Page:Micrographia - or some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses with observations and inquiries thereupon.djvu/322

Rh two horns that grow before it, in the place where one would have thought the eyes should be; each of these C C hath four joynts, which are fringed, as 'twere, with small brisles, from which to the tip of its snout D, the head seems very round and tapering, ending in a very sharp nose D, which seems to have a small hole, and to be the passage through which he sucks the blood. Now whereas if it be plac'd on its back, with its belly upwards, as it is in the 35. Scheme, it seems in several Positions to have a resemblance of chaps, or jaws, as is represented in the Figure by E E, yet in other postures those dark strokes disappear; and having kept several of them in a box for two or three dayes, so that for all that time they had nothing to feed on, I found, upon letting one creep on my hand, that it immediately fell to sucking, and did neither seem to thrust its nose very deep into the skin, nor to open any kind of mouth, but I could plainly perceive a small current of blood, which came directly from its snout, and past into its belly; and about A there seem'd a contrivance, somewhat resembling a Pump, pair of Bellows, or Heart, for by a very swift systole and diastole the blood seem'd drawn from the nose, and forced into the body. It did not seem at all, though I viewed it a good while as it was sucking, to thrust more of its nose into the skin then the very snout D, nor did it cause the least discernable pain, and yet the blood seem'd to run through its head very quick and freely, so that it seems there is no part of the skin but the blood is dispers'd into, nay, even into the cuticula; for had it thrust its whole nose in from D to C C, it would not have amounted to the supposed thickness of that tegument, the length of the nose being not more then a three hundredth part of an inch. It has six legs, covered with a very transparent shell, and joynted exactly like a Crab's, or Lobster's; each leg is divided into six parts by these joynts, and those have here and there several small hairs; and at the end of each leg it has two claws, very properly adapted for its peculiar use, being thereby inabled to walk very securely both on the skin and hair; and indeed this contrivance of the feet is very curious, and could not be made more commodiously and compendiously, for performing both these requisite motions, of walking and climbing up the hair of a mans head, then it is: for, by having the lesser claw (a) set so much short of the bigger (b) when it walks on the skin the shorter touches not, and then the feet are the same with those of a Mite, and several other small Insects, but by means of the small joynts of the longer claw it can bend it round, and so with both claws take hold of a hair, in the manner represented in the Figure, the long transparent Cylinder F F F, being a Man's hair held by it.

The Thorax seem'd cas'd with another kind of substance then the belly, namely, with a thin transparent horny substance, which upon the fasting of the Creature did not grow flaccid; through this I could plainly see the blood, suck'd from my hand, to be variously distributed, and mov'd to and fro; and about G there seem'd a pretty big white substance, which seem'd to be moved within its thorax; besides, there appear'd very many small milk-white vessels, which crost over the breast Rh