No. 626] HOOKE'S MICROGRAPHIA 263 



Among the large variety of observations made by 

 Hooke, which are cited in Oldenburg's review 'just quoted 

 in extenso, one in particular claims the attention of the 

 biologist. This is'' Observation XVIIL Of the Schema- 

 tisme or Texture of Cork, and of the Cells and Pores 

 of some other such frothy Bodies. " Here are clearly de- 

 scribed for the first time the ''little boxes or cells" of or- 

 ganic structure, and his use of the word ''cell" is re- 

 sponsible for its application to the protoplasmic units of 

 modern biology. This observation, together with the 

 plate, is presented in facsimile in Figs. 3 and 4. In 

 Hooke 's treatise on ' ' The method of Improving Natural 

 Philosophy," included in the volume of his posthumous 

 works (p. 28), this observation on cells is selected by 

 Hooke to illustrate his method of scientific inquiry. 



Again, "Observation XXV. Of the stinging points 

 and juice of Nettles, and some other Venomous Plants" 

 is accompanied by a figure of the lower side of a nettle 

 leaf in which the outlines of the epidermal cells are well 

 delineated and, as Miall remarks, "there is something 

 very like a nucleus in one of them, but this may be acci- 

 dental." However, Hooke did not recognize any rela- 

 tionship between the structures he observed in the nettle 

 and in the cork. 



As an appendix to his (^bservations on cork, the author 

 relates some experiments on Mimosa in which he attrib- 

 utes the "motion of this Plant upon touching ... to a 

 constant intercourse betwixt every part of this Plant and 

 its root, either by a circulation of its liquor, or a constant 

 pressing of the subtiler parts of it to every extremity of 

 the Plant"— a partial anticipation of the modern idea 

 of turgescence (cf. Figs. 3 and 4). The "Observation on 

 Petrify 'd wood and other Petrify 'd bodies" is interest- 

 ing because the author takes quite a modern point of 

 view in regard to fossils (ef. Fig 4, Part T). 



And so niidit ('(.iitiniic - but as tlio rovi.nvor re- 

 marks in ihi^ Joiinial firs S, tirtni.<, DecciiilMM-, l(i<i(i: "This 

 Book contains more than can be taken notice of in an 



