[ 555 1 
May 3d, I made juft fuch another infuiion t put 
it into my pocket, as before, and an hour alter wards 
laid a drop of it before the microfeope, while it was 
as yet milk warm. I obferved a very few of thefe 
minute bodies moving about brifldy in the fluid. An 
hour after this more of them appeared ; and before 
the end of the third hour, the infuiion contained a 
great number of them. They continued however to 
increafe in numbers for an hour or two afterwards, 
when the infuiion feemed to have produced all that 
it was capable of. 
June 3d. I made an infuiion in the fame way of 
unbruifed cantharides, and in much about the fame 
time found the whole fwarming with animalcules of 
the fame kind as thofe of the infuiion of millepedes. 
Thefe bodies, which at firft appeared larger than 
thofe in femine mafculino* were very foon decom- 
pofed into fmaller ones, to fpeak according to the 
dodtrine of Meflrs. Needham and Buifon, or, as others 
would rather incline to exprefs it, fucceeded by 
fmaller ones, thefe again by others ftill fmaller, and 
fo on, until in a few days, the higheft magnifier of 
my microfeope could exhibit nothing diftindt to the 
eye. 
The fame fubftances infufed in rectified fpirits of 
wine, or other fpirituous liquors, fhewed none of 
thefe bodies, and a few drops of fuch liquors, or of a 
folution of fixt or volatile alcaline fairs poured into 
the infuiions, inftantly deftroyed the animalcules. 
I ihall not take up time in enquiring, whether thefe 
animalcules are produced by the decompofltion of 
the fubftances, in which we obferve them, which, 
according to Monk de Buffon contain a number of 
living 
