the three parts of the body the Head Thorax and Belly we shall not wonder at the small proportion of this Thorax nor at the vaster bulk of the belly for could we exactly anatomise this little Creature and observe the particular designs of each part we should doubtless as we do in all her more manageable and tractable fabricks find much more reason to admire the excellency of her contrivance and workmanship then to wonder it was not made otherwise The head of this little Insect was shap'd somewhat like a Mite's that is it had a long snout in the manner of a Hogs with a knobbed ridge running along the middle of it which was bestuck on either side with many small brisles all pointing forward and two very large pikes or horns which rose from the top of the head just over each eye and pointed forward also It had two pretty large black eyes on either side of the head EE from one of which I could see a very bright reflection of the window which made me ghess that the Cornea of it was smooth like those of bigger Insects It s motion was pretty quick and strong it being able very easily to tumble a stone or clod four times as big as its whole body At the same time and place and divers times since I have observed with my Microscope another little Insect which though I have not annexed the picture of may be worth noting for its exceeding nimbleness as well as smalness it was as small as a Mite with a body deep and ridged almost like a Flea it had eight blood-red legs not very long but slender and two horns or feelers before It s motion was so exceeding quick that I have often lost sight of one I have observed with my naked eye and though when it was not frighted I was able to follow the motions of some with my Microscope yet if it vvere never so little startled it posted avvay vvith such speed and turn'd and vvinded it self so quick that I should presently lose sight of it Now though I propound this as probable I have not yet been so farr certify'd by Observations as to conclude any thing either positively or negatively concerning it Perhaps some more lucky diligence may please the curious Inquirer with the discovery of this to be a truth which I now conjecture and may thereby give him a satisfactory account of the cause of those creatures whose original seems yet so obscure and may give him cause to believe that many other animate beings that seem also to be the mere product of putrifaction may be innobled with a Pedigree as ancient as the first creation and farr exceed the greatest beings in their numerous Genealogies But on the other side if it should be found that these or any other animate body have no immediate similar Parent I have in another place set down a conjectural Hypothesis whereby those Phaenomena may likely enough be solv'd wherein the infinite wisdom and providence of the Creator is no less rare and wonderfull Observ. LI. Of the Crab-like Insect REading one day in Septemb. I chanced to observe a very smal creature creep over the Book I was reading very slowly having a Microscope by me I observ'd it to be a creature of a very unusual form and that not less notable such as is describ'd in the second Figure of the 33. Scheme It was about the bigness of a large Mite or somewhat longer it had ten legs eight of which AAAA were topt with very sharp claws and were those upon which he walk'd seeming shap'd much like those of a Crab which in many other things also this little creature resembled for the two other claws BB which were the formost of all the ten and seem'd to grow out of his head like the horns of other Animals were exactly form'd in the manner of Crabs or Lobsters claws for they were shap'd and jointed much like those represened in the Scheme and the ends of them were furnish'd with a pair of claws or pincers CC which this little animal did open and shut at pleasure It seem'd to make use of those two horns or claws both for feelers and holders for in its motion it carried these aloft extended before moving them to and fro just as a man blindfolded would do his hands when he is fearfull of running against a wall and if I put a hair to it it would readily take hold of it with these claws and seem to hold it fast Now though these horns seem'd to serve him for two uses namely for feeling and holding yet he seem'd neither blind having two small black spots DD which by the make of them and the bright reflection from them seem'd to be his eyes nor did it want other hands having another pair of claws EE very neer plac'd to its mouth and seem'd adjoining to it The whole body was cased over with armour-shells as is usuall in all those kinds of crustaceous creatures especially about their bellies and seem'd of three kinds the head F seem'd cover'd with a kind of scaly shell the thorax with two smooth shells or Rings GG and the belly with eight knobb'd ones I could not certainly find whether it had under these last shells any wings but I suspect the contrary for I have not found any wing'd Insect with eight leggs two of those leggs being always converted into wings and for the most part those that have but six have wings This creature though I could never meet with more then one of them and so could not make so many examinations of it as otherwise I would I did notwithstanding by reason of the great curiosity that appear'd to me in its shape delineate it to shew that in all likelihood Nature had crouded together into this very minute Insect as many and as excellent contrivances as into the body of a very large Crab which exceeds it in bulk perhaps some Millions of times for as to all the apparent parts there is a greater rather then a less multiplicity of parts each legg has as many parts and as many joints as a Crabs nay and as many hairs or brisles and the like may be in all the other visible parts and 't is very likely that the internal curiosities are not less excellent It being a general rule in Nature's proceedings that where she begins to display any excellency if the subject be further search'd into it will manifest that there is not less curiosity in those parts which our single eye cannot reach then in those which are more obvious Observ. LII Of the small Silver-colour'd Book-worm AS among greater Animals there are many that are scaled both for ornament and defence so are there not wanting such also among the lesser bodies of Insects whereof this little creature gives us an Instance It is a small white Silver-shining Worm or Moth which I found much conversant among Books and Papers and is suppos'd to be that which corrodes and eats holes
Figures nay I have observ'd some meshes to have 5 6 7 8 or 9. sides and some to have onely one so exceeding various is the Lusus Naturae in this body As to the outward appearance of this Vegetative body they are so usuall every where that I need not describe them consisting of a soft and porous substance representing a Lock sometimes a fleece of Wooll but it has besides these small microscopical pores which lie between the fibres a multitude of round pores or holes which from the top of it pierce into the body and sometimes go quite through to the bottom I have observ'd many of these Sponges to have included likewise in the midst of their fibrous contextures pretty large friable stones which must either have been inclos'd whil'st this Vegetable was in formation or generated in those places after it was perfectly shap'd The later of which seems the more improbable because I did not find that any of these stony substances were perforated with the fibres of the Sponge I have never seen nor been enform'd of the true manner of the growing of Sponges on the Rock whether they are found to increase from little to great like Vegetables that is part after part or like Animals all parts equally growing together or whether they be matrices or seed-baggs of any kind of Fishes or some kind of watry Insect or whether they are at any times more soft and tender or of another nature and texture which things if I knew I should much desire to be informed of but from a cursory view that I at first made with my Microscope and some other trials I supposed it to be some Animal substance cast out and fastned upon the Rocks in the form of a froth or congeries of bubbles like that which I have often observ'd on Rosemary and other Plants wherein is included a little Insect that all the little films which divide these bubbles one from another did presently almost after the substance began to grow a little harder break and leave onely the thread behind which might be as 't were the angle or thread between the bubbles that the great holes or pores observable in these Sponges were made by the eruption of the included Heterogeneous substance whether air or some other body for many other fluid bodies will do the same thing which breaking out of the lesser were collected into very large bubbles and so might make their way out of the Sponge and in their passage might leave a round cavity and if it were large might carry up with it the adjacent bubbles which may be perceiv'd at the outside of the Sponge if it be first throughly wetted and suffer'd to plump it self into its natural form or be then wrung dry and suffer'd to expand it self again which it will freely do whil'st moist for when it has thus plump'd it self into its natural shape and dimensions 't is obvious enough that the mouths of the larger holes have a kind of lip or rising round about them but the other smaller pores have little or none It may further be found that each of these great pores has many other small pores below that are united unto it and help to constitute it almost like so many rivulets or small streams that contribute to the maintenance of a large River Nor from this Hypothesis would it have been difficult to explicate how those little branches of Coral smal Stones Shells and the like come to be included by these frothy bodies But this inded was but a conjecture and upon a more accurate enquiry into the form of it with the Microscope it seems not to be the true origine of them for whereas Sponges have onely three arms which join together at each knot if they had been generated from bubbles they must have had four But that they are Animal Substances the Chymical examination of them seems to manifest they affording a volatil Salt and spirit like Harts-Horn as does also their great strength and toughness and their smell when burn'd in the Fire or a Candle which has a kind of fleshy sent not much unlike to hair And having since examin'd several Authors concerning them among others I find this account given by Bellonius in the XI Chap. of his 2d Book De Aquatilibus spongiae recentes says he à siccis longe diversae scopulis aquae marinae ad duos vel tres cubitos nonuâ—nquam quatuor tantum digitos immersis ut fungi arboribus adhaerent sordido quodam succo aut mucosa potius sanie refaertae usque adeò faetida ut vel eminus nauseam excitet continetur autem iis cavernis quas inanes in siccis lotis Spongiis cernimus Putris pulmonis modo nigrae conspiciuntur verùm quae in sublimi aquae nascuntur multo magis opaca nigredine suffusae sunt Vivere quidem Spongios adhaerendo Aristoteles censet absolute vero minime sensumque aliquem habere vel eo argumento inquit credantur quod difficillime abstrahantur nisi clanculum agatur Atque ad avulsoris accessum it a contrahantur ut eos evellere difficile sit quod idem etiam faciunt quoties flatus tempestatésque urgent Puto autem illis succum sordidum quem supra diximus carnis loco è natura attributum fuisse atque meatibus latioribus tanquam intefrinis aut interancis uti Caeterum pars ea quae Spongiae contibus adhaerent est tanquam folii petiolus à quo veluti collum quoddam gracile incipit quod deinde in latitudinem diffusum capitis globum facit Recentibus nibil est sistulosuen haesitanque tanquam radicibus Superne omnes propemodam meatus concreti latent inferne verò quaterni aut quinì patent per quos eas sugere existimamus From which Description they seem to be a kind of Plant-Animal that adheres to a Rock and these small fibres or threads which we have described seem to have been the Vessels which 't is very probable were very much bigger whil'st the Interstitia were fill'd as he affirms with a mucous pulpy or fleshy substance but upon the drying were shrunk into the bigness they now appear The texture of it is such that I have not yet met with any other body in the world that has the like but onely one of a larger sort of Sponge which is preserv'd in the Museum Harveanum belonging to the most Illustrious and most learned Society of the Physicians of London which is of a horney or rather of a petrify'd substance And of this indeed the texture and make is exactly the same with common Sponges but onely that both the holes and the fibres or texture of it is exceedingly much bigger for some of the holes were above an Inch and half over and the fibres and texture of it was bigg enough to be distinguished easily with ones eye but conspicuously with an ordinary single Microscope And these indeed seem'd to have been the habitation of some Animal and examining
the onely leaves that produce these kinds of Vegetable sproutings for I have observ'd them also in several other kinds of Rose leaves and on the leaves of several sorts of Briers and on Bramble leaves they are oftentimes to be found in very great clusters so that I have found in one cluster three four or five hundred of them making a very conspicuous black spot or scab on the back side of the leaf Observ. XX. Of blue Mould and the first Principles of Vegetation arising from Putrefaction THe Blue and White and several kinds of hairy mouldy spots which are observable upon divers kinds of putrify'd bodies whether Animal substances or Vegetable such as the skin raw or dress'd flesh bloud humours milk green Cheese c. or rotten sappy Wood or Herbs Leaves Barks Roots c. of Plants are all of them nothing else but several kinds of small and variously figur'd Mushroms which from convenient materials in those putrifying bodies are by the concurrent heat of the Air excited to a certain kind of vegetation which will not be unworthy our more serious speculation and examination as I shall by and by shew But first I must premise a short description of this Specimen which I have added of this Tribe in the first Figure of the XII Scheme which is nothing else but the appearance of a small white spot of hairy mould multitudes of which I found to bespeck whiten over the red covers of a small book which it seems were of Sheeps-skin that being more apt to gather mould even in a dry and clean rooth then other leathers These spots appear'd through a good Microscope to be a very pretty shap'd Vegetative body which from almost the same part of the Leather shoâ— out multitudes of small long cylindrical and transparent stalks not exactly streight but a little bended with the weight of a round and white knob that grew on the top of each of them many of these knobs I observ'd to be very round and of a smooth surface such as A A c. others smooth likewise but a little oblong as B several of them a little broken or cloven with chops at the top as C others flitter'd as 't were or flown all to pieces as DD. The whole substance of these pretty bodies was of a very tender constitution much like the substance of the softer kind of common white Mushroms for by touching them with a Pin I found them to be brused and torn they seem'd each of them to have a distinct root of their own for though they grew neer together in a cluster yet I could perceive each stem to rise out of a distinct part or pore of the Leather some of these were small and short as seeming to have been but newly sprung up of these the balls were for the most part round others were bigger and taller as being perhaps of a longer growth and of these for the most part the heads were broken and some much wasted as E what these heads contain'd I could not perceive whether they were knobs and flowers or seed cases I am not able to say but they seem'd most likely to be of the same nature with those that grow on Mushroms which they did some of them not a little resemble Both their smell and taste which are active enough to make a sensible impression upon those organs are unpleasant and noisome I could not find that they would so quickly be destroy'd by the actual flame of a Candle as at first sight of them I conceived they would be but they remain'd intire after I had past that part of the Leather on which they stuck three or four times through the flame of a Candle so that it seems they are not very apt to take fire no more then the common white Mushroms are when they are sappy There are a multitude of other shapes of which these Microscopical Mushroms are figur'd which would have been a long Work to have described and would not have suited so well with my design in this Treatise onely amongst the rest I must not forget to take notice of one that was a little like to or resembled a Spunge consisting of a multitude of little Ramifications almost as that body does which indeed seems to be a kind of Water-Mushrom of a very pretty texture as I else-where manifest And a second which I must not omit because often mingled and neer adjoining to these I have describ'd and this appear'd much like a Thicket of bushes or brambles very much branch'd and extended some of them to a great length in proportion to their Diameter like creeping brambles The manner of the growth and formation of this kind of Vegetable is the third head of Enquiry which had I time I should follow the figure and method of Generation in this concrete seeming to me next after the Enquiry into the formation figuration or chrystalization of Salts to be the most simple plain and easie and it seems to be a medium through which he must necessarily pass that would with any likelihood investigate the forma informans of Vegetables for as I think that he shall find it a very difficult task who undertakes to discover the form of Saline crystallizations without the consideration and prescience of the nature and reason of a Globular form and as difficult to explicate this configuration of Mushroms without the previous consideration of the form of Salts so will the enquiry into the forms of Vegetables be no less if not much more difficult without the fore-knowledge of the forms of Mushroms these several Enquiries having no less dependance one upon another then any select number of Propositions in Mathematical Elements may be made to have Nor do I imagine that the skips from the one to another will be found very great if beginning from fluidity or body without any form we descend gradually till we arrive at the highest form of a bruite Animal's Soul making the steps or foundations of our Enquiry Fluidity Orbiculation Fixation Angulization or Crystallization Germination or â—hultition Vegetation Plantanimation Animation Sensation Imagination Now that we may the better proceed in our Enquiry It will be requisite to consider First that Mould and Mushroms require no seminal property but the former may be produc'd at any time from any kind of putrifying Animal or Vegetable Substance as Flesh c. kept moist and warm and the latter if what Mathiolus relates be true of making them by Art are as much within our command of which Matter take the Epitomie which Mr. Parkinson has deliver'd in his Herbal in his Chapter of Mushroms because I have not Mathiolus now by me Vnto these Mushroms saith he may also be adjoyn'd those which are made of Art whereof Mathiolus makes mention that grow naturally among certain stones in Naples and that the stones being digg'd up and carried to Rome and other places where they set them in their Wine Cellars covering them with a little