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fubtile Vaponr of the Male Semen^ or rather the 
occult Quality of that Seed, impregnating one of 
thofe Eggs, immediately fixes that Image, and makes 
a real Embryo of it. 
Thefe latter intirely deny the Exiftence of Ani- 
malcula in the Seed, becaufe they have not feen 
them 5 and if they are Ihewn them, they maintain 
that they are foreign Beings j or, that they are a par- 
ticular fort of Worms, who form a feparate Claft 
among thofe Infers : That God created them to exift 
in the Seminal Liquid, that they keep in it as in their 
Element, that they multiply there, and that they con- 
tinue there and die, fuch as we obferve them by the 
Microfcope. 
I do not pretend to decide^ that the former are 
intirely in the Right; they maintain an Hypothefis 
founded on fome Probabilities. Alas ! who can 
hope upon fo dark and hidden a Subjed to find a 
demonftrated Syftem? The fecond Opinion feems 
to me unwarrantable : It is founded upon Words 
which have no Reality. How can one form to him- 
felf the Idea of a Vapour extremely fubtile and adive, 
that {hall have the Faculty of giving Life and Mo- 
tion to an Image, to a Type, in (hort, to a thing 
that was not real? The Pre-exiftence of the Em^ 
bryo in the Egg can by no means be demonllrated : 
Even by the Help of the beft Microfeopes, there is 
never any thing found in thofe Eggs, but a clear and 
limpid Liquid. ^ 
I keep among my Curiofities fix oilified Eggs, 
which I found in the Ovaria of a Woman who 
died at the Age of Sixty. They are not all of the 
fame Bignefs. I broke two of them, and examined 
their 
