U SEMINAL VERMICULI. 49 
This chapter fhall be terminated with fome re- 
fleGtions equally curious and nice, refpecting our 
vermiculi. They were communicated to me ut 
a letter from M. Bonnet ; and the reader cannot 
judge better of their import than by having them 
beforehim. After informing me of Linnzus’ fin- 
gular opinion, that vermiculi are inert corpufcula 
floating in the femen, he adds, ‘ I return to the 
‘feminal vermiculi, whofe exiftence cannot be 
‘doubted. Of all animalcula in fluids they are 
‘ thofe that have excited my curiofity moft. ‘The 
* element in which they live, the place of their 
* abode, their figure, motion, fecret properties, 
all, in a word, fhould intereft us in fo fingular 
* a kind of animated beings. How are they form- 
‘ed there, how propagated, developed, or fed ; 
* and what is their motion? What becomes of 
‘them when the liquid they inhabit is returned 
‘ by the veflels, and mixed with the blood? Why 
‘do they appear only at the age of puberty, or 
* where did they exift before this period? Do 
‘ they ferve no purpofe but to people that fluid, 
‘where they are fo largely difperled ? How far 
* are we from being able to anfwer moft of thefe 
* queftions ? and how probable is it, that future 
Sages will be almoft as ignorant of the whole as 
‘our own: If, as I have faid, in the Pa/lingenefe, 
~* our world has been chiefly made for intelli- 
Vou. I, D : otegialbas “S gence 
