76 NATURAL HISTORY. 



served, passeth without sound ; for that sound that 

 is heard sometimes is produced only by the breaking 

 of the air, and not by the impulsion of the parts. 

 So it is manifest, that where the anterior body 

 giveth way, as fast as the posterior cometh on, it 

 maketh no noise, be the motion never so great or 

 swift. 



116. Air open, and at large, maketh no noise, 

 except it be sharply percussed ; as in the sound of a 

 string, where air is percussed by a hard and stiff 

 body, and with a sharp loose : for if the string be 

 not strained, it maketh no noise. But where the 

 air is pent and straitned, there breath or other blow 

 ing, which carry but a gentle percussion, suffice to 

 create sound ; as in pipes and wind-instruments. 

 But then you must note, that in recorders, which 

 go with a gentle breath, the concave of the pipe, 

 were it not for the fipple that straitneth the air, 

 much more than the simple concave, would yield no 

 sound. For as for other wind-instruments, they 

 require a forcible breath; as trumpets, cornets, 

 hunters horns, &c. which appeareth by the blown 

 cheeks of him that windeth them. Organs also are 

 blown with a strong wind by the bellows. And note 

 again, that some kind of wind-instruments are blown 

 at a small hole in the side, which straitneth the 

 breath at the first entrance ; the rather, in respect 

 of the traverse and stop above the hole, which per- 

 formeth the fipple s part ; as it is seen in flutes and 

 fifes, which will not give sound by a blast at the 

 end, as recorders, &c. do. Likewise in all whistling, 



