( 30-1 ) 



proceeded from out of the veflels, for the knife with which I cut the 

 pieces off was as lliarp as a i*azor. 



I am fenfible, that what I relate here will not be credited by 

 fome perfons, who are perfuaded that what I advance cannot be 

 proved by experiments or obfervations : but thefe fort of obje6tions 

 weigli little with me. I am indeed, by the vulgar, treated as a 

 conjurer, and that I publifli defcriptions of objects which do not 

 exift in nature, but we will leave thefe men to talk in their own 

 way. 



I was lately exhorted by a refpeclable gentleman to go on with 

 my inquiries, notwithtlanding my * advanced age ; forafmuch as, 

 (he faid) thofe fruits which ripen in autumn, are by nature the moll 

 durable. I have, therefore, fet down the obfervations I have^ 

 with no little pains, made in my decline of hfe. And, indeed, it 

 is no fmall trouble to purfue the inquiry into fuch minute divifions ; 

 and it is scarcely to be conceived how the fmallell nerves can be 

 divided into lb many branches. 



Now, though I cannot give a drawing of a nerve cut tranfverfely, 

 to fliew the figure it prefented to my eye, I will give a figure of one 

 viewed tideways. Fig. 37, ABCDEFG, reprefents a very fmall 

 portion of a nerve, viewed in this pofition ; the part fliewn at AG F 

 is only a branch proceeding from the larger nerve. 



In this piece of a nerve I coxdd not only diftinguifli the fibres of 

 which it was compofed, and which perform the office of veflels, but 

 I alio law certain cavities in each of thofe veflels, and the particles 

 or contents within thofe component veflels feemed alfo vifible to me. 

 Having feveral times cut tranfverfely, as accurately as I could, fome 

 of thefe minute Nerves, and moiftened them with water, I fucceed- 

 ed in exhibiting to the limner not only the fmall veflels compofing 

 the Nerve, but in every filament or veflel, of which I have faid the 

 Nerve is compofed, we both of us law an oblong flroke or line, 

 which, in facl, ^^■as no other than the cavity or orifice of the veflel 



* The Author was at this time cighfy-five years of age. 



