lir StlMINAL VERMICULI. 355 



an opinion. I prepared a ram, alive and vigor- 

 ous, fo that a friend cut the epididymis, which 

 is ufualiy full of femen, and while he cut it, 

 one might take a drop of femen, and immediate- 

 ly prefent it to the microfcope where my eye 

 was kept ready fixed. It may well be feen that 

 the time in performing the operation could not 

 be fhorter. I faw numbers of vermiculi, and all 

 very vivacious. This experiment was repeated 

 on the femen of a newt, and I faw the fame. In 

 fpring, when the vafa deferentia are full of fe- 

 men, it was unnecefiary to open the animal to 

 obtain it for obfervation ; on gently prefling the 

 belly, it efcaped by the anus where the two vefTels 

 terminate. 



This animal has afforded me proof ftill more 

 decifive : I let the males futFer hunger fo long 

 that they became much emaciated ; the vafa de- 

 ferentia then contained a very fmall quantity of 

 femen, and from the tranfparency of the tunics 

 of the veffels, now rendered very thin, it might 

 eafily be obferved with a magnifier. Opening 

 the abdomen, and applying the microfcope to the 

 veffels, without affeding or deranging their fitu- 

 ation, we faw vermiculi fwimming in the fluid, 

 and they were vifible to thofe leaft Ikilled in the 

 art of obfervation, becaufe, as it has been re- 

 marked in the firfl chapter, they were infinitely 

 longer than others. 



We 



