ORGAXi M. 38-; 



deserves to be reckoned among tilings of Manifold i sc. To this 

 division belongs the substance and thickness of vessels in which 

 bodies piepared for operating upon arc laid up. Such, too, arc the 

 contrivances for hermetically scaling vessels, by consolidation, and 

 the l.utiini j&amp;lt;///V////&amp;lt;r, as chemists call it. Again, the closing up of 

 substances by pouring liquids on their outsidcs is a most useful prac 

 tice, as when they pour oil over wine, or the juice of herbs, which, by 

 expanding over the surface like a cover, admirably preserves them 

 from the air. Nor aic powders a bad thing ; for these, although they 

 contain some air mixed up with them, yet repel the force of the body 

 of air \\hich surrounds them, as is the case when grapes or other 

 fiuits arc preserved in sand or flour. Again, wax, honey, pitch, and 

 bodies of like tenacity, are lightly used to make exclusion more per 

 fect, and to keep off the air and the heavenly influences. We have, 

 too, sometimes made the experiment of placing a vesie 1 , and some 

 other bodies as well, in quicksilver, by far the most dense substance 

 by which bodies can be surrounded. Moreover, grottoes and subter 

 ranean caverns are of great use in preventing the action of sunlight, 

 and of that open air which is so destructive ; and such places are used 

 by the inhabitants of North Germany as granaries. The placing of 

 bodies in waicr has the same effect ; as I remember to have heard of 

 bottles of wine sunk in a deep well, for the purpose of cooling them, 

 and afterwards accidentally or carelessly forgotten, and allowed to re 

 main there for many years : when they were at last taken out, the wine 

 was found not only to be not vapid and lifeless, but to taste far better 

 than before, owing, as it seems, to the more exquisite mixture of its 

 parts. If the case requires that the bodies should be let down to the 

 bottom of the water, as in a river, or the sea, without either touching 

 the water, or being inclosed in scaled vessels, but simply surrounded 

 with air ; that vessel may well be used which is sometimes employed in 

 operations under water upon sunken ships, and by the aid of which 

 divers can remain a long time under water, and breathe occasionally 

 by turns. This instrument was constructed as follows. A hollow bell 

 of metal was let down parallel to the surface of the water, so as to 

 carry with it to the bottom of the sea all the air which it contained. 

 It stood on three feet (like a tripod &amp;gt;, the height of which was some 

 what less than that of a man, so that the diver, when out of breath, 

 could put his head into the bell, take a breath, and then continue his 

 work. And we have heard that a sort of boat or vessel has been in- 

 \rntcd capable of carrying men under water for some distance. Any 

 bodies, thciclore, can easily be hung up in such a vessel ; which is our 

 icason for mentioning this experiment. 



There is also another advantage in carefully and completely closing 

 up bodies ; for not only docs it prevent the ac&amp;lt; ess of external air (of 

 which we have just spoken), but it also restrains the exit of the spirit 

 of the body, on which it is being operated on inside. For it is neces 

 sary that he who acts on natural bodies should be certain about their 

 total quantities, viz., that nothing has evaporated or flowed out. For 

 profound alterations take place in bodies when, while Nature prevents 



