Page:Philosophical Transactions - Volume 012.djvu/11



the year 1675. I discover'd living creatures in Rain water, which had stood but few days in a new earthen pot, glased blew within, This invited me to view this water with great attention, especially those little animals appearing to me ten thousand times less than those represented by Mons. Swamerdam, and by him called Water fleas or Water-lice, which may be perceived in the water with the naked eye.

The first sort by me discover'd in the said water, I divers times observed to consist of 5, 6, 7, or 8 clear globuls, without being able to discern any film that held them together, or contained them. When these animalcula or living Atoms did move, they put forth two little horns, continually moving themselves: The place between these two horns was flat, though the rest of the body was roundish, sharpning a little towards the end, where they had a tayl, near four times the length of the whole body, of the thickness (by my Microscope) of a Spiders-web; at the end of which appear'd a globul, of the bigness of one of those which made up the body; which tayl I could not perceive, even in very clear water, to be mov'd by them. These little creatures, if they chanced to light upon the least filament or string, or other such particle, of which there are many in water, especially after it hath stood some days, they stook intangled therein, extending their body in a long round, and striving to dis-intangle their tayl; whereby it came to pass, that their whole body lept back towards the globul of the tayl, which then rolled together Serpent-like, and after the manner of Copper- or Iron wire that having been wound about a stick, and unwound again, retains those windings and turnings. This motion of extension and contraction continued a while; and I have seen several hundreds of these poor little creatures, within the space of a grain of gross sand, lye fast cluster'd together in a few filaments.

I also discover'd a second sort, the figure of which was oval; and I imagined their head to stand on the sharp end. These were a little bigger than the former. The inferior part of their body is flat, furnished with divers incredibly thin feet, which moved