I, ANIMALCULA OF INFUSIONS. 201 



I have obfeATd, Artiele 3 1 7 of the Corps OrgO'^ 

 nises? After having boiled veiTels hermetically 

 fealed with various infufed matter, I wi{h you 

 would let it cool in the fame veflels, and make 

 obfervations to difcover whether the animalcula 

 gradually appear. This fimple experiment may 

 be very inftru£tive ( i ). 



V. By your letter, I perceive that the animaU 

 cula of what you term the mediate and highejh 

 filafs, which are here more briefly defigned of the 



hizher 



( I ) My anfwer to M. Bonnet is thus exprefTed : * The 

 ^ experiment which you, my illuftrious friend, propofcd, 



* had already been made in part, although the foleobjeft 



* at the time was to examine whether veflels hcrmeiicaily 



* fealed, and expofed tp the influence of heat, would afford 



* more or f(fwer animalcula in proportion as I delayed to 



* gbferve them. Therefore, on 26 September 1770, eleven 



* veflels were boiled, and the feals broke 9 Odober ; 

 f they contained only the moft minute animalcula : five 

 ' more were opened Otflober 13 : they h^d none but the 



* fame animalcula. Thus the prolongation of time had no 



* influence on the produdion of the largeft animalcula.* 

 Brevity prevents me from relating another experiment, 

 ^here the efFe<5l was fimilar. We have already feen, that 

 protratftion of time did not favour the produdion of the 

 largeft animalcula, or higheft clafs, in veflels hermetically 

 fealed and expofed to heat. I think there is reafon to con- 

 clude, that the heat of boiling water really deftroys th© 

 germs of nhe higher clafTe?, 



