improve our other Senses of hearing smelling tasting touching 'T is not impossible to hear a whisper a furlongs distance it having been already done and perhaps the nature of the thing would not make it more impossible though that furlong should be ten times multiply'd And though some famous Authors have affirm'd it impossible to hear through the thinnest plate of Muscovy-glass yet I know a way by which 't is easie enough to hear one speak through a wall a yard thick It has not been yet thoroughly examin'd how far Otocousticons may be improv'd nor what other wayes there may be of quickning our hearing or conveying sound through other bodies then the Air for that that is not the only medium I can assure the Reader that I have by the help of a distended wire propagated the sound to a very considerable distance in an instant or with as seemingly quick a motion as that of light at least incomparably swifter then that which at the same time was propagated through the Air and this not only in a straight line or direct but in one bended in many angles Nor are the other three so perfect but that diligence attention and many mechanical contrivances may also highly improve them For since the sense of smelling seems to be made by the swift passage of the Air impregnated with the steams and effluvia of several odorous Bodies through the grisly meanders of the Nose whose surfaces are cover'd with a very sensible nerve and moistned by a transudation from the processus mamillares of the Brain and some adjoyning glandules and by the moist steam of the Lungs with a Liquor convenient for the reception of those effluvia and by the adhesion and mixing of those steams with that liquor and thereby affecting the nerve or perhaps by insinuating themselves into the juices of the brain after the same manner as I have in the following Observations intimated the parts of Salt to pass through the skins of Effs and Frogs Since I say smelling seems to be made by some such way 't is not improbable but that some contrivance for making a great quantity of Air pass quick through the Nose might as much promote the sense of smelling as the any wayes hindring that passage does dull and destroy it Several tryals I have made both of hindring and promoting this sense and have succeeded in some according to expectation and indeed to me it seems capable of being improv'd for the judging of the constitutions of many Bodies Perhaps we may thereby also judge as other Creatures seem to do what is wholsome what poyson and in a word what are the specifick properties of Bodies There may be also some other mechanical wayes found out of sensibly perceiving the effluvia of Bodies several Instances of which were it here proper I could give of Mineral steams and exhalations and it seems not impossible but that by some such wayes improved may be discovered what Minerals lye buried under the Earth without the trouble to dig for them some things to confirm this Conjecture may be found in Agricola and other Writers of Minerals speaking of the Vegetables that are apt to thrive or pine in those steams Whether also those steams which seem to issue out of the Earth and mix with the Air and so to precipitate some aqueous Exhalations wherewith 't is impregnated may not be by some way detected before they produce the effect seems hard to determine yet something of this kind I am able to discover by an Instrument I contriv'd to shew all the minute variations in the pressure of the Air by which I constantly find that before and during the time of rainy weather the pressure of the Air is less and in dry weather but especially when an Eastern Wind which having past over vast tracts of Land is heavy with Earthy Particles blows it is much more though these changes are varied according to very odd Laws The Instrument is this I prepare pretty capaceous Bolt-head AB with a small stem about two foot and a half long DC upon the end of this DI put on a small bended Glass or brazen Syphon DEF open at D E and F but to be closed with cement at F and E as occasion serves whose stem F should be about six or eight inches long but the bore of it not above half an inch diameter and very even these I fix very strongly together by the help of very hard Cement and then fit the whole Glass ABCDEF into a long Board or Frame in such manner that almost half the head AB may lye buried in a concave Hemisphere cut into the Board RS then I place it so on the Board RS as is exprest in the first Figure of the first Scheme and fix it very firm and steady in that posture so as that the weight of the Mercury that is afterwards to be put into it may not in the least shake or stir it then drawing a line XY on the Frame RT so that it may divide the ball into two equal parts or that it may pass as 't were through the center of the ball I begin from that and divide all the rest of the Board towards UT into inches and the inches between the 25 and the end E which need not be above two or three and thirty inches distant from the line XY I subdivide into Decimals then stopping the end F with soft Cement or soft Wax I invert the Frame placing the head downwards and the Orifice E upwards and by it with a small Funnel I fill the whole Glass with Quicksilver then by stopping the small Orifice E with my finger I oftentimes erect and invert the whole Glass and Frame and thereby free the Quicksilver and Glass from all the bubbles or parcels of lurking Air then inverting it as before I fill it top full with clear and well strain'd Quicksilver and having made ready a small ball of pretty hard Cement by heat made very soft I press it into the hole E and thereby stop it very fast and to secure this Cement from flying out afterward I bind over it a piece of Leather that is spread over in the inside with Cement and wound about it whilst the Cement is hot Having thus fastned it I gently erect again the Glass after this manner I first let the Frame down edge-wayes till the edge RV touch the Floor only horizontal and then in that edging posture raise the end RS this I do that if there chance to be any Air hidden in the small Pipe E it may ascend into the Pipe F and not into Pipe DC Having thus erected it and hung it by the hole Q or fixt it perpendicularly by any other means I open the end F and by a small Syphon I draw out the Mercury so long till I find the surface of it AB in the head to touch exactly the line XY at which time I immediately take away the Syphon and if by chance it be
grinding away the blunt end and though I took a seemingly good one and had ground away neer two thirds of the Ball yet would it not fly to pieces but now and then some small rings of it would snap and fly off not without a brisk noise and quick motion leaving the Surface of the drop whence it flew very prettily branched or creased which was easily discoverable by the Microscope This drop after I had thus ground it without at all impairing the remnant that was not ground away I caused to fly immediately all into sand upon the nipping off the very tip of its slender end Another of these drops I began to grind away at the smaller end but had not worn away on the stone above a quarter of an inch before the whole drop flew with a brisk crack into sand or small dust nor would it have held so long had there not been a little flaw in the piece that I ground away as I afterwards found Several others of these drops I covered over with a thin but very tuff skin of Icthyocolla which being very tough and very transparent was the most convenient substance for these tryals that I could imagine having dipt I say several of these drops in this transparent Glue whilst hot and suffering them to hang by a string tied about the end of them till they were cold and the skin pretty tough then wrapping all the body of the drop leaving out only the very tip in fine supple Kids-leather very closely I nipped off the small top and found as I expected that notwithstanding this skin of Glue and the close wrapping up in Leather upon the breaking of the top the drop gave a crack like the rest and gave my hand a pretty brisk impulse but yet the skin and leather was so strong as to keep the parts from flying out of their former posture and the skin being transparent I found that the drop retained exactly its former figure and polish but was grown perfectly opacous and all over flaw'd all those flaws lying in the manner of rings from the bottom or blunt end to the very top of small point And by several examinations with a Microscope of several thus broken I found the flaws both within the body of the drop and on the outward surface to lye much in this order Let AB in the Figure X of the fourth Scheme represent the drop cased over with Icthyocolla or Isinglass and by being ordered as is before prescribed crazed or flawed into pieces but by the skin or case kept in its former figure and each of its flawed parts preserved exactly in its due posture the outward appearance of it somewhat plainly to the naked eye but much more conspicuous if viewed with a small senss appeared much after this shape That is the blunt end B for a pretty breadth namely as far as the Ring CCC seemed irregularly flawed with divers clefts which all seemed to tend towards the Center of it being as I afterwards found and shall anon shew in the description of the figure Y the Basis as it were of a Cone which was terminated a little above the middle of the drop all the rest of the Surface from CCC to A was flawed with an infinite number of small and parallel Rings which as they were for the most part very round so were they very thick and close together but were not so exactly flaw'd as to make a perfect Ring but each circular part was by irregular cracks flawed likewise into multitudes of irregular flakes or tiles and this order was observed likewise the whole length of the neck Now though I could not so exactly cut this conical Body through the Axis as is represented by the figure Y yet by anatomizing as it were of several and taking notice of divers particular circumstances I was informed that could I have artificially divided a flaw'd drop through the Axis or Center I should with a Microscope have found it to appear much of this form where A signifies the Apex and B the blunt end CC the Cone of the Basis which is terminated at T the top or end of it which seems to be the very middle of the blunt end in which not only the conical body of the Basis CC is terminated but as many of the parts of the drop as reach as high as DD. And it seemed to be the head or beginning of a Pith as it were or a a part of the body which seemed more spungy then the rest and much more irregularly flawed which from T ascended by EE though less visible into the small neck towards A. The Grain as it were of all the flaws that from all the outward Surface ADCCDA was much the same as is represented by the black strokes that meet in the middle DT DT DE DE c. Nor is this kind of Grain as I may call it peculiar to Glass drops thus quenched for not to mention Coperas-stones and divers other Marchasites and Minerals which I have often taken notice of to be in the very same manner flaked or grained with a kind of Pith in the middle I have observed the same in all manner of cast Iron especially the coarser sort such as Stoves and Furnaces and Backs and Pots are made of For upon the breaking of any of those Substances it is obvious to observe how from the out-sides towards the middle there is a kind of Radiation or Grain much resembling this of the Glass-drop but this Grain is most conspicuous in Iron-bullets if they be broken the same Phaenomena may be produced by casting regulus of Antimony into a Bullet-mold as also with Glass of Antimony or with almost any such kind of Vitrified substance either cast into a cold Mold or poured into Water Others of these Drops I heat red hot in the fire and then suffered them to cool by degrees And these I found to have quite lost all their fulminating or flying quality as also their hard brittle and springy texture and to emerge of a much softer temper and much easier to be broken or snapt with ones finger but its strong and brittle quality was quite destroyed and it seemed much of the same consistence with other green Glass well nealed in the Oven The Figure and bigness of these for the most part was the same with that of the Figure Z that is all the surface of them was very smooth and polisht and for the most part round but very rugged or knobbed about D and all the length of the stem was here and there pitted or flatted About D which is at the upper part of the drop under that side of the stem which is concave there usually was made some one or more little Hillocks or Prominences The drop it self before it be broken appears very transparent and towards the middle of it to be very full of small Bubbles of some kind of aerial substance which by the refraction of the outward surface appear
this order it alwayes kept whatsoever were the middle Colour There was further observable in several other parts of this Body many Lines or Threads each of them of some one peculiar Colour and those so exceedingly bright and vivid that it afforded a very pleasant object through the Microscope Some of these threads I have observed also to be pieced or made up of several short lengths of differently coloured ends as I may so call them as a line appearing about two inches long through the Microscope has been compounded of about half an inch of a Peach colour ⅛ of a lovely Grass-green ¾ of an inch more of a bright Scarlet and the rest of the line of a Watchet blew Others of them were much otherwise coloured the variety being almost infinite Another thing which is very observable is that if you find any place where the colours are very broad and conspicuous to the naked eye you may by pressing that place with your finger make the colours change places and go from one part to another There is one Phaenomenon more which may if care be used exhibit to the beholder as it has divers times to me an exceeding pleasant and not less instructive Spectacle And that is if curiosity and diligence be used you may so split this admirable Substance that you may have pretty large Plates in comparison of those smaller ones which you may observe in the Rings that are perhaps an ⅛ or a ⅙ part of an inch over each of them appearing through the Microscope most curiously intirely and uniformly adorned with some one vivid colour this if examined with the Microscope may be plainly perceived to be in all parts of it equally thick Two three or more of these lying one upon another exhibit oftentimes curious compounded colours which produce such a Compositum as one would scarce imagine should be the result of such ingredients As perhaps a faint yellow and a blew may produce a very deep purple But when anon we come to the more strict examination of these Phaenomena and to inquire into the causes and reasons of these productions we shall I hope make it more conceivable how they are produced and shew them to be no other then the natural and necessary effects arising from the peculiar union of concurrent causes These Phaenomena being so various and so truly admirable it will certainly be very well worth our inquiry to examine the causes and reasons of them and to consider whether from these causes demonstratively evidenced may not be deduced the true causes of the production of all kind of Colours And I the rather now do it instead of an Appendix or Digression to this History then upon the occasion of examining the Colours in Peacocks or other Feathers because this Subject as it does afford more variety of particular Colours so does it afford much better wayes of examining each circumstance And this will be made manifest to him that considers first that this laminated body is more simple and regular then the parts of Peacocks feathers this consisting only of an indefinite number of plain and smooth Plates heaped up or incumbent on each other Next that the parts of this body are much more manageable to be divided or joyned then the parts of a Peacocks feather or any other substance that I know And thirdly because that in this we are able from a colourless body to produce several coloured bodies affording all the variety of Colours imaginable And several others which the subsequent Inquiry will make manifest To begin therefore it is manifest from several circumstances that the material cause of the apparition of these several Colours is some Lamina or Plate of a transparent or pellucid body of a thickness very determinate and proportioned according to the greater or less refractive power of the pellucid body And that this is so abundance of Instances and particular Circumstances will make manifest As first if you take any small piece of the Muscovy-glass and with a Needle or some other convenient Instrument cleave it oftentimes into thinner and thinner Laminae you shall find that till you come to a determinate thinness of them they shall all appear transparent and colourless but if you continue to split and divide them further you shall find at last that each Plate after it comes to such a determinate thickness shall appear most lovely ting'd or imbued with a determinate colour If further by any means you so flaw a pretty thick piece that one part does begin to cleave a little from the other and between those two there be by any means gotten some pellucid medium those laminated pellucid bodies that fill that space shall exhibit several Rainbows or coloured Lines the colours of which will be disposed and ranged according to the various thicknesses of the several parts of that Plate That this is so is yet further confirmed by this Experiment Take two small pieces of ground and polisht Looking-glass-plate each about the bigness of a shilling take these two dry and with your fore-fingers and thumbs press them very hard and close together and you shall find that when they approach each other very near there will appear several Irises or coloured Lines in the same manner almost as in the Muscovy-glass and you may very easily change any of the Colours of any part of the interposed body by pressing the Plates closer and harder together or leaving them more lax that is a part which appeared coloured with a red may be presently ting'd with a yellow blew green purple or the like by altering the appropinquation of the terminating Plates Now that air is not necessary to be the interposed body but that any other transparent fluid will do much the same may be tryed by wetting those approximated Surfaces with Water or any other transparent Liquor and proceeding with it in the same manner as you did with the Air and you will find much the like effect only with this difference that those comprest bodies which differ most in their refractive quality from the compressing bodies exhibit the most strong and vivid tinctures Nor is it necessary that this laminated and ting'd body should be of a fluid substance any other substance provided it be thin enough and transparent doing the same thing this the Laminae of our Muscovy-glass hint but it may be confirm'd by multitudes of other Instances And first we shall find that even Glass it self may by the help of a Lamp be blown thin enough to produce these Phaenomena of Colours which Phaenomena accidentally happening as I have been attempting to frame small Glasses with a Lamp did not a little surprize me at first having never heard or seen any thing of it before though afterwards comparing it with the Phaenomena I had often observed in those Bubbles which Children use to make with Soap-water I did the less wonder especially when upon Experiment I found I was able to produce the same Phaenomena in thin
distant from D towards F and the Ray AFC the production of KCAI will exhibit a Red because the side AF is adjacent to the dark or quiet medium of the eye APFA but nothing of a Blue because its side CF is adjacent to the enlightned medium CFDC and all the Rays from the intermediate parts of the luminous body that are collected between F and D shall have their Red so much the more diluted by how much the farther they are distant from F towards D. Now because by the refraction in the Cornea and some other parts of the eye the sides of each Ray which before were almost parallel are made to converge and meet in a point at the bottom of the eye therefore that side of the pulse which preceded before these refractions shall first touch the Retina and the other side last And therefore according as this or that side or end of the pulse shall be impeded accordingly will the impressions on the Retina be varied therefore by the Ray GACH refracted by the Cornea to D there shall be on that point a stroke or impression confus'd whose weakest end namely that by the line CD shall precede and the stronger namely that by the line AD shall follow And by the Ray KCAI refracted to F there shall be on that part a confus'd stroke or impression whose strongest part namely that by the line CF shal precede and whose weakest or impeded namely that by the line AF shall follow and all the intermediate points between F and D will receive impression from the converg'd Rays so much the more like the impressions on F and D by how much the nearer they approach that or this From the consideration of the proprieties of which impressions we may collect these short definitions of Colours That Blue is an impression on the Retina of an oblique and confus'd pulse of light whose weakest part precedes and whose strongest follows And that Red is an impression on the Retina of an oblique and confus'd pulse of light whose strongest part precedes and whose weakest follows Which proprieties as they have been already manifested in the Prisme and falling drops of Rain to be the causes of the colours there generated may be easily found to be the efficients also of the colours appearing in thin laminated transparent bodies for the explication of which all this has been premised And that this is so a little closer examination of the Phaenomena and the Figure of the body by this Hypothesis will make evident For first as we have already observed the laminated body must be of a determinate thickness that is it must not be thinner then such a determinate quantity for I have always observ'd that neer the edges of those which are exceeding thin the colours disappear and the part grows white nor must it be thicker then another determinate quantity for I have likewise observ'd that beyond such a thickness no colours appear'd but the Plate looked white between which two determinate thicknesses were all the colour'd Rings of which in some substances I have found ten or twelve in others not half so many which I suppose depends much upon the transparency of the laminated body Thus though the consecutions are the same in the scumm or the skin on the top of metals yet in those consecutions the same colour is not so often repeated as in the consecutions in thin Glass or in Sope-water or any other more transparent and glutinous liquor for in these I have observ'd Red Yellow Green Blue Purple Red Yellow Green Blue Purple Red Yellow Green Blue Purple Red Yellow c. to succeed each other ten or twelve times but in the other more opacous bodies the consecutions will not be half so many And therefore secondly the laminated body must be transparent and this I argue from this that I have not been able to produce any colour at all with an opacous body though never so thin And this I have often try'd by pressing a small Globule of Mercury between two smooth Plates of Glass whereby I have reduc'd that body to a much greater thinness then was requisite to exhibit the colours with a transparent body Thirdly there must be a considerable reflecting body adjacent to the under or further side of the lamina or plate for this I always found that the greater that reflection was the more vivid were the appearing colours From which Observations it is most evident that the reflection from the under or further side of the body is the principal cause of the production of these colours which that it is so and how it conduces to that effect I shall further explain in the following Figure which is here described of a very great thickness as if it had been view'd through the Microscope and 't is indeed much thicker than any Microscope I have yet us'd has been able to shew me those colour'd plates of Glass or Muscovie-glass which I have not without much trouble view'd with it for though I have endeavoured to magnifie them as much as the Glasses were capable of yet are they so exceeding thin that I have not hitherto been able positively to determine their thickness This Figure therefore I here represent is wholy Hypothetical Let ABCDHFE in the sixth Figure be a frustum of Muscovy-glass thinner toward the end AE and thicker towards DF. Let us first suppose the Ray aghb coming from the Sun or some remote luminous object to fall obliquely on the thinner plate BAE part therefore is reflected back by cghd the first Superficies whereby the perpendicular pulse ab is after reflection propagated by cd cd equally remote from each other with ab ab so that ag + gc or bh + hd are either of them equal to aa as is also cc but the body BAE being transparent a part of the light of this Ray is refracted in the surface AB and propagated by gikh to the surface EF whence it is reflected and refracted again by the surface AB So that after two refractions and one reflection there is propagated a kind of fainter Ray emnf whose pulse is not only weaker by reason of the two refractions in the surface AB but by reason of the time spent in passing and repassing between the two surfaces AB and EF ef which is this fainter or weaker pulse comes behind the pulse cd so that hereby the surfaces AB and EF being so neer together that the eye cannot discriminate them from one this confus'd or duplicated pulse whose strongest part precedes and whose weakest follows does produce on the Retina or the optick nerve that covers the bottom of the eye the sensation of a Yellow And secondly this Yellow will appear so much the deeper by how much the further back towards the middle between cd and cd the spurious pulse ef is remov'd as in 2 where the surface BC being further remov'd from EF the weaker pulse ef will be nearer to the middle and will make an
Aristotle I find a very consonant account hereunto namely that he had known a certain little Animal call'd Pinnothera like a Spider to be bred in those caverns of a Sponge from within which by opening and closing those holes he insnares and catches the little Fishes and in another place he says That 't is very confidently reported that there are certain Moths or Worms that reside in the cavities of a Sponge and are there nourished Notwithstanding all which Histories I think it well worth the enquiring into the History and nature of a Sponge it seeming to promise some information of the Vessels in Animal substances which by reason of the solidity of the interserted flesh that is not easily remov'd without destroying also those interspers'd Vessels are hitherto undiscover'd whereas here in a Sponge the Parenchyma it seems is but a kind of mucous gelly which is very easily and cleerly wash'd away The reason that makes me imagine that there may probably be some such texture in Animal substances is that examining the texture of the filaments of tann'd Leather I find it to be much of the same nature and strength of a Sponge and with my Microscope I have observ'd many such joints and knobs as I have described in Sponges the fibres also in the hollow of several sorts of Bones after the Marrow has been remov'd I have found somewhat to resemble this texture though I confess I never yet found any texture exactly the same nor any for curiosity comparable to it The filaments of it are much smaller then those of Silk and through the Microscope appear very neer as transparent nay some parts of them I have observ'd much more Having examin'd also several kinds of Mushroms I finde their texture to be somewhat of this kind that is to consist of an infinite company of small filaments every way contex'd and woven together so as to make a kind of cloth and more particularly examining a piece of Touch-wood which is a kind of Iews-ear or Mushrom growing here in England also on several sorts of Trees such as Elders Maples Willows c. and is commonly call'd by the name of Spunk but that we meet with to be sold in Shops is brought from beyond Seas I found it to be made of an exceeding delicate texture For the substance of it feels and looks to the naked eye and may be stretch'd any way exactly like a very fine piece of Chamois Leather or wash'd Leather but it is of somewhat a browner hew and nothing neer so strong but examining it with my Microscope I found it of somewhat another make then any kind of Leather for whereas both Chamois and all other kinds of Leather I have yet view'd consist of an infinite company of filaments somewhat like bushes inter-woven one within another that is of bigger parts or stems as it were and smaller branchings that grow out of them or like a heap of Ropes ends where each of the larger Ropes by degrees seem to split or untwist into many smaller Cords and each of those Cords into smaller Lines and those Lines into Threads c. and these strangely intangled or inter-woven one within another The texture of this Touch-wood seemâ— more like that of a Lock or a Fleece of Wool for it consists of an infinite number of small filaments all of them as farr as I could perceive of the same bigness like those of a Sponge but that the filaments of this were not a twentieth part of the bigness of those of a Sponge and I could not so plainly perceive their joints or their manner of interweaving though as farr as I was able to discern with that Microscope I had I suppose it to have some kind of resemblance but the joints are nothing neer so thick nor without much trouble visible The filaments I could plainly enough perceive to be even round cylindrical transparent bodies and to cross each other every way that is there were not more seem'd to lie horizontally then perpendicularly and thwart-way so that it is somewhat difficult to conceive how they should grow in that manner By tearing off a small piece of it and looking on the ragged edge I could among several of those fibres perceive small joints that is one of those hairs split into two each of the same bigness with the other out of which they seem'd to grow but having not lately had an opportunity of examining their manner of growth I cannot positively affirm any thing of them But to proceed The swelling of Sponges upon wetting and the rising of the Water in it above the surface of the Water that it touches are both from the same cause of which an account is already given in the sixth Observation The substance of them indeed has so many excellent properties scarce to be met with in any other body in the world that I have often wondered that so little use is made of it and those onely vile and sordid certainly if it were well consider'd it would afford much greater conveniencies That use which the Divers are said to make of it seems if true very strange but having made trial of it my self by dipping a small piece of it in very good Sallet-oyl and putting it in my mouth and then keeping my mouth and nose under water I could not find any such thing for I was as soon out of breath as if I had had no Sponge nor could I fetch my breath without taking in water at my mouth but I am very apt to think that were there a contrivance whereby the expir'd air might be forc'd to pass through a wet or oyly Sponge before it were again inspir'd it might much cleanse and strain away from the Air divers fuliginous and other noisome steams and the dipping of it in certain liquors might perhaps so renew that property in the Air which it loses in the Lungs by being breath'd that one square foot of Air might last a man for respiration much longer perhaps then ten will now serve him of common Air. Observ. XXIII Of the curious texture of Sea-weeds FOr curiosity and beauty I have not among all the Plants or Vegetables I have yet observ'd seen any one comparable to this Sea-weed I have here describ'd of which I am able to say very little more then what is represented by the second Figure of the ninth Scheme Namely that it is a Plant which grows upon the Rocks under the water and increases and spreads it self into a great tuft which is not onely handsomely branch'd into several leaves but the whole surface of the Plant is cover'd over with a most curious kind of carv'd work which consist of a texture much resembling a Honey-comb for the whole surface on both sides is cover'd over with a multitude of very small holes being no bigger then so many holes made with the point of a small Pinn and rang'd in the neatest and most delicate order imaginable they being plac'd in the manner of
that man is plotting and contriving some mischief against it and that makes it oftentime sculk into some meaner and lower place and run behind a mans back though it go very much against the hair which ill conditions of it having made it better known then trusted would exempt me from making any further description of it did not my faithful Mercury my Microscope bring me other information of it For this has discovered to me by means of a very bright light cast on it that it is a Creature of a very odd shape it has a head shap'd like that exprest in 35. Scheme marked with A which seems almost Conical but is a little flatted on the upper and under sides at the biggest part of which on either side behind the head as it were being the place where other Creatures ears stand are placed its two black shining goggle eyes BB looking backwards and fenced round with several small cilia or hairs that incompass it so that it seems this Creature has no very good foresight It does not seem to have any eye-lids and therefore perhaps its eyes were so placed that it might the better cleanse them with its fore-legs and perhaps this may be the reason why they so much avoid and run from the light behind them for being made to live in the shady and dark recesses of the hair and thence probably their eye having a great aperture the open and clear light especially that of the Sun must needs very much offend them to secure these eyes from receiving any injury from the hairs through which it passes it has two horns that grow before it in the place where one would have thought the eyes should be each of these CC hath four joynts which are fringed as 't were with small brisles from which to the tip of its snout D the head seems very round and tapering ending in a very sharp nose D which seems to have a small hole and to be the passage through which he sucks the blood Now whereas if it be plac'd on its back with its belly upwards as it is in the 35. Scheme it seems in several Positions to have a resemblance of chaps or jaws as is represented in the Figure by EE yet in other postures those dark strokes disappear and having kept several of them in a box for two or three dayes so that for all that time they had nothing to feed on I found upon letting one creep on my hand that it immediately fell to sucking and did neither seem to thrust its nose very deep into the skin nor to open any kind of mouth but I could plainly perceive a small current of blood which came directly from its snout and past into its belly and about A there seem'd a contrivance somewhat resembling a Pump pair of Bellows or Heart for by a very swift systole and diastole the blood seem'd drawn from the nose and forced into the body It did not seem at all though I viewed it a good while as it was sucking to thrust more of its nose into the skin then the very snout D nor did it cause the least discernable pain and yet the blood seem'd to run through its head very quick and freely so that it seems there is no part of the skin but the blood is dispers'd into nay even into the cuticula for had it thrust its whole nose in from D to CC it would not have amounted to the supposed thickness of that tegument the length of the nose being not more then a three hundredth part of an inch It has six legs covered with a very transparent shell and joynted exactly like a Crab's or Lobster's each leg is divided into six parts by these joynts and those have here and there several small hairs and at the end of each leg it has two claws very properly adapted for its peculiar use being thereby inabled to walk very securely both on the skin and hair and indeed this contrivance of the feet is very curious and could not be made more commodiously and compendiously for performing both these requisite motions of walking and climbing up the hair of a mans head then it is for by having the lesser claw a set so much short of the bigger b when it walks on the skin the shorter touches not and then the feet are the same with those of a Mite and several other small Insects but by means of the small joynts of the longer claw it can bend it round and so with both claws take hold of a hair in the manner represented in the Figure the long transparent Cylinder FFF being a Man's hair held by it The Thorax seem'd cas'd with another kind of substance then the belly namely with a thin transparent horny substance which upon the fasting of the Creature did not grow flaccid through this I could plainly see the blood suck'd from my hand to be variously distributed and mov'd to and fro and about G there seem'd a pretty big white substance which seem'd to be moved within its thorax besides there appear'd very many small milk-white vessels which croft over the breast between the legs out of which on either side were many small branchings these seem'd to be the veins and arteries for that which is analogus to blood in all Insects is milk-white The belly is covered with a transparent substance likewise but more resembling a skin then a shell for 't is grain'd all over the belly just like the skin in the palms of a man's hand and when the belly is empty grows very flaccid and wrinkled at the upper end of this is placed the stomach HH and perhaps also the white spot II may be the liver or pancreas which by the peristaltick motion of the guts is a little mov'd to and fro not with a systole and diastole but rather with a thronging or justling motion Viewing one of these Creatures after it had fasted two dayes all the hinder part was lank and flaccid and the white spot II hardly mov'd most of the white branchings disappear'd and most also of the redness or sucked blood in the guts the peristaltick motion of which was scarce discernable but upon the suffering it to suck it presently fill'd the skin of the belly and of the six scolop'd embosments on either side as full as it could be stuft the stomach and guts were as full as they could hold the peristaltick motion of the gut grew quick and the justling motion of II accordingly multitudes of milk-white vessels seem'd quickly filled and turgid which were perhaps the veins and arteries and the Creature was so greedy that though it could not contain more yet it continued sucking as fast as ever and as fast emptying it self behind the digestion of this Creature must needs be very quick for though I perceiv'd the blood thicker and blacker when suck'd yet when in the guts it was of a very lovely ruby colour and that part of it which was digested into the veins