( 205 ) 



I took a leaf on which were only two large ones, and two or 

 three young ones, fuppollng that the full grown ones had not yet 

 brought forth many young ; one of thefe I opened, in order, if 

 poffible, to compute the number of young I might take out of it, 

 and I thought that the young which I could dillinguilh, and thofe 

 particles which I confidered to be young ones yet unformed, ex- 

 ceeded the number of feventy. 



At the fame time, I law, among many others, fix Animalcules 

 changed into flies, in all which I found, upon opening them, a great 

 number of Animalcviles, and, among the reft, one that was upon the 

 point of being voided by the parent; and 1 not only faw it move, 

 but I could fee the inteftines within it move about as vehemently as 

 if it had been a parcel of living creatures. 



But what feemed to me the moll extraordinary of all my obferva- 

 tions was this : that in every one of the Animalcules which I opened,, 

 thc-ugh but of a middling fize, I found young ones, and alfo upon 

 opening fome whofc bodies were very flender, and which, for that 

 reafon, I thought might be males, yet among thefe and all others 

 of the Animalcules, I have been defcribing under this head, I could 

 not find any that could be deemed males. 



Farther, I opened fome Animalcules, which were about an eighth 

 part the fize of the parent ones, and I took out of them a great 

 number of round and pellucid particles, which, I doubted not, 

 would in time have become perfedl young ones ; fome of the 

 largeft of thefe contained fome green particles, and moreover, they 

 were of different fizes, the fmalleft of them appearing no larger 

 through the microfcope than a grain of fand viewed by the 

 naked eye. 



I afterwards opened fome Animalcules twenty-four times fmaller 

 than the full grown ones, and in them I alfo faw fome of thofe 

 round particles, which I concluded would in time become young 

 ones ; and fi.nally, I opened one, which was not much larger than 



