118 NOTES TO THE 



(7) III this manner must the ascarides vermic- 

 iilares be fecundated, since, as we have remarked, 

 these worms are oviparous. See sect. XLII. 



(8) See § VIII and XVIII. 



(9) We ascribe to Aristotle the origin of equiv- 

 ocal generation. Eut before him, some ancient 

 philosophers, particularly Pythagoras and Anax- 

 agoraSy counting as nothing the male, female, coi- 

 tion, the eggs, and generation of beings, had al- 

 ready imagined a certain order of nature, by which 

 shapeless matter variously combined, tended to 

 produce an organized being. According to Aris- 

 tbthf there were three worms in the intestines, the 

 bi'oad worm, the earth worm, and the ascaris ; all 

 of them, agreably to this philosopher, derived their 

 ori2:in from the excrements contained in the human 

 tody. 



The theory of IlijjpocrafeSf on the origin of in- 

 testinal worms, seems to reduce itself to equivocal 

 generation ; this great man supposed that worms 

 were developed in the fetus only, having remark- 

 ed that in aduts the excrements do not remain so 

 long in the intestines, as the meconium does in the 

 bowels of the fetus. 



The system of generation, imagined by the 

 celebrated Buffon, does not differ much from that 

 of the ancient philosophers. This eminent writer 

 pretended that the primitive molecules of animals, 

 instead of being inert or dead, were deposited in 

 the bosom of nature, already organized and living, 

 and consequently more disposed to the generation 



