LIFE AND DEATH. 325 



7. It is to be noted, that fire and heat dry only by acci 

 dent, for their proper work is to attenuate and dilate the 

 spirit and moisture, and then it follows by accident that the 

 other parts should contract themselves, either for the flying 



! of vacuum alone, or for some other motion withal, whereof 

 I we now speak not. 



8. It is certain that putrefaction taketh its original from 

 the native spirit, no less than arefaction, but it goeth on 

 a far different way ; for in putrefaction, the spirit is not 



j simply vapoured forth, but being detained in part, works 

 strange garboils, and the grosser parts are not so much 

 locally contracted, as they congregate themselves to parts 

 of the same nature. 



Length and Shortness of Life in living Creatures. 



To the first article. The History. 



Touching the length and shortness of life in living crea 

 tures, the information which may be had is but slender, 

 observation is negligent, and tradition fabulous. In tame 

 creatures their degenerate life corrupteth them, in wild 

 creatures their exposing to all weathers often intercepteth 

 them; neither do those things which may seem concomi 

 tants give any furtherance to this information (the great 

 ness of their bodies, their time of bearing in the womb, the 

 number of their young ones, the time of their growth, and 

 the rest), in regard that these things are intermixed, and 

 sometimes they concur, sometimes they sever. 



1. Man s age (as far as can be gathered by any certain 

 narration) doth exceed the age of all other living creatures, 

 except it be of a very few only, and the concomitants in 

 him are very equally disposed, his stature and proportion 

 large, his bearing in the womb nine months, his fruit com 

 monly one at a birth, his puberty at the age of fourteen 

 years, his time of growing till twenty. 



2. The elephant, by undoubted relation, exceeds the or 

 dinary race of man s life, but his bearing in the womb the 

 space of ten years is fabulous ; of two years, or at least above 

 one, is certain. Now his bulk is great, his time of growth 

 until the thirtieth year, his teeth exceeding hard, neither 

 hath it been observed that his blood is the coldest of all 

 creatures; his age hath sometimes reached to two hundred 

 years. 



3. Lions are accounted long livers, because many of them 

 have been found toothless, a sign not so certain, for that 

 may be caused by their strong breath. 



