Q. Why are the sensible powers in the heart; yet, if the hinder part of the brain be hurt, the memory suffereth by it; if the fore part, the imagination; if the middle, the cogitative part? A. It is because the brain is appointed by Nature to cool the heat of the heart; whereof it is, that in divers parts it serveth the powers and instruments with their heat, for every action of the soul doth not proceed from one measure of heat. THE PROBLEMS OF ALEXANDER APHRODISEUS. Q. Why doth the sun make a man black, and dirt white, wax soft, and dirt hard? A. By reason of the disposition of the substance that doth suffer. All humours, phlegm excepted, when heated above measure, do seem black about the skin; and dirt, being full either of saltpetre, or salt liquor, when the sun hath consumed its dregs and filth, doth become white again; when the sun hath drawn and stirred up the humidity of wax, it is softened; but in dirt the sun doth consume the humidity, which is very much, and makes it hard. Q. Why are round ulcers hard to be cured? A. Because they are bred of a sharp choler, which eats and gnaws; and because it doth run, dropping and gnawing, it makes a round ulcer; for which reason it requires drying medicines, as physicians assert. Q. Why is honey sweet to all men but such as have the jaundice? A. Because they have much bitter choler all over their bodies, which abounds in the tongue; whence it happens, when they eat honey the humours are stirred, and the taste itself, by the bitterness, of choler, causes an imagination that the honey is bitter. Q. Why doth water cast on serpents cause them to fly? A. Because they are dry and cold by nature, having but little blood, and therefore fly from excessive coldness. Q, Why doth an egg break if it be roasted and not if boiled? A. When moisture comes near the fire, it is heated very much, and so breeds wind, which being put up in little room, forces its way out, and breaks the shell: the like happens to tubs, and earthen vessels, when new wine is put into them: too much phlegm breaks the shell of an egg in roasting; it is the same with earthen pots too much heated; wherefore some people wet an egg when they intend to roast it. Hot water, by its softness, doth dissipate its humidity by little and little, and dissolves it through the thinness and passages of the shell.