^^ ' ANIMALCULA OF INFUSION?. ^ 



pared to feeds, fmce, like them, after becoming 

 dry, and remaining long in that ftate, they are 

 excluded on application of moifture. Such are 

 • thofe of certain pennated polypi, difcovered by 

 M. Trembley(i). Why may not the germs of 

 the lowefh clafs of animalcula be of this kind ? 

 The poffibiiity becomes probability, and this ad- 

 vances a ftep ftrll farther, by our finding that the 

 germs or ovula of fimilar races of infufion ani- 

 malcula, poffefs the qualities nearly of vegetable 

 feeds and the Trembleyan polypi. 



If the example of vegetable feeds refifting boil- 

 ing heat would induce us to believe that the 

 germs of our animalcula might do the fame, the 

 fuppofition is fmgularly ftrengthened by other 

 arguments, the mod immediate and direft, de- 

 duced from the animals and eggs themfelves. 

 Duhamel obferved, that a beetle, which feeds on 

 grain, did not die at the heat of boiling water ; 

 and Schaeffer found one fpecies of caterpillar that 

 fupported as much. The aifertion of fuch ce= 

 lebrated naturalifts deferves all credit. 



If from animals inhabiting climates fd temper- 

 ate as ours, we pafs to the confi deration of thofe 

 that live in the warmed regions, and confiding 

 in the mod credible hiflories, they certainly 

 multiply, and are mod numerous, notwithdand- 

 ing the exceffive heat. Apamea and the Cape 



of 



(r) Bonnet, Corps Organifes, Tom. 2. 



