& SEMINAL VERMICULIe ue 
deftroy the contexture of moft infufion animal- 
cula, cannot, before a confiderable time, affect 
the tail or body of our vermiculi. We fhould, 
therefore, have to deny the exiftence of all thefe 
facts to agree with M. de Buffom concerning the 
contraction. and difappearance of the tails.. That 
my obfervations may have greater weight in efta-. 
blifhing the certainty and continuance of thefe 
tails, F fhalk cite the authority of the great phy- 
fiologift of Berne: * Nunc quod caudas attinet, 
* perpetuam particulam vermiculi fpermatici, ea 
* nimis certos,, et fide digniffimos habent teftes, 
* quibus. meum fuffragium per experimenta. na- 
* tum. addidifle liceat (1 ).” 
Vhe other phenomena of f{permatie vermiculé,, 
obferved by M. de Buffon, fuch as an increafed 
activity acquired with time, their change of fhape,. 
diminution, divifion. and duration of* life from 
four to eight days, feemed to me no lefs parado- 
xical, particularly on attending to the repeated ob- 
fervations mentioned in the firft chapter, and re- 
calling thofe of the moft acute Leeuwenhoeck. 
M. de Buffon’s acknowledged merit at the fame 
time preverited me from cenfidering this affem- 
blage of facts as chimerical ; and unable to afcribe 
it to the fault of his microfcopes alone, for, 
however defective they might be, they could net 
occafion. 
(1) Haller, Phyfiologia, T. 7. 
