SF.CT. XXXIX. a. GENERATION. 



and nidus by the female. For if the female be 

 fuppofed to form an equal part of the embryon, 

 why fhould fhe form the whole of the apparatus for 

 nutriment and for oxygenation ? the male in many 

 animals is larger, ihonger, and digefls more food 

 than the female, and therefore mould contribute as 

 much or more towards the reprodu&ion of the fpe- 

 cies ; but if he contributes only half the embvyon and 

 none of the apparatues for fuiienance and oxygena- 

 tion, the diviiion is ui equal ; the itrength ot trie 

 male, and his confumption of food are too great 

 for the effect, compared with that of the female, 

 which is contrary to the ufual courle of nature. 



In objection to this theory of generation it may 

 be faid, 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 

 aflert that thefe moving particles, vilible by the mir 

 crofcope, are homunciones ; perhaps they may be 

 the creatures of ftagnation or putridity, or perhaps 

 no creatures at all ; but if they are fuppofed to be 

 rudiments of hoinunculi, or embryons, fuch a pro- 

 fufion of them correfponds with the general effort 

 of natufe to provide for the continuance of her 

 fpecies of animals. Every individual tree produces 

 innumerable feeds, and every individual fifh innume- 

 rable fpawn, in fuch inconceivable abundance as 

 would in a fhort fpace of time ciov.d 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 uncounted milli- 

 ons. This argument only fhevvs, that the producti- 

 ons of nature are governed by general laws, and 

 that by a wife fuperfluity of provifion fhe has en- 

 fured their continuance. 



2. That the embryon is fecreted or produced by 

 the male, and not by the conjunction of fluids from 

 t>oth male and female, appears from the analogy of 



vegetable 



