OF SOUND AND HEARING. 239 



guished, but magnified. Therefore sounds upon rivers are 

 greater, the water resounding and blending itself with the 

 original sound. 



1 have also noted that when a round-house is made in 

 water-conduits, then a long vault, and then a greater 

 chamber (such as is to be seen in the fields by Charing 

 Cross near London), if you cry at the window or slit of the 

 round-house, and one stand by the window of the greater 

 chamber, a far more fearful roaring is heard than by one 

 standing where the cry is made. 



I bethink me that in the play of puppets, the speaking 

 is such as it is heard distinctly, but far sharper and more 

 exile than in the air at large ; as happens in mirrors that 

 render letters far smaller than they are in the ordinary 

 medium : so as sound appears plainly possible by art to be 

 both amplified and rendered more exile. 



Children hold the horn of a bent bow betwixt their teeth, 

 and with an arrow strike the string, whence is produced a 

 more resounding sound, and a far greater boom, than if the 

 bow were not held in the teeth ; which they ascribe to the 

 consent which the bones of the teeth have with the bone of 

 hearing; since, conversely also, by a certain harsh sound 

 in the hearing, the teeth too be set on edge. 



In like manner, let a lance touch the wood of the belly 

 of an harp, especially of the hole in it at the hollow end, 

 and be held with the teeth at the other end, and the harp 

 struck ; the sound is made greater by taking hold with the 

 teeth, that is to say, to him that so taketh hold. 



It is most assured (however unnoted) that the force, 

 which after the first percussion carries on balls, or arrows, 

 or darts, and the like, is situated in the minute parts of the 

 body discharged, and not in the air continually carrying it, 

 like a boat in the water. This being premised, it may be 

 considered whether sound might not be lessened in ord 

 nance or an harquebuss, without much weakening of the 

 percussion, in this manner. Let there be an harquebuss 

 made with a barrel of a pretty strength, so as it break not 

 easily ; in the barrel let there be four or five holes made, 

 not like chinks, but round, about the middle of the barrel. 

 The percussion hath already gotten its force, excepting so 

 far as by reason of the length of the barrel it may be 

 increased ; but the percussion of the air at the mouth of 

 the harquebuss, which generates the sound, will be much 

 attenuated by the emission of sound through those holes in 



