464 NATURAL HISTORY. 



compact the body is, the more it will dilate : now 

 barley is the most hollow ; wheat more solid than 

 that ; and rice most solid of all. It may be also 

 that some bodies have a kind of lentour, and more 

 depertible nature than others ; as we see it evident 

 in coloration ; for a small quantity of saffron will 

 tinct more than a very great quantity of brasil or 

 wine. 



Experiment solitary touching the dulcoration of fruits. 

 858. Fruit groweth sweet by rolling, or pressing 

 them gently with the hand ; as rolling pears, da 

 mascenes, &c.: by rottenness ; as medlars, services, 

 sloes, hips, &c. : by time ; as apples, wardens, pome 

 granates, &c. : by certain special maturations ; as by 

 laying them in hay, straw, &c. : and by fire ; as in 

 roasting, stewing, baking, &c. The cause of the 

 sweetness by rolling and pressing, is emollition, which 

 they properly induce ; as in beating of stock-fish, 

 flesh, &c. : by rottenness is, for that the spirits of the 

 fruit by putrefaction gather heat, and thereby digest 

 the harder part, for in all putrefactions there is a de 

 gree of heat : by time and keeping is, because the 

 spirits of the body do ever feed upon the tangible 

 parts, and attenuate them : by several maturations 

 is, by some degree of heat : and by fire is, because it 

 is the proper work of heat to refine, and to incor 

 porate; and all sourness consisteth in some gross- 

 ness of the body ; and all incorporation doth make 

 the mixture of the body more equal in all the parts ; 

 which ever induceth a milder taste. 



