6 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



much bigger, the describing of whose motion and shape would be too tedious : 

 this only I must mention here, that the number of them in this water was far less 

 than that of those found in rain-water ; for I saw a matter of twenty-five of them in 

 one drop of this town-water, that was much. In the open court of my house I have 

 a well which is about 15 foot deep, before one comes to the water. It is encompassed 

 with high walls, so that the sun, though in Cancer, yet can hardly shine much upon 

 it. This water comes out of the ground, which is sandy, with such a power, that 

 when I have laboured to empty this well, I could not so do it but there remained 

 ever a foot's depth of water in it. This water is in summer time so cold, that you 

 cannot possibly endure your hand in it for any reasonable time. Not thinking at 

 all to meet with any living creatures in it (it being of a good taste and clear), looking 

 upon it in September of the last year, I discovered in it a great number of living 

 animals, very small, that were exceeding clear, and a little bigger than the smallest 

 of all that I ever saw ; and I think, that in a grain weight of this water there were 

 above 500 of these creatures, which were very quiet and without motion. In the 

 winter I perceived none of these little animals, nor have I seen any of them this 

 year before the month of July, and then they appeared not very numerous, but in 

 the month of August I saw them in great plenty. 



"July 27, 1676, I went to the sea-side at Schevelingen, the wind coming from the 

 sea with a very warm sun-shine ; and viewing some of the water very attentively, I 

 discovered divers living animals therein. I gave to a man, that went into the sea 

 to wash himself, a new glass bottle, bought on purpose for that end, intreating him, 

 that being on the sea, he would first wash it well twice or thrice, and then fill it full 

 of the sea water ; which desire of mine having been complied with, I tyed the bottle 

 close with a clean bladder, and coming home and viewing it, I saw in it a little 

 animal that was blackish, looking as if it had been made up of two globuls. This 

 creature had a peculiar motion, after the manner as when we see a very little flea 

 leaping upon a white paper ; so that it might very well be called a water-flea ; but 

 it was by far not so great as the eye of that little animal which Dr. Swammerdam 

 calls the water-flea. I also discovered little creatures therein, that were clear, of 

 the same size with the former animal which I first observed in this water, but of an 

 oval figure, whose motion was serpent-like. I took notice of a third sort, which 

 were very slow in their motion : Their body was of a mouse-colour, clear towards 

 the oval point ; and before the head, and behind the body there stood out a sharp 

 little point angle-wise. This sort was a little bigger. But there was yet a fourth 

 sort somewhat longer than oval. Yet of all these sorts there were but a few of 

 each, so that in a drop of water I could see sometimes but three or four, sometimes 

 but one. 



" Observations of water, wherein whole Pepper had layn infused several dayes. 



" i. I having several times endeavoured to discover the cause of the pungency 

 of pepper upon our tongue, and that the rather because it hath been found, that 

 though pepper had layn a whole year in vinegar, yet it retained its full pungency ; 1 

 did put about \ of an ounce of whole pepper in water, placing it in my study, with 

 this design, that the pepper being thereby rendered soft, I might be enabled the 

 better to observe what I proposed to myself. The pepper having layn about 3 

 weeks in the water, to which I had twice added some snow-water, the other water 

 being in great part exhaled ; I looked upon it the 24. of April 1676, and discovered 

 in it, to my great wonder, an incredible number of little animals of divers kinds ; 

 and among the rest some that were 3 or 4 times as long as broad ; but their whole 

 thickness did, in my estimation, not much exceed that of the hair of a louse. They 

 had a very pretty motion, often tumbling about and sideways ; and when I let the 

 water run off from them, they turned as round as a top, and at first their body 

 changed into an oval, and afterwards, when the circular motion ceased, they 

 returned to their former length. 



"The 26th of April I took 2\ ounces of snow-water, which was almost three 

 years old, and which had stood either in my cellar or study in a glass bottle well 



