The translator, to the READER. 



j[F this tranflation is a faithful one, I doubt not that the Reader will 

 be led to admire the extenfive range of the Author's refearches, and 

 the pains he takes to make his difcoveries intelligible to all ; and 

 thofe who compare his defcriptions with the produ61ions of Nature 

 at this day, will be equally pleafed to obferve their exa6l coinci- 

 dence. 



But, though I think it may fairly be faid, that the works of Mr. 

 Leeuwenlioek are, upon the whole, fuperior to any that have appeared 

 upon Microfcopical fubjefts, I do not mean to fay, that there are no 

 inftanccs, in which others have not been equally fuccefsful. A coun- 

 tryman of our own. Dr. Robert Hooke, who was a cotemporary of 

 the Author, and Secretary to the Royal Society loon after its firft 

 inftitution, publifhed feveral ElTays, containing his difcoveries by the 

 Microfcope, with inany very judicious and ufeful remarks. In fome 

 of tliel'e. Dr. Hooke has handled the fame fubjeils as our Author, 

 and I fliall take occafion, here to introduce a pailage from that Book, 

 wherein fome of the particulars refpedting Feathers, mentioned in 

 the preceding Eflay, are more minutely defcribed than by Mr. 

 Leeuwenhoek. * 



" Examining feveral forts of Feathers, I look notice of thefe par- 

 " ticulars in all forts of wing-Feathers, efpecially in thofe which 

 *' ferved for the beating of the air in the ac^lion of flying. 



" That the outward furface of the Quill and ftem was of a very 

 " hard, ftifF, and homy fubllance, which is obvious enough, and 

 " that the part above the quill ^\'as filled with a very white and light 

 " pith, and, with tlie microfcope, I found this pith to be nothing 

 f eife but a kind of natural congeries of fmall bubbles, the hlms of 



* Hooke's Micrographia, p. 165, Edit. 1667. 



M m 



