t 



A'NIMALCULA OF INFUSIONS. 



217- 



5" element encreafes, the greater force does the at-* 

 *■ traftive power acquire. The organiled fluid is 



* thus conduced to mucofity by degrees : it be^ 



* comes a membrane, a cartilage, a bone, by im-r 



* perceptible fhades, without the interpofition oS 



* any new part.' There is ftill the third fa£b, 

 which fo well eftablifhes the primordial tranfpa=r 

 rency of the folid parts of the germ. ' It is only 



* on the fixth day that the lungs are vifible ; then 



* they are but ten hundredth parts of an inch in- 



* length. If it was not for the tranfparency^ they 



* would have been vifible at four of thpfe hunT 



* dred parts. The liver is larger ftill when it be=? 

 ' gins to appear : it is on account of the tranf* 



* parency alone that it is not vifible fooner. Yrom 



* mucous tranfparency to whitenefs there is only 

 ' one degree, which fimple evaporation fuffices to 



* produce. — White is therefore the original colour 

 ' of the animal, and mucous tranfparency feems 

 'to conftitute its original ftate.' You fee what- 

 I then faid of the integuments, which are at firl^ 

 fo tranfparent that the external parts which the)f 

 inveft appear perfedly naked. Therefore it feems 

 fufficiently evident, that fluidity and tranfparencjr 

 confliitute the fiirft ftate of an animal. In difle. 

 rent paflages, I have taken care to obferve, that 

 this fluidity is but a fimple appearance, and onlw 

 marks the extreme delicacy, or the wonderful 

 iinenefs of a texture already organized, NoWj 



If 



