The works of Francis Bacon, lord chancellor of England.

CENT. VIII. NATURAL HISTORY. 107
weigh the dissolution; and you shall find it to part touched, that water may be the medium of
bear as good weight as the bodies did severally: sounds. If you dash a stone against a stone in
notwithstanding a good deal of waste by a thick the bottom of the water, it maketh a sound. So
vapour that issueth during the working; which a long pole struck upon gravel in the bottom of
showetln that the opening of a body doth increase the water maketh a sound. Nay, if you should
the weight. This was tried once or twice, but I think that the sound cometh up by the pole, and
know not whether there were any error in the not by the water, you shall find that an anchor
trial. let down by a rope maketh a sound; and yet the
rope is no solid body whereby the sound can asExperiment solitary touching the super-natation of cend.
bodies.
790. Take of aqua fortis two ounces, of quick- Experiment solitary of theflight of the spirits upon
silver two drams, for that charge the aqua fortis odious objects.
will bear, the dissolution will not bear a flint as 793. All objects of the senses which are very
bior as a nutmeg; yet, no doubt, the increasing offensive do cause the spirits to retire: and upon
of the weight of water will increase its power of their flight, the parts are, in some degree, destibearing; as we see brine, when it is salt enough, tute; and so there is induced in them a trepida.
will bear an egg. And Iremember well a physi- tion and horror. For sounds, we see that the
cian, that used- to give some mineral baths for the grating of a saw, or any very harsh noise, will
golut, &c.; and the body, when it was put into the set the teeth on edge, and make all the body
bath, could not get down so easily as in ordinary shiver. For tastes, we see that in the taking of
water. But it seemeth the weight of the quick- a potion or pills, the head and the neck shake.
silver more than the weight of a stone, doth not For odious smells, the like effect followeth, which
compense the weight of a stone more than the is less perceived, because there is a remedy at
weight of the aqua fortis. hand by stopping of the nose; but in horses, that
can use no such help, we see the smell of a carExperiment solitary touching theflying of unequal rion, especially of a dead horse, maketh them fly
bodies in the air. away, and take on almost as if they were mad.
791. Let there be a body of unequal weight, as For feeling, if you come out of the sun suddenly
of wood and lead, or bone and lead, if you throw into a shade, there followeth a chillness or shiit from you with the light end forward, it will vering in all the body. And even in sight which
turn, and the weightier end will recover to be hath in effect no odious object, coming into sudforwards; unless the body be over-long. The den darkness induceth an offer to shiver.
cause is, for that the more dense body bath a more
violent pressure of the parts from the first impul- Experiments in consort touching the super-reflecsion; which is the cause, though heretofore not tion of echoes.
found out, as hath been often said, of all violent 794. There is in the city of Ticinum in Italy,
motions; and when the hinder part moveth a church which hath windows only from above;
swifter, for that it less endureth pressure of parts, it is in length a hundred feet, in breadth twenty
than the forward part can make way for it, it feet, and in height near fifty; having a door in
must needs be that the body turn over: for, turned, the midst. It reporteth the voice twelve or thirteen
it can more easily draw forward the lighter part. times, if you stand by the close end wall over
Galileus noteth it well, that if an open trough against the door. The echo fadeth, and dieth by
wherein water is, be driven faster than the water little and little, as the echo at Pont-Charenton doth.
can follow, the water gathereth upon an heap to- And the voice soundeth as if it came from above
wards the hinder end, where the motion began, the door. And if you stand at the lower end, or
which he supposeth, holding confidently the mo- on either side of the door, the echo holdeth; but
tion of the earth, to be the cause of the ebbing and if you stand in the door, or in the midst just over
flowing of the ocean: because the earth over-run- against the door, not. Note, that all echoes sound
neth the water. Which theory, though it be better against old walls than new; because they
false, yet the first experiment is true. As for the are more dry and hollow.
inequality of the preso, ie of parts, it appeareth
manifestly in this; tbfat if you take a body of Experiment solitary touching the force of imaginastone or iron, and arO-blr of wood, of the same tion, imitating that of the sense.
magnitude and ebar, and throw them with equal 795. Those effects which are wrought by the
force, you cannot pos-ibly throw the wood so far percussion of the sense, and by things in fact, are
as the stone or iron produced likewise in some degree by the imagination. Therefore if a man see another eat sour,'xperiment solitary touching water, that it may be or acid things, which set the teeth on edge, this
the mtdium of sounds. object tainteth the imagination. So that ho that
792. It is certain, as it hath been formerly in seeth the thing done by another, hath his own