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possible, indeed that it actually exists. If however, he admits our disputation, he has affirmed
the existence
of things called properties with which the operations of reason are not concerned at
all; indeed, reason
almost denies them and judges them absurd. For instance, the weight of a danig (about
eight grains) of
opium is a deadly poison, freezing the blood in the veins through its excess of cold. The man who
claims a
knowledge of physics considers that when a composite substance becomes cold it always does so
through
the two elements of water and earth, since these are the cold elements. It is well-known, however,
that many
pounds of water and earth are not productive of cold in the interior of the body to the same extent
as this
weight of opium. If a physicist were informed of this fact, and had not discovered it by
experiment, he would
say, `This is impossible; the proof of its impossibility is that the opium contains the elements of
fire and air,
and these elements do not increase cold; even supposing it was entirely composed of water and