4 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



did move, they put forth two little horns, continually moving themselves ; the place 

 between these two horns was flat, though the rest of the body was roundish, sharpen- 

 ing a little towards the end, where they had a tayle, near four times the length of the 

 whole body, of the thickness (by my microscope) of a spider's web ; at the end of 

 which appear'd a globul, of the bigness of one of those which made up the body ; 

 which tayl I could not perceive, even in very clear water, to be mov'd by them. 

 These little creatures, if they chanced to light upon the least filament or string, or 

 other such particle, of which there are many in the water, especially after it hath 

 stood some days, they stook entangled therein, extending their body in a long round, 

 and striving to dis-entangle their tayle ; whereby it came to pass, that their whole body 

 lept back towards the globul of the tayle, which then rolled together serpent-like, and 

 after the manner of copper or iron-wire that having been wound about a stick, and 

 unwound again, retains those windings and turnings. This motion of extension and 

 contraction continued a while ; and I have seen several hundreds of these poor little 

 creatures, within the space of a grain of gross sand, lie cluster'd together in a few 

 filaments. 



" I also discovered a second sort, the figure of which was oval, and I imagine their 

 head to stand on the sharp end, these were a little bigger than the former. The 

 inferior part of their body is flat, furnished with divers incredibly thin feet, which 

 moved very nimbly and which I was not able to discern till after several Observa- 

 tions. The upper part of the body was round, and had within 8, 10, or 12 

 globuls, where they were very clear. These little animals did sometimes change their 

 figure into a perfect round, especially when they came to lie on any dry place. Their 

 body was also very flexible ; for as soon as they hit against any the smallest fibre or 

 string, their body was bent in. which bending presently also jerked out again. When I 

 put any of them in a dry place, I observ'd, that changing themselves into a round, 

 their body was raised pyramidal-wise with an extant point in the middle, and having 

 lain thus a little while with a motion of their feet, they burst asunder, and globuls 

 were presently diffus'd and dissipated, so that I could not discern the least thing of 

 any film, in which the globuls had doubtless been inclosed : And at this time of 

 their bursting asunder I was able to discover more globuls than when they were 

 alive. 



" But then I observ'd a third sort of little animals, that were twice as long as 

 broad, and to my eye yet eight times smaller than the first. Yet for all this, I 

 thought I discerned little feet, whereby they moved very briskly, both in a round and 

 streight line. 



" There was further a fourth sort, which were so small that I was not able to give 

 them any figure at all. These were a thousand times smaller than the eye of a big 

 louse ; For I judge, the axis of the eye of such a louse to be more than ten times 

 as long as the axis of any of the said little creatures. These exceeded all the 

 former in celerity. I have often observ'd them to stand still as 'twere upon a point, 

 and then turn themselves about with that swiftness, as we see a top turn round, the 

 circumference they made being no bigger than that of a small grain of sand, and 

 then extending themselves streight forward, and by and by lying in a bending 

 posture. 



OBSERV. II. 



"The 26. May it rained hard ; the rain growing less I caused some of the rain- 

 water, running down from the house top, to be gathered in a clean glass, after it had 

 been washed two or three times with the water. And in this I observed some few 

 very little living creatures, and seeing them, I thought they might have been pro- 

 duced in the leaden gutters in some water that had there remained before. 



OBSERV. III. 



" On the same day, the rain continuing, I took a great porcelain-dish, and 

 exposed it to the free air upon a wooden vessel, about a foot and a half high, that 

 so no earthy parts, from the falling of the rain-water upon that place, might be 



