DIFFERENT SYSTEMS. 119 



fpirits, he attributed the evaporation of them to 

 their fubtiUty. But may we not fuppofe, with 

 more probability, that it contains little or no 

 fpirits ^ Neither the confidence, nor the odour of 

 this fluid, indicate the prefence of ardent fpirits, 

 which never abound but in fermented liquors ; 

 and, with regard to volatile fpirits, the horns, 

 bones, and folid parts of animals, afford more 

 of them than the fluids. What has received the 

 appellation of feminal fpirits, atira feminalis^ 

 among anatomifts, has, perhaps, no exiilence j 

 and it is certain, that the moving bodies appa- 

 rent in the fcmiinal fluid are not agitated by thefe 

 fpirits. But, that we may be enabled to pro- 

 nounce more clearly concerning the nature of 

 the femen, and of its animalcules, we fhall pre- 

 fent the reader wuth the principal obfervations 

 which have been made on the fubjedt. 



Lecuwenhoek, having examined the feraen 

 of a cock, perceived a number of animals fimilar 

 to river eels; but they were fo minute, that 

 50,000 of them were not equal in bulk to a 

 grain of fand. Of thofe in the femen of a rat, 

 it required, he fays, many millions to make the 

 thickncfs of a hair, &c. This excellent obfer- 

 ver was perl'uaded, that the whole fubftance of 

 the femen was only a mafs of animalcules. He 

 .faw thefe animalcules in the femen of men, of 

 quadrupeds, of birds, of filhes, and of infeds. 

 In the femen of a grafs-hopper, the animalcules 

 were long, and extremely thin. They appeared, 



VaL. 11. 1 he 



