IOO 
Of the Semen Mafculinum, 
Of the femen mafculinum. 
S PONTANEOUS generation is a do&rme fo ge¬ 
nerally exploded, that a difproof of it is altogether 
needlefs in this place, it being put beyond all difpute 
that all animals and vegetables owe their produ&ion to 
parent animals and vegetables ; and that animals are from 
animalcula °. Thefe animalcula being originally in the 
lemen of the male, and not in the female; therefore can 
never come forward or be formed into animals of their 
refpedtive kinds, without the ova in the female p. 
By the affiftance of a good microfcope, myriads of 
animalcules may be difcovered in the femen mafculinum 
.of animals, alive and vigorous; though fo exceedingly 
minute, that it has been computed 3,000,000,000 of 
them are not equal to a grain q of fand. 
The general appearance of the animalcules in the 
femen mafculinum of different creatures is very much the 
fame, that is, their bodies all feem to he of an oval form* 
with long tapering {lender tails iffuing therefrom, fome- 
what refembhng tadpoles: though their tails in propor¬ 
tion to their bodies are much longer than thofe of tad¬ 
poles. And the animalcules in the femen of Mies have 
tails {fill longer and {lenderer than either, infomuch that 
the extremity of them is rarely to be difcerned. Their 
general appearance as above defcribed is {hewn fig. 187. 
Mr. Leeuwenhoek, upon viewing the milt of a cod 
filh 1 with a microfcope, obferved therein fuch prodigious 
itumbers of living animalcula, with long tails incelfantly 
moving^ 
• Phil. Tranf, No. 192: F Vide Harris's Lex. Tech, 
ynder the word Generation. Vide Keii’s. Anat. p., 116.. 
* Phy, Collcdlions, N o, 1 . p. 3. 
