8  SEMINAL® VERMICULIY Th 
the former? Perufing Haller’s Phyfiology again, 
JT found he was of this opinion; nay, that he 
fufpected M. de Buffom had. never feen the fper- 
matic vermiculi. ‘ Porro Buffonius, ut cum il- 
‘ luftris viri venia dicam, omnino non videtur 
* vermiculos feminales vidifle. Diuturnitas enim 
* vite, quam fuis corpufculis tribuit, oftendit non 
* effle noftra animalcula (id eft fpermatica) quibus 
‘ brevis, et paucarum horarum vita eft.’ And in 
another part of the fame volume, he adds, ¢ Ea 
‘ enim experimenta (id eft Buffonii) manifefto dw- 
‘ cunt.ad animalia putredinofa(1).’? However, I 
thought of afcertaining this fact, by obferving 
what fucceflively happened to.femen long a 
ed in a watch-glafs. huks A® 
My firft experiments were on thie Fal &. 
‘minal fluid (2). The vermiculi died’ in three 
hours and a half, and were precipitated to the 
bottom of the glafs. On the fixth day, the fluid 
began to exhale a foetid difagreeable odour: but 
no animated being was perceptible. The bo- 
dies. of the vermiculi were feen, apparently very 
entire, in {ome drops taken from the bottom of 
the glafs, The feventh-and eighth days, there 
was no change; but the. foetor increafed. On 
the ninth, I difcovered very: minute, animalcula,. 
) Tom.7. 
2) 11 February, The Thermometer 45°. 
