ro sSminal vermiculi. It, 



111 thefemenof man, the horfe, the bull, the dog, 

 the rabbit, the ram, newts, and frogs, are precifcly 

 the beings which Leeuwenhoeck terms worms 

 -jr fpermatic animals. The lafi: appellation Ihall 

 alfo be ufed, not only to fpeak in the language of 

 this naturaiift, but beeaufe I efleem the fadls re- 

 lated fufficient authority to bellow the name of 

 animals on them. Spontaneous motion and 

 contorfions of the body, by means of which they 

 move from one place to another, are charadlerif- 

 fics fufficiently decifive of animality. Of this we 

 ihall have more conclufive evidence in the fe- 

 quel. 



What has been faid is enough to Ihow how 

 erroneous the opinion of Sir Charles Linnaeus 

 mull be, when he maintains that the vermiculi 

 are only particles of inert matter fufpended in the 

 liuid, and put in motion by heat. As the celebri- 

 ty of the Swedilh naturalill might induce us to 

 fuppofe that he does not advance this without 

 foundation, the reafons which made him deter-- 

 mine to adopt his- fentiments Ihould be mention- 

 •ed ; and that none of their force may be lofl, I 

 fhall give them, fuch as they have been vv^ritten 

 by the author hirafelf in a Latin Thefi», while he 

 was Prefident 1759, entitled Generatio Ambige- 

 na. " Vermiculos feminales Leeuwenhoeckii vi- 

 vos efle vermes, in omni genitura prolifica maris 

 praefentes, ad noflra tempora firmiter fatis credi= 



dir 



