OF THE GENITAL FUNCTION IN MAN. 331 



4 below 0, they recovered after a lethargy of fourteen hours and 

 upwards : and, according to the less intensity of the cold, they 

 might be made to pass from the torpid to the active state more 

 frequently. They were destroyed by river, ice, snow, and rain 

 — water ; by sulphur, tobacco, camphor, and electricity. Even 

 the air was injurious to them ; — in close vessels, their life was 

 prolonged to some days, and their movements were not constant 

 and hurried. They were of various sizes, and perfectly distinct 

 from all species of animalcules found in vegetable infusions, &c. 

 The seminal animalcules of different kinds of animals had gene- 

 rally each some peculiarity. In short, Spallanzani completely 

 confirmed the principal observations of Leeuwenhoeck, and satis- 

 factorily explained the sources of the inaccuracies of other 

 enquirers.* 



Although these beings are most numerous in the semen, he 

 detected them occasionally in other fluids ; — in the mesenteric 

 blood of female frogs and salamanders, and in the blood of a 

 tadpole and a calf. 



It were to be wished that another Spallanzani would prose- 

 cute these enquiries.f 



According to Vauquelin's analysis of the semen, 100 parts 

 contain, 



Of Water 9.0 



Mucilage 6 



Phosphate of lime 3 



Soda 1 



In some days it putrefies and becomes covered with the byssus 

 septica. % 



* Opuscoli di Fiiica animate e vegetabile. Vol. ij. 



f Creatures of an inch to an inch and a quarter in length, and of the same 

 general shape as the seminal animalcules, inhabit the mesenteric arteries of 

 asses, horses, &c. Mr. Hodgson found them in seven asses out of nine. 

 (A Treatise on the Diseases of Arteries and Veins, fyc.) To increase the wonder, 

 the intestines of the human embryo have been found containing worms. Goeze, 

 Versuch eincr naturgeschicte der Eingeweidwiirmer. 



t Annates dc C'himie. T. x. 



