CENTURY IX. 429 



pie fevers, agues, in the summer precedent, and 

 hovering all winter, do portend a great pestilence in 

 the summer following ; for putrefaction doth not 

 rise to its height at once. 



805. It were good to lay a piece of raw flesh or 

 fish in the open air ; and if it putrify quickly, it is a 

 sign of a disposition in the air to putrefaction. And 

 because you cannot be informed whether the putre 

 faction be quick or late, except you compare this ex 

 periment with the like experiment in another year 

 it were not amiss in the same year, and at the same 

 time, to lay one piece of flesh or fish in the open air, 

 and another of the same kind and bigness within 

 doors : for I judge, that if a general disposition be 

 in the air to putrify, the flesh, or fish, will sooner 

 putrify abroad where the air hath more power, than 

 in the house, where it hath less, being many ways 

 corrected. And this experiment would be made 

 about the end of March : for that season is likeliest 

 to discover what the winter hath done, and what the 

 summer following will do, upon the air. And be 

 cause the air, no doubt, receiveth great tincture and 

 infusion from the earth ; it were good to try that 

 exposing of flesh or fish, both upon a stake of wood 

 some height above the earth, and upon the flat of 

 the earth. 



806. Take May-dew, and see whether it putrify 

 quickly or no ; for that likewise may disclose the 

 quality of the air, and vapour of the earth, more or 

 less corrupted. 



807. A dry March, and a dry May, portend a 



