30 NATURAL HISTORY. 



the high concoction of that blood ; for we see in ordi 

 nary puddings that the boiling turneth the blood to be 

 black ; and the cuttle is accounted a delicate meat, and 

 is much in request. 



Experiment solitary touching increase of weight in earth. 

 743. It is reported of credit, that if you take earth 

 from land adjoining to the river of Nile, and preserve 

 it in that manner that it neither come to be wet nor 

 wasted, and weigh it daily, it will not alter weight 

 until the seventeenth of June, which is the day when 

 the river beginneth to rise : and then it will grow more 

 and more ponderous, till the river cometh to his height. 1 

 Which if it be true, it cannot be caused but by the 

 air, which then beginneth to condense ; and so turneth 

 within that small mould into a degree of moisture,&quot; 

 which produceth weight. So it hath been observed that 

 tobacco, cut and weighed, and then dried by the fire, 

 loseth weight ; and after being laid in the open air, 

 recovereth weight again. And it should seem that as 

 soon as ever the river beginneth to increase, the whole 

 body of the air thereabouts suffereth a change : for 

 (that which is more strange) it is credibly affirmed, 

 that upon that very day when the river first riseth, 

 great plagues in Cairo use suddenly to break up. 



Experiments in consort touching sleep. 

 744. Those that are very cold, and especially in 

 their feet, cannot get to sleep. 2 The cause may be, 

 for that in sleep is required a free respiration, which 



fly is commonly believed to have red blood, but the red stain produced 

 when a fly is crushed is in reality due to the pigment of the eyes. 

 1 Sandys, p. 77. -2 A ri s t. Prob. viii. 2. 



