CENTURY VIII. 407 



ment, putrefaction, which we conceive to be so na 

 tural a period of bodies, is but an accident ; and that 

 matter maketh not that haste to corruption that is 

 conceived. And therefore bodies in shining amber, 

 in quicksilver, in balms, whereof we now speak, in 

 wax, in honey, in gums, and, it may be, in conlser- 

 vatories of snow, &c. are preserved very long. It need 

 not go for repetition, if we resume again that which 

 we said in the aforesaid experiment concerning anni 

 hilation ; namely, that if you provide against three 

 causes of putrefaction, bodies will not corrupt : the 

 first is, that the air be excluded for that undermineth 

 the body, and conspireth with the spirit of the body 

 to dissolve it. The second is, that the body adjacent 

 and ambient be not commaterial, but merely hetero- 

 geneal towards the body that is to be preserved ; for 

 if nothing can be received by the one, nothing can 

 issue from the other ; such are quicksilver and white 

 amber, to herbs, and flies, and such bodies. The 

 third is, that the body to be preserved be not of that 

 gross that it may corrupt within itself, although no 

 part of it issue into the body adjacent : and therefore 

 it must be rather thin and small, than of bulk. 

 There, is a fourth remedy also, which is, that if the 

 body to be preserved be of bulk, as a corpse is, then 

 the body that incloseth it must have a virtue to draw 

 forth, and dry the moisture of the inward body ; for 

 else the putrefaction will play within, though nothing 

 issue forth. I remember Livy doth relate, that there 

 were found at a time two coffins of lead in a tomb ; 

 whereof the one contained the body of king Numa, 



