Micrographia: Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses with Observations and Inquiries ThereuponHooke, Robert
History
Micrographia: Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses with Observations and Inquiries Thereupon
Hooke, Robert
Magnifying glasses -- Early works to 1800; Microscopy -- Early works to 1800; Natural history -- Pre-Linnean works
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 _Jews-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 interwoven 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 interwoven one within another: The texture of this
Touch-wood seems 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 thwartway, 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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