[ 63 *-] 
Ton improper, becaufe they might have been judg'd 
to have been previoufiy adhering to thefe Plants or 
Seeds : I negle&ed no Precaution, even as far as to 
heat violently in hot Afhes the Body of the Phial i 
that if any thing exifted, even in that little Por- 
tion oi Air which filled up the Neck, it might be 
deftroy’d, and lofe its productive Faculty. Nothing 
therefore could anfwer my Purpofe of excluding 
every Obje&ion, better than hot roaft-Meat Gravy 
fecur’d in this manner, and expofed for fome Days to 
the Summer-Heat : and as I was determined not to 
open it, till 1 might rcafonably conclude, whether, 
by its own Principles, it was productive of any thing, 
I allow’d fufficient Time for that Purpofe to this 
pure unmix’d Quintefience, if 1 may fo call it, of 
an animal Body. From this time 1 take Corruption 
intirely in a philofophical Senfe, for the rifing of 
a dead Subftance, by a new kind of Vegetation, 
into Life : and no Axiom, how much foever it may 
have been exploded, is more true than that of the 
Antients, Corruptio uni us eft Generatio alterius > 
though they drew it from falfe Principles, and 
io efiablifhcd it as to render Generation equivo; 
cal, and never penetrated fufficlently into Nature 
by Microfcopes, to difcover this Clafs of Beings, 
that are neither generated nor generate in the 
common Way, yet furnilh a Key to lead to the 
Generation of all others. My Phial fwarm'd with 
Lile, and microfcopicai Animals of moft Dimcn- 
fions, from fome of the largeft I had ever feen, to 
fome of the leaft. The very fir ft Drop I ufed, upon 
opening it, yielded me Multitudes perfectly form'd, 
animated, and fpontaneous in all their Motions: 
And thus was 1 obliged to abandon not only the 
2 Notion 
