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ture produces, appear in the inftrument in a perfection that aftonishes the beholder.

The vegetable kingdom

in a micro

Scope.

An account of

a nettle in the

63. In the views I here took of the vegetable world, with my eye thus armed, I faw many extraordinary things I had never obferved before. I took notice, in particular, that a fage leaf is covered with a kind of cobweb, in which swarms of little active creatures, with terrible horns and piercing eyes, are bufily employed: a mulberry leaf was an amazing flexus or net work we can fee but 9 ribs on the figillum Solomonis; whereas my armed eye perceived here 74: in a nettle I observed its whole furface covered over with needles of the moft per- double reflectfect polish, every one of which ing microhad three points, (points very different from our finest points, not flat, but to perfection fharp); and that these needles refted on a bafe, which was a bag of a flexible fubftance, in form of a wild cucumber, and filled with a fharp, poisonous liquor: this is discharged at the extremity of every point of the needles that cover the furface of the nettle: from a hole visible in every point the poifon is thrown out, and excites a fenfe of pain; and a heat arifes as the blood flows more copioufly to the E 6 wounded

Scope.

wounded part: By preffing with my finger the extremity of the prickles, the bag of poifon fell; and on taking off the finger, it fwelled again. What a piece of workmanship is here in a nettle! Wonderful are thy works, O Lord God Almighty!

A forrel leaf, and buds of french bean and almond in

a microscope.

A leaf of forrel in this microscope exhibited to my eye oblong, rough, and straight atoms, fharp as needles, and from thence the tongue is twinged. In a bud cut away with a fine needle from a steeped feed of a French bean, I faw the intire plant; and in an almond fo cut away, the perfect tree. Many other wonderful things I obferved of the vegetable kingdom, in the microscopes of these gentle

men.

A louse and flea in a microfcope.

64. As to the animal kingdom, my obfervations on it, in the optical inftruments at Ulubra, were so many, that I could fill a volume with the things I faw: but, as I have little room or time to fpare, I fhall only mention two or three.--In the double reflecting telescope, a louse and a flea were put; which are creatures that hate each other as much as fpiders do, and fight to A defcription death when they meet. The of a flea. flea appeared firft in the box,

and

and as he was magnified very greatly, he looked like a locuft without wings; with a roundish body, that is obtufe at the end, and the breaft covered with an armature of a triangular figure; the head fmall in proportion to its body, but the eyes large, red, and very fierce; his fix legs were long, robuft, and made for leaping; the antennæ fhort, but firm and fharp; its tail was scaly, and full of ftings, and its mouth pointed into active pincers: his colour was a deep purple.

The louse in white was next The loufe. brought on, and had a well-shaped, oblong indented body: his fix legs were fhort, made for walking and running, and each of them armed at the extremity with two terrible claws: the head was large, and the eyes very small and black: its horns were fhort and jointed, and could be thrust forward with a spring. Its fnout was pointed, and opened, contracted, and penetrated, in a wonderful manner.

A battle in a microscope between a louse and a flea.

65. The first that was brought on the stage was the flea, and to fhew us what an active one he was, he sprung and bounced at a strange rate: the velocity of his motions in leaping, were astonishing; and

fometimes,

fometimes, he would tumble over and over in a wanton way: but the moment the louse appeared, he ftood stock ftill, gathered himself up, and fixed his flashing eyes on his foe. The gallant loufe did with a frown for fome time behold him, and then crouching down, began very foftly to move towards him, when the flea gave a leap on his enemy, and with his dangerous tail and pinching mouth, began the battle with great fury: but the loufe foon made him quit his hold, by hurting him with his claws, and wounding him with his fharp fnout, This made the flea fkip to the other fide of the box, and they both kept at a distance for near a minute, looking with great indignation at each other, and offering several times to advance. The loufe did it at laft in a race, and then the flea flew at him, which produced a battle as terrible as ever was fought by two wild beafts. Every part of their bodies were in most violent motion, and sometimes the flea was uppermost, but more frequently the loufe. They did bite and thruft, and claw one another most furioufly, and the confequence of the dreadful engagement was, that the flea expired, and the louse remained victor in the box: but he was fo much wounded, that he could fcarce walk.-This battle was to me a very furprising thing, as each of them was mag

nified

nified to the fize of two feet: But confidering what specs or atoms of animated matter they were, it was aftonifhing to reflection to behold the amazing mechanism of these two minute things, which appeared in their exertions during the fray. It was still more ftrange to see the averfion these small creatures had to each other, the paffions that worked in their little breafts, and the judgment they fhewed in their endeavours to deftroy one another. It is indeed a wonderful affair: nor was it the leaft part of my admiration to fee through the extraordinary transparencies of the loufe, the violent circulation of the blood in its heart. was as plain to my eye, as red liquor forced by a pump in feveral experiments through circulating glafs pipes.As to the dead flea, it was opened, and by the camera obfcura or folar microscope, (which magnifies the picture of fuch a body as a flea, to eight feet) (28) we faw the intestines diftinguished

This

and

(28) Tho' the image of a flea may be magnified to eight feet, by removing farther off the white paper fcreen, on which the picture of the object is thrown very beautifully from the object pofited in a single pocket microscope that is faftened to a tube to the folar microscope; yet the image or picture is more diftinct and exact, when not enlarged to more than three feet, on the oppofite fide of the darkened room.

-By the

way,

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