I, ANIMALCULA OF INFUSIONS. 



231 



produced by nature there, at a degree of heat far 

 fuperior to that of all other cHmates. Your fand, 

 continually heated to 212°, was a Senegal in mi- 

 niature, where heat was more conflant, and 

 where the natural viciffitudes of day and night, 

 which occur in the hotte^ll cHmates, to the great 

 relief of plants, were not admitted. We mufl 

 agree that this heat of 212°, to which different 

 feeds were expofed, was unfavourable, fince only 

 one germinated, while thoufands of animalcula 

 develope at boiling heat : a fact which excites 

 fome reflections on vegetation (i). 



Whatever may be the fecret mechanifm of ve-. 

 P 4 getatlon. 



mer, the difFerence of the heat in the fun and the ihads 

 is only 2 or 3°. Note by M. Bonnet to the collecliou of 

 his letters. — T. 



(i) This is certainly true of the £rfl: j-efult fent to IVL 

 Bonnet. A fmgle bean was the only feed that germinated 

 after fuftaining 2 12". But, fome others of many that had 

 been expcfed to the fame degree, alfo vegetated. I may 

 obfervc, that the fand in which they were heated did ivA. 

 conjlantly prefcrve 212'^ of heat ^ as M. Bonnet fuppofe^i, 

 probably becaufe in my niurative to him of the experi- 

 ments, I had not exprefied myfelf clearly ; for I only 

 ineant, that the heat was fucceffively increafed to that 

 fcf boiling water, or 212°, for the feeds were then taken 

 from the hot fand. This obfervation in no meafure leifens 

 the fxceilence of the author's rcfle<5tions on vegeution- 



