The? ‘HOS? T OuRTY 
ing at their hinder, and fometimes at their fore, 
extremity, they fuddenly difcharge a little white 
body, which, on its efcape, rolls and curls itfelf 
upin a ferpentine manner, b, the larger part, all 
the while continuing in its former ftate, without 
the fides of it falling together. This furprifing 
little body, when viewed with the microfcope, 
looks like a very white Earth-worm, divided 
into a great many exceeding fmall rings; and if 
left in the water for fome time, it expands and 
grows bigger by degrees, by the water it imbibes, 
which makes me imagine, that the water may 
offibly be the caufe of that wonderful motion 
obfervable in thefe parts, on their being put into it. 
Thefe particles, when thrown into {pirit of 
wine, remain perfectly quiet, without any open- 
ing. 
“Thefe parts may be very diftin@ly feen thro’ 
the tranfparent coats of the tefticle; and they ap- 
pear divided into a great many rows. Sometimes 
even they may be obferved to have rolled them- 
felves into ferpentine coils, and difcharged their 
white particles, before the tefticle has been 
opened, Fig. v. 77. 
of “LIENS HGi TS. i47 
' On examining with the microfcope one of 
thefe minute parts, we may plainly perceive its 
conftruction, and can fee a tranfparent fpace, like 
an air bubble, at its hinder end, Fig. vit. 2.. A 
little higher up is the region, within which lies 
the little furprifing moving white particle, juft 
now {poke of, 4. But I have here reprefented 
it much fhorter than it appears through the mi- 
crof{cope, for fear of enlarging the drawing to too 
great a fize. This little part grows tranfparent 
again near its fore end, Fig. VII. c. But the 
fore end itfelf is very neatly curled, d, and it is 
from this extremity that the filament iffues, which 
hardens in the air, like the Silk worm’s thread, e é. 
Whether thefe filaments be hollow, and whe- 
ther the fperm be generated in the cafes which 
cofitain them, as in fo many kind of feminal 
tubes, or whether all the cafes themfelves, with 
their contents, be difcharged by the animal 
at the time appointed by nature, for its fhedding 
its {perm, are very ob{cure queftions, which ag 
yet lam not able to anfwer*. Let it therefore 
fuffice, that I have juft exhibited, to the glory of 
the Great Architect, the admirable beauty and 
con- 
* The public received fome few years fince, an account of thefe veffels in a fpecies of Cuttle-Fifh, from the ingenious Mr. Tur- 
berville Needham : but we fee the firft account of them is owing to this author; and much is yet to be expected in the perfecting 
their hiftory, from fome future philofopher accuftomed to thefe inquiries, who fhall have opportunities of obtaining the animal alive. 
"The fpecies mentioned by Mr. Needham is, as we have before obferved, the Loligo of authors; and his obfervations on the confruc. 
tion and ation of thefe particular parts, is this ve | 
The outward tranfparent cafe is cartilaginous and elaftick : its upper extremity is gathered into a round head, which is in reality 
nothing more than the top of the cafe involuted into itfelf, and by that means clofing the orifice, through which the interior apparatus 
fprings in the time of action. ; his 
Within this is contained a tranfparent tube, elaftick, as it appears from the phenomena, in all dire&tions, and forcing its way where- 
ever it finds a paflage, which tho’ the continuation of it is not equally fenfible in. all parts, may be eafily difcovered in a courfe of ex- 
periments to inveft the ferew, fucker, barrel, and that {pungy fubftance, which imbibes the femen. The {crew is inferted in the up- 
per part of it, and throws out of the head of it two flender ligaments, which faften it with the whole annexed apparatus to the top of 
the outward cafe; the fucker, and barrel or cup, are lodged in the middle of the tube, and the fpongy fubflance containing the femen 
diftends the lower part. : rai 
I fhall now proceed to the feveral phenomena’s that appeared in the action of this minute machine, which to me at leaft feemed {6 
farprifing and inexplicable, that I think myfelf obliged to premife, that I am in no wife anfwerable for any feeming contradictory 
confequences, which may pofibly be drawn from matters of fact I dont pretend to account for: all I can‘affure the public of, is, that 
they are literally true, juit as they are related, and were {een by feveral perfons, as well as myfelf. ‘The objets I have now by me 
preferved in fpirit of wine, which, though they retained their activity for more than twenty days after they were taken out of the 
body of the fh, and immerfed in {pirits, without any fenfible diminution, yet now have ina manner totally loft it, though they re- 
main to all appearance in the microicope perfectly the fame. If therefore any of my readers defire to verify the faéts I have menti- 
oned, they muft apply in the feafon for frefh objects, and do their utmoft to procure the milt-veflels when perfedtly ripe for aGtion ; 
for thefe only will anfwer to all the phenomena I have taken notice of, though the lefs mature will fuffice for moft of them. 
Tho’ many of the milt-veflels, when they are ripe for action, and difengaged from that glutinous matter.which {urrounds them while 
they are in the milt-bag, will act immediately in the open air, for which perhaps the flighteft prefure during extra@tion may be fuffi- 
cient, yet the generality of them will not only bear a tranflation to the object-plate, and lie quiet for obfervation, but alfo require a 
drop of water to moiften the upper extremity of the enclofing cafe, before they begin to operate. 
Upon application of this, the extremity begins to evolute and unfold itfelf, and the two flenderligaments, which emerge outof the 
cafe, turn and twift themfelves in various directions: at the fame time the {crew moves upwards with a flow motion, the {pires at the 
top gathering clofe together, and acting againft the head of the cafe, while thofe at the bottom advance proportionably, and feem to 
be continually fucceeded by others out of the head of the pifton 5 which fucceffion I believe to be apparent only, and not real, the ap- 
pearance being owing to the nature of the motion inthe fcrew: in the interim, the fucker and cup, or barrel, move gently on in the 
fame dire€tion ; and the inferior part of the apparatus, which contains the femen, extends itfelf in length proportionably, with a mo- 
tion at the fame time upwards, which may be perceived by an increafe of the vacuity at the bottom of the cafe. Soon after this, the 
top of the fcrew, with its enclofing tube, appears out of the head of the cafe, and as it is there faftened by its ligaments begins to bend : 
the motion of the whole continues thus flow and gradual, till the fcrew, fucker, and cup have forced their way, and emerged totally, 
when at that inftant the remainder of the apparatus {prings out at once, the facker feparates from the cup, the feeming ligament below 
the cup fwells out to the diameter of the inferior part ; the inferior part, though diitended confiderably in breadth, more than it had 
been in the cafe, extends itfelf to five times its original length; two knots, between which the tube contraéts itelf in diameter, form 
themfelves, each at about the diftance of one third of the whole from both extremities, and the femen flows out of the cup, confiftine 
of {mall opake globules fwimming in a fort of ferous matter, juft in the fame form, and without any appearance of life, as I had feen 
it before, when diffufed at large in the milt-bag. After the operation, it is to be obferved, that the fringed edges between the two 
knots appear upon examination to be nothing more than the interior {pongy fubftance broke and disjoined at almoft equal diftances, 
will be clear from the fubfequent phenomena. 
Sometimes the fcrew, together withthe tube, breaks juft above the fucker, and the fucker remains in the cup, of which I have alfo 
given a drawing: in that cafe the invefting tube clofes inftantly at the extremity of the {crew, as far as it will permit, and contrasts 
itfelf nearly in a cone, which plainly indicates its great elafticity in this, as its conformation to the fhape of the enclofed fubftance 
‘upon the leaft change does in every other part. 
At firft view, an obferver would be inclined to think, that the a&tion of the whole machine is to be derived from the {pring of the 
fpiral {crew ; but the following experiments, which I tried with a view of fatisfying myfelf in that particular, not only evince the fal{e- 
hood of that fuppofition, by demonftrating that the {crew can at moft a&t but as a counter to a force entirely latent, but afford a 
train of phenomena {o furprifing, that they totally filenced all the hypothefes I was capable of forming. The experiments were 
tried upon milt-veffels, which though not fufficiently mature for the ejection of the fucker, dilatation of the feeming ligament below 
the cup, and the expreffion of the femen, had already attained the full force requifite for the exertion of the interior apparatus out of 
the enclofing cafe; thus they completely anfwered my prefent purpofe, as well as the moft mature could, and remedied the misfor- 
tune I had of lofing the only parcel of mature milt-veflels I have foundin the courfe of my inguiry, which I had laid by for further 
obfervation, : | 
t¢ 
as 
