ast appearance of pores or holes in it; and
this I try'd with the greatest care I was able, cutting many of them with a
very sharp Razor, so that they appear'd, even in the Glass, to have a
pretty smooth surface, but somewhat waved by the sawing to and fro of the
Razor, as is visible in the end of the _Prismatical_ body A of the same
Figure; and then making trials with causing the light to be cast on them
all the various ways I could think of, that was likely to make the pores
appear, if there had been any, I was not able to discover any.
Next, the Figure of the Brisles was very various, neither perfectly round,
nor sharp edg'd, but _Prismatical_, with divers sides, and round angles, as
appears in the Figure A. The bending of them in any part where they before
appear'd cleer, would all flaw them, and make them look white.
The Mustacheos of a Cat (part of one of which is represented by the short
_Cylinder_ B of the same Figure) seem'd to have, all of them that I
observ'd, a large pith in the middle, like the pith of an Elder, whose
texture was so close, that I was not able to discover the least sign of
pores; and those parts which seem to be pores, as they appear'd in one
position to the light, in another I could find a manifest reflection to be
cast from them.
This I instance in, to hint that it is not safe to conclude any thing to be
positively this or that, though it appear never so plain and likely when
look'd on with a _Microscope_ in one posture, before the same be examin'd
by placing it in several other positions.
And this I take to be the reason why many have believed and asserted the
Hairs of a man's head to be hollow, and like so many small pipes perforated
from end to end.
Now, though I grant that by an _Analogie_ one may suppose them so, and from
the _Polonian_ disease one may believe them such, yet I think we have not
the least encouragement to either from the _Microscope_, much less
positively to assert them such. And perhaps the very essence of the _Plica
Polonica_ may be the hairs growing hollow, and of an unnatural
constitution.
And as for the _Analogie_, though I am apt enough to think that the hairs
of several Animals may be perforated somewhat like a Cane, or at least have
a kind of pith in them, first, because they seem as 'twere a kind of
Vegetable growing on an Animal, which growing, they say, remains a long
while after the Animal is dead, and therefore should like other Vegetables
have
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