136 A DISCOURSE 



BOOK II. with a light incision, and the wound covered with loam. Or, let the dry 

 '"■"^'y^ part of the wood, bark and all, be cut, applying only a wash of urine and 

 vinegar twice or thrice a-week during a month : the best means to find 

 out their quarters, is to follow the woodpecker and other birds ; these 

 pitching upon the stem, as you may observe them, and knocking with 

 their bills, give notice that the tree is infected, at least between the bark. 



sperm should add or excite the first spirit, motion, and life. His followers contend, that 

 so curious and wonderful a machine as an animal body, could never be formed and per- 

 fected by another machine : and that therefore in the ovaria of the first female there must 

 needs have been her offspring, or ova, and in them others ; and so on in an infinite series 

 through all the subsequent descending generations. In a word, that in the ovaria, or loins, 

 of Eve, the whole race of mankind were contained, whether past, present, or future. 

 Now, allowing the infinite divisibility of matter, yet it exceeds all belief, that so many 

 myriads should be contained in one egg. The second hypothesis is that of Leuwenhoek. 

 He supposed that the semen masculinum contained millions of animalcules, and that each 

 of the ova, in the female ovaria, had a small perforation, no bigger than to admit a single 

 animalcule. Through this small aperture an animalcule is supposed to enter ; soon after 

 which the ovum becomes detached, and, in a wonderful manner, descends down the Fal- 

 lopian tube into the uterus, together with the animalcule, which in time becomes a perfect 

 foetus. But this theory is more plausible than just : for by the conjunction of two animals 

 of different kinds, a species is produced, which we call hybrid, mongrel, or mule, being of 

 a mixed nature between the male and female parent. And it must be allowed that an 

 animal so shaped could not be produced, were the rudiments of the foetus to derive their 

 origin wholly from the male, agreeably to this hypothesis. All we certainly know of the 

 mysterious work of generation, is, that all animals require the concurrence of a male and 

 female to produce their kind ; and that these, distinctly and invariably, are found to beget 

 creatures of their own species. We know but little of those peculiar characters in the parts 

 that go to make up animated nature, which mark one animal to creep in the dust, and 

 another to glitter upon the throne ! Something more certain may be discovered regarding 

 the origin of vegetable life, to which we shall now return. 



That we may make a full inquiry into this subject of the generation of plants, it will be 

 proper to investigate the situation of their genital organs. Now we have proved that 

 the seeds are the eggs of plants ; and it appears that wheresoever the fecundated eggs 

 are, there we are to seek for the organs of generation'; and we shall find the genital organs 

 of plants where the seeds are produced. But the seeds are produced wliere the flower 

 and fruit are ; therefore the flower and fruit are the genital organs of plants. Some have 

 asserted that certain vegetables wanted flowers, and others both flowers and fruit. 

 Tournefort maintained that the Algse and Mosses had seeds, but no flower ; and that the 

 Fungi, and some others, had neither flowers nor fruit. Hence some of the moderns have 

 argued against the fructification. But for one to deny flowers and fruit to the most minute 

 vegetables, which he finds in all the larger species that fall under his inspection, is not 

 the part of a fair and rational inquirer. For it is the same as if we should conclude con- 



