On Bubbles

by Thomas Browne

That the last circumference of the universe is butt the bubble of the chaos & pellicle arising from the grosser foundation of the first matter, containing all the higher & diaphanous bodies under it, is noe affirmation of myne;

Butt that bubbles on watery & fluid bodies are butt the thinne parts of ayre, or a diaphanous texture of water, arising about the ayre & holding awhile from eruption.

They are most lasting & large in viscous humidities wherin the surface will bee best extended without dissolving the continuity, as in bladders blown out of soap. Wine & spirituous bodies make bubbles, butt (not) long lasting, the spirit veering thorough & dissolving the investiture. Aqua fortis upon concussion makes fewe & soone vanishing, the acrimonious effluvium suddenly rending them. Some grosse and windy urines make many & lasting, wch may bee taken away or hindred by vinegar of juice of lemon;

& therefore the greatest bubbles are made in fatt viscous decoctions as in the manufacture of soape & sugar, wherin there is nothing more remarkable then that experiment wherin not many graynes of butter cast upon (a) copper of boyling sugar presently strikes down the ebullitions & makes a subsidence of the bubbling liquor.

Boyling is literally nothing butt bubbling; any liquor attenuated by decoction sends forth its evaporous & attenuated parts wch elevate the surface of the liquor into bubbles.

Even in fermentations & putrefactions wherin attenuation of parts are made, bubbles are raysed without fire.

Glasse is made by way of bubble upon the blowing of the artificer.

Blisters are bubbles in leaves, wherin the exhalation is kept in by the thicknesse of the leaf, & in the skinne, when the toughness thereof holds in the attenuated or attracted humor under it.

Fire blisters even dead flesh, forcibly attenuating the water in the skinne & under it; & cantharides & crowfoote rayse blisters by a potentiall fire & armoniak salt in them attenuating the humor in the skinne & under, wch streches & dilateth the parts prohib(it)ing its evolution.

Bubbles are white because they consist of diaphanous humor or ayre fermented, according to the axiom, perspicum primo terminatum sit album, & ayre under ice, a thicker tergant, makes a grosser & stronger white. Butt in ictericall & jandise urins the bubbles are yellow according to the tincture diffused thorough the water, wh. investeth the ayre contents of the bubbles.

Even man is a bubble if wee take his consideration in his rudiments, & consider the vesicular or bulla pulsans wherin begins the rudiment of life.

Froath & spume is butt a coag(ula)tion & conglobation of bubbles & grosse skinnes are butt the coates of bubbles subsiding, or at least bodies wch are fatt & sulphureous, keeping the surface, are apt to make them, & therefore are not without the active parts as is observable in the spume of iron & steele.

Pitch & resinous bodies have also their bubbles, butt they rise highest at the first while the aqueous parts are attenuated, doe copiously & crowdingly flye up, do elevate the viscous parts wch largely dilate before theire division, for that being spirit these bubbles are lesse, & if water bee throwne upon it recover theire force agayne; as is also discernible in the ebullition of soape till the aqueous parts bee spent & the salt of the lixivium & oyle & tallowe intirely mixed.

The bubbles of oyle will not last, the ayre pierceth, opening or perspiring theire thinne coates; water under oyle makes not bubbles into the oyle, butt at the side or bottome.

Water and ayre doe best concurre to the making of bubbles, ayre or exhalation included in a watery coat, or ayre in an oyle habit, as in oyle boyled, wherin there are some watery parts, or vaporous attenuations that are invested in their eruption.

Fire makes none, for that is to suttle to be contained, & to fluid and moving to bee contained, not affecting a circle, butt a pyramidal ascention, wh. destroyes inclusion. The nearest resemblance thereof is in water throwne upon flaming oyle, wherein the water suddenly rising seemeth to carry up a flaming bubble about it.

Quicksilver seems to have bubbles being shaken together, butt they are butt small sphericall bodies like drops of water, wch hold in some bodies to avoyd discontinuation.