A N I 
have too little force to put them in motion: but their 
power of moving increafed as they receded from the fila¬ 
ments, and they appeared to make confiderable efforts to 
difengage themfelves. In this manner each of them gra¬ 
dually drew tails of different lengths out of the filaments. 
Some of thefe tails were fo long and fo thin, that they had 
no proportion to the bodies, which were always more or 
lefs embarratfed, according to the length of the threads 
or tails. When the tail was long, the angle of the vi¬ 
bratory motion was increafed; and, when the tail was 
fhort, the progreffive motion was more confpicuous. I 
continued my obfervations, almoft without interruption, 
for fourteen hours ; and I difeovered, that the length of 
the tails or threads gradually diminifhed, and became fo 
thin and delicate, that their extremities fucceflively cea- 
fed to be vifible; and at laft the whole difappeared. The 
horizontal vibrations ot the globules then cealed, and 
their progreffive motion was then diredt, though they frill 
had vertical ofcillations, or, rather, they rolled like a 
velfel at fea. The fmall bodies, when deprived of their 
tails, were oval and tranfparent, and refembled thole pre¬ 
tended animals which are feen in oyfter-water on the fixth 
or feventh day, or thofe found in the jelly of roalted veal 
at the end of the fourth day. 
“ Between the tenth and twelfth hour, the liquor was 
become very fluid, and all the globules appeared to pro¬ 
ceed in troops from one fide of the drop, as reprefented 
in fig. 31. They palfed over the field of the microlcope 
in 'lets than four feconds ; they marched in lines of feven 
or eight in front; and fucceeded each other without in¬ 
terruption, like the defiling ot loldiers. 1 obferved this 
fingular phenomenon for more than five minutes; and, 
as the current of animals did not then ceafe, I was defi- 
rous of difeovering the caufe. I therefore gently fliifted 
the glafs, and perceived that all thefe moving globules 
proceeded from a kind of mucilage or net-work of fila¬ 
ments, as fhewn in fig. 32, which continually produced 
them, and with more rapidity and copioufnefs than the 
filaments had done ten hours before. There was flill a 
difference more remarkable between the globules produ¬ 
ced by the liquor, when thick, and thofe produced when 
it was more fluid; for, in the latter cafe, they drew no 
threads or tails after them, their motion was quicker, and 
they went in flocks like fheep. I examined the mucilage 
from which they proceeded fora long time, and perceived 
that it gradually diminifhed, and was converted into mo¬ 
ving globules, till more than one half of it was deftroyed. 
After which, the liquor being too dry, this mucilage be¬ 
came obfeure in the middle, and it was furrounded with 
fmall threads, forming fquare intervals, as fhewn in jig. 
33. Thefe fmall threads feemed'to be compofed of the 
bodies of the moving globules which had been killed by 
the drying of the liquor, and the whole refembled the 
web of a fpider befprinkled with drops of dew. By the 
firft experiments, I perceived that thefe fmall moving bo¬ 
dies changed their figures; and I imagined, that, in ge¬ 
neral, they diminifhed in bulk, though I was not then al¬ 
together certain of the fact. But my fubfequent obfer¬ 
vations removed every doubt. At the twelfth and thir¬ 
teenth hour, the bodies were vifibly fmaller; but, as they 
diminifhed in bulk, their fpecific gravity increafed, Spe¬ 
cially when they ceafed to move, which they generally did 
all at once, and fell down to the bottom in form of an 
afh-coloured fediment, which was perceptible by the na¬ 
ked eye ; and, by the afliftance of the microfcope, it ap¬ 
peared to be compofed of globules attached to one ano¬ 
ther, fometimes by threads, and at other times by groups, 
but always in a regular manner.” 
From thefe experiments, M. Buffon concludes, that 
what Leeuwenhoek, Hartfoeker, and others, have called 
fpermatic animals, are not creatures really endowed with 
life, but fomething proper to compofe a living creature ; 
and he diftinguifhes them by the name of organic particles. 
The fame individual kinds of animals he declares he has 
found in the fluids feparated from the ovaria of females; 
Vol. I. No. 46. 
A N I 729 
and for the truth of this appeals to the teftimony of Mr. 
Needham, who was an eye-wi.tnefs of his experiments. 
He alfo brings an additional proof of his dodhine from 
Mr. Needham’s obfervations on the milt, of the calmar, a 
fpecies of cuttle-fifh, which, he fays, contains no animal¬ 
cules; and therefore we may from analogy conclude, that 
the fmall moving bodies which are to be feen in the femen 
of other animals, are not really creatures endowed with 
life. M. Buffon extends the analogy flill further; and 
concludes, that all the moving bodies which are to be 
found in the infufions either of animal or vegetable fub- 
ftances are of a limilar nature. “ To.difeover (fays he) 
whether all the parts of animals, and all the feeds .of plants, 
contained moving organic particles, 1 made infufions of 
the flelh of different animals, and of the feeds of more 
than twenty different fpecies of vegetables; and after re¬ 
maining fome days in clofe glafles, I had the pleafure of 
feeing organic moving particles in all of them.” 
Thefe fyftems, however, both of fpermatic animalcules, 
and of organic particles, notwithstanding the fpecious mode 
in which they were introduced, and the credit given them 
by men of the firft philofophical ability, are now fallen 
into difrepute, and totally rejected by later phyfiolo'gifts, 
for reafons which may be feen under the article Impreg¬ 
nation, and by confulting other obfervations in Ana¬ 
tomy, p. 642, 643, Stc. 
ANIMA'L!TY,jf The flate of animal exiftence. 
To A'NIMATE, v. a. \_animo, Lat,] To quicken; to 
make alive ; to give life to : as, The foul animates the bo¬ 
dy; Man muff have been animated by a higher power. 
To give pow'ers to; to heighten the powers or effect of 
anything. To encourage; to incite: 
But none, ah! none can animate the lyre, 
And the mute firings with vocal fouls infpire : 
Whether the learn’d Minerva be her theme, 
Or chafte Diana bathing in the ftreant; 
None can record their heav’nly praife fo well 
As Helen, in whofe eyes ten thoufand Cupids dwell. 
Dry den. 
Animate, 1 adj. Alive; poffeflinganimal life.—All bo¬ 
dies have fpirits and pneumatical parts within them; but 
the main differences between animate and inanimate, are 
two : the firft: is, that the fpirits of things animate are all 
contained within themfelves, and are branched in veins 
and fecret canals, as blood is; and, in living creatures, 
the fpirits have not only branches, but certain cells or 
feats, where the principal fpirits refide, and whereunto 
the reft do refort: but the fpirits in things inanimate are 
fhut in, and cut off by the tangible parts, and are not 
pervious one to another, as air is in fnow. Bacon. 
Nobler birth 
Of creatures animate with gradual life, 
Of growth, fenfe, reafon, all fumm’d up in man. Milton, 
There are feveral topics ufed againft: atheifm and idolatry ; 
fucli as the vifible marks of divine wifdorn and goodnefs 
in the works of the creation, the vital union of fouls 
with matter, and the admirable ftructure of animate bo¬ 
dies. Bentley. 
A'NIMATED, part. adj. Lively; vigorous: 
Warriors fhe fires with animated founds; 
Pours balm into the bleeding lovers wounds. Pope. 
Animated-needle, a needle touched with a magnet 
or loadftone. 
A'NIMATENESS,yi The ftate of being animated. 
AN 1 M A'TION,yi The aft of animating or enlivening. 
The date of being enlivened.— -Two general motions in all 
animation are its beginning and encreafe ; and two more to 
run through its ftate and declination. Brown. 
Animation is therefore, in a phyfical fenfe, the parti¬ 
cular effedt produced by the vis vita:, in all animated bo¬ 
dies, by which life is begun and fupported. The diffe¬ 
rent hypothefes of phyficians and philofophers, concerning 
the time of animation, have had their influence on the 
8 Z penal 
