THE EXPERIMENTS. 233 



membranes which contain them ? Here neither 

 the milt nor the leminal Hquor are prelerved till 

 the fucceeding year; and, of courfe, their regular 

 reprodudlion cannot be afcribed to generation. 

 It is, therefore, apparent, that thefe pretended 

 fpermatic animals are not multiplied, like other 

 animals, by generation ; and this circumftance 

 alone would entitle us to conclude, that the mo- 

 ving particles in the feminal fluid are not real 

 animals. Lceuwenhoek, though he tells us, in 

 the paflage above cjuoted, that the fpermatic a- 

 nimals are certainly propagated by generation, 

 acknowledges, however, in another place *,vthat 

 the manner in which thefe fpermatic animals are 

 produced, is exceedingly obfcure, and that he 

 leaves to others the farther elucidation of this 

 fubjed. * Pcrfuadebam mihi,' fays he, fpeaking 

 of the fpermatic animals of the dormoufe, * haecce 

 animalcula ovibus prognafci, quia divcrfa in 

 orbem jacentia et in femet convoluta videbam ; 

 fed unde, quaefo, primam illorum originem de- 

 rivabimus ! an animo noibo concipiem.us lio- 

 rum animalculorum femen jam procreatum 

 efle in ipfa generatione, hocque lemen tam diu 

 in tefticulis hominum haerere, ulquedum ad 

 annum aetatis decinmm-quartum vel decimum- 

 quintum aut fextum pervcnerint, eadcmque 

 animalcula tum demum vita donari, vcl in 

 juftam ftaturam cxcrcvilTe, illoque temporis 

 articulo generandi maturitatem adcHe! fed hacc 



* lampada 



* Tom. I. p. 26- 



