f. 



ANIMALCULA OF INFUSIONS. l8l 



fclafles, and totally loft in the loweft, though ap- 

 pearing fo evident and conclufive in the higher 

 degrees ! Can we thence affert that animals oc- 

 cupying the loweft rank bear the name of ani- 

 mals improperly, from being apparently deprived 

 of an immaterial and fentient principle ? I'hisl 

 has already been fufpefted by Bonnet : he who, 

 both as a profound metaphyfician and a moft 

 able naturalift, has confidered the gradual pro- 

 Ijjreffion of beings fo well. After fuppofmg, in the- 

 Corps Organifes and the Co7ttemplation.f that the 

 polypus is a real animal, and, on this fuppofition, 

 explaining the moft embarraffing phenomena in 

 his Palingenefie^ he does not hefitate to hazard a 

 mechanical explanation, by confidering the poly- 

 pus as an animal fimply vital, or endowed with 

 irritability alone ; and fufpefts there may be other 

 animals fimilar from the fimplicity of their ftruc- 

 tare or operations. Needham goes farther : All 

 animals that repair their parts, loft either by am- 

 putation or by natural divifion, are, according 

 to him, animals /imply vital, in which he places 

 the immenfe kingdom of infufion animalcula, 

 fmce, by M. de Sauifure^s difcovery, they pro- 

 pagate by divifion ( i ). But he is lefs inclined to 

 M 3 exclude 



(t) Thcrfe IS fach an ifnmenfc variety of animalculaj 

 that it is very difficult to fay what clafs they belong to. 

 Some late writers clafs them among worms, and fome a- 



mong' 



