^I. ANIMALCULA OF INFUSIONS. l6l 



The reader ought fo much the more to defire 



• convidioiij as this is pofitively denied by MeflVs 

 Needham and De Buffon, who exclude univocal 

 generation from infufions entirely. Thus it be- 

 comes neceflary to defcend to circumftantiate de- 

 tails ; at the fame time preferving due attention 

 to brevity. 



One oviparous kind of the largefl fize among 

 animalcula is found in rice infufions. It much 

 refembles the figure of a kidney bean, except that 



• one extremity is curved into a fharp beak, Plate i. 

 fig. 9. O. (i). Having feen the wonderful mul- 

 tiplication of this fpecies, without being able to 

 difcover whence it arofe, I thought of recurring 

 to ifolation, v/hicli on many occafions had been 

 fo ufeful an expedient. One was, therefore, put 

 in the ufual glalTes with a little water, which, for 

 fecurity of containing no ar^imalcula, had been a 

 long time boiled. In feven hours, the animalcule 

 was not alone, it had a companion. The new 

 guefl was fo like the old one, it was impoffible to 

 dillinguilh them. I had no reafon to fuppofe 

 that it came from without, or was produced by 

 the infufion. V/hen the animalcule was ifolated, 

 equal portions of the fame boiled infufions were 



Vol. I. L put 



(i) The Kolpocia cuguIIus of Muller : It hasfiom B 

 to 24 pellucid globules within, which he thinks are the 

 ^offspring ; in the young animals, none are to be feen> 

 Anim, bifiif. 103, 104. -~T. 



