314- SEMINAL VERMICULf. IL 



ihould have been better convinced, he who, 

 with reiterated examinations and infinite patience, 

 has characlerifed fuch a number of bodies in the 

 three kingdoms of Nature. If his laborious and 

 ufeful occupations had left him fufEcient leifure 

 to penetrate the world of invifihles, where, as the 

 illuflrious Muller obferves, one may well be a 

 ftranger without a crime ( i ) ; and had he applied 

 to this fubjed; with that diligence and acutenefs 

 which he has difplayed in his difcoveries in the 

 vifible world, we cannot doubt that he would 

 have omitted in his thefis the quotations we 

 have juft made ; for, with an attentive view of 

 the feminal vermiculi, he would eafily have feen 

 that they do not fwim in the liquid like oleagi- 

 nous particles ; but at fome depth, I have had 

 eminent proofs of this. Penetrating the firfl 

 flratum of the dog*s femen with the microfcope, 

 I prefled it downwards fo as to reach the lower 

 parts ; in each an equal number of vermiculi 

 were vifible. The fame method was adopted 



with 



( I ) In Mundo Invifihili, as qzis Dljfertationeni dedit, hofpes. 

 In fad, as far as is known, this very learned naturalift 

 never employed himfelf in contemplating invifible ani- 

 mals, and his doubt whether infufion animalcula were 

 living beings, or rather oleaginous or fdline particles, (a 

 propofition difgraceful to our day-,) forcibly convince? 

 one of it. 



