LETTER 18. CLOVE- AND NUTMEG-WATER 159 
cules seen except those inclining to a round oval figure ; 
but the motion of these was a bit nimbler, and they were 
no less in number. 
The 18th of September. The animalcules inclining to 
a round oval figure are got less from day to day since the 
10th of this month, so that at this time I was able to see 
only a very few of them; but now I saw some extra- 
ordinary tiny animalcules, which looked, through my 
microscope, no bigger than common sand doth to the 
naked eye. 
The 19th ditto, stirring the water around a little, and 
then examining it, I saw more of the animalcules likened 
to a round oval than before this date. Along with them 
I perceived the very little animalcules. 
[Observations on Nutmeg-water. | 
The 13th of July, 1676, I beat some big nutmegs in 
pieces with a hammer, and put them in 24 ounces of 
well-water. ‘This well-water I had divers times examined 
during the summer till this date, but could yet discover 
no living creatures in it, save now and then so few and 
extraordinary small, that I did not see them till I had 
made several observations. 
The 17th ditto. Divers observations made since the 
13th of the month, but no living creatures perceived 
therein. And now the nutmegs lay on top, against the 
surface of the water. The water itself lay fermenting, as 
if it had been fresh beer: and betwixt the bits of nutmeg 
lay a lot of round particles of oil, which were very supple. 
These were for the most part 1000 times smaller’ than 
a small sand-grain. 
The 19th ditto, the fermentation was all done with, and 
the nutmegs mostly sunken to the bottom. 
ee 
1 je., in bulk: or, in other words, they had a diameter of about one- 
tenth of that of a small sand-grain—on L.’s scale, about one thousandth of 
an inch, or 25. 
