iH stMINAL VERMICULI. 17 
found the vermiculi entire though dead; which 
would have demonftrated, that the animals he 
then faw in motion could not be feminal vermi- 
euli. 
But alt I Have hitherto faid receives greater 
weight from the comparifon that has been made 
between the vermiculi and animalcula of putrid 
femen. In another work, I have fhewn that a 
éonfiderable part of infufion animalcula appear 
by the microfcope an aggregate of minute vefi- 
cles, of different fizes, and more or fewer inveft- 
ed by a common pellicle, forming the exterior 
of the animal; that the pellicle amd its veficles are 
loft and deftroyed when the animalcula die; and 
if; while alive; they are wet with urine or vinegar, 
the body is deftroyed and reduced to nothing (1). 
All thefe things are amply verified in the putre- 
dinous animalcula of femen; but, with the ut- 
moft care and attention, I have never been able 
‘to fee any thing like it in feminal vermiculi. The 
texture of the body and tail is not vafcular; it 
is uniformly homogeneous, connetted, equally 
- folid, and compa&. For this reafon perhaps the 
dead vermiculi fall to the bottom of the feminal 
fluid, and the infufion animalcula commouly 
fwim. The vermiculi likewife continue long en- 
tire after death; urine, vinegar, even boiling, 
cannot diffolve or decompofe their fubftance. 
Vou. Il. B From 
(1) Saggio di Oflervazioni Microfcopiche. 
