Page images
PDF
EPUB

and blind, except you first try the issuing of the several parts of the body, which of them issue more speedily, and which more slowly; and so by apportioning the time, can take and leave that quality which you desire. This to know there are two ways; the one to try what long stay and what short stay worketh, as hath been said; the other to try in order the succeeding infusions of one and the same body, successively, in several liquors. As for example; take orange pills, or rosemary, or cinnamon, or what you will; and let them infuse half an hour in water: then take them out, and infuse them again in other water; and so the third time: and then taste and consider the first water, the second, and the third; and you will find them differing, not only in strength and weakness, but otherwise in taste or odour; for it may be the first water will have more of the scent, as more fragrant; and the second more of the taste, as more bitter or biting, &c.

22. Infusions in air, for so we may well call odours, have the same diversities with infusions in water; in that the several odours, which are in one flower, or other body, issue at several times; some earlier, some later: so we find that violets, woodbines, strawberries, yield a pleasing scent, that cometh forth first; but soon after an ill scent quite differing from the former. Which is caused, not so much by mellowing, as by the late issuing of the grosser spirit.

23. As we may desire to extract the finest spirits in some cases; so we may desire also to discharge them, as hurtful, in some other. So wine burnt, by reason of the evaporating of the finer spirit, inflameth less, and is best in agues: opium loseth some of its poisonous quality, if it be vapoured out, mingled with spirit of wine, or the like: sena loseth some

also in the stillicides of water, which, if there be water enough to follow, will draw themselves into a small thread, because they will not discontinue; but if there be no remedy, then they cast themselves into round drops; which is the figure that saveth the body most from discontinuance: the same reason is of the roundness of the bubble, as well for the skin of water, as for the air within: for the air likewise avoideth discontinuance; and therefore casteth itself into a round figure. And for the stop and arrest of the air a little while, it showeth that the air of itself hath little or no appetite of ascending.

Experiment solitary touching the making of arti

ficial springs.

25. The rejection, which I continually use, of experiments, though it appeareth not, is infinite; but yet if an experiment be probable in the work, and of great use, I receive it, but deliver it as doubtful. It was reported by a sober man, that an artificial spring may be made thus: Find out a hanging ground, where there is a good quick fall of rainwater. Lay a half-trough of stone, of a good length, three or four foot deep within the same ground; with one end upon the high ground, the other upon the low. Cover the trough with brakes a good thickness, and cast sand upon the top of the brakes: you shall see, saith he, that after some showers are past, the lower end of the trough will run like a spring of water: which is no marvel, if it hold while the rain-water lasteth; but he said it would continue long time after the rain is past: as if the water did multiply itself upon the air, by the help of the coldness and condensation of the earth, and the consort of the first water.

what of its windiness by decocting; and, generally, Experiment solitary touching the venomous quality

subtile or windy spirits are taken off by incension, or evaporation. And even in infusions in things that are of too high a spirit, you were better pour off the first infusion, after a small time, and use the latter.

Experiment solitary touching the appetite of continuation in liquids.

24.(Bubbles are in the form of a hemisphere; air within, and a little skin of water without and it seemeth somewhat strange, that the air should rise so swiftly while it is in the water; and when it cometh to the top, should be stayed by so weak a cover as that of the bubble is. But as for the swift ascent of the air, while it is under the water, that is a motion of percussion from the water; which itself descending driveth up the air; and no motion of levity in the air. And this Democritus called motus plaga. In this common experiment, the cause

of the enclosure of the bubble is, for that the appetite to resist separation, or discontinuance, which in solid bodies is strong, is also in liquors, though fainter and weaker; as we see in this of the bubble: we see it also in little glasses of spittle that children make of rushes; and in castles of bubbles, which they make by blowing into water, having obtained a little degree of tenacity by mixture of soap: we see it

of man's flesh.

26. The French, which put off the name of the French disease unto the name of the disease of Naples, do report, that at the siege of Naples, there were certain wicked merchants that barrelled up man's flesh, of some that had been lately slain in Barbary, and sold it for tunny; and that upon that foul and high nourishment was the original of that disease. Which may well be; for that it is certain that the cannibals in the West Indies eat man's flesh; and the West Indies were full of the pox when they were first discovered: and at this day the mortalest poisons, practised by the West Indians, have some mixture of the blood, or fat, or flesh of man: and divers witches and sorceresses, as well amongst the heathen as amongst the christians, have fed upon man's flesh, to aid, as it seemeth, their imagination, with high and foul vapours. Experiment solitary touching the version and transmutation of air into water.

27. It seemeth that there be these ways, in likelihood, of version of vapours or air, into water and moisture. The first is cold; which doth manifestly condense; as we see in the contracting of the air in the weather-glass; whereby it is a degree nearer to We see it also in the generation of springs,

water.

which the ancients thought, very probably, to be made by the version of air into water, holpen by the rest, which the air hath in those parts; whereby it cannot dissipate. And by the coldness of rocks: for there springs are chiefly generated. We see it also in the effects of the cold of the middle region, as they call it, of the air; which produceth dews and rains. And the experiment of turning water into ice, by snow, nitre, and salt, whereof we shall

featured than otherwise they would be, by the forming and shaping of them in their infancy: as by stroking up the calves of the legs, to keep them from falling down too low; and by stroking up the forehead, to keep them from being low-foreheaded. And it is a common practice to swathe infants, that they may grow more straight and better shaped : and we see young women, by wearing strait bodice, keep themselves from being gross and corpulent.

speak hereafter, would be transferred to the turning Experiment solitary touching the condensing of air

of air into water. The second way is by compression; as in stillatories, where the vapour is turned back upon itself, by the encounter of the sides of the stillatory; and in the dew upon the covers of boiling pots; and in the dew towards rain, upon marble and wainscot. But this is like to do no great effect; except it be upon vapours, and gross air, that are already very near in degree to water. The third is that, which may be searched into, but doth not yet appear; which is, by mingling of moist vapours with air; and trying if they will not bring a return of more water, than the water was at first: for if so, that increase is a version of the air: therefore put water into the bottom of a stillatory, with the neb stopped; weigh the water first; hang in the middle of a stillatory a large spunge; and see what quantity of water you can crush out of it; and what it is more, or less, compared with the water spent ; for you must understand, that if any version can be wrought, it will be easiliest done in small pores: and that is the reason why we prescribe a spunge. The fourth way is probable also, though not appearing; which is, by receiving the air into the small pores of bodies: for, as hath been said, every thing in small quantity is more easy for version; and tangible bodies have no pleasure in the consort of air, but endeavour to subact it into a more dense body; but in entire bodies it is checked; because if the air should condense, there is nothing to succeed: therefore it must be in loose bodies, as sand, and powder; which, we see, if they lie close, of themselves gather moisture.

Experiment solitary touching helps towards the

beauty and good features of persons.

28. It is reported by some of the ancients; that whelps, or other creatures, if they be put young into such a cage or box, as they cannot rise to their stature, but may increase in breadth or length, will grow accordingly as they can get room: which if it be true and feasible, and that the young creature so pressed and straitened, doth not thereupon die; it is a means to produce dwarf creatures, and in a very strange figure. This is certain, and noted long since, that the pressure or forming of parts of creatures, when they are very young, doth alter the shape not a little; as the stroking of the heads of infants, between the hands, was noted of old to make Macrocephali; which shape of the head, at that time, was esteemed. And the raising gently of the bridge of the nose, doth prevent the deformity of a saddle nose. Which observation well weighed, may teach a means to make the persons of men and women, in many kinds, more comely and better

in such sort as it may put on weight, and yield nourishment.

29. Onions, as they hang, will many of them shoot forth; and so will penny-royal; and so will an herb called orpin; with which they use in the country to trim their houses, binding it to a lath or stick, and setting it against the wall. We see it likewise, more especially, in the greater sempervive, which will put out branches two or three years: but it is true, that commonly they wrap the root in a cloth besmeared with oil, and renew it once in half a year. The like is reported by some of the ancients, of the stalks of lilies. The cause is; for that these plants have a strong, dense, and succulent moisture, which is not apt to exhale; and so is able, from the old store, without drawing help from the earth, to suffice the sprouting of the plant: and this sprouting is chiefly in the late spring, or early summer; which are the times of putting forth. We see also, that stumps of trees, lying out of the ground, will put forth sprouts for a time. But it is a noble trial, and of very great consequence, to try whether these things, in the sprouting, do increase weight; which must be tried, by weighing them before they are hanged up, and afterwards again when they are sprouted. For if they increase not in weight, then it is no more but this; that what they send forth in the sprout, they lose in some other part: but if they gather weight, then it is magnale naturæ; for it shows that air may be made so to be condensed, as to be converted into a dense body; whereas the race and period of all things, here above the earth, is to extenuate and turn things to be more pneumatical and rare; and not to be retrograde, from pneumatical to that which is dense. It showeth also that air can nourish; which is another great matter of consequence. Note, that to try this, the experiment of the semper-vive must be made without oiling the cloth; for else, it may be, the plant receiveth nourishment from the oil.

Experiment solitary touching the commixture of

flame and air, and the great force thereof 30. Flame and air do not mingle, except it be in an instant; or in the vital spirit of vegetables and living creatures. In gunpowder, the force of it hath been ascribed to rarefaction of the earthy substance into flame; and thus far it is true: and then, forsooth, it is become another element; the form whereof occupieth more place; and so, of necessity, followeth a dilatation: and therefore, lest two bodies should be in one place, there must needs also follow an expulsion of the pellet; or blowing up of the

mine. tions.

[ocr errors]

But these are crude and ignorant specula- | which we usually see, is merely by accident, and For flame, if there were nothing else, except that the air about, by quenching the sides of the it were in very great quantity, will be suffocate with flame, crusheth it, and extenuateth it into that form; any hard body, such as a pellet is, or the barrel of for of itself it would be round; and therefore smoke a gun; so as the flame would not expel the hard is in the figure of a pyramis reversed; for the air body; but the hard body would kill the flame, and quencheth the flame and receiveth the smoke. Note not suffer it to kindle or spread. But the cause of also, that the flame of the candle, within the flame this so potent a motion, is the nitre, which we call of the spirit of wine, is troubled; and doth not only otherwise saltpetre, which having in it a notable open and move upwards, but moveth waving, and to crude and windy spirit, first by the heat of the fire and fro; as if flame of its own nature, if it were not suddenly dilateth itself; and we know that simple quenched, would roll and turn, as well as move upair, being preternaturally attenuated by heat, will wards. By all which it should seem, that the celesmake itself room, and break and blow up that which tial bodies, most of them, are true fires or flames, as resisteth it; and secondly, when the nitre hath the Stoics held; more fine, perhaps, and rarified, dilated itself, it bloweth abroad the flame, as an in- than our flame is. For they are all globular and ward bellows. And therefore we see that brimstone, determinate; they have rotation; and they have the pitch, camphire, wild-fire, and divers other inflam-colour and splendour of flame: so that flame above mable matters, though they burn cruelly, and are is durable, and consistent, and in its natural place; hard to quench, yet they make no such fiery wind but with us it is a stranger, and momentary, and as gunpowder doth and on the other side, we see impure like Vulcan that halted with his fall. that quick-silver, which is a most crude and watery body, heated, and pent in, hath the like force with gunpowder. As for living creatures, it is certain, their vital spirits are a substance compounded of an airy and flamy matter; and though air and flame being free, will not well mingle; yet bound in by a body that hath some fixing, they will. For that you may best see in those two bodies, which are their aliments, water and oil; for they likewise will not well mingle of themselves; but in the bodies of plants, and living creatures, they will. It is no marvel therefore, that a small quantity of spirits in the cells of the brain, and canals of the sinews, are able to move the whole body, which is of so great mass, both with so great force, as in wrestling, leaping; and with so great swiftness, as in playing division upon the lute. Such is the force of these two natures, air and flame, when they incorporate.

:

Experiment solitary touching the secret nature of flame.

31. Take a small wax candle, and put it in a socket of brass or iron; then set it upright in a por- | ringer full of spirit of wine heated: then set both the candle and spirit of wine on fire, and you shall see the flame of the candle open itself, and become four or five times bigger than otherwise it would have been; and appear in figure globular, and not in pyramis. You shall see also, that the inward flame of the candle keepeth colour, and doth not wax any whit blue towards the colour of the outward flame of the spirit of wine. This is a noble instance; wherein two things are most remarkable; the one, that one flame within another quencheth not; but is a fixed body, and continueth as air or water do. And therefore flame would still ascend upwards in one greatness, if it were not quenched on the sides: and the greater the flame is at the bottom, the higher is the rise. The other, that flame doth not mingle with flame, as air doth with air, or water with water, but only remaineth contiguous; as it cometh to pass betwixt consisting bodies. It appeareth also, that the form of a pyramis in flame,

:

Experiment solitary touching the different force of
flame in the midst and on the sides.

32. Take an arrow,
and hold it in flame for the
space of ten
and when it cometh forth you
shall and Pulses,
those parts of the arrow which were on
the outsides of the flame more burned, blacked, and
turned almost into a coal, whereas that in the midst
of the flame will be as if the fire had scarce touched
it.

You can

meb

finge

This is an instance of great consequence for the discovery of the nature of flame; and showeth manifestly, that flame burneth more violently towards the sides than in the midst: and, which is more, that heat or fire is not violent or furious, but where it is checked and pent. And therefore the Peripatetics, howsoever their opinion of an element of fire above the air is justly exploded, in that point alm they acquit themselves well: for being opposed, that if there were a sphere of fire, that encompassed the a lu earth so near hand, it were impossible but all things mate should be burnt up; they answer, that the pure elemental fire, in its own place, and not irritated, is d but of a moderate heat.

Experiment solitary touching the decrease of the
natural motion of gravity, in great distance from
the earth; or within some depth of the earth.

33. It is affirmed constantly by many, as a usual
experiment, that a lump of ore, in the bottom of a
mine, will be tumbled and stirred by two men's
strength; which if you bring it to the top of the
earth, will ask six men's strength at the least to stir
it. It is a noble instance, and is fit to be tried to
the full; for it is very probable, that the motion of
gravity worketh weakly, both far from the earth,
and also within the earth: the former, because the
appetite of union of dense bodies with the earth, in
respect to the distance, is more dull: the latter, be-
cause the body hath in part attained its nature when
it is some depth in the earth. For as for the moving
to a point or place, which was the opinion of the
ancients, it is a mere vanity.

[ocr errors]

Experiment solitary touching the contraction of bodies in bulk, by the mixture of the more liquid body with the more solid.

34. It is strange how the ancients took up experiments upon credit, and yet did build great matters upon them. The observation of some of the best of them, delivered confidently, is, that a vessel filled with ashes will receive the like quantity of water, that it would have done if it had been empty. But this is utterly untrue, for the water will not go in by a fifth part. And I suppose, that that fifth part is the difference of the lying close, or open, of the ashes; as we see that ashes alone, if they be hard pressed, will lie in less room and so the ashes with air between, lie looser; and with water, closer. For I have not yet found certainly, that the water itself, by mixture of ashes or dust, will shrink or draw into less room.

Experiment solitary touching the making vines more fruitful.

35. It is reported of credit, that if you lay good store of kernels of grapes about the root of a vine, it will make the vine come earlier and prosper better. It may be tried with other kernels laid about the root of a plant of the same kind; as figs, kernels of apples, &c. The cause may be, for that the kernels draw out of the earth juice fit to nourish the tree, as those that would be trees of themselves, though there were no root; but the root being of greater strength robbeth and devoureth the nourishment, when they have drawn it: as great fishes devour little.

Experiments in consort touching purging medicines.

36. The operation of purging medicines, and the causes thereof, have been thought to be a great secret; and so, according to the slothful manner of men, it is referred to a hidden propriety, a specifical virtue, and a fourth quality, and the like shifts of ignorance. The causes of purging are divers; all plain and perspicuous; and throughly maintained by experience. The first is, that whatsoever cannot be overcome and digested by the stomach, is by the stomach either put up by vomit, or put down to the guts; and by that motion of expulsion in the stomach and guts, other parts of the body, as the orifices of the veins, and the like, are moved to expel by con

sent.

For nothing is more frequent than motion of consent in the body of man. This surcharge of the stomach is caused either by the quality of the medicine, or by the quantity. The qualities are three: extreme bitter, as in aloes, coloquintida, &c.; loathsome and of horrible taste, as in agaric, black hellebore, &c.; and of secret malignity, and disagreement towards man's body, many times not appearing much in the taste, as in scammony, mechoachan, antimony, &c. And note well, that if there be any medicine that purgeth, and hath neither of the first two manifest qualities, it is to be held suspected as a kind of poison; for that it worketh either by corrosion, or by a secret malignity, and enmity to nature; and therefore such medicines are warily to be

prepared and used. The quantity of that which is taken doth also cause purging; as we see in a great quantity of new milk from the cow; yea, and a great quantity of meat; for surfeits many times turn to purges, both upwards and downwards. Therefore we see generally, that the working of purging medicines cometh two or three hours after the medicines taken; for that the stomach first maketh a proof, whether it can concoct them. And the like happeneth after surfeits, or milk in too great quantity.

37. A second cause is mordication of the orifices of the parts; especially of the mesentery veins; as it is seen, that salt, or any such thing that is sharp and biting, put into the fundament, doth provoke the part to expel; and mustard provoketh sneezing; and any sharp thing to the eyes provoketh tears. And therefore we see that almost all purgers have a kind of twitching and vellication, besides the griping which cometh of wind. And if this mordication be in an over-high degree, it is little better than the corrosion of poison; as it cometh to pass sometimes in antimony, especially if it be given to bodies not replete with humours; for where humours abound, the humours save the parts.

38. The third cause is attraction: for I do not deny, but that purging medicines have in them a direct force of attraction; as drawing plaisters have in surgery and we see sage or betony bruised, sneezing powder, and other powders, or liquor, which the physicians call errhines, put into the nose, draw phlegm and water from the head; and so it is in apophlegmatisms and gargarisms that draw the rheum down by the palate. And by this virtue, no doubt, some purgers draw more one humour, and some

another, according to the opinion received: as rhubarb draweth choler; sena melancholy; agaric phlegm, &c.; but yet, more or less, they draw promiscuously. And note also, that besides sympathy between the purger and the humour, there is also another cause, why some medicines draw some humour more than another. And it is, for that some medicines work quicker than others: they that draw quick, draw only the lighter and more fluid humours; and they that draw slow, work upon the more tough and viscous humours. And therefore men must beware how they take rhubarb, and the like, alone familiarly; for it taketh only the lightest part of the humour away, and leaveth the mass of humours more obstinate. And the like may be said of wormwood, which is so much magnified.

39. The fourth cause is flatuosity; for wind stirred moveth to expel: and we find that, in effect, all purgers have in them a raw spirit or wind; which is the principal cause of tortion in the stomach and belly. And therefore purgers lose, most of them, the virtue, by decoction upon the fire; and for that cause are given chiefly in infusion, juice, or powder.

40. The fifth cause is compression or crushing; as when water is crushed out of a spunge: so we see that taking cold moveth looseness by contraction of the skin and outward parts; and so doth cold likewise cause rheums, and defluxions from the head; and some astringent plaisters crush out puru

Experiments in consort touching meats and drinks that are most nourishing.

lent matter. This kind of operation is not found in | the liver and reins; where, by heating and opening, many medicines: myrobalanes have it; and it may it sendeth down urine more plentifully. be the barks of peaches; for this virtue requireth an astriction; but such an astriction as is not grateful to the body; for a pleasing astriction doth rather bind in the humours than expel them: and therefore, such astriction is found in things of a harsh taste.

41. The sixth cause is lubrefaction and relaxation. As we see in medicines emollient; such as are milk, honey, mallows, lettuce, mercurial, pellitory of the wall, and others. There is also a secret virtue of relaxation in cold: for the heat of the body bindeth the parts and humours together, which cold relaxeth as it is seen in urine, blood, pottage, or the like; which, if they be cold, break and dissolve. And by this kind of relaxation, fear looseneth the belly; because the heat retiring inwards towards the heart, the guts and other parts are relaxed; in the same manner as fear also causeth trembling in the sinews. And of this kind of purgers are some medicines made of mercury.

42. The seventh cause is abstersion; which is plainly scouring off, or incision of the more viscous humours, and making the humours more fluid; and cutting between them and the part: as is found in nitrous water, which scoureth linen cloth speedily from the foulness. But this incision must be by a sharpness, without astriction: which we find in salt, wormwood, oxymel, and the like.

43. There be medicines that move stools, and not urine; some other, urine, and not stools. Those that purge by stool, are such as enter not at all, or little, into the mesentery veins; but either at the first are not digestible by the stomach, and therefore move immediately downwards to the guts; or else are afterwards rejected by the mesentery veins, and so turn likewise downwards to the guts; and of these two kinds are most purgers. But those that move urine, are such as are well digested of the stomach, and well received also of the mesentery veins; so they come as far as the liver, which sendeth urine to the bladder, as the whey of blood: and those medicines being opening and piercing, do fortify the operation of the liver, in sending down the wheyey part of the blood to the reins. For medicines urinative do not work by rejection and indigestion, as solutive do.

44. There be divers medicines, which in greater quantity move stool, and in smaller, urine: and so contrariwise, some that in greater quantity move urine, and in smaller, stool. Of the former sort is rhubarb, and some others. The cause is, for that rhubarb is a medicine which the stomach in a small quantity doth digest and overcome, being not flatuous nor loathsome, and so sendeth it to the mesentery veins; and so being opening, it helpeth down urine: but in a greater quantity, the stomach cannot overcome it, and so it goeth to the guts. Pepper by some of the ancients is noted to be of the second sort; which being in small quantity, moveth wind in the stomach and guts, and so expelleth by stool; but being in greater quantity, dissipateth the wind; and itself getteth to the mesentery veins, and so to

[ocr errors]

45. We have spoken of evacuating of the body; we will now speak something of the filling of it by restoratives in consumptions and emaciating diseases. In vegetables, there is one part that is more nourishing than another; as grains and roots nourish more than the leaves; insomuch as the order of the Folietanes was put down by the pope, as finding leaves unable to nourish man's body. Whether there be that difference in the flesh of living creatures, is not well inquired: as whether livers, and other entrails, be not more nourishing than the outward flesh. We find that amongst the romans, a goose's liver was a great delicacy; insomuch as they had artificial means to make it fair and great; but whether it were more nourishing appeareth not. It is certain, that marrow is more nourishing than fat. And I conceive that some decoction of bones and sinews, stamped and well strained, would be a very nourishing broth: we find also that Scotch skinck, which is a pottage of strong nourishment, is made with the knees and sinews of beef, but long boiled: jelly also, which they use for a restorative, is chiefly made of knuckles of veal. The pulp that is within the crawfish or crab, which they spice and butter, is more nourishing than the flesh of the crab or crawfish. The yolks of eggs are clearly more nourishing than the whites. So that it should seem, that the parts of living creatures that lie more inwards, nourish more than the outward flesh; except it be the brain which the spirits prey too much upon, to leave it any great virtue of nourishment. It seemeth for the nourishing of aged men, or men in consumptions, some such thing should be devised, as should be half chylus, before it be put into the stomach.

46. Take two large capons; parboil them upon a soft fire, by the space of an hour or more, till in effect all the blood be gone. Add in the decoction the pill of a sweet lemon, or a good part of the pill of a citron, and a little mace. Cut off the shanks, and throw them away. Then with a good strong chopping-knife mince the two capons, bones and all, as small as ordinary minced meat; put them into a large neat boulter; then take a kilderkin, sweet and well seasoned, of four gallons of beer, of 8s. strength, new as it cometh from the tunning; make in the kilderkin a great bung-hole of purpose: then thrust into it the boulter, in which the capons are, drawn out in length; let it steep in it three days and three nights, the bung-hole open, to work, then close the bung-hole, and so let it continue a day and a half; then draw it into bottles, and you may drink it well after three days bottling; and it will last six weeks: approved. It drinketh fresh, flowereth and mantleth exceedingly; it drinketh not newish at all; it is an excellent drink for a consumption, to be drunk either alone, or carded with some other beer. It quencheth thirst, and hath no whit of windiness. Note, that it is not possible, that meat and bread,

« PreviousContinue »