28 SEMINAL VERMICULI. Il. 
its author, that is, on a falfe hypothefis. For, 
with refpect to infufions, we have feen that there 
is nothing in them to indicate organic molecules, 
as the maving corpufcula there are aétually ani- 
mals, fome viviparous, others oviparous, and as 
thofe, multiplying by divifion, do not produce 
that progreffion of fucceflive diminution which 
Buffon imagined he faw, but the f{malleft grow 
Jarger like other animals. 
Having found the living putredinous beings of 
femen to be exactly of the fame kind as thofe of 
infufions, by a direct and conclufive confequence 
it follows, that they could never be confounded 
with organic molecules; and we may fay the 
fame of feminal vermiculi, whofe animality has 
been fufficiently proved by the facts related in 
this treatife, and thofe engrofled in the fubfe- 
quent chapter. 
M. de Buffon’s theory is thus completely def- 
troyed. Such is too often the fate of the hypo- 
thefes of ardent and fanciful philofophers, firft 
invented and then fought for in nature. This 
ingenious naturalift, diffatisfied with the theories 
of generation already framed, and hurried on by 
his tafte for novelty, imagines an animated mat- 
ter in bodies, original, incorruptible, and always 
active, which he {pecioufly denominates organic 
molecules. Making them aét according to cer- 
tajn terms, and with a certain effect, he thinks 
he 
