CENTUKV VII. 355 



Experiment solitary touching the different heats of 

 fire and boiling water. 



683. Fire burncth wood, making it first lumi 

 nous, then black and brittle, and lastly, broken and 

 incinerate : scalding water doth none of these. The 

 cause is, for that by fire the spirit of the body is first 

 refined, and then emitted ; whereof the refining or 

 attenuation causeth the light, and the emission, first 

 the fragility, and after the dissolution into ashes ; 

 neither doth any other body enter : but in water the 

 spirit of the body is not refined so much ; and besides 

 part of the water entereth, which doth increase the 

 spirit, and in a degree extinguish it : therefore we 

 see that hot water will quench fire. And again we 

 see, that in bodies wherein the water doth not much 

 enter, but only the heat passeth, hot water worketh 

 the effects of fire, as in eggs boiled and roasted, into 

 which the water entereth not at all, there is scarce 

 difference to be discerned ; but in fruit and flesh, 

 whereinto the water entereth in some part, there is 

 much more difference. 



Experiment solitary touching the qualification of heat 

 by moisture. 



684. The bottom of a vessel of boiling water, as 

 hath been observed, is not very much heated, so as 

 men may put their hand under the vessel and remove 

 it. The cause is, for that the moisture of water as it 

 quencheth coals where it entereth, so it doth allay 

 heat where it toucheth : and therefore note well, that 



