Page:Micrographia - or some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses with observations and inquiries thereupon.djvu/135

Rh Pin. Afterwards I view'd it every way with a better Microscope and found it on both sides, and edge-ways, to resemble the Shell of a small Water-Snail with a flat spiral Shell: it had twelve wreathings, a, b, c, d, e, &c. all very proportionably growing one less than another toward the middle or center of the Shell, where there was a very small round white spot. I could not certainly discover whether the Shell were hollow or not, but it seem'd fill'd with somewhat, and 'tis probable that it might be petrify'd as other larger Shels often are, such as are mention'd in the seventeenth Observation.

Have often observ'd the Sand or Gravel of Urine, which seems to be a tartareous substance, generated out of a saline and a terrestrial substance crystalliz'd together, in the form of Tartar, sometimes sticking to the sides of the Urinal, but for the most part sinking to the bottom, and there lying in the form of coorse common Sand; these, through the Microscope, appear to be a company of small bodies, partly transparent and partly opacous, some White, some Yellow, some Red, others of more brown and duskie colours.

The Figure of them is for the most part flat, in the manner of Slats or such like plated Stones, that is, each of them seem to be made up of several other thinner Plates, much like Muscovie Glass, or English Sparr to the last of which, the white plated Gravel seems most likely; for they seem not onely plated like that, but their sides shap'd also into Rhombs, Rhomboeids, and sometimes into Rectangles and Squares. Their bigness and Figure may be seen in the second Figure of the seventh Plate, which represents about a dozen of them lying upon a plate A B C D, some of which, as a, b, c, d seem'd more regular than the rest, and e, which was a small one, sticking on the top of another, was a perfect Rhomboeid on the top, and had four Rectangular sides.

The line E which was the measure of the Microscope, is part of an English Inch, so that the greatest bredth of any of them, exceeded not  part of an Inch.

Putting these into several liquors, I found Oyl of Vitriol, Spirit of Urine, and several other Saline menstruums to dissolve them; and the first of these in less than a minute without Ebullition, Water, and several other liquors, had no sudden operation upon them. This I mention, because those liquors that dissolve them, first make them very white, not vitiating, but rather rectifying their Figure, and thereby make them afford a very pretty object for the Microscope.

How great an advantage it would be to such as are troubled with the Stone, to find some menstruum might dissolve them without hurting the Bladder, is easily imagin'd, since some injections made of such bodies might likewise dissolve the stone, which seems much of the same nature.

Rh