^04 Mr. CujldiicSs Machine for making 



" Ihefe pores were fo exceedingly Small and thick, that in 

 a line of them, ^ part of an inch long, I found, hy number- 

 ing them, no lefs than 150 fmall pores ; and therefore, in a 

 line of them an inch long, muft be no lefs than 2700 pores; 

 and in a circular area of an inch diameter, muft be about 

 5,725,350 of the like pores; fo that a ftick of an inch diame- 

 ter may containe no lefs than feven hundred and twenty-five 

 thoufand, befides 5 millions of pores, which would, I doubt 

 not, fcem even incredible, were not every one left to believe 

 his own eyes. Nay, having fince examined cocus, black 

 and green ebony, lignum vitae, &c. I found that all thefe 

 woods have their pores abundantly fmaller than thofe of foft 

 light wood ; in fo much that thofe of guajacum feemed not 

 above an eighth part of the bignefs of the pores of beech, but 

 then the interftitia were thicker; fo prodigiouily curious arc 

 the contrivances, pipes, or (luces by which the fuccus nutri- 

 tius, or juyce of a vegetable, is conveyed from place to place." 

 He afterwards fays, " I took a good clear piece of cork, 

 and, with a pen-knife fliarpened as keen as a razor, I cut a 

 piece of it oft, and thereby left the furface of it cxeeeding 

 fmooth; then examining it very diligently with amicrofcope, 

 methought I could perceive it to appear a little porous ; but 

 I could not fo plainly diitinguifli them as to be fare that 

 they were pores, much lefs what figure they were of: but 

 judging from the lightnefs and yielding quality of the cork, 

 that certainly the texture could not be fo curious, but that 

 poffibly, if I could ufe fome further diligence, I might find 

 it to be difcemible with a microfccpc, f, with the fame {harp 

 pen-knife, cut on from the former fmooth furface an exceed- 

 ing thin piece of h ; and placing it on a black objeel plate, 

 becaule it was itfeif a white body, and cafting the light on it 

 with a deep plano-convex glafs, I could exceeding plainly 

 perceive it to be all perforated and porous, much like a 

 honey-; u:nb, but that the j ores of it were not regular; yet 

 it was not unlike a honey-comb in thefe particulars." 



7 This 



