1 1 B NATURAL HISTORY. 



or stop between them ; so that your breath may go 

 the round of the circle, and come forth at the second 

 hole. You may try likewise percussions of solid 

 bodies of several figures ; as globes, flats, cubes, 

 crosses, triangles, &c. and their combinations, as flat 

 against flat, and convex against convex, and convex 

 against flat, &c. and mark well the diversities of the 

 sounds. Try also the difference in sound of several 

 crassitudes of hard bodies percussed ; and take 

 knowledge of the diversities of the sounds. I my 

 self have tried, that a bell of gold yieldeth an excel 

 lent sound, not inferior to that of silver or brass, but 

 rather better : yet we see that a piece of money of 

 gold soundeth far more flat than a piece of money of 

 silver. 



223. The harp hath the concave not along the 

 strings, but across the strings ; and no instrument 

 hath the sound so melting and prolonged, as the 

 Irish harp. So as I suppose, that if a virginal were 

 ttiade With a double concave, the one all the length, 

 #s the virginal hath, the other at the end of the 

 springs, fcs the harp hath ; it must needs make the 

 sotmd perfecter, and hot so shallow ahd jarring. 

 You rnay try it without any sound-board along, but 

 only harp-wise at one end of the strings ; or lastly, 

 with a double concave, at each end of the strings one. 



Experiments in consort touching the mixture of sounds. 



224. There is an apparent diversity between the 

 species visible and audible in this, that the visible 

 doth hot mingle in the medium, but the audible 



