f. ANIMALCULA GF Il^FUSIONS- I97 



pulverife all the fophifms of our obftinate Epige- 

 nefift. The icfufions, at £rft rarely inhabited, 

 became more populous in time, and you afcribe 

 it to the gradual diflblution of the infufed matter* 

 As the veflels continued open, one might fay 

 the additional numbers depended on the feeds of 

 animalcuia, or on animalcula themfelves preci- 

 pitated from the air, perhaps being attrafted by 

 the penetrating odour of the infujQon. I do not 

 heCtate to make thefe fuggeftions : you wifh it, 

 and yourfelf difcover many which are iimilar, in 

 your invelligations of nature^ 



N 3 II. 



it IS certain their germs do fb« Whence I have no doubt 

 that the animalcuia, whofe numbers increafe with the lapie 

 of time, partly originate from new germs precipitated into 

 the veflels. However it cannot be thought, iSiat the accef- 

 fion of thefe germs alone is equal to the additional popula- 

 tion, otherwife an equal -quantity having fallen into the 

 infufions that had boiled much, as into tijofe that had not, 

 there is no reafon v/hy the animalcula of tlie firft Ihould 

 be abundant in a few days, and thofe of the fecond only 

 after an interval of many. A difference fo fcnfiblc muft 

 depend on fome fecret condition, and I can fee none 

 other than decompofition of the infufed fubftances which 

 Jakes place as much fooner in the infufions boiled rouchj 

 ^s lat^r in thofe that have boiled little. 



