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than a hair. Having exposed them to my microscope, I saw, to my wonder, that they were made up of very small conjoined globules, which in smallness seemed to surpass all the rest.

The uppermost skin of our body consists of round parts or small scales. And I fancy that the continual growth of this cuticula is made in this manner; that the humidity issues forth from between all those round particles or scales lying close upon each other, and not through pores as many have taught. Like a close and well twisted cable, upon which pouring continually some water, this water will pass through the whole cable, and oose out at the end; not passing through any pores, but making its way about and between the filaments of the cable, and so getting out beneath. And the coarser or more consistent matter cleaves to the body, and so makes the uppermost skin; which thus grows on from beneath, and is worn off from above: and the more transparent these particles are, the whiter is our skin. And the like manner of growing I have formerly said to take place in plants, only with this difference, that when the superficies of a moist globule, which is driven out of the plant, is become somewhat stiff, the moisture is then propelled out of the upper end of the plant, and that by a continual succession. Which kind of progress of growing I apprehend may in some manner be seen in the pith of wood, in cork, in the pith of membranes, as also in the white of a quill.

I have often viewed the sweat of men and horses, and found it consisted of a crystalline moisture, in which I saw many transparent globules moving with some odd larger parts, which I judged to be scalings off from the cuticula.

I formerly announced, that I imagined I had seen hair as made up of united globules, and to have also observed elephants' hair consist of the like. I cannot omit now to communicate, that since then I have seen such globules, not only in human hair and horse hair, but also frequently in the wool of sheep; and, further, that the root of the hair pulled out of the eye-brows consists altogether of the like globules. Having pulled out of an elephant's tail a black hair, and cut transversely from it a thin scale, I exposed it to my microscope, which represented in the thick of that hair about a hundred little specks, somewhat whitish, and in each speck a black point, and in some few of those black points a little hole; and this air consisted of united globules, which yet I

thought I should have found larger in this thick hair of so bulky a beast than indeed they were.

I lately viewed some blood in which there was much of the crystalline liquor; and going into the open air in high wind I saw, to my great delight, continually, and without any other motion but that of the wind, the red globules blown about, and as if each globule had yet a second motion, and that about its axis.

I have heretofore viewed the fat of sheep and cows, and showed to several of the curious, that it is made up of globules joined together, which appeared to my eye as large as ordinary hail-stones. And I have lately observed, that each globule of fat consists of more than a thousand small globules. Yet I am apt to believe, that those that have not seen the globules in blood, hair, bone, &c. will not satisfy themselves about seeing them in fat, because of their extraordinary minuteness.

An Account given by DENYS PAPIN to show that the Rain and Snow Waters are sufficient to make Fountains and Rivers run perpetually. — [1675.]

SOME persons say, that a cubic inch of water yields, in 24 hours running, 144 muids (the name of a French measure holding 280 French pints), others say it yields but 70 of that measure. But I have reason to believe that it yields 83 of this measure; and it is known that a vessel of eight cubic feet holds one muid of water.

This being supposed, it follows, that a vessel which contains 83 muids of water is able to furnish in 24 hours as much as will make an inch of water run continually. So that, if a conservatory should hold 3378 muids of water, it would furnish for a whole year a sufficient quantity to make an inch of water run constantly. And if it were as large again, it would furnish two running, and so on in proportion. Then for the measure of the rain and snow water, I have found that, taking the medium, we have 19 inches and 2 lines in depth.

I have observed the river Seine, in its course from the source of it unto Ainay le Duc, where a rivulet enters that swells it. And this I shall take for the subject of the examination I intend to make. The course, then, of this river, from its spring to the said Ainay le Duc, is about three leagues long, and the sides of its course extend themselves on the right and left about two leagues on each side, where

there are other little rivers that run another way: and since these rivulets require water to maintain them, as well as the Seine, I shall count but half that space of the sides, and say, that the place where the Seine passes, has, from its source to Ainay le Duc, three miles long, and two miles broad.

If a reservoir were made of this size, it would be six leagues square in surface, which being reduced to fathoms, it would, according to the measure above mentioned, make 314 millions of fathoms in surface. In this conservatory imagine, that during a whole year, there has fallen rain to the height of 19 inches 23 lines, as before said; this height of 19 inches and 23 lines gives nearly 281 millions of muids of water. All this water thus collected, in the quantity just now expressed, is that stock which is to serve to make the river run for a whole year, from its source to the place before named, and which must also serve to supply other occasions and losses, such as are the feeding of trees, herbs, vapours, and extraordinary swellings of the river while it rains, and the deviations of the water running another way.

This river, then, sends away within its banks in a year no more than about 36 millions of muids of water. But taking this quantity out of the 281 millions that are in the conservatory above described, there will remain yet above 188 millions of muids, which amounts to almost five times as much, and which serves to furnish for the losses, diminutions, and other wastes, above noticed. So that there needs but the sixth part of the rain and snow water that falls in a year, to make a river run continually through the whole year.

Restoration of Animal Life. By Dr. PECHLIN.-[1676.] He relates that extraordinary example of a Swedish gardener, lately alive, who some years ago endeavouring to help another who was fallen into the water under the ice, fell into it himself to the depth of 18 Swedish ells; where afterwards he was found standing upright with his feet on the ground, and whence they drew him up, after he had remained there for the space of 16 hours, wrapping him about close with linen and woollen clothes, to keep the air from too suddenly rushing upon him, and then laying him in some warm place, and rubbing and rolling him, and at length giving him some very spirituous liquor to drink; by all which he was at length restored to life, and brought to the queen-mother of Sweden, who gave him a yearly pension, and showed him as a prodigy to divers persons of quality; the same thing

being also confirmed by the famous Dr. Langelot, who himself received the relation in Sweden so well attested, that nothing, says our author, can be required more to prove a historical truth.

Observations on a Subterranean Fire in a Coal-mine near Newcastle. By Dr. LUCAS HODGSON. [1676.]

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THIS subterraneous fire bears no analogy to other volcanoes: it increases or decreases according to the subject it feeds on, which is for the most part a day-coal, as they call it, that is, the upper seam of the coal, next exposed to the air, so that you may light a candle at it in some places, in others it is some fathoms deep, according as the day-coal heightens or deepens. There is no sal ammoniac, nor any thing like it to be found, except at the fire. There being such a mixture of the steams of sal ammoniac and sulphur rising together in most places, it is hard to distinguish them; for though the flowers of brimstone seem to rise first, yet there is commonly a crust of sal ammoniac under them.

The milky substance is only found where the sal ammoniac and sulphur are totally gone, and the acid part, or aluminous spirit of that white mass, will also fly off by the increase of the fire, leaving a caput mortuum, dry, styptic, and as hard as a stone; yet a pound of this mass, before the fire press too much upon it, will nearly afford by solution, &c. half a pound of tolerable crystalline alum. The neighbouring soil differs little from other grounds with us, having neither common salt nor nitre in it. I have industriously observed the springs that are near the fire, and find' none of them that give the least suspicion of sal ammoniac. The water that runs from the adjacent collieries is vitriolic, giving as deep a tincture with galls as Scarborough Spa, and differs in nothing from the ordinary waters of collieries. The other springs are of ordinary use, containing no mineral salts in them.

But I hope you will cease to wonder, that coal should produce a volatile salt by the action of fire, seeing I have gathered sal ammoniac from a burning brick-kiln, where nothing but clay and coal is burnt together; and I hope none will expect the volatile salt in the sal ammoniac from common clay. The reason that first prompted me to seek this salt there, was, that the smell of the kiln did somewhat resemble that of the subterranean fire. There is also a sort of mineral called slate, which is partly coal, partly alum-stone, partly marcasite, which being laid up in heaps and burnt, is used

for hardening the coal-ways: on these heaps, whilst burning, I have often gathered both brimstone and sal ammoniac,

Observations on Animalcula seen in Rain, Well, Sea, and Snow Water; as also in Pepper Water. By M. LEUWENHOEK.-[1677.]

In the year 1675, I discovered very small living creatures in rain-water, which had stood but few days in a new earthen pot, glazed blue within. This invited me to view this water with great attention, especially those little animals appearing to me ten thousand times less than water-fleas, or water-lice, which may be perceived in the water with the naked eye.

The first sort I several times observed to consist of 5, 6, 7, or 8 clear globules, without being able to discern any film that held them together, or contained them. When these animalcula, or living atoms, moved, they put forth two little horns, continually moving. The space between these two horns was flat, though the rest of the body was roundish, sharpening a little towards the end, where they had a tail, near four times the length of the whole body, of the thickness, by my microscope, of a spider's web; at the end of which appeared a globule of the size of one of those which made up the body. These little creatures, if they chanced to light on the least filament or string, or other such particle, were entangled therein, extending their body in a long round, and endeavouring to disentangle their tail. This motion of extension and contraction continued a while; and I have seen several hundreds of these poor little creatures, within the space of a grain of gross sand, lie fast clustered together in a few filaments.

I also discovered a second sort, of an oval figure; and I imagined their head to stand on the sharp end. These were a little larger than the former. The inferior part of their body is flat, furnished with several extremely thin feet, which moved very nimbly. The upper part of the body was round, and had within 8, 10, or 12 globules, where they were very clear. These little animals sometimes changed their figure into a perfect round, especially when they came to lie on any dry place. Their body was also very flexible; for as soon as they struck against any the smallest fibre or string, their body was bent in, which bending presently also jerked out again.

There was a fourth sort, which were so small that I was not able to give them any figure at all. These were a thousand

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