I 
. 
250 Eels in blighted Wheat . 
traordinary a Particularity to be admitted 
without the ftrongeft Proof 
Thefe Difficulties muff be left to future 
Enquiry ; and I hope the Curious will en¬ 
deavour to folve them by careful Experi¬ 
ments and Obfervations. 
C H A P. IV. 
Eels in blighted Wheat. 
l 1 f v . 
T H E Difcovery of a certain Kind of 
Anguilla , or Animalcules refembling 
Eels, in blighted Wheat, was made acciden¬ 
tally by my very ingenious Friend Mr. Eur- 
berville Needham , in the Summer of the Year 
1743, in the Manner defcribed by himfelf 
in his curious Book of New Microfcopkal 
Difcoveries -f*. 
Thefe Animalcules are not ufually lodg¬ 
ed in fuch blighted Grains of Wheat as are 
covered externally with a Soot-like Duff, 
* Mentzelius publifned Obfervations made on the Procefs 
of the Transformation of Eels in Vinegar, whith, he tells the 
World, he faw ilfue in Flies ; which Flies did afterwards lay 
their Eggs in the Vinegar, &c. And he has given Drawings 
of the faid Flies with his own Hands. On the contrary, 
D. Marcus Antonius Cellius affirmed to the Phyiico-mathema¬ 
tical Society at Rome, Anno 1688, that with very good 
Microfcopes of his own making he found the Eels in Vinegar 
to be 'viviparous. 
f Vid. New Microfcopical Difcoveries by Mr .Needham* p* 85* 
(whofo 
