Ie SEMINAL VERMICULI, | Qs 
rious fhapes, and, to ufe his own words, ‘ Some- 
£ times they contract and {well into purfes, fome- 
‘times the extend and curve into a femicircle.’ 
Does not .Reaumur fay the fame of certain 
worms changing into flies, whofe head, that part 
confiantly the fame in moft animals, in this in- 
fe&t fo wonderfully changes its appearance as to 
be fometimes extended, depreffed, or contracted ; 
fometimes obtufe in one part, and acute in an- 
other.. Do not we daily fee. the ame changes 
in earth-worms, fnails, and particularly in leech- 
es, extending the body till it is long and flender, 
then contraéting till it becomes fhort and corpu- 
lent, or growing thick at one end and {mall at 
the other? What fhall we fay of the wheel ani- 
mal, that aquatic creature, which, from its won- 
derful metamorphofes, we may term the Proteus of 
the infe@t tribe? If wheel animals, earth-worms, 
leeches, fhell and naked {fnails, and fo many 
fpecies of worms (1), are not degraded from the 
rank of other animals, notwith{tanding their dif- 
ferent mutations of figure, the fame fhould be the 
cafe with the living beings in putrid femen (2). 
Two 
(1) The {author does not mean that thefe animals be- 
long to the clafs of vermes.—T. 
(2) Notwithftanding this, Leeuwenhoeck obferves, ‘ Al- 
‘ though feminal animalcula are fhaped like an eel, they can 
‘ contract their bodies fo much as to become round,’—T. 
