Il. SEMINAL VERMICULL 27 
-marfhes, ponds, and ditches, where all infe&s 
are. There we fhall fee fome in motion by con- 
ftant contorfions; as, for example, the worms 
mentioned by M. Trembley, ferving polypi for 
food : the body is continually in ofcillation (1). 
Without the trouble of feeking them in the 
country, M. de Buffon may at his leifure obferve 
it at home in the eels or ferpentuli generally 
found among vinegar. Ifa {mall portion of this 
- liquid is put in a thin glafs veflel, and expofed to 
the light when the fun fhines bright, on ex- 
amining the higher parts with a magnifier, 
where the eels are more diftinGly feen, their con. 
torfions and undulations appear inceffant ; they 
- dart from one fide to another, and continue thus 
from morning to night: in this manner do they 
perfevere feveral months, that is, to the end of 
their lives. It would feem, from thefe facts, that 
the perpetual motion of feminal vermiculi cannot 
be a fufficient reafon for proving they are not 
animals. But, farther, fuch motion is not natural 
to the vermiculi; it is forced and violent; for 
they have quitted their native abode to enter our 
atmofphere ; they experience the lively impreffion 
of the air, which hurts and injures them, and con- 
ftrains them to perpetual flight. Doubtlefs the 
air is noxious, and occafions their continual mo- 
tign, 
(3) Memoires fur Jes polypes. 
