fur the Micro/cope. Jdj 



T)v. TTooke above a century ago, as may be feen in his Mi- 

 crographia. 



" Charcoal, or a vegetable burnt black," favs this emi- 

 nent philofopher, " affords an object no lefs pleafant than in- 

 structive; for if you take a fmall round piece of charcoal, and 

 break it fhortwith your fingers, you may perceive it to break 

 with a very fmooth and fleck furface, almoft like the furface 

 of black fealing wax : this furface, if it be looked on with an 

 ordinary micfofcope, does manifeit abundance of thofe pores, 

 which are alio vifible to the eye in many kinds of wood, 

 ranged round the pith, both in a kind of circular order, and 

 a radiant one. Of thefe there are a multitude in the fub- 

 ftance of the coal, everywhere almoft perforating and drilling 

 it from end to end ; bv means of which, be the coal ever 

 fo long, you may eafily blow through it ; and this you may 

 prefently find, bv wetting one end of it with fpittle, and ■ 

 blowing at the other. 



" But this is not all : for, befides thofe many great and con- 

 fpicuous irregular fpots or pores, if a better microfcope be 

 made ufe of, there will appear an infinite company of ex- 

 ceedingly fmall and very regular pores, fo thick and fo 

 orderly fet, and fo clofe to one another, that they leave very 

 little room or fpace between them to be filled with a folid 

 body; for the apparent interftitia, or fcparating fides of thefe 

 pores, feem fo thin in fome places, that the texture of a honey- 

 comb cannot be more porous : though this be not every 

 u here fo, the intercurrent partitions in fome places being 

 \ery much thicker in proportion to the holes. 



" Mod of thefe fmall pores feemed to be pretty round, and 

 were ranged in rows that radiated from the pith to the bark; 

 they all of them feemed to be continued open pores, running 

 tlie whole length of the (tick ; and that they were all perfo- 

 rated, I tried by breaking off a very thin fliver of the coal 

 profs-ways, and then with my microfcope diligently furvey- 

 ing them againft the light, for by that means I was able to 



lee quite through them. 



5 » Theft 



