C m ) 
of the fame opinion ftill (as I was before) that the Kerve or fitires 
are made up of foft fluid globuls^ and that rhcfeg'obuJs by drying 
the Nerve are moft of them exhaled* 
I here thought with my felf, whether every one of thefe hol- 
lo wneffes might not have been a filament in the Nerve ; and befidesj 
thai; 'cwas needlefs , there fliould be a cavity in the Opic Nerve ^ 
through which the Animal Spirits, reprefeniing tlie fpecies or ima- 
ges ih the Eye, might pafi into the brain- But 1 imagined it mighc 
be |zierformed, for example, after this manner ; viz, I reprefent to 
my felf stall Beer-glafs full of Water : This Glafs I imagine to be 
one of the filaments of the Optic Nervc^ and the Water in the Glafs 
to be the globuls of which the filaments of that Nerve are made up^ 
and then, the Water in the Glafs being toucht on its furface wirh 
the finger, that to this contafi did refemble the aflion of a vifible 
objed upon the Eye, whereby the outermoft globuls of the fibres 
in the Optic Nerve next to the Eye are toucht. This contaft of 
the Water made by the finger cannot be faid to touch and move on- 
ly the furface of the Water, but we muft Mo graoc,that all the water 
in the Glafs is moved thereby , and that even the bottom of the 
Glafs comes to fuffer , and to be more preifed by it , than it was 
before the finger touched the Water , and that alfo all the parts of 
Water are moved thereby. This motion then of the Waser, faid to 
bemade by thecontaftof the finger, I imagine to be like the mo» 
tionof a vifible objefimade upon the fofc globuls, that lie at the 
end of the Optic Nerve next the Eye, which outermod globuls do 
communicate the like motion to the other globuls fo as to convey 
it to the Brain. 
I have put before my Microfcope a piece of fuch a dried Optic 
Nerve of a Cow^ and how it appeared, you will fee by the pifiure 
hereby tranfmitted unto you. 
J, B, D is the circumference of the Opic Nerve, which did 
not dry round- way s,but fome what oblong on the fide D, 
JS, and all the places that are leftwhiteand lucid, are cavities 
in the dried Nerve, and which I imagine ro have been filaments, 
and out of which, for the greatert part, the foft globuls have been 
exhaled. 
F, are particles or globuls, which are in the litde holes of the 
filaments in many places, and fuch as have not been exhaled : Of 
which fome do lieon the fide of the hjllowneflTes, others lie round 
D d d 2 about 
