THE EXPERIMENTS. 



237 



* animalcula mmori videbantur mole, quam ubi 

 ' eadem antehac in tubo vitreo rotundo cxami- 

 ' naveram.' This is an evident proof, that there 

 is nothing like a uniform and invariable fpecies 

 in thefe animalcules, and confequently, that they 

 are not animals, but only organic moving par- 

 ticles, which, by their different combinations, 

 afl'ume various figures and fizes. Of thefe or- 

 ganic particles, vaft numbers appear in the ex- 

 trad: and in the rcfidue of our food. The mat- 

 ter which adheres to the teeth, and which, in 

 healthy perfons, has the fame fmell with the fe- 

 minal fluid, is only a refidue of our food. In it 

 we accordingly find a great quantity of thefe 

 pretended animals, fome of which have tails, 

 and rcfemble thofe of the feminal fluid. Mr 

 Baker has given figures of four fpecies of them, 

 which are all a kind of cylinders, ovals, or glo- 

 bules, fome of them having tails, and others not. 

 But, after the Ifridleft examination, I am per- 

 fuaded, that none of them are real animals, and 

 that they are only, like thofe in the femen, the 

 organic living particles of the food appearing 

 under different forms. Leeuwenhoek, who 

 knew not how to account for thefe pretended 

 animals in the matter adhering to the teeth, fup- 

 pofes them to proceed from certain fpecies of 

 food, as chccfe, in which they previoully exift- 

 ed ; but they are found among the teeth of e- 

 very pcrfon, whatever kind of food be eaten; 

 and, belides, they have no refemblance to mites, 



or 



