I. ANIMALCULA OF INFUSIONS. IJ 



not fee how we can afcribe their origin to any- 

 thing but eggs, feeds, or preorganized corpufcu- 

 la, which we underfland and diflinguifli by the 

 generic name of germs. That fuch is the real 

 origin of animalcula will be diredly proved, in 

 the courfe of this Tradt, by incontrovertible fads. 

 An objection, it is true, here prefents itfelf, 

 which impartiality will not permit me to conceal. 

 Speaking of germs that develope into the loweft 

 order of animalcula, we mull admit, that thefe 

 germs have refilled the heat of boiling water, 

 and that for three quarters of an hour ; for it 

 cannot be fuppofed they have pafTed from the air 

 and infmuated themfeives through the pores of 

 glafs, after cooling of the veiTels. Such fuppo- 

 fitions, if not impoffible, are certainly very diffi- 

 cult to be comprehended. However this fhould 

 rather be called a doubt or difficulty than a real 

 objedion ; fmce, when well weighed, it mav be 

 I'educed to the confideration, whether we can 

 conceive germs of animals in nature, whofe ex- 

 treme fubtility permits their paifage through glafs, 

 or whofe conllitution allows them to withiland 

 the heat of boiling water. As to the lirfl hypo- 

 thefis, though I do not find it abfolutely repug- 

 nant, becaufe we know there are animals fo very 

 minute that their exiftence never would have 

 been credited but for the microfcope, I cannot 

 admit it for the following reafons. In the jirfi 



place.>. 



