5d2 PHILOSOPHICAL TBANSACTIONS. (^ANNO I693. 



but if it were so, we should find the parts of the bark near the root larger, and 

 ramified into smaller and smaller as they run higher, as the arteries and nerves 

 are, the farther they go from the heart and brain ; whereas there is no differ- 

 ence between the vessels in the bark of the root and trunk ; besides, the vessels 

 of the bark of several trees, as the birch, cherry, peach, &c. run not upwards, 

 as they do in the ash, oak, elm, nut, apple, pear, &c. but circularly round the 

 superficies of the tree. And all bark having the vessels running upwards grows 

 thicker as the tree increases, the outside cracking, grows dead, and sticks to 

 the young bark beneath, which is the only living part of the bark. The con- 

 trary is evident in those barks whose vessels run round the tree ; for as the 

 tree increases, the vessels not being able to stretch nor separate from each other 

 must necessarily break asunder ; so that the whole bark is easily separated and 

 falls off from the new. Wherefore such trees have always a very thin bark as 

 is most evident in the birch tree. 



And as we said of the bark, that it is produced and nourished from the trunk 

 of the tree, so is it in the production of the skin of animals, which is covered 

 over with the scarf-skin, consisting of scaly particles ; for having examined the 

 skin of many animals, it seemed to me to be formed by the wondrous inter- 

 weaving of all the extremities of the vessels that proceed to the extreme parts 

 of the body ; from the ends of which a certain matter issues out, forming the 

 scales : the extremities terminating at those scales which stick fast to the vessels 

 till new ones displace them. 



These observations brought me to examine again the scales that cover our 

 bodies. In consequence I find each scale of our body is composed of a great 

 company of vessels interwoven together, after the same manner as the scales 

 offish. Provident nature, as I have often found, performing her operations 

 usually after the same method. Examining these often, I always found a clear 

 spot in the middle, standing up above the rest of the scale, whence I concluded 

 that the scales, not only of the mouth but the whole body, were composed, as 

 those of fishes, of vessels, proceeding to this clear part, and nourishing the 

 scales which grow from thence. Now 250 scales are covered by one sand, sup- 

 pose then every scale to consist of 500 vessels, then will the moisture in the 

 space of a sand be thrust out at 1 25000 several little pores in the scales not 

 reckoning the mouths of the vessels between the scales. 



(Concerning the Parallax of the fixed Stars, in Reference to the Earth's Annual 

 Orbit. By Dr. John fVallis. N° 202, p. 844. 

 Galileo complains that the parallax of the stars has not been attempted to be 

 observed with such diligence as he could wish, and perhaps there is still the 



