Observ. XVIII. Of the Schematisme of Texture of Cork, and of the Cells and Pores of some other such frothy Bodies. –OR– Biology Begins.
January 27, 2011
Unbeknownst to Hooke, it was a short description and plain drawing half-way through the book that would eventually revolutionize our understanding of life itself.
“I Took a good clear piece of Cork, and with a Pen-knife sharpen’d as keen as a Razor, I cut a piece of it off, and thereby left the surface of it exceeding smooth, then examining it very diligently with a Microscope , me thought I could perceive it to appear a little porous…I with the same sharp Pen-knife, cut off from the former smooth surface an exceeding thing piece of it, and placing it on a black object Plate, because it was it self a white body, and the light on it with a deep plano-convex Glass, I could exceeding plainly perceive it to be all perforated and porous, much like a Honey-comb, but that the pores of it were not regular…these pores, or cells, were not very deep, but consisted of a great many little Boxes, separated out of on continued long pore, by certain Diaphragms”
Hooke goes on to conjecture that these airtight pores are responsible for the impermeability of the cork to water and air, while allowing the plasticity of shape that made Cork invaluable as a means of securing the mouths of bottles. He also mentions that he has observed similar structures in “an Elder, or almost any other tree…hollow stalks of several other Vegetables: as of Fennel, Carrets…Fearn, some kinds of Reeds, &c”.
Hooke didn’t even begin to imagine how this observation would change our understanding of the physical world, but he did recognize that he has discovered something utterly new.
“I…discern’d these (which were indeed the first microscopical pores I ever saw, and perhaps, that were ever seen, for I had not met with any Writer or Person, that had made any mention of them before this), but me thought I had…the discovery of them”
Hooke, R. Micrographia. (1665) 112-116.
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