150 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO I674. 



transparent globules, which I can see very perfectly. The same I have observed 

 in ivory or elephants' teeth. And I have no doubt but that all white bones do 

 consist of transparent globules. I am also of opinion, that all things which ap- 

 pear white to our eyes, are made up of nothing but transparent particles lying 

 one upon another, such as snow, white paper, linen, white stones, white wood, 

 scum, beaten glass, beaten rosin, sugar, salt, &c. 



The brains of a cow being viewed, I found the white substance of it to be made 

 up also of very fine globules. As to the marrow of the back bone, I found that 

 also to consist of very subtile globules. Having divers times observed the flesh 

 of a cow, I found it consist of very slender filaments, lying by each other, as if 

 woven into a film. I have also viewed several filaments which were beset with 

 globules. These I judged to be blood, and that, pricking our body with a pin 

 without hitting a vein, the bloody globules issued from between these filaments; 

 but this I leave to further consideration. Mean time I have with a pin's point 

 severed these filaments from one another, and found the single ones so fine, 

 that any of them seemed to me 25 times thinner and finer than a hair. Having 

 exposed them to my microscope, I saw to my wonder, that they were made up 

 of very small conjoined globules, which in smallness seemed to surpass all the 

 rest. 



The cuticula, or uppermost skin of our body, consists of round parts or small 

 scales. And I fancy that the continual growth of this cuticula is made in this 

 manner; that the humidity issues forth from between all those round particles or 

 scales lying close upon each another, and not through pores as many have taught. 

 Like a close and well twisted cable, upon which pouring continually some water, 

 this water will pass through the whole cable, and oose out at the end ; not 

 passing through any pores, but making its way about and between the filaments 

 of the cable, and so getting out beneath. And the coarser or more consistent 

 matter cleaves to the body, and so makes the uppermost skin; which thus 

 grows on from beneath, and is worn off from above: and the more transparent 

 these particles are, the whiter is our skin ; which yet are but our conjectures 

 and suspicions. And the like manner of growing I have formerly said to take 

 place in plants, only with this difference, that when the superficies of a moist 

 globule, which is driven out of the plant, is become somewhat stiff, the moisture 

 is then propelled out of the upper end of the plant, and that by a continual 

 succession. Which kind of progress of growing I apprehend may in some man- 

 ner be seen in the pith of wood, in cork, in the pith of membranes, as also in 

 the white of a quill. 



