18 NATURAL HISTORY. 



weighing them before they be hanged up ; and af 

 terwards again, when they are sprouted. For if they 

 increase not in weight, then it is no more but this ; 

 that what they send forth in the sprout, they lose in 

 some other part : but if they gather weight, then it 

 is &quot; magnale naturae ;&quot; for it sheweth that air may 

 be made so to be condensed, as to be converted into 

 a dense body ; whereas the race and period of all 

 things, here above the earth, is to extenuate and 

 turn things to be more pneumatical and rare ; and 

 not to be retrograde, from pneumatical to that 

 which is dense. It sheweth also, that air can nou 

 rish ; which is another great matter of consequence. 

 Note, that to try this, the experiment of the semper- 

 vive must be made without oiling the cloth; for 

 else, it may be, the plant receiveth nourishment from 

 the oil. 



Experiment solitary touching the commixture, of flame 



and air, and the great force thereof. 

 30. Flame and air do not mingle, except it be 

 in an instant ; or in the vital spirits of vegetables 

 and living creatures. In gunpowder, the force of 

 it hath been ascribed to rarefaction of the earthy 

 substance into flame ; and thus far it is true : and 

 then, forsooth, it is become another element ; the 

 form whereof occupieth more place ; and so of ne 

 cessity, followeth a dilatation : and therefore, lest 

 two bodies should be in one place, there must needs 

 also follow an expulsion of the pellet ; or blowing 

 up of the mine. But these are crude and ignorant 



