( i8o ) 



globules tliemfclves. Many of them had a little rifiiig in the middle, 

 which I judged to be that part, through which they had received their 

 prowth and increafe. 



This convinced me, that the globules of meal in Wheat, are 

 covered with a fi^in or fhell, in like manner as the Wheat itfelf, 

 for, by the compreflion and flattening of the figures in the abo\e 

 e .periment, they would have been dillolved or fcparated, had they not 

 been confined by fome fuch covering. I then concluded, that the 

 chinks, creafes, or indentings I have noted in thefe globules, were in 

 thofe parts where their fkins had a kind of feam or joining, fo that 

 when warmed and moiftened, their fkins had burft open at tiiofe 

 places, and the globules fubfided into a fiat fliape, as before menti- 

 oned. 



From this obfervation, I was induced to examine the grains of Wheat 

 themfelves, in order to inveftigate, how, and for what purpofe they 

 were formed with thofe indentings, chinks, or creafes. 



For this purpofe, I cut pieces off' the grains, by a tranfverfe fe6iion, 

 and examined thofe pieces by the microfcope, when I found, that the 

 fhell or hufk takes its courfe into the middle of the grain, and, on each 

 fide, returns in a curve or bcuding to the chink, by which means, the 

 hulk, when tlie grain fwells upon being, moifiened, can expand itfelf 

 into a greater fpace. 



Hereupon I was led to confider, that, wliereas fowls, turkies, par- 

 tridges, pigeons, and other birds who feed on corn, cannot with their 

 bills, break or grind the grains of Wheat, P.ye, and Barley, but take 

 them into their liomachs entire, where, by rcafon of the hardncfs of 

 the hufks, they cannot be broken ; feeing this, I fay, I cunfidered, 

 that thefe kinds of grain mufl liave been fo contrived and formed by 

 the all-wife Creator, that, without the hufks being broken in pieces 

 and digefted, their contents may be diilolved : which is thus per- 

 formed, namely, that by the moillure and heat in the ftomachs of. 



