2tS ANIMALCtJLA OF INFUSIONS. fa 



ff the folids of the chicken are originally fo deiif 

 cate and tranfparent, how much more ought they 

 to be fo in infufion animalcula, which, when fully- 

 developed, are but infinitely minute drops of 

 tranfparent jelly ? Thus, to guard organifed be* 

 ings againft impreflions of the elements, no more 

 is neceffary than encreafed minutenefs and tranf- 

 parency. Thofe animalcula of the lower claffes^ 

 fo extremely minute, and which, according to 

 you, are as ants to whales^ are perhaps them- 

 felves as whales compared to many other ani* 

 malcula. It may be fo fmall that our beft mi- 

 crofcopes can never bring them into view. Pro- 

 bably we fhall always be ignorant of the laft 

 terms into which organized matter can be divid- 

 ed. Somewhere I have faid, the confines of the 

 microfcopic world alone are difcovered. 



VII. You were naturally induced, my worthy 

 correfpondent, to make the fame refearches on 

 feeds expofed to heat as you had made on ani- 

 malcula. I was very earneft that you fhould at- 

 tempt fimilar comparifons between the two king- 

 doms, which I have before mentioned. Your 

 letter prefents interefting refults, which fhall oc- 

 cupy me a few minutes. 



1 am not furprifed that buck-wheat and maize 

 germinated in veffels hermetically fealed, or that 

 their vegetation foon ceafed. The little air in- 

 cluded would ferve for the firft expanfion of the 



germ. 



