Redefining the role of experiment in Bacon's natural history: how Baconian was Descartes before emerging from his cocoon?

In this article we argue that the views that Francis Bacon and René Descartes held about the role of experiments in the process of discovery are closer than previously accepted. Looking at the way experiments and the heuristics of experimentation are embedded in Bacon's posthumous History of Dense and Rare and Descartes' Discourses 8, 9, 10 of the Meteorology, we will show that experiments help the investigator both in solving specific problems that could not have otherwise been foreseen and in generating relevant information that advances the scope of the investigation.

Spectrophotometric and spectrofluorimetric investigation of aggregation of some anthraquinone derivatives.

The behaviour of some anthraquinone derivatives in aqueous solution has been studied by absorption and fluorescence spectrophotometry. The results point to the presence of molecular aggregates in solution, also confirmed by polarographic determinations.

[Epidemiological study of chronic cough and obstructive ventilatory dysfunction in a rural area].

An epidemiological study (MRC--Questionnaire and spirography) has been carried out on a population aged between 40 and 69 years living in a rural area (Costeşti, district of Buzău). 440 subjects (202 men and 238 women; 83% of the population in this age group) were examined. Chronic productive cough in subjects with no other respiratory diseases was found in 8,9% of the examinated males and in 5.