26 ANIMALCULA OF INFUSION!?. I, 



foon fee that renders their eggs unfit for exclu- 

 fion. But I have not only found the loweft ani- 

 malcula at that degree, but at 212° continued 

 fully half an hour. 



Thefe are the fa£ls I have deenled it neceffary 

 to colledl for eflimating the weight of the two 

 objedions to my experiment : and we readily fee 

 how difcordant they are. If, in the heat experi- 

 ment mentioned in my DiiTertation, I found no 

 motive inducing me to admit an imagined vege- 

 tative power, 1 have now the ftrongefl reafoiis 

 for rejecting it as inconfnient and chimerical. 

 And as i could not then conceal my propenfity 

 to believe, that infufion animalcula originated 

 from germs, neither do I hefitate here to fay, 

 propenfity has become perfedt convi6lion(i). If 

 the anhnalcula, in clofe veffels fubjecled to heat, 

 do no: originate from the vegetative power, I do 



not 



( I ) In the ceurfe of this work tiiere are many allufions 

 to germs. The great difpute concerning the generation 

 of animated beings feenis to refolve into the queftion. 

 Whether there is a preorganized principle continually in. 

 volved in another preorganized principle, and fo on, by 

 fucceffive involutions, from all eternity, and this, by the 

 concurrence of peculiar circumftances, expanding into the 

 complete animal ; or if it is more probable, that by the 

 intercourfe of the fexes, or otherwife, fome change or 

 creation is effefted, which gives birth to a new animai or 

 a wanting part ; Both hypothefis are attended with infinite 

 difficulty. — T. 



