( 178 ) 



parent, timt, in fonie places, their texture is not to be difcerned. A 

 very fmall particle of one of thele membranes, as it ai)peared upon 

 the grain being cut longitudinally, is ihewn ^t fg. ii, EFGH; 

 within thele membranes the globules of meal are inclofed, as it were, 

 in cells ; and, at H, fome of thofe cells are reprelented, filled with the 

 globules of meal : the natural fize of this figure, is no more than can 

 be covered by a common grain of fand. 



The globules of meal, are of ver}- different fizeSjforae being more 

 than an hundred times larger than others, and fome fo fmall, that they 

 almolt efcape the view of the microfcope. In order to gi\e the reader 

 fome general idea of their minutenefs, I took one of the larger grains 

 of that fort of j^ellucid fand, ufed in fcowering or grinding ; this grain 

 of fand, together with fome of the globules of meal adhering to it, I 

 caufed to be drawn from the microfcope, as at Jig. 12, ABC D E. In 

 the fame figure, FG H denote a fmaller grain of land adjoining to the 

 former. I K L M are Ibme of the larger and fmaller globules of meal, 

 lying near the grains of fand. 



I had at firfl: imagined thefe mealy particles to be quite globular, 

 but I afterwards found, that I had been millaken in that refpe6l; and 

 that they were not perfecl fpheres, eacli of them having a kind of 

 creafe, chink, or indenting, like that Vv'hich we fee in the grains of 

 Wheat, which had at firfl efcaped my notice, partly from the extreme 

 minutenefs of the particles themfeh'es, and partly from their different 

 pofitions with refpeft to the eye. 



Upon viewing thefe mealy particles, and the indentings in them I 

 liave mentioned, I began, not without wonder, thus to reafon with 

 myfelf. Certainly thefe particles of meal were not compofed by a 

 concretion or colle6lion of ftill fmaller particles, placed fide by fide, 

 as is obferved in fome liquors, fuch as wine and beer, whofe particles 

 coagulate, and grow together in maffes, which, in the former we call 

 dregs, and, in the lattertartar ; but the particles of meal muft beformed 



