THE EXPERIMENTS* 251 



animals in his femen till he arrived at 40 years, 

 although he was the father of many children, 

 and continued, after the animalcules appeared, 

 to beget more. 



The fpermatic moving bodies may be regarded 

 as the firft alTcmblages of the organic particles 

 which proceed from all parts of the bodyj and, 

 when a great number of them unite, they be- 

 come perceptible by means of the microfcope. 

 But, when the number united is fmall, the body 

 they form is too minute to be vifible, and no 

 motion will appear in the feminal fluid, a cafe 

 which not unfrequently happens. But a long 

 train of fucceffive experiments would be necefla- 

 ry to afcertain the caufes of the different ftates 

 in which this fluid appears. 



Of one thing I am certain, from repeated tri- 

 als, that a feminal liquor, though no motion can 

 be perceived when it is firll taken from the bo- 

 dy, after being three or four days infufed in 

 water, produces as great a number of organic 

 moving particles, as another femen, treated in 

 the fame manner, which at firft contained vafl 

 multitudes. Thefe moving bodies appear like- 

 wife in infufions of the blood, of the chyle, 

 of the flefh, and even of the urine, as well as in 

 infufions of all parts of vegetables ; and tliofe 

 which appear in all thefe different fubflances feem 

 to have nothing peculiar to them. They all move 

 and a£t nearly in the fame manner. If we will 

 have thefe bodies to be animated, it mufl be al- 

 lowed, 



