DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68888#0239
l£o MiCROGRAPHIA.
much also for the ornament and beauty of it, as will be most evident to
any one that (hall attentively consider the various kinds of cloathings
wherewith most creatures are by Nature inverted and cover’d. Thus I
have obferved, that the hair or furr of those Northern white Bears that
inhabite the colder Regions, is exceeding thick and warm : the like have
I obferv’d of the hair of a Greenland Deer, which being brought alive to
had the opportunity of viewing 5 its hair was so exceeding thick,
long and sort, that I could hardly with my hand, gralp or take hold of
hisskin, anditfeem’dso exceeding warm, as I had never met with any
before. And asfortheornamentative ufe of them, it is most evident in a
multitude of creatures,not onely for colour, as the Leopards, Cats,Rhein
Deer, &c. but for the (hape, as in Horfes manes, Cats beards,and feveral
other of the greater sort of terrestrial Animals, but is much more conlpi-
cuous, in the Vestments of Fisties, Birds, Infers, of which Istiall by and
by give some Instances.
As for the (kin, the Microscope discovers as great a disserence between
the texture of those several kinds of Animals, as it does between their
hairs 5 but all that I have yet taken notice of, when tann’d or dress’d, are
of a Spongie nature, and seem to be constituted of an infinite company
offtnall sibres or hairs, which look not unlike a heap of Tow or
Okum 5 every of which sibres seem to have been some part of a Muscle,
and probably, whisstjthe Animal was alive, might have its distinft functi-
on, and ferve for the contraction and relaxation of the skin, and for the
stretching and flirinking of it this or that way.
And indeed, without soch a kind of texture as this, which is very like
that of Spunky it would seem very strange, how any body so strong as the
skin of an Animal usoally is, and so close as it teems, whil’st the Animal is
living, stiould be able to fafser so great an extension any ways, without at
all hurting or dilacerating any part of it. But,since we are inform’d by the
Jtficrssjcope, that it consists of a great many sinall filaments, which are im-
plicated, or intangled one within another, al most no otherwiso then the
hairs in a lock of Wool, or the flakes in a heap of Tow, though not alto-
gether so loose 5 but the filaments are here and there twisted,as twere,or
inter woven,a nd here and there they join and unite with one another,so as
indeed the whole (kin feems to be but one piece,we need not much won-
derrAnd though thefe sibres appear not through a exadly joint-
ed and contex’d,as in Sponge 5 yet,as I formerly hinted, I am apt to think,
that could we find some way of diicovering the texture of it, whil’st it in-
verts the living Animator had some very easie way of feparating the pulp
or intercurrent juices, suchas in all probability fill thofe Interstitia, with-
out dilacerating, brusing, or otherwife spoiling the texture of it (as it
feems to be very much by the ways os tanning and dresiing now us’d) we
might dilcover a much more curious texture then I have hitherto been
able to find 5 perhaps,somewhat like that ofSponges.
That of chamoise Leather is indeed very much like that of Spunky fe ve
onely that the silaments feem nothing neer so even and round, nor alto-
gether so small, nor has it so curious joints as i’fwwA.has, some of which I
have
much also for the ornament and beauty of it, as will be most evident to
any one that (hall attentively consider the various kinds of cloathings
wherewith most creatures are by Nature inverted and cover’d. Thus I
have obferved, that the hair or furr of those Northern white Bears that
inhabite the colder Regions, is exceeding thick and warm : the like have
I obferv’d of the hair of a Greenland Deer, which being brought alive to
had the opportunity of viewing 5 its hair was so exceeding thick,
long and sort, that I could hardly with my hand, gralp or take hold of
hisskin, anditfeem’dso exceeding warm, as I had never met with any
before. And asfortheornamentative ufe of them, it is most evident in a
multitude of creatures,not onely for colour, as the Leopards, Cats,Rhein
Deer, &c. but for the (hape, as in Horfes manes, Cats beards,and feveral
other of the greater sort of terrestrial Animals, but is much more conlpi-
cuous, in the Vestments of Fisties, Birds, Infers, of which Istiall by and
by give some Instances.
As for the (kin, the Microscope discovers as great a disserence between
the texture of those several kinds of Animals, as it does between their
hairs 5 but all that I have yet taken notice of, when tann’d or dress’d, are
of a Spongie nature, and seem to be constituted of an infinite company
offtnall sibres or hairs, which look not unlike a heap of Tow or
Okum 5 every of which sibres seem to have been some part of a Muscle,
and probably, whisstjthe Animal was alive, might have its distinft functi-
on, and ferve for the contraction and relaxation of the skin, and for the
stretching and flirinking of it this or that way.
And indeed, without soch a kind of texture as this, which is very like
that of Spunky it would seem very strange, how any body so strong as the
skin of an Animal usoally is, and so close as it teems, whil’st the Animal is
living, stiould be able to fafser so great an extension any ways, without at
all hurting or dilacerating any part of it. But,since we are inform’d by the
Jtficrssjcope, that it consists of a great many sinall filaments, which are im-
plicated, or intangled one within another, al most no otherwiso then the
hairs in a lock of Wool, or the flakes in a heap of Tow, though not alto-
gether so loose 5 but the filaments are here and there twisted,as twere,or
inter woven,a nd here and there they join and unite with one another,so as
indeed the whole (kin feems to be but one piece,we need not much won-
derrAnd though thefe sibres appear not through a exadly joint-
ed and contex’d,as in Sponge 5 yet,as I formerly hinted, I am apt to think,
that could we find some way of diicovering the texture of it, whil’st it in-
verts the living Animator had some very easie way of feparating the pulp
or intercurrent juices, suchas in all probability fill thofe Interstitia, with-
out dilacerating, brusing, or otherwife spoiling the texture of it (as it
feems to be very much by the ways os tanning and dresiing now us’d) we
might dilcover a much more curious texture then I have hitherto been
able to find 5 perhaps,somewhat like that ofSponges.
That of chamoise Leather is indeed very much like that of Spunky fe ve
onely that the silaments feem nothing neer so even and round, nor alto-
gether so small, nor has it so curious joints as i’fwwA.has, some of which I
have