LIBER QU1NTUS. 631 



oculum, &c.) in tantum multiplicatas ostcndcre, in quantum 

 pulicem aut vermiculum ? Num. byssum, aut hujusmodi tex- 

 tile linteum delicatius et paulo apertius, ita foraminatum 

 ostendere, ac si esset rete ? Yerum in Compulsionibus Expe- 

 rimentorum minus moramur, quia fere extra limites Experien- 

 tiae Literatae cadunt, et ad Causas et Axiomata et Novum 

 Organum potius spectant. Ubicunque enim fit negativa, aut 

 privativa, aut exclusiva, coepit jam praeberi lux nonnulla ad 

 Inventionem Formarum. Atque de Compulsione Experimenti 

 hactenus. 



Applicatio Experimenti nihil aliud est, quam ingeniosa tra- 

 ductio ejus ad experimentum aliud aliquod utile. Exemplum 

 tale sit. Corpora quceque suas habent dimensiones, sua pondera : 

 aurum plus ponder is, minus dimensionis, quam argentum ; 

 aqua, quam vinum. Ab hoc traducitur experimentum utile; 

 ut ex mensura impleta, et pondere excepto, possis dignoscere 

 quantum argenti fuerit admixtum auro, vel aquae vino ; quod 

 fuit svprjfca illud Archimedis. 1 Item, Carnes in nonnullis cellis 

 citius putrefiunt quam in aliis : utile fuerit experimentum hoc 

 traducere ad dignoscendos acres magis aut minus salubres ad 

 habitationem ; ubi scilicet carnes diutius vindicentur a putre- 

 dine. Possit idem applicari ad revelandas salubriores aut 

 pestilentiores tempestates anni. Verum innumera sunt ejus- 

 modi. Evigilent modo homines, et oculos perpetuo alias ad 

 naturam rerum alias ad usus humanos vertant. Atque de 

 Applicatione Experimenti hactenus. 



Copulatio Experimenti est applicationum nexus et catena ; 

 cum quae singula profutura non fuissent ad usum aliquem, con- 

 nexa valeant. Exempli gratia ; Rosas aut fructus serotinos 

 habere cupis : hoc fiet, si gemmas praecociores avellas; idem 

 fiet, si radices usque ad ver adultum denudes, et ae'ri exponas ; 



1 The efl/wj/co of Archimedes related to the discovery of a method of determining 

 the specific gravity of a body which could not be made " implere mensuram." If he 

 had had a crown of pure gold of the same size and form as the suspected one, he need 

 only have weighed the one against the other; and if the latter were lighter, the ques- 

 tion as to its being alloyed would have been settled. Or if he had been at liberty to melt 

 down a portion of the crown and to run it into a mould in which a piece of pure gold 

 had previously been moulded, he might then have weighed them and determined which 

 was the heaviest. But the problem he had to solve was quite different from this, and 

 required the application of the principles of hydrostatics. Yet both here arid in the 

 Historia Densi et Rari Bacon refers to the discovery of Archimedes without distin- 

 guishing between his own inartificial method of determining specific gravities (which 

 consisted in filling a measure with different substances and then weighing it) and that 

 of Archimedes. Bacon's results are wonderfully accurate (with one remarkable excep- 

 tion), considering the manner in which they were obtained. 



S S 4 



