And as for Snow it self, though the Learned _Gassendus_ (as
we have seen above) makes it to seem nothing else but a pure Frozen Froth,
consisting of exceedingly Minute and Thickset Bubbles; yet I see no
necessity of Admitting that, since not only by the Variously and Curiously
Figur'd Snow, that I have divers times had the Opportunity with Pleasure to
observe, but also by the Common Snow, it rather doth appear both to the
Naked Eye, and in a _Microscope_, often, if not most commonly, to consist
principally of Little Slender Icicles of several Shapes, which afford such
Numerous Lines of Light, as we have been newly Speaking of.
12. Sixthly, If you take a Diaphanous Body, as for instance a Piece of
Glass, and reduce it to Powder, the same Body, which when it was Entire,
freely Transmitted the Beams of Light, acquiring by Contusion a multitude
of Minute Surfaces, each of which is as it were a Little, but Imperfect
_Speculum_, is qualify'd to Reflect in a Confus'd manner, so many either
Beams, or Little and Singly Unobservable Images of the Lucid Body, that
from a Diaphanous it Degenerates into a White Body. And I remember, I have
for Trials sake taken Lumps of Rock Crystal, and Heating them Red hot in a
Crucible, I found according to my Expectation, that being Quench'd in Fair
water, even those that remain'd in seemingly entire Lumps exchang'd their
Translucency for Whiteness, the Ignition and Extinction having as it were
Crack'd each Lump into a multitude of Minute Bodies, and thereby given it a
great multitude of new Surfaces.
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