236 REFLECTIONS ON 



of animal and vegetable fubflances. In the 

 fame place, he remarks, that, though he he had of- 

 ten diftindly feen the fpermatic animals of the 

 cod, he was never able to make his drawer per- 

 ceive them: ' Non folum,' fays he, ' ol? eximi- 

 am eorum exilitatem, fed etiam quod eorum 

 corpora adeo effent fragilia, ut corpufcula paf- 

 fim dirumperenter ; unde fadum fuit ut non- 

 nifi raro, nee fmeattentiffima obfervatione, ani- 

 madverterem particulas planas atque ovorum 

 in morem longas, in quibus ex parte caudas 

 dignofcere licebat; particulas has oviformes ex- 

 iftimavi animalcula effe dirupta, quod particu- 

 iae hae diruptae quadruple fere viderentur 

 majores corporibus animalculorum vivorum.' 

 When an animal, whatever be its fpecies, dies, it 

 does not fuddenly change its form; from being 

 long like a thread, it doesnot become round like a 

 bullet ; neither does it become four times as 

 large after as before death. Not a fmgle arti- 

 cle of what is advanced by Leeuwenhoejc, in 

 this paffage, has the fmalleft correfpondence to 

 the nature of an animal ; but, on the contrary, 

 the whole -agrees with a fpecies of machines 

 which, like thofe of the calmar, burft and empty 

 themfelves, after having performed their func- 

 tions. To purfue this obfervation a little fur- 

 ther: He tells us, that he has feen the fpermatic 

 animals of the cod under dilFerent forms, * Mul- 



* ta apparebant animalcula iphaeram pellucidam 



* repraefentantia/ and of different fizes, ' Haec 



' animalcu]<^ 



