NOVUM ORGANUM 277 



to unite, and restrain their violent and perturbed motion. 

 Kose- water, for instance, applied to the nostrils in fainting 

 fits, causes the resolved and relaxed spirits to recover them 

 selves, and, as it were, cherishes them. But opiates, and 

 the like, banish the spirits by their malignant and hostile 

 quality. If they be applied, therefore, externally, the 

 spirits immediately quit the part and no longer readily 

 flow into it; but if they be taken internally, their vapor, 

 mounting to the head, expels, in all directions, the spirits 

 contained in the ventricles of the brain, and since these 

 spirits retreat, but cannot escape, they consequently meet 

 and are condensed, and are sometimes completely extin 

 guished and suffocated; although the same opiates, when 

 taken in moderation, by a secondary accident (the conden 

 sation which succeeds their union), strengthen the spirits, 

 render them more robust, and check their useless and in 

 flammatory motion, by which means they contribute not a 

 little to the cure of diseases, and the prolongation of life. 



The preparations of bodies, also, for the reception of cold 

 should not be omitted, such as that water a little warmed is 

 more easily frozen than that which is quite cold, and the 

 like. 



Moreover, since nature supplies cold so sparingly, we 

 must act like the apothecaries, who, when they cannot 

 obtain any simple ingredient, take a succedaneum, or quid 

 pro quo, as they term it, such as aloes for xylobalsamum, 

 cassia for cinnamon. In the same manner we should look 

 diligently about us, to ascertain whether there may be any 

 substitutes for cold, that is to say, in what other manner 

 condensation, can be effected, which is the peculiar opera 

 tion of cold. Such condensations appear hitherto to be of 

 four kinds only. 1. By simple compression, which is of lit- 



