VOL. XXVr.] PHILOSOPHFCAL TRANSACTIONS. 481 



remarkable, because effected by the rain alone ; for notwithstanding all this de- 

 luge, the river Nidd kept within its bounds. 



Microicopical Observations on the Palates of Oxen, &c. By Mr. Anthony Van 

 Lewenhoeck, F. R. S. N° 320, p. 294. 



I took a cow or ox's head, and cut out the roof or palate, close to the 

 throat, while yet warm ; and pressing it gently, I could perceive issue out of 

 several parts of it, small, round, protuberant, transparent drops ; and pressing 

 it a little harder, there ensued a yellow moisture. J took the uppermost skin of 

 the said part, and viewing it through a microscope, I observed, that at most of 

 the places from which the said liquor proceeded, there was a round ring or 

 circle, of rather a darker colour than the skin or membrane that lay next it ; I 

 could also perceive in some of the said places, out of which the liquor came, 

 that there were small holes or orifices, and these moist places were not all at 

 equal distance from each other. 



I discovered also in the said skin or membrane, a vast number of exceedingly 

 small protuberances ; as also, in the uppermost thin skin, holes so very small, 

 that they almost escaped the view through a microscope. On viewing the 

 rough skin that lay under the thin skin, I perceived such slender fibres or 

 bristles, of a darkish colour, that passed straight through the said skin, cor- 

 responding with the small protuberances and little holes, discovered in the 

 uppermost skin. From this observation I imagined, that the last mentioned 

 holes or orifices, and the little fibres which I saw in the thick rough part, were 

 those long particles that receive the juices, and which also produce that sensation 

 called taste. 



Fig. 27, pi. 10, represents through the rhicroscope a small particle of the 

 above-mentioned membrane, in which the round protuberant particles are op- 

 posed to the sight ; where ep show the valves, which are seldom so close to- 

 gether as they are here shown ; and in the middle of which, in the dark part of 

 them, I often discovered an orifice or opening, which is entirely closed up when 

 there were no juices conveyed out of them. 



I also discovered several long slender pointed particles, which I conceived to 

 be rooted or planted in the skin with a pointed end, and that these caused the 

 aforementioned protuberances. And as these pointed parts, which were fixed 

 in the said protuberances, were opposed to the sight with the points uppermost^ 

 one could not easily make any observation of them ; I therefore cut off one of 

 the slender particles from the rest, that I might give the better view of the 

 pointed parts. Accordingly, fig. 28 represents a small particle of the said long 



VOL. V. 3 Q 



