■316 SEMINAL VERMICULIi , K/ 



ed by the mode in which they advance ; that 

 they fwim in the fpermatic lymph, contorting, 

 and vibrating their parts hke many other aqua- 

 tic animals ; he would not have afcribed their 

 motion to the heat of the femen, fmce, when 

 this is gone, and the heat of the atmofphere only 

 remains, which happens a little after the femen 

 comes from the animal, the vermiculi do not 

 ceafe to move ; but their motion continues for 

 a limited time ; fometimes feveral days when they 

 are included in fmall tubes. 



In fhort, the fpermatic vermiculi of frogs,- 

 fiflies, and newts, completely refute the opinion 

 of Linnaeus. Their feminal fluid being deflitute 

 of every fenfible principle of internal heat, as it 

 conftitutes part of cold blooded animals, heat 

 cannot here be the caufe of the motion of ver- 

 miculi, on the contrary, they fhould abfolutely 

 be motionlefs. 



All this evinces how much two modern natu- 

 ralifts, Valmont de Bomare, and Ernefl Afch, 

 are deceived in thinking feminal vermiculi do not 

 exift in nature, or that they are only the moft 

 aftive parts of the femen ; and this they main- 

 tain, from their never being able to difcover 

 them, notwithftanding repeated obfervation. A 

 fimilar objedion had been flarted, after Leeu- 

 wenhoeck's difcoveries, who was content with re- 

 mitting its authors to their lludies. ' Dominos 



* illos 



