TOL. XIV.j PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. Ql 



upon cutting most of them spring out again. But such greens also as we receive 

 from abroad, as oranges, lemons, myrtles, pomegranates, the perfuming jessa- 

 mines, and various other rarities, have in many places suffered extremely, espe- 

 cially in houses of weaker defence. 



Among plants, herbs, and flowers, there has been great destruction also, and 

 many of common use, as most of the artichokes of England, and winter cauli- 

 flowers, sage, thyme, mastic, lavender, laven-cotton, and divers others were 

 generally killed, except such as happened to be new planted that year, and 

 so low that they had the enjoyment of the kind covering of a little snow, which 

 proves the most natural feeding, and warm covering of any, so far is it from 

 being cold and unkindly to them. 



A Letter from Mr. Anthony Leewenhoech, F.R.S. Dated April 14, l684; 



containing Observations on the Crystalline Humour of the Eye,* &c. No. l65, 



p. 790- 



In my letter of Sept. 7, l674, 1 communicated my observations concerning the 

 crystalline humour of the eye; which have been inserted in the Phil. Trans. 

 N° 108, where the crystalline body or humour of the eye, is in hardness much 

 like a preserved nutmeg ; which with a razor I cut in two, and so observed it 

 in parcels, and found it to consist of many orbicular scaly parts, lying over one 

 another, which had their beginnings from the centre ; all these parts again con- 

 sisted of crystalline globules : and having suffered the said crystalline humour 

 to dry for 3 days, it became so hard, that in the cutting, it broke in pieces, as 

 if it had been hard rozin. And observing again these parts, I found therein 

 not only the aforesaid orbicular scaly substance ; but further that each scale was 

 composed of other ring-like parts, and that these second were contrarily posited 

 to the others. I compared the scaly parts to a globe, made out of a number 

 of thin papers, laid upon each other; and that every paper or scale was again 

 constituted out of so many parts, as there may be lines drawn upon a globe, 

 reaching from one pole to the other. 



I have sometime since made several more observations, concerning the eyes 

 of oxen and cows ; thinking that I had not yet discovered the make of the 

 crystalline humour of the eye, so thoroughly as I might have done. I there- 



• From a paper of Mr. Home's (inserted in the Phil. Trans, for 1794)> stating some facts con- 

 cerning the late Mr. J. Hunter's preparation for the Croonian lecture, it appears that, although Mr. 

 Leewenhoeck was the first discoverer of the fibrous appearance in the crystalline iumour of the 

 eye ; yet " the discovery of an eye (that of the cuttle fish) in which this structure of the crystalline 

 humour is perfectly distinct, and in which all the circumstances of course and situation are deter- 

 mined, is due to Mr. John Hunter." 



N 2 



