6 Of the 'Texture of Cork* 
it will appear to be all perforated and porous ; having but 
a little folid fubftance in proportion to the empty cavity, 
as is manifeft on a fight of fig„ 540. Thefe pores are 
not very deep, but confift of many little cells, feparated 
out of one continued long pore, by certain diaphragms i , 
vifible in fig. B, which reprefents them fplit the long 
ways : hence the microfcope informs us, that the light- 
nefs of cork proceeds from its being a very ftnall quantity 
of a folid body, extended into exceeding large dimenfions, 
and alfo why it is a body fo very unapt to fuck in water, 
and confequently to preferve itfelf floating on the top 
thereof, though left on it never fo long, and why it is able 
to confine air in a bottle tho’ confiderably condenfed, and 
preffing very ftrongly to procure a paflfage without admit¬ 
ting the leaft bubble to pafs through its fubftance. As to the 
firft, the microfcope hath informed us that the fubftance of 
cork is filled with air, and that this air is perfectly inclofed 
in little boxes or cells diftimft from each other : this there¬ 
fore makes it very plain, that neither water nor any other 
air can eaftly infinuate itfelf into them, their being already 
within them an intus exiftens k ; for this reafon pieces of 
cork are good floats for nets and floppies for vials, &c„ 
and is capable of being compreffed into a twentieth part 
of its ufual dimenfions, and to reftore itfelf to its former 1 
ft ate by means of the included air in the before-obferved 
conftituent cells or bladders. Mr. Hook told feveral lines 
of thefe pores, and found that there were generally about 
fixty placed endways in a line of the one eighteenth part 
of an inch long: whence there mull be 1160 in the 
length of an inch, and in a fquare inch 1166400;- there¬ 
fore a cubic inch muft contain 1259712000, a thing 
almoft incredible, did not the microfcope allure us of it 
by ocular demonftration. If you cut off a piece from a 
board of cork tranfverfly to the flat of it, you will as it 
were 
Hook’s Mic. p. 113- k Ibid. p. 113. 
