Note 377 — Chapter VIII · FRIAR BACON

“Quaedam vero auditum perturbant.... Nullus tonitrui fragor posset talibus comparari. Quædam tantum terrorem visui incutiunt, quod coruscationes nubium longe minus et sine comparatione perturbant.... Experimentum hujus rei capimus ex hoc ludicro puerili, quod fit in multis mundi partibus, scilicet ut instrumento facto ad quantitatem pollicis humani ex violentia illius salis qui sal petrae vocatur, tam horribilis sonus nascitur in ruptura tam modicæ rei, scilicet modici pergameni, quod fortis tonitrui sentiatur excedere rugitum, et coruscationem maximam sui luminis jubar excedit.”—Opus Majus, London, 1733, p. 474. “Offenbar ist hier das Schiesspulver verstanden.”—L. Schneider, “Roger Bacon,” 1873, p. 110. Two centuries before, when referring to Bacon’s remarks on the destruction of the Midianites by Gideon, Borrichius had said: “Hic apertissime loquitur Bacon de nitrato illo sclopetorum pulvere.”—De Ortu &c., Chemiæ, 1668, p. 126.