'iSB AKIMALCULA OF INFUSIONS, fi 



mouth, an oefophagus, a flomach, which feems 

 to have a periflaltic motion, agitating the incIucJ- 

 ed aliments. I ought to add another organ I. 

 have difcovered in this new courfe of obferva- 

 tions, which I fufpe£t is deftined for refpiration. 

 It confifts of two ftars, with a very minute globe 

 in the centre, and fituated, as one may fay, ill 

 the foci of elliptic animalcula of the largeft or 

 middle fize, Plate i. fig. ii. T. T. Whether 

 the animalcule moves or not, the liars are always 

 in alternate and regular motion. Every three or 

 four feconds the minute central globules fwell 

 like a bladder to three or four times their na- 

 tural fize, and then fall : the inflation and efla- 

 tion are performed very flowly. The fame is 

 done by the rays of the ftars, except that infla" 

 tion of the globes empties the rays, and inflation 

 of the rays empties the globules. During this 

 alternative, a long narrow ellipfe is obferved, iii 

 the largeft animalcula, on the fide between the 

 two ftars, in continual motion U. (i). 



Under this conviftion, that the animall^ula of 

 infufions are real animals, in addition to the full 

 concurrence of paft and prefent obfervers, ex- 

 cept M. de Buffon, Mr Needham, and a few of 

 their partifans, it gives me inexpreflible pleafure 



to 



(i) It is the opinion of feveral naturalifts, that am* 

 jnalcula have no organs for refpiration, and live without 

 air. — T. 



