jDo ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



the beginning of the world ; though, it is to be obferved, that thefc 

 religious live with fuch extreme fobriety, and even aufterity, taking 

 exercife at the fame time, and labouring very much with their hands, 

 that I fhould not have wondered if the diminution of their fize 

 had been found but fmall even in 600 years : But, fo far from that, 

 the information which the journalifts got, was, that the bones of 

 thofe who died in this century compared with the bones of thofe 

 that died 500 or 600 years ago, were like thofe of a child of five or 

 fix years of age compared with thofe of a full grown man : They 

 added, that the bones of the men of this age were of a whitilh co- 

 lour, and of no firmnefs or folidity j whereas the bones of the firft 

 kges of their houfe were of a compad fubrtance, not at ail porous, 

 and of a brownifh colour; and the joints or articulations of thefe 

 antient bones refembled ftrong fprings, whereas thofe of the later 

 bones were like wet tripe. 



This decreafe appears, even to me, fo extraordinary, that, though 

 I cannot difbelieve the fad altogether, I am apt to fufped that it is a 

 good deal exaggerated. My correfpondent fays, and fays truly, 

 that thofe monks are not men of letters, nor qualified to examine 

 accurately any natural phenomenon. But they might have meafured 

 fome of the largeft bodies of the preceding centuries, and have in- 

 formed us of their Icngthj and of the dimenfions of certain parts 

 of them. I have therefore been at pains to get _a more accu- 

 rate information of this extraordinary phenomenon, but have not 

 yet fucceedcd. One thing, I think, certain, that the author of the 

 letter to me has not exaggerated in the account he has given of the 

 report from the convent, in favour of my hypothefis ; for his opi- 

 nion, he tells me, is, that there is no fuch decreafe of the human 

 body ; and he accounts for the extraordinary fize of bones of men 

 that have been found in different countries, from the grovv'th of thofe 



bones 



