m, not in confusion, but by interposition; as sand moistened doth
clog together and seem to be but one body, though indeed there are many
small bodies in sand. And since this is so, it is not absurd that the
contrary qualities and virtues should be hidden in mastich, and that
nature hath given that virtue to these bodies.

Q. Why do nurses rock and move their children when they would rock them
to sleep? A. To the end that the humours being scattered by moving, may
move the brains; but those of more years cannot endure this.

Q. Why doth oil, being drunk, cause one to vomit, and especially yellow
choler? A. Because being light, and ascending upwards it provoketh the
nutriment in the stomach, and lifteth it up; and so, the stomach being
grieved, summoneth the ejective virtue to vomit, and especially choler,
because that is light and consisteth of subtle parts, and therefore the
sooner carried upward; for when it is mingled with any moist thing, it
runneth into the highest room.

Q. Why doth not oil mingle with moist things? A. Because, being pliant,
soft and thick in itself, it cannot be divided into parts, and so cannot
be mingled; neither if it be put on the earth can it enter into it.

Q. Why are water and oil frozen in cold weather, and wine and vinegar
not? A. Because that oil being without quality, and fit to be compounded
with anything, is cold quickly and so extremely that it is most cold.
Water being cold of nature, doth easily freeze when it is made colder
than its own nature. Wine being hot, and of subtle parts, suffereth no
freezing.

Q. Why do contrary things in quality bring forth the same effect? A.
That which is moist is hardened and bound alike by heat and cold. Snow
and liquid do freeze with cold; a plaster and gravel in the bladder are
made dry with heat. The effect indeed is the same, but by two divers
actions; the heat doth consume and eat the abundance of moisture; but
the cold stopping and shutting with its over much thickness, doth wring
out the filthy humidity, like as a sponge wrung with the hand doth cast
out the water which it hath in the pores and small passages.

Q. Why doth a shaking or quivering seize us oftentimes when any fearful
matter doth happen, as a great noise or a crack made, the sudden
downfall of water, or the fall of a large tree? A. Because that
oftentimes the humours being digested and consumed by time and made thin
and weak, all the heat vehemently, suddenly and sharply