152 LEEUWENHOEK AND HIS ‘‘ LITTLE ANIMALS ”’ 
generated from any particles which might have been in 
the pepper-water, nor yet from such as might have been 
in the vinegar, as this, mixed with pepper-water, would 
have become unfit for the production of living creatures : 
but I felt firmly persuaded that the said little eels had 
become thus increased by procreation. I then made use 
of certain means, in order to throw more light on these 
very little animalcules; and first of all, after I had broken 
asunder or pulled apart some of the biggest sort (corre- 
sponding to those that I had seen originally in my wine), 
I saw that they were provided inside with a long structure, 
which had about 4 of the thickness of the eel itself. I 
imagined that this was the gut of the little animal. In 
some, moreover, I saw still much thinner long structures, 
which I imagined might well be small eels: otherwise 
the body of this creature was very soft, and streamed 
away on all sides in many big globules of various sorts, 
and others that were very little (in proportion to the 
animalcule). These globules did not consist of watery 
matter, but were, in fact, oil: for just as clearly as you 
can, by the eye, distinguish oil floating on water, from the 
water itself, so clearly could I see the oily particles, 
among which were some so small that they well-nigh 
escaped the sight. These curiosities of mine I divers 
times followed up further; and at last I saw very plainly, 
among other things, that from an eel which I had broken 
across the middle, there came out four distinct small eels, 
each twisted on itself, very nice and pretty, and each 
bigger than the one following: and the biggest, which 
came out first, lay and lived, and wrenched itself loose, 
and remained alive a little while." I have more than 
once been able to see a small eel, out of an eel which I 
* All these exact observations can be very easily confirmed. The vinegar- 
eel is viviparous; and L. was evidently here dealing with large pregnant 
females, whose larval young drop out and behave just as he says when they 
are torn in two.—These were the first observations ever made on the 
reproduction of Anguwillula. 
