Tot. VI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 6\7 



Sixthly, As it has been more than once mentioned in these pa[>er8,* Miu 

 lierum testes esse ovario analogos ; nee tantum in nuptis et foecundis mulieri- 

 bus, scd etiam in virginibus esse ova vera, &c. we cannot but signify here, 

 for further inquiry, that there has been very hitely made by two physicians at 

 Paris a dissection of a cow, in cujus testicuHs ova reperta fuerint, uti Kerk.- 

 ringius observasse se scripserat in anthropogenias suae Ichnographia. 



Seventhly, from Germany we are informed, that in the university of Jena in 

 Upper Saxony, one Mr. Weighelius, professor of the mathematics there, has 

 invented several ingenious instruments and engines ; as first, an astronomical 

 one, which he calls astrodicticum, by the means of which many persons may, 

 at one and the same time, behold one and the same star. Secondly, An ex- 

 ceeding large globe of the world, capable of ten persons sitting in it at once, 

 and to behold the motions of the celestial bodies, &c. Thirdly, An odd 

 bridge, or a kind of stairs, by which a man shall descend, and yet really be 

 raised upward, and going as it were upon a plain, shall, from a lower, by gently 

 subsiding, arrive to an upper story, &c. 



The Extract of a Letter written hy Mr. John Ray, to the Editor, from 

 Middleton, July 3, I67I, concerning Spontaneous Generation; as 

 also some Insects smelling of Mush. N" 74, p. 22 19. 



Whether there be any spontaneous or anomalous generation of animals, as 

 has been the constant opinion of naturalists heretofore, I think there is good 

 reason to question. It seems to me at present most probable, that there is no 

 such thing ; but that even all insects are the natural issue of parents of the 

 same species with themselves. F. Redi has gone a good way in proving this, 

 having cleared the point concerning generation ex materia putrida. But still 

 there remain two great difficulties. The first is, to give an account of the 

 production of insects bred in the by-fruits and excrescencies-f- of vegetables, 

 which the said Redi doubts not to ascribe to the vegetative soul of the plant 

 that yields those excrescencies. But for this I refer you to Mr. Lister. The 

 second, to render an account of insects bred in the bodies of other animals. 

 I hope shortly to be able to give you an account of the generation of some of 

 those insects which have been thought to be spontaneous, and which s6em as 

 unlikely as any to be after the ordinary and usual way. 



Of such an insect as you mention, feeding upon ranunculus, which when 



* See Number 34, p. 242, and Number 70, p. 586. 



f The natural history of insects of the genera of Cynips et Ichneumon being at that time but Tcrjr 

 obscurely understood may well account for the opinion of Redi. 

 VOL. I. 4 I 



