel by cough, men fall into fluxes of the belly, and then they die. So in peftilent difeafes, if they cannot be expelled by fweat, they fall likewife into lcofenefs; and that is commonly mortal. Therefore phyficians fhould ingenioufly contrive, how by motions that are in their power, they may excite inward motions that are not in their power, by confent: as by the stench of feathers, or the like, they cure the rifing of the mother. VOL. III. C Ex Experiment folitary touching cure of difeafes, which are contrary to predifpofition. " 64. HIPPOCRATES aphorifm, in morbis minus, is a good profound aphorifm. It importeth, that diseases, contrary to the complexion, age, fex, seafon of the year, diet, &c. are more dangerous than thofe that are concurrent. A man would think it fhould be otherwife; for that, when the accident of fickness, and the natural difpofition, do fecond the one the other, the disease fhould be more forcible: and fo (no doubt) it is; if you fuppofe like quantity of matter. But that which maketh good the aphorifm, is, becaufe fuch difeafes do fhew a greater collection of matter, by that they are able to overcome those natural inclinations to the contrary. And therefore in diseases of that kind, let the phyfician apply himself more to purgation, than to alteration; because the offence is in the quantity; and the qualities are rectified of themselves. Experiment folitary touching preparations before purging, and fettling of the body afterward. great purg 65. PHYSICIANS do wifely prefcribe, that there be preparatives used before just purgations; for certain it is, that purgers do many times hurt, if the body be not accommodated, both before and after the purging. The hurt that they do, for want of preparation before purging, is by the fticking of the humours, and their not coming fair away; which causeth in the body great perturbations, and ill accidents, during the purging; and alfo the diminishing and dulling of the working of the medicine it felf, that it eth not fufficiently; therefore the work of preparation is double; to make the humours fluid and mature, and to make the paffages more open: for both those help to make the humours pafs readily. And for the former of thefe, fyrups are most profitable; and for the latter, apozemes, or preparing broths; clyfters alfo help left the medicine ftop in the guts, and work gripingly. But it is true, that bodies abounding with humours, and fat bodies, and open weather, are preparatives in themselves; because they make the humours more fluid. But let a phyfician beware, how he purge after hard frofty weather, and in a lean body, without preparation. For the hurt that they may do after purging, it is caused by the lodging of fome humours in ill places: for it is certain, that there be humours, which fomewhere placed in the body, are quiet, and do little hurt; in other places, (efpecially paffages) do much mischief. Therefore it is good, after purging, to use apozemes and broths, not fo much opening as those used before purging; but abfterfive and mundifying clyfters alfo are good to conclude with, to draw away the reliques of the humours, that may have defcended to the lower region of the body. Experiment folitary touching stanching of blood. 66. BLOOD is ftanched divers ways. Firft by aftringents, and repercuffive medicines. Secondly by drawing of the fpirits and blood inwards; which is done by cold; as iron or a ftone laid to the neck, doth ftanch the bleeding at the nofe; alfo it hath been tried, that the testicles being put into sharp vinegar, hath made a fudden recefs of the fpirits, and ftanched blood. Thirdly by the recefs of the blood by fympathy. So it hath been tried, that the that bleedeth, being thruft into the body of a capon, or fheep, new part ript and bleeding, hath ftanched blood; the blood, as it feemeth, fucking and drawing drawing up, by fimilitude of fubftance, the blood it meeteth with, and so it felf going back. Fourthly by custom and time; fo the Prince of Orange, in his first hurt, by the Spanish boy, could find no means to ftanch the blood, either by medicine or ligament; but was fain to have the orifice of the wound ftopped by mens thumbs, fucceeding one another, for the space at the leaft of two days; and at the laft the blood by custom only retired. There is a fifth way alfo in ufe, to let blood in an adverfe part, for a revulfion... Experiment folitary touching change of aliments and medicines. 67. IT helpeth, both in medicine and aliment, to change and not to continue the fame medicine and aliment ftill. The caufe is, for that nature by continual use of any thing, groweth to a fatiety and dulness, either of appetite or working. And we fee that affuetude of things hurtful, doth. make them lose their force to hurt; as poison, which with ufe fome.have brought themselves to brook. And therefore it is no marvel, though things helpful by custom lose their force to help: I count intermiffion almost in the fame thing with change; for that, that hath been intermitted, is after a fort new. Experiment folitary touching diets.. 68. It is found by experience, that in diets of guaiacum, farza, and the like, (efpecially if they be ftrict the patient is more troubled in the begining, than after continuance; which hath made fome of the more delicate fort of patients give them over in the midft; fuppofing that if thofe diets trouble them fo much at first, they shall not be able to endure them to the end. But the caufe is, for that all thofe diets do dry up. humours, rheums, and the like; and they cannot dry up until they have first attenuated; and while the humour is attenuated, it is more fluid than it was before, and troubleth the body a great deal more, until it be dried up and confumed. And therefore patients must expect a due time, and not keck at them at the first. Experiments in confort touching the production of cold. 69. THE producing of cold is a thing very worthy the inquifition; both for the use and disclosure of caufes. For heat and cold are nature's two hands, whereby the chiefly worketh: and heat we have in readiness, in refpect of the fire; but for cold we must stay till it cometh, or feek it in deep caves, or high mountains: and when all is done, we cannot obtain it in any great degree for furnaces of fire are far hotter than a fummer's fun; but vaults or hills are not much colder than a winter's frost. THE first means of producing cold, is that which nature prefenteth us withal; namely, the expiring of cold out of the inward parts of the earth in winter, when the fun hath no power to overcome it; the earth being (as hath been noted by fome) primum frigidum. This hath been afferted, as well by ancient, as by modern philofophers: it was the tenet of Parmenides. It was the opinion of the author of the difcourfe in Plutarch, (for I take it, that book was not Plutarch's own) de primo frigido. It was the opinion of Telefus, who hath renewed the philofophy of Parmenides, and is the beft of the novelists. 70. THE second caufe of cold is the contact of cold bodies; for cold is active and tranfitive into bodies adjacent, as well as heat: which is feen in those things that are touched with fnow or cold water. And therefore, whosoever will be an inquirer into nature, let him refort to a confervatory of fnow and VOL. III. C 2 ice i ice; fuch as they ufe for delicacy, to cool wine in fummer: which is a poor and contemptible use, in respect of other uses, that may be made of fuch confervatories. 71. THE third caufe is the primary nature of all tangible bodies: for it is well to be noted, that all things whatsoever (tangible) are of themselves cold except they have an acceffory heat by fire, life, or motion: For even the fpirit of wine, or chymical oils, which are fo hot in operation, are to the first touch cold; and air it felf compreffed, and condensed a little by blowing, is cold. 72. THE fourth cause is the denfity of the body; for all dense bodies are colder than most other bodies, as metals, stone, glass; and they are longer in heating than fofter bodies. And it is certain, that earth, denfe, tangible, hold all of the nature of cold. The cause is, for that all matters tangible being cold, it must needs follow, that where the matter is most congregate, the cold is the greater. 73. THE fifth caufe of cold, or rather of increase and vehemency of cold, is a quick fpirit inclofed in a cold body: as will appear to any that fhall attentively confider of nature in many inftances. We fee nitre (which hath a quick fpirit) is cold; more cold to the tongue than a ftone; fo water is colder than oil, because it hath a quicker fpirit; for all oil, though it hath the tangible parts better digefted than water, yet hath it a duller fpirit: fo fnow is colder than water, because it hath more spirit within it: fo we fee that falt put to ice (as in the producing of the artificial ice) increaseth the activity of cold: fo fome infecta which have spirit of life, as fnakes and filkworms, are to the touch cold. So quickfilver is the coldest of metals, because it is fulleft of fpirit. 74. THE fixth caufe of cold is the chafing and driving away of spirits, fuch as have fome degree of heat: for the banishing of the heat must needs leave any body cold. This we fee in the operation of opium, and ftupefactives, upon the fpirits of living creatures: and it were not amifs to try opium, by laying it upon the top of a weather-glafs, to fee whether it will contract the air: but I doubt it will not fucceed; for befides that the virtue of opium will hardly penetrate through fuch a body as glafs, I conceive that opium, and the like, make the spirits fly rather by malignity, than by cold. 75. SEVENTHLY, the fame effect muft follow upon the exhaling or drawing out of the warm fpirits, that doth upon the flight of the fpirits. There is an opinion, that the moon is magnetical of heat, as the fun is of cold and moifture: it were not amifs therefore to try it, with warm waters; the one exposed to the beams of the moon, the other with fome fkreen betwixt the beams of the moon and the water; as we ufe to the fun for fhade; and to see whether the former will cool fooner. And it were also good to inquire, what other means there may be, to draw forth the exile heat, which is in the air; for that may be a fecret of great power to produce cold weather. Experiments in confort touching the version and tranfmutation of air into water. We have formerly fet down the means of turning air into water, in the experiment 27. But because it is magnale naturae, and tendeth to the fubduing of a very great effect, and is also of manifold ufe, we will add some instances in confort that give light thereunto. I 76. Ir 76. It is reported by fome of the ancients, that failors have used, every night, to hang fleeces of wool on the fides of their fhips, the wool towards the water; and that they have crushed fresh water out of them, in the morning, for their use. And thus much we have tried, that a quantity of wool tied loose together, being let down into a deep well, and hanging in the middle, fome three fathom from the water, for a night, in the winter-time; increased in weight (as I now remember) to a fifth part. 77. It is reported by one of the ancients, that in Lydia, near Pergamus, there were certain workmen, in time of wars fled into caves; and the mouth of the caves being ftopped by the enemies, they were famifhed. But long time after the dead bones were found; and fome veffels which they had carried with them; and the veffels full of water; and that water thicker, and more towards ice, than common water: which is a notable inftance of condenfation and induration by burial under earth, (in caves) for a long time; and of verfion alfo (as it should seem) of air into water; if any of those veffels were empty. Try therefore a fmall bladder hung in fnow, and the like in nitre, and the like in quickfilver: and if you find the bladders fallen or fhrunk, you may be fure the air is condensed by the cold of those bodies, as it would be in a cave under earth. 78. It is reported of very good credit, that in the Eaft-Indies, if you fet a tub of water open in a room where cloves are kept, it will be drawn dry in twenty four hours; though it stand at some distance from the cloves. In the countrey, they ufe many times, in deceit, when their wool is new fhorn, to fet fome pails of water by in the fame room, to increase the weight of the wool. But it may be, that the heat of the wool, remaining from the body of the sheep, or the heat gathered by the lying close of the wool, helpeth to draw the watry vapour; but that is nothing to the version. 79. IT is reported alfo credibly, that wool new fhorn, being laid cafually upon a veffel of verjuice, after fome time, had drunk up a great part of the verjuice, though the veffel were whole without any flaw, and had not the bung-hole open. In this inftance, there is (upon the by) to be noted, the percolation or fuing of the verjuice through the wood; for verjuice of it felf would never have paffed through the wood: fo as, it seemeth, it must be first in a kind of vapour, before it pass. 80. It is especially to be noted, that the cause that doth facilitate the verfion of air into water, when the air is not in grofs but fubtilly mingled ..with tangible bodies, is, (as hath been partly touched before) for that tangible bodies have an antipathy with air; and if they find any liquid body that is more dense near them, they will draw it: and after they have drawn it, they will condense it more, and in effect incorporate it; for we fee that a spunge, or wool, or fugar, or a woollen cloth, being put but in part in water, or wine, will draw the liquor higher, and beyond the place: where the water or wine cometh. We fee alfo, that wood, lute-strings, and the like, do fwell in moist feafons: as appeareth by the breaking of the ftrings, the hard turning of the pegs, and the hard drawing forth of boxes, and opening of wainscot doors; which is a kind of infufion and is much like to an infufion in water, which will make wood to fwell: as we fee in the filling of the chops of bowles, by laying them in water. But for that part of thefe experiments which concerneth attraction, we will referve it to the proper title of attraction. : 81. THERE is also a verfion of air into water seen in the sweating of marbles and other ftones; and of wainscot before and in moist weather. This must be, either by fome moisture the body yieldeth; or elfe by the moist air thickned |