TWO METHODS OF GENERATION gi 



fungus, and instead of changing into eggs [pupae], they 

 build around themselves a cocoon of silk, in which they 

 remain enclosed a certain number of days, when there 

 issues from each cocoon an insect that is occasionally a 

 mosquito, sometimes a little black fly with four wings, 

 and again a similar fly with an elongated abdomen, like 

 a tail. 



Now, whatever may be the efficient cause that pro- 

 duces these worms in live fungus, I, for my part, believe 

 it to be the same that creates them in living plants and 

 fruits, about which philosophers hold most varied opin- 

 ions. Fortunio Liceto, in his book on the spontaneous 

 generation of living things, being convinced that the vege- 

 tative soul, more ignoble than the other, cannot produce 

 the sentient soul, believes that the generation of worms is 

 due to the nourishment that plants take from the ground, 

 in which, he says, there are many particles of the sen- 

 tient soul communicated to it by the putrefaction 

 of animal bodies, or by their excrement; he further 

 adds that from all bodies, living or dead, many atoms 

 or corpuscles, pregnant with the sensitive principle, are 

 given off, fly about in the air, and attach themselves to 

 the bark of trees, plants, and to their leaves and fruits, 

 and subsequently cause the origin of worms. 



Pietro Gassendi thinks that worms breed in the pulp 

 of fruits owing to the insemination of the flowers by 

 flies, bees, mosquitoes, etc., their seeds afterwards de- 

 veloping with the fruit, become worms. I could adduce 

 many other opinions, but they are all similar to those 

 enumerated at the very beginning of this letter, hence 

 I deem it opportune to omit them; but if I must disclose 

 my real feeling in the matter, I would state my belief 

 that fruits, vegetables, trees and leaves become wormy 



