S34 EXAMINATIONOF 



' dubitamento alciino per verl, veriffimi, arcive- 

 * riffimi vermi *.' This author, though preju- 

 diced in favour of the ovular fyftem, admitted 

 the actual exillence of fpermatic animals. 



M. Andry pretends, that he could find no a- 

 nimals in human femen previous to the age of 

 puberty; that they exift not in the femen of 

 very old men ; that there are fev/ of them in 

 thofe who are affedled with the Venereal difeafe, 

 and that thcfe few are in a languifliing ftate ; 

 that none of them appear alive in impotent per- 

 fons ; and that the animalcules in the femen of 

 men have a larger head than thofe of other a- 

 iiimals, which correfponds, he obferves, with the 

 figure of the foetus and infant ; and he adds, 

 that thofe who ufe women too frequently have 

 generally few or no animalcules in their femen. 



Leeuwenhoek, Andry, and others, exerted e- 

 very effort againft the egg- fyftem : They difco- 

 vered in the femen of all males living animal- 

 cides ; they proved that thefe animalcules could 

 not be regarded fimply as inhabitants of this 

 fluid, fmce the quantity of them was larger than 

 that of the fluid itfelf; and fince nothing fimi- 

 lar to them exiftcd either in the blood, or in any 

 other of the animal fluids : They maintained, 

 that, as females furniflied no animalcules, their 

 fecundity was folely derived from the males; 

 that the exifl:ence of living animals in the fe- 

 men throws more light upon the nature of gene- 

 ration 



* *See opere del. Cav. Valifaieri, torn. 2. p. loj- 



