NOVUM ORGANUM. 199 



of wine being let down into a deep well in order to cool 

 them, but left there by chance, carelessness, and forgetful- 

 ness for several years, and then taken out ; by which means 

 the wine not only escaped becoming flat or dead, but was 

 much more excellent in flavour; arising (as it appears) 

 from a more complete mixture of its parts. But if the case 

 require that bodies should be sunk to the bottom of water, 

 as in rivers, or the sea, and yet should not touch the water, 

 nor be inclosed in sealed vessels, but surrounded only by 

 air, it would be right to use that vessel which has been 

 sometimes employed under water above ships that have 

 sunk, in order to enable the divers to remain below and 

 breathe occasionally by turns. It was of the following 

 nature. A hollow tub of metal was formed, and sunk so 

 as to have its bottom parallel with the surface of the water ; 

 it thus carried down with it to the bottom of the sea all 

 the air contained in the tub. It stood upon three feet 

 (like a tripod), being of rather less height than a man, so 

 that when the diver was in want of breath, he could put 

 his head into the hollow of the tub, breathe, and then con 

 tinue his work. We hear that some sort of boat or vessel 

 has now been invented, capable of carrying men some dis 

 tance under water. Any bodies, however, can easily be 

 suspended under some such vessel as we have mentioned, 

 which has occasioned our remarks upon the experiment. 



Another advantage of the careful and hermetical closino- 

 of bodies is this ; not only the admission of external air 

 is prevented (of which we have treated), but the spirit of 

 bodies also is prevented from making its escape, which is 

 an internal operation. For any one operating on natural 

 bodies must be certain as to their quantity, and that nothing 

 has evaporated or escaped ; since profound alterations take 

 place in bodies, when art prevents the loss or escape of any 

 portion, whilst nature prevents their annihilation. With 

 regard to this circumstance, a false idea has prevailed (which 

 if true would make us despair of preserving quantity without 

 diminution), namely, that the spirit of bodies, and&quot; air when 

 rarefied by a great degree of heat, cannot be so kept in by 

 being enclosed in any vessel, as not to escape by the small 

 pores. Men are led into this idea by the common experi 

 ments of a cup inverted over water, with a candle or piece 

 of lighted paper in it, by which the water is drawn up, and 

 of those cups which when heated draw up the flesh. For 

 they think that in each experiment the rarefied air escapes, 

 and that its quantity is therefore diminished, by which 

 means the water or flesh rises by the motion of connexion. 



