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blood to be feen : in order to abate this rapid motion, 1 Ibmetiraes 

 preiTed the fmall arteries for the fpace of two minutes, when I faw 

 in divers fmall blood-veflels, fome oval fliaped particles were fo fe- 

 parated from each other, that in fuch veflels no particles of blood 

 could be diftinguiflied, not even thofe of which fix go to make up 

 one entire particle of blood, but only a fluid fubftance palfing 

 through the veflels, which was almoft colourlefs, and in one of the 

 large blood-veflels in the tail, which was an artery, the blood ran 

 very flowly : in this laft veflel I plainly faw that the particles 

 of blood in it were oval, and I not only faw them plainly, but I 

 could, more dillin6lly than before, obferve the component glo- 

 bules, of which all, or the greater part, of thefe oval particles were 

 compofed. 



It is eafy to conceive how fix globules of a yielding or flexible na*- 

 ture, in continual motion and flriking againlt each other, may form 

 a perfedl fpherical figure, as I have elfewhere obferved : for exam- 

 ple, let Jis^. 30, reprefent the original compofition of a particle of 

 blood, confifting of fix globules, five of which appear to the eye, 

 and the fixth is out of fight. I have myfelf with wax made up fuch 

 a globule, confifling of fix fmaller ones, as is piftured ^tfig. 3o and 

 31, and each of thofe fix, of fix others in order to expofe to the 

 view of the curious, the make of thefe globules of blood ; for I may 

 lay it down as a fad, that each globule of our blood confifts at leaft 

 of thirty-fix globules ; thefe before mentioned globules, prefled to- 

 gether, in conftant motion, and flexible in their nature, are, as it 

 were, mutually compaded together, and aflume a perfed fpherical 

 fliape, as fliewn at fig. 3 1 . 



From this difpofition of the parts, we may conceive how the 

 globules of blood, in men and animals, have a round figure, but 

 how thofe oval particles of blood I have been treating of are 

 compounded, and made up of fix globules, is not eafy to com- 

 prehend. 



