CENTURY IV. 105 



we see an apple will rot sooner if it be cut or pierced; 

 and so will wood, &c. And so the flesh of creatures 

 alive, where they have received any wound. 



333. The fifth is either by the exhaling or by the 

 driving back of the principal spirits which preserve 

 the consistence of the body ; so that when their 

 government is dissolved, every part returneth to his 

 nature or hornogeny. And this appeareth in urine 

 and blood when they cool, and thereby break : it 

 appeareth also in the gangrene, or mortification of 

 flesh, either by opiates or by intense colds. I con 

 ceive also the same effect is in pestilences ; for that 

 the malignity of the infecting vapour danceth the 

 principal spirits, and maketh them fly and leave their 

 regiment ; and then the humours, flesh, and secondary 

 spirits, do dissolve and break, as in an anarchy. 



334-. The sixth is when a foreign spirit, stronger 

 and more eager than the spirit of the body, entereth 

 the body, as in the stinging of serpents. And this 

 is the cause generally, that upon all poisons followeth 

 swelling : and we see swelling followeth also when 

 the spirits of the body itself congregate too much, as 

 upon blows and bruises ; or when they are pent in 

 too much, as in swelling upon cold. And we see 

 also, that the spirits coming of putrefaction of hu 

 mours in agues, &c. which may be counted as foreign 

 spirits, though they be bred within the body, do 

 extinguish and suffocate the natural spirits and heat. 



335. The seventh is by such a weak degree of 

 heat, as setteth the spirits in a little motion, but is 

 not able either to digest the parts, or to issue the 



