1'24 ANIMALCULA OF INFUSION^. fi 



" haps I did not infifl: with Mr Needham on this 

 " peculiarity ; perhaps I did not inform him 

 " that, to remove every poffibility of doubt, I 

 " put a fmgle animalcule in a drop of water ; 

 " that it divided in two before my eyes j that 

 " next morning thefe two had become five, and, 

 " during the day, fixty ; and on the third day 

 *' were fo numerous, that it was impoffible to 

 " count them ; and all, except thofe juft produc- 

 " ed, of equal fize to the animalcule from which 

 " they came. 



" When, for the fird: time, you fee the animal 

 " dividing, you will think it the copulation 

 " of two. I was completely deceived ; and 

 " thought, like Mlcromegas, that I had caught 

 " nature in the fa6l : nor was I undeceived 

 " until one had, in the fpace of twenty mi- 

 " nutes, fuccefTively paifed through all the de- 

 " grees from the moft imperceptible contraction 

 " to full feparation (i). 



" What is moft remarkable in the inftind of 

 " thefe animals is, when they obferve or difcover 



" two 



(i) Mullcr ingenuoufly acknowledges, that the firft 

 animalcula he had feen united feemed to him in copula- 

 tion : and t-iis feduflive phenomenon may impofe on any- 

 one ; whence Father Beccaria's innocent miftake was not 

 furprifmg ; and there is no doubt that he would have dif- 

 ccvered the truth, if his refearches on electricity, which d6 

 him fo much honour, had allowed him time to profecut« 

 the obfervationi 



