172 NOVUM ORGANUM 



rancid matter from anything sprinkled with rose-water. 

 3. If those who suffer from a cold blow their noses vio 

 lently at the very moment in which they have anything 

 fetid or perfumed in their mouth, or on their palate, they 

 instantly have a clear perception of the fetor or perfume. 

 These instances afford and constitute this species or division 

 of taste, namely, that it is in part nothing else than an in 

 ternal smelling, passing and descending through the upper 

 passages of the nostrils to the mouth and palate. But, on 

 the other hand, those whose power of smelling is deficient 

 or obstructed, perceive what is salt, sweet, pungent, acid, 

 rough, and bitter, and the like, as well as any one else: so 

 that the taste is clearly something compounded of the in 

 ternal smelling, and an exquisite species of touch which 

 we will not here discuss. 



Again, as another example, let the required nature be 

 the communication of quality, without intermixture of sub 

 stance. The instance of light will afford or constitute one 

 species of communication, heat and the magnet another. 

 For the communication of light is momentary and imme 

 diately arrested upon the removal of the original light. 

 But heat, and the magnetic force, when once transmitted 

 to or excited in another body, remain fixed for a consider 

 able time after the removal of the source. 



In fine, the prerogative of constitutive instances is con 

 siderable, for they materially assist the definitions (especially 

 in detail) and the divisions or partitions of natures, concern 

 ing which Plato has well said, &quot;He who can properly define 

 and divide is to be considered a god.&quot; 47 



47 The collective instances here meant are no other than general facts or 

 laws of some degree of generality, and are themselves the result of induction. 

 For example, the system of Jupiter, or Saturn with its satellites, is a collective 



