The works of Francis Bacon, lord chancellor of England.

HISTORY OF LIFE AND DEATH. 509
den death, the spirits being straitened within the 17. Notwithstanding, use and custom prevail
ventricles of the brain. much in this natural action of breathing; as it is
7. Opium, and other strong stupefactives, do in the Delian divers and fishers for pearl, who by
coagulate the spirit, and deprive it of the motion. long use can hold their breaths at least ten times
8. A venomous vapour, totally abhorred by the longer than other men can do.
spirit, causeth sudden death; as in deadly poisons, 18. Amongst living creatures, even of those
which work (as they call it) by a special malig- that have lungs, there are some that are able to
nity; for they strike a loathing into the spirit, that hold their breaths a long time, and others that
the spirit will no more move itself, nor rise against cannot hold them so long, according as they need
a thing so much detested. more or less refrigeration.
9. Also extreme drunkenness, or extreme feed- 19. Fishes need less refrigeration than terrestrial
ing, sometimes cause sudden death, seeing the creatures, yet some they need, and take it by their
spirit is not only oppressed with over-much con- gills. And as terrestrial creatures cannot bear
densing, or the malignity of the vapour, (as in the air that is too hot, or too close, so fishes are
opium and malignant poisons,) but also with the suffocated in waters if they be totally and long
abundance of the vapours. frozen.
10. Extreme grief or fear, especially if they be 20. If the spirit be assaulted by another heat
sudden, (as it is in a sad and unexpected mes- greater than itself, it is dissipated and destroyed;
sage,) cause sudden death. for it cannot bear the proper heat without refrigera11. Not only over-much compression, but also tion, much less can it bear another heat which is
over-much dilatation of the spirit, is deadly. far stronger. This is to be seen in burning fevers,
12. Joys excessiveandsudden havebereftmany where the heat of the putrefied humours doth
of their lives. exceed the native heat, even to extinction or dis13. In greater evacuations, as when they cut sipation.
men for the dropsy, the waters flow forth abun- 21. The want also and use of sleep is referred
dantly, much more in great and sudden fluxes of to refrigeration; for motion doth attenuate and
blood, oftentimes present death followeth; and rarefy the spirit, and doth sharpen and increase
this happens by the mere flight of vacuum within the heat thereof: contrarily, sleep settleth and
the body, all the parts moving to fill the empty restraineth the motion and gadding of the same;
places; and, amongst the rest, the spirits them- for though sleep doth strengthen and advance the
selves. For, as for slow fluxes of blood,this matter actions of the parts and of the lifeless spirits, and
pertains to the indigence of nourishment, not to all that motion which is to the circumference of
the diffusion of the spirits. And touching the the body, yet it doth in great part quiet and still
motion of the spirit so far, either compressed or the proper motion of the living spirit. Now,
diffused, that it bringeth death, thus much. sleep is regularly due unto human nature once. 14. We must come next to the want of refri- within four-and-twenty hours, and that for six, or
geration. Stopping of the breath causeth sudden five hours at the least; though there are, even in
death; as in all suffocation or strangling. Now, this kind, sometimes miracles of nature; as it is
it seems this matter is not so much to be referred recorded of Mrecenas, that he slept not for a long
to the impediment of motion as to the impediment time before his death. And as touching the
of refrigeration; for air over-hot, though attracted want of refrigeration for conserving of the spirit,
freely, doth no less suffocate than if breathing thus much.
were hindered; as it is in them who have been 22. As concerning the third indigence, namely,
sometimes suffocated with burning coals, or with of aliment, it seems to pertain rather to the parts,
charcoal, or with walls new plastered in close than to the living spirit; for a man may easily
chambers where a fire is made; which kind of believe that the living spirit subsisteth in identity,
death is reported to have been the end of the Em- not by succession or renovation. And as for the
peror Jovinian. The like happeneth from dry reasonable soul in men, it is above all question,
baths over-heated, which was practised in the that it is not engendered of the soul of the parents,
killing of Fausta, wife to Constantine the Great. nor is repaired, nor can die. They speak of the
15. It is a very small time which nature taketh natural spirit of living creatures, and also of
to repeat the breathing, and in which she desireth vegetables, which differs from that other soul
to expel the foggy air drawn into the lungs, and essentially and formally; for out of the confusion
to take in new, scarce the third part of a minute. of these, that same transmigration of souls, and
16. Again, the beating of the pulse, and the innumerable other devices of heathens and heremotion of the systole and diastole of the heart, are tics have proceeded.
three times quicker than that of breathing; inso- 23. The body of man doth regularly require
much that if it were possible that that motion of renovation by aliment every day, and a body in
the heart could be stopped without stopping the health can scarce endure fasting three days togebreath, death would follow more speedily there- ther; notwithstanding, use and custom will do
upon than by strangling. much, even in this case; but in sickness fasting
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