I. ANIMALCULA OF INFUSIONS. 1 1 1 



i have ftill to fpeak of anlmalcula included in a 

 'vacuum, which is the lafl fubjed that I propofed 

 to difcufs in this chapter. — The confequences were 

 different according to the difference of fpecies ; 

 a vacuum was very foon fatal to fome, and others 

 lived in it very long. Let us enter on detail. 



Several fmall glafs tubes, clofe at one end, 

 were filled with various infufions. The tubes 

 were very fmall, and the glafs extremely thin, fo 

 that applying the magnifier 1 might fee what 

 paffed within when appended to the infide of 

 a receiver. Some open tubes, full of the fame 

 infufions, were kept in referve for the neceffary 

 comparifons. Sixteen days privation of air did 

 not injure the animalcula ; on the twentieth day, 

 they began to die; and on the twenty-fourth, all 

 were dead. Thofe in the open air flill furvived, 

 otherwife one might fay the natural term of life 

 was expired ( i ). 



The experiments were repeated on more infu- 

 fions of a different kind. Of fome the animal- 

 cula lived a month in vacuo, and even thirty-five 

 days : thofe of others died in fourteen, eleven, 

 and eight days : and fome lived only two. The 

 infufions mentioned in my Differtation were fi- 

 °^* * "• milar 



( I ) Nearly a century ago, Derham obferves, that he 

 kept the animalcula of pepper water twenty-four hours 

 alive in vacuo. Some naturaliRs have erroneoufly cited 

 this pafTage, as if the animalcula lived a mon^h. PhyH^g. 



