rh SEMINAL VERMICULT. 37 
_farprifingly confirms them in it. For what can 
more fatisfaGtorily prove it than feeing languor 
become more immediate as the celd is more in- 
tenfe ; feeing the vermiculi revive when brought 
to heat; and to witnefs their a€tual death, when 
the cold is of a greater degree? Such is the 
ftate of moft {mall animals, deprived of aétion 
and rendered torpid by cold ; -with heat, they re- 
cover life and motion, and yield under cold ftill 
more intenfe. 
How can thefe facts, multiplied, repeated, uni- 
form, confequently certain and incontrovertible, 
fubfift with the affertions of Buffon, who fup- 
pofes cold does not impede the motion of feminal 
vermiculi? Inftead of negativing this illuftrious 
¥renchman’s affirmation, I think there is a me- 
thod of canciliating our obfervations. We have 
already remarked the error which occafioned his 
confounding vermiculi with animalcula, and afcrib- 
ing to the former the properties pertaining to the 
latter only. It is very likely, that the effect of 
cold he has obferved on vermiculi is alfo a con- 
fequence of the fame miftake; and this is the 
more probable as it is feen in putredinous fe- 
minal animalcula. Nor do the animalcula of in- 
fufions alone, at leaft many fpecies, withftand 
gold of a great degree ; for thofe found in putrid 
femen are undoubtedly of that number. Several 
experiments convince me of it; but:to avoid the 
: Si Ruse . enn 
