164 ANIMALCULA OF INFUSIONS. !• 



convidion, it was neceffary to fee them proceed 

 from its body, which appeared difficult, not fo 

 much from the rapidity of its courfe, as becaufe 

 it left the field of the microfcope every moment, 

 from too great abundance of fluid. The fitted 

 method was confining fome in a very fmall quaa- 

 tity of water, that they might be conftantly in 

 view. I did fo ; and the fuccefs was fooner than 

 I could have expected ; fince, in fcarcely a quar- 

 ter of an hour after confinement, one was deliver- 

 ed before me of a round corpufcle fimilar to the 

 former : and it having opened, gave birth to one 

 of the ufual animalcula, firit round, then oval, 

 then diminifliing into a curved beak, and com- 

 mencing motion in the glafs, as had happened to 

 Its other companionSo More eggs were produc- 

 ed : I counted eleven that had proceeded from 

 the pofterior part of the ifolated animalcule, pro- 

 ducing an equal number of young. I might have 

 counted more had not fuch very minute obfer- 

 vations exhaufted my patience. From the whole, 

 it is clear that thefe animalcula are oviparous, 

 and their mode of propagation by eggs. 



This particular detail will render fuperfluous 

 what I Ihouid have had to fay on many other 

 fpecies alfo oviparous. I can only affure the 

 reader, that by fcrupuloufly pradifing fuch a plan, 

 each fpecies has laid eggs which produced ani- 

 malcula fimilar to the mother. Some of thefe 



animalculaj 



