Microscopical Essays. s .521 



of other circumftances too tedious to enumerate, though they 

 afford great pleafure to the fpe&ator. 



One of the moft remarkable circumftances in thefe animalcula 

 is the faculty they have of receiving again the powers of life, 

 after having loft them for a considerable time ; for inftance, when 

 fome of thefe blighted grains, that have been preferved for many 

 years, have been foaked in water for ten or twelve hours, you 

 will find in it living eels of this fpecies ; if the water evaporates, 

 or begins to fail, they ceafe to move, but on a frem application 

 will be aq-ain revived. 



It may be proper to notice here, that according to the obfer- 

 vations of M. Roffredi, thofe eels which have done laying of 

 eggs are incapable of being refufcitated upon being moiftened ; 

 the fame feems to be alfo the cafe with thofe that are very young ; 

 it is probable they muff attain a certain age and degree of ftrength 

 before they are endowed with this wonderful faculty. 



In the month of Auguft, 17435 a fmall parcel of blighted 

 wheat was fent by Mr. Needham to Martin Folkes, Efq. Preftdent 

 of the Royal Society, (with an account of his then new dif- 

 covery) which parcel the prehdent was pleafed to give to Mr. 

 Baker, defiring him to examine it carefully ; in order fo to do, 

 he cut open fome of the grains that were become dry, took out 

 tire fibrous matter, and applied water to it on a flip of glafs, but 

 could difcern no other motion than a feparation of the fibres or 

 threads, which feparation he imputed wholly to an elafticity in 

 the fibres • and perceiving no token of life, after watching them 

 with due care, and repeating the experiment till he was wear}', 



3 S . an 



