Page:Micrographia - or some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses with observations and inquiries thereupon.djvu/206

Rh eas sugere existimamus. From which Description, they seem to be a kind of Plant-Animal that adheres to a Rock, and these small fibres or threads which we have described, seem to have been the Vessels which ('tis very probable) were very much bigger whil'st the Interstitia were fill'd (as he affirms) with a mucous, pulpy or fleshy substance; but upon the drying were shrunk into the bigness they now appear.

The texture of it is such, that I have not yet met with any other body in the world that has the like, but onely one of a larger sort of Sponge (which is preserv'd in the Museum Harveanum belonging to the most Illustrious and most learned Society of the Physicians of London) which is of a horney, or rather of a petrify'd substance. And of this indeed, the texture and make is exactly the same with common Sponges, but onely that both the holes and the fibres, or texture of it is exceedingly much bigger, for some of the holes were above an Inch and half over, and the fibres and texture of it was bigg enough to be distinguished easily with ones eye, but conspicuously with an ordinary single Microscope. And these indeed, seem'd to have been the habitation of some Animal; and examining Aristotle, I find a very consonant account hereunto, namely, that he had known a certain little Animal, call'd Pinnothera, like a Spider, to be bred in those caverns of a Sponge, from within which, by opening and closing those holes, he insnares and catches the little Fishes; and in another place he says, That 'tis very confidently reported, that there are certain Moths or Worms that reside in the cavities of a Sponge, and are there nourished: Notwithstanding all which Histories, I think it well worth the enquiring into the History and nature of a Sponge, it seeming to promise some information of the Vessels in Animal substances, which (by reason of the solidity of the interserted flesh that is not easily remov'd, without destroying also those interspers'd Vessels) are hitherto undiscover'd; whereas here in a Sponge, the Parenchyma, it seems, is but a kind of mucous gelly, which is very easily and cleerly wash'd away.

The reason that makes me imagine, that there may probably be some such texture in Animal substances, is, that examining the texture of the filaments of tann'd Leather, I find it to be much of the same nature and strength of a Sponge; and with my Microscope, I have observ'd many such joints and knobs, as I have described in Sponges, the fibres also in the hollow of several sorts of Bones, after the Marrow has been remov'd, I have found somewhat to resemble this texture, though, I confess, I never yet found any texture exactly the same, nor any for curiosity comparable to it.

The filaments of it are much smaller then those of Silk, and through the Microscope appear very neer as transparent, nay, some parts of them I have observ'd much more.

Having examin'd also several kinds of Mushroms, I finde their texture to be somewhat of this kind, that is, to consist of an infinite company of small filaments, every way contex'd and woven together, so as to make a kind of cloth, and more particularly, examining a piece of Touch-wood (which is a kind Jews-ear, or Mushrom, growing here in England also, Rh