360 HISTORY OF 



they resembled eggs, they naturally concluded 

 had the same offices ; and therefore they were 

 induced to think, that all animals, of what kind 

 soever, were produced from eggs. At first, how- 

 ever, there were some objections raised against 

 this system ; for as these ovaria were separate 

 from the womb, it was objected, that they could 

 not be any way instrumental in replenishing that 

 organ, with which they did not communicate. 

 But, upon more minute inspection, Fallopius, the 

 anatomist, perceived two tubular vessels depend- 

 ing from the womb, which, like the horns of a 

 snail, had a power of erecting themselves, of em- 

 bracing the ovaria, and of receiving the eggs, in 

 order to be fecundated by the seminal liquor. 

 This discovery seemed for a long time after to fix 

 the opinions of philosophers. The doctrine of 

 Hippocrates was re-established, and the chief 

 business of generation w r as ascribed to the female. 

 This was for a long time the established opinion 

 of the schools ; but L,euwenhoeck once more 

 shook the whole system, and produced a new 

 schism among the lovers of speculation. Upon 

 examining the seminal liquor of a great variety of 

 male animals with microscopes, which helped his 

 sight more than that of any of his predecessors, he 

 perceived therein infinite numbers of little living 

 creatures, like tadpoles, very brisk, and floating 

 in the fluid with a seeming voluntary motion. 

 Each of these, therefore, was thought to be the 

 rudiments of an animal, similar to that from which 

 it was produced ; and this only required a recep- 

 tion from the female, together with proper nou- 



