3-30 SEMINAL VERMictJLj, It 



great adroitnefs and celerity, otherwife the folic! 

 part gets time to diflblve during expofure to the 

 air J and by drawing it long or flowly over the 

 glafs, inftead of drying, it always becomes more 

 h^mid. I fucceeded in freeing a clot of femen 

 from all fenfible moifture. I put it in a watch- 

 glafs 5 and, when diflblved, examined it with t|ie 

 microfcope. The truth is, that here were found 

 no vermiculi, nor were any difcovered in other 

 dots treated after the fame manner, although 

 they were numerous in the fluid parts of the fe- 

 men in the fcminal veffels of the animal which 

 had afforded me the clots. Repetition of fo im- 

 portant an obfervation was not delayed. In my 

 journal of experiments, I find this has been done 

 fourteen times ; in thirteen, the diifolved clots ex- 

 hibited no vermiculi, and only once a fmall num= 

 ber in the coagulated clot. 



The feminal fluid of the rabbit is always par^ 

 tially coagulated ; therefore, whenever taken from 

 the veflels, it afforded the means of repeating my 

 experiments. But I have never difcovered ver- 

 miculi when the fpermatic lymph could be com- 

 pletely taken away. Thefe united fadts convince 

 me that the natural habitation of the vermiculi ig 

 jn the fluid part of femen. The fame fa6ts af*> 

 certain the degree of credibility we fhould beflovv 

 on what M. de BufFon fays of their formation^ 

 It is evident, that far from being generated by 



tha 



