i, ANIMALCULA GF INFUSIONS. iG^ 



which I perhaps fhould not have noticed had it not 

 been for a gentle revolvingmotion upon. itfelf, while 

 the including fphere was tranquil. After various 

 revolutions, the fhell burft, and the lefTer fphere 

 efcaped : the envelope was reduced to a wrink- 

 led irregular fubflance. The fpherule extended, 

 and grew fmall at one end to form the curved 

 beak ; and it began to fwim : thus aifuniing all 

 the charaQ:eriflics of an animal which the other 

 had. The origin of thefe animalcuia is, there- 

 fore, from an egg, reprefented by the lliell or in- 

 volucrum. 



But the conjecture required further and more 

 decifive proofs to become an eitabhfhed fa£l ; and 

 fuch 1 foon obtained. The glafs being left in that 

 . ft ate on the evening of 1 5 June, next morning 

 there were more than forty-five animalcuia, all 

 cxadly refembhng the firfl which was ifolated. At 

 the bottom a number of pellets appeared, .part 

 round, part elliptical. With my eye intent on the 

 round, I perceived they did not become elongated, 

 as the pellet mentioned above : one after another 

 burft, arui as many inadive mifhapen animalcuia 

 came out, afterwards growing hito complete fi- 

 gures full of adion. When the fmaller became 

 larger, they did the fame. Thefe fubftances were 

 undoubtedly eggs ; ftill it was to be elucidated 

 whether they had proceeded from the animalcule, 

 which was more than probable. For abfolute 

 L 2 jconviclion. 



