42 THE PHILOSOPHY 



The multiplication of the various animalcules which ap- 

 pear in infufions of animal and vegetable fubftances, long oc- 

 cupied the attention, and eluded the refearches of philofo* 

 phers. This difcovery of the increafe of fome larger animals 

 by fpontaneous divifion, gave rife to the conjecSture, that thefe 

 microfcopic animalcules might multiply their numbers in a 

 fimilar manner. This conje<Sture was communicated to M. 

 de Sauflure in a letter from Bonnet, who received an anfwer, 

 dated at Genoa, September 28, 1769, to the following 

 purpofe. 



< What you propofe as a doubt,' fays M de Saufllire, * I 



< have verified by inconteftible experiments, namely, that 

 « infufion-animalcules multiply by continued divifions and 



* fubdivilions. Thofe roundifh or oval animalcules that 

 « have no beak or hook on the fore part of their bodies, 

 « divide tranfverfely. A kind of ftridlure, or ftrangulation 



* begins about the middle of the body, which gradually in- 



* creafes, till the two parts adhere by a fmall thread only. 



* Then both parts make repeated efforts, till the divifion is 

 ^ completed. For fometime after feparation, the two animals 



* remain in a feemingly torpid ftate. They afterwards be- 



* gin to fwim about brilkly. Each part is only one half the 



< fize of the whole •, but they foon acquire the magnitude 

 ' peculiar to the fpecies, and multiply by fimilar divifions.' 

 ' To obviate every doubt, ^ continues our author, < I put a 



< fingle animalcule Into a drop of water, which fplit before 



< my eyes. Next day I had five, the day after, fixty, 

 « and, on the third day, their number was fo great, that it was 



* impoflible to count them*. 



* Another fpecies, with a beak or horn on the fore part of 



* its body, which I obtained from an infufion of hemp-feed, 



* multiplied llkewife by divifion, but in a manner fi:iil more 

 ^ fingular than the former. This animalcule, when about to 



*• La Palingenefie Philofophlque, par C. Eonnct, torn p, 428. 4V9. 



