Part 11. in /^^^ C r e at i o n. 299 



will of itfelf, if all Infeds be carefully kept from 

 it, produce any. The fame Experiment I remem- 

 ber Dr. WilkinSy late Bifhop of Chejier, told me 

 had been made by fome of the Royal Society. No 

 Inftance againft this Opinion doth fo much puz- 

 zle me as Worms bred in the Inteftines of Man 

 and other Animals. But feeing the round Worms 

 do manifeftly generate, and probably the other 

 Kin;is too, it is likely they come originally from 

 Seed, which, how it was brought into the Guts, 

 may afterwards poffibly be difcover'd. Moreover, 

 I am inclinable to believe that all Plants too, 

 that themfelves produce Seed (which are all but 

 fome very imperfed: ones, which fcarce deferve 

 the Name of Plants) come of Seed themfelves. 

 For the great Naturalift Malpighius^ to make 

 Experiment whether Earth would of itfelf put 

 forth Plants, took fome purpofely digged out of 

 a deep place and put it into a Glafs Veffel, the 

 top whereof he cover'd with Silk many times 

 doubled, and ftrain'd over it, which would ad- 

 mit the Water and Air to pafs thro', but exclude 

 the leaft Seed that might be wafted by the Wind ; 

 the Event was, that no Plant at all fprang up in 

 it. Nor need we wonder how in a Ditch, Bank 

 or Grafs-plat newly digged, or in the Fen-Banksv 

 in the IJle of Ely, Muftard fhould abundantly 

 fpring up^ where in the Memory of Man none 

 hath been known to grow, for it might come of 

 Seed, which had lain there more than a Man's 

 •^Age, fome of the Antients mentioning fome Seeds 

 that retain their Fecundity forty Years ; and I 



have 



