Of the Texture of Cork. 
3°5 
and in a circular area, or of a flick of an inch diameter, 
are contained 5,725,350 pores or minute tubes h , a num¬ 
ber that to fome perhaps may feem incredible, were they 
not left to the judgment of their own eyes as to the truth 
thereof. In cocus, black and green ebony, lignum vitae, 
&c. thefe perforations are abundantly fmaller than thofe 
of foft light wood; fo prodigioufly curious are the con¬ 
trivances, pipes or fluices, through which the juice of 
vegetables are conveyed. 
To prepare or make charcoal of any kind of 
wood, in order to examine it with the mi- 
crofcope. 
HE body to be charred or coaled may be put into 
JL a crucible, a piece of a mufket barrel, a pot, or 
any other veffel, that will endure to be made red-hot in 
the fire without breaking ; cover it over with fand, fo 
that no part of it be expofed to the open air. Then fet 
it into a good fire, and keep it there till the fand has con¬ 
tinued hot, for a quarter, half, an hour, or two, more 
or lefs, according to the nature and bignefs of the body. 
Then take it out of the fire, and let it lie till the fand be 
very near cold. The wood may be taken out of the fand 
well charred, and cleared of all its watery parts. 
Of the texture of cork. 
I F an exceeding thin flice of cork be cut off with a 
very {harp penknife, or razor, and applied to the mi- 
crofcope, in an ivory flider, or held between the nippers. 
X 
it 
h Hook’s Mic, p. 10 {. 
