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
They seem’d each of them a little creas’d or wrinckled, but E was very
conspicuously furrow’d, as if the inward make of this seed had been
somewhat like that of a Lemmon also, but upon dividing several seeds with a
very sharp Pen-knife, and examining them afterward, I found their make to
be in nothing but bulk differing from that of Peas, that is, to have a
pretty thick coat, and all the rest an indifferent white pulp, which seem’d
very close; so that it seems Nature does not very much alter her method in
the manner of inclosing and preserving the vital Principle in the seed, in
these very small grains, from that of Beans, Peas, &c.
The Grain affords a very pretty Object for the _Microscope_, namely, a Dish
of Lemmons plac’d in a very little room; should a Lemmon or Nut be
proportionably magnify’d to what this seed of Tyme is, it would make it
appear as bigg as a large Hay-reek and it would be no great wonder to see
_Homers Iliads_, and _Homer_ and all, cramm’d into such a Nutshell. We may
perceive even in these small Grains, as well as in greater, how curious and
carefull Nature is in preserving the seminal principle of Vegetable bodies,
in what delicate, strong and most convenient Cabinets she lays them and
closes them in a pulp for their safer protection from outward dangers, and
for the supply of convenient alimental juice, when the heat of the Sun
begins to animate and move these little _automatons_ or Engines; as if she
would, from the ornaments wherewith she has deckt these Cabinets, hint to
us, that in them she has laid up her Jewels and Master-pieces. And this, if
we are but diligent in observing, we shall find her method throughout.
There is no curiosity in the Elemental kingdom, if I may so call the bodies
of Air, Water, Earth, that are comparable in form to those of Minerals, Air
and Water having no form at all, unless a potentiality to be form’d into
Globules; and the clods and parcels of Earth are all irregular, whereas in
Minerals she does begin to _Geometrize_, and practise, as ’twere, the first
principles of _Mechanicks_, shaping them of plain regular figures, as
triangles, squares, &c. and _tetraedrons_, cubes, &c. But none of their
forms are comparable to the more compounded ones of Vegetables; For here
she goes a step further, forming them both of more complicated shapes, and
adding also multitudes of curious Mechanick contrivances in their
structure; for whereas in Vegetables there was no determinate number of the
leaves or branches, nor no exactly certain figure of leaves, or flowers, or
seeds, in Animals all those things are exactly defin’d and determin’d; and
whereever there is either an excess or defect of those determinate parts
or limbs, there has been some impediment that has spoil’d the principle
which was most regular: Here we shall find, not onely most curiously
compounded shapes, but most stupendious Mechanisms and contrivances, here
the ornaments are in the highest perfection, nothing in all the Vegetable
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