22S REFLECTIONS ON 



ought to be regarded as 'the firft union of the 

 organic particles. 



Though Leeuwenhoek had not this opportu- 

 nity of undeceiving himfelf, he had, however, 

 obferved other appearances which ought to have 

 produced this effect. He had remarked, for ex- 

 ample, that the fpermatic animals of the dog ^ 

 often changed their figure, efpecially when the 

 fluid was nearly evaporated ; that, when dead, 

 they had an opening in the head, which did not 

 appear when they were alive ; and that the head 

 \yas full and round, during the life of the pre- 

 tended animal, and flat and funk after its death : 

 Thefe circumflances fliould have led him to he- 

 fitate concernine: the real animation of thefe 

 bodies, and to think that the phaenomena cor- 

 refponded more with a machine which emptied 

 itfelf, like that of the calmar, than with the pro- 

 perties of an animal. 



I have faid that the motion of thefe moving 

 bodies, thefe organic particles, is not fimilar to 

 the motion of animals, and that there is no in- 

 tervals in their movements. Leeuwenhoek, in 

 torn. I. p. 1 68. makes precifely the fame remark ; 



* Qootiefcunque,' fays he, * animalcula in fe- 

 ' mine mafculo animalium fuerim contemplatus, 



* attamen ilia fe unquam ad quietem contulifle, 



* me nonquam vidilTe, mihi dicendum efl, fi 



* modo fat fiuidae fupereflet materiae in qua {e[e 

 ' commode movere poterant ; at eadem in con- 



' tiauo 



* See torn. i. p. i6o. 



