580 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [anNO 1682-3. 



liver, on the torpedo, on the vulgar error of the porcupine darting its quills, 

 and lastly on the causes and cure of fevers. 



An Account of a Roman Monument found near' South Shields, at the Mouth of 

 the River Tyne. By Martin Lister, Esq. N° 145, p. 70. 



Description of a mutilated supposed Roman altar; the letters mostly defaced, 

 and illegible. 



An Abstract of a Letter from Mr. Anthony Lewenhoeck written to Sir C. W. 

 Jan. 11, -[681-3, from Delft. N° 145, p. 74. 



Having lately met with a book published by a physician of our country, 

 which treats of human generation, and the egg-branch (or ovarium) as it is 

 found in women-kind; and not doubting but what is there said is also applicable 

 to quadrupeds, I examined egg-branches of several lambs of a year old, that had 

 been several months in the winter kept in a stall for fatting, separated from the 

 rams. From what I have hitherto found I cannot but wonder why it should be 

 generally believed, that the tuba fallopiana does draw, or suck down an egg 

 from the egg-branch, through so narrow a passage as it has; considering also 

 that some of the eggs were as large as pease, and others as large as the whole 

 egg-branch : that they were made up of glandular parts interwoven with blood- 

 vessels, and were shut up so fast in their skins or membranes that I could not 

 with my nails tear one of them from the egg-branch : that some of them con- 

 sisted of very irregular and unlike parts, which were in some places inclosed 

 in particular skins, and had not at all the shape of an egg : that some of them 

 which stood out beyond the rest were burst open ; and yet when I went to pull 

 them off, they stuck so fast that the whole egg-branch came along with them. 

 The smallest eggs, and of a lesser size, were also firmly rooted and fixed in 

 their skins, and had often a watery substance in them, that besides the sup- 

 posed eggs of the egg-branch, there were others lying at a distance from it of 

 an inch and more on each side of the womb, and were included in particular 

 skins. 



My opinion therefore of these eggs is, that they are emunctories, or the 

 emptyings of some vessels lying near, such as are often found among the mem- 

 branes, or adhering to the bowels of animals. But as to generation, though I 

 have formerly been very reserved in declaring my thoughts of it, yet being now 

 further instructed by manifold experience, I dare venture to affirm it rather to 

 come from an animalcule, such as I find not only in human seed, but that of 

 all birds, beasts, fishes, and insects, than an egg. And the rather for that I 



