STORY 
O F 
I M A L S. 
PART I. 
Of the lejfer Animals, called, ANIMALCULES 
and INSECTS. 
B O O K I. 
Of ANIMALCULES. 
AL NIMALCULES are animals fo minute in their fize, as not to he the im - 
mediate objects of our fenfes, and are only feen by the affijlance of microfcopes. 
Lkefe^izre vafily more numerous than any other part of the animal creation $ 
A- but fhefpecies, on a clofe examination, are found to be extreamly few, in pro¬ 
portion to the number of the individuals. If we were to take all the accounts of the 
people who have written on the fubjeB of microfcopical difcoveries as authentic, we fhould 
indeed be led to imagine nature as fruitful in the diverfity of genera, as well as fpecies, 
among thefe her minuter, as in her larger, works y but an impartial and attentive exami¬ 
nation fecludes the far greater number of what are defcribed and figured by thofe writers , 
from the rank of difiinB exiftences . Many of them have had their origin from the mere 
imperfeB obfervations of other known fpecies ; and not a few from the abfolute want of 
candour and ingenuity in the writers, who have defcribed and figured things they never 
faw. 
We have delineations of little men and women in the figures of the Animalcula in femine 
of fome authors j and other extravagancies of a little lefs ridiculous kind in thofe of the 
Animalcules, found in the infufions of vegetables as given by others. 'Thefe would need no 
more than a repetition to condemn both them and their authors 5 but the far greater number 
of the additional exiftences in this part of natural hifiory has been owing to error, not to 
difngenuity. The fame creature, in ifs different pofitions, will appear of very various 
fhapes and figures • a?id among thefe creatures, as among the infect tribe, many have a 
power of enlarging and contracting their bodies occaftonally, in a furpmzing manner. It 
is difficult to guard againfi the being deceived by the figures given with the greateft truth 
and accuracy from thefe, in their fever al fates, as of fo many different creatures: in¬ 
deed there is no way of avoiding it, but by making our own obfervation the bafts of our 
accounts, and paying a very limited credit to thofe which we receive on the teftimony of 
others. In confequence of a clofe invejligation, with an apparatus more calculated for 
B ‘ v making 
