52 NATURAL HISTORY. 



Experiment solitary touching plaster growing as hard as 

 marble. 



784. There is a cement compounded of flour, whites 

 of eggs, and stone powdered, that becometh hard as 

 marhle : wherewith Piscina Mirabilis, near Cuma, is 

 said to have the walls plastered. 1 And it is certain 

 and tried, that the powder of loadstone and flint, by 

 the addition of whites of eggs and gum-dragon, made 

 into paste, will in a few days harden to the hardness 

 of a stone. 



Experiment solitary touching judgment of the cure in 

 some ulcers and hurts. 



785. It hath been noted by the ancients that in full 

 or impure bodies, ulcers or hurts in the legs are hard to 

 cure ; and in the head more easy. 2 The cause is, for 

 that ulcers or hurts in the legs require desiccation, 

 which by the defluxion of humours to the lower parts 

 is hindered : whereas hurts and ulcers in the head re 

 quire it not ; but contrariwise dryness maketh them 

 more apt to consolidate. And in modern observation, 

 the like difference hath been found between French 

 men and Englishmen ; whereof the one s constitution 

 is more dry, and the other s more moist. And there 

 fore a hurt of the head is harder to cure in a French 

 man, and of the leg in an Englishman. 



Experiment solitary touching the healthftdness or un- 

 healthfulness of the southern wind. 



786. It hath been noted by the ancients that south 

 ern winds blowing much without rain, do cause a fever- 



* Sandys, p. 231. 2 Arist. Prob. i. 18. 



