The Works of Francis Bacon

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: characters of matter, we will now set down some instances. Experiment solitary touching the causes of putrefaction. 836. All putrefactions come chiefly from the inward spirits of the body; and partly also from the ambient body, be it air, liquor, or whatsoever else. And this last, by two means: either by ingress of the substance of the ambient body into the body putrefied; or by excitation and solicitation of the body putrefied; and the parts thereof, by the body ambient. As for the received opinion, that putrefaction is caused, either by cold, or peregrine and preternatural heat, it is but nugation: for cold in things inanimate, is the greatest enemy that is to putrefaction; though it ex- tinguishethvivification, which ever consisteth in spirits attenuate, which the cold doth congeal and coagulate. And as for the peregrine heat, it is thus far true, that if the proportion of the adventive heat be greatly predominant to the natural heat and spirits of the body, it tendeth to dissolution, or notable alteration. But this is wrought by emission, or suppression, or suffocation, of the native spirits; and also by the disordination and discomposure of the tangible parts, and other passages of nature, and not by a conflict of heats. Experiment solitary touching bodies unperfectly mixed. 837. In versions, or main alterations of bodies, there is a medium between the body, as it is at first, and the body resulting; which medium is corpus im- perfecte mistum, and is transitory, and not durable; as mists, smokesj vapours, chylus in the stomach, living creatures in the first vivification: and the middleaction, which produceth such imperfect bodies, is fitly called, by some of the ancients, inquination, or inconcoction, which is a kind of putrefaction: for the parts are in...