ANNO 168 1.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 47B 



PHILOSOPHICAL COLLECTIONS.* 



Containing an account of such Physical, Anatomical, Chemical, Mechanical, 

 Astronomical, Optical, or other Mathematical and Philosophical Experiments 

 and Observations as have lately come to the publisher's hands. As also an 

 account of some books of this kind. 



A Letter of Mr. Leuwenhoeck to Dr. G.-|- containing an Account of his Ohser^ 

 vatiom lately made of vast Numbers of Animals in Semine Animalium. Pliilos. 

 Collect. N*" 1, p. 3. 



Viewing the melt of a live codfish, I found the juices which ran from it full 

 of small live animals, incessantly moving to and fro. I have also viewed the 

 melt of pikes or jacks, and found an incredible number of small animals; and 

 I judge that there were at least 10,000 of these creatures in the size of a small 

 sand. These were smaller than those I observed in beasts, but their tails longer 

 and thinner. I viewed also the matter in the vasa deferentia of a male hare 4 

 days after it was killed, and found it full of these small tadpoles swimming in a 

 clear liquor, but they were without motion : the same I found also in the tes- 

 ticle. I examined also the matter in the vasa deferentia of birds, such as 

 cocks and turkey cocks, and found it full of oblong bodies, larger in the mid- 

 dle than at each end, which I conceived to be animals. I viewed also the tes- 

 ticle of a dog taken out of the second skin, and discovered a vast number of 

 small creatures. The semen of a cock about a year old, which had been kept 

 alone in a coop for 5 days, I found full of those animals, at least 50,000 in the 



* These Philosophical Collections, seven in number, were published by Mr. Rob. Hooke, while 

 one of the secretaries to the Royal Society, the occasion of which was this : after the death of Mr. 

 Oldenburg, who had compiled the Philosophical Transactions from the beginning to N° 136, inclu- 

 sive, Mr. Hooke was elected one of the .secretaries Nov. 30, \677y and Dr. Grew at the same time 

 the otlier secretary. In consequence. Dr. Grew continued the publishing the Philosophical Transac- 

 tions in six additional numbers, ending with N°142} after which, the publication was discontinued 

 for four years, when they were recommenced in l6S3 by Dr. Plot, who continued them from N*' 

 143 to N° 166, inclusive. During the interval, however, Mr. Hooke, thinking to continue the work* 

 or begin another like it, published these Numbers exactly in a similar manner and fonn, but changed 

 the name from Transactions to Collections. These numbers of Mr, Hooke's then having always been 

 considered, as it were, a part of the general work, and having been as such inserted in former abridge- 

 ments, it has been thought fit to include them also in the present abridgement j and they are inserted 

 here between N° 142 and N° 143, being their proper place in respect of the order of time of publica- 

 tion } distinguishing each paper in these seven numbers by printing in the titles the words. Philoso- 

 phical Collections. 



\ Probably Dr. Grew. 



VOL. II. 3 P 



