RECAPITULATION. 



AL L animals are nourifhed by vegetables, 

 or by other animals which feed upon vege- 

 tables. There is, therefore, in Nature, a mat- 

 ter common to both, which ferves for the 

 growth and nourifhment of every thing that 

 lives or vegetates. This matter can have no 

 other mode of efFeding growth and nourifh- 

 ment, but by affimilating itfelf to every part of 

 the animal or vegetable, and by intimately pe- 

 netrating the texture and form of thefe parts, 

 which I have diftinguifhed by the appellation of 

 an mternal mould. When this nutritive mat- 

 ter abounds more than is fufficient for the 

 growth and expanfion of the animal or vege- 

 table, it is detached from all parts of the body, 

 and depofited in one or feveral refervoirs, under 

 the form of a fluid. This fluid contains all the 

 particles which are analogous to the different parts 

 of the body, and, of courfe, all that is neceflary 

 for the reprodudion of a being in minaiure 

 perfedly fimilar to the firft. In mofl animals, 

 this fuperfluity of nutritive matter does not take 

 place till they have nearly acquired their full 

 growth; and hence it is that animals are not 

 capable of generating before this period. 



When 



