CENTURY I. 17 



forehead, to keep them from being low-foreheaded. 

 And it is a common practice to swathe infants, that 

 they may grow more straight and better shaped : 

 and we see young women, by wearing strait bodice, 

 keep themselves from being gross and corpulent. 



Experiment solitary touching the condensing of air in 

 such sort as it may put on weighty and yield nou 

 rishment. 



29. Onions, as they hang, will many of them 

 shoot forth ; and so will penny-royal ; and so will 

 an herb called orpin ; with which they use in the 

 country to trim their houses, binding it to a lath or 

 stick, and setting it against a wall. We see it like 

 wise, more especially, in the greater semper-vive, 

 which will put out branches, two or three years : 

 but it is true, that commonly they wrap the root in 

 a cloth besmeared with oil, and renew it once in 

 half a year. The like is reported by some of the 

 ancients, of the stalks of lilies. The cause is ; for 

 that these plants have a strong, dense, and succu 

 lent moisture, which is not apt to exhale ; and so 

 is able, from the old store, without drawing 

 help from the earth, to suffice the sprouting of the 

 plant : and this sprouting is chiefly in the late spring 

 or early summer ; which are the times of putting 

 forth. We see also, that stumps of trees lying out 

 of the ground, will put forth sprouts for a time. 

 But it is a noble trial, and of very great conse 

 quence, to try whether these things, in the sprout 

 ing, do increase weight ; which must be tried, by 

 VOL iv. c 



