226 REFLECTIONS ON 



with attention, he would have perceived that 

 they moved with their own proper force, and, 

 confequently, that they were as much aUve as 

 the others. This change of figure, it is true, 

 exadly correfponds with what I had obferved : 

 But it does not indicate a uniform fpecies of a- 

 nimals ; for, in the prefent example, if the bo- 

 dies having the figure of a ferpent were genuine 

 fpermatic animalcules, each of which was deftined 

 to become a cock, and therefore implies a uni- 

 form and invariable organization, what was the 

 end and deftination of thofe of an oval figure ? 

 He, indeed, afterwards remarks, that thefe oval 

 bodies might he the fame with the ferpentine, 

 if we fuppofe them rolled up in a fpiral manner. 

 But ftill, how is it poflible to conceive that an 

 animal, with its body in this reftrained pofture, 

 ftiould be able to move without extending itfelf ? 

 I, therefore, maintain, that thefe oval bodies 

 were only the organic particles feparated from 

 their threads or tails, and that the ferpentine 

 bodies were the fame particles, which had not 

 yet been deprived of thefe appendages, as I have 

 often remarked in other feminal fluids. 



Befideij, I^eeuwenhoek, \yho believed all thefe 

 ynoving bodies to be real animajs, who eftablifh- 

 ed a fyftem upon that foundation, and who af- 

 firmed that fpermatic animalcules were tranf- 

 formed into men and other animals, now fufpec- 

 ted them to be only natural machines, or moving 

 organic particles. He never entertained a doubt, 



but 



