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129 lines
8.9 KiB
129 lines
8.9 KiB
12 years ago
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<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
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<h1 align="center">Observ. LIV. Of a Louse.<br>
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</h1>
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<p align="center"><img src="images/Octavo/bug.jpg" width="516" height="445"></p>
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<p align="center"> </p>
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<blockquote>
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<blockquote>
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<p><font size="4">This is a Creature so officious, that 'twill be known to
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every one at one time or other, so busie, and so impudent, that it will
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be intruding it self in every ones company, and so proud and aspiring withall,
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that it fears not to trample on the best, and affects nothing so much as
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a Crown; feeds and lives very high, and that makes it so saucy, as to pull
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any one by the ears that comes in its way, and will never be quiet till
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it has drawn blood: it is troubled at nothing so much as at a man that scratches
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his head, as knowing that man is plotting and contriving some mischief against
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it, and that makes it oftentime sculk into some meaner and lower place, and
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run behind a mans back, though it go very much against the hair; which ill
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conditions of it having made it better known then trusted, would exempt me
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from making any further description of it, did not my faithful Mercury, my
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Microscope, bring me other information of it. </font></p>
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<p><font size="4">For this has discovered to me, by means of a very bright light
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cast on it, that it is a Creature of a very odd shape ; it has a head shap'd
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like that exprest in 35. Scheme marked with A, which seems almost Conical,
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but is a little flatted on the upper and under sides, at the biggest part
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of which, on either side behind the head (as it were, being the place where
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other Creatures ears stand) are placed its two black shining goggle eyes
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B B, looking backwards, and fenced round with several small cilia or hairs
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that incompass it, so that it seems this Creature has no very good foresight:
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It does not seem to have any eyelids, and therefore perhaps its eyes were
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so placed, that it might the better cleanse them with its forelegs; and perhaps
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this may be the reason, why they so much avoid and run from the light behind
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them, for being made to live in the shady and dark recesses of the hair,
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and thence probably their eye having a great aperture, the open and clear
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light, especially that of the Sun, must needs very much offend them; to secure
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these eyes from receiving any injury from the hairs through which it passes,
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it has two horns that grow before it, in the place where one would have thought
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the eyes should be; each of these C C have four joynts, which are fringed,
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as 'twere, with small brisles, from which to the tip of its snout D, the
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head seems very round and tapering, ending in a very sharp nose D, which
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seems to have a small hole, and to be the passage through which he sucks
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the blood. </font></p>
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<p> </p>
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<p><img src="images/Octavo/bug2.jpg" width="537" height="348"></p>
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<p><font size="4">Now whereas it if be plac'd on its back, with its belly
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upwards, as it is in the 35. Scheme, it seems in several Positions to have
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a resemblance of chaps, or jaws, as is represented in the Figure by E E,
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yet in other postures those dark strokes disappear; and having kept several
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of them in a box for two or three dayes, so that for all that time they had
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nothing to feed on, I found, upon letting onecreep on my hand, that it immediately
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fell to sucking, and did neither seem to thrust its nose very deep into the
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skin, nor to open any kind of mouth, but I could plainly perceive a small
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current of blood, which came directly from its snout, and past into its belly;
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and about A there seem'd a contrivance, somewhat resembling a Pump, pair
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of Bellows, or Heart, for by a very swift systole and diastole the blood
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seem'd drawn from the nose, and forced into the body. </font></p>
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<p><font size="4">It did not seem at all, though I viewed it a good while as
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it was sucking, to thrust more of its nose into the skin then the very snout
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D, nor did it cause the least discernable pain, and yet the blood seem'd
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to run through its head very quick and freely, so that it seems there is
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no part of the skin but the blood is dispers'd into, nay, even into the
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cuticula; for had it thrust its whole nose in from D to C C, it would not
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have amounted to the supposed thickness of that tegument, the length of
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the nose being not more then a three hundredth part of an inch. </font></p>
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<p><font size="4">It has six legs, covered with a very transparent shell,
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and joynted exactly like a Crab's, or Lobster's; each leg is divided into
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six parts by these joynts, and those have here and there several small hairs;
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and at the end of each leg it has two claws, very properly adapted for its
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peculiar use, being thereby inabled to walk very securely both on the skin
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and hair; and indeed this contrivance of the feet is very curious, and could
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not be made more commodiously and compendiously, for performing both these
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requisite motions, of walking and climbing up the hair of a mans head, then
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it is : for, by having the lesser claw (a) set so much short of the bigger
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(b) when it walks on the skin the shorter touches not, and then the feet
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are the same with those of a Mite, and several other small Insects, but by
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means of the small joynts of the longer claw it can bend it round, and so
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with both claws take hold of a hair, in the manner represented in the Figure,
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the long transparent Cylinder F F F, being a Man's hair held by it. </font></p>
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<p><font size="4">The Thorax seem'd cas'd with another kind of substance then
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the belly, namely, with a thin transparent horny substance, which upon the fasting
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of the Creature did not grow flaccid; through this I could plainly see the
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blood, suck'd from my hand, to be variously distributed, and mov'd to and
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fro; and about G there seem'd a pretty big white substance, which seem'd
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to be moved within its thorax; besides, there appear'd very many small milk-white
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vessels, which crost over the breast between the legs, out of which, on
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either side, are many small branchings, these seem'd to be the veins and
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arteries, for that which is analogus to blood in all Insects is milk-white.
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</font></p>
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<p><font size="4">The belly is covered with a transparent substance likewise,
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but more resembling a skin then a shell, for 'tis grain'd all over the belly
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just like the skin in the palms of a man's hand, and when the belly is empty,
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grows very flaccid and wrinkled ; at the upper end of this is placed the
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stomach H H, and perhaps also the white spot I I may be the liver, or pancreas,
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which by the peristaltick motion of the guts, is a little mov'd to and fro,
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not with a systole and diastole, but rather with a thronging or justling
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motion. </font></p>
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<p><font size="4">Viewing one of these Creatures, after it had fasted two
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dayes, all the hinder part was lank and flaccid, and the white spot I I
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hardly mov'd, most of the white branchings disappear'd, and most also of
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the redness or sucked blood in the guts, the peristaltick motion of which
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was scarce discernable; but upon the suffering it to suck, it presently
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fill'd the skin of the belly, and of the six scolop'd embosments on either side,
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as full as it could be stuft ; the stomach and guts were as full as they
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could hold; the peristaltick motion of the gut grew quick, and the justling
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motion of I I accordingly ; multitudes of milk-white vessels seem'd quickly
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filled, and turgid, which were perhaps the veins and arteries, and the Creature
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was so greedy, that though it could not contain more, yet it continued sucking
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as fast as ever, and as fast emptying it self behind : the digestion of this
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Creature must needs be very quick, for though I perceiv'd the blood thicker
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and blacker when suck'd, yet, when in the guts, it was of a very lovely
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ruby colour, and that part of it, which was digested into the veins, seemed
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white; whence it appears, that a further digestion of blood may make it
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milk, at least of a resembling colour : What is else observable in the figure
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of this Creature, maybe seen by the 35. Scheme.</font></p>
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</blockquote>
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<p> </p>
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<p><a href="ant.html"><img src="images/htmldemo/back.jpg" width="146" height="40" align="left" border="0"></a><a href="index.html"><img src="images/htmldemo/forward.jpg" width="196" height="40" align="right" border="0"></a></p>
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<p> </p>
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<p> </p>
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</blockquote>
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</body>
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</html>
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