323 SEMINAL VERMICULI. IT*- 



as It has fince been in my other experiments. I 

 have therefore direcled the utmoft obfervation to 

 what happened in the folid or filamentous part o£ 

 the femen as it dilTolved, but I never could fee 

 the prefent production of vermiculi, and have, 

 even ineonteftible evidence of the reverfe. In 

 the mean time, the origin of the French natu- 

 ralifl's error has been difcovered, which will be 

 demonflrated by fome fads that 1 muft be per- 

 mitted to detail. 



From human femen, as yet but partially dif- 

 folved, I took two little clots forming a net of 

 filaments, and began to confider them with the 

 utmofh attention. The vermiculi included in the 

 filaments occafioned a- motion j the filaments dif- 

 folved before me, and the two clots in a few 

 feconds became two drops of femen. It was 

 with fmgular furprife I faw the few vermiculi in 

 thefc drops compared with the numbers obferved 

 in others much fmalier, and not formed as they- 

 were by dilTolution of coagulated femen, but of a 

 portion found fluid in the feminal veffels. 



The experiment was repeated on a clot lefs 

 diffolvcd than the former, and ftiil fev/er ver- 

 miculi found. Then it began to occur that they 

 perhaps did not inhabit the groffer parts of fe- 

 men, but the more fluid. The fufpicion was 

 ftrengthened on feeing all the corpufcula perifh 

 when the fluid evaporated. But that the faflt 



might 



