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or lie hid in food, how is it (hat the stamina of one 

 species does not sometimes insinuate themselves into 

 a parent of another species ? Or if they are excluded, 

 by proper strainers, in distant species, they cannot 

 be so in those that are near akin. For if the sper- 

 matic animal, which in the matrix of a mare, produces 

 a horse, is yet so fitted to that of an ass, that it can 

 possess a cellule there, exclusive of every other, which 

 shews an exact co-aptitude : certainly the same ani- 

 mal, if contained in food or air, common to botk 

 horse and ass, might pass indiscriminately the strainers 

 of either : and so we might have mules without the 

 promiscuous congress of the two species. 



In another view, if we consider the extreme te- 

 nuity of one of these stamina, in its first origin at the 

 distance of many ages, compared to the smallest fibre 

 of the animal it is said to constitute : can so minute 

 a filament serve as a substratum for a cylinder, com- 

 paratively immense ? Can the terraqueous globe 

 derive its present dimensions from the dilatation of an 

 atom ? Such is a muscular fibre in its present state, 

 compared to what it was in its origin. Consequently, 

 what must have been the increase of extraneous 

 matter, either by apposition or 'incorporation, which 

 is now as much a part of the fibre, as the original 

 stamen ? And if thus much can be mechanically 

 assimilated, why not the whole formed by mecha- 

 nical causes ? Or why must so insignificant a 

 part of it, be supposed to be concreated with the uni- 

 verse ? 



The difficulty still increase" immensely, if we look 

 into the vegetation of plants,and the wonderful repro- 

 duction of the parts of the polypus, lobsters, and 

 many other animals. The original stamina, how mi- 

 nute soever, questionless, are diffused through the 

 whole production : since in this system all animal and 

 vegetable growth is made by developement only; But 

 if diffused ; then some oral! may be lost by successive 



