428 Some further Observations on the Use of 
tures of Bacon’s method of reasoning*; and has been the 
guide of Newton in his noble discoveries. - 
In the resistance of solids. we must consider them homoge- 
neous—that they may be extended and compressed in equal de- 
grees by equal forces and proportionally by proportional forces, 
at least till it is shown by unexceptionable experiments on ho- 
mogeneous bodies, that these priuciples are not consistent with 
the phenomena. 
The effect of the deflexion should not be excluded ina per- 
fect: theory; but it has been omitted in calculating the preceding 
tables to save calculation, as it doubles the labour, while the 
corrections from introducing are too trifling to sensibly affect the 
result. Besides, such niceties are not needed for practical pur- 
poses, where simplicity is much more esteemed, 
Timber is not homogeneous; and therefore it is net a pro- 
per material to verify the theory. I have found the transverse 
strengths of two pieces, of the same size, cut from the side of 
each other, to be as 9 to 12. Duhamel found pieces of the 
same size, and from the same zone, to be as 57 to 66 +;—these 
different results were caused by varying the position of the an- 
nual rings. The difference of specimens, from the same tree, 
“both in weight and cohesive force, has heen shown by Buffon tf. 
Now when such differences are found in the same tree, is it 
wonderful that experiments, made in different countries, on 
wood of different ages, seasoned by different methods, and grown 
on different soils, should differ from one another ?—Is it not 
rather to be wondered at, that they should agree so nearly as 
they do? Yet, how often has the correctness of these experi- 
ments heen called in question where it was almost impossible that 
the writers could be mistaken ! 
LXXI. Some further Observations on the Use of the Colchicum 
autumnale inGout. By Sir E. Home, Bart., V.P.R.S.§ 
I LAID before the Society, some experiments and observations 
in favour of this medicine acting upon the gout through the me-’ 
dium of the circulation, and noteby its effects directly upon the 
stomach and intestinal canal. 
The object of the present paper is to show that the infusion 
throws down a deposit, the separation of which does not appear 
to diminish the specific effects upon the gout, and renders those 
upon the stomach and intestines milder than when the deposit 
is taken along with the infusion. 
* Nov. Organ. lib. ii, Aph. 18. + Transport du Bois, p.460 and 470. 
J Mem. de l’Acad. Scien. Paris, 1741, p- 828—332. 
§ From the Transactions of the Royal Society, 1817, part iie Th 
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