NOVUM ORGANUM 383 



Table of the Degrees or Comparative Instances of Heat 



We will first speak of those bodies which exhibit no degree of 

 heat sensible to the touch, but appear rather to possess a poten- 

 tial heat, or disposition and preparation for it. We will then go 

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

 the strength and degree of it. 



I. There is no known solid or tangible body which is by its 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. 



II. But with regard to potential heat and predisposition to flame, 

 we find many inanimate substances wonderfully adapted to it, as sul- 

 phur, naphtha, and saltpetre. 



III. 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 separations of sub- 

 stances are effected by burying them in horse-dung, and heat is excited 

 in lime by sprinkling it with water (as has been before observed). 



IV. 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). 



V. 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 cemeteries 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. 



VI. Manures, such as every kind of dung, chalk, sea-sand, salt, and 

 the like, have some disposition towards heat. 



VII. All putrefaction exhibits some slight degree of heat, though 

 not enough to be perceptible by the touch; for neither the substances 

 which by putrefaction are converted into animalcule, as flesh and 

 cheese, nor rotten wood which shines in the dark, are warm to the 

 touch. The heat, however, of putrid substances displays itself occa- 

 sionally in a disgusting and strong scent. 



VIII. The first degree of heat, therefore, in substances which are 

 warm to the human touch appears to be that of animals, and this ad- 

 mits of a great variety of degrees, for the lowest (as in insects) is 

 scarcely perceptible, the highest scarcely equals that of the sun's rays 

 in warm climates and weather, and is not so acute as to be insufferable 



