NOVUM ORGANUM 273 



begin till the flame is extinguished, or the air cooled, so 

 that physicians place cold sponges, moistened with water, 

 on the cups, in order to increase their attraction. There is, 

 therefore, no reason why men should fear much from the 

 ready escape of air: for although it be true that the most 

 solid bodies have their pores, yet neither air, nor spirit, 

 readily suffers itself to be rarefied to such an extreme de 

 gree; just as water will not escape by a small chink. 



2. With regard to the second of the seven above- 

 mentioned methods, we must especially observe, that com 

 pression and similar violence have a most powerful effect 

 either in producing locomotion, and other motions of the 

 same nature, as may be observed in engines and projectiles, 

 or in destroying the organic body, and those qualities, which 

 consist entirely in motion (for all life, and every description 

 of flame and ignition are destroyed by compression, which 

 also injures and deranges every machine); or in destroying 

 those qualities which consist in position and a coarse differ 

 ence of parts, as in colors; for the color of a flower when 

 whole, differs from that it presents when bruised, and the 

 same may be observed of whole and powdered amber; or 

 in tastes, for the taste of a pear before it is ripe, and of the 

 same pear when bruised and softened, is different, since 

 it becomes perceptibly more sweet. But such violence is of 

 little avail in the more noble transformations and changes 

 of homogeneous bodies, for they do not, by such means, 

 acquire any constantly and permanently new state, but one 

 that is transitory, and always struggling to return to its 

 former habit and freedom. It would not, however, be use- 



ficient resistance to the external atmosphere to prevent the liquid or flesh from 

 being forced into the glass. 



