Chapter 29 Section 16

Forty seven (23) The Instance of Quantity—This is also called the natural dose (to borrow a term from medicine). ① This kind of example is to measure the virtue attached to it according to the weight of the object, and to show how much the way of virtue depends on the weight of the object.In the first place, there are certain virtues which are attached to only one cosmic component, that is, that which corresponds to the constitution of the universe.The earth, for example, stands upright, but its parts fall.Another example is that the tides come and go in sea water, but there is no river water except for the influx from the sea.Secondly, almost all specific sexual virtues are active according to the size of the weight of the object.For example, a large amount of water rots slowly, and a small amount of water rots quickly.As for wine and beer, those brewed in bottles are riper and drinkable before those brewed in barrels.If the grass is immersed in a large amount of liquid, it will get the effect of soaking instead of soaking; if it is immersed in a small amount of liquid, it will get the effect of soaking instead of soaking.Similarly, for the human body, bathing in pots of soup is one effect, and sprinkling with micro-water droplets is another effect.Again, dew never falls from the air, but disperses and merges into the air.Then look at the breath on the gemstone, the thin moisture will disappear immediately, like a light cloud scattered by the wind.To take the magnetite again, a broken piece of it does not attract as much iron as a whole piece.The above is an example of one aspect.On the other hand, there are also some virtues that have a greater effect because of their small amount.

For example, if you want to drill something, a pointed head will drill faster than a blunt one; another example is that a sharpened diamond can cut glass; and so on. ① Kachin pointed out: This kind of example is to measure the ratio of quantity to force.This is especially useful for chemistry and pharmacology, and it is the accuracy of this ratio that makes chemistry a true science. - translator We must not stop at this indefinite relation, but proceed to inquire into the proportion of the weight of a body to its mode of virtue.It is natural to believe that the two are equal, for example, assuming the time it takes for a 1 ounce bullet to hit the ground, then a 2 ounce bullet will fall twice as quickly; but this is not the case. ①Furthermore, the proportions of various virtues to weight are different, and the differences are very large.Therefore, the measurement of these must be sought from experiments, not from likelihood or speculation. ①Kachin pointed out: The statement about the falling speed of objects here is very interesting, which shows that although Bacon did not mention Galileo, he was willing to accept some of his theories.A dogma of Aristotle, that bodies of unequal weights fall at equal distances at unequal times; Galileo was the first to boldly deny this dogma, with the evidence of that famous The famous experiment in which a ten-pound weight and a one-pound weight were dropped simultaneously from the leaning tower of Pisa. - translator

Finally, it must be pointed out that, in investigating nature, we must ascertain the quantity (or potion, so to speak) of objects to produce what effect;