SECT. XXXIX. 2. i. GENERATION. 381 



effufed on the female fpawn after its production. 2d. In refpect 

 to vegetables, it muft be recollected, that their veflels are fo mi- 

 nute in diameter, that they have not in general been of fufficient 

 fize to be injected by coloured fluids ; and are not thence fo 

 vifible by microfcopes as thofe of animals, and that it is probable, 

 thofe of the ftigma or piftillum of flowers, which are defigned 

 to abforb the folution of the anther-duft, which adheres to the 

 moift ftigma, may be always empty, or have their mouths clofed, 

 except when they are ftimulated into action by the anther-dud, 

 and may thence more eafily efcape obfervation. Nor do I know, 

 that any one has endeavoured to detect thefe veflels by experi- 

 ments with coloured liquids applied along with the male farina 

 on the ftigma for its abforption, or by diffccting the piftillum as 

 in its recent or dry ftate, or by obferving it in a (late of charcoal. 



In regard to quadrupeds, Dr. Haighton has (hewn by a num- 

 ber of curious experiments on rabbits, publifhcd in the Philo- 

 foph. Tranfact. for the year 1797, that the male femen does 

 not permeate the fallopian tubes, and confequeruly never arrives 

 at the female ova, either in a liquid or aerial ftate ; but that it 

 is by the ftimulus of the femen in the neck of the uterus ; that 

 the veficles of the ovaria fwell, and difcharge the material, which 

 has been called an ovum, though it does not po fiefs a diftinguifh- 

 able form ; and that this is acquired and carried into the uterus 

 by the periftaltic motions of the fallopian tubes, fome hours af- 

 ter copulation. Here I fuppofe it finds the male femen, and 

 that thus the new animal produced by the fecretion of the male 

 finds correfponding nutriment and fituation in the female in all 

 fexual progeny. But that no female apparatus is required in the 

 production of the buds of trees, or in the adherent fetus of the 

 polypus, or of the coral-infefts. 



In objection to this theory of generation it may be kid, if the 

 animalcula in femine, as feen by the microfcope, be all of them 

 rudiments of homunculi, when but one of them can find a nidus, 

 what a wafte nature has made of her productions ? I do not af- 

 fert that thefe moving particles, vifible by the microfcope, are 

 homunciones , perhaps they may be the creatures of ftagnation or 

 putridity, or perhaps no creatures at all ; but if they are fup- 

 pofed to be rudiments of homunculi, or embryons, fuch a pro- 

 fufion of them correfponds with the general efforts of nature to 

 provide for the continuance of her fpecies of animals. Every 

 individual tree produces innumerable feeds, and every individual 

 fifh innumerable fpawn, in fuch inconceivable abundance as 

 would in a fhort fpace of time crowd the earth and ocean with 

 inhabitants ; and thefe are much more perfect animals than the 

 animalcula in femine can be fuppofed to be, and perifh in un. 



qounted 



