74 NATURAL HISTORY. 



cation ; and abstersion ; besides hunger, which is an 

 emptiness : and yet over-fasting doth (many times) 

 cause the appetite to cease ; for that want of meat 

 maketh the stomach draw humours, and such humours 

 as are light and choleric, which quench appetite most. 



Experiment solitary touching sweetness of odour from 

 the rainbotv. 



832. It hath been observed by the ancients, that 

 where a rainbow seemeth to hang over or to touch, 

 there breatheth forth a sweet smell. 1 The cause is, for 

 that this happeneth but in certain matters which have 

 in themselves some sweetness ; which the gentle dew 

 of the rainbow doth draw forth : and the like do soft 

 showers ; for they also make the grounds sweet : but 

 none are so delicate as the dew of the rainbow where it 

 falleth. It may be also that the water itself hath some 

 sweetness ; for the rainbow consisteth of a glomeration 

 of small drops, which cannot possibly fall but from the 

 air that is very low ; and therefore may hold the very 

 sweetness of the herbs and flowers, as a distilled water; 

 for rain, and other dew, that fall from high, cannot 

 preserve the smell, being dissipated in the drawing up : 

 neither do we know whether some water itself may not 

 have some degree of sweetness. It is true that we find 

 it sensibly in no pool, river, nor fountain ; but good 

 earth, newly turned up, hath a freshness and good 

 scent ; which water, if it be not too equal, (for equal 

 objects never move the sense,) may also have. Cer 

 tain it is, that bay-salt, which is but a kind of water 

 congealed, will sometimes smell like violets. 



1 Arist. Prob. xii. 2. 



