DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68888#0142
88 Micrographia.
tive bodies ; and last of all, of Animate ones, that seeming to be the
highest step of natural knowledge that the mind of man is capable o£
Observ. XIV. Ossever al tyndes of srozen Figures.
IHave very often in a Morning, when there has been a great hoar-srost,
with an indisferently magnifying Microfcope, obferv’d the small stiri<ey
or Crystalline beard, which then usually covers the face of most bodies
that lie open to the cold air, and found them to be generally Hexangular
prismatical bodies, much like the long Crystals of Salt-pet er, saveonely
that the ends os them were differing: for whereas thofe of Nitre are for
the most part pyramidal^ being terminated either in a point or edge 5
- thefe of Frost were hollow, and the cavity in some feem’d pretty deep,
and this cavity was the more plainly to be fcen, because usually one or
other of the six parallelogram sides was wanting, or at least much shortcr
then the rest.
But this was onely the Figure of the Bearded hoar-srojl 5 and as for the
particles of other kinds of hoar-srosss^ they seem’d for the most part irre-
gular, or of no certain (Figure. Nay, the parts of those curious branch-
ings, or vortices, that usually in cold weather tarnish the surface of
Glass, appear through the Microfcope very rude and unshapen, as do
most other kinds of srozen Figures, which to the naked eye seem exceed-
ing neat and curious, such as the Figures of Snow, frozen "Urine, Hail,
several Figures frozen in common Water,€^c. Some Observations of each
os which I shall hereunto annex, because if well consider’d and ex-
amind, they may, perhaps, prove very instrustive for the finding out of
what I have endeavoured in the preceding Obfervation to shew, to be
(next the Globular Figure which is caus’d by congruity, as I hope I have
made probable in the fixth Observation) the most simple and plain opera-
tion of Nature, of which, notwithstanding we are yet ignorant.
I.
Several Observabks in the six-branched Figures form'd*an the fur-
sace of Urine by sreezing.
Schem. & 1 The Figures were all frozen almost even with the surface of the
1 Vrine in the Vessel, but the bigger stems were a little prominent above
that surface, and the parts of thole stems which were nearest the center
{a) werebiggest above the surface.
2 I have obfcrv’d several kinds of these Figures, some smaller, no big-
ger then a Two-pence, others lb bigg, that I have by measure found one
of its stems or branches above four foot long j and os these, some were
pretty round, having all their branches pretty neer alike x other os them
were more extended towards one side, as usually thofe very large ones
z ■ were
tive bodies ; and last of all, of Animate ones, that seeming to be the
highest step of natural knowledge that the mind of man is capable o£
Observ. XIV. Ossever al tyndes of srozen Figures.
IHave very often in a Morning, when there has been a great hoar-srost,
with an indisferently magnifying Microfcope, obferv’d the small stiri<ey
or Crystalline beard, which then usually covers the face of most bodies
that lie open to the cold air, and found them to be generally Hexangular
prismatical bodies, much like the long Crystals of Salt-pet er, saveonely
that the ends os them were differing: for whereas thofe of Nitre are for
the most part pyramidal^ being terminated either in a point or edge 5
- thefe of Frost were hollow, and the cavity in some feem’d pretty deep,
and this cavity was the more plainly to be fcen, because usually one or
other of the six parallelogram sides was wanting, or at least much shortcr
then the rest.
But this was onely the Figure of the Bearded hoar-srojl 5 and as for the
particles of other kinds of hoar-srosss^ they seem’d for the most part irre-
gular, or of no certain (Figure. Nay, the parts of those curious branch-
ings, or vortices, that usually in cold weather tarnish the surface of
Glass, appear through the Microfcope very rude and unshapen, as do
most other kinds of srozen Figures, which to the naked eye seem exceed-
ing neat and curious, such as the Figures of Snow, frozen "Urine, Hail,
several Figures frozen in common Water,€^c. Some Observations of each
os which I shall hereunto annex, because if well consider’d and ex-
amind, they may, perhaps, prove very instrustive for the finding out of
what I have endeavoured in the preceding Obfervation to shew, to be
(next the Globular Figure which is caus’d by congruity, as I hope I have
made probable in the fixth Observation) the most simple and plain opera-
tion of Nature, of which, notwithstanding we are yet ignorant.
I.
Several Observabks in the six-branched Figures form'd*an the fur-
sace of Urine by sreezing.
Schem. & 1 The Figures were all frozen almost even with the surface of the
1 Vrine in the Vessel, but the bigger stems were a little prominent above
that surface, and the parts of thole stems which were nearest the center
{a) werebiggest above the surface.
2 I have obfcrv’d several kinds of these Figures, some smaller, no big-
ger then a Two-pence, others lb bigg, that I have by measure found one
of its stems or branches above four foot long j and os these, some were
pretty round, having all their branches pretty neer alike x other os them
were more extended towards one side, as usually thofe very large ones
z ■ were