LETTER 18. SEA- AND PEPPER-WATER 131 
The 31st ditto, having examined this water every day 
since the 27th, and perceived no little animals in it; 
upon this date I did now see a good hundred of ’em where 
at first I had seen but one: but they were now of another 
figure, and not only smaller, but also very clear. They 
were like an oblong oval, only with this difference, that 
they tapered somewhat more sharply to a point at what 
I imagined to be the head end. And although these were 
at least a thousand times smaller than a very small sand- 
grain, I saw, notwithstanding, that whenever they lay 
high and dry out of the water they burst asunder, and 
flowed apart or scattered into three or four very small 
globules and some watery matter, without my being able 
to discern any other parts.’ (In the above, I took the 
water out of the phial from the surface: and at this time, 
too, I was no longer able to see the animalcules of the 
sort first spoken of.) 
The 2nd of August I could discern nought but an 
abundance of the foresaid animalcules. 
The 4th ditto, saw ’em as heretofore, without any 
difference. 
The 6th of August, looking again, perceived nowhere 
near as many little animals. 
The 8th ditto, I again discovered a very few of the 
. foresaid animalcules; and I now saw a few so exceeding 
small that, even through my microscope, they well-nigh 
escaped the sight. And here I stopped my observations.” 
[Observations on Pepper-water. Ist Observation. | 
Having made sundry efforts, from time to time, to 
discover, if ‘twere possible, the cause of the hotness or 
power whereby pepper affects the tongue (more especially 
because we find that even though pepper hath lain a 
’ This observation indicates that the organisms were protozoa. 
* Beyond the obvious fact that they were probably protozoa and bacteria, 
I cannot offer any guess at the identity of the various organisms which L. 
saw in sea-water. 
