( cl ) 



informed by Hunters, that they have found them in Stags, ^vlId 

 Boars, and other kinds of game, both great and fmaU. I myfelf 

 Iiave leen them frequently in Calves, and once in a young Bul- 

 lock. Sheep are infcfled by them even from tiie vomb of the 

 parent, and Lambs of a ^ear old and upwards, as well as aged 

 Sheep. 



As to the production and propagation of thefe animalcules, 

 I confidcr as idle talcs, what {'ome writers aflert, of their being ge- 

 nerated by putrefac^tion or decayed fubdances, immoderate wet 

 or heats, and other equally feniclei's imaginations ; and I lay it 

 down as a certain truth, that thefe, as well as all other fmall 

 living creatures, are produced from their like, by the means of 

 eggs, feed, or fpawn, according to the nature implanted in them 

 at their iirft creation. And it I'eems to me moll probable, that 

 thefe animals, with their eggs, find their way into the bodies of 

 Sheep, (and which we may fuppofe to be the cafe alfo witli other 

 infedls and their eggs,) in the following manner ; namely, that in 

 wet fummers and autumns thefe animalcules, which are originally 

 bred on the furface of the earth, may, with the water in which 

 they live, be i'wallowed by the Sheep ; and I have been confirmed 

 in this opinion by converfing with Countrymen, Huntfmen, and 

 Butchers, on the I'ubjcdl. But I am not of the opinion that 

 after being fwallo\\ed, they do tiiemfelves force their way 

 out of the Itomach and bowels into the gall-bladder ; I rather 

 conclude, from realbn and my own experience,* that their fpawn 

 or eggs may, with the oily part of the chyle in the infefted beaft 



* It muft fsein ftrange to us that a creature, originally bred in the water, (hould find a 

 proper receptacle for its life and growth in the warm bowels of an animal ; and yet we 

 d.iily fee leeches, which are alfo bred in the water, and perfedly cold themfelves, fuck the 

 warm blood of the human fpecies with an avidity fcarcely to be paralleled. But, as 

 Mr, Leeuwenhoek, in one part of his works obfcrves, we may wonder at thefe operatioiis 

 of Nature, but admiration, and nothing more, will be the refult of our cogitations. 



