CENTURY IX. 79 



proportion of the adventive heat be greatly predomi 

 nant to the natural heat and spirits of the body, it 

 tendeth to dissolution, or notable alteration. But this 

 is wrought by emission, or suppression, or suffocation, 

 of the native spirits ; and also by the disordination and 

 discomposture of the tangible parts ; and other pas 

 sages of nature ; and not by a conflict of heats. 



Experiment solitary touching bodies unperfectly mixed. 



837. In versions, or main alterations of bodies, there 

 is a medium between the body as it is at first, and 

 the body resulting ; which medium is corpus imperfecte 

 mistum, and is transitory, and not durable ; as mists, 

 smokes, vapours, chvlus in the stomach, living creat 

 ures in the first vivification : and the middle action, 

 which produceth such imperfect bodies, is fitly called 

 (by some of the ancients) inquination, 1 or inconcoc- 

 tion, which is a kind of putrefaction ; for the parts 

 are in confusion, till they settle one way or other. 



Experiment solitary touching concoction and crudity. 



838. The word concoction, or digestion, is chiefly 

 taken into use from living creatures and their organs ; 

 and from thence extended to liquors and fruits, &c. 

 Therefore they speak of meat concocted ; urine and 

 excrements concocted ; and the four digestions, (in the 

 stomach, in the liver, in the arteries and nerves, and 

 in the several parts of the body,) are likewise called 

 concoctions ; and they are all made to be the works of 

 heat : all which notions are but ignorant catches of a 



O 



1 //oAwCTif, Arist. Meteor, iv. 3. But fio^vvmf is only one kind of in- 

 coneoction, namely that which is opposed to hjjrjaif or elixation. The 

 whole train of thought, from 836. to 846. inclusive, shows that these para 

 graphs were suggested by the fourth book of the Meteorologies. 



