EXPERIMENTS. 201 



perfectly globular : * His anlmalculls (caudatis 



* fcilicet) minora adhuc animalcula, quibiis non 



* nil! globuli figiiram attribuere poflum, per- 



* mifla erant.' This is the truth. After Leeu- 

 wenhoek, however, had maintained that thefe 

 animalcules were the only efficient principle of 

 generation, and that they were transformed in- 

 to men, he regards as real animals ihofe only 

 which had tails ; and, accordingly, as it was 

 necelfary that animalcules, to be transformed 

 into men, fliould have a conflant and invariable 

 figure, he never afterwards mentions the round 

 animals without tails. I was llruck with the 

 difference betw^een the original compofition of 

 this letter, and the form in which it appeared 

 twenty years afterwards in his third volume : 

 For, inftead of the words which we have juft 

 now quoted, we meet with the following in 

 pag. 6;^. ' Animalculis hilce permiflae jacebant 



* aliae m.inutiores particulae, quibus non aliam 



* quam globulorum feu fphaericam figuram af- 



* fignare queo.' This is a very different account 

 of the matter. A particle of matter, to which he 

 afcribes no motion, is extremely different from 

 an animalcule, it is aflonifliing that Leeuwen- 

 hoek, in copying his own letter, fhould have 

 changed an article of fo much confcquence. 

 What he immediately fubjoins likewife merits 

 attention. He fays, that, at the intreaty of Mr 

 Oldenburg, he had examined this liquor three 

 or four years ago ; and that he then imagined 

 thdfe animalcules to be globule3. Thus, thefe 



pretended 



