1". ANIMALCULA OF INFUSIONS. 16"^ 



" Thefe fuperficial fparks do not go deep r 

 " they have no effed: on animalcula fwimming 

 " five or fix lines from the fi^irface : only few are 

 " killed, which certainly are near the top when 

 " the fpark pafies : the reft remain vivacious and 

 " well. At this depth, a very ftrong fhock, fuch 

 ^' as is capable of melting an inch and a half of 

 " iron wire one twelfth of an inch in diameter, 

 " has not the leaft influence on them. 



" Thefe, Sir, are the refults of my moft intereft- 

 *' ing experiments on electricity operating on ani- 

 " malcula. I wifh they may fatisfy you and Sig. 

 " Spallanzani, if communicated to him, or that 

 " you will tell me what more I ought to do. Two 

 " circumftances ihould be mentioned ; one that 

 '' the experiments were made on the infufion 

 " animiileula of wheat, hempfeed, and maize-, 

 " and the refult has always been uniform ; the 

 " other, that the animalcula were of the largefl 

 " fize that iiifufions produce." 



M. de SauiTure's experiments befides being in- 

 geniouily conceived, and happily executed, ap- 

 pear decifive ; and they induced me to fuppofe, 

 fome unforefeen accident had oppofed Sig. Mofca- 

 ti's'; and perhaps that the exceffive humidity of 

 the air of Pavia, as the Genevefe profeffor had 

 thought might be the caufe, particularly as our 

 experiments were made in winter ; I wifhed to 

 repeat them in a more favourable feafon, but 



that 



