I. ANIMALCULA OF INFUSIONS. 



49 



I may relate an obfervation by M. Sonnerat, cor- 

 refpondent of the Academy of Sciences, concern- 

 ing the heat of certain waters in Lu9on, one of 

 the Philippine Iflands. They were fo hot he could 

 not bear his hand in them, and the thermometer 

 lofe to 1 87°. Yet, to his great aftonifhment, were 

 iiihes fwimming there ( i ). 



I am conftrained, by philofophical fincerity, 

 ^ow to think otherwife of the germs of certain in- 

 fufion animalcula than I did at the time of 

 pubhfl-iing my DilTertation, when it did appear 

 -to me poffible their germs in general could refifl 

 the heat of boiling water. This w^as a deduftion 

 from vegetable feeds and eggs periihing at that 

 heat : but the faQs narrated here, which were 

 then unknown to me, have induced me to alter 

 ^my opinion. 



Though the germs fo often referred to are not 

 deftroyed, at lead for fome time, by boiling heat, 

 the animalcula thence produced perifh at io8^, a 

 degree remarkably inferior. This has been al- 

 ready obferved, and not without furprife, but none 

 •will remain on bringing the example of plants 

 ■ 'Vol- ^' D and 



inferior to that of boiling water; it may even furpafs it ; 

 but it is a very different confideration whether thefe eggs' 

 and feeds will not lofe their fertility ; eggs undoubtedly 

 will when they are in that ftate, if they have the various 



•f^rts commonly afcribed to an ee^^-. T. 



(i) Obfervations fur la Phyfiquc, par M. Rozler, 

 tcm 3. 



