PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 50/ 



Some Microscopical Observations made by Mr. j4nthony Leuwenhoeck, concerning 

 the Globulous Particles in LiquorSy and the Animals in Semine Masculino In- 

 sectorum. Philos. Collect. N° 3, p. 5 1 . 



I set wine to ferment in a bottle in my study, the lees of which, after it had 

 done fermenting, I found to be, for the most part, made up of globules, con- 

 creted of 6 lesser, which were less than those of blood or yest. The same 

 also was observed in other instances with wine, as well as with blood, and beer 

 yest. In fermenting syrups the globules seemed to consist of 3 or 4 only. 



The same was observed in water also, viz. the globules chiefly consisting of 

 assemblages of 6 other globules. Among these globules too were seen many 

 animalcules swimming about. In milk, warm from the cow, were found glo- 

 bules of the size only of the 6th part of a blood- globule, and others of 2, 3, 4, 

 or 5, sticking together. Such globules also are found in the air, in the time of 

 mists or fogs. 



Having examined the male seed of a red chafer, 2 of which I had coupled 

 together, I found that there were many living animals lying together in a fluid 

 matter, the fore part of their body roundish, but with long tails. I also exa- 

 mined the male seed of May flies, and I saw at first many little worms in it," 

 but none alive; afterwards taking 2 coupled, I found an opening in the back 

 of the female, and several eggs there; and I could plainly see living crea- 

 tures in the male seed wriggling and bending themselves like worms into 6 or 8 

 flexures. 



I examined grashoppers also, and found worms in the male seed, but not 

 alive, in the month of July ; but continuing my observations till the latter end 

 of August, I found them perfectly alive, lying in some places 25 or more toge- 

 ther, with their upper parts ranged in order by each other, and their tails 

 spread out wider, and making much motion with them like serpents, though 

 the other parts lay still. Prosecuting my inquiry further into the male seed 

 of flies, I saw a great many small thin creatures or worms. In furthering 

 this inquiry', I observed the stomach of a fly full of a clear substance, mixed 

 with a great number of square figures or bodies, whose angles were all right, 

 some were exact squares, others oblong, and of diff^erent size, and so clear and 

 thin, as if one had seen a great quantity of looking-glass plates ground, of se- 

 veral sizes. This issued out of the stomach by a hole I made with a needle's 

 point; I observed also many living worms in a female horse-fly, which were 

 larger and shorter, but their wriggling much quicker, and they lay in a clear 

 liquor within the bowels of the fly. 



As I formerly spent much time and pains to observe how the worms of insects 



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