;f. ANIMALCULA OF INFUSIONS. I 7 



ing their diffolution by heat it muft be extricated, 

 and in this way render the portion included more 

 elaftic. I do not deny, however, that this encreaf- 

 ed elafticity may partly arife from an elaflic fluid, 

 difcovered in vegetables, of a nature different 

 from the atmofpherical fluid. 



To return to my microfcopic examination of 

 the fealed infufions. It gave me great furprife ' 



to fee heat, fo very far inferior to that mentioned 

 in the preceding chapter, had obftrufted the 

 origin of our animalcula. Some infufions were 

 an abfolute defart, and others reduced to fuch 

 poverty as only to afford fo many wandering 

 animalcula like points, and hardly perceptible (i). 

 Let the reader figure two lakes ; in one are 

 iifhes of every fize, from a whale down to the 

 fmallefl ; while in the other are a few mi- 

 nute fifhes, not larger than ants, and he will 

 have a fenfible idea of the animals appearing in 

 the open infufions and thofe that appeared in 

 the clofe. I was particularly furprifed how the 

 heat of half a minute had been as injurious as 

 the heat of two minutes. Thofe inexprellibly 

 Vol. L B minute 



(t) Manas Ter7no. yixi\^\.'i.'s., Anlmalrtda Infuforia, p. i. 

 Hauniae, 1786. — This is a fyftematic work on the animal- 

 cula of infuHons, v/here the indefatigable author has d.t'i- 

 cribed 37S fpecies of thefe fmgular beinsrs. The reader 

 will find a number of fynonyms, preceding each defcrip- ^f^fi 

 tJon, if the animalcula has come under the view of other S'^^^^-rz 

 authors.— -T, ^ Alr^ 



