16 NATURAL HISTORY. 



it into a more dense body ; but in intire bodies it 

 is checked ; because if the air should condense, there 

 is nothing to succeed : therefore it must be in loose 

 bodies, as sand, and powder ; which we see, if they 

 lie close, of themselves gather moisture. 



Experiment solitary touching helps towards the beauty 

 and good features of persons. 



28. It is reported by some of the ancients ; that 

 whelps, or other creatures, if they be put young into 

 such a cage or box, as they cannot rise to their sta 

 ture, but may increase in breadth or length, will 

 grow accordingly as they can get room ; which if it 

 be true and feasible, and that the young creature so 

 pressed and straitened, doth not thereupon die, it is 

 a means to produce dwarf creatures, and in a very 

 strange figure. This is certain, and noted long 

 since, that the pressure or forming of parts of crea 

 tures, when they are very young, doth alter the 

 shape not a little : as the stroking of the heads of 

 infants, between the hands, was noted of old, to 

 make &quot; Macrocephali ;&quot; which shape of the head, at 

 that time, was esteemed. And the raising gently 

 of the bridge of the nose, doth prevent the deformity 

 of a saddle nose. Which observation well weighed, 

 may teach a means to make the persons of men and 

 women, in many kinds, more comely and better fea 

 tured than otherwise they would be ; by the form 

 ing and shaping of them in their infancy: as by 

 stroking up the calves of the legs, to keep them 

 from falling down too low ; and by stroking up the - ; 



