Works; Collected and Edited by James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis, and Douglas Denon Heath Volume 5

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1861 edition. Excerpt: ...periods, as the relics of consumption (such as is sometimes found in old tombs and monuments), is indeed almost nothing, and more minute and exhausted than any ashes made by fire. For ashes have likewise a juice, which may be drawn from them, and turned into salts; but this kind of powder has none. But that which concerns the present inquiry, and for the sake of which these things have been said, is this; it is certain that the spirit as long as it is detained in the body melts, intenerates, works upon, and undermines the tangible parts; but after its emission the tangible parts forthwith contract and close up. The History. CONTRACTIONS BY THE SHRINKING OP THE GROSSER PARTS AFTER THE EMISSION OP THE SPIRIT. 1. In old age the skins of animals wrinkle, and the members dry. 2. Pears and apples that are kept long gather wrinkles; and nuts are so contracted as not to fill the shell. 3. The outer rind of old cheeses wrinkles up. Wood in beams, posts, stakes (especially if they be put in green) becomes so contracted as to separate and gape. The like happens to bowla. 4. The earth in great droughts is rent asunder, and the surface becomes full of cracks; and sometimes these cracks go so deep as to cause an eruption of waters. Admonition. Let no one be so idle as to say that this contraction in droughts is nothing else than a consumption of moisture. For if the only action were the escape of the moisture turned into spirit, bodies should remain of their former bulk and dimension, and only become hollow, as pumice-stone or cork; but not be locally contracted and lessened in their dimensions. 5. Clay in the kiln is wrought into bricks and tiles; but if the heat be strong, as in the middle of the kiln, some part of the clay is likewise turned and...