3 i2 NOVUM ORGANUM. 



manner sea and salt water is sometimes found to sparkle in the night 

 when forcibly struck by the oars. Again, during nights when the sea 

 is agitated by violent tempests, the foam is observed to sparkle, and 

 this sparkling the Spaniards call &quot;the Lungs of the Sea.&quot; And 

 sufficient inquiry has not been made as to the nature of the heat con 

 tained in that flame which the sailors of old called &quot; Castor and 

 Pollux,&quot; and the moderns &quot; St. Elmo s fire.&quot; 



To the Seventh. 



12. Everything ignited so as to turn to a fiery redness, though un 

 accompanied by flame, is invariably hot ; there is no negative to this 

 affirmative ; but rotten wood seems to come nearest to it, for it shines 

 by night, and yet is not found to be hot ; and the putrescent scales of 

 fish, for they also shine by night, and yet are not found to be warm to 

 the touch ; nor indeed are the bodies of glowworms, nor the fly which 

 they call luciola, found to be warm to the touch. 



To the Eighth. 



13. Sufficient inquiry has not been made as to the position and 

 nature of the soil from which hot baths usually spring, and so no 

 negative is subjoined. 



To the Ninth. 



14. To warm liquids is subjoined as a negative the peculiar nature 

 of liquid itself. For there is found no tangible liquid which is hot in 

 its own nature and remains so constantly ; but heat is superinduced 

 for a time only, as an adventitious nature ; so that those things which 

 in power and operation are hottest, as spirit of wine, chemical aromatic 

 oils, oil of vitriol and sulphur, and the like, which burn after a while, 

 are at first cold to the touch. Now the water of natural baths, taken 

 up in a vessel and separated from its source, cools down like water 

 heated by fire. But it is true that oily bodies are a little less cold to 

 the touch than watery ones, oil being less cold than water, and silk 

 than linen. But this belongs to the Table of Degrees of Cold. 



To the Tenth. 



15. In like manner is subjoined, as negative to hot vapour, the 

 nature of vapour itself, as it is found among us. For exhalations from 

 oily matters, though they are easily inflammable, are yet not found to 

 be hot, unless recently exhaled from a hot body. 



To the Tenth. 



16. In like manner the nature of air itself is subjoined as a negative 

 to hot air. For air is not found with us to be hot, unless it be either 

 shut up or compressed, or manifestly heated by the sun, by fire, or by 

 some other hot body. 



To the Eleventh. 



17. As negative we have subjoined seasons which are colder than 



