8th january 2005
pismire

ant.jpg

I took the creature I had design'd to delineate, and put it into a drop of very well rectified spirit of Wine, this I found would presently dispatch, as it were, the Animal, and being taken out of it, and lay'd on a paper, the spirit of Wine would immediately fly away, and leave the Animal dry, in its natural posture, or at least in a constitution that it might easily with a pin be plac'd, in what posture you desired to draw it, and the limbs would so remain without either moving or shriveling.
And thus I dealt with this Ant, which I have here delineated, which was one of many of a very large kind, that inhabited under the Roots of a Tree, from whence they would sally out in great parties, and make most grievous havock of the Flowers and Fruits in the ambient Garden, and return back again very expertly, by the same wayes and paths they went.

- Robert Hooke, Micrographia

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