Observ. [LVII]. Of the Eels in Vinegar.

Of these small Eels, which are to be found in divers sorts of Vinegar, I have little to add besides their Picture, which you may find drawn in [Schem. 25.]
Fig. 3. the third Figure of the 25. Scheme: That is, they were shaped much like an Eel, save only that their nose A, (which was a little more opacous then the rest of their body) was a little sharper, and longer, in proportion to their body, and the wrigling motion of their body seem’d to be onely upwards and downwards, whereas that of Eels is onely side-wayes: They seem’d to have a more opacous part about B, which might, perhaps, be their Gills; it seeming always the same proportionate distant from their nose, from which, to the tip of their tail, C, their body seem’d to taper.

Taking several of these out of their Pond of Vinegar, by the net of a small piece of filtring Paper, and laying them on a black smooth Glass plate, I found that they could wriggle and winde their body, as much almost as a Snake, which made me doubt, whether they were a kind of Eal or Leech.

I shall add no other observations made on this minute Animal, being prevented herein by many excellent ones already publish’d by the ingenious, Doctor Power, among his Microscopical Observations, save onely that a quantity of Vinegar repleat with them being included in a small Viol, and stop’d very close from the ambient air, all the included Worms in a very short time died, as if they had been stifled.

And that their motion seems (contrary to what we may observe in the motion of all other Infects) exceeding slow. But the reason of it seems plain, for being to move to and fro after that manner which they do, by waving onely, or wrigling their body; the tenacity, or glutinousness, and the density or resistance of the fluid medium becomes so exceeding sensible to their extremely minute bodies, that it is to me indeed a greater wonder that they move them so fast as they do, then that they move them no faster. For what a vastly greater proportion have they of their superficies to their bulk, then Eels or other larger Fishes, and next, the tenacity and density of the liquor being much the same to be moved, both by the one and the other, the resistance or impediment thence arising to the motions made through it, must be almost infinitely greater to the small one then to the great. This we find experimentally verify’d in the Air, which though a medium a thousand times more rarify’d then the water, the resistance of it to motions made through it, is yet so sensible to very minute bodies, that a Down-feather (the least of whose parts seem yet bigger then these Eels, and many of them almost incomparably bigger, such as the quill and stalk) is suspended by it, and carried to and fro as if it had no weight.

Observ. [LVIII]. Of a new Property in the Air, and several other transparent Mediums nam’d Inflection, whereby very many considerable Phænomena are attempted to be solv’d, and divers other uses are hinted.

Since the Invention (and perfecting in some measure) of Telescopes, it has been observ’d by several, that the Sun and Moon neer the Horizon, are disfigur’d (losing that exactly-smooth terminating circular limb, which they are observ’d to have when situated neerer the Zenith) and are bounded with an edge every way (especially upon the right and left sides) ragged and indented like a Saw: which inequality of their limbs, I have further observ’d, not to remain always the same, but to be continually chang’d by a kind of fluctuating motion, not unlike that of the waves of the Sea, so as that part of the limb, which was but even now nick’d or indented in, is now protuberant, and will presently be sinking again; neither is this all but the whole body of the Luminaries, do in the Telescope, seem to be depress’d and flatted, the upper, and more especially the under side appearing neerer to the middle then really they are, and the right and left appearing more remote: whence the whole Area seems to be terminated by a kind of Oval. It is further observ’d, that the body, for the most part, appears red, or of some colour approaching neer unto it, as some kind of yellow; and this I have always mark’d, that the more the limb is flatted or ovalled, the more red does the body appear, though not always the contrary. It is further observable, that both fix’d Stars and Planets, the neerer they appear to the Horizon, the more red and dull they look, and the more they are observ’d to twinkle; in so much, that I have seen the Dog-starr to vibrate so strong and bright a radiation of light, as almost to dazle my eyes, and presently, almost to disappear. It is also observable, that those bright scintillations neer the Horizon, are not by much so quick and sudden in their consecutions of one another, as the nimbler twinklings of Stars neerer the Zenith. This is also notable, that the Starrs neer the Horizon, are twinkled with several colours; so as sometimes to appear red, sometimes more yellow, and sometimes blue, and this when the Starr is a pretty way elevated above the Horizon. I have further, very often seen some of the small Starrs of the fifth or sixth magnitude, at certain times to disappear for a small moment of time, and again appear more conspicuous, and with a greater luster. I have several times, with my naked eye, seen many smaller Starrs, such as may be call’d of the seventh or eighth magnitude to appear for a short space, and then vanish, which, by directing a small Telescope towards that part they appear’d and disappear’d in; I could presently find to be indeed small Starrs so situate, as I had seen them with my naked eye, and to appear twinkling like the ordinary visible Stars; nay, in examining some very notable parts of the Heaven, with a three foot Tube, me thought I now and then, in several parts of the constellation, could perceive little twinklings of Starrs, making a very short kind of apparition, and presently vanishing, but noting diligently the places where they thus seem’d to play at boe-peep, I made use of a very good twelve foot Tube, and with that it was not uneasie to see those, and several other degrees of smaller Starrs, and some smaller yet, that seem’d again to appear and disappear, and these also by giving the same Object-glass a much bigger aperture, I could plainly and constantly see appear in their former places; so that I have observ’d some twelve several magnitudes of Starrs less then those of the six magnitudes commonly recounted in the Globes.

It has been observ’d and confirm’d by the accuratest Observations of the best of our modern Astronomers, that all the Luminous bodies appear above the Horizon, when they really are below it. So that the Sun and Moon have both been seen above the Horizon, whil’st the Moon has been in an Eclipse. I shall not here instance in the great refractions, that the tops of high mountains, seen at a distance, have been found to have; all which seem to argue the Horizontal refraction, much greater then it is hitherto generally believ’d.