232 ANIMALCULA OF INFUSIONS. la 



getation, it is very certain, that its laft eflfe£t is to 

 extend the plant in every way, and to increafe 

 the fize. This fecret I attempted to penetrate. 

 Part 7. ch. 7. de la Contemplation de la Nature ; 

 and my fentiments, on a fubjeft fo obfcure, have 

 been a little extended, Palingenefte, part ii, 



* The extenfion of the fibre infers that its 



* parts can change their relative pofition j that 



* they may recede from each other, but within 

 ' limits, and thefe limits are the bounds of incre- 



* ment.' If we fuppofe that the elements of the 

 vegetable fibre are united by a fort of gluten, 

 which allows them to flide more freely on each 

 other, and thus to admit of their feparating to a 

 certain degree, we may conceive how the heat of 

 212°, or 232^, fhould tend to infpiflate or co- 

 agulate the glutinous matter, and to diminifh, or 

 even deflroy, its motion, ' The animal or vege- 

 ^ table gluten,' I continue in the Palingenejie, 



* is the natural connexion of all the parts whe- 



* ther original or acquired. It merits the great- 

 ^ eft attention. Doubtlefs it is the principal ba- 

 ' fis of the affimilating or nutritious fubftance of 

 ' plants and animals.' Muft it not be wonderful- 

 ly fine in the lower orders of animalcula ? In 

 proportion as the plantula receives new juices, 

 it difcharges thofe fuperlluous, by fenfible or in-^ 

 fenfible tranfpiration, which operates by means 

 of the moft minute fecretory vefiels, whofe ac- 

 tion 



