After I had thus rubb'd it for a pretty while, I felt very little or no
pain, in so much that I doubted, whether it were the true Couhage; but
whil'st I was considering; I found the Down begin to make my hand itch, and
in some places to smart again, much like the stinging of a Flea or Gnat,
and this continued a pretty while, so that by degrees I found my skin to be
swell'd with little red pustules, and to look as if it had been itchie. But
suffering it without rubbing or scratching, the itching tickling pain
quickly grew languid, and within an hour I felt nothing at all, and the
little _protuberancies_ were vanish'd.
The cause of which odd _Phaenomenon_, I suppose to be much the same with
that of the stinging of a Nettle, for by the _Microscope_, I discover'd
this Down to consist of a multitude of small and slender conical bodies,
much resembling Needles or Bodkins, such as are represented by AB. CD. EF.
of the first Figure of the XVI. _Scheme_; that their ends AAA, were very
sharp, and the substance of them stiff and hard, much like the substance of
several kinds of Thorns and crooks growing on Trees. And though they
appear'd very cleer and transparent, yet I could not perceive whether they
were hollow or not, but to me they appear'd like solid transparent bodies,
without any cavity in them; whether, though they might not be a kind of
Cane, fill'd with some transparent liquor which was hardned (because the
Cod which I had was very dry) I was not able to examine.
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