70 ANIMALS AND VEGETABLES III, 
contain fourteen or fifteen pounds of water (1). 
It was not neceffary to break the veffels for ex- 
amining the infufions, but fufficient to caufe the 
included liquid flow to a dry part of the veffel ; 
and, after it had flowed back, to obferve the part 
that had been wet, with a powerful magnifier, 
The glafs was {fo tranfparent, that animalcula, if 
any were produced, could be feen fwimming 
in the thin pellicle adhering to the internal fur- 
face of the vafe. 
My experiments were made towards the end 
of fpring ; and it was not long before animalcula 
began to inhabit the veflels, and inhabit the 
whole. The periods of their increafe, diminu- 
tion, and deftruction, were the fame as in the 
open air. 
On repeating the fame experiment often with 
different feeds, all afforded animalcula. One 
difference was to be remarked. The number 
was never fo prodigioufly great which I have ob- 
ferved before. One mode by which thefe ani- 
mals propagate is, the natural divifion of the bo- 
dy ; and this divifion alfo fucceeds in confined air. 
Applying the magnifier to the fide of the veffel, I 
fometimes faw them dividing through the middle ; 
fo that the parts were connected by a fhort fila- 
ment ; others appeared like two minute elongated 
fpheres, 
(1) Twelve ounces in the pound. 
