174 EXPERIMENTS 



great rapidity, which endeavoured to difengage 

 themfelves from the mucilage that furrounded 

 them, and which dragged tails or threads after 

 them. Their number was equally great with 

 that in the male femen. 



E X P E R. XXIX. 



I fqueezed the whole liquor out of thefe two 

 glandulous bodies, and put it into the glafs of a 

 watch. The quantity was fufficient to ferve for 

 four or five hours obfervation. I remarked that 

 it depofited a kind of fediment, or at lead began 

 to thicken. 1 took a drop of the thickeft part 

 of the liquor, and having examined it, I difco- 

 vered that the mucilaginous part of the femen 

 was condenfed, and formed a kind of net-work. 

 From the anterior edge of this net-work, there 

 iffued a current of globules which moved with 

 great rapidity [pi. VI. fig. 22.]. Thefe globules 

 were extremely active and lively, and they ap- 

 peared to be diverted of their mucilaginous co- 

 verings and of their tails. This ftream of glo- 

 bules refembled the motion of the blood in the 

 veins ; for they feemcd not only to be animated, 

 but to be puihed on by fome comm.on force, 

 which obliged them to follow each other in 

 troops or rows. From this experiment, and from 

 the 1 ith and 12th, I concluded, that, when the 

 fluid begins to coagulate or grow thick, the ac- 

 tive 



