BOOK II.] APHORISMS. 467 



on to others, which are actually warm to the touch, and observe 

 the strength and degree of it. 



1. There is no known solid or tangible body which is by itf 

 own nature originally warm ; for neither stone, metal, sulphur, 

 fossils, wood, water, nor dead animal carcasses are found warm. 

 The warm springs in baths appear to be heated accidentally, by 

 flame, subterraneous fire (such as is thrown up by Etna and 

 many other mountains), or by the contact of certain bodies, as 

 heat is exhibited in the dissolution of iron and tin. The degree 

 of heat, therefore, in inanimate objects is not sensible to our 

 touch ; but they differ in their degrees of cold, for wood and 

 metal are not equally cold.* This, however, belongs to the Table 

 of Degrees of Cold. 



2. But with regard to potential heat and predisposition to 

 flame, we find many inanimate substances wonderfully adapted 

 to it, as sulphur, naphtha, and saltpetre. 



3. Bodies which have previously acquired heat, as horse-dung 

 from the animal, or lime, and perhaps ashes and soot from fire, 

 retain some latent portion of it. Hence distillations and separa 

 tions of substances are effected by burying them in horse-dung, 

 and heat is excited in lime by sprinkling it with water (as has 

 been before observed). 



4. In the vegetable world we know of no plant, nor part of 

 any plant (as the exudations or pith) that is warm to man s 

 touch. Yet (as we have before observed) green weeds grow 

 warm when confined, and some vegetables are warm and others 

 cold to our internal touch, i. e. the palate and stomach, or even 

 after a while to our external skin (as is shown in plasters and 

 ointments). 



5. We know of nothing in the various parts of animals, when 

 dead or detached from the rest, that is warm to the touch ; for 

 horse-dung itself does not retain its heat, unless it be confined 

 and buried. All dung, however, appears to possess a potential 

 heat, as in manuring fields ; so also dead bodies are endued with 

 this latent and potential heat to such a degree, that in ceme 

 teries where people are interred daily the earth acquires a secret 

 heat, which consumes any recently-deposited body much sooner 

 than pure earth ; and they tell you that the people of the East 

 are acquainted with a fine soft cloth, made of the down of birds, 

 which can melt butter wrapped gently up in it by its own 

 warmth. 



Bacon here mistakes sensation confined to ourselves for an in 

 ternal property of distinct substances. Metals are denser than wood 1 , 

 and our bodies consequently coming into contact with more particle* 

 of matter when we touch them, lose a greater quantity of heat tha* 

 in the case of lighter substances. Ed. 



2 H2 



