SECT. XXXIX. 4: GENERATION. 557 



3. Laftly, Mr. Buffon has with great ingenuity 

 imagined the exiftence of certain organic particles, 

 which are fuppofed to be partly alive, and partly 

 mechanic fprings. The latter of thefe were difco- 

 vered by Mr. Needham in the milt or male organ 

 of a fpecies of cuttle fifh, called calmar ; the for- 

 mer, or living animalcula, are found in both male 

 and female fecretions, in the infulions of feeds, as 

 of pepper, in the jelly of roafted veal, and in all 

 other animal and vegetable fubftances. Thefe orga- 

 nic particles he fuppofes to exift in the fpermatic 

 fluids of both fexes, and that they are derived thi- 

 ther from every part of the body, and muft there- 

 fore referable, as he fuppofes, the parts from whence 

 they are derived. Thele organic particles he be- 

 lieves to be in conftant activity, till they become 

 mixed in the womb, and then they inftantly join 

 and produce an embryon or fetus fimilar to the two 

 parents. 



Many objections might be adduced to this fanci* 

 ful theory ; I fhall only mention two. Firft, that 

 it is analogous to no known animal laws. And 

 fecondly, that as thefe fluids, replete with organic 

 particles derived both from the male and female or- 

 gans, are fuppofed to be firnilar; there is no reafon 

 why the mother Ihould not produce a female em- 

 bryon without the afliftance of the male, ?rd real- 

 ize the lucina fine concubitu. 



IV. i. I conceive the primordium, orfrudiment 

 of the embryon, as fecreted from the blood of the 

 parent, to confift of a fimple living filament as a 

 mufcular fibre ; which I fuppofe 10 be an extremity 

 of a nerve of loco-motion, as a fibre of the retina is 

 an extremity of a nerve of fenfation ^ as for inftance 

 one of the fibrils, which eompofe the mouth of an 

 abforbent veflel ; I fuppofe this living filament, of 

 whatever form it may be, whether fphere, cube, or 

 cylinder, to be endued with the capability of being 

 O o 2 excited 



