109
nou: 15. 77.
The society met at
the vsuall place and
the President being Ab
sent m
r Hen
shaw
thevice president took the chair.
The first Experiment there Exhibited was the pepper water which had been made w
thRain water & a small quantity of common black pepper put ^/whole/ into it about ^/9 or/ 10 dayes -
before . in this RH had all this week Di
scouerd great numbers of exceeding small animalls
swimming to & fro . they appeard of the bigne
ss of a mite through a gla
sse that magnifyd
about
100000 times in bulk and con
sequently it was iudged that they were neer a
/hundred/
thousand thou
sand times le
sse then a mite, their shape was to appearance like a very
small cleer tran
sparent bubble of an ouall or egge forme and the bigge
st end of
this egglike bubble moued formo
st. /they/
it were ob
serued to haue all manner of motions
to & fro in the water and by all that saw them they were verily beleiud to be anima[lls]
and that there could be noe falacy in the appearance. they wer seen by m
r Hen
shaw
S
r. Chr: Wren. S
r. Iohn Ho
skins S
r. Ionas more. D
r. mapletoft. m
r. Hill. D
r. Croon
D
r. Grew. m
r. Aubery and Divers others. soe that there was noe longer any dobt of m
r. Lewen
hooks Di
scouery. notice was orderd to be taken of this Di
scouery and further tryall was
De
sired to be made vpon
.. . . Raine water alone & vpon Rainewater in w
ch .. . . had
been
steeped wheat barly & other seeds & graines as al
so that blood and seuerall
other Liquors should be after the same manner Examined. The shape of the mi
cro
scope and the manner of Examining the liquor was as follows. fir
st the pipes were
drawn exceeding thin & pretty small to with about the bigne
sse of a piggs bri
stle: the
se by
the micro
scope were magnifyd into
the big a cylindricall
pp pipe of 3 inches in Diameter
that is ^/it appeard/ At Lea
st 100 times bigger in Diameter than really it was and consequently all things
that appeard in it were proportionally magnifyd. the
se pipes Dippd into the pepp
erwater were immediately filld w
th. it the liquor readily a
scending vp into them. the
se
pipes were stuck w
th. wax vpon a bra
sse plate perforated through the middle soe
as to Lett the light through. and the plate was made to slide on a small peice of bra
sse
soe as to be
sett along
convenient but Differed frome th
t object gla
sse, there being Lookd
vpon again
st the flame of
a candle/a candle/ not directly but w
th a glancing light the
small in
sects appeard swimming to & fro w
th various motion like very small cleer
shining bubbles. After this
Deb Exp
t.. much Debate aro
se whether the
se were produced
by the pepper or by the water, whether from equiuocall or seuerall Generations. m
r. Hen
shaw. S
r Christ. Wren & D
r Holder were of opinion they were equiuocall. But
RH/others/
that they were of seminall productions that twas po
ssible they were from eggs Di
sper
sd in
the air ^/& soe brought Down by the rain/ or
sticking sticking on the pepper before it was steepd. vpon this S
r. Ch: Wren
sugge
sted that tryall of that might be made by baking the pepper. for it was probable
if there were such eggs their prolifick faculty would be De
stroyd. M
r. Hen
shaw
suppo
sed it was from the heat of the pepper & the fermentation of the said tincture
that they were produced & not from seed, and vrged that such equiuocall Generations
were obserued in the Hairs of stone hor
ses tayles steeped in water, producing a
kind of snake. It was doubted by many whether that creature (w
ch. was generally
from its shape suppo
sed to be soe generated) were not some di
stinct species -
of liuing creature & there was noe one present
that (though mo
st had seen them) ^/that/ could
po
sitiuely affirme that they had known them soe Generated. m
r. Henshaw /related/
affirmdthat twas not only this sub
stance that was capable of animation but that lute
string
or gutt
strings would by being steepd in water doe the same thing. that he had
seen the Exp
t. tryd w
th. one not in water w
ch. would turne & wreath it
self
about a
stick & then vnwreath it
self againe, and this seuerall times one after
another. the rea
son of w
ch.. was not Explaind.
There was Presented by RH. from the Ld: BP: of Sarum a very large white
stone-cutt out of the bladder
of a Dogge at Cambridge. It was Included in two
double Hoops of
Iron Siluer neatly fitted
to it and Ingrauen w
th. the name of the Doner
andon the one and the name of the thing
Ref: CELL/RS/HF_111 © Centre for Editing Lives and Letters