SECT. I. feaUIVOCAL GENERATION. 3Q5 



the error has been long ago refuted, and as I believe 

 eradicated, no one now contending for the doctrine 

 of vegetable generation from putrefaction : but the 

 latter, though it has been also refuted, has not yet 

 lost its hold of the minds of the unlearned. The A vulgar 

 farmer still believes, and will still tell you, that the prejuc 

 earth throughout its whole mass teems with the 

 rudiments of vegetables, or at least of all such as he 

 is not under the necessity of cultivating, which it 

 will develope without any seed if only exposed to 

 the action of the air ; alleging in support of his 

 opinion that earth dug up from any depth and 

 thrown in heaps on the surface, will immediately 

 begin to send up young plants, though no seed has 

 been sown upon it. But the fallacy of this argu- 

 ment is easily exposed, for in the first place the 

 roots of such plants as are near to it will extend 

 themselves around its edges, and make encroach- 

 ments upon the lower part of it ; and in the next 

 place the seeds of plants, whether near or at a dis- 

 tance, will be conveyed to it by the winds, by cattle, 

 or by birds, and so furnish the upper part of it, so 

 that the argument is good for nothing. Let the 

 experiment be made where the earth shall be per- 

 fectly insulated, except from light, air, and water, 

 and let the result be marked. This was done long Refuted 

 ago by Malpighi, who having procured some earth p f g hi. a " 

 that had been dug up from a great depth, enclosed 

 it in a glass vessel over the mouth of which he 

 spread several folds of silk, so as to admit air and 



