THE EXPERIMENTS. 22X 



They are properly the firft aflemblages of thofe 

 organic particles fo often mentioned ; and, per- 

 haps, they are the conftituent particles of all a- 

 nimated bodies. They appear in the femen of 

 every animal, becaufe the femen is only the re- 

 fidue of the organic particles which the ani- 

 mal takes in with its food. The particles, as 

 formerly remarked, aflimilated from the food, 

 are thofe w^hich are moft organized, and moft 

 analogous to the animal itfelf; It is of thefe 

 particles that the femen confifts ; and, of courfe, 

 we ought not to be furprifed to find organized 

 bodies in that fluid. 



To be fatisfied that thefe organized bodies are 

 not real animals, we have only to reflect upon 

 the preceding experiments. The moving bo- 

 dies in the femen have been confidered as real 

 animals, becaufe they have a progreffive motion, 

 and fomething fimilar to tails. But, after attend- 

 ing, on the one hand, to the nature of this mo- 

 tion, which is fuddenly finifhed, and never again 

 commences, and, on the other, to the nature of 

 the tails, which are only threads adhering to the 

 moving body, we will begin to hefitate ; for an 

 animal goes fometimesflow, and fometimes faft; 

 and it fometimes flops, and repofes, without 

 moving at all. Thefe moving bodies, on the 

 contrary, go always in the fame diredion at the 

 fame time ; I never faw them flop and again 

 begin to move ; and, if they once Hop, (it is for 

 ever. I demand, if this continued motion, with- 

 out 



