Page:Micrographia - or some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses with observations and inquiries thereupon.djvu/147

Rh were, which I have observ'd in Ditches which have been full of foul water.

3 None of all these Figures I have yet taken notice of, had any regular position in respect of one another, or of the sides of the Vessel; nor did I find any of them equally to exactness extended every way from the center a.

4 Where ever there was a center, the branchings from it, ab, ac, ad, ae, af, ag, were never fewer, or more then six, which usually concurr'd, or met one another very neer in the same point or center, a; though oftentimes not exactly; and were enclin'd to each other by an angle, of very near sixty degrees, I say, very neer, because, though having endeavoured to measure them the most acurately I was able, with the largest Compasses I had, I could not find any sensible variation from that measure, yet the whole six-branched Figure seeming to compose a solid angle, they must necessarily be somewhat less.

5 The middle lines or stems of these branches, ab, ac, ad, ae, af, ag, seem'd somewhat whiter, and a little higher then any of the intermediate branchings of these Figures; and the center a, was the most prominent part of the whole Figure, seeming the apex of a solid angle or pyramid, each of the six plains being a little enclin'd below the surface of the Urin.

6 The lateral branchings issuing out of the great ones, such as op, mq, &c. were each of them inclin'd to the great ones, by the same angle of about sixty degrees, as the great ones were one to another, and always the bigger branchings were prominent above the less, and the less above the least, by proportionate gradations.

7 The lateral branches shooting out of the great ones, went all of them from the center, and each of them was parallel to that great branch, next to which it lay; so that as all the branches on one side were parallel to one another, so were they all of them to the approximate great branch, as po, qr, as they were parallel to each other, and shot from the center, so were they parallel also to the great branch ab.

8 Some of the stems of the six branches proceeded straight, and of a thickness that gradually grew sharper towards the end, as ag.

9 Others of the stems of those branches grew bigger and knotty towards the middle, and the branches also as well as stems, from Cylinders grew into Plates, in a most admirable and curious order, so exceeding regular and delicate, as nothing could be more, as is visible in ab, ac, ad, ae, af, but towards the end of some of these stems, they began again to grow smaller and to recover their former branchings, as about k and n.

10 Many of the lateral branches had collateral branches (if I may so call them) as qm had many such as st, and most of those again subcollateral, as vw, and these again had others less, which one may call laterosubcollateral, and these again others, and they others, &c. in greater Figures.

11 The branchings of the main Stems joyn'd not together by any regular line, nor did one side of the one lie over the other side of the other, but the small collateral and subcollateral branches did lie at top of one Rh