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In the cleared: water that we drink, one can often fee 
with the naked eye fpoils of this infeCt, joined to 
thofe of its fliell, floating along, like fine white 
cotton. 
This adhefion proves that the body of the animal 
is joined to the fliell by fome ligaments, which 
poflibly too may keep the valves to the hinge, as I 
conjedlured above. 
I have not yet fucceeded in difcovering the organs 
of generation ; nor have I feen the infedts in the adt of 
copulation (which cannot be lefs extraordinary than 
that of the other fpecies of the ?no?iocult) : fo that I 
can fay nothing of their fex, 1 have obferved that 
they lay eggs, but this does not prevent their being 
likewife viviparous: I have feen other fpecies of 
monocuUy fome of which had their ovaria full of 
eggs, and others of little live bcafts, which at times' 
they hatched, and at others put down in the fliell. 
The fordid fpecies is the mofl: commonly met 
with j one finds it all the year, even in the. time of 
froft, from under which I have often drawn it. 
It is found in all pure waters, and even in the little 
ditches which are expofed to be overflowed by the 
fea. I have preferved it from May to November, full 
of life and motion, in a glafs of water, which I did 
not renew the whole time. 
The fmooih white iiifedl lives at the bottom of 
marflies, and pools, in which the conferva I have 
mentioned grow's. 
As the entomologifls have ranked the bivalve infedfs 
under the genus of the ?nonocidi^ I am naturally led 
-to fay fomething about this genus. 
Syflema- 
