80 NATURAL HISTORY. 



in a rose leaf gathered together into the fashion of a 

 purse, and broken upon the forehead, or back of the 

 hand, as children use. 



Experiments in consort touching production, conserva 

 tion, and dilation of sounds ; and the office of the 

 air therein. 



124. The cause given of sound, that it should 

 be an elision of the air, whereby, if they mean any 

 thing, they mean a cutting or dividing, or else an 

 attenuating of the air, is but a term of ignorance ; 

 and the notion is but a catch of the wit upon a few 

 instances; as the manner is in the philosophy received. 

 And it is common with men, that if they have gotten 

 a pretty expression by a word of art, that expression 

 goeth current ; though it be empty of matter. This 

 conceit of elision appeareth most manifestly to be 

 false, in that the sound of a bell, string, or the like, 

 continueth melting some time after the percussion ; 

 but ceaseth straightways, if the bell, or string, be 

 touched and stayed : whereas, if it were the elision 

 of the air that made the sound, it could not be that the 

 touch of the bell or string should extinguish so sud 

 denly that motion caused by the elision of the air. 

 This appeareth yet more manifestly by chiming with 

 a hammer upon the outside of a bell : for the sound 

 will be according to the inward concave of the bell ; 

 whereas the elision or attenuation of the air cannot 

 be but only between the hammer and the outside of 

 the bell. So again, if it were an elision, a broad 

 hammer, and a bodkin, struck upon metal, would 



