^iS SEMI>7AL VERMICULI» IL 



Bomare's fight is truly very acute, and that his 

 microfcopes are the mod perfed. "What reafon 

 can we then affign for the unfuccefs of his at= 

 tempts to fee any thing in femen with all this af- 

 fiftance ? The conclufion is fimple. When I 

 prefume to affirm his experience is not infinite in 

 the obfervation of fuch objeds, I do not wifh 

 to leflen the efteem due to his merit. He has 

 acquired the name of a laborious and indefatig- 

 .able compiler. His Mineralogy, and his Didion- 

 ary, which are an aflemblage of fragments copied 

 here and there, will do him that jullice. But no 

 one knows that he has been, or that he may be, 

 a microfcopical obferver. To make microfcopi- 

 cal obfervations with accuracy, many natural and 

 acquired qualities are requifite, and many more 

 are neceffar}'- to guard againfl being deceived in 

 the fubtile refearches after beings of infinite mi- 

 nutenefs. 



I have frequently, 'viva voce, confirmed the 

 difference of fentiment that books afford concern- 

 ing the nature of fpermatic vermiculi, by means 

 of perfons whom I made obferve the femen of 

 man and different animals. Some, though all 

 had diflinguiihed merit in other purfuits, were 

 certain diey faw nothing, notwithflanding they 

 looked long at a time through the microfcope, 

 and even returned often to obfervation ; and the 

 number of thefe was the greateft. Others, after 



very 



