Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/231

Rh Cold maketh the pilage of beasts more thick and long, as foxes of Muscovy, sables, &c.

Cold maketh the pilage of most beasts incline to grayness or whiteness, as foxes, bears, and so the plumage of fowls; and maketh also the crests of cocks and their feet white, as is reported.

Extreme cold will make nails leap out of the walls, and out of locks, and the like.

Extreme cold maketh leather to be stiff like horn.

In frosty weather the stars appear clearest and most sparkling.

In the change from frost to open weather, or from open weather to frosts, commonly great mists.

In extreme colds any thing never so little which arresteth the air maketh it to congeal; as we see in cobwebs in windows, which is one of the least and weakest threads that is, and yet drops gather about it like chains of pearl.

So in frosts, the inside of glass windows gathereth a dew; Qu. if not more without.

Qu. Whether the sweating of marble and stones be in frost, or towards rain.

Oil in time of frost gathereth to a substance, as of tallow; and it is said to sparkle some time, so as it giveth a light in the dark.

The countries which lie covered with snow have a hastier maturation of all grain than in other countries, all being within three months or thereabouts.

Qu. It is said, that compositions of honey, as mead, do ripen, and are most pleasant in the great colds.

The frosts with us are casual, and not tied to any months, so as they are not merely caused by the recess of the sun, but mixed with some inferior causes. In the inland of the northern countries, as in Russia, the weather for the three or four months of November, December, January, February, is constant, viz. clear and perpetual frost, without snows or rains.

There is nothing in our region, which, by approach of a matter hot, will not take heat by transition or excitation.

There is nothing hot here with us but is in a kind of consumption, if it carry heat in itself; for all fired things are ready to consume; chafed things are ready to fire; and the heat of men's bodies needeth aliment to restore.

The transition of heat is without any imparting of substance, and yet remaineth after the body heated is withdrawn; for it is not like smells, for they leave some airs or parts; not like light, for that abideth not when the first body is removed; not unlike to the motion of the loadstone, which is lent without adhesion of substance, for if the iron be filed where it was rubbed, yet it will draw or turn.