tation of solution of continuity: and of this appetite there be many degrees; but the most remarkable and fit to be diftinguished are three. The first in liquors; the second in hard bodies; and the third in bodies cleaving or tenacious. In liquors this appetite is weak: we fee in liquors, the thredding of them in ftillicides (as hath been faid;) the falling of them in round drops (which is the form of union) and the ftaying of them for a little time in bubbles and froth. In the fecond degree or kind, this appetite is frong; as in iron, in stone, in wood, &c. In the third, this appetite is in a medium between the other two: for fuch bodies do partly follow the touch of another body, and partly stick and continue to themselves; and therefore they and draw themfelves in threads; as we fee in pitch, glue, birdlime, &c. But note, that all folid bodies are cleaving more or lefs: and that they love better the touch of fomewhat that is tangible, than of air. For water in fmall quantity cleaveth to any thing that is folid; and fo would metal too, if the weight drew it not off. And therefore gold foliate, or any metal foliate, cleaveth: but those bodies which are noted to be clammy and cleaving, are fuch as have a more indifferent appetite (at once) to follow another body, and to hold to themselves. And therefore they are commonly bodies ill mixed; and which take more pleasure in a foreign body, than in preferving their own confistence; and which have little predominance in drought

rope

or moisture.

Experiment folitary touching the like operations of heat and time.

294. TIME and heat are fellows in many effects. Heat drieth bodies that do cafily expire; as parchment, leaves, roots, clay, &c. And fo doth time or age arefy; as in the fame bodies, &c. Heat diffolveth and melteth bodies that keep in their fpirits; as in divers liquefactions; and fo doth time in some bodies of a fofter confiftence: as is manifeft in honey, which by age waxeth more liquid; and the like in fugar; and fo in old oil, which is ever more clear and more hot in medicinable ufe. Heat caufeth the fpirits to search some iffue out of the body; as in the volatility of metals; and fo doth time; as in the ruft of metals. But generally heat doth that in a small time, which age doth in long.

grow

Experiment folitary touching the different operations of fire and time. 295. SOME things which pass the fire are softest at first, and by time hard, as the crumb of bread. Some are harder when they come from the fire, and afterwards give again, and grow foft, as the cruft of bread, bisket, fweet meats, falt, &c. The caufe is, for that in thofe things which wax hard with time, the work of the fire is a kind of melting: and in those that wax foft with time, (contrariwife) the work of the fire is a kind of baking; and whatsoever the fire baketh, time doth in fome degree diffolve.

Experiment folitary touching motions by imitation.

296. MOTIONS pafs from one man to another, not fo much by exciting imagination, as by invitation; especially if there be an aptnefs or inclination before. Therefore gaping, or yawning, and ftretching do pafs from man to man; for that that causeth gaping and stretching is, when the fpirits are a little heavy by any vapour, or the like. For then they ftrive (as it were) to wring out and expel that which loadeth them. So men drowsy, and defirous to fleep, or before the fit of an ague, do ufe to yawn and ftretch; and do likewife

likewife yield a voice or found, which is an interjection of expulfion: fo that if another be apt and prepared to do the like, he followeth by the fight of another. So the laughing of another maketh to laugh.

Experiment folitary touching infectious diseases.

297. THERE be fome known difeafes that are infectious; and others that are not. Those that are infectious are, first, such as are chiefly in the fpirits, and not fo much in the humours; and therefore pafs eafily from body to body: fuch are peftilences, lippitudes, and fuch like. Secondly, fuch as taint the breath, which we fee paffeth manifeftly from man to man; and not invisible, as the affects of the fpirits do: fuch are confumptions of the lungs, &c. Thirdly, fuch as come forth to the fkin; and therefore taint the air on the body adjacent; efpecially if they confift in an unctuous substance not apt to diffipate; fuch are fcabs and leprofy. Fourthly, fuch as are merely in the humours, and not in the fpirits, breath or exhalations: and therefore they never infect but by touch only; and fuch a touch alfo as cometh within the epidermis; as the venom of the French-pox; and the biting of a mad dog.

Experiment folitary touching the incorporation of powders and liquors.

298. MOST powders grow more clofe and coherent by mixture of water; than by mixture of oil, though oil be the thicker body; as meal, &c. The reafon is the congruity of bodies; which if it be more, maketh a perfecter imbibition and incorporation; which in most powders is more between them and water, than between them and oil: but painters colours ground, and ashes, do better incorporate with oil.

Experiments folitary touching exercife of the body.

299. MUCH motion and exercife is good for fome bodies; and fitting and lefs motion for others. If the body be hot and void of fuperfluous moiftures, too much motion hurteth and it is an error in phyficians, to call too much upon exercise. Likewife men ought to beware, that they use not exercise and a spare diet both: but if much exercise, then a plentiful diet; and if fparing diet, then little exercise. The benefits that come of exercise are, firft, that it fendeth nourishment into the parts more forcibly. Secondly, that it helpeth to excern by fweat, and fo maketh the parts affimilate the more perfectly. Thirdly, that it maketh the fubftance of the body more folid and compact; and fo lefs apt to be confumed and depredated by the fpirits. The evils that come of exercise are, firft, that it maketh the fpirits more hot and predatory. Secondly, that it doth abforb likewife, and attenuate too much the moisture of the body. Thirdly, that it maketh too great concuffion (especially if it be violent) of the inward parts, which delight more in reft. But generally exercife, if it be much, is no friend to prolongation of life; which is one caufe why women live longer than men, because they ftir less.

Experiment folitary touching meats that induce fatiety.

300. SOME food we may ufe long, and much, without glutting; as bread, flesh that is not fat or rank, &c. Some other (though pleasant) glutteth fooner; as sweet meats, fat meats, &c. The caufe is, for that appetite confifteth in the emptiness of the mouth of the stomach; or poffeffing it with fome

what

what that is aftringent; and therefore cold and dry. But things that are fweet and fat are more filling; and do fwim and hang more about the mouth of the stomach; and go not down fo fpeedily: and again turn fooner to choler, which is hot, and ever abateth the appetite. We fee also, that another cause of fatiety, is an over-custom; and of appetite is novelty; and therefore meats, if the fame be continually taken, induce loathing. To give the reafon of the distaste of fatiety, and of the pleasure in novelty; and to distinguish not only in meats and drinks, but also in motions, loves, company, delights, ftudies, what they be that custom maketh more grateful, and what more tedious, were a large field. But for meats, the caufe is attraction, which is quicker, and more excited towards that which is new, than towards that whereof there remaineth a relish by former ufe. And (generally) it is a rule, that whatsoever is fomewhat ingrate at first, is made grateful by custom; but whatsoever is too pleafing at firft, groweth quickly to fatiate.

NATU

NATURAL

HISTORY.

CENT.

IV.

Experiments in confort touching the clarification of liquors, and the accelerating thereof.

A

We

CCELERATION of time, in works of nature, may well be esteemed inter magnalia naturae. And even in divine miracles, accelerating of the time is next to the creating of the matter. will now therefore proceed to the enquiry of it: and for acceleration of germination, we will refer it over unto the place where we shall handle the subject of plants generally; and will now begin with other accelerations.

301. LIQUORS are (many of them) at the first thick and troubled; as mufte, wort, juices of fruits, or herbs expreffed, &c. and by time they fettle and clarify. But to make them clear before the time, is a great work; for it is a fpur to nature, and putteth her out of her pace and befides, it is of good ufe for making drinks and fauces potable and ferviceable speedily; but to know the means of accelerating clarification, we must first know the caufes of clarification. The first caufe is, by the feparation of the groffer parts of the liquor from the finer. The fecond, by the equal diftribution of the fpirits of the liquor with the tangible parts: for that ever reprefenteth bodies clear and untroubled. The third, by the refining the fpirit it felf, which thereby giveth to the liquor more fplendor and more luftre.

302. FIRST, for feparation, it is wrought by weight, as in the ordinary refidence or fettlement of liquors, by heat, by motion, by precipitation, or fublimation; (that is, a calling of the feveral parts either up or down, which is a kind of attraction :) by adhesion; as when a body more viscous is mingled and agitated with the liquor; which viscous body (afterwards fevered) draweth with it the groffer parts of the liquor: and laftly, by percolation or paffage.

303. SECONDLY, for the even distribution of the fpirits, it is wrought by gentle heat; and by agitation or motion; (for of time we fpeak not, because it is that we would anticipate and represent :) and it is wrought also by mixture of fome other body, which hath a virtue to open the liquor, and to make the fpirits the better pass through.

304. THIRDLY, for the refining of the fpirit, it is wrought likewife by heat; by motion; and by mixture of fome body which hath virtue to atténuate. So therefore (having fhewn the causes) for the accelerating of clarification in general, and the inducing of it, take these inftances and trials.

305. IT

305. It is in common practice to draw wine or beer from the lees, (which we call racking;) whereby it will clarify much the fooner: for the lees, though they keep the drink in heart, and make it lafting; yet withal they caft up fome fpiffitude: and this inftance is to be referred to feparation.

306. On the other fide it were good to try, what the adding to the liquor more lees than his own will work; for though the lecs do make the liquor turbid, yet they refine the fpirits. Take therefore a veffel of new beer, and take another veffel of new beer, and rack the one veffel from the lees, and pour the lees of the racked veffel into the unracked veffel, and fee the effect: this inftance is referred to the refining of the spirits.

307. TAKE new beer, and put in fome quantity of stale beer into it, and fee whether it will not accelerate the clarification, by opening the body of the beer, and cutting the groffer parts, whereby they may fall down into lees. And this inftance again is referred to separation.

308. THE longer malt or herbs, or the like, are infufed in liquor, the more thick and troubled the liquor is; but the longer they be decocted in the liquor, the clearer it is. The reafon is plain, because in infufion, the longer it is, the greater is the part of the grofs body that goeth into the liquor: but in decoction, though more goeth forth, yet it either purgeth at the top, or fettleth at the bottom. And therefore the most exact way to clarify, is, first, to infufe, and then to take off the liquor and decoct it; as they do in beer, which hath malt firft infufed in the liquor, and is afterwards boiled with the hop. This alfo is referred to feparation.

309. TAKE hot embers, and put them about a bottle filled with new beer, almoft to the very neck; let the bottle be well stopped, left it fly out: and continue it, renewing the embers every day by the space of ten days; and then compare it with another bottle of the fame beer fet by. Take alfo lime both quenched and unquenched, and fet the bottles in them ut fupra. This inftance is referred both to the even distribution, and also to the refining of the spirits by heat.

310. TAKE bottles, and fwing them; or carry them in a wheel-barrow upon rough ground, twice in a day : but then you may not fill the bottles full, but leave fome air; for if the liquor come close to the stopple, it cannot play nor flower and when you have fhaken them well either way, pour the drink into another bottle stopped clofe after the ufual manner; for if it ftay with much air in it, the drink will pall; neither will it fettle fo perfectly in all the parts. Let it ftand fome twenty four hours: then take it, and put it again into a bottle with air, ut fupra: and thence into a bottle ftopped, ut fupra: and fo repeat the fame operation for feven days. Note, that in the emptying of one bottle into another, you must do it swiftly left the drink pall. It were good also to try it in a bottle with a little air below the neck, without emptying. This inftance is referred to the even distribution and refining of the fpirits by motion.

311. As for percolation inward and outward, (which belongeth to feparation) trial would be made of clarifying by adhesion, with milk put into new beer, and stirred with it: for it may be that the groffer part of the beer will cleave to the milk: the doubt is, whether the milk will fever well again; which is foon tried. And it is ufual in clarifying hippocrafs to put in milk; which after fevereth and carrieth with it the groffer parts of the hippocrafs, as hath been faid elsewhere. Alfo for the better clarification by percolation, when they tun new beer, they use to let it pafs through a ftrainer; and it is like the finer the ftrainer is, the clearer it will be.