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Micrographia by Robert Hooke

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I still marked its progress from time to time, and found its body still to
grow bigger and bigger, Nature, as it were, fitting and accoutring it for
the lighter Element, of which it was now going to be an inhabitant; for, by
observing one of these with my _Microscope_, I found the eyes of it to be
altogether differing from what they seem'd before, appearing now all over
pearl'd or knobb'd, like the eyes of Gnats, as is visible in the second
_Figure_ by A. At length, I saw part of this creature to swim above, and
part beneath the surface of the water, below which though it would quickly
plunge it self if I by any means frighted it, and presently re-ascend into
its former posture; after a little longer expectation, I found that the
head and body of a Gnat, began to appear and stand cleer above the surface,
and by degrees it drew out its leggs, first the two formost, then the
other, at length its whole body perfect and entire appear'd out of the husk
(which it left in the water) standing on its leggs upon 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 praeter tot documenta
fertilitatis circa vegetabilia & sensitiva marina telluris aemula, accidit
& illud, quod paucis a Paranambucensi milliaribus, piscatoris uncum citra
intentionem contingat infigi vadis petrosis, & loco piscis spongia,
coralla, aliasque arbusculas marinas capi. Inter haec inusitatae formae
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 e Mare ad Terram delatum, vermiculis scatebat caeruleis
parvis, qui mox a 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 caerosa materia
propolis Apumque cellae manifeste apparerent, atque ipsa mellis
qualiscunque substantia proculdubio urinatoribus patebit, ubi curiosius
inquisiverint haec 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_.

I have, for my own particular, besides several of those mention'd by him,
observ'd divers other circumstances, perhaps, not much taken notice of,
though very common, which do indeed afford us a very _coercive_ argument to
admire the goodness and providence of the infinitely wise Creator in his
most excellent contrivances and dispensations. I have observ'd, at several
times of the Summer, that many of the leaves of divers Plants have been
spotted, or, as it were scabbed, and looking on the undersides of those of
them that have been but a litte irregular, I have perceiv'd them to be
sprinkled with divers sorts of little Eggs, which letting alone, I have
found by degrees to grow bigger, and become little Worms with leggs, but
still to keep their former places, and those places of the leaves, of their
own accords, to be grown very protuberant upwards, and very hollow, and
arched underneath, whereby those young creatures are, as it were, shelter'd
and housed from external injury; divers leaves I have observ'd to grow and
swell so farr, as at length perfectly to inclose the Animal, which, by
other observations I have made, I ghess to contain it, and become, as it
were a womb to it, so long, till it be fit and prepar'd to be translated
into another state, at what time, like (what they say of) Vipers, they gnaw
their way through the womb that bred them; divers of these kinds I have met
with upon Goosberry leaves, Rose-tree leaves, Willow leaves, and many other
kinds.

There are often to be found upon Rose-trees and Brier bushes, little red
tufts, which are certain knobs or excrescencies, growing out from the Rind,
or barks of those kinds of Plants, they are cover'd with strange kinds of
threads or red hairs, which feel very soft, and look not unpleasantly. In
most of these, if it has no hole in it, you shall find certain little
Worms, which I suppose to be the causes of their production; for when that
Worm has eat its way through, they, having performed what they were
design'd by Nature to do, by degrees die and wither away.

Now, the manner of their production, I suppose to be thus, that the Alwise
Creator has as well implanted in every creature a faculty of knowing what
place is convenient for the hatching, nutrition, and preservation of their
Eggs and of-springs whereby they are stimulated and directed to convenient
places, which becom, as 'twere the wombs that perform those offices: As he
has also suited and adapted a property to those places wherby they grow and
inclose those seeds, and having inclosed them, provide a convenient
nourishment for them, but as soon as they have done the office of a womb,
they die and wither.

The progress of inclosure I have often observ'd in leaves, which in those
places where those seeds have been cast, have by degrees swell'd and
inclos'd them, so perfectly round, as not to leave any perceptible passage
out.

From this same cause, I suppose that Galls, Oak-apples, and several other
productions of that kind, upon the branches and leaves of Trees, have their
original, for if you open any of them, when almost ripe, you shall find a
little Worm in them. Thus, if you open never so many dry Galls, you shall
find either a hole whereby the Worm has eat its passage out, or if you find
no passage, you may, by breaking or cutting the Gall, find in the middle of
it a small cavity, and in it a small body, which does plainly enough yet
retain a shape, to manifest it once to have been a Worm, though it dy'd by
a too early reparation from the Oak on which it grew, its navel-string, as
'twere, being broken off from the leaf or branch by which the Globular body
that invelop'd it, received its nourishment from the Oak.

And indeed, if we consider the great care of the Creator in the
dispensations of his providences for the propagation and increase of the
race, not onely of all kind of Animals, but even of Vegetables, we cannot
chuse but admire and adore him for his Excellencies, but we shall leave off
to admire the creature, or to wonder at the strange kind of acting in
several Animals, which seem to favour so much of reason; it seeming to me
most manifest, that those are but actings according to their structures,
and such operations as such bodies, so compos'd, must necessarily, when
there are such and such circumstances concurring, perform: thus, when we
find Flies swarming, about any piece of flesh that does begin a little to
ferment; Butterflies about Colworts, and several other leaves, which will
serve to hatch and nourish their young; Gnats, and several other Flies
about the Waters, and marishy places, or any other creatures, seeking and
placing their Seeds in convenient repositories, we may, if we attentively
consider and examine it, find that there are circumstances sufficient, upon
the supposals of the excellent contrivance of their machine, to excite and
force them to act after such or such a manner; those steams that rise from
these several places may, perhaps, set several parts of these little
Animals at work, even as in the contrivance of killing a Fox or Wolf with a
Gun, the moving of a string, is the death of the Animal; for the Beast, by
moving the flesh that is laid to entrap him, pulls the string which moves
the trigger, and that lets go the Cock which on the steel strikes certain
sparks of fire which kindle the powder in the pann, and that presently
flies into the barrel, where the powder catching fire rarifies and drives
out the bullet which kills the Animal; in all which actions, there is
nothing of intention or ratiocination to be ascrib'd either to the Animal
or Engine, but all to the ingeniousness of the contriver.

But to return to the more immediate consideration of our Gnat: We have in
it an Instance, not usual or common, of a very strange _amphibious_
creature, that being a creature that inhabits the Air, does yet produce a
creature, that for some time lives in the water as a Fish, though afterward
(which is as strange) it becomes an inhabitant of the Air, like its Sire,
in the form of a Fly. And this, methinks, does prompt me to propose certain
conjectures, as Queries, having not yet had sufficient opportunity and
leisure to answer them my self from my own Experiments or Observations.

And the first is, Whether all those things that we suppose to be bred from
corruption and putrifaction, may not be rationally suppos'd to have their
origination as natural as these Gnats, who, 'tis very probable, were first
dropt into this Water, in the form of Eggs. Those Seeds or Eggs must
certainly be very small, which so small a creature as a Gnat yields, and
therefore, we need not wonder that we find not the Eggs themselves, some of
the younger of them, which I have observ'd, having not exceeded a tenth
part of the bulk they have afterwards come to; and next, I have observed
some of those little ones which must have been generated after the Water
was inclosed in the Bottle, and therefore most probably from Eggs, whereas
those creatures have been suppos'd to be bred of the corruption of the
Water, there being not formerly known any probable way how they should be
generated.

A second is, whether these Eggs are immediately dropt into the Water by the
Gnats themselves, or, mediately, are brought down by the falling rain; for
it seems not very improbable, but that those small seeds of Gnats may
(being, perhaps, of so light a nature, and having so great a proportion of
surface to so small a bulk of body) be ejected into the Air, and so,
perhaps, carried for a good while too and fro in it, till by the drops of
Rain it be wash'd out of it.

A third is, whether multitudes of those other little creatures that are
found to inhabit the Water for some time, do not, at certain times, take
wing and fly into the Air, others dive and hide themselves in the Earth,
and so contribute to the increase both of the one and the other Element.

* * * * *

_Postscript._

A good while since the writing of this Description, I was presented by
Doctor _Peter Ball_, an ingenious Member of the _Royal Society_, with a
little Paper of Nuts, which he told me was sent him from a Brother of his
out of the Countrey, from _Mamhead_ in _Devonshire_, some of them were
loose, having been, as I suppose, broken off, others were still growing
fast on upon the sides of a stick, which seem'd by the bark, pliableness of
it, and by certain strings that grew out of it, to be some piece of the
root of a Tree; they were all of them dry'd, and a little shrivell'd,
others more round, of a brown colour; their shape was much like a Figg, but
very much smaller, some being about the bigness of a Bay-berry, others, and
the biggest, of a Hazel-Nut. Some of these that had no hole in them, I
carefully opened with my Knife, and found in them a good large round white
Maggot, almost as bigg as a small Pea, which seem'd shap'd like other
Maggots, but shorter. I could not find them to move, though I ghess'd them
to be alive, because upon pricking them with a Pinn, there would issue out
a great deal of white _mucous_ matter, which seem'd to be from a voluntary
contraction of their skin; their husk or matrix consisted of three Coats,
like the barks of Trees, the outermost being more rough and spongie, and
the thickest, the middlemost more close, hard, white, and thin, the
innermost very thin, seeming almost like the skin within an Egg's shell.
The two outermost had root in the branch or stick, but the innermost had no
stem or process, but was onely a skin that cover'd the cavity of the Nut.
All the Nuts that had no holes eaten in them, I found to contain these
Maggots, but all that had holes, I found empty, the Maggots, it seems,
having eaten their way through, taken wings and flown away, as this
following account (which I receiv'd in writing from the same person, as it
was sent him by his Brother) manifests. _In a moorish black Peaty mould,
with some small veins of whitish yellow Sands, upon occasion of digging a
hole two or three foot deep, at the head of a Pond or Pool, to set a Tree
in, at that depth, were found, about the end of _October 1663._ in those
very veins of Sand, those Buttons or Nuts, sticking to a little loose
stick, that is, not belonging to any live Tree, and some of them also free
by themselves._

_Four or five of which being then open'd, some were found to contain live
Insects come to perfection, most like to flying _Ants_, if not the same; in
others, Insects, yet imperfect, having but the head and wings form'd, the
rest remaining a soft white pulpy substance._

Now, as this furnishes us with one odd History more, very agreeable to what
I before hinted, so I doubt not, but were men diligent observers, they
might meet with multitudes of the same kind, both in the Earth and in the
Water, and in the Air, on Trees, Plants, and other Vegetables, all places
and things being, as it were, _animarum plena_. And I have often, with
wonder and pleasure, in the Spring and Summer-time, look'd close to, and
diligently on, common Garden mould, and in a very small parcel of it, found
such multitudes and diversities of little _reptiles_, some in husks, others
onely creepers, many wing'd, and ready for the Air; divers husks or
habitations left behind empty. Now, if the Earth of our cold Climate be so
fertile of animate bodies, what may we think of the fat Earth of hotter
Climates? Certainly, the Sun may there, by its activity, cause as great a
parcel of Earth to fly on wings in the Air, as it does of Water in steams
and vapours. And what swarms must we suppose to be sent out of those
plentifull inundations of water which are poured down by the sluces of Rain
in such vast quantities? So that we need not much wonder at those
innumerable clouds of Locusts with which _Africa_, and other hot countries
are so pestred, since in those places are found all the convenient causes
of their production, namely, genitors, or Parents, concurrent receptacles
or matrixes, and a sufficient degree of natural heat and moisture.

I was going to annex a little draught of the Figure of those Nuts sent out
of _Devonshire_, but chancing to examine Mr. _Parkinson_'s Herbal for
something else, and particularly about Galls and Oak-apples, I found among
no less then 24. several kinds of excrescencies of the Oak, which I doubt
not, but upon examination, will be all found to be the _matrixes_ of so
many several kinds of Insects; I having observ'd many of them my self to be
so, among 24. several kinds, I say, I found one described and Figur'd
directly like that which I had by me, the _Scheme_ is there to be seen, the
description, because but short, I have here adjoin'd _Theatri Botanici
trib. 16. Chap. 2. There groweth at the roots of old Oaks in the
Spring-time, and semetimes also in the very heat of Summer, a peculiar kind
of Mushrom or Excrescence, call'd _Uva Quercina_, swelling out of the
Earth, many growing one close unto another, of the fashion of a Grape, and
therefore took the name, the _Oak-Grape_, and is of a Purplish colour on
the outside, and white within like Milk, and in the end of Summer becometh
hard and woody._ Whether this be the very same kind, I cannot affirm, but
both the Picture and Description come very neer to that I have, but that he
seems not to take notice of the hollowness or Worm, for which 'tis most
observable. And therefore 'tis very likely, if men did but take notice,
they might find very many differing Species of these Nuts, _Ovaries_, or
_Matrixes_, and all of them to have much the same designation and office.
And I have very lately found several kinds of Excrescencies on Trees and
Shrubs, which having endured the Winter, upon opening them, I found most of
them to contain little Worms, but dead, those things that contain'd them
being wither'd and dry.

* * * * *


Observ. XLIV. _Of the tufted or Brush-horn'd _Gnat_._

This little creature was one of those multitudes that fill our _English_
air all the time that warm weather lasts, and is exactly of the shape of
that I observ'd to be generated and hatch'd out of those little Insects
that wriggle up and down in Rain-water. But, though many were of this form,
yet I observ'd others to be of quite other kinds; nor were all of this or
the other kind generated out of Water Insects; for whereas I observ'd that
those that proceeded from those Insects were at their full growth, I have
also found multitudes of the same shape, but much smaller and tenderer
seeming to be very young ones, creep up and down upon the leaves of Trees,
and flying up and down in small clusters, in places very remote from water;
and this Spring, I observ'd one day, when the Wind was very calm, and the
afternoon very fair, and pretty warm, though it had for a long time been
very cold weather, and the wind continued still in the East, several small
swarms of them playing to and fro in little clouds in the Sun, each of
which were not a tenth part of the bigness of one of these I here have
delineated, though very much of the same shape, which makes me ghess, that
each of these swarms might be the of-spring of one onely Gnat, which had
been hoorded up in some safe repository all this Winter by some provident
Parent, and were now, by the warmth of the Spring-air, hatch'd into little
Flies.

And indeed, so various, and seemingly irregular are the generations or
productions of Insects, that he that shall carefully and diligently observe
the several methods of Nature therein, will have infinitely cause further
to admire the wisdom and providence of the Creator; for not onely the same
kind of creature may be produc'd from several kinds of ways, but the very
same creature may produce several kinds: For, as divers Watches may be made
out of several materials, which may yet have all the same appearance, and
move after the same manner, that is, shew the hour equally true, the one as
the other, and out of the same kind of matter, like Watches, may be wrought
differing ways; and, as one and the same Watch may, by being diversly
agitated, or mov'd, by this or that agent, or after this or that manner,
produce a quite contrary effect: So may it be with these most curious
Engines of Insect's bodies; the All-wise God of Nature, may have so ordered
and disposed the little _Automatons_, that when nourished, acted, or
enlivened by this cause, they produce one kind of effect, or animate shape,
when by another they act quite another way, and another Animal is produc'd.
So may he so order several materials, as to make them, by several kinds of
methods, produce similar _Automatons_.

But to come to the Description of this Insect, as it appears through a
_Microscope_, of which a representation is made in the 28. _Scheme_. Its
head A, is exceeding small, in proportion to its body, consisting of two
clusters of pearl'd eyes BB, on each side of its head, whose pearls or
eye-balls are curiously rang'd like those of other Flies; between these, in
the forehead of it, there are plac'd upon two small black balls, CC, two
long jointed horns, tapering towards the top, much resembling the long
horns of Lobsters, each of whose stems or quills, DD, were brisled or
brushed with multitudes of small stiff hairs, issuing out every way from
the several joints, like the strings or sproutings of the herb
_Horse-tail_, which is oft observ'd to grow among Corn, and for the whole
shape, it does very much resemble those _brushy Vegetables_; besides these,
there are two other jointed and brisled horns, or feelers, EE, in the
forepart of the head, and a _proboscis_, F, underneath, which in some Gnats
are very long, streight hollow pipes, by which these creatures are able to
drill and penetrate the skin, and thence, through those pipes suck so much
bloud as to stuff their bellies so full till they be ready to burst.

This small head, with its appurtenances, is fastned on by a short neck, G,
to the middle of the _thorax_, which is large, and seems cased with a
strong black shel, HIK, out of the under part of which, issue six long and
slender legs, LLLLLL, shap'd just like the legs of Flies, but spun or drawn
out longer and slenderer, which could not be express'd in the Figure,
because of their great length; and from the upper part, two oblong, but
slender transparent wings, MM, shaped somewhat like those of a Fly,
underneath each of which, as I have observ'd also in divers sorts of Flies,
and other kinds of Gnats, was placed a small body, N, much resembling a
drop of some transparent glutinous substance, hardned or cool'd, as it was
almost ready to fall, for it has a round knob at the end, which by degrees
grows slenderer into a small stem, and neer the insertion under the wing,
this stem again grows bigger; these little _Pendulums_, I may so call them,
the litle creature vibrates to and fro very quick when it moves its wings,
and I have sometimes observ'd it to move them also, whil'st the wing lay
still, but always their motion seem'd to further the motion of the wing
ready to follow; of what use they are, as to the moving of the wing, or
otherwise, I have not now time to examine.

Its belly was large, as it is usually in all Insects, and extended into
nine lengths or partitions, each of which was cover'd with round armed
rings or shells; six of which, OPQRST were transparent, and divers kinds of
_Peristaltick_ motions might be very easily perceiv'd, whil'st the Animal
was alive, but especially a small cleer white part V, seemed to beat like
the heart of a larger Animal. The last three divisios, WXY, were cover'd
with black and opacous shells. To conclude, take this creature altogether,
and for beauty and curious contrivances, it may be compared with the
largest Animal upon the Earth. Nor doth the Alwise Creator seem to have
shewn less care and providence in the fabrick of it, then in those which
seem most considerable.

* * * * *


Observ. XLV. _Of the great Belly'd _Gnat_ or female _Gnat_._

The second Gnat, delineated in the twenty ninth _Scheme_, is of a very
differing shape from the former; but yet of this sort also, I found several
of the Gnats, that were generated out of the Water Insect: the wings of
this, were much larger then those of the other, and the belly much bigger,
shorter and of an other shape; and, from several particulars, I ghest it to
be the Female Gnat, and the former to be the Male.

The _thorax_ of this, was much like that of the other, having a very strong
and ridged back-piece, which went also on either side of its leggs; about
the wings there were several joynted pieces of Armor, which seem'd
curiously and conveniently contriv'd, for the promoting and strengthning
the motion of the wings: its head was much differing from the other, being
much bigger and neater shap'd, and the horns that grew out between his eyes
on two little balls, were of a very differing shape from the tufts of the
other Gnat, these having but a few knots or joynts, and each of those but a
few, and those short and strong, brisles. The formost horns or feelers,
were like those of the former Gnat.

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