Page:Micrographia - or some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses with observations and inquiries thereupon.djvu/273

Rh were divided into several smaller and greater black teeth, was nothing but one small bended hard bone, which was plac'd in the upper jaw of the mouth of a House-Snail, with which I observ'd this very Snail to feed on the leaves of a Rose-tree, and to bite out pretty large and half round bits, not unlike the Figure of a (C) nor very much differing from it in bigness, the upper part A B C D of this bone, I found to be much whiter, and to grow out of the upper chap of the Snail, G G G, and not to be any thing neer so much creas'd as the lower and blacker part of it H I I H K K H which was exactly shap'd like teeth, the bone growing thinner, or tapering to an edge towards K K K. It seem'd to have nine teeth, or prominent parts I K, I K, I F, &c. which were join'd together by the thinner interpos'd parts of the bone. The Animal to which these teeth belong, is a very anomalous creature, and seems of a kind quite distinct from any other terrestrial Animal or Insect, the Anatomy whereof exceedingly differing from what has been hitherto given of it I should have inserted, but that it will be more proper in another place. I have never met with any kind of Animal whose teeth are all join'd in one, save onely that I lately observ'd, that all the teeth of a Rhinocerot, which grow on either side of its mouth, are join'd into one large bone, the weight of one of which I found to be neer eleven pound Haverdupois. So that it seems one of the biggest sort of terrestrial Animals, as well as one of the smallest, has his teeth thus shap'd.

He Eggs of Silk-worms (one of which I have describ'd in the second Figure of 25. Scheme) afford a pretty Object for a Microscope that magnifies very much, especially if it be bright weather, and the light of a window be cast or collected on it by a deep Convex-glass, or Water-ball. For then the whole surface of the Shell may be perceiv'd all cover'd over with exceeding small pits or cavities with interposed edges, almost in the manner of the surface of a Poppy-seed, but that these holes are not an hundredth part scarce of their bigness; the Shell, when the young ones were hatch'd (which I found an easie thing to do, if the Eggs were kept in a warm place) appear'd no thicker in proportion to its bulk, then that of an Hen's or Goos's Egg is to its bulk, and all the Shell appear'd very white (which seem'd to proceed from its transparency) whence all those pittings did almost vanish, so that they could not, without much difficulty, be discern'd, the inside of the Shell seem'd to be lin'd also with a kind of thin film, not unlike (keeping the proportion to its Shell) that with which the shell of an Hen-egg is lin'd; and the shell it self seem'd like common Egg-shells; very brittle, and crack'd. In divers other of these Eggs I could plainly enough, through the shell, perceive the small Insect lie coyled round the edges of the shell. The shape of the Egg it self, the Figure pretty well represents (though by default of the Graver it does Rh