NOVUM ORGANUM. 291 



Instantia Fcederis est resuscitatio papilionum ex frigore stupen- 

 tium et tanquam emortuarum, per exiguum teporem ignis ; ut 

 facile cernas non magis negatum esse igni vivificare animantia 

 quam maturare vegetabilia. Etiam inventum illud celebre 

 Fracastorii de sartagine acriter calefacta, qua circundant medici 

 capita apoplecticorum desperatorum 1 , expandit manifeste spiri- 

 tus animales ab humoribus et obstructionibus cerebri compres- 

 ses et quasi extinctos, illosque ad motum excitat, non aliter 

 quam ignis operatur in aquam aut aerem, et tamen per conse- 

 quens vivificat. Etiam ova aliquando excluduntur per calorem 

 ignis, id quod prorsus imitatur calorem animalem ; et complura 

 ejusmodi ; ut nemo dubitare possit quin calor ignis in multis 

 subjectis modificari possit ad imaginem caloris coslestium et 

 animalium. 2 



Similiter sint naturae inquisitae Motus et Quies. Videtur 

 esse divisio solennis atque ex intima philosophia, quod corpora 

 naturalia vel rotent, vel ferantur recta, vel stent sive quiescant. 

 Aut enim est motus sine termino, aut statio in termino, aut 

 latio ad terminum. At motus ille perennis rotationis videtur 

 esse co3lestium proprius; statio sive quies videtur competere 

 globo ipsi terra3 ; at corpora caetera (gravia quae vocant et 

 levia, extra loca scilicet connaturalitatis suae sita) feruntur 

 recta ad massas sive congregationes similium ; levia sursum, 

 versus ambitum coeli ; gravia deorsum, versus terrain. Atque 

 ista pulchra dictu sunt. 



At Instantia Frederis est cometa aliquis humilior ; qui cum 

 sit longe infra coelum, tamen rotat. Atque commentum Ari- 

 stotelis 3 de alligatione sive sequacitate cometas ad astrum ali- 

 quod jampridem explosum est ; non tantum quia ratio ejus non 

 est probabilis, sed propter experientiam manifestam discursus 

 et irregularis motus cometarum per varia loca coeli. 



At rursus alia Instantia Foederis circa hoc subjectum est 



1 It is mentioned in the life of Fracastorius, that when dying of apoplexy, and 

 speechless, he made signs for the application of a cucurbita (or cupping-vessel) to his 

 head, remembering the remarkable cure which he had effected in the case of a nun at 

 Verona. It is scarcely necessary to remark that " dry cupping," as it is called, acts 

 simply by partially removing the pressure of the atmosphere : the heat applied to the 

 vessel has no other effect than that of rarefying the air it contains. 



2 Bacon's rejection of the essential heterogeneity of the three species of heat is appa- 

 rently taken from Telesius, De Rerum Nat. vi. 20. Telesius remarks, as Bacon 

 does, that eggs may be hatched, and insects apparently dead restored to life, by means 

 of artificial heat. 



* Meteorol. i. 4. 



