362 HISTORY OJf 



a part of the animal, or the vegetable, whose 

 growth they serve to increase, while the super- 

 fluity is thrown off in the seminal liquor of both 

 sexes, for the reproduction of other animals or 

 vegetables of the same species. These particles 

 iassume different figures, according to the recep- 

 tacle into which they enter ; falling into the 

 womb, they unite into a foetus ; beneath the 

 bark of a tree they pullulate into branches ; and, 

 in short, the same particles that first formed the 

 animal in the womb, contribute to increase its 

 growth when brought forth.* 



To this system it has been objected, that it is 

 impossible to conceive organical substances with- 

 out being organized ; and that, if divested of or- 

 gani^ation themselves, they could never make 

 an organized body, as an infinity of circles could 

 never make a triangle. It has been objected, 

 that it is more difficult to conceive the transfor- 

 mation of these organical particles than even 

 that of the animal whose growth we are inquir- 

 ing after j and this system, therefore, attempts 

 to explain one obscure thing by another still 

 more obscure. 



But an objection still stronger than these has 

 been advanced by an ingenious countryman of 

 our own ; who asserts, that these little animals, 

 which thus appear swimming and sporting in al- 

 most every fluid we examine with a microscope, 

 are not real living particles, but some of the 

 more opaque parts of the fluid, that are thus in- 



* M. Buffon. 



