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Tranfadions : 'I mean as to the experiments, many 
of which fucceeded with me, fome not*. I own, his 
^ The ingenious Mr. Needham fuppofes, thofe little tranf- 
parent ramified filaments, and jointed or coralloid bodies, which 
the microfcope difcoveis to us on the furface of moft animal and 
vegetable infufions when they become putrid, to be zoophytes or 
branched animals ; but to me they appear (after a careful fcru- 
tiny with the beft glafles) to be of that clafs of Fungi called. 
Mucor or Mouldinefs, many of which Michelius has figured, and 
Linnaeus has accurately defcribed.. 
Their vegetation is fo amazingly quick, that they may be per- 
ceived in the microfcope, even to grow and feed under the eye of 
the obferver. • 
Mr. Needham has pointed out to us one that is very remark- 
able for its parts of frudtification. See Phil. Tranf. vol. XLV.. 
Tab. y. fig. 3, iz, A j this, he fays, proceeded from an infufion 
of bruifed wheat* 
I have feen the fame fpecies arife from the body of a dead fly,, 
which was become putrid by lying floating for fome time in a 
glafs of water, where fome flowers had been, in the month of Au- 
guft, 1768. This fpecies of Mucor fends forth a mafs of tranf- 
parent filamentous roots, from whence arife hollow ftems, that 
fupport little oblong-oval feed veflels with a hole on the top of 
each i from thefe I could plainly fee minute globular feeds ilTue 
forth, in great abundance, with an elaftic force, and turn about 
in the water as if they were animated,. 
Continuing to view them with fome attention, I could juft 
difcover, that the putrid water, which furrounded them, was full 
of the minuteft animalcula, and that thefe little creatures began 
to attacic the feeds of the Mucor for food, as I have obferved be- 
fore in the experiment on the feeds of the larger kind of Fungi or 
muftirooms. This new motion continued the appearance of 
their being alive for fome time longer ; but fonn after many of 
them arofe to the furface of the water, remaining there without 
motion ; and a fucceflion of them afterwards coming up, they 
united together in little thin mafles, and floated to the edge of 
the water, remaining there, quite iiiarftive during the time of 
obfervation. 
As this difeovery had cleared up many doubts, which I had. 
conceived from reading Mr. Needham’s learned diflertatioir, I 
T 2 reafoning 
