NOVUM ORGANUM 429 



air. So that if anyone were to assert that a given content of 

 water can be changed into an equal content of air, it is the same 

 as if he were to assert that something can be reduced into 

 nothing. On the contrary, if anyone were to assert that a 

 given content of air can be changed into an equal content of 

 water, it is the same as if he were to assert that something can 

 proceed from nothing. From this abundance or scarcity of 

 matter are properly derived the notions of density and rarity, 

 which are taken in various and promiscuous senses. 



This third assertion may be considered as being also suffi- 

 ciently certain; namely, that the greater or less quantity of 

 matter in this or that body, may, by comparison, be reduced to 

 calculation, and exact, or nearly exact, proportion. Thus, if 

 one should say that there is such an accumulation of matter in 

 a given quantity of gold, that it would require twenty-one 

 times the quantity in dimension of spirits of wine, to make up 

 the same quantity of matter, it would not be far from the truth. 



The accumulation of matter, however, and its relative quan- 

 tity, are rendered sensible by weight ; for weight is proportion- 

 ate to the quantity of matter, as regards the parts of a tangible 

 substance, but spirit and its quantity of matter are not to be 

 computed by weight, which spirit rather diminishes than aug- 

 ments. 



We have made a tolerably accurate table of weight, in which 

 we have selected the weights and size of all the metals, the 

 principal minerals, stones, liquids, oils, and many other natural 

 and artificial bodies : a very useful proceeding both as regards 

 theory and practice, and which is capable of revealing many un- 

 expected results. Nor is this of little consequence, that it 

 serves to demonstrate that the whole range of the variety of 

 tangible bodies with which we are acquainted (we mean toler- 

 ably close, and not spongy, hollow bodies, which are for a con- 

 siderable part filled with air), does not exceed the ratio of one 

 to twenty-one. So limited is nature, or at least that part of it 

 to which we are most habituated. 



We have also thought it deserving our industry, to try if we 

 could arrive at the ratio of intangible or pneumatic bodies to 

 tangible bodies, which we attempted by the following contriv- 

 ance. We took a vial capable of containing about an ounce, 

 using a small vessel in order to effect the subsequent evapora- 

 tion with less heat. We filled this vial, almost to the neck, 

 with spirits of wine, selecting it as the tangible body which, 

 by our table, was the rarest, and contained a less quantity of 

 matter in a given space than all other tangible bodies which 

 are compact and not hollow. Then we noted exactly the weight 

 of the liquid and vial. We next took a bladder, containing 

 about two pints, and squeezed all the air out of it, as completely 



