Page:Micrographia - or some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses with observations and inquiries thereupon.djvu/284

Rh the top of the water, and by degrees it began to move, and after flew about the Glass a perfect Gnat.

I have been the more particular, and large in the relation of the transformation of divers of these little Animals which I observ'd, because I have not found that any Authour has observ'd the like, and because the thing it self is so strange and heterogeneous from the usual progress of other Animals, that I judge it may not onely be pleasant, but very usefull and necessary towards the compleating of Natural History.

There is indeed in Piso, a very odd History, which this relation may make the more probable; and that is in the 2. Chapter of the 4. Book of his Natural History of Brasil, where he says, ''Porro præter tot documenta fertilitatis circa vegetabilia & sensitiva marina telluris æmula, accidit & illud, quod paucis à Paranambucensi milliaribus, piscatoris uncum citra intentionem contingat infigi vadis petrosis, & loco piscis spongia, coralla, aliasque arbusculas marinas capi. Inter hæc inusitatæ formæ prodit spongiosa arbuscula sesquipedis longitudinis, brevioribus radicibus, lapideis nitens vadis, & rupibus infixa, erigiturque in corpus spongiosum molle oblongum rotundum turbinatum: intus miris cancellis & alveis fabricatum, extus autem tenaci glutine instar Apum propolis undique vestitum, ostio satis patulo & profundo in summitate relicto, sicut ex altera iconum probe depicta videre licet (see the third and fourth Figures of the 27. Scheme.) Ita ut Apiarium marinum vere dixeris; primo enim intuitu è Mare ad Terram delatum, vermiculis scatebat cæruleis parvis, qui mox à calore solis in Muscas, vel Apes potius, easq; exiguas & nigras transformebantur, circumvolantesque evanescebant, ita ut de eorum mellificatione nihil certi conspici datum fuerit, cum tamen cærosa materia propolis Apumque cellæ manifeste apparerent, atque ipsa mellis qualiscunque substantia proculdubio urinatoribus patebit, ubi curiosius inquisiverint hæc apiaria, eaque in natali solo & salo diversis temporibus penitius lustrarint''.

Which History contains things sufficiently strange to be consider'd, as whether the husk were a Plant, growing at the bottom of the Sea before, of it self, out of whose putrifaction might be generated these strange kind of Magots; or whether the seed of certain Bees, sinking to the bottom, might there naturally form it self that vegetable hive, and take root; or, whether it might not be placed there by some diving Fly; or, whether it might not be some peculiar propriety of that Plant, whereby it might ripen or form its vegetable juice into an Animal substance; or, whether it may not be of the nature of a Sponge, or rather a Sponge of the nature of this, according to some of those relations and conjectures I formerly made of that body, is a matter very difficult to be determined. But indeed, in this description, the Excellent Piso has not been sufficiently particular in the setting down the whole process, as it were to be wish'd: There are indeed very odd progresses in the production of several kinds of Insects, which are not less instructive then pleasant, several of which, the diligent Goedartius has carefully observ'd and recorded, but among all his Observations, he has none like this, though that of the Hemerobius be somewhat of this kind, which is added as an Appendix by Johannes Mey. Rh