( KJo ) 

 ADDITION BY THE TRANSLATOR. 



Almofl; all the arts, which contribute to the fupport or comfort of human 

 "life, have been the rcfultof long and repeated experience. I will inftance in the 

 two moft necclTary articles of food, which arc bread and beer, refpetling 

 which, a celebrated writer of the lafl; age thus exprelfes himfelf : — " The arts of 

 " brewing and making bread have, by flow degrees been brought to the per- 

 " feBion they now arc in, but, to have invented them at once, and, * a priori, 

 " Vould have required more knowledge and deeper infight into the nature of 

 " fermentation, than the greatefl; Philofopher has hitherto been endowed with ; 

 " yet the fruits of both, are now enjoyed by the meancft of our fpccies." 



Cheefe, however, another principal article of food, at lealt among the 

 poor, was moft probably brought into ufe, a priori, by adverting to the 

 change made in milk, from a fluid to a folid, in the ftomach of the calf, and 

 by imitating nature in the manner defcribed in the preceding EfTay. To 

 -prcferve the concreted or hardened fubftance, in a wholcfome ftate, for a 

 length of time, human invention added fait, and, by thcfc two eafy operations, 

 is produced that, which is now a luxury to the rich, and a fupport to the 

 poor. 



How the change in milk, by the mixture of Runnet, is produced, Mr. 

 1-eeuwcnhoek's induftry, we fee, has not been able to difcover; we can only 

 therefore admire the manner in which nature operates, to produce this efl'eEl. 

 For, there is no other known fubftance that fo effeQually curdles milk, and, 

 though the tafte of Runnet is of itfelf very naufeous, yet none of this difa- 

 grceablc taftc is imparted to the curd ; on the contrary, that which is called 

 cream cheefe, or new cheefe, being merely the curd, without any mixture of 

 fait, is of a fwcet and delicious tafte, and is produced as a dainty at our 

 tables. 



* The exprcflion, a priori, means, in logic, or in pra£lice, to argue or to 3(51: upon known 

 and eftablifhcd principles, from whence a certain conclufion or efFe(fl cnfues; a fojieriori 

 means, where, arguing from the efFc^, we trace it backwards to its caufe. 



