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
These eyes, to appearance, seem’d to be of the very same structure with
that of larger _binocular_ creatures, seeming to have a very smooth and
very protuberant _Cornea_, and in the midst of it to have a very black
pupil, incompassed about with a kind of grey _Iris_, as appears by the
_Figure_; whether it were able to move these eyes to and fro, I have not
observ’d, but ’tis not very likely he should, the pillar or neck C, seeming
to be cover’d and stiffen’d with a crusty shell; but Nature, in
probability, has supply’d that defect, by making the _Cornea_ so very
protuberant, and setting it so cleer above the shadowing or obstructing of
its prospect by the body, that ’tis likely each eye may perceive, though
not see distinctly, almost a _Hemisphere_, whence having so small and round
a body plac’d upon such long leggs, it is quickly able so to wind, and turn
it, as to see any thing distinct. This creature, as do all other Spiders I
have yet examin’d, does very much differ from most other Insects in the
Figure of its eyes; for I cannot, with my best _Microscope_, discover its
eyes to be any ways knobb’d or pearl’d like those of other Insects.
The second Peculiarity which is obvious to the eye, is also very
remarkable, and that is the prodigious length of its leggs, in proportion
to its small round body, each legg of this I drew, being above sixteen
times the length of its whole body, and there are some which have them yet
longer, and others that seem of the same kind, that have them a great deal
shorter; the eight leggs are each of them jointed, just like those of a
Crab, but every of the parts are spun out prodigiously longer in
proportion; each of these leggs are terminated in a small case or shell,
shap’d almost like that of a Musle-shell, as is evident in the third
_Figure_ of the same _Scheme_ (that represents the appearance ot the under
part or belly of the creature) by the shape of the protuberant _conical_
body, IIII, &c. These are as ’twere plac’d or fasten’d on to the
protuberant body of the Insect, which is to be suppos’d very high at M,
making a kind of blunt cone whereof M is to be suppos’d the _Apex_, about
which greater cone of the body, the smaller cones of the leggs are plac’d,
each of them almost reaching to the top in so admirable a manner, as does
not a little manifest the wisdom of Nature in the contrivance; for these
long Leavers (as I may so call them) of the legs, having not the advantage
of a long end on the other side of the _hypomochlion_ or centers on which
the parts of the leggs move, must necessarily require a vast strength to
move them, and keep the body ballanc’d and suspended, in so much, that if
we should suppose a man’s body suspended by such a contrivance, an hundred
and fifty times the strength of a man would not keep the body from falling
on the breast. To supply therefore each of these leggs with its proper
strength, Nature has allow’d to each a large Chest or Cell, in which is
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