(• 31. ) 



Moreover, wliile I was exaniiniiig tlie granary before inentioned, 

 I faw many very minute animalcules *, no bigger than grains of 

 fund, creeping up the walls. Some of thefe I brought liome with 

 me in glafles, and I obferved them to couple together, and to lay ex- 

 ceffively minute eggs, which eggs, after i'ome time, produced animal- 

 cules formed like the parents. By this it appears that thefe little crea- 

 tures propagate their like, without undergoing any fuch change as 

 is obferved in fleas, moths, flies, and many otlier infe^ls : I think, 

 however, it is fully proved, that no living creature is produced from 

 corruption or putrefa6lion. 



Indeed, can any man in liis fobcr fenfes imagine, that the moth, 

 of which I have given the defcription, which is fitly provided by 

 nature with the means to ])ropagate its fpecies, furniflied with eyes 

 cxquifitely formed, with horns, with tufts of feathers on its iiead, with 

 wings covered with fuch multitudes of feathers, all of different 

 Ihapes, and thefe exa6lly covering the wings in every part ; can this 

 moth, I fay, adorned with lo many beauties, be produced from cor- 

 ruption ? For, in a word, in this little creature, contemptible as it 

 feems to us, there Ihine forth fo much perfe6lion and Ikill in the for- 

 mation, as to exceed what we obferve in larger animals. 



* Mr. Leeuwenhoek has not given any figure of thefe animalcules, but they feem to be 

 a fpecies of mite; the tranflator has obferved fomeofthe like kind in bran. 





