i86 EXPERIMENTS 



E X P E R. XL VI. 



Before I conclude this chapter, I fliall relate 

 the experiments of Mr Needham upon the fe- 

 men of a fpecies of cuttle-fifh, called ihe.Calmar, 

 This acute obferver,' having examined the Iper- 

 matic animals in the milts of different filhes, 

 found them of an uncommon magnitude in the 

 milt of the calmar. To the naked eye, they 

 were from three to four lines in length. During 

 a whole fummer, while he diffcded calmars at 

 Lifbon, he could find no appearance of a milt, 

 or of any refervoir deftined to receive the femi- 

 nal liquor of that fifh ; and it was the middle 

 of December before he could perceive the firft 

 veftiges of a new veflel filled with a milty juice. 

 This refervoir, and the juice it contained, gra- 

 dually increafed. In examining this feminal li- 

 quor with the mlcrofcope, he faw nothing in it 

 but fmall opaque globules fwimfning in a kind 

 of ferous matter, without any appearance of life. 

 But, fom€ time after, he difcovered, in the milt 

 of another calmar, organic bodies completely 

 formed, which refembled fpiral fprings, fa^ b^ 

 PI. VII. fig. 2.] inclofed in a tranfparent cafe. 

 Thc^e fprings were equally perfeft at the firft 

 obfervatlon as afterwards ; only they, in time; 

 coniradcd themfelves, and formed a kind of 

 f^rew. The head of the cafe is a fpecies of valve 



which 



