!4 Particles of Bodies not in Conlatf. [Book I. 



mon fand. When therefore we confider that fuch 

 animalcule are pofll'ffed of organized parts ; a heart, 

 ftomach, bowels, mufcles, tendons, nerves, glands, &c. 

 we feem to approach in idea the infinite divifibility of 

 matter *. 



It is, on the other hand, next to an abfolute cer- 

 tainty, that the particles of the hardeft and moft com- 

 pact bodies are not in actual contact with each other, 

 fince all fuch bodies are known to contract with cold ; 

 which could not be the cafe, if their parts were already 

 as clofe as they could be to each other. 



It would be foreign to the defign of this work to 

 enter into tho r e calculations and demonftrations by 

 which mathematicians have attempted to prove how- 

 matter may be divided, to infinity. Let it fuffice to 

 lay, that on the principles which have been advanced 

 in the courfe of this chapter, the'fagacity of Newton 

 has demonft rated, that the leaft portion of matter may 

 'be wrought into a body of any affigned dimenfions, 

 how great Jbevcr, and yet the pores of that body be 

 none of them greater than any the fmalleft magnitude 

 propofed at pieafure ; notwithstanding that the parts 

 of the body fhall fo approximate, that the body icfclf 

 fhall be hard and folid. His manner of demonftra- 

 tion is this fuppofe the body to be compounded of 

 particles of fuch figures, that when laid together the 

 pores found between them fhall be equal in fize to 

 the particles themfelvcs ; how this may be effected, 

 and yet the body remain folid, is not difficult to un- 

 ad; and the pores of fuch a body may.be made 

 fcf any propofed degree of fmalinefs. But the folid 



* If the reader \viflies to fatisfy himfelf concerning the nature 

 and animal functions of a variety of thefe wonderful exigences, I 

 mull refer him to my late much tallied friend Mr. Adams's ex- 

 cellent Treadle on the Microscope. 



matter 



