230 ANIMALCULA OF INFUSIONS. I. 



expand after enduring the heat of ebullition. 

 As thefe germs feem incomparably more deli- 

 cate than thofe included by feeds, our furprife 

 muft augment in proportion to the increafmg de- 

 licacy of the organic wholes, on which thefe ex-. 

 periments are made ; yet, in my opinion, this 

 exceilive delicacy of texture is the very thing 

 that will proteft them from the adion of heat. 

 The germ of a bean is large in comparifon to 

 the germ of an animalcula ; thus it fhould fufFer 

 much more from heat ; and, as more extenfive 

 portions are prefented to this element, its aftion 

 ihould be more powerful. However, we are not 

 fufnciently acquainted with what conftitutes life 

 in the germ of an animalcula, or the embryo of 

 a plant, to be enabled to judge correftly of the 

 matter. By your experiments, and thofe of M. 

 Duhamel, we learn that feeds do not lofe the 

 germinating faculty at 212°, and even 234°, of 

 Fahrenheit's thermometer. Senegal is not with- 

 out vegetables : there the thermometer often ftands 

 at 122^, or 133°, in the fliade ; which will make 

 the direft heat of the fun 2 1 2^ or 232°, according 

 to the experiments of Prelident Bon of the Mont- 

 pelier Society (1). Thus, there are vegetables 



produced 



(1) Thefe experiments were fallacious, becaufe they 

 v/ere made without the nccefTary precauticns. In fumi 



mer* 



