LETTER 18. PEPPER-WATER 149 
as long as broad. The smaller nearly round animalcules, 
and the long ones, were present in no less number. 
The 16th ditto, the animalcules that had the figure of 
a pear, as before: the animalcules with tails were 
increased to a greater number: the small round animal- 
cules, and the animalcules that were twice as long as 
broad, were now diminished in number. 
* [The 16th ditto, the animalcules that had the figure 
of a pear, as before: the animalcules with tails were even 
more numerous than formerly: the long and the round 
small animalcules were even more reduced in number. | 
On this occasion I discovered three animalcules’ that 
were equally thick throughout, but which tapered to 
rounded ends before and behind, very like the fruit that 
we call dates.* The thickness of them was about that of 
a very fine sheep’s hair. Their motion was very curious, 
with a rolling about and a tumbling and a drawing of 
themselves together into a round. 
The 17th ditto, the animalcules that had a figure like a 
pear, as before: the animalcules with tails in greater 
number: the long and the round animalcules were de- 
creased still further, and therewithal very slow a-moving. 
The animalcules that were equally thick throughout were 
somewhat more plentiful; and now I could make out 
"The passage here placed in square brackets is in the MS., but it is 
obviously a repetition—with slight differences in wording—of the preceding 
paragraph. lL. seems to have paraphrased the same entry in his notebook 
(for Sept. 16) twice over, by mistake. 
* Evidently a large ciliate—probably Oxytricha. 
*dalen MS. I have been unable to find this word in any dictionary— 
ancient or modern. Oldenburg (MS. ined.) translated the word thus, and 
may have had some authority for so doing. Elsewhere, however, L. speaks 
of the date by its usual Dutch name, dadel: cf. Letter 47, 12 Oct. 1685. 
The description is consistent with the above rendering: and Dr E. P. Snijders 
informs me that candied dates are still sometimes called “ confijte dalen”’, 
in popular speech, in Holland. 
‘ Blsewhere (Letter 80,2 Mar. 1694) L. shows that sheep’s wool consists 
of a number of “ fine hairs” stuck together. By “a fine sheep’s hair’’ he 
here means, apparently, one of these component filaments. 
