ANIMALS. ~^^ 



some accidental discovery serving, at intervals, to renew the 

 debate, and revive curiosity. It was a subject v.^here specula- 

 lion could find muth room to display itself; and Mr Buffon, 

 who loved to speculate, would not omit such an opportunity of 

 giving scope to his propensity. According to this most pleasing 

 of all naturalists, the microscope discovers that the seminal li. 

 quor, not only of males, but of females also, abounds in these 

 moving little animals which have been mentioned above, and 

 that they appear equally brisk in either fluid. These he takes 

 not to be real animals, but organical particles, which being sim- 

 pie, cannot he said to be organized themselves, but go to the 

 composition of all organized bodies whatsoever ; in the same 

 mai.ner as a tooth, in the wheel of a watch, cannot be called 

 either the wheel or the watch, and yet contributes to the sum of 

 the machine. These organical particles are, according to him, 

 diffused throughout all nature, and to be found not only in the 

 seminal liquor, but in most other fluids in the parts of vegeta- 

 bles, and all parts of animated nature. As they happen, there- 

 fore, to be differently applied, they serve to contribute a part of 

 the animal, or the vegetable, whose growth they ser\'e to increase, 

 while the superfluity is thrown off in the seminal liquor of both 

 sexes, for the reproduction of other animals or vegetables of the 

 same species. These particles assume different figures, accord- 

 ing to the receptacle into which they enter ; falling into the 

 womb, they unite into a foetus ; beneath the bark of a tree 

 they pullulate into branches ; and, in short, the same particles 

 that first formed the animal in the womb, contribute to increase 

 its growth when brought forth^ 



To this system it has been objected, that it is impossible to 

 conceive organical substances without being organized ; and that, 

 if divested of organization themselves, they could never make an 

 organized body, as an infinity of circles could never make a tri- 

 angle. It has been objected, that it is more difficult to conceive 

 the transformation of these organical particles, than even that of 

 the animal, whose growth we are inquiring after ; and this sys- 

 tem, therefore, attempts to explain one obscure thing by another 

 still more obscure. 



But an objection, still stronger than these, had been advanced 



2 Mr Buffon. 



