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a vein with its ramifications : this, to the beft of my ability, I re- 

 prefented in the drawing. Hence it plainly appears, even more 

 clearly than I can exprcl's, that the flefliy Fibres are again compofed 

 of a great number of filaments. And at one time I faw a flelhy 

 Fibre, fo accurately expanded and divided, that, in a fpace a little 

 broader than from B to H in the figure, J faw feventy of thefe com- 

 ponent filaments lying together ; whence I concluded, that a flefliy 

 Fibre no thicker (as I have before-mentioned) than the ninth part 

 of a hair of my beard, contained in it an hundred filaments. I often 

 imagined that 1 could difcern the Fibres, or, more properly fpeak- 

 ing, the vefi^^ls, of which the membranes in which thefe flefliy Fi- 

 bres are inclofed confift : hence I gave farther fcope to my imagina- 

 tion, and I reafoned thus ; fince we fee that a large mufcle confills 

 of fo many thoufand fmaller ones, or Fibres, each inclofed within 

 its proper membrane, and that every one of thofe fmall flefliy Fibres 

 is again compofed of flill fmaller filaments, of which its internal 

 ftrudure confills, each of thefe filaments (one hundred of which go 

 to making up a fingle Fibre) must be alfo a flefliy mufcle, and may 

 contain v/ithin it many flill fmaller filaments, inclofed in a diflindt 

 membrane. For we fee that the power and wifdom of the Almighty 

 Creator of the Univerfe, difplayed in the formation and aflociation 

 of the difl'erent parts which compofe his creatures, are fo wonder- 

 ful and incomprehenfible, that the deeper we dive into the fecrets of 

 his created works, the more we are confounded and loll : efpecially 

 when we fee living creatures moving in the water of the fimilitude 

 of minute eels, as pictured at fg. 3, which yet, with all their com- 

 ponent: parts, are fmaller than one of the filaments of which a flefliy 

 Fibre is compofed ; and, neverthelefs, fo minute an animalcule mull 

 neceliarily be furnifhcd with a Ikin, nerves, mufcles, and other parts, 

 all equally perfedl as thofe in a large animal. 



If any admirers of the fecrets of Nature fliould defire to follow 

 me in thefe my obfervations, I would advife them not to chufe for 

 that purpofe a hot and dry feafon, but rather a time when the air ia 



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