THE 



PARTICULAR TOPIC PLACES ; 



OR, 



ARTICLES OF INQUISITION TOUCHING LIFE AND DEATH. 



1. FIRST, inquire of nature durable and not durable, in 

 bodies inanimate or without life, as also in vegetables ; but 

 that not in a large or just treatise, but as in a brief or 

 summary only. 



2. Also inquire diligently of desiccation, arefaction, and 

 consumption of bodies inanimate, and of vegetables, and 

 of the ways and processes by which they are done : and 

 further, of inhibiting and delaying of desiccation, arefac 

 tion, and consumption, and of the conservation of bodies 

 in their proper state : and again, of the inteneration, ernol- 

 lition, and recovery of bodies to their former freshness, after 

 they be once dried and withered. 



Neither need the inquisition touching these things to be 

 full or exact, seeing they pertain rather to their proper title 

 of nature durable ; seeing also, they are not principals in 

 this inquisition, but serve only to give light to the prolon 

 gation and instauration of life in living creatures. In which 

 (as was said before) the same things come to pass, but in a 

 particular manner. So from the inquisition touching bodies 

 inanimate and vegetables, let the inquisition pass on to 

 other living creatures besides man. 



3. Inquire touching the length and shortness of life in 

 living creatures, with the due circumstances which make 

 most for their long or short lives. 



4. But because the duration of bodies is twofold, one in 

 identity, or the selfsame substance, the other by a renova 

 tion or reparation ; whereof the former hath place only in 

 bodies inanimate, the latter in vegetables and living crea 

 tures, and is perfected by alimentation or nourishment; 

 therefore it will be fit to inquire of alimentation, and of the 

 ways and progresses thereof; yet this not exactly (because 

 it pertains properly to the titles of assimilation and alimen 

 tation), but, as the rest, in progress only. 



in 

 ut 



