^ ( 85 ) 



I faw but a very few of them, and after about thirty hours from 

 tlie time of their being firft excluded from the eggs, I only faw 

 one of thefe young animalcules, which was adhering to the glafs, 

 and feemed a little increafed in fize. The next day I could not per- 

 ceive one of thefe young animalcules, upon which I began to think 

 that perhaps the parent, for want of other food, might have de- 

 voured its own offspring. 



Not content with the preceding obfervations, I afterwards, at 

 three feveral times, caught fome of thefe animalcules which had 

 eggs faftened to their bodies, and placed each of them in dill:inct 

 glafles, that fo I might be better fatisfied as to the nature of thele 

 creatures. 



Among thefe I had one animalcule much larger than the reH, 

 and an extraordinary number of eggs adhering to it. As foon as 

 this animalcule had let go the eggs, and the young ones excluded 

 from them were fwimming in the water, I killed the parent ; that 

 by this means- 1 might the more certainly determine in what man- 

 ner thefe creatures acquired their growth and increafe ; but my 

 glafs happening to be leaky^ and the water efcaping out of it, I 

 was difappointed. 



Moreover, I had taken and placed apart another animalcule, 

 half the fize of the preceding one, which neverthelefs had eggs 

 fixed to its body, though not a fourth part fo many in number as 

 thofe on the former one. After two or three days, thefe eggs were 

 fo far altered, that I judged the yoimg ones would foon iifue from 

 them; but the next day the . animalcule was dead, and all the 

 lliells of the eggs were adhering to its body, though the young ones 

 produced from them were fwimming about in the water. 



It is well known, that all the fiih in our fea or rivers which lay 

 eggs or fpawn, and are therefore called oviparous, are, when a 

 year old, able to propagate their kind, being then provided with 

 roes or eggs ; and that thefe eggs are, llngly taken, as large in the 

 fmallett filh as in the largefl of the fame Ipecies ; fo that the dif- 

 ference in the fize of the roes proceeds only from the greater nuni?- 



