190 NATURAL HISTORY. 



that heat and moisture cause putrefaction. In Eng 

 land it is found not true ; for many times there have 

 been great plagues in dry years. Whereof the cause 

 may be, for that drought in the bodies of islanders 

 habituate to moist airs, doth exasperate the humours, 

 and maketh them more apt to putrify or inflame : 

 besides, it tainteth the waters, commonly, and 

 rnaketh them less wholesome. And again in Barbary, 

 the plagues break up in the summer months, when 

 the weather is hot and dry. 



Experiment solitary touching an error received about 

 epidemical diseases, 



384. Many diseases, both epidemical and others, 

 break forth at particular times. And the cause is 

 falsely imputed to the constitution of the air at that 

 time when they break forth or reign ; whereas it 

 proceedeth, indeed, from a precedent sequence and 

 series of the seasons of the year : and therefore Hip 

 pocrates in his prognostics doth make good observa 

 tions of the diseases that ensue upon the nature of 

 the precedent four seasons of the year. 



Experiment solitary touching the alteration or pre 

 servation of liquors in wells or deep vaults. 



385. Trial hath been made with earthen bottles 

 well stopped, hanged in a well of twenty fathom 

 deep at the least, and some of the bottles have been 

 let down into the water, some others have hanged 

 above, within about a fathom of the water ; and the 

 liquors so tried have been beer, not new, but ready 



