[633] 
enafcent, and that their Tails were no Members given 
them by Nature to fleer or fwim withal, yet then 
efcaped our Notice ; and was not plainly clear’d up, 
till other fmiilar and more diflind Obfervations upon 
this Clafs of Animalcules occurr’d fome confiderable 
Time after. 
§ 18. It is now Time to obferve how much I am 
obliged to Mr. de Buffons Penetration, who firft en- 
gaged me in this Enquiry, by his ingenious Syftem, 
which he was pleas’d to read to me, and at the fame 
time exprdfed hisDeilre I fhould purfue it, before I had 
myfelf any Thoughts of it, or any one Experiment 
had been try’d. He had been long diffatisfy’d with the 
Opinion of pre-exiflent Germs in Nature ; and he 
and Mr. Maupertuis , Prefident of the Academy of 
Sciences at Berlin , had often dilcours’d together 
upon the Subjcd. We have feveral Hints of this Dif- 
fatisfadion, in a little Book, publifhed by Mr. Man - 
pertuis himfeif upon thisQueflion at Baris , before my 
Arrival there ; in fhort, it was by general Refledions, 
and fome other confequcnt Thoughts, that Mr. de 
Buffon was conduded to frame his Syflem of or- 
ganical Parts. Thefe he fuppofed, by Coalition, to 
conflitute the prima Stamina of all animal and ve- 
getable Bodies, fimple, uniform, common to all, and 
confequently to be found in a certain Quantity in 
every Portion of Food, Aliment, or nutritive Juice \ 
and from thence to be digefled, and when the Sub- 
jed became adult, fecreted, and drain’d, for the For- 
mation of the Seed of every Plant and Animal,* and 
in this Fluid or Subftance to be confequently found 
in much Abundance. He further fuppofed thefe or* 
ganical Parts to be moving when difengaged, living 
in Appearance, and gifted with certain Organs, but 
* * * 2 extremely 
