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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Buffon's Natural History, Volume III (of 10),
+by Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, Translated by James Smith Barr
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Buffon's Natural History, Volume III (of 10)
+       Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c.
+
+
+Author: Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
+
+
+
+Release Date: May 12, 2014  [eBook #45639]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BUFFON'S NATURAL HISTORY, VOLUME
+III (OF 10)***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Chris Curnow, Tom Cosmas, and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made
+available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
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+      See 45639-h.htm or 45639-h.zip:
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+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/45639/45639-h.zip)
+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive. See
+      https://archive.org/details/buffonsnaturalhi03buff
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+      Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
+
+
+
+
+
+                           _Barr's Buffon._
+
+                       Buffon's Natural History,
+
+                              CONTAINING
+
+                        A THEORY OF THE EARTH,
+                               A GENERAL
+                           _HISTORY OF MAN_,
+                     OF THE BRUTE CREATION, AND OF
+                         VEGETABLES, MINERALS,
+                              _&c._ _&c._
+
+                           FROM THE FRENCH.
+
+                     WITH NOTES BY THE TRANSLATOR.
+
+                            IN TEN VOLUMES.
+
+                               VOL. III.
+
+                                London:
+                      PRINTED FOR THE PROPRIETOR,
+              AND SOLD BY H. D. SYMONDS, PATERNOSTER-ROW.
+
+                                 1807.
+
+                    T. Gillet, Printer, Wild-Court.
+
+
+
+
+                               CONTENTS
+
+                                  OF
+
+                           THE THIRD VOLUME.
+
+
+                                                           _Page_
+
+              History of Animals                               1
+
+  Chap. VI.   _Experiments on the Method of Generation_        81
+
+  Chap. VII.  _Comparison of my Observations with those
+                of Leeuwenhoek_                               134
+
+  Chap. VIII. _Reflections on the preceding Experiments_      159
+
+  Chap. IX.   _Varieties on the Generation of Animals_        208
+
+  Chap. X.    _On the Formation of the Foetus_                226
+
+  Chap. XI.   _On the Expansion, Growth, and Delivery of
+                the Foetus_                                   260
+
+              _Recapitulation_                                309
+
+
+              History of Man.
+
+  Chap. I.    _Of the Nature of Man_                          317
+
+  Chap. II.   _Of Infancy_                                    334
+
+
+
+_Directions for placing the Plates._
+
+
+  Page 88, Fig. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
+      106, Fig. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.
+      140, Plate III.
+      148, Plate IV.
+
+
+
+
+BUFFON'S
+
+NATURAL HISTORY.
+
+
+
+
+_HISTORY OF ANIMALS._
+
+
+Aristotle admits, with Plato, of final and efficient causes. These
+efficient causes are sensitive and vegetative souls, that give form to
+matter which, of itself, is only a capacity of receiving forms; and
+as in generation the female gives the most abundant matter, and it
+being against his system of final causes to admit that what one could
+effect should be performed by many, he concludes, that the female
+alone contains the necessary matter to generation; and, as another of
+his principles was, that matter itself is unformed, and that form is
+a distinct being from matter, he affirmed that the male furnished the
+form, and, consequently, nothing belonging to matter.
+
+Descartes, on the contrary, who admitted but a few mechanical
+principles in his philosophy, endeavoured to explain the formation
+of the foetus by them, and thought it in his power to comprehend,
+and make others understand, how an organized and living being could
+be made by the laws of motion alone. His admitted principles differed
+from those used by Aristotle; but both, instead of examining the thing
+itself, without prepossession and prejudice, have only considered it
+in the point of view relative to their systems of philosophy, which
+could not be attended with a successful application to the nature of
+generation, because it depends, as we have shewn, on quite different
+principles. Descartes differs still more from Aristotle, by admitting
+of the mixture of the seminal liquor of the two sexes; he thinks both
+furnish something material for generation, and that the fermentation
+occasioned by the mixture of these two seminal liquors causes the
+formation of the foetus.
+
+Hippocrates, who lived under Perdicas, a considerable time before
+Aristotle, established an opinion, which was adopted by Galen, and a
+great number of physicians who followed him; his opinion was, that the
+male and female had each a prolific fluid, and supposed, besides, that
+there were two seminal fluids in each sex, the one strong and active,
+the other weak and inactive.[A] That a mixture of the two strongest
+fluids produce a male child, and of the two weakest a female; so
+that, according to him, they each contain a male and a female seed.
+He supports this hypothesis by the following circumstance; that many
+women, who produce only girls by their first husbands, have produced
+boys by a second; and that men, who have had only girls by their first
+wives, have had boys by others. It appears to me, that if even this
+circumstance could be well established, it would not be necessary
+to give to the male and female two kinds of seminal liquor for an
+explanation; because it may easily be conceived, that women, who have
+brought forth only girls by their first husbands, and produced boys
+with other men, were only those who furnished more particles proper
+for generation with their first husband than with the second; or that
+the second husband furnished more particles proper for generation
+with the second wife than with the first; for when, in the instant of
+conception, the organic molecules of the male are more abundant than
+those of the female, the result will be a male, and when those of
+the female abounds a female will be produced; nor is it in the least
+surprising that a man should have a disadvantage in this respect with
+some women, while he will have a superiority over others.
+
+[A] See Hippocrates, lib. de Genitura, page 129, & lib. de dięta, page
+198, Lugd. Bat. 1665, vol. I.
+
+This great physician supposes, that the seed of the male is a secretion
+of the strongest and most essential parts of all that is humid in the
+human body; and he thus explains how this secretion is made: "Venę
+& nervi, he says, ab omni corpore in pudendum vergunt, quibus dum
+aliquantulum teruntur & calescunt ac implentur, velut pruritus incidit,
+ex hoc toti corpori voluptas ac caliditas accidit; quum vero pudendum
+teritur & homo movetur, humidum in corpore calescit ac diffunditur,
+& a motu conquassatur ac spumescit, quemadmodum alii humores omnes
+conquassati spumescunt.
+
+"Sic autem in homine ab humido spumescente id quod robustissimum est ac
+pinguissimum secernitur, & ad medullam spinalem venit; tendunt enim in
+hanc ex omni corpore vię, & diffundunt ex cerebro in lumbus ac in totum
+corpus & in medullum; & ex ipsa medull proacedunt vię, ut & ad ipsum
+humidum perferatur & ex ipsa secedat; postquam autem ad hanc medullam
+genitura pervenerit, procedit ad renes, hac enim via tendit per venas,
+& si renes fuerint exulcerati, aliquando etiam sanguis defertur: a
+renibus autem transit per medois testes in pudendum, proce dit autem
+non qua urina, erum alia ipsi via est illi contigua, &c."[B]
+
+[B] See Fęsius's Translation, vol. I. page 129.
+
+Anatomists will no doubt discover that Hippocrates is not correct
+in tracing the road of the seminal liquor; but that does not affect
+his opinion, that the semen comes from every part of the body, and
+particularly the head, because, he says, those whose veins have been
+cut which lie near the ears only bring forth a weak, and very often an
+unfertile semen. The female has also a seminal fluid, which she emits,
+sometimes within the matrix, and sometimes without, when the internal
+orifice is more open than it should. The semen of the male enters into
+the matrix, where it mixes with that of the female; and as each has
+two kinds of fluid, the one strong and the other weak, if both furnish
+their strong, a male will be the result, and if their weak, a female;
+and if in the mixture there are more particles of the male liquor than
+the female, then the infant will have a greater resemblance to the
+father than to the mother, and so on the contrary. It might here be
+asked Hippocrates what would happen when the one furnished its weak
+semen and the other its strong? I cannot conceive what answer he could
+make, and that alone is sufficient to cause his opinion of two seeds in
+each sex to be rejected.
+
+In this manner then, according to him, the formation of the foetus is
+made: the seminal fluids first mix in the matrix, where they gradually
+thicken by the heat of the body of the mother; the mixture receives and
+attracts the spirit of the heat, and when too warm part of the heat
+flies out, and the respiration of the mother sends a colder spirit in;
+thus alternatively a cold and a hot spirit enter the mixture, which
+give life, and cause a pellicle to grow on the surface, which takes a
+round form, because the spirits, acting as a centre, extend it equally
+on all sides. "I have seen, says this great man, a foetus of six days
+old; it was a ball of liquor surrounded with a pellicle; the liquor
+was reddish, and the pellicle was spread over with vessels, some red
+and others white, in the midst of which was a small eminence, which I
+thought to be the umbilical vessels, by which the foetus receives
+nourishment and the spirit of respiration from the mother. By degrees
+another pellicle is formed, which surrounds the first; the menstrual
+blood, being suppressed, abundantly supplies it with nutriment, and
+which coagulates by degrees, and becomes flesh; this flesh articulates
+itself in proportion as it grows, and receives its form from the
+spirit; each part proceeds to take its proper place; the solid
+particles go to their respective situations and the fluid to theirs:
+each matter seeks for that which is most like itself, and the foetus
+is at length entirely formed by these causes and these means."
+
+This system is less obscure and more reasonable than that of Aristotle,
+because Hippocrates endeavours to explain every matter by particular
+reasons: he borrows from the philosophy of his times but one single
+principle, which is, that heat and cold produce spirits, and that those
+spirits have the power of ordering and arranging matter. He has viewed
+generation more like a physician than a philosopher, while Aristotle
+has explained it more like a metaphysician than a naturalist; which
+makes the defects of Hippocrates's system particular and less apparent,
+while those of Aristotle's are general and evident.
+
+These two great men have each had their followers; almost all the
+scholastic philosophers, by adopting Aristotle's philosophy, received
+his system of generation, while almost every physician followed
+the opinion of Hippocrates; and seventeen or eighteen centuries
+passed without any thing new being said on the subject. At last, at
+the restoration of literature, some anatomists turned their eyes
+on generation, and Fabricius Aquapendente was the first who made
+experiments and observations on the impregnation and growth of the eggs
+of a fowl. The following is the substance of his observations.
+
+He distinguished two parts in the matrix of a hen, the one superior
+and the other inferior. The superior he calls the Ovarium, which is
+properly no other than a cluster of small yellow eggs of a round form,
+varying in size from the bigness of a mustard-seed to that of a large
+nut or medlar. These small eggs are fastened together by one common
+pellicle, and form a body which nearly resembles a bunch of grapes.
+The smallest of these eggs are white, and they take another colour in
+proportion as they increase.
+
+Having examined these eggs immediately after the communication of the
+cock, he did not perceive any remarkable difference, nor any of the
+male semen in any one of these eggs; he therefore supposed that every
+egg, and the ovarium itself, became fruitful by a subtle spirit, which
+came from the semen of the male; and he says, that in order to secure
+this fecundating spirit, nature has placed at the external orifice of
+the vagina of birds a kind of net-work or membrane, which permits, like
+a valve, the entrance of this seminal spirit, but at the same time
+prevents it from re-issuing or evaporating.
+
+When the egg is loosened from the common pellicle, it descends by
+degrees through a winding passage into the internal part of the matrix.
+This passage is filled with a liquor nearly similar to the white of
+an egg; it is also in this part that the eggs begin to be surrounded
+with this white liquor, with the membrane which occasions it, the two
+ligaments (_chalazę_) which passes over the white, and connects it
+with the yolk and shell, which are formed in a very short time before
+they are laid. These ligaments, according to Fabricius, is the part of
+the egg fecundated by the seminal spirit of the male; and it is here
+where the foetus first begins to form. The egg is not only the true
+matrix, that is to say, the place of the formation of the chick, but
+it is from the egg all generation depends. The egg produces it as the
+agent: it supplies both the matter and the organs; the ligaments are
+the substance of formation; the white and the yolk are the nutriment,
+and the seminal spirit of the male is the efficient cause. This
+spirit communicates to the ligaments at first an alterative faculty,
+afterwards a formative, and lastly the power of augmentation, &c.
+
+These observations of Fabricius have not given us a very clear
+explication of generation. Nearly at the same time as this anatomist
+was employed in these researches, towards the middle of the sixteenth
+century, the famous Aldrovandus[C] also made observations on eggs; but
+as Harvey judiciously observes, he followed Aristotle much closer than
+experiment. The descriptions he gives of the chicken in the egg are
+not exact. Volcher Coiter, one of his scholars, succeeded much better
+in his enquiries; and Parisanus, a physician of Venice, having also
+laboured on this subject, they have each given a description of the
+chicken in the egg, which Harvey prefers to any other.
+
+[C] See his Ornithology.
+
+This famous anatomist, to whom we are indebted for the discovery of the
+circulation of the blood, has composed a very extensive treatise on
+generation; he lived towards the middle of the last century, and was
+physician to Charles I. of England. As he was obliged to follow this
+unfortunate prince in his misfortunes, he lost what he had written on
+the generation of insects among other papers, and he composed what he
+has left us on the generation of birds and quadrupeds from his memory.
+I shall concisely relate his observations, his experiments, and his
+system.
+
+Harvey asserts that man and every animal proceed from an egg; that the
+first produce of conception in viviparous animals is a kind of an egg,
+and that the only difference between viviparous and oviparous is, that
+the foetus of the first take their origin, acquire their growth, and
+arrive at their entire expansion in the matrix; whereas the foetus of
+oviparous animals begins to exist in the body of the mother, where they
+are merely as eggs, and it is only after they have quitted the body of
+the mother that they really become foetuses; and we must remark, says
+he, that in oviparous animals, some hold their eggs within themselves
+till they are perfect, as birds, serpents and oviparous quadrupeds;
+others lay their eggs before they are perfect, as fish, crustaceous,
+and testaceous animals. The eggs which these animals deposit are only
+the rudiments of real eggs, they afterwards acquire bulk and membranes,
+and attract nourishment from the matter which surrounds them. It is the
+same, adds he, with insects, for example, and caterpillars, which only
+seem imperfect eggs, which seek their nutriment, and at the end of a
+certain time arrive to the state of chrysalis, which is a perfect egg.
+There is another difference in oviparous animals: for fowls and other
+birds have eggs of different sizes, whereas fish, frogs, &c. lay them
+before they are perfect, have them all of the same size; he indeed
+observes, that in pigeons, who only lay two eggs, all the small eggs
+which remain in the ovarium are of the same size, and it is only the
+foremost two which are bigger than the rest. It is the same, he says,
+in cartilaginous fish, as in the thornback, who have only two eggs
+which increase and come to maturity, while those which remain in the
+ovarium are, like those in fowls, of different sizes.
+
+He afterwards makes us an anatomical exposition of the parts necessary
+to generation, and observes, that in all birds the situation of the
+anus and vulra are contrary to the situation of those parts in other
+animals; the anus being placed before and the vulra behind;[D] and
+with respect to the cock, and all small birds, that they generate by
+external friction, having in fact no intermission nor real copulation;
+with male ducks, geese, and ostriches, it is evidently otherwise.
+
+[D] Most of these articles are taken from Aristotle.
+
+Hens produce eggs without the cock, but in a very small number, and
+these eggs, although perfect, are unfruitful: he does not agree with
+the opinion of country people, that two or three days cohabitation
+with the cock is sufficient to impregnate all the eggs a hen will lay
+within the year, but admits that he separated a hen from a cock for the
+space of twenty days, and that all the eggs she laid during that space
+were fecundated. While the egg is fastened to the ovarium, it derives
+its nutriment from the vessel of the common pellicle. But as soon as
+it is loosened from it, it derives the white liquor which fills the
+passages in which it descends, and the whole, even to the shell, is
+formed by this mode.
+
+The two ligaments (_chalazę_) which Aquapendente looks on as the shoot
+produced by the seed of the male, are found in the infecund eggs
+which the hen produces without the communication with the cock, as
+in those which are impregnated: and Harvey very judiciously remarks,
+that those parts do not proceed from the male, and are not those which
+are fecundated; the fecundated part of an egg is a very small white
+circle which is on the membrane that covers the yolk, and forms there
+a small spot, like a cicatrice, about the size of a lentil. Harvey
+also remarks, that this little cicatrice is found in every fecund or
+infecund egg, and that those who think it is produced by the seed of
+the male are deceived. It is of the same size and form in fresh eggs,
+as in those which have been kept a long time; but when we would hatch
+them, and when the egg receives a sufficient degree of heat, either by
+the hen, or artificially, we presently see this small spot increase and
+dilate nearly like the sight of the eye. This is the first change, and
+is visible at the end of a few hours incubation.
+
+When the egg has undergone a proper warmth for twenty-four hours,
+the yolk, which was before in the centre of the shell, approaches
+nearer to the cavity at the broad end; this cavity is increased by the
+evaporation of the watery part of the white, and the grosser part sinks
+to the small end. The cicatrice, or speck, on the membrane of the yolk,
+rises with it to the broad end, and seems to adhere to the membrane
+there: this speck is then about the bigness of a small pea, in the
+middle of it a white speck is discernible, and many circles, of which
+this point seems to form the centre.
+
+At the end of the second day these circles are larger and more
+visible; the streak also appears divided by these circles into two,
+and sometimes three parts of different colours; a small protuberance
+also appears on the external part, and nearly resembles a small eye,
+in the pupil of which there is a point, or little cataract; between
+these circles a clear liquor is contained by a very delicate membrane,
+and the speck now appears more to be placed in the white than on the
+membrane of the yolk. On the third day the transparent liquor is
+considerably increased, as is also the small membrane which surrounds
+it. The fourth day, a small streak of purple-coloured blood is observed
+at the circumference of the speck or ball, at a little distance from
+the centre of which a point may be seen of a blood colour, and which
+beats like a heart. It appears like a small spark at each diastole, and
+disappears at each systole; from this animated speck issue two small
+blood vessels, which these small vessels throw out as branches into
+this liquor, all of which come from the same point, nearly in like
+manner as the roots of a tree shoot from the trunk.
+
+Towards the end of the fourth day, or at the beginning of the fifth,
+the animated speck is so much increased as to appear like a small
+bladder filled with blood, and by its contractions and dilations
+is alternatively filled and emptied. In the same day this vessel
+very distinctly appears to divide into two parts, each of which
+alternatively impel and dilute the blood in the same manner. Around
+the shortest sanguinary vessel which we have spoken of a kind of cloud
+is seen, which, although transparent, renders the sight of this vessel
+more obscure; this cloud constantly grows thicker and more attached
+to the root of the blood vessel, and appears like a small globe: this
+small globe lengthens and divides into three parts, one of which is
+globular, and larger than the other two; the head and eyes now begin to
+appear, and at the end of the fifth day, the place for the vertebra is
+seen in the remainder part of this globe.
+
+The sixth day the head is seen more clearly, the outlines of the eyes
+now appear, the wings and thighs lengthen, and the liver, lungs, and
+beak, are distinctly observed; the foetus now begins to move and
+extend its head, although it has as yet only the internal viscera; for
+the thorax, abdomen, and all the external coverings of the fore part,
+of the body are wanting. At the end of this day, or at the beginning
+of the seventh, the toes appear, the chick opens and moves its beak,
+and the anterior parts of the body begin to cover the viscera; on the
+seventh day the chicken is entirely formed, and from this time until
+it comes out of the egg, nothing happens but only an expansion of those
+parts it acquired within these first seven days: at the fourteenth or
+fifteenth day the feathers appear, and at the twenty-first it breaks
+the shell with its beak, and procures its enlargement.
+
+These observations of Harvey appear to have been made with the greatest
+exactness; nevertheless we shall point out how imperfect they are,
+and that he has fallen himself into the error he reproaches others
+with, making experiments to support his favourite hypothesis, that
+the heart was the animated speck which first appeared; but before we
+proceed on this matter, it is but just to give an account of his other
+observations, and of his system.
+
+It is well known that Harvey made many experiments on hinds and does.
+They receive the male towards the middle of September: a few days after
+copulation the horns of the matrix become thicker, and at the same time
+more lax. In each of the cavities five carunculas appear. Towards the
+26th or 28th of the above month the matrix thickens still more, and the
+five carunculas are swelled nearly to the shape and size of a nurse's
+nipple; by opening them, an infinity of small white specks are found.
+Harvey pretends to have remarked, that there was neither then, nor
+immediately after copulation, any alteration or change in the ovarium,
+and that he has never been able to find a single drop of the seed of
+the male in the matrix, although he has made many researches for that
+purpose.
+
+Towards the end of October, or beginning of November, when the
+females separate from the males, the thickness of the horns begins
+to diminish, the internal surfaces of their cavities are swelled,
+and appear fastened together; the carunculas remain, and the whole,
+which resembles the substance of the brain, is so soft that it cannot
+be touched. Towards the 13th or 14th of November, Harvey says, that
+he perceived filaments, like the threads of a spider's web, which
+traversed the cavities of the horns and the matrix itself: these
+filaments shoot out from the superior angle of the matrix, and by
+their multiplication form a kind of membrane, or empty tunic; a day
+or two after this tunic is filled with a white, aqueous and glutinous
+matter, which adheres to the matrix by a kind of mucilage; and in the
+third month this tunic, or pouch, contains an embryo about the breadth
+of two fingers long, and another internal pouch, called the amnios,
+containing a transparent crystalline liquor, in which the foetus
+swims. The foetus at first was but an animated speck, like that in
+the egg of a fowl. All the rest is performed in the same manner as that
+related of the chick; the only difference is in the eyes, which appears
+much sooner in the fowl than in the deer. The animated speck appears
+about the 19th or 20th of November, a day or two after which the oblong
+body, which contains the foetus, is seen; in six or seven days more
+it is so much formed that the sex and limbs may be distinguished; but
+the heart and viscera are yet uncovered, and it is two days more before
+the thorax and the abdomen cover them, which is the last work and
+completion of the edifice.
+
+From these observations upon hens and deer, Harvey concludes, that
+all female animals have eggs, that in these eggs a separation of a
+transparent crystalline liquor contained in the amnios is made, and
+that another external pouch, the chorion, contains the whole liquors of
+the egg; that the first thing which appears in the crystalline liquor
+is the sanguinary and animated spirit; in a word, that the formation of
+viviparous animals is made after the same manner as oviparous; and he
+explains the generation of both as follows.
+
+Generation is the work of the matrix, in which no seed of the male
+ever enters; the matrix conceives by a kind of contagion, which the
+male liquor communicates to it, nearly as the magnet communicates
+its magnetic virtue to steel. This male contagion not only acts upon
+the matrix but over all the female body, which is wholly fecundated,
+although the matrix only has the faculty of conception, as the brain
+has the sole faculty of conceiving ideas. The ideas conceived by the
+brain, are like the images of the objects transmitted by the senses;
+and the foetus, which may be considered as the idea of the matrix, is
+like that which produces it. This is the reason that a child has a
+resemblance to its father, &c.
+
+I shall not follow this anatomist any farther; what I have mentioned
+is sufficient to judge of his system; but we have some remarks to make
+on his observations. He has given them in a manner most likely to
+impose; seems to have often repeated his experiments, and to have taken
+every necessary precaution to avoid deception; from which it might
+be imagined he had seen all he writes upon, and observed them with
+the greatest accuracy. Nevertheless, I perceive both uncertainty and
+obscurity in his descriptions; his observations are related chiefly on
+memory; and although he often says the contrary, Aristotle appears to
+have been his guide more than experience; for he has only seen in eggs
+what Aristotle has before mentioned; and that most of his observations
+which may be deemed essential had been made before him, we shall be
+perfectly convinced if we pay a little attention to what follows:
+
+Aristotle knew that the ligaments (Chalazę) were of no service to the
+generation of the chicken. "Quę ad principium lutei grandines hęrent,
+nil conferunt ad generationem, ut quidam suspicantur."[E] Parisanus,
+Volcher, Coiter, Aquapendente, and others, remarked the cicatrice as
+well as Harvey: Aquapendente supposed it of no use; but Parisanus
+pretended that it was formed by the male semen, or at least that the
+white speck in the middle of the cicatrice was the seed of the male
+which would produce the chicken. "Est-que, says he, illud galli semen
+alba & tenuissima tunica abductum, quod substat duabus communibus
+toti ovo membranis, &c." Therefore the only discovery which properly
+belongs to Harvey is, his having observed that this cicatrice is found
+in infecund as well as fecundated eggs; for others had observed, like
+him, the dilation of the circles, and the growth of the white speck;
+and it appears that Parisanus had seen it much better; this is all
+which he remarks in the two first days of incubation; and what he says
+of the third day, is only a repetition of Aristotle's words. [F]"Per id
+tempus ascendit jam vetellus ad superiorem partem ovi acutiorem, ubi
+& principium ovi est & foetus excluditur; corque ipsum apparet, in
+albumine sanguinei puncti, quod punctum salit & movet sese instar quasi
+animatum; ab eo meatus venarum specie duo, sanguinei pleni, flexuosi,
+qui, crescente foetu, feruntur in utramque tunicam ambientem, ac
+membrana sanguineas fibras habens eo tempore albumen continet sub
+meatibus illis venarum similibus; ac paulo post discernitur corpus
+pufillum initio, ommino & candidum, capite conspicuo, atque in eo
+oculis maxime turgidis qui diu sic permanent, sero enim parvi fiunt ac
+considunt. In parte autem corporis inferiore, nullum extat membrum per
+initia, quod respondeat superioribus. Meatus autum illi qui a corde
+prodeunt, alter ad circumdantem, membranam tendit, alter ad luteum,
+officio umbilici."
+
+[E] Hist. Anim. lib. vi. cap. 2.
+
+[F] Hist. Anim. lib. vi. cap. 4.
+
+Harvey attacks Aristotle for saying that the yolk ascends towards the
+small end of the egg, and concludes, that he had not seen any thing
+himself, but had apparently received his information from some good
+observer of Nature. Harvey was wrong in thus reproaching Aristotle, and
+in asserting that the yolk always ascends towards the broad end of the
+egg, for that depends on the position of the egg during the time of
+incubation, for the yolk always ascends to the uppermost part, as being
+lighter than the white, whether it be to the broad or the small end.
+William Langley, a physician at Dordrecht, who made observations on the
+hatching of eggs, in 1655, twenty years before Harvey, was the first
+who made this remark.[G]
+
+[G] See Wm. Langley Observ. edę a justo Schradero, Amst. 1674.
+
+But to return to the passage we have quoted. By that we see that the
+crystalline liquor, the animated speck, the two circles, the two
+blood vessels, &c. are described by Aristotle precisely as Harvey
+had seen them. This anatomist also pretends that the animated speck
+is the heart, that this heart is formed the first, and that the
+viscera and other parts are joined afterwards. All this has been
+spoken of by Aristotle, and seen by Harvey, and nevertheless it is
+not conformable to truth. To be assured of this we need only repeat
+the same experiments on eggs, or only read with attention those of
+Malpighius,[H] which were made about 40 years after those of Harvey.
+
+[H] Malpighii pullus in ovo.
+
+This excellent observer of Nature examined, with attention, the
+cicatrice, which is the essential part of the egg; he found it was
+large in all impregnated eggs, and small in those which were not
+impregnated; and he discovered in eggs which had never been sat upon,
+that the white speck, spoken of by Harvey as the first which becomes
+animated, is a small pouch or ball, which swims in a liquor inclosed
+by the first circle, and in the middle of this ball he observed the
+embryo. The membrane of this small pouch, which is the amnios, being
+very thin and transparent, permitted him easily to see the foetus
+it surrounded. Malpighius, with reason, concludes, from this first
+observation, that the foetus exists in the egg before incubation, and
+that its first outlines are then very strong. It is not necessary to
+point out how opposite this experiment is to the opinion of Harvey,
+for he saw nothing of a form for the two first days of incubation, and
+it was the third day before the sign of the foetus appears, which is
+the animated speck: whereas according to Malpighius, the outlines of
+the foetus exist in the egg before incubation has commenced.
+
+After being assured of this important matter, Malpighius examined, with
+like attention, the cicatrice of unimpregnated eggs, which, as we have
+observed, is smaller than those which have been impregnated; it has
+often irregular circumscriptions, and sometimes differs in different
+eggs. Near its centre, instead of the ball that encloses the foetus,
+there is a globular mole, which does not contain any thing organized,
+and which being opened does not present any thing formed or arranged,
+but only some appendages filled with a thick but transparent fluid; and
+this unshapen mass is surrounded with many concentric circles.
+
+After six hours incubation the cicatrice is considerably dilated,
+and the ball formed by the amnios is easily discovered; this ball is
+filled with a liquor, in the middle of which the head of the chicken
+and back-bone are distinctly seen. In about six hours more the little
+animal is seen more distinctly; in another six hours the head is
+grown larger, and the spine lengthened; and at the end of twenty-four
+hours the neck begins to lengthen, the vertebrę of the back appears
+of a white colour, and the head to turn to one side. The vertebrę are
+disposed on each side of the spine, like small globules; and almost
+at the same time the small wings begin to shoot, and the head, neck,
+and breast are lengthened. After thirty hours nothing new appears,
+but every part of the little animal is considerably increased,
+especially the _amnios_. Around this membrane the umbilical vessels
+are seen of a darkish colour. At the end of thirty-eight hours, the
+chicken being grown much larger, its head is large, and in which
+are distinguished three vessels surrounded with membranes, which
+also cover the back bone, through which the vertebrę are still seen.
+In forty hours, continues Malpighius, it was wonderful to see the
+chicken alive, floating in the liquor; the back bone was increased,
+the head was turned on one side, the vesicles of the brain were less
+apparent, the first outlines of the eyes appeared, the heart beat, and
+the circulation of the blood was begun. Malpighius then gives the
+description of the vessels and course of the blood, and reasonably
+supposes that, though the heart does not beat before thirty-eight or
+forty hours incubation, it still existed before that time, like the
+other parts of the chicken; but on examining the heart in a dark room,
+he discovered not the least glimpse of light to proceed from it, as
+Harvey insinuates.
+
+At the end of two days the chicken is seen floating in the liquor of
+the amnios; in which the head, composed of vesicles, is turned on one
+side; the back bone and vertebrę are lengthened; the heart, which then
+hung out of the breast, beat three times; for the fluid it contains
+is impelled into the ventricles of the heart, from thence into the
+arteries, and afterwards into the umbilical vessels. He remarks, that
+having separated the chick from the white of the egg, the motion of
+the heart still continued for a whole day. After two days and fourteen
+hours, or sixty-two hours of incubation, the chicken, although grown
+stronger, remained with its head bent downwards in the liquor,
+contained by the amnios; the veins and arteries were seen among the
+vessels of the brain; the lineaments of the eyes, and the spinal
+marrow, also appear extending the length of the vertebrę.
+
+At the end of the third day the head of the chicken appeared crooked;
+besides the eyes five vessels were seen in the head filled with a
+liquid matter; the first outlines of the wings and thighs were to be
+distinguished, and the body began to gather flesh; the pupil of the
+eye, and also the crystalline and vitreous humour were discernible. At
+the fourth day the vesicles of the brain were nearer each other; the
+eminences of the vertebrę were more prominent, the wings and thighs
+assumed a greater solidity as they increased in length; the whole body,
+covered with a jelly-like flesh, was now surrounded within the body by
+a thin membrane, and the umbilical vessels that unite the animal to
+the yolk, appeared to come from the abdomen. On the fifth and sixth
+days the vesicles of the brain began to be covered; the spinal marrow,
+divided into two parts, began to take solidity and stretch along the
+trunk; the wings and thighs lengthened; the feet began to spread; the
+belly was closed up and tumid; the liver was distinctly seen, and
+appeared of a dusky white; the ventricles of the heart were discerned
+to beat very distinctly; the body of the chicken was covered with a
+skin, and the traces of the feathers were visible; the seventh day
+the head appeared very large, the brain was entirely covered with its
+membranes; the beak began to appear betwixt the eyes, and the wings,
+the thighs, and the legs had acquired their perfect figure.
+
+I shall not follow Malpighius any farther, as the remainder relates
+only to the expansion of the parts till the twenty-first day, when the
+chicken breaks the shell with its beak; though before that time it is
+heard to chirrup in its imprisonment. The heart is the last part which
+receives its proper form, for it is eleven days before the arteries
+are seen to join, and the ventricles become perfectly conformable and
+united.
+
+We are now in a condition to judge of the value of Harvey's experiments
+and observations. There is great appearance this anatomist did not
+make use of a microscope, which in fact was not brought to perfection
+in his days, or he would not have asserted there was no difference
+between the cicatrice of an impregnated and an unimpregnated egg; he
+would not have said the seed of the male produced no alteration in
+the egg, especially in the cicatrice; he would not have affirmed that
+nothing was perceptible till the third day, that the animated speck was
+the first that appeared, and into which the white speck was changed.
+He would have seen that the white speck was a ball which contained the
+whole apparatus of generation, and that every part of the foetus are
+there from the moment the hen has connection with the cock. He would
+also have learnt, that without this connection it contains only an
+unshapen mass, which could never become animated, because in fact it is
+not organized like an animal, and because it is only when this mass,
+which we must look upon as an assemblage of the organic particles of
+the female semen, is penetrated by the organic particles of the male
+semen, that there results from it an animal, which is formed at the
+moment, but whose motion is imperceptible till the end of forty hours
+after: he would not have asserted that the heart is first formed, and
+that the other parts are joined to it by a juxta-position, since it
+is evident from Malpighius's observations, that the outlines of every
+part are all immediately formed, but only appear in proportion as they
+dilate; on the whole, if he had seen what Malpighius saw, he would not
+have affirmed that no impression of the male seed remained in the eggs,
+and that it was only by contagion that they are fecundated, &c.
+
+It is also just to remark, that what Harvey has said on the parts of
+the generation of a cock is not exact; he asserts that the cock has no
+genital member, and that there is no intromission; nevertheless it is
+certain that this animal, instead of one has two, and that they both
+act at the same time, and which action is a very strong compression, if
+not a true copulation;[I] and it is by this double organ that the cock
+emits the seminal liquor into the matrix of the hen.
+
+[I] See Reyn. Graaf, page 242.
+
+Let us now compare the experiments made by Harvey on hinds with those
+of De Graaf on doe rabbits; we shall find that although De Graaf
+supposes, with Harvey, that all animals proceed from eggs, yet there is
+a great difference in the mode which these two anatomists have observed
+in the first steps of formation, or rather expansion, of the foetuses
+of viviparous animals.
+
+After having exerted every effort to establish, by reasons drawn from
+comparative anatomy, that the testicles of viviparous females are real
+ovaries, De Graaf explains how the eggs are loosened from the ovaries
+and fall into the horns of the matrix; he then relates what he observed
+in a rabbit, which he dissected half an hour after copulation. The
+horns of the matrix, he says, were more red than before, but no other
+change in the rest of the parts: there was also no appearance of any
+male seed, neither in the vagina, matrix, nor horns of the matrix.
+
+Having dissected another six hours after copulation he observed the
+follicules, or coats, which he supposes contained the eggs in the
+ovary, ware become red, but found no male seed either in the ovaria or
+elsewhere. He dissected another twenty-four hours after copulation,
+and remarked in one ovarium three, and in the other five follicules
+that were changed, the transparency being become dark and red. In one
+dissected twenty-seven hours after copulation he perceived the horns
+of the womb had become more red and strictly embraced the ovaries. In
+another, that he opened forty hours after copulation, he found in one
+of the ovaries seven, follicules, and in the other three that were
+changed. Fifty-two hours after copulation he examined another and
+found one follicle changed in one of the ovaries and four in another,
+and having opened these follicules he found a glandular liquor, in the
+middle of which there was a small cavity, where he did not perceive
+any liquor, which made him suppose that the transparent liquor,
+commonly contained in the follicules, and which, he says, is enclosed
+in its own membranes, might have been separated by a kind of rupture:
+he searched after this matter in the passages, and in the horns of
+the matrix themselves, but he found none; he only perceived that the
+internal membrane of the horns of the matrix was very much swelled. In
+another, dissected three days after copulation, he observed that the
+superior extremity of the passage, which communicates with the horns
+of the matrix, strictly embraced the ovaries; and having separated it
+he perceived three follicules, longer and harder than usual. After
+searching with the greatest attention the passages above-mentioned he
+found in the right passage one egg, and in the right horn of the matrix
+two more, not bigger than a grain of mustard-seed: those little eggs
+were each closed in double membranes, and the inner one was filled
+with a very limpid liquor. Having examined the other ovarium he found
+four follicules that were changed, three of which were white and had a
+little liquor within them; but the fourth was of a darker colour, and
+contained no liquor, which made him judge that from this the egg had
+been separated. Pursuing his enquiries he found an egg in the superior
+extremity of the other horn, and exactly like those he had discovered
+in the right one. He says that the eggs which are separated from the
+ovary are ten times smaller than those which are fastened to it; and
+he thinks that this difference is occasioned from the eggs containing,
+when they are in the ovaries, another matter, and that is the glandular
+liquor he remarked in the molecules.
+
+Four days after copulation he opened another, and found in one of the
+ovaries four, and in the other three follicules, emptied of their eggs;
+and in the horns corresponding to these he found an equal number of
+eggs. These eggs were larger than the first that he found three days
+after copulation, and were about the size of a small bird-shot; he also
+remarked that the internal membrane in these eggs was separated from
+the external, and appeared like a second egg in the first. In another,
+dissected five days after copulation, he found five empty follicules
+in the ovaries, and as many eggs in the matrix, to which they adhered.
+These eggs were about the size of duck-shot, and the internal membrane
+was more apparent than in the one he had observed before. In one which
+he opened six days after copulation there were six empty follicules
+in one ovaria, and only five eggs in the corresponding horn, and they
+appeared in one mass; in the other ovaria were four empty follicules
+and but one egg; these eggs were as big as swan-shot. He opened another
+on the seventh day after copulation, and found seven empty follicules;
+he also perceived several internal tumours in the matrix, from whence
+he took eggs the size of a pistol-bullet. Its membrane was more
+distinct than before, but contained only a very clear liquor. In one,
+eight days after copulation, he found in the matrix tumours, or cells,
+which contained the eggs, but they were very adherent, for he could not
+loosen them. In another, nine days after copulation, the cells, which
+contained the eggs, were greatly increased, and he saw that the liquor
+inclosed by the internal membrane had now got a light cloud floating
+upon it. He opened another ten days after copulation and the cloud was
+thicker, and formed an oblong body, like a little worm. At last, on the
+twelfth day after copulation, the figure of the embryo was distinctly
+to be perceived, which two days before only presented the figure of an
+oblong body; it was even so apparent that the different members might
+be distinguished. In the region of the breast he perceived two red and
+two white specks, and in the abdomen a mucilaginous substance, somewhat
+reddish. Fourteen days after copulation the head of the embryo was
+become large and transparent, the eyes prominent, the mouth open, the
+rudiments of the ears appeared; the back-bone, of a whitish colour,
+was bent towards the breast, and small blood-vessels came from each
+side, whose ramifications ran along the back as far as the feet; the
+two red specks, being considerably increased, appeared to be no other
+than the ventricles of the heart; by the sides of these red specks
+were two white ones, which were the rudiments of the lungs. In the
+abdomen the outlines of the liver were seen of a reddish colour, and a
+little intricate mass, like a ravelled thread, which was the stomach
+and intestines. After this the process was no more than a growth and
+expansion of every part till the thirty-first day, when the female
+rabbit brings forth her young.
+
+From these experiments De Graaf concludes, that all viviparous
+females have eggs; that these eggs are contained in the testicles,
+called ovaries; that they cannot disengage themselves till they are
+impregnated, because, he says, the glandular substance, by means of
+which the eggs quit their follicules, is not produced till after an
+impregnation. He also insists, that those who suppose they have seen
+eggs in only two or three days increased in size, must have been
+mistaken, for these eggs remain a longer time in the ovary, although
+fecundated, and instead of immediately increasing, they rather diminish
+until they are descended from the ovaries into the matrix.
+
+By comparing these observations with those of Harvey, we shall easily
+perceive that the principal circumstances have escaped the latter;
+and although there are many errors in the reasoning and experiments
+of De Graaf, nevertheless this anatomist, as well as Malpighius, has
+made better observations than Harvey. They agree in the principal
+points, and are both contrary to Harvey; the latter had never seen
+the alterations which happen to the ovary; he did not see the small
+globules in the matrix which contain the apparatus of generation, and
+which De Graaf calls _eggs_. He had not even a supposition that the
+foetus existed in this egg; and though his experiments gave us nearly
+an exact account of what occurs during the growth of the foetus,
+they give us no information either of the moment of fecundation or of
+the first development. Schrader, a Dutch physician, who held Harvey
+in great veneration, owns that we must not put too great a reliance
+in that anatomist in many things, and especially on what he says of
+the fecundative moment, for the chicken in fact is in the egg before
+incubation, and that Joseph de Aromatarius was the first who observed
+it.[J] Although Harvey pretended that every animal proceeds from an
+egg, he did not imagine that the testicles of females contained these
+eggs, and has only repeated what Aristotle has said on this subject.
+The first who speaks of having discovered eggs in female ovaries is
+Steno, who says, in dissecting a female sea-dog he saw eggs in the
+testicles, although that animal is viviparous; and he adds, that the
+testicles of women are analogous to the ovaries of oviparous animals,
+whether the eggs fall in any manner into the matrix, or whether there
+only falls the matter they contain. Although Steno is the first who
+discovered these pretended eggs, De Graaf claims the merit to himself,
+and Swammerdam has disputed it with him, insisting that Van Horn had
+perceived these eggs before De Graaf. It is true this last writer
+stands charged with asserting many things experience has found to be
+false. He pretended that a judgment might be formed of the number of
+foetuses contained in the matrix by the number of cicatrices, or
+empty follicules, in the ovary, which is not true, as we may see by the
+observations of Verrheyen,[K] and by those of M. Mery,[L] and by some
+of De Graaf's own observations, where he found fewer eggs in the matrix
+than cicatrices in the ovaries. Besides, we shall make it appear that
+what he says concerning the separation of the eggs, and the manner in
+which they descend into the matrix, is not exact; that no eggs exist in
+the female testicles; that what is seen in the matrix is not an egg;
+and that nothing can be worse founded than the systems endeavoured to
+be established on the observations of this famous anatomist.
+
+[J] See Observ. Justi Schraderi, Amst. 1674.
+
+[K] Vol. I. chap. iii. Brussels edit. 1710.
+
+[L] Hist. of the Academ. 1704.
+
+This pretended discovery of eggs in the testicles of females attracted
+the attention of most anatomists; they, however, only met with small
+bladders in the testicles of female viviparous animals, these they did
+not hesitate to look on as real eggs: they therefore gave the name
+of _ovaries_ to the testicles, and called the vesicles eggs, They
+also said, with De Graaf, that there are eggs of different sizes in
+the ovarium; that the largest in the ovarium of women was not above
+the size of a small pea; that they were very small in the young,
+but increased with age and intercourse with men; that twenty might
+be counted in each ovarium; that these eggs are fecundated in the
+ovarium by the spirited part of the seminal liquor of the male; that
+afterwards they loosen and fall into the matrix, where the foetus is
+formed, from the internal substance of the egg and the placenta of the
+external matter; that the glandular substance, which does not exist
+in the ovarium till after a fruitful copulation, serves to compress
+the egg, and make it quit the ovarium, &c. But Malpighius having
+examined things more minutely, detected many of their errors before
+they were even received; yet most physicians adopted the sentiments
+of De Graaf, without any attention to the observations of Malpighius;
+which, notwithstanding, are very important, and to which his scholar
+Valisnieri has given a great deal of weight.
+
+Malpighius and Valisnieri, of all naturalists, speak with the greatest
+foundation on the subject of generation. We shall therefore give an
+account of their experiments and remarks, to which we cannot pay too
+much attention.
+
+Malpighius having examined a great number of the testicles of cows
+and other female animals, affirms that he found vesicles of different
+sizes in the testicles of all of them, whether young or adults; these
+vesicles are inclosed by a thick membrane, in the inner parts of which
+there are blood-vessels, filled with a kind of lymph, or liquor, which
+hardens by the heat of the fire like the white of an egg.
+
+In time a firm yellow body grows which adheres to the testicles. It
+is prominent and increases to the size of a cherry, occupying the
+greatest part of the ovarium. The body is composed of many little
+angular tubes, and its position is irregular; it is covered with a
+coat, or membrane, spread over with nerves and blood-vessels. The
+appearance and form of this yellow body are not always the same, but
+vary according to time. When not above the size of a millet seed,
+it is nearly globular, and if divided appears composed of a kind of
+variegated net-work. Very often an external covering is observed,
+composed of the same substance as the yellow body, around the vesicles
+of the ovarium.
+
+When the yellow body is become nearly of the size of a pea, it is the
+shape of a pear, in which is a small cavity filled with liquor; as is
+also the case when grown to the size of a cherry. In some of these
+yellow substances, when increased to their full maturity, Malpighius
+says, a small egg, with its appendages, not bigger than a millet
+seed, may be seen near the centre; when they have cast out their eggs
+they are empty, resemble a cavernous passage, and the cavities which
+inclose them are about the size of peas. He thinks this yellow and
+glandular substance nature produces to preserve the egg, and assist
+it in leaving the testicles, and perhaps to contribute towards the
+generation of the egg itself; consequently, he says, the vesicles,
+which are always observed in the ovary, and which are of different
+sizes, are not real eggs that may be fecundated, but only serve for the
+production of the yellow body where the egg is to be formed. On the
+whole, although these yellow substances are not found at all times in
+all testicles, we nevertheless always find the first traces of them,
+and Malpighius having seen the marks of them in young heifers, cows
+that were with calf, and in pregnant women, he reasonably concludes
+that this yellow and glandular substance is not, as De Graaf has
+supposed, the effect of fecundation, but what produces the infecund
+eggs, which leave the ovary without any communication with the male, as
+well as to those which leave it after communication. When the latter
+falls into the tubes of the matrix, all the rest is performed as De
+Graaf has described.
+
+These observations of Malpighius shew that the testicles of females
+are not real ovaries, as most anatomists believe; that the vesicles
+they contain are not eggs; that these vesicles never fall into the
+matrix; and that the testicles, like those of the male, are kinds
+of reservoirs, containing a liquor which must be looked upon as an
+imperfect seed of the female, that is perfected in the yellow glandular
+body which fills the internal cavity, and is shed when the glandular
+substance has acquired its full maturity. But before we decide on this
+important point, we must relate the observations of Valisnieri; and we
+shall perceive that, though Malpighius and Valisnieri have made good
+observations, they have not carried them far enough, nor drawn those
+consequences from them which their observations might naturally have
+produced, because they were both prejudiced for the system of eggs, and
+of the foetus pre-existing therein.
+
+Valisnieri began his experiments in 1692, on the testicles of a sow,
+whose testicles are not composed like those of a cow, sheep, mare,
+bitch, female ass, she goat, nor most other viviparous females, for
+they resemble a small bunch of grapes, whose seeds are round and
+prominent outwardly. Between these seeds there are smaller, which have
+not arrived to maturity. These seeds do not appear to be surrounded
+with one common membrane; they are, he says, similar to those yellow
+substances which Malpighius observed in cows; they are round, of a
+reddish colour, their surface sprinkled over with sanguinary vessels
+like the eggs of viviparous animals, and together form a mass larger
+than the ovary; we may, with a little address, and by dividing the
+membrane, separate these grains one by one, and draw them from the
+ovary, where they each leave an impression.
+
+These glandular substances are not of the same colour in every sow, in
+some they are red, in others more clear; and they are of all sizes,
+from the most minute point to that of a grape. On opening them we find
+a triangular cavity filled with a limpid liquor, which coagulates
+by the fire, and becomes white like that contained in the vesicles.
+Valisnieri hoped to meet with the egg in one of those cavities, but
+although he sought for it with the utmost assiduity in the glandular
+substance of the ovaries of four different sows, and afterwards in
+those of other animals, yet he could never discover the egg which
+Malpighius asserts to have met with once or twice.
+
+Below these glandular substances the vesicles of the ovary were
+seen, and which were in a greater or lesser number as the glandular
+substances are thicker or smaller, for in proportion as the glandular
+substances increase, the vesicles diminish. Some of these vesicles were
+the size of a lentil, and others as small as a millet-seed. In crude
+testicles twenty, thirty, or thirty-five vesicles might be counted,
+but when boiled a greater number are seen; and they are so strongly
+connected by fibres and membraneous vessels, that it is impossible to
+separate them without a rupture.
+
+Having examined the testicles of a sow which never had littered, he
+found there, as in the rest, glandular bodies, and their triangular
+cavities filled with lymph, but never met with the egg either in the
+one or the other. The vesicles of this sow which had never littered
+were greater in number than in those which had littered or conceived.
+In the testicles of another sow which had conceived, and whose young
+were much expanded, he found two large glandular substances, that
+were empty, and others smaller, in their common state. Having also
+dissected many others when with young, he found that the number of
+glandular substances was always greater than that of the foetus,
+which confirms our observations on De Graaf's experiments, and proves
+they are not exact; what he terms the follicules of the ovary being
+only the glandular substances, whose number always exceed that of the
+foetus. In the ovaries of a sow but a few months old, the testicles
+were large, and sprinkled with vesicles pretty well tumefied: between
+these vesicles there were four rising glandular substances in one of
+the testicles, and more in the other.
+
+After having finished his experiments on sows, Valisnieri repeated
+those of Malpighius on the testicles of cows, and found that all he had
+said was conformable to truth; only Valisnieri owns that he has never
+been able to find the egg which Malpighius thought he had seen once or
+twice in the internal cavity of glandular bodies. Valisnieri proceeded
+in his experiments upon a variety of other animals to discover this
+egg, but in vain; nevertheless his prejudice for that system induced
+him, contrary to his experience, to admit the existence of eggs, which
+neither he nor any other man ever did or ever will see. It is scarcely
+possible to make a greater number of experiments, or better than he has
+done. He observes, as something particular to a ewe, that there are
+never more glandular substances in the testicles than foetuses in
+the matrix. In young ewes, which have never been with the male, there
+is but one glandular substance in each testicle, which when worn away,
+another is found; and if a ewe has only one foetus in her matrix,
+there is but one glandular substance in the testicles; if there are
+two foetuses there will be two glandular substances. This substance
+occupies the greatest part of the testicles; after it disappears
+another is formed for the purpose of another generation.
+
+In the testicles of a she-ass he perceived vesicles the size of small
+cherries, which evidently prove they are not eggs, since, being of that
+size, they could not enter into the horns of the matrix, which are too
+narrow in this animal for their reception.
+
+The testicles of a female dog, wolf, or fox, have a kind of cowl, or
+covering, which is produced by the expansion of the membrane that
+surrounds the horns of the matrix. In a bitch, whose heat was just
+began, and had not been brought to a dog, Valisnieri found this cowl,
+which is not adherent to the testicle, internally bathed with a
+liquor like whey: he discovered also two glandular substances in the
+right testicle, which run almost its whole length. These glandular
+substances had each a small nipple, with a little orifice, from which
+of itself issued a clear liquor like whey, and when pressed, a greater
+quantity came out, which made him imagine, that this liquor was the
+same as that found within the cowl: he blew into this orifice, by the
+means of a small pipe, and immediately the glandular body was puffed
+up; and having introduced a bristle, he easily penetrated to the end of
+it: he opened this glandular substance the same way as the bristle was
+entered, and found within a cavity which communicated with the orifice,
+and which also contained a good deal of liquor. Valisnieri was also
+in hopes to discover the egg, but, notwithstanding all his endeavours
+and strict attention, he never could perceive it. He remarked, that
+the extremity of these nipples, from which this liquor flowed, was
+contracted by a sphincter, which served to shut up, or open the orifice
+of the nipple: he found also in the left testicle two glandular bodies
+with the like cavities, nipples, orifices, and liquor distilling from
+them. Still not being able to find the egg, neither in this liquor,
+nor in the cavity which contained it, he boiled two of these glandular
+substances, hoping that by this means he might discover the object he
+was in pursuit of, but it was all in vain.
+
+Having opened another bitch, eight or nine days after she had been with
+the male, he found no difference in the testicles; there were three
+glandular substances like the preceding ones, and, like them, distilled
+a liquor from the nipples. Here he also persevered in his fruitless
+researches after the egg. By the help of a microscope, he perceived the
+glandular substances were a kind of vascular net-work, formed by an
+infinite number of small globular vesicles which served to filtre the
+liquor that issues through the end of the nipple.
+
+After this he opened another bitch whose heat was off, and having
+introduced air between the testicle and its covering, he found it
+dilated like a bladder by means of inflation; having raised this cowl,
+he found three glandular substances on the testicle, but they had no
+apparent nipple, nor orifice, nor did any liquor distil from them.
+
+In another bitch that had pupped two months, and had five puppies, he
+found five glandular substances, which were become very small, and
+began to obliterate, without leaving any cicatrices: there still
+remained a small cavity in the middle, but it was dry and empty.
+
+Not content with these, and many more experiments, Valisnieri, who
+would not give up his researches after the pretended egg, called
+together the most expert anatomists of his country, among whom was M.
+Morgagni, and having opened a young bitch at the time of her first
+heat, and had been with a male three days before, they examined
+the vesicles of the testicles, the glandular substances with their
+nipples, orifice, and liquor which flowed from them, and in their
+internal cavities, but not an egg was to be found. After this he made
+experiments on female goats, foxes, cats, and a great number of mice,
+&c. He always found vesicles in the testicles of all those animals,
+and often the glandular substances, and the liquor they contained, but
+never any egg.
+
+At length, desirous of examining the testicles of a woman, he had an
+opportunity of opening a farmer's wife, a young woman that was killed
+by a fall from a tree. She had been married several years, but although
+of a good habit of body, yet she had never borne a child. He sought if
+the cause of her sterility was not discoverable in the testicles; and
+he found the vesicles all replete with a blackish and corrupted matter.
+
+In the testicles of a girl of eighteen, who had been brought up in a
+convent, and, according to all appearances, was a virgin, he found
+the right testicle somewhat larger than the left: its shape was oval,
+and its surface a little unequal. This inequality was produced by the
+protuberance of five or six vesicles of this testicle which advanced
+forwards; one of which was more prominent than any of the rest. Having
+opened this vesicle, a spirit of lymph issued out: around it there
+was a glandular substance in form of a crescent of a yellowish colour
+rather bordering on the red. He cut the remainder part of the testicle
+transversely, and found many vesicles filled with a limpid liquor, and
+remarked that the corresponding trunk to this testicle was very red and
+a little longer than the other, as he had frequently observed in female
+animals, when in their amorous season.
+
+The left testicle was as round as the right, it was whiter, and its
+surface more smooth; for although there were some vesicles a little
+prominent, yet there were not any in form of a nipple; they were all
+alike, without any glandular substance, and the corresponding trunk
+was neither inflamed nor red.
+
+In a little girl of five years old, he found the testicles with the
+vesicles, blood vessels, fibres and nerves complete.
+
+In the testicles of a woman sixty years of age, he found some vesicles,
+and the vestiges of a glandular substance, which were as so many thick
+points of matter of a dark brownish colour.
+
+From all these observations Valisnieri concludes, that the business
+of generation is carried on in the female testicles, which he looked
+upon as ovaries, although he never found any eggs in them, but on the
+contrary, evidently saw that the vesicles were not eggs. He also says,
+that it is not necessary for the seed of the male to enter into the
+matrix to impregnate the egg: he supposes that the egg comes from the
+nipple of the glandular substance, after impregnation in the ovarium;
+that from thence it falls into the trunk, and descends by degrees, till
+at last it fastens to the matrix. He adds, he is persuaded that the
+egg is concealed in the glandular substance, and that all the business
+of generation is performed in the cavity, although neither he nor any
+other anatomist, have ever seen or been able to find it.
+
+According to Valisnieri the spirit of the male seed ascends to the
+ovarium, forces its way into the egg, and gives motion to the foetus
+that pre-exists therein. In the ovarium of the first woman were eggs,
+which not only inclosed in miniature every child she brought forth,
+but of the whole human race. That if we cannot conceive this infinite
+chain of individuals contained in one, it is the fault of our minds,
+the weakness of which is every day perceptible; but it is, upon that
+account, no less true, that every animal which has been, is, and will
+be, were created all at one time, and inclosed in the first females.
+The resemblance of children to parents only proceeds, continues he,
+from the imagination of the mother, the power of which is so great on
+the foetus that it can produce on it spots, marks, disproportions,
+and extraordinary births, as well as perfect resemblances.
+
+This system of the eggs, which is unreasonable, and without foundation,
+would, nevertheless, have obtained the unanimous suffrages of all
+physicians, if, when it was first endeavoured to be established,
+another system had not been formed on the discovery of spermatic
+animals.
+
+This discovery, for which we are indebted to Leeuwenhoeck and
+Hartsoeker, has been confirmed by Andri, Valisnieri, Bourguet, and
+many other observers of Nature. I shall relate what has been said
+concerning the spermatic animals which are found in the seminal liquor
+of all males: they are in such vast numbers that the semen seems to be
+entirely composed of them; and Leeuwenhoeck pretends to have seen many
+millions of them in a drop smaller than the smallest grain of sand.
+Although we do not meet with any in female animals they abound in all
+males, both in the semen emitted naturally and that in the testicles,
+as well as in the seminal vesicles. If the semen of a man is exposed
+to a moderate heat it thickens, and the motions of all the animalcules
+immediately cease, but if allowed to cool it becomes thinner, and the
+animals preserve their motion till the liquor thickens as it dries
+away. The thinner the liquor becomes the more the animalcule increase,
+and if water is added it will appear like a substance of small animals.
+When the motion of these animalcule is nearly finished, whether from
+heat, or any other cause, they seem to assemble closer together, and
+have a whirling motion in the centre of a small drop which may have
+been taken out for observation, and appear all to perish at one and the
+same time, whereas in the larger portion of the liquor they are easily
+seen to perish successively.
+
+The animalculę, say they, have different figures in different animals;
+nevertheless they are all long, slender, without any appearance of
+limbs, and move with rapidity. The fluid which contains them, as we
+have already observed, is heavier than blood. The semen of a bull
+afforded Verrheyen, by a chemical process, first phlegm, afterwards a
+considerable quantity of foetid oil, but little volatile salt, and
+much more earth than he could have thought.[M] This author appears
+surprised that in rectifying the distilled liquor he could not draw any
+spirit from it, and being persuaded it contained a great quantity, he
+attributed the evaporation to its great subtility: but may it not be
+more reasonably imagined that it contains very little or no spirits,
+as neither its consistency nor smell announce any ardent spirit, and
+which is only plentifully found in fermented liquors? besides, with
+respect to volatile spirits, the horns, bones, and other solid parts
+of animals, afford more than all the liquor of the animal body. What
+anatomists have called animal spirits, _aura seminalis_, may possibly
+not exist; and it is certainly not these spirits which agitate the
+particles seen moving in the seminal liquors; but we will here relate
+the principal observations that have been made on this subject.
+
+[M] See Veerheyen, sup. anat. tom. ii. page 69.
+
+Leeuwenhoeck observed, in the semen of a cock, animals which resemble
+the figure of an eel, but so exceedingly minute, that he pretends fifty
+thousand would not equal in size a grain of sand; and in that of a
+rat many millions would be required to make the thickness of a hair,
+&c. This observer imagined that the whole substance of the semen was
+only a mass of these animalcules. He perceived these animalculę in
+the semen of men, quadrupeds, birds, fishes, insects, &c. In that of
+grasshoppers they were long and slender. They are attached, he says, by
+their extremities, and the inferior of which he calls the tail, had a
+quick motion, like that of the tail of a serpent, when the upper part
+is motionless. He further adds, that in the semen of young animals the
+animalculę are motionless, but as the age for reproduction comes on
+they move about with great vivacity.
+
+In the semen of a male frog he observed animalculę, at first they
+were imperfect and motionless, but some time afterwards he found them
+living: they were so very small, he says, that ten thousand would
+scarcely equal the size of a single egg of the female. It was only
+those in the seminal liquor of the frog which had life and motion.
+
+In the semen of a man, and that of a dog, he pretends to have seen two
+kinds, which he looked upon as males and females. Having inclosed the
+seed of a dog in a vial, he says, that numbers of the animalculę died
+the first day; the second and third there died still more, and very
+few remained alive the fourth. But having repeated this experiment
+on the semen of the same dog, he found, at the end of seven days,
+live animalculę, some of which swam with as much swiftness as in
+fresh-extracted semen; and having opened a bitch which had been three
+times with the same dog, he could not perceive by the naked eye any
+seminal liquor of the male in either of the horns of the matrix; but
+by help of a microscope he discovered the spermatic animals of the
+dog in both horns of the matrix, and great numbers of them in that
+part of the matrix adjoining to the vagina, which, says he, evidently
+proves that the male semen enters the matrix, or at least that the
+spermatic animals of the dog had got there by their own motion, which
+is sufficient to carry them four or five inches in half an hour. In the
+matrix of a doe rabbit, which had just received the buck, he likewise
+observed an infinite number of spermatic animals; he says, that their
+bodies are round, with long tails, and that they often change their
+forms, especially when the humid matter in which they swim evaporates
+and dries.
+
+Leeuwenhoeck's experiments have been frequently repeated and found
+conformable to truth. There have been some inclined to exceed him in
+these discoveries. Dr. Dalenpatius having observed the seminal liquor
+of a man, not only pretended to have discovered animals like tadpoles,
+whose bodies appeared nearly the size of a grain of wheat, and their
+tails four or five times longer than their bodies, and which moved
+with great agility, but, what is still more marvellous, he observed
+one of these animals quit its covering; upon which it was no longer an
+animalcule, but had become a human body, the two legs of which, he
+affirms, were very discernible, as were the arms, breast, and head.[N]
+But by the figures which this author has given of this pretended
+embryo, it is evident his assertion is false. He might suppose he
+saw what he relates, but he was mistaken; for the embryo, such as he
+describes, was more formed on quitting this covering, and the state
+of a spermatic worm, than it would have been at the end of a month or
+five weeks in the matrix of its mother; therefore this observation of
+Dalenpatius, instead of having been confirmed by other observations,
+has been rejected by every naturalist, the most exact and accurate of
+which have only discovered, in the seminal liquor of man, round and
+oblong bodies, which seemed to have long tails, but without any kind of
+members.
+
+[N] See Nouvelles de la Republique des Lettres, Ann. 1699, page 552.
+
+It might be said that Plato had spoken of these spermatic animals
+which become human forms; for he says, "Vulva quoque matrix que in
+foeminis eadem ratione animal avidem generandi, quando procul a
+foetu per ętatis florem, aut ultra diutius detinetur, ęgre fert
+moram ac plurimum indignatur, passimque per corpus oberrans, meatus
+spiritus intercludit, respirare non finit, extremis vexat angustiis,
+morbis denique omnibus premit, quosque atrorumque Cupido amorque quasi
+ex arboribus foetum fructumve producunt, ipsum deinde decerpunt, &
+in matricem velut agrem inspargunt; hinc animalia primum talia, ut nec
+propter parvitatem videantur, necdum appareant formata, concipiunt: mox
+quę conflaverant, explicant, ingentia, intus enutriunt, demum educunt
+in lucem, animaliumque generationem perficiunt." Hippocrates, in his
+treatise _De Dięta_, seems also to insinuate, that the seed of animals
+is replete with animalcules. Democritus speaks of certain worms which
+take the human figure, and Aristotle says, that the first men came out
+of the earth in the form of worms; but neither the authority of Plato,
+Hippocrates, Democritus, Aristotle, nor the observation of Dalenpatius,
+can make us receive the idea that these spermatic worms are small human
+bodies, concealed under a covering; for it is evidently contrary to
+experience and observation.
+
+Valisnieri and Bourguet, whom we have quoted, discovered small worms
+in the seed of a rabbit, one of whose extremities was thicker than
+the other; they were very lively and active, struck the liquor with
+their tails, and twisted and turned themselves like snakes. At last
+(says Valisnieri) I clearly perceived them to be real animals, "e gli
+riconobbi, e gli giudicai senza dubitamento alcuno per veri, verissimi
+arciverissimi vermi[O]." This author, who was prejudiced with the
+system of eggs, has, nevertheless, admitted of spermatic worms, and
+taken them for real animals.
+
+[O] Opere dell. Cav. Valisnieri, vol. II. page 105.
+
+M. Andry having made observations on these spermatic worms of a man,
+pretends that they are only found in the age proper for generation;
+that in the younger years, and in old age, they do not exist: that in
+those affected with venereal disorders there are very few, and those
+are languishing, and for the most part dead: that in impotent persons
+we do not see any alive; that these worms in the semen of men have
+larger heads than in that of other animals, which agrees, he says, with
+the figure of the foetus and the child; and he adds, those people who
+too frequently enjoy female amours, have generally but few or none of
+these animalcules in their semen.
+
+Leeuwenhoeck, Andry, and many others, strenuously opposed the
+egg system; they had discovered in the semen of all males living
+animalcules; they proved that these animalcules could not be regarded
+merely as dwelling in this liquor, since their bulk was greater than
+that of the liquor itself; and that nothing like them was found
+either in the blood, or in the other animal liquors. They asserted,
+that females furnished nothing similar, nothing alive; and it was
+therefore evident that the fecundity attributed to them belonged,
+on the contrary, to males alone: and that the discovery of these
+spermatic animals in the semen tended more to the explanation of
+generation than all that had been before supposed; since, in fact,
+what was most difficult to conceive in generation, was the production
+of the living part, all the rest being only accessary operations,
+and therefore no doubt could remain but these little animals were
+destined to become men, or perfect animals of their kind. When it was
+opposed to the partizans of this system, that it did not seem natural
+to suppose that so many millions of animalcules, every one of which
+might become a human being, should be employed for a purpose of which
+one alone was to reap the advantage; when it was asked them, why this
+useless profusion of the shoots of human beings? they answered, that
+it was only consonant with the common munificence of nature: that
+out of many millions of seeds which plants and trees produce, but a
+very few succeed, and therefore we must not be surprised at the same
+circumstance in spermatic animals. When the infinite minuteness of the
+spermatic worm, compared to man, was objected to them, they answered,
+by the example of the seed of trees; and they added, with some
+foundation, metaphysical reasonings, by which they proved that great
+and small being only relations, the transition from small to great, or
+from great to small, was executed by nature with still more facility
+than we can conceive.
+
+Besides, continue they, have we not very frequent examples of
+transformation in insects? do we not see small aquatic worms become
+winged animals, by only throwing off their coats, which were their
+apparent and external forms? and may not spermatic animals, by a
+similar transformation, become perfect animals? All therefore, they
+conclude, concurs to favour this system of generation, and confuting
+that founded on eggs; and if there are eggs in viviparous females,
+the same as in the oviparous, these eggs will only be the necessary
+matter for the growth of the spermatic worm, which enters into the
+egg by the pedicle that adheres to the ovarium, and where it meets
+with food ready prepared for it. All the worms which find not this
+passage through the pedicle into the egg will perish, and that one
+which alone has traced its way will arrive at its transformation. The
+difficulty of meeting with the passage in the pedicle of the egg, can
+only be compensated by the infinite number of spermatic worms. It is a
+million to one that any particular spermatic worm will meet with the
+pedicle of the egg, and therefore what at first appears a profusion is
+highly necessary. When one has entered, no other can introduce itself,
+because, say they, the first worm entirely shuts up the passage, or
+there is a valve at the entrance of the pedicle, which is free when
+the egg is not absolutely full; but when the worm has filled the egg,
+the valve can no longer open although impelled by another worm. This
+valve is very well imagined, because, if the first worm should chance
+to return, it opposes its egress, and obliges it to remain and undergo
+the transformation. The spermatic worm then becomes the foetus, the
+substance of the egg its food, the membranes, its covering, and when
+the nutriment in the egg is nearly exhausted, the foetus adheres to
+the internal skin of the matrix, and thus derives nourishment from the
+parent's blood, till by its weight, and augmentation of its strength,
+it breaks through its imprisonment, and comes perfect into the world.
+
+By this system it was not the first woman who inclosed all mankind, but
+the first man who contained all posterity in his body. The pre-existing
+germs are no longer embryos without light, inclosed in the eggs, and
+contained one in another, ad infinitum; but they are small animals, the
+little homunculę organized and actually living, included in each other
+in endless succession, and to which nothing is wanting for them to
+become perfect animals, and human beings, but expansion, assisted by a
+transformation similar to that which winged insects undergo.
+
+As our present physicians are divided on these two systems of spermatic
+worms and eggs, and as all those who have lately written on generation
+have adopted one or the other of these opinions, it seems necessary to
+examine them with care, and to shew that they are not only sufficient
+to explain the phenomena of generation, but are also founded on
+suppositions void of all probability.
+
+Both suppose an infinite progression; which, as we have said, is not so
+much a reasonable supposition as an illusion of the mind. A spermatic
+worm is more than a thousand million times smaller than a man; if,
+therefore, we suppose the body of a man as an unit, the size of the
+spermatic worm can only be expressed by the fraction 1/1000000000; and
+as man is with respect to the spermatic worm of the first generation,
+what this worm is to that of the second generation, the size of the
+last spermatic worm cannot be expressed but by a number composed of
+nineteen cyphers; and so likewise the size of the spermatic worm of the
+third generation will require 28 cyphers; that of the fourth generation
+37; the fifth 46, and the sixth 55 cyphers. To form an idea of the
+minuteness represented by this fraction, let us take the dimensions
+of the sphere of the universe from Sol to Saturn, and supposing the
+sun a million times larger than the earth, and about a thousand
+solar diameters distant from Saturn, we shall perceive that only 45
+cyphers are required to express the number of cubic lines contained
+in this sphere; and, by reducing each cubic line into a thousand
+millions of atoms, 54 cyphers are only required to express that
+number; consequently a human being will be greater, with relation to a
+spermatic worm of the sixth generation, than the sphere of the universe
+is with relation to the smallest atom which is possible to be perceived
+by the assistance of a microscope. What would it be if we were to carry
+it to ten generations? The minuteness would be so great as to leave us
+no mode of expressing it. The probability of this opinion, therefore,
+evidently disappears in proportion as the object diminishes. This
+calculation may be applied to eggs as well as spermatic worms, and the
+want of probability is general to both; it will, no doubt, be said,
+that matter being divisible, _ad infinitum_, there is no impossibility
+in this diminution of size; and although it is not probable, yet we
+must regard this division of matter as possible, since we can always,
+by thought, divide an atom into a number of parts. But I answer, that
+the same illusion is made use of on this infinite divisibility as
+on every other geometrical and arithmetical infinity; they are only
+abstractions of the mind, and have no existence in nature. If we look
+on infinite divisibility of matter as an absolute infinity, it is easy
+to demonstrate that in that sense it does not exist; for, if once we
+suppose the smallest atom possible, by that supposition this atom will
+necessarily be indivisible, since if it were divisible it would no
+longer be the smallest atom possible, which would be contrary to the
+supposition. It therefore seems to me, that every hypothesis where a
+progress, _ad infinitum_, is admitted, ought to be rejected not only as
+false, but as void of all probability; and as the system of eggs and
+spermatic worms supposes this progress, they should not be admitted in
+philosophy.
+
+Another great difficulty against these two systems is, that in the egg
+system the first woman contained the male and female eggs: the male
+eggs contained only a generation of males; and that, on the contrary,
+the female eggs contained thousands of generations, both of males and
+females; insomuch that, at the same time, and in the same woman, there
+was always a certain number of eggs capable of developing themselves to
+infinity, and another number which would be unfolded but once. The same
+circumstance must occur in the other system, and therefore I ask if
+there is the smallest appearance of probability in these suppositions?
+
+A third difficulty arises against these two systems, which is, the
+resemblance that children bear, sometimes to the father and sometimes
+to the mother, and sometimes to both; and the evident marks of
+extraordinary difference in mules, &c. If from the spermatic worm of
+the father the foetus is produced, how can the child resemble the
+mother; and if the foetus is pre-existing in the egg of the mother,
+how can the child resemble its father? or if the spermatic worm of a
+horse, or the egg of a she-ass contains the foetus, how can the mule
+participate in the nature and figure of both the horse and the ass?
+
+These general difficulties, which are invincible, are not the only
+ones that can be made against these systems; there are particular ones
+which are no less potent. To begin with the system of spermatic worms,
+may it not be asked of those who admit of it, how they think this
+transformation is made? and object to them, that insects have not, nor
+cannot have any relation with what they suppose. For the worm which is
+to become a fly, or the caterpillar which is to become a butterfly,
+passes through a middle state, and when it ceases to be a chrysalis,
+it is completely formed and has acquired its full size, and is then in
+a condition of engendering; whereas in the pretended transformation
+of the spermatic worm into man, it cannot be said to be in a state of
+chrysalis, and even if we should suppose one during the first days of
+conception, why does not the production of this chrysalis, instead of
+an unformed embryo, suppose an adult and perfect being? We plainly see
+how analogy is here violated; and that far from confirming this idea of
+the transformation of the spermatic worm, it is instantly destroyed by
+examination.
+
+Besides, the worm which is transformed into a fly proceeds from an egg;
+the egg is the produce of the copulation of the male and female, and
+includes the foetus, which must afterwards enter into a chrysalis,
+before it arrives at its state of perfection, as a fly; in which form
+alone it has an engendering power; whereas the spermatic worm has no
+faculty of generation, nor proceeds from an egg. Even should we allow
+the semen to contain eggs, from whence issue spermatic worms, the same
+difficulty will still remain, for these supposed eggs have not the
+copulation of the two sexes for their principle of existence, as in
+insects; consequently the partizans of that opinion cannot pretend
+any similarity, nor derive any advantage from the transformation of
+insects; which rather destroys the basis of their explanation.
+
+When the innumerable multitude of spermatic worms are opposed to those
+physicians who are prejudiced by this system, they answer, as before
+observed, by the examples of plants and trees. But this comparison
+is not entirely just, because all the spermatic worms excepting one
+perish by absolute necessity, which is not the case with the seeds of
+a tree or plant, for those which do not become vegetables, serve as
+food for other organized bodies, and for the expansion and reproduction
+of animals; whereas we do not see any use for the spermatic worms, or
+any end to which we can refer their prodigious superfluity. On the
+whole, I only make this remark in reply to what is, or may be said on
+this matter; for I own, that no arguments drawn from final causes will
+either establish or destroy a physical system.
+
+Another objection made against this opinion is, there being, to all
+appearance, an equal number of separate worms in the seed of all kinds
+of animals, for, say they, it is natural to imagine, that in those
+kinds where foetuses are most abundant, as in fishes, insects, &c.
+the number of spermatic worms should be more numerous than in those
+where generation is least abundant, as in man, quadrupeds, birds, &c.
+for if they are the immediate cause of production, why is there no
+proportion between their number and that of the foetus? Besides,
+there is no proportionable difference in the size of most kinds of
+spermatic worms, those of large animals being as small as those of the
+least. Those of a rat, and those of a man, are nearly the same, and
+when there is any difference it is no ways relative to the size of
+the individual. The Calmar, which is a very small fish, has spermatic
+worms above one hundred thousand times larger than those of a man or a
+dog. Another proof these worms are not the immediate and only cause of
+generation.
+
+The particular difficulties that may be raised against this egg system
+are no less considerable. If the foetus exists in the egg before the
+communication of the male with the female, why do we not perceive the
+foetus as well in those eggs produced before as after copulation?
+We have before recounted the observations of Malpighius, who says
+he always found the foetus in those eggs produced by hens that had
+received the cock, and only a mass or mole in the cicatrice of those
+who had not; it is therefore very clear that the foetus does not
+exist in the egg till after impregnation.
+
+Another difficulty against this system is, that not only the foetus
+is not seen in eggs before the junction of the sexes, but even the
+existence of eggs in viviparous animals is by no means proved. Those
+physicians who pretend that the spermatic worm is the foetus
+enveloped in a covering, are at least assured of spermatic worms; but
+those who affirm that the foetus is pre-existing in the egg, have no
+proof of the existence of the egg itself; on the contrary, there is a
+probability, almost equivalent to a certainty, that these eggs do not
+exist.
+
+Although the partizans of the egg system do not agree what must be
+looked on as the true egg in the female testicle, nevertheless they all
+think that impregnation is made in the testicle called the _ovarium_,
+without paying any attention that if it was so most foetuses would be
+found in the abdomen instead of the matrix, for the superior extremity
+of the trunk being separated from the ovarium, the pretended eggs must
+often fall into the abdomen. Now, it is certain that this case is
+extremely rare, and, I believe, never happened, unless occasioned by
+some accident.
+
+The general difficulties and objections against these two systems
+have been noticed by the author of _Venus Physique_, whose treatise,
+although very short, has more philosophical ideas than there are in
+many folio volumes on generation. As this book is very public, and
+the accuracy with which it is written will not permit any extract, I
+shall only observe, this author is the first who has returned into the
+road of truth, from which we were farther strayed than ever, since the
+supposition of the egg system, and the discovery of spermatic animals.
+Nothing therefore remains farther to be said, and I shall conclude with
+relating a few particular experiments, some of which have appeared
+favourable, and others contrary, to these systems.
+
+In the History of the Academy of Sciences of Paris, 1701, some
+objections are proposed by M. Mery against the egg system. This able
+anatomist supports, with reason, that the vesicles found in the female
+testicles are not eggs, but are so adherent to the internal substance
+of the testicle that they cannot be naturally separated therefrom;
+that if they could separate themselves from this substance it would
+be impossible for them to get out, because the common membrane, which
+surrounds all the testicle, is a web of too firm a texture to admit of
+a conception; that a vesicle, or round soft egg, could open a passage
+in it; and as the greatest number of physicians and anatomists were
+prejudiced in favour of the egg system, and, from the experiments of De
+Graaf, believed that the number of cicatrices in the testicles marked
+the number of foetuses, M. Mery mentions the testicles of a woman,
+where there was such a quantity of these cicatrices, that, agreeable to
+this system, would have supposed a fecundity almost beyond imagination.
+These difficulties excited other partizans of the egg system to make
+new researches. M. Duverney examined and dissected the testicles of
+cows and sheep: he pretended that the vesicles were eggs, because there
+were some less adherent to the testicles than others, and insisted it
+was natural to believe, that when they came to perfect maturity they
+were separated altogether, especially as by inflating the internal
+cavity of the testicle the air passed between these vesicles and the
+adjoining parts. M. Mery only answers that this not a sufficient proof,
+since these vesicles have never been seen separate from the testicles.
+M. Duverney remarked the glandular bodies on the testicles, but he did
+not look on them as an essential and necessary part towards generation,
+but merely as accidental exuberances, like gall-nuts, on the oak.
+M. Littre, whose prejudice for the egg system was still greater,
+pretended, not only that the vesicles were eggs, but even asserted
+he had discovered in one of them a well-formed foetus, of which he
+distinguished the head and trunk very perfectly, and even gave the
+dimensions. But besides this wonder being only seen by that gentleman,
+and no other naturalist, it is sufficient to read his Memoire[P] to
+perceive how doubtful was the fact. By his own words we find the matrix
+was schirrhous, that the testicle was corrupted, and that the vesicle,
+or egg, which contained this imaginary foetus was smaller than the
+other vesicles, or eggs, which did not contain any thing, &c.
+
+[P] Anno 1701, page 3.
+
+A famous experiment, in favour of the egg system, is supplied by De
+Nuck; he opened a bitch three days after copulation; he drew out one of
+the horns of the matrix, and made a ligature in the middle, so that the
+upper part of the passage could have no communication with the lower;
+after which he replaced this horn, and closed up the wound, with which
+the bitch seemed but little incommoded. At the end of twenty-one days
+he opened it again, and found two foetuses in the upper part, that
+is between the testicles and the ligature; but in the lower part there
+was no foetus. In the other horn of the matrix, which had not been
+tied by a ligature, he found three foetuses, which were regularly
+disposed, which proves, he says, that the foetus does not proceed
+from the seed of the male, but exists in the female egg. Supposing this
+experiment, which has only been made once, was always followed with the
+same effect, we should not then be right in concluding that fecundation
+is made in the ovary, and that eggs are detached therefrom which
+contain the foetus completely formed. It would only prove that the
+foetus may be formed in the upper parts of the horns of the matrix as
+well as in the lower; and it seems very natural to imagine that the
+ligature, compressing the middle of the horns of the matrix, impelled
+the seminal liquors, which are in the lower parts, to issue out, and
+thus destroy the business of generation in them.
+
+Thus we have gone through the opinions of anatomists and physicians
+on the subject of generation; and it now only remains for me to
+recount what I have been enabled to draw from my own researches
+and experiments, and it will then be seen whether my system is not
+infinitely more agreeable to Nature than any of those I have given an
+account of.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+EXPERIMENTS ON THE METHOD OF GENERATION.
+
+
+I often reflected on the above system, and was every day more and more
+convinced that my theory was infinitely the most probable. I then began
+to suppose that, by a microscope, I might be able to attain a discovery
+of the living organic particles, from which I thought every animal
+and vegetable drew their origin. My first supposition was, that the
+spermatic animalcules seen in the seed of every male, might possibly be
+these organic particles; on which I reasoned as follows:
+
+If every animal and vegetable contain a quantity of living organic
+particles, these particles would be found in their seed, and in a
+greater quantity than in any other substance, because the seed is an
+extract of what is most analogous to the individual, and the most
+organic; and the animalcule we see in the seed of males are, perhaps,
+only these same living organic molecules, or at least the first union,
+or assemblage of them. But if this is so, the seed of the female must
+also contain similar living organic molecules, and, consequently, we
+ought to find moving bodies there as well as in the male: and since the
+living organic particles are common both to animals and vegetables,
+we should also find them in the seeds of plants, in the nectarium,
+and in the stamina, which are the most essential parts of vegetables,
+and which contain the organic molecules necessary for reproduction. I
+then seriously thought of examining the seminal liquors of both sexes,
+and the germs of plants, with a microscope. I thought, likewise, that
+the reservoirs of the female seed might possibly be the cavities of
+the glandular bodies, in which Valisnieri and others had uselessly
+sought for the egg; and at length determined to undertake a course of
+observations and experiments. I first communicated my ideas to Mr.
+Needham, a gentleman well known for his microscopical observations,
+and read to him the first part of this work; he seemed to approve of
+these ideas, and did me the favour to lend me his microscope which
+was infinitely superior to my own. At the same time I communicated my
+system and project of experiments to Messrs. Daubenton, Gueneau, and
+Dalibard, all of whom encouraged me to persevere in my determination,
+and from whom, in the course of making those experiments, I received
+much assistance, particularly from Mr. Daubenton.
+
+Persons not experienced in the use of the microscope will not be
+displeased that I here insert some remarks which will be useful to
+them, if they repeat the following experiments, or make new ones.
+We should give the preference to double microscopes, in which we
+see objects perpendicularly, from their having a plain or concave
+mirror, which shews the objects clear; the concave mirror is the
+most preferable when the observations are made with the strongest
+lens. Leeuwenhoek, who undoubtedly has been the greatest and most
+indefatigable of all microscopical observators, is said to have
+only made use of simple microscopes, with which he viewed objects
+horizontally. If this is true, it is necessary to remark, that most of
+the plates given by Leeuwenhoek of microscopical objects, especially
+spermatic animals, represents them much thicker and longer than he
+really saw them, which renders the microscopes we speak of preferable
+to the horizontal, as they are more stable; the motion of the hand,
+with which the microscope is held, producing a little trembling, which
+causes the object to appear wavering, and never presents the same part
+for any time. Besides, there is always a motion in the liquors caused
+by the agitation of the external air, at least, if we do not put the
+liquor between two plates of glass, or even fine talc, which diminishes
+somewhat of its transparency, and greatly lengthens the experiment; but
+the horizontal microscope, whose tables are vertical, has the still
+greater inconvenience, that the most ponderous parts of the drop of
+liquor fall to the bottom; consequently there are three motions, that
+of the trembling of the hand, the agitation of the fluid by the action
+of the air, and also that of the parts of the liquor falling to the
+bottom: from the combination of which, certain small globules, which
+we see in these liquors, may appear to move by their own motion and
+powers, while they only obey the compounded power of those three causes.
+
+When we put a drop of liquor on the table of the double microscope,
+although horizontally placed, and in the most advantageous situation,
+we still see one common motion in the liquor, which forces all what it
+contains to one side. We must wait till the fluid is in an equilibrium
+and at rest, before we make our observations; for it often occurs,
+that this motion of the fluid hurries away many globules, and forms
+a kind of whirling motion, which returns one of these globules in
+a very different direction to the others. The eye is then fixed on
+the globules, and seeing one take a different course from the rest,
+supposes it an animal, or at least a body, which moves of itself,
+whereas its motion is only owing to that of the fluid; and as the
+liquor is apt to dry and thicken in the circumference of the drop,
+endeavours must be made to fix the lens on the centre of it. The drop
+should also be as large as possible, and contain as much liquor as will
+permit a sufficient transparency, to see perfectly what it contains.
+
+Before we begin to make observations, we should have a perfect
+knowledge of our microscope. There is no glass whatsoever but in which
+there are some spots, bubbles, threads, and other defects, which
+should be nicely inspected, in order that such appearances should not
+be represented as real and unknown objects: we must also endeavour
+to learn what effect the imperceptible dust has which adheres to the
+glasses of the microscope; a perfect knowledge of which may be acquired
+by observing the microscope several times.
+
+To make proper observations, the sight, or focus, of the microscope
+must not precisely fall on the surface of the liquor, but a little
+above it; as not so much reliance should be placed on what passes upon
+the surface, as what is seen in the body of the liquor. There are often
+bubbles on the surface which have irregular motions produced by the
+contact of the air.
+
+We can see much better with the light of two short candles, than in the
+brightest day, provided this light is not agitated, which is avoided by
+putting a small shade on the table, inclosing the three sides of the
+lights and the microscope.
+
+It will often appear as though dark and opaque bodies become
+transparent, and even take different colours, or form concentrical and
+coloured rings, or a kind of rainbow on the surface; and other matters,
+which are seen at first sight transparent and clouded, become black and
+obscure; these changes are not real, but only depend on the obliquity
+the sight falls on the body with, and the height of the plain in which
+they are found.
+
+When there are bodies in a liquor which seem to move with great
+swiftness, especially when they are on the surface, they form a
+furrowed motion in the liquor, which appears to follow the moving body,
+and which we might be inclined to mistake for a tail. This appearance
+deceived me at first, but I clearly perceived my error, when these
+little bodies met others which stopped them; for there was no longer
+any appearance of tails. These are the remarks which occurred during
+my experiments, and which I submit to those who would make use of the
+microscope for the observation of liquors.
+
+[Illustration: _PLATE I._]
+
+
+EXPERIMENTS.
+
+I. I took from the seminal vessels of a man, who died a violent death,
+and whose body was still warm, all the liquor therein contained, and
+put it into a small bottle; of this I put a drop on the table of the
+microscope, without the addition of water or any other liquor. The
+first thing which presented, was a vapour which steamed from the liquor
+towards the lens, and obscured it. These vapours being dissipated, I
+perceived large filaments, (_fig. 1._) which in some places seemed to
+extend into different branches, and in others to intermingle together.
+These filaments clearly appeared to be internally agitated by an
+undulating motion, and looked like hollow tubes which contained some
+moving substance. I distinctly saw two of these filaments (_fig. 2._)
+were joined together, and had a vibration nearly like that of two
+extended strings, which are tied at the two extremities, and pulled
+asunder in the middle. These filaments were composed of globules which
+touched each other, and resembled beads. I afterwards saw filaments
+which swelled in certain parts, and I observed, that on the side so
+swelled small globules came out, which had a distinct motion like that
+of a pendulum; these small bodies were fastened to the filaments by
+a small thread, (_fig. 3._) which lengthened gradually as the little
+body moved; and at last I saw these little bodies entirely separated
+from the large filament, carrying after them the small thread which
+connected them. As this liquor was very thick, and the filaments too
+near each other, I dilated another drop with rain water, in which
+I was assured there were no animals. I then saw the filaments much
+separated, and very distinctly perceived the motion of these little
+bodies, which was now more free, and they swam much quicker; and if
+I had not seen them separate from the filaments, and carry along
+with them their thread, I should have taken the moving body in this
+second observation for an animal, and the thread for its tail. I then
+attentively observed one of these filaments, that was much thicker than
+these small bodies, and I had the satisfaction of seeing two of those
+bodies which separated with difficulty, drag along with them a long and
+small thread, which obstructed their motion.
+
+This seminal liquor was at first very thick, but by degrees it became
+more fluid; in less than an hour it was almost transparent; and in
+proportion as this fluidity increased, the phenomena changed, as I
+shall relate.
+
+II. When the seminal liquor attained more fluidity, the filaments were
+no longer to be seen, but the little bodies appeared in great numbers;
+they have for the most part a motion like that of a pendulum, and they
+draw after them a long thread, which it may clearly be perceived they
+want to get rid of; their motion forwards is very slow, vibrating to
+the right and left. The motion of a boat fastened in the midst of a
+rapid stream to one fixed point, pretty well represents the motion
+of these bodies, excepting that the boat remains in the same place,
+whereas they advance by degrees; but they do not always keep the
+same parts in the same direction; but at each vibration they take a
+considerable rolling motion; so that, besides their horizontal motion,
+they have one of a vertical balance, which proves that these bodies
+are of a globular figure, or, at least, that their lowest part is not
+sufficiently extended to maintain them in the same position.
+
+III. At the end of two or three hours, when the liquor was more fluid,
+we saw a greater quantity of these moving bodies. They seemed to be
+more free; the threads were shorter; their progressive motion was more
+direct, and their horizontal motion was greatly diminished; for the
+longer the threads are, the greater is the angle of their vibration;
+and in proportion as these threads diminish in length, the vibratory
+motion lessens, and the progressive motion increases. The vertical
+balance still subsisted, and was always plainly perceptible.
+
+IV. In five or six hours the liquor attained its utmost fluidity. Most
+of these moving substances were entirely disengaged from their threads;
+they were of an oval figure, (_fig. 4._) and moved progressively
+with great swiftness, and by their various motions had a stronger
+resemblance than ever to real animals. Those who had their threads
+still adhering, were not so brisk as the others; and among these that
+had not threads, some seemed to change their shape and size, some were
+round, some oval, and others thicker at their extremities than in the
+middle; the balancing and rolling motion was still observable.
+
+V. At the end of twelve hours a kind of gelatinous matter was settled
+at the bottom of the bottle: it was of an ash-colour, and of a
+tolerable consistency; the liquor that swam above was almost as clear
+as water, with a kind of bluish tint, resembling water in which a
+little soap had been dissolved; nevertheless it still preserved its
+viscidity. The moving bodies had then a great activity, were loosened
+from their threads, and moved in all directions. I saw some of them
+change their form, and from oval become round; and others separate,
+and from one oval form two. As they became smaller, their activity
+increased.
+
+VI. In twenty-four hours the liquor had deposited a greater quantity of
+gelatinous matter. I diluted it with water, but it did not readily mix,
+and required a considerable time to dissolve. It then appeared composed
+of an infinite number of opaque tubes that formed a kind of net-work,
+in which no regular disposition nor the least motion could be seen:
+in the clear liquor some few small bodies were still moving. The next
+morning there were also a very few; but after that time I saw no more
+in this liquor than in the globules, without any appearance of motion.
+
+These experiments were repeated several times with the most possible
+exactness; and I am persuaded that those threads above mentioned are
+not tails, nor do they make any part of the individual body; for these
+threads have no proportion with the rest of the body; they are of
+different sizes, although the moving bodies are always nearly of the
+same, at the same time. The globule appears embarrassed in its motion,
+as its tail is longer or shorter; sometimes it cannot advance, but move
+only from right to left, or from left to right, when the tail is very
+long; and it is clearly seen that they use great efforts to get rid of
+them.
+
+VII. Having taken the seminal liquor from another man but just dead,
+and still warm, I put a drop of it on the table of the microscope, and
+it immediately liquified; it had at first a condensed appearance, and
+seemed to form a compact web, composed of long and thick filaments,
+which grew from the thickest part of the liquor. These filaments
+separated in proportion as the liquor became more fluid, and at
+length they divided into globules, which at first seemed not to have
+sufficient power to set themselves in motion, but this power increased
+as they separated from the filament, from which they made many efforts
+to disengage themselves. Each of them in this struggle drew out tails
+from the filaments of different sizes, some of which were so thin
+and so long as to have no proportion with the bodies, which were all
+so much the more embarrassed as these threads or tails increased in
+length. The angle of their vibratory motion was also much greater as
+those filaments were longer: and their progressive motion so much the
+more remarkable as these tails were shorter.
+
+VIII. Having continued these observations for fourteen hours, I
+perceived that these threads, or tails, were continually lessening, and
+became so fine, that at last their extremities were no longer visible,
+and at length the whole entirely disappeared. At this time the globules
+absolutely ceased their horizontal vibrations; their progressive motion
+was direct, although they had always the vertical balancing motion,
+like the rolling of a ship. When disencumbered of these threads, the
+bodies were oval, transparent, and perfectly like those pretended
+animals seen in the liquor of an oyster on the seventh day, and still
+more to those found in the jelly of roast veal at the end of the fourth
+day.
+
+IX. Between the tenth and eleventh hour the liquor became extremely
+fluid, and all the globules appeared to proceed in ranks from one and
+the same side; (_fig. 5._) they passed over the table of the microscope
+in less than four seconds; they were ranged seven or eight in front,
+and moved on successively, as troops march in files. I observed this
+singular instance for more than five minutes; and as their course
+did not finish, I was desirous of finding the source: and, having
+gently moved my glass, I perceived that all these moving globules came
+from a kind of mucilage, (_fig. 6._) where the filamentary net-work
+continually produced them more abundant and much quicker than the
+filaments had ten hours before. There was still a remarkable difference
+between these moving bodies produced in the thick liquor, and those
+produced when the liquor became more fluid; these last had no thread
+behind them, their motion was quicker, and they went in flocks like
+sheep. I observed the mucilage from whence they issued for some time,
+and perceived it diminished, and was successively converted into
+moving globules, till the diminution of more than half the bulk; after
+which, the liquor being too dry, this mucilage became obscure in its
+middle, and all the environs were divided by the small threads which
+appeared to be formed from the bodies of these moving globules which
+were destroyed as it dried up, not in one single mass, but in long
+threads, regularly disposed, with quadrangular intervals, forming a
+net-work, very like to a cobweb, on which the moisture hung in an
+infinite number of globules.
+
+X. I perceived by the first experiment, that these little moving
+bodies change their form, and I thought they in general diminished,
+but of that I was not certain. In this last observation, at the
+twelfth and thirteenth hour I observed it more distinctly; at the same
+time remarking that though diminished considerably in size, yet they
+increased in specific gravity; especially when their motion was nearly
+finished, which generally happened all at once and they sunk to the
+bottom, forming a sediment of an ash-colour, plainly perceptible to the
+naked eye, and which appeared through the microscope to be composed of
+globules adherent to on another, sometimes by threads, and at others
+in knots, but always in a regular manner.
+
+XI. Having procured the seed of a dog, emitted naturally, I observed
+that this liquor was clear, and had but little tenacity. I put it in
+a phial, and having examined it with a microscope, without diluting
+it with water, I perceived moving bodies entirely like those I had
+observed in the human semen; they had threads, or tails, perfectly
+the same; they were also nearly of the same size; in a word, they
+resembled, as perfectly as possible, those I saw in the human liquor,
+liquified during two or three hours. I then sought for the filaments
+which I had seen in the human liquor, but it was useless; I perceived
+only some long threads entirely like those which served as tails to
+the globules. These threads were not attached to any globules, nor had
+they any motion. Those globules which were in motion, and had tails,
+appeared to me to move quicker than those in the human semen: they had
+scarcely any horizontal vibrations, but a rolling motion. They were not
+in a great number; and, although their progressive motion was stronger,
+they took more time to cross the microscope than those I had before
+remarked. I observed this liquor for three hours, but perceived no
+change: after which I examined it at another time for four hours, and
+remarked, that the number of moving bodies diminished by degrees; the
+fourth day there was still some, though they were very few, and often
+I only found one or two in a drop of liquor. The second day most of
+them were deprived of their tails; the third day very few retained
+them, yet, at the last day, there still remained some which had them;
+the liquor had then deposited a whitish sediment, which appeared to be
+composed of immoveable globules, and many threads, that seemed to be
+tails separated from the globules. There were also some attached to the
+globules, which appeared to be the dead bodies of these little animals,
+but whose forms were different from those that moved, for they appeared
+larger than the moving globules, or the rest, which remained without
+motion at the bottom of the liquor, and appeared to have a fissure or
+opening.
+
+XII. Another time, having taken the seminal liquor of the same dog, I
+again perceived the fore-mentioned phenomena; and I saw, besides, in
+one of the drops of this liquor, a mucilaginous part, which produced
+moving globules, as in the ninth experiment, (_fig. 6._) and these
+globules formed a current, and went in ranks like troops. This mucilage
+appeared to me animated with an internal inflated motion, which
+produced small bloated appearances in different parts, and from whence
+issued these bloated forms, or moving globules, with a nearly-equal
+swiftness, and in the same direction. The bodies of these globules were
+not different from the rest, excepting they had no tails. I observed
+that many of them changed their shape, and lengthened considerably,
+till they became little cylinders, after which the two extremities of
+the cylinders were bloated, and divided into two globules, both moving
+and following the same direction as that before they were united.
+
+XIII. The phial, which contained this liquor, having been broke by
+accident, I, a third time, took the liquor of the same dog, but whether
+the animal was wearied by too reiterated emissions, or by other
+causes, the seminal liquor contained none of the above bodies, but was
+transparent and viscous, like the serum of blood; I examined it then,
+and at one, two, three, and even twenty-four hours afterwards, but it
+presented nothing new: there was not a single moving body to be seen,
+nor any mucilage; in a word, nothing that I had seen before.
+
+XIV. I then opened a dog, and separated the testicles and the adherent
+vessels, but I perceived no seminal vesicles, and apparently the seed
+in those animals passes directly from the testicles into the urethra.
+I found but a small quantity of liquor in the testicles, although the
+dog was adult and vigorous. In the small quantity I could collect I
+could not discover any bodies that were in motion. I only perceived a
+great quantity of very small globules, most of which were motionless,
+and some of the smallest had some trifling approximating motion, which
+I could not follow, because the drops I gathered were so exceedingly
+minute that they dried in two or three minutes after they were placed
+in the microscope.
+
+XV. Having cut the testicles of this dog into two parts, I infused
+it in water, and closely sealed up the vessel. Three days after I
+examined this infusion, which I made with the design of discovering
+whether the flesh did not contain moving bodies, and I saw a great
+quantity of moving bodies of a globular and oval form, like those I
+had seen in the seminal liquor of the dog, excepting they had not any
+threads. They moved in all manner of directions with great swiftness. I
+observed these bodies, which appeared animated for some time, and saw
+many change their form; I perceived some to lengthen, and others to
+contract, while some swelled at both extremities: there were numbers
+that were smaller and thicker than the rest; but they were all in
+motion, and were about the size and figure of those I have described in
+the fourth experiment.
+
+XVI. The next morning the number of these globules were increased,
+but they appeared smaller; their motion was more rapid and irregular;
+they had also another appearance with respect to their form and manner
+of moving, which seemed confused; the next and several days after,
+till the fifteenth day, there were moving bodies in the water, whose
+size gradually diminished till they were no Longer visible. The last,
+which I perceived with great difficulty, was on the nineteenth and
+twentieth days, and they moved with greater rapidity than ever. Upon
+the water a kind of pellicle was formed, which appeared to be composed
+of the coverings of those moving bodies, small threads, scales, &c. but
+entirely motionless; this pellicle, and the moving bodies could not
+come into the liquor by means of external air, since the bottle had
+been kept carefully sealed.
+
+XVII. I then successively opened ten rabbits, on different days, to
+examine their seminal liquors; the first had not a drop, either in the
+testicles or seminal vessels. In the second I was no more successful,
+although I was assured he was the father of a very numerous progeny.
+I succeeded no better in the third. I then imagined that the presence
+of the female might be requisite; I therefore put males and females
+into cages so contrived that it was impossible for them to copulate. At
+first these endeavours did not succeed; for, on opening two, not a drop
+of seminal liquor was to be found; however, in the sixth that I opened,
+a large white rabbit, I found, in the seminal vesicles, as much liquor
+as could be contained in a teaspoon; this matter resembled calves'
+jelly, was nearly transparent, and of a citron colour. Having examined
+it with the microscope, I perceived it to resolve, by slow degrees,
+into filaments and thick globules, many of which appeared fastened to
+each other; but I did not remark any distinct motion in them, only
+as the matter liquefied, it formed a kind of current by which these
+filaments and globules seemed to be drawn all to one side. I expected
+to find this matter take a greater degree of fluidity, but that did not
+happen, for, after it was a little liquefied, it dried, and I could
+perceive nothing further than what is above mentioned. When this matter
+was mixed with water, the latter did not appear to have power to dilute
+it.
+
+XVIII. Having opened another rabbit, I only found a very small quantity
+of seminal matter, which was of a colour and consistency entirely
+different from the former; it was scarcely tinctured of a yellow hue,
+and was much more fluid. As there was but very little, I feared it
+would dry too hastily, and therefore mixed it with water: from the
+first observation, I did not perceive the filaments I had seen in the
+other, but I discovered three globules, all in a trembling and restless
+motion; they had also a progressive motion, but it was very slow; some
+moved round the others, and most appeared to turn upon their centres. I
+could not pursue this observation because the liquor so soon got dry.
+
+XIX. I opened another of these rabbits, but could not discover any of
+this matter; in the seminal vessels of another, I found almost as much
+congealed liquor as in XVIIth Experiment: I examined it in the same
+manner as the rest, but it afforded me no greater discovery. I infused
+the whole I had collected, in almost double the quantity of water, and
+after briskly shaking them together, I suffered them to settle for ten
+minutes; after which, on inspecting this infusion, I saw the same large
+globules as before; there were but few and those very distant from each
+other. They had approximating motions with respect to each other, but
+they were so slow, as to be scarcely discernable; two or three hours
+after, these globules seemed to be diminished, their motion was become
+more distinct, and they appeared to turn upon their centres. Although
+this trembling motion was more than their progressive, nevertheless
+they were clearly seen to change their situation irregularly with
+respect to each other. Six or seven hours after the globules were
+become still less, and their action was increased: they appeared to me
+to be in much greater numbers, and all their motions distinct. The next
+morning, there was a prodigious multitude of globules in motion, which
+were at least three times smaller than those that at first appeared.
+I observed these globules for eight days, and observed that many of
+them seemed to join together, after which their motion ceased; this
+union, however, appeared to me only superficial and accidental. Some
+were larger than others; most were round and spherical, and some of
+them were oval. The largest were most transparent, and the smallest
+were almost black. This difference did not proceed from the light, for
+in whatever situation these small globules were in, they were always of
+the same appearance; the motions of the small were much more rapid than
+the large ones, and what I remarked most clearly and most generally
+in all, was their diminution of size, so that at the eighth day they
+were so exceedingly small as to be hardly perceptible, and at last
+absolutely disappeared.
+
+XX. At length having obtained, with no small difficulty, the seminal
+liquor of another rabbit, as it would have been conveyed to the female,
+I remarked it to be more fluid than that which had been taken from
+the seminal vesicles, and the phenomena which it offered were also
+very indifferent; for in this liquor there were moving globules and
+filaments without motion; and also a kind of globules with threads or
+tails, resembling those of a dog or a man, but only appearing smaller
+and brisker (_fig. 7._) They passed over the microscope in an instant,
+their tails appeared shorter than those of other spermatic animals,
+and I own I am not certain whether some of those tails were not false
+appearances, produced by the furrows which these moving globules formed
+in the liquor, as they moved with too great a rapidity to admit of my
+clearly observing them; besides, the liquor, though sufficiently fluid
+at first, very speedily dried away.
+
+XXI. After this I resolved to examine the seminal liquor of a ram; I
+applied to a butcher, who supplied me with the necessary parts of at
+least twelve or thirteen, directly after they were killed, but I could
+not find liquor sufficient for any experiment, either in the epididymis
+or seminal vesicles. In the little drops I was able to collect, I only
+perceived globules which had no motion. As I made these experiments in
+March, I supposed by repeating them in October, the season of female
+attachments, I should discover more seminal liquor in these vessels.
+I cut many of these testicles in two longitudinally, and collected a
+small quantity of liquor, but found nothing more in them.
+
+[Illustration: _PLATE. II._]
+
+XXII. I took three of these testicles, of three different rams, cut
+each of them into four parts, and put them into separate bottles, with
+as much water as was sufficient for them. Securing these bottles from
+the admission of air I suffered the infusion to remain for four days,
+after which I examined the liquor of each by the microscope, and found
+them all replete with an infinity of moving bodies, most part of which
+were oval, and the rest globular; they were pretty thick, and resembled
+those described in the VIIIth experiment; their motion was neither
+brisk, uncertain, nor very rapid, but equal, uniform, and in all
+directions. These moving bodies were nearly of the same size in each
+liquor, but differed one bottle with the other. They had no tails, nor
+were there any filaments or threads in this liquor; during the fifteen
+or sixteen days they were retained, they often changed their form, and
+seemed successively to throw off their external coverings; they also
+became every day smaller, and on the sixteenth day, they were no longer
+perceptible.
+
+XXIII. In the month of October I opened a ram, and found a great
+quantity of seminal liquor in the epididymis; having examined it with
+the microscope, I perceived an innumerable multitude of moving bodies,
+so numerous, that all the liquor seemed to be entirely composed of
+them; as it was too thick, I diluted it with water, but I was surprised
+to see the motion of these bodies suddenly stop, though I perceived
+them very distinctly; having many times repeated the same observation,
+I perceived that the water which diluted the seminal liquors of a man,
+a dog, &c. seemed to coagulate that of a ram.
+
+XXIV. I then opened another ram, and in order to prevent the seminal
+liquor from coagulating, I permitted the parts of generation to remain
+in the body of the animal, and covered it over with warm clothes. By
+these precautions I observed the seminal liquor in its fluid state;
+it was replete with an infinity of oblong moving bodies, (_fig. 8._)
+traversing in various directions; but as soon as the liquor grew cold,
+the motion of all these bodies immediately ceased. I diluted the
+liquor with warm water, when the motion of the small bodies remained
+for three or four minutes. The quantity of these moving bodies was so
+great in this liquor, that although diluted, they nearly touched each
+other. They were all of the same size and form, but none of them had
+tails. Their motion was not very quick, and when it stopped by the
+coagulation of the liquor, they did not change their form.
+
+XXV. As I was persuaded, not only by my own theory, but also by the
+observations of all those who had made experiments before me, that the
+female, as well as the male, has a seminal and prolific liquor; and,
+as I had no doubt, but the reservoir of this liquor was the glandular
+body of the testicle, where prejudiced anatomists attempted to find the
+egg, I purchased several dogs and bitches, and some male and female
+rabbits, which I kept separate from each other; and in order to have a
+comparative object with the liquor of the female, I again observed the
+seminal liquor of a dog, and discovered there the same moving bodies as
+described in the XIth experiment.
+
+XXVI. While I was thus occupied, a bitch was dissected which had been
+four or five days in heat, and had not received the dog. The testicles
+were readily found, and on one of them I discovered a red, glandular,
+prominent body, about the size of a pea, which perfectly resembled
+a little nipple; on the outside was a visible orifice formed by two
+lips; one of which jutted out more than the other. Having introduced a
+small instrument into this orifice, a liquor dropped from it, which we
+carefully caught to examine with the microscope. The surgeon replaced
+the testicles in the body of the animal, which was yet alive, in order
+to keep them warm. I then examined this liquor with a microscope, and,
+at the first glance, had the satisfaction to see moving bodies with
+tails, exactly like those I just before saw in the seminal liquor
+of the dog. (_fig. 9._) Messrs. Needham and Daubenton, who observed
+them with me, were so surprized at this resemblance, that they could
+scarcely believe but that these spermatic animals were the same,
+and thought I had forgotten to change the table of the microscope,
+or that the instrument with which we had gathered the liquor of the
+female, might before have been used for the dog. Mr. Needham then
+took different instruments, and having obtained some fresh liquor,
+he examined it first, and saw there the same kind of animals, and
+was convinced, not only of the existence of spermatic animals in the
+seminal liquor of the female, but likewise of their resemblance to
+those of the semen of the male. We repeated it ten times at least, in
+different drops of the same liquor, without perceiving the smallest
+variation in the phenomena.
+
+XXVII. Having afterwards examined the other testicle, I found a
+glandular body in its growing state; it had not any external orifice,
+was much smaller, and not so red as the first. Having opened it, I
+found no liquor; but only a small fold in the internal part, which I
+judged to be the origin of the cavity that was to contain the liquor.
+This second vesicle had some very small lymphatic vesicles externally.
+I pierced one of them with a lancet, and a clear and limpid liquor
+flowed out, which I examined with the microscope; it contained nothing
+similar to that of the glandular body; it was a clear matter, composed
+of small globules, which were motionless. Having often repeated this
+observation, I was assured, that this liquor in the vesicles was only
+a kind of lymph, which contains nothing animated, or similar to that
+seen in the female seed, which is formed and perfected in the glandular
+bodies.
+
+XXVIII. Fifteen days after I opened another bitch that had been in
+heat seven or eight days, but had not received the dog. I found the
+testicles contiguous to the extremities of the horns of the matrix;
+these horns were very long, their external tunic surrounded the
+testicles, and they appeared covered with that membrane like a cowl.
+In each testicle I found a glandular body in its full maturity. The
+first was half open, and there was a passage which penetrated into the
+testicle, and which was replete with seminal liquor; the second was
+somewhat more large and prominent, and the orifice, or canal, which
+contained the liquor was below the nipple. I took these two liquors,
+and having compared them, found them perfectly alike. The seminal
+liquor of the female is at least as liquid as that of the male. Having
+afterwards examined the two liquors with the microscope, I perceived
+the like moving bodies, (_fig. 10._) and the same phenomena, as in the
+seminal liquor of the other. I saw besides many globules which moved
+very briskly, and endeavoured to disengage themselves from the mucilage
+that surrounded them: there was a great quantity of them as in the seed
+of the female.
+
+XXIX. From these glandular bodies I pressed out all the liquor, and
+having collected it, I found enough to last for four or five hours
+observations. I remarked that it deposited somewhat to the bottom, or
+at least began to thicken. I took one drop of this, which was thicker
+than the rest, and having put it on the microscope, perceived that the
+mucilaginous part of the seed was condensed, and formed a continued
+net-work. On the external border of this net-work, there was a torrent,
+or current, composed of globules, which moved with rapidity. These
+globules were lively, active, and appeared to be disengaged from their
+mucilaginous covering, and their tails. This stream perfectly resembled
+the course of the blood in small transparent veins; for they appeared
+not only to be animated by their own powers, but also to be impelled
+by a common force, and constrained to follow in a herd. From this
+experiment, and the XIth and XIIth, I concluded, that when the fluid
+begins to coagulate and thicken, these active globules break and tear
+their mucilaginous coverings, and escape by that side where the liquor
+remains most fluid. These moving bodies had then neither threads nor
+tails; they were for the most part oval, and appeared to be flat at the
+bottom, for they had no rolling motion.
+
+XXX. The horns of the matrix were externally soft; I opened them
+longitudinally, and only found a very small quantity of liquor, which,
+upon examination, appeared to contain the same as that pressed from the
+glandular substance of the testicle. These glandular bodies are placed
+so as easily to sprinkle this liquor on the horns of the matrix; and
+I am persuaded that, as long as the amorous season remains, there is
+a continual dropping of this liquor from the glandular substance into
+the horns of the matrix; that this dropping remains till the glandular
+substance has emptied the vesicles; it then becomes fluid by degrees,
+is effaced, and only leaves a little reddish cicatrice on the external
+part of the testicle.
+
+XXXI. I took this seminal liquor of the female, with the same quantity
+of that just emitted from the male, and mixed them together, and having
+examined this mixture with the microscope, I perceived nothing new, the
+liquor remaining the same, and the moving bodies were so similar, that
+it was impossible to distinguish those of the male from those of the
+female; I only thought their motion appeared a little slackened.
+
+XXXII. Having dissected a young bitch that had never been in heat, I
+only discovered a small protuberance on one of the testicles, which
+I supposed to be the origin of a glandular body. The surface of the
+testicles was smooth and even, and the lymphatic vessels could scarcely
+be seen externally, until the tunic, which covered the testicles, was
+separated; but these vesicles were not considerable, and contained but
+a small quantity of liquor, in which I could only perceive some little
+globules without any motion.
+
+XXXIII. In another bitch, which was younger, and only three or four
+months old, there was no appearance of glandular bodies on the
+testicles; they were white, smooth, and covered with a cowl like the
+rest. There were some little vesicles which contained little or no
+liquor; and it was with great difficulty we could perceive any vesicles
+externally. I compared one of these testicles with that of a young
+dog of nearly the same age, and they appeared internally of a fleshy
+nature, and perfectly similar. I do not mean to contradict what some
+anatomists have said concerning the testicles of dogs, but only that
+the appearance of the internal substance of the female testicles is
+like that of the males, when the glandular substances are not yet
+grown.
+
+XXXIV. The genital parts of a cow, which had been just killed, was
+sent to me, covered over with hot cloths, and put into a basket with
+a live rabbit, which likewise squatted on a cloth at the bottom, so
+that I received them almost as warm as when taken out of the body. I
+immediately inspected the testicles, and found them of the size of
+a hen's, or, at least, a pigeon's egg. One of these testicles had a
+glandular body, about the size of a pea, protuberating outwardly like a
+small nipple, but it was not pierced, nor had any external orifice: it
+was close and hard. I pressed it with my fingers, but no liquor issued
+from it. I observed, before this testicle was dissected, there were
+two other glandular substances at a distance from the other; but these
+were just begun to grow; their colour was a whitish yellow, whereas
+that which seemed to have pierced the membrane of the testicle was of
+a rose colour. I opened this last, and examined it with the greatest
+attention, but could not discover that it contained any liquor, I
+therefore judged that it was far distant from its maturity.
+
+XXXV. The other testicle had no glandular body which had pierced the
+common membrane that covered the testicle, there were only two small
+ones, which began to form a little protuberance below this membrane.
+I opened both of them but no liquor issued therefrom: they were hard,
+whitish, and with a little yellow tint; each of them had four or five
+lymphatic vesicles, very easily distinguishable on their surface, and
+appearing transparent. I judged they contained a quantity of liquor,
+and having pierced them with a lancet, the liquor issued out to some
+inches distance. I collected a sufficient quantity of this liquor to
+observe it easily; I only saw some very minute immoveable globules; and
+although I continued my examination for two days, I neither discovered
+alteration, change, nor motion, therein.
+
+XXXVI. Eight days after, two more genital parts were brought to me
+in the same mode as the last. I was assured that one was taken from
+a young cow that had never calved, and the other from one that had
+had several, but was not old. I first examined the testicles of the
+latter, and on one of them I found a glandular substance, as large and
+as red as a cherry, which appeared a little soft towards the nipple. I
+distinguished three small holes, in which a hair might be introduced.
+Having pressed this substance with my fingers a small quantify of
+liquor issued, which I placed on the table of a microscope, and had the
+satisfaction to see some moving globules there, but quite different
+from those which I had seen in other seminal liquors (_fig. 11._).
+These globules were obscure and little; their progressive motion,
+although distinct, was, nevertheless, very slow. The liquor was not
+thick; the little globules had no appearance of threads, or tails, and
+they were not all in motion. This is all I was able to perceive in the
+liquor this glandular substance afforded me, for although I pressed
+it again, it only afforded a less quantity, mixed with blood. I again
+discovered it in the small moving globules, but they seemed to be at
+least four times smaller than the sanguinary globules.
+
+XXXVII. This glandular body was situate at one of the extremities by
+the side of the horn of the matrix, and the liquor, which it prepares,
+must fall upon this horn; nevertheless, on opening this horn I found
+no material quantity of liquor. This glandular body penetrated very
+forward in the testicle, and occupied more than a third of its internal
+substance. I opened them longitudinally, and found a pretty large
+cavity, but entirely void of any liquor. At some distance from this
+glandular body there was a small one of the same kind, about the size
+of a lentil. There were also two small cicatrices, about the same size,
+which formed two small indentations, of a deep red colour: they were
+the remains of obliterated glandular bodies. Having afterwards examined
+the other testicle, I counted four cicatrices and three glandular
+bodies; the foremost of which had pierced the membrane, was of a flesh
+colour, and the size of a pea. It was solid, and without any orifice
+or liquor: the two others were smaller, harder, and of a deep orange
+colour. On the first testicle only two or three apparent lymphatic
+vesicles remained. I counted eight on the external part, and having
+examined the liquor of these vesicles I perceived only a transparent
+matter, without any moving bodies.
+
+XXXVIII. I then examined the testicles of the young cow which had not
+calved, which, notwithstanding, were something larger than the other,
+but it is true there were no cicatrices on either of them; the one
+was smooth and very white, and a number of lymphatic vesicles were
+sprinkled about it, but there was not the least mark of a glandular
+body. On the other testicle I perceived the marks of two glandular
+substances, the one had just began to grow, and the other was the size
+of a pea; there was also a great number of lymphatic vesicles, which I
+pierced with a lancet, but the liquor did not contain any thing; having
+pierced the two small glandular bodies some blood alone issued thereout.
+
+XXXIX. I divided each testicle of both cows into four parts, and,
+having put them into separate phials, I poured as much water on as
+would cover them, and after having closely corked them up, I suffered
+to infuse for six days; I then examined these infusions, and discovered
+an innumerable quantity of living moving bodies (_fig. 12._); they
+were all, in these infusions, extremely small, moved with a surprising
+rapidity in all directions. I observed them for three days, and they
+always appeared to diminish, till at last, on the third day, they
+entirely disappeared.
+
+XL. The following day they brought to me the genital parts of three
+more cows. I immediately searched the testicles to find one where the
+glandular substance was in perfect maturity; but in two of them I
+only discovered some growing glandular substances on the testicles.
+I could not learn whether these cows had calved or not, but there
+was a great appearance they had all been in season, for there were
+a great number of cicatrices on all these testicles. In the third I
+found a testicle, on which was a glandular substance, as thick and as
+red as a cherry; it was inflamed, and seemed to be in full maturity.
+Its extremity was a nipple, with a small hole; I pressed it a little
+between my fingers, and a quantity of liquor issued out. I found in
+this liquor moving globules, exactly like those in the liquor pressed
+from the glandular body of the other cow, I have before spoken of in
+experiment XXXVI. They appeared to be more numerous, their progressive
+motions were not so slow, and their size larger. Having observed them
+for some time I perceived some to lengthen and change their form. I
+then introduced a very fine instrument into the little hole of the
+glandular substance, and having opened it I found the internal cavity
+replete with liquor; this liquor offered me the same phenomena, and the
+same moving globules, as I before observed in experiment XXXVI. with
+either filaments, threads, or tails attached to them. The liquor of
+the vesicle presented me with nothing more than nearly a transparent
+matter, which did not contain one moving thing.
+
+XLI. At different times they brought me the genitals of several other
+cows. In some I found the testicles loaded with an almost mature
+glandular substance; in others they were of different growths, and
+I remarked nothing new, excepting that in the two testicles of two
+different cows I perceived the glandular substance in a decayed state;
+the base of one was as broad as the circumference of a cherry; the
+extremity of the nipple was soft, wrinkled, and shrivelled; the two
+small holes were very perceptible, from whence the liquor had flowed.
+With some difficulty I introduced a small hair, but there was no liquor
+in the canal, nor in the internal cavity, which was still to be seen.
+The flaccidity of these glandular substances begins, therefore, at
+the most external part, or extremity of the nipple. They diminish at
+first in height, and afterwards in breadth, as I observed in another
+testicle, where this glandular substance had diminished more than three
+fourths.
+
+XLII. As the testicles of doe rabbits, as well as the glandular bodies
+formed there, are very small, I could observe nothing very exactly
+with respect to their seminal liquor. I only discovered, that the
+testicles of doe rabbits are different, and that none of those I saw
+resembled what De Graaf represents in his engravings; for the glandular
+substances did not enclose the lymphatic vesicles; and I never saw a
+pointed end, as he has depicted them.
+
+XLIII. I found on the testicles of some cows a kind of bladders,
+replete with transparent liquor. I remarked they were of different
+sizes, the largest about that of a pea; they were fastened to the
+external membrane of the testicle by a strong membraneous pedicle,
+as was also another, still smaller; and a third, nearly of the same
+size as the second, appeared to be only a lymphatic vesicle, much
+more apparent than the rest. I imagined these bladders, which the
+anatomists have called _hydatides_, might possibly be of the same
+nature as the lymphatic vesicles of the testicles, for having examined
+the liquor they contained I found it to be perfectly similar; it was a
+transparent and homogeneous liquor, which did not contain one moving
+substance.
+
+XLIV. At the same time I made observations on the liquor in an oyster;
+on the water in which pepper had been boiled; on the water wherein
+pepper had been only infused; and on the water wherein I had put some
+vegetable seed; the bottles which contained these waters were firmly
+closed, and in two days I perceived in the oyster liquor a great
+quantity of oval and globular substances, which seemed to swim like
+fish in a pond, and had all the appearance of being animals; however
+they had no limbs nor tails, but were very large, transparent, and
+visible. I perceived them change their forms, and become smaller for
+seven or eight days successively; and at length I and Mr. Needham
+observed animals similar to those in an infusion of jelly of roast
+veal, which had been also very exactly corked; so that I am persuaded
+they are not real animals, at least according to the received
+acceptation of the words, as we shall hereafter explain.
+
+The infusion of the seed presented an innumerable multitude of moving
+globules which appeared animated like those of the seminal liquors,
+and in the infusions of the flesh of animals: these were also large,
+and in violent motion during the first days, but they diminished by
+degrees, and disappeared only from their minuteness.
+
+I perceived the same thing, but later, in the liquor wherein pepper
+had been boiled, and the like, though still later, in that which had
+not boiled; from hence I supposed that what is called fermentation may
+possibly be only the effect of the motion of these organical parts
+of animals and vegetables; and in order to see what difference there
+was between this kind of fermentation and that of minerals, I placed
+a little powdered stone on the microscope, and sprinkled thereon a
+drop of aquafortis, which however produced a different phenomena,
+consisting of great balls, which ascended to the surface, and almost
+instantaneously obscured the focus of the microscope: this was a
+dissolution of the grosser parts, which being completed it became
+motionless, and had not the smallest resemblance to the other infusions
+I had observed.
+
+XLV. I examined the seminal liquor in the roes of different fish; such
+as carp, tench, barbel, &c. which I took out while they were living,
+and having observed three different liquors with great attention, I
+perceived a great quantity of obscure globules, all in motion. I took
+several more of these fish alive, and with my fingers gently compressed
+that part of the belly where this liquor is emitted; and in that which
+I obtained, I perceived an infinity of moving globules therein, very
+black and very small.
+
+XLVI. Before I finish this chapter I shall relate the experiments of
+Mr. Needham on the seed of a kind of cuttle fish, called calmar. This
+able naturalist having sought for spermatic animals in the milts of
+many different fish, found them in the roe of a calmar, apparent to
+the naked eye. During the summer he dissected calmars at Lisbon, but
+found no appearance of any roe, nor any reservoir which appeared to be
+destined for the reception of the seminal liquor; and it was in the
+middle of December that he began to discern the first traces of a new
+vessel replete with a milky juice. This reservoir increased, and the
+seed which it contained was diffused very abundantly. By examining this
+liquor with the microscope, he perceived only small opaque globules,
+which floated in a kind of serous matter, without the least appearance
+of life. But some time after, in the milt of another calmar, he found
+these organic parts completely formed; they seemed like spiral springs
+shut up in a kind of transparent case. They appeared as perfect at
+first as they did at last, excepting that by degrees they contracted
+and formed a kind of screw. The lid of the case was a species of
+valve that opened outwardly, and by which all the contents might
+issue; it contained another valve, a barrel, and a spongy substance;
+therefore the whole machine consisted in an external, transparent, and
+cartilaginous case, whose upper extremity is terminated by a round
+head, formed by the case itself, and which performs the office of a
+valve. In this external case is contained a transparent tube, which
+encloses the spring, piston, or valve, barrel, or spongy substance.
+The screw occupies the upper part of the tube and case, the piston and
+barrel are placed in the middle, and the spongy substance occupies
+the lower part. These machines pump up the lacteal liquor, of which
+the spongy substance is full; and before the animal spawns, the whole
+milt is no more than a composition of these organic parts, which have
+absolutely pumped up the lacteal liquor. As soon as these little
+machines are taken from the body of the animal, and deposited either
+in water, or held in the air, they begin to act; the spring ascends,
+followed by the piston, the barrel, and the spongy substance which
+contains the liquor; and as soon as the spring and the tube which
+contain it begin to quit the case, the spring folds up; and all that
+remains within begins to move, till the spring, the sucker, &c. are
+entirely come out: as soon as that is done, the remainder immediately
+follow, and the lacteal liquor, which has been pumped out, and which
+was contained in the spongy substance flows out by the barrel.
+
+As this observation is very singular, and incontestibly proves that
+the moving bodies found in the milt of the calmar are not animals, but
+simple machines, a kind of pumps, I have deemed it necessary to give
+Mr. Needham's own words.[Q]
+
+[Q] See New Discoveries made with the microscope by Mr. Needham, chap.
+vi. Leyden, 1747.
+
+"When the small machines, he says, are arrived to their perfect
+maturity, many of them act the moment they are in the open air;
+nevertheless most of them may be commodiously placed, so as to be
+seen with a microscope, before their action begins; and even to make
+them act, the upper extremity of the external case must be moistened
+with a drop of water which then begins to expand, while the two small
+ligaments which issue from the case twist and turn in different
+manners: at the same time, the screw ascends slowly, the volutes, which
+are at its upper end, approach and act against the top of the case:
+those at the bottom also advance, and seem to be continually followed
+by others which come from the piston. I say, they seem to be followed,
+because I do not think they are so effectually, but only a deception
+produced by the nature and motion of the screw. The piston and barrel
+also follow the same direction, extend lengthways, and at the same time
+move towards the top of the case, which is perceived by the vacuum
+at the bottom. As soon as the screw, with the tube in which it is
+enclosed, begins to appear externally from the case, it folds, because
+it is retained by its two ligaments: nevertheless, all the internal
+contents continue to move gently and gradually, until the screw,
+piston, and bladder, are entirely come out. When that is done, the rest
+follow directly after. The piston separates from the barrel, and the
+apparent ligament, which is below the latter, swells and acquires a
+diameter equal to that of the spongy substance which follows it. This,
+although much larger than when in the case, becomes still five times
+longer than before. The tube which incloses it all is straightened in
+its middle, and forms two kinds of knots, about a third of its length
+distant from each extremity: the semen then flows through, and is
+composed of small opaque globules, which float in a serous matter,
+without shewing any signs of life, and which are precisely such as I
+have said to have seen them when they were diffused in the reservoir
+of the milt. In the figure, the part between the two knots seems to
+be broken: when it is examined attentively, we find that what causes
+it to appear as such, is, that the spongy substance with in the tube
+is broken in nearly equal pieces, which the following phenomena will
+clearly prove. Sometimes it happens, that the screw and the tube break
+by the piston, which remains in the barrel; then the tube closes in
+a moment, and takes a conical figure, by contracting, as much as it
+is possible, above the end of the screw, which demonstrates its great
+elasticity in that part: and the manner in which it accommodates itself
+with the figure of the substance it incloses, when it receives the
+least change, proves, that it is equal in every other respect."
+
+Mr. Needham from this conceives that we might imagine the actions
+of all this machine were owing to the spring of the screw, but he
+proves, by many experiments, that the screw, on the contrary, only
+obeys a power which resides in the spongy part. As soon as the screw
+is separated from the rest, it ceases its action, and loses all its
+activity. The author afterwards makes this reflection on this singular
+machine:
+
+"If, says he, I had seen the animalcule pretended to be in the semen of
+living animals, perhaps I might be in a condition to determine whether
+they are really living creatures, or simple machines prodigiously
+minute, and which are in miniature, what the vessels of the calmar are
+in the great."
+
+By this, and some other analogies, Mr. Needham concludes, there is a
+great appearance that the spermatic worms of other animals are only
+organized bodies and machines, like to those of the calmar, whose
+actions are made at different times; "for, says he, let us suppose,
+that in the prodigious number of spermatic worms seen on the table
+of a microscope, there are some thousands which act at the same time,
+that will be sufficient to shew us, they are all alive. Let us also
+conceive, adds he, that the motion of these spermatic worms remains,
+like that of the machines of the calmar, about half a minute; then the
+succession of action of these small machines, will remain a long time,
+and the pretended animals will appear to decrease successively. Besides
+why should the calmar alone have machines in its seed, whereas every
+other animal has spermatic worms, and real animals? Analogy is here
+of such great weight, that it does not appear possible to refuse it."
+Mr. Needham likewise very justly remarks, that even the observations
+of Leeuwenhoek, seems to indicate that the spermatic worms have a
+great resemblance with the organized bodies in the seed of the calmar.
+"I have, says Leeuwenhoek, speaking of the cod, taken those real
+substances for hollow and extended animalcule, because they were four
+times as large as the living animalcule." And in another part, "I have
+remarked, he says, speaking of the seed of a dog, that the animalcules
+often change their form, especially when the liquor in which they
+float evaporates. The progressive motion does not extend above the
+diameter of a hair."[R]
+
+[R] See Leeuwenh. Arch. Nat. page 306, 309, 310.
+
+After considering all these circumstances Mr. Needham conjectures,
+that the supposed spermatic animals might possibly be only natural
+machines, substances much more simply organized than the bodies of
+animals. I have seen with the microscope, these machines in the calmar,
+and the description he gives of them, is very faithful and exact. His
+observations then shew us, that the seminal liquor is composed of
+parts which seek to be organized; that it, in fact, produces organized
+substances, but that they are not as yet, either animals or organized
+substances, like the individual which produced them. We might suppose,
+that these substances are only instruments which serve to perfect the
+seminal liquor, and strongly impel it; and that it is by their brisk
+and internal action, that it most intimately penetrates the seminal
+liquor of the female.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+COMPARISON OF MY OBSERVATIONS WITH THOSE OF LEEUWENHOEK.
+
+
+Although I made the preceding experiments with all the circumspection
+possible; and although I repeated them a number of times, I am
+persuaded that many things escaped my notice; I have only related what
+I saw, and what all the world may see, with a little art and much
+practice. In order to be free from prejudices, I endeavoured to forget
+what other naturalists asserted to have seen, conceiving that by so
+doing, I should be more certain of only seeing in fact what really
+appeared; and it was not till after I had digested my observations,
+that I compared them with those of Leeuwenhoek, &c. I by no means
+pretend to have greater abilities in microscopical observations than
+that great naturalist, who passed more than sixty years in making
+various experiments.
+
+Notwithstanding the authority his observations may justly claim, it
+is surely permitted to examine and compare others with them. Truth
+can only be gained by such examinations, and errors discovered,
+particularly as we do it without any partiality, and in the sole view
+of establishing something fixed and certain on the nature of those
+moving bodies seen in the seminal liquors.
+
+In November 1677, Leeuwenhoek, who had already communicated to the
+Royal Society of London many microscopical observations on the optic
+nerve, the blood, the juice of the plants, the texture of trees,
+rain-water, &c. addressed to Lord Brouncker, President of the Society,
+in the following words: "Postquam Exc.[S] &c. Dominus Professor
+Cranen me visitatione sua sępius honorarat, litteris rogavis, Domino
+Ham concrato suo, quasdam observationum mearum, videndas darem. Hic
+dominus Ham me secundo invisens, secum in laguncula, vitrea semen
+viri, gonorrhęa laborantis, sponte destillatum, attulit, dicens, se
+post paucissimas temporis minutias (cum materia ilia jam in tantum
+esset resoluta ut fistulę vitreę immitti posset) animalcula viva in
+eo observasse, quę caudam & ultra 24 horas non viventia judicabat;
+idem referebat se animalcula observasse mortua post sumptam ab ęgroto
+therebintinam. Materiam prędicatam fistulę vitreę immissam, pręsente
+Domino Ham, observavi, quasdamque in ea creaturas viventes, at post
+decursum 2 aut 3 horarum eamdem solus materiam observans, mortuas vidi.
+
+[S] See Phil. Trans. No. 141, page 1041.
+
+"Eamdem materiam (semen virile) non ęgroti alicujus, non diuturna
+conservatione corruptam, vel post aliquot momenta fluidiorem factam,
+sed sani viri statim post ejectionem, ne interlabentibus quidem sex
+arterię pulsibus, sępiuscule observavi, tantamque in ea viventium
+animalculorum multitudinem vidi, ut interdum plura quam 1000 in
+magnitudine arenę sese moverent; non in toto semine, sed in materia
+fluida crassiori adhęrente, ingentem illam animalculorum multitudinem
+observavi; in crassiori vero seminis materia quasi sine motu jacebant,
+quod inde provenire mihi imaginabar, quod materia illa crassa ex tam
+variis cohęreat partibus, ut animalcula in ea se movere nequirent;
+minora globulis sanguini ruborem adferentibus hęc animalcula erant, ut
+judicem, millena millia arenam grandiorem magnitudine non ęquatura.
+Corpora corum rotunda, anteriora obtusa, posteriora ferme in aculeum
+desinentia habebant; cauda tenui longitudine corpus quinquies sexiesve
+excedente, & pellucida crassitiem vero ad 25 partem corporis habente
+prędita erant, adeo ut ea quoad figuram cum cyclaminis minoribus,
+longam caudam habentibus, optime, comparare queam; motu caudę
+serpentino, aut ut anguillę in aqua natantis progrediebantur; in
+materia vero aliquantulum crassiori caudam octies deciesve quidem
+evibrabant antequam latitudinem capilli procedebant. Interdum mihi
+imaginabar me internoscere posse adhuc varias in corpore horum
+animalculorum partes, quia vero continuo eas videre nequibam, de iis
+tacebo. His animalculis minora adhuc animalcula, quibus non nisi
+globuli figuram attribuere possum, permissa erant.
+
+"Memini me ante tres aut quatuor annos, rogatu Domini Oldenburg, B. M.
+semen virile observasse, & prędicta animalia pro globulis habuisse;
+sed quia fastidiebam ab ulteriori inquisitione, & magis quidem a
+descriptione, tunc temporis eam omisi. Jam quoad partes ipsas, ex
+quibus crassam seminis materiam, quoad majorem sui partem consistere
+sępius cum admiratione observavi, ea sunt tam varia ac multa vasa, imo
+in tanta multitudine hęc vasa vidi, ut credam me in unica seminis gutta
+plura observasse quam anatomico per integrum diem subjectum aliquod
+secanti occurrant. Quibus visis, firmiter credebam nulla in corpore
+humano jam formato esse vasa, quę in semine virili bene constituto non
+reperiantur. Cum materia hęc per momenta quędam aėri fuisset exposita,
+prędicta vasorum multitudo in aquosam magnis oleaginosis globulis
+permistam materiam mutabatur, &c."
+
+The Secretary of the Royal Society, in answer to this letter, says,
+that it would be proper to make the like experiments on the seed of
+other animals, as dogs, horses, &c. not only to form a better judgment
+on the first discovery, but to know the differences which might be
+found in the number, and the figure of those animalcules. And with
+relation to the vessels of the thickest part of the seminal liquors,
+he greatly doubts they were only filaments without any organization,
+"quę tibi videbatur vasorum congeries, fortassis seminis sunt
+quędam filamenta, haud organice constructa, sed dum permearunt vasa
+generationi inservientia in istiusmodi figuram elongata. Non dissimili
+modo ac sępius notatus sum salivam crassiorem ex glandularum faucium
+foraminibus editam quasi e convolutis fibrilis constantem."[T]
+
+[T] See the Secretary's answer to Leeuwenhoek's Letter in the Phil.
+Trans. No. 141, page 1043.
+
+Leeuwenhoek answered him on the 18th of March, 1678, in the following
+words: "Si quando canes coeunt marem a foemina statim seponas materia
+quędam tenuis & aquosa (lympha scilicet spermatica) e pene solet
+paulatim exstillare; hanc materiam numerosissimis animalculis repletam
+aliquoties vidi, eorum magnitudine quę in semine virili conspiciuntur,
+quibus particulę globulares aliquot quinquagies majores permiscebantur.
+
+"Quod ad vasorem in crassiori seminis virilis portione spectabilium
+observationem attinet, denuo non semel iteratam, saltem mihimetipsi
+comprobasse videor; meque omnino persuasum habeo, cuniculi, canis,
+felis, arterias venasve fuisse a peritissimo anatomico haud unquam
+magis perspicue observatas, quam mihi rasa in semine virili, ope
+perspicilli, in confectum venere.
+
+"Cum mihi prędicta vasa primum innotuere, statim etiam pituitam, tum
+& salivam perspicillo applicavi; verum his minime existentia animalia
+frustra quęsivi.
+
+"A cuniculorum coitu lymphę spermaticę guttulam, unam et alteram,
+e femella exstillantem, examini subjeci, ubi animalia prędictorum
+similia, sed longe pauciora, comparuere. Globuli item quam plurimi,
+plerique magnitudine animalium, iisdem permisti sunt.
+
+"Horum animalium aliquot etiam delineationes transmisi, figura _a_
+(_plate 3._) exprimit corum aliquot vivum (in semine cuniculi arbitror)
+eaque forma qua videbatur, dum aspicientem me versus tendit. A B C,
+capitulum cum trunco indicant; C D, ejusdem caudam, quam pariter ut
+suam anguilla inter natandum vibrat. Horum millena millia, quantum
+conjectare est, arenulę majoris molem vix superant, (_fig. b, c, d,_)
+sunt ejusdem generis animalia, sed jam mortua.
+
+[Illustration: _PLATE. III._]
+
+"(_Fig. e._) Delineatur vivum animalculum, quemadmodum in semine canino
+sese aliquoties mihi attentius intuenti exhibuit. E F G, caput cum
+trunco indigitant, G H ejusdem caudam, (_fig. f, g, h,_) alia sunt in
+semine canino quę motu & vita privantur, qualium etiam vivorum numerum
+adeo ingentem vidi, ut judicarem portionem lymphę spermaticę arenulę
+mediocri respondentem, eorum ut minimum decena millia continere."
+
+By another letter written to the Royal Society, the 31st of May,
+1678, Leeuwenhoek adds, "Seminis canini tantillum microscopio
+applicatum iterum contemplatus sum, in eoque antea descripta animalia
+numerosissime conspexi. Aqua pluvialis pari quantitate adjecta, iisdem
+confestim mortem accersit. Ejusdem seminis canini portiuncula in vitreo
+tubulo uncię partem duodecimalem crasso servata, sex & triginta horarum
+spatio contenta animalia vita destitua pleraque, reliqua moribunda
+videbantur.
+
+"Quo de vasorum in semine genitali existentia magis constaret,
+delineationem eorum aliqualem mitto, ut in figura ABCDE, (_fig. i._)
+quibus literis circumscriptum spatium arenulam mediocrem vix superat."
+
+I have copied these first remarks of Leeuwenhoek from the Philosophical
+Transactions, because, in matters of this kind, observations made
+without any systematical view are those which are the most faithfully
+described, and even this able naturalist no sooner formed a system on
+spermatic animals, than he began to vary in essential points.
+
+It is evident by the above dales, that Hartsoeker is not the first who
+published, if he was the first who discovered spermatic animals. In
+the Journal de Sēavans, in the year 1774, there is a letter from Mr.
+Huguens, on the subject of a microscope, made by one small ball of
+glass, with which he asserts he perceived animals in the water, wherein
+pepper had been infused for two or three days, as Leeuwenhoek before
+had observed with the like microscopes, but whose balls were not so
+minute. "There are also other seeds, he continues, which engender such
+animals, as coriander seeds, &c. and I have seen the same thing in the
+pith of the birch tree, after having kept it for four or five days; and
+some have observed them in the water where nutmegs and cinnamon have
+been soaked. These animals may be said to engender from some corruption
+or fermentation: but there are others which must have a different
+origin; as those in the seed of animals, which seem in such great
+numbers, as to be almost composed of them; they are all transparent,
+have a quick motion, and their figures are like the tadpole."
+
+Huguens does not mention the author of this discovery; but in the
+Journal of the 29th of August in the same year, there is an extract
+of a letter of M. Hartsoeker, in which he gives the method of forming
+these glass balls by means of the flame of a lamp; and the author of
+the Journal says, "By this method he has discovered that little animals
+are engendered in urine which has been kept for some days, and have
+the figure of little eels: he found some in the seed of a cock, which
+appeared of the same form, but quite different from those found in the
+seed of other animals, which resemble tadpoles, or young frogs, before
+their legs are formed." The author seems to attribute the invention to
+Hartsoeker; but if we reflect on the uncertain manner in which it is
+there represented, and on the particular manner in which Leeuwenhoek
+speaks in his letter, written and published above a year before, we
+must allow him to be the first who made this observation; but between
+them a contest took place as to the discovery which has never been
+decided. Be this as it will, Leeuwenhoek was undoubtedly the first
+inventor of the microscope, whose focuses are balls of glass formed by
+the flame of a lamp. But to return to his observations.
+
+I shall first remark, that what he says of the number and motion of
+these pretended animals is true; but the figure of the body is not
+always the same as he describes it: sometimes the part which precedes
+the tail is round and at others long; often flat, and frequently
+broader than it is long, &c. and with respect to the tail, it is often
+much larger and shorter than he asserts. The motion of vibrations
+which he gives to the tail, and by means of which he pretends that the
+animalcules advance progressively in this fluid, has never appeared
+to me as he has described it. I have seen these moving substances
+make eight or ten oscillations from the right to the left, or vice
+versa, without advancing the breadth of a hair; and I have even seen
+many more which could not advance at all; because this tail, instead
+of being of any assistance to them was, on the contrary, a thread
+attached either in the filaments or mucilaginous parts of the liquor,
+and rather retained the moving substance like as a thread fastened to
+the point retains the ball of a pendulum; and when this tail had any
+motion, it only resembled a thread which forms a curve at the end of
+an oscillation. I have seen these threads, or tails, fastened to the
+filaments which Leeuwenhoek stiles vessels; I have seen them separate
+after many reiterated efforts of the moving bodies; I have seen them
+at first lengthen, then diminish, and at last totally disappear. I
+therefore think these tails should be considered as accidental parts,
+and not as essential to the bodies of these pretended animals. But
+what is most remarkable, Leeuwenhoek precisely says, in his letter
+to Lord Brouncker, that, besides these animals that had tails, there
+were also smaller animals in this liquor, which had no other form than
+that of a globule. "His animalculis (caudatis scilicet) minora adhuc
+animalcula, quibus non nisi globuli figuram attribuere possum, permista
+erant." This is the truth; but after Leeuwenhoek had advanced that
+these animals were the only efficient principle of generation, and that
+they were transformed into human figures, he has only regarded those
+as animals which had tails; and as it was consistent for animals that
+were transformed into human figures, to have a constant form, he never
+afterwards mentions those smaller animalcules without tails; and I
+was greatly surprised, on comparing the copy of this letter with that
+he published twenty years after, in his 3d volume, where, instead of
+the above words, the following are found: "Animalculis hisce permistę
+jacebant alię minutiores particulę, quibus non aliam quam globulorum
+seu sphęricam figuram assignare queo;" which is quite different. A
+particle of matter to which he attributes no motion, is very different
+from an animalcule: and it is astonishing that Leeuwenhoek, in
+copying his own works, has altered this essential article. What he
+adds immediately after likewise merits attention: he says, that by
+the desire of Mr. Oldenburg he had examined this liquor three or four
+years before, when he took these animalcules for globules; that is,
+there are times when these pretended animalcules are no more than
+globules, without any remarkable motion, and others when they move with
+great activity; sometimes they have tails, and at others they have
+none. Speaking in general of spermatic animals he says, "Ex hisce
+meis observationibus cogitare coepi, quamvis antehac de animalculis
+in seminibus masculinis agens, scripserim, me in illis caudas non
+detexisse, fieri tamen posse ut illa animalcula ęque caudis fuerint
+instructa ac nunc comperi de animalculis in gallorum gallinaceorum
+semine masculino;" another proof that he has often seen spermatic
+animals of all kinds without tails.
+
+In the second place we must remark, that the filaments which are
+seen in the seminal liquor before it is liquefied were discovered by
+Leeuwenhoek, and that in his first observations, before he had made
+any hypothesis on spermatic animals, he considered these filaments as
+veins, nerves, and arteries; and firmly believed all the parts and
+vessels of the human body might clearly be seen in the seminal liquor.
+This opinion he persisted in, in defiance of the representations
+which Oldenburg made to him on this subject from the Royal Society:
+but as soon as he thought of transforming these pretended spermatic
+animals into men, he no longer mentioned these vessels; and instead
+of looking on them as nerves, arteries, and veins, of the human body
+already formed in the seed; he did not even attribute to them the
+functions they really possess, the producing of these moving bodies:
+and he says, vol. I. p. 7, "Quid fiet de omnibus illis particulis seu
+corpusculis pręter illa animalcula semini virili hominum inhęrentibus?
+Olim & priusquam hęc scriberem, in ea sententia fui, prędictas strias
+vel vasa ex testiculis principium secum ducere, &c." And in another
+part he says, that if he had formerly written any thing on the subject
+of these vessels found in the seed, we must pay no attention to it.
+
+[Illustration: _PLATE. IV._]
+
+We shall observe in the third place, that if we compare the figures
+_a, b, c, d_, (PLATE III.) copied from the Philosophical Transactions,
+with those which Leeuwenhoek had engraved many years after, (PLATE IV.)
+we shall find considerable difference, especially in the figures of
+the dead animals, of a rabbit and in those of a dog, (which plate we
+have also copied for the satisfaction of our readers) from all which
+we may conclude, that Leeuwenhoek has not always observed objects
+entirely alive: that the moving bodies, which he looked upon as
+animals, appeared to him under different forms; and that he has varied
+in his assertions, with a view of making the species of men and animals
+perfectly consistent; he has not only varied in the basis of these
+experiments, but even in the manner of making them, for he expressly
+says, that he always diluted the liquor with water, in order to
+separate, and to give more motion to these animalcules: nevertheless,
+in his letter to Lord Brouncker, he says, that having mingled an equal
+quantity of rain water with the seminal liquor of a dog, in which he
+had before perceived an infinity of living animalcules, yet the mixing
+of this water killed them. The first experiment of Leeuwenhoek's
+therefore was made, like mine, without any mixture; and it even seems,
+that he was not of opinion to mix any water with the liquor till a
+long time after; because he thought he had discovered, by his first
+essay, that water caused the death of the animalculę; which however is
+not the fact. I think that the mixture of the water only dissolves the
+filaments very suddenly; for I have seen but very few filaments in all
+the experiments I have made after mixing the water with the seminal
+liquor.
+
+As soon as Leeuwenhoek was persuaded that spermatic animals were
+transformed into men, and other animals, he imagined he saw two sorts
+in the seminal liquor of every animal, the one male, and the other
+female; and this difference, according to him, served not only for the
+generation of themselves, but for the production of males and females,
+which was very difficult to conceive by a simple transformation. He
+speaks of the male and female animalcule, in his letter printed in the
+Philosophical Transactions, No. 145, and in many parts of his works,[U]
+but he does not describe the difference of these male and female
+animalcules, and which in fact never existed but in his own imagination.
+
+[U] See vol I. page 163, and vol. III. page 101, of his works.
+
+The famous Boerhaave having asked Leeuwenhoek, if he had not observed
+in spermatic animals different degrees of growth and size? Leeuwenhoek
+answered, that having dissected a rabbit, he observed in the semen an
+infinite number of living animals. "Incredibilem, says he, viventium
+animalculorum, numerum conspexerunt, cum hęc animalcula scypho
+imposita vitreo & illic emortua, in rariores ordines disparassent, &
+per continuos aliquot dies sępius visu examinassem, quędam ad justam
+magnitudinem nondum excrevisse adverti. Ad hęc quasdam observavi
+particulas perexiles & oblongas, alias aliis majores, &, quantum oculis
+apparebat, cauda destitutas; quas quidem particulas non nisi animalcula
+esse credidi, quę ad justam magnitudinem non excrevissent."[V]
+Here then are animalcules of different sizes, some with tails and
+others without, which much better agrees with my experiments, than
+with Leeuwenhoek's own system. We differ only in one particular; he
+says, that those without tails were young animalculę, which were not
+arrived at their full growth; while I, on the contrary, have seen
+these pretended animals quit the filaments with tails or threads, and
+afterwards lose them by degrees.
+
+[V] See vol. IV. pages 280 and 281.
+
+In the same letter to Boerhaave, he says, in the semen of a ram, he
+perceived animalcules following each other in swarms like a flock of
+sheep. "A tribus circiter annis testes arietis, adhuc calentes, ad ędes
+meas deferri curaveram, cum igitur materiam ex epididymibus eductam,
+ope microscopii contemplarer, non sine ingenti voluptate advertebam
+animalcula omnia, quotquot innatabant semini masculino, eundem
+natando cursum tenere, ita nimirum ut quo itinere priora prinatarent
+eodem posteriora subsequerentur, adeo ut hisce animalculis quasis
+sit ingenitum, quod oves factitare vidimus, scilicet ut precedentium
+vestigiis grex universus incedat." This observation, which Leeuwenhoek
+made in 1713, and which he looks upon as singular and novel, proves
+to me, that he had never examined the seminal liquors of animals with
+attention, at least sufficient to give very exact descriptions of them.
+Leeuwenhoek was sixty-one years old in 1713, had made microscopical
+observations for more than forty-five years, had published the
+discovery of spermatic animals for about thirty-six years, and then,
+for the first time, saw in the seminal liquor of a ram, what is seen in
+all seminal liquors, and what I have described in Experiment IX. in the
+seed of a man; Experiment XII. in the seed of a dog; and in Experiment
+XXIX. in that of a bitch. It is not necessary to suppose the spermatic
+animals of the ram are endowed with instinct, to explain the floating
+of these animals, in flocks like sheep, since those of a man, dog, or
+bitch, does the same; and which motion depends solely on particular
+circumstances, whose principle is, that all the fluid matter of the
+seed is on one side, while the thick matter is on the other; for then
+all the bodies in motion will be disengaged from the mucilage, and
+follow the same road into the most fluid part of the liquor.
+
+In another letter, written the same year, to Boerhaave, he relates some
+further observations he made on rams, and says, that he has seen, in
+the _vasa deferentia_, flocks of animals which float all on one side,
+and others which go in a contrary direction; and he adds, "Neque illud
+in unica epididymum parte, sed & in aliis quas pręcideram partibus,
+observavi. Ad hęc, in quadam parastatarum resecta portione complura
+vidi animalcula, quę necdum in justam magnitudinem adoleverant, nam
+et corpuscula illis exiliora & caudę triplo breviores erant quam
+adultis. Ad hęc, caudas non habebant desinentes in mucronem, quales
+tamen adultis esse passim comperio. Pręterea in quandam parastatarum
+portionem incidi, animalculis quantum discernere potui, destitutam,
+tantum illi quędam perexiguę inerant particulę, partim longiores,
+partim breviores, sed altera sui extremitate crassiunculę; istas
+particulas in animalcula transituras esse non dubitabam." It is easy
+to see, by this passage, that Leeuwenhoek had seen, in this seminal
+liquor, what I found in all; that is to say, moving bodies of different
+sizes, figures, and motions; and which agrees much better with the idea
+of organic particles in motion than of that with real animals.
+
+It appears, therefore, that Leeuwenhoek's observations are not contrary
+to mine, although he has drawn very different conclusions from them. I
+am persuaded that if any person would take the trouble of making the
+like experiments they would not have any difficulty in discovering from
+whence these differences proceed, and would find that I have advanced
+nothing which is not conformable to truth; and to enable the reader to
+decide thereon, I shall subjoin a few remarks.
+
+The filaments I have spoken of are not always to be perceived in the
+seminal liquor of a man. To discover them it must be examined the
+moment it is taken from the body, and even then it will sometimes
+happen that there is not one to be seen. Sometimes the seminal liquor
+presents, especially when it is very thick, only large globules, which
+may be even distinguished with a common lens. By inspecting them with
+the microscope they appear like young oranges; they are very opaque,
+and a single one often fills up the whole table of the microscope.
+The first time I saw these globules I thought they were some foreign
+matters fallen into the liquor, but having examined different drops
+I discovered that the whole was composed of these thick globules. I
+selected one of the roundest, and whose size was such that, its centre
+being in the middle of the table of the microscope, I could at the
+same time observe the whole circumference; at first it was absolutely
+opaque; a short time afterwards I perceived a bright luminous ring
+to form on its surface, which remained about half an hour, and then
+approached by degrees towards the centre, which became clear, and of
+different colours, while the remainder of the globule continued opaque.
+This light, which brightened in the centre of the globule, resembled
+those seen in the great air bubbles. The globule then began to get
+a little flat, and acquire a small degree of transparency. Having
+examined it more than three hours I perceived no more alteration,
+nor any appearance of motion, either internally or externally. I
+then imagined, that by mixing this liquor with water, these globules
+might be changed; in fact they did change, but they presented only a
+transparent and homogeneous liquor, wherein was nothing remarkable. I
+suffered the seminal liquor to liquefy of itself, and examined it at
+the end of six, twelve, and twenty-four hours, but saw nothing more
+than a fluid; without the smallest resemblance of life or motion. I
+only relate this observation to shew that there are times when the
+common phenomena are not to be seen in the seminal liquor.
+
+At times all the moving bodies appear to have tails, especially in
+the semen of a man and a dog; the motion is then the least brisk, and
+performed with difficulty. If this liquor is suffered to dry, the tails
+or threads are deprived of motion the first; the anterior extremity
+continues to vibrate for some time, and then all motion entirely
+ceases. These substances may be preserved in this state of dryness for
+a long time: if a small drop of water is mixed therewith, their figure
+changes, they are reduced into many globules, which sometimes appear to
+be in motion, as well by their approximation to each other, as by the
+trepidation and twirling round their centres.
+
+These moving bodies in the seminal liquor of a man, dog, or bitch, so
+nearly resemble each other, as to admit of mistaking one for the other,
+especially if they are examined the moment the liquor is drawn from
+the animal. Those of the rabbit appear smaller and brisker; but these
+differences proceed more from the different states in which the liquor
+is at the time of observation, than from the nature of the liquor
+itself, which ought to be different in different kinds of animals;
+for example, in that of a man I have seen streaks of thick filaments,
+(_fig. 3._) and have perceived the moving bodies separate themselves
+from these filaments from whence they appeared to proceed; but I have
+never seen any thing like it in the semen of a dog; where, instead
+of filaments, or separated streaks, it is commonly a mucilage whose
+texture is more compact, and in which we with difficulty discern any
+filamentary parts; yet this mucilage gives birth to moving bodies like
+those in the semen of men.
+
+The motions of these bodies remain a longer time in the liquor of a
+dog, than in that of a man; from which it is more easy to be certain of
+the alteration of form above mentioned. The moment the liquor issues
+from the body of the animal we perceive the animalcules to have tails;
+in twelve, twenty-four, or thirty-six hours after, we shall find they
+have lost those tails, and are then no more than ovals in motion, often
+much brisker than at first.
+
+The moving bodies are always a little below the surface of the liquor.
+On the surface some large transparent air bubbles, which have no
+motion, generally appear, though sometimes these bubbles stir and
+seem to have a progressive motion, but which is nothing more than the
+agitation of the air. Below the moving substances we often see others
+much smaller, and which only appear like globules, having no tails,
+but the greatest number of which are oftentimes in motion. I have
+also generally remarked, that in the infinite number of globules, in
+all those liquors, those which are very small, are commonly black, or
+darker than the rest; and that those which are extremely minute and
+transparent, have but little or no motion; they appear also to weigh
+specifically heavier, for they are always the deepest in the liquor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+REFLECTIONS ON THE PRECEDING EXPERIMENTS.
+
+
+By the experiments we have just described, I was assured that females,
+as well as males, have a seminal liquor which contains moving
+substances; that these substances were not real animals, but only
+living organic particles; and that those particles exist, not only in
+the seminal liquors of the two sexes, but even in the flesh of animals,
+and in the germs of vegetables. To discover whether all the parts of
+animals, and all the germs of vegetables, contained living organic
+particles, I caused infusions of the flesh of different animals to
+be made, and of more than twenty kinds of seeds of different plants;
+and after they had infused four or five days, in phials closely stopt
+up, I had the satisfaction to see moving organic parts in them all;
+some appeared sooner, and others later; some preserved their motion
+for months together, while others were soon deprived of it; some
+directly produced large moving globules, that had the appearance of
+real animals, which changed their figures, separated, and became
+successively smaller: others produced only small globules, whose
+motions were very brisk; others produced filaments which lengthened
+and seemed to vegetate, swelled, and afterwards thousands of moving
+globules issued therefrom; but it is useless to detail my observations
+on the infusion of plants, since Mr. Needham has published so excellent
+a treatise on the subject. I read the preceding treatise to that able
+naturalist, and often reasoned with him on the subject, particularly
+on the probability that the germs of vegetables contained similar
+moving bodies to those in the seed of male and female animals. He
+thought those views sufficiently founded to deserve to be pursued; and
+therefore began to make experiments on all parts of vegetables; and I
+must own that the ideas I gave him on this subject have reaped greater
+profit under his hands than they would have done from me. I could quote
+many examples, but shall confine myself to one, because I indicated the
+circumstance I am going to relate.
+
+To determine whether the moving substances seen in the infusions
+of flesh were true animals, or only, as I supposed, moving organic
+particles, Mr. Needham imagined that he had only to examine some
+roasted meat, because if they were animals the fire must destroy
+them; and if not animals, they might still be found there as well as
+when the meat was raw; having therefore taken the jelly of veal, and
+other roasted meat, he infused them for several days in water, closely
+corked up in phials, and upon examination he found in every one of
+them a great quantity of moving substances. He shewed me some of these
+infusions, and among the rest that of the jelly of veal, in which there
+were moving substances, perfectly like those in the seminal liquor of
+a man, a dog, and a bitch, when they have no threads, or tails; and
+although we perceived them to change their figures, their motions so
+perfectly resembled those of an animal which swims, that whoever saw
+them, without being acquainted with what has been already mentioned,
+might certainly have taken them for real animals. I shall only add,
+that Mr. Needham assured himself, by a multiplicity of experiments,
+that all parts of vegetables contain moving organic particles, which
+confirms what I have said, and extends my theory on the composition of
+organized beings, and their reproduction.
+
+All animals, both male and female, and all vegetables whatsoever, it is
+therefore evident are composed of living organic parts. These organic
+parts are in the greatest abundance in the seminal liquor of animals,
+and in seeds of vegetables. It is from the union of these organic
+parts returned from all parts of the animal or vegetable body, that
+reproduction is performed, and is always like the animal or vegetable
+in which it operates; because the union of these organic parts cannot
+be made but by the means of an internal mould, in which the form of
+an animal or vegetable is produced. It is in this also the essence of
+the unity and continuity of the species consists, and will so continue
+while the great Creator permits their existence.
+
+But before I draw general conclusions from the system I am
+establishing, I must endeavour to remove some objections which might be
+made, and mention some other circumstances which will serve to place
+this matter in a better light.
+
+It will be asked, why I deny those moving substances in the seminal
+liquors to be animals, since they have constantly been regarded as
+such by Leeuwenhoek, and every other naturalist, who has examined
+them? I may also be told, that living organic particles are not
+perfectly intelligible, if they are to be looked upon as animalculę;
+and to suppose an animal is composed of a number of small animals,
+is nearly the same as saying that an organized being is composed of
+living organic particles. I shall therefore endeavour to answer these
+objections in a satisfactory manner.
+
+It is certain that almost all naturalists agree in looking on the
+moving substances in seminal liquors as real animals; but it is no less
+certain, from my own observations, and those of Mr. Needham, on the
+seed of the calmar, that these moving substances are more simple and
+less organized beings than animals.
+
+The word _animal_, in the acceptation we commonly receive it,
+represents a general idea formed of particular ideas drawn from
+particular animals. All general ideas include many different ones,
+which approach, or are more or less distant from each other, and
+consequently no general idea can either be exact or precise. The
+general idea which we form of an animal may be taken principally from
+the particular idea of a dog, a horse, and other beasts, which appear
+to us to act and move according to the impulse of their will, and which
+are besides composed of flesh and blood, seek after their food, have
+sexes, and the faculty of reproduction. The general idea, therefore,
+expressed by the word _animal_, must comprehend a number of particular
+ideas, not one of which constitutes the essence of the general idea,
+for there are animals which appear to have no reason, will, progressive
+motion, flesh nor blood, and which only appear to be a congealed
+substance: there are some which cannot seek their food, but only
+receive it from the element they live in: there are some which have no
+sensation, not even that of feeling, at least in any sensible degree:
+there are some have no sexes, or are both in one; there only belongs,
+therefore, to the animal a general idea of what is common also to the
+vegetable, that is, the faculty of reproduction.
+
+The general idea then is formed from the whole taken together, which
+whole being composed of different parts, there is consequently between
+these parts degrees and links. An insect, in this sense, is something
+less of an animal than a dog; an oyster still less than an insect; a
+sea-nettle, or a fresh-water polypus, still less than an oyster; and
+as nature acts by insensible links, we may find beings which are still
+less animated than a sea-nettle, or a polypus. Our general ideas are
+only artificial methods to collect a quantity of objects in the same
+point of view; and they have, like the artificial methods we shall
+speak of, the defect of never being able to comprehend the whole.
+They are likewise opposite to the walk of nature, which is uniform,
+insensible, and always particular, insomuch that by our endeavouring to
+comprehend too great a number of particular ideas in one single word,
+we have no longer a clear idea of what that word conveys; because, the
+word being received, we imagine that it is a line drawn between the
+productions of nature; that all above this line is _animal_, and all
+below it _vegetable_; another word, as general as the first, and which
+is used as a line of separation between organized bodies and inanimate
+matter. But as we have already said, these lines of separation do
+not exist in nature; there are beings which are neither animals,
+vegetables, nor minerals, and which we in vain might attempt to arrange
+with either. For example, when Mr. Trembly first observed the polypus,
+he employed a considerable time before he could determine whether it
+was an animal or a plant; and possibly from this reason that it is
+perhaps neither one nor the other, and all that can be said is, that it
+approaches nearest to an animal; and as we suppose every living thing
+must be either an animal or a plant, we do not credit the existence of
+an organized being, that cannot be referred to one of those general
+names; whereas there must, and in fact are, a great number of organized
+beings which are neither the one nor the other. The moving substances
+perceived in seminal liquors, in infusions of the flesh of animals, in
+seed, and other parts of plants, are all of this kind. We cannot call
+these animals, nor can we say they are vegetables, and certainly we can
+still less assert they are minerals.
+
+We can therefore affirm, without fear of advancing too much, that the
+grand division of nature's productions into _Animals_, _Vegetables_,
+and _Minerals_, do not contain every material being; since there are
+some that exist which cannot be classed in this division. We have
+already observed, that nature passes by insensible links from the
+animal to the vegetable, but from the vegetable to the mineral the
+passage is quick, and the distance considerable; from whence the law of
+nature's passing by imperceptible degrees appears untrue. This made me
+suppose that by examining nature closely we shall discover intermediate
+organized beings, which without having the power of reproduction, like
+animals and vegetables, would nevertheless have a kind of life and
+motion; other beings which, without being either vegetables or animals,
+might possibly enter into the composition of both, and likewise other
+beings which would be only the assemblage of the organic molecules I
+have spoken of in the preceding chapters.
+
+In the first class of these kind of beings eggs must be placed; those
+of hens, and other birds, are fastened to a common pedicle, and draw
+their nourishment and growth from the body of the animal, but when
+fastened to the ovary, they are not then real eggs, but only yellow
+globules which separate from the ovary as soon as they have attained a
+certain growth. Their internal organization is such that they derive
+nourishment from the lymph, the matrix of the hen, and by which they
+form the white membranes, and at last the shell. The egg therefore has
+a kind of life and organization, a growth, expansion, and a form which
+it assumes by its own powers. It does not live like an animal, nor
+vegetate like a plant, nor is possessed of the power of reproduction;
+nevertheless it grows, acts externally, and is organized. Must we not
+then look upon it as a being of a separate class, and which ought not
+to be ranked either with animal or mineral? for if it is pretended that
+the egg is only an animal production, destined for the nutriment of
+the chicken, and should be looked upon as a part of the hen; I answer,
+that the eggs, whether impregnated or not, will be always organized
+after the same mode: that impregnation only changes an almost invisible
+part; and that it attains its perfection and growth, as well externally
+as internally, whether it contains the chicken or not, and that
+consequently it ought to be considered as a separate being.
+
+What I have said will appear more clear, if we consider the formation
+and growth of the eggs of fish; when the female deposits them in the
+water they are only the outlines of eggs, which being separated from
+the body of the animal, attract and appropriate to themselves the
+particles which agree the best for their nourishment, and grow thus
+by intussusception. In the same manner as the hen's egg acquires the
+white and membranes in the matrix, wherein it floats, so the eggs of
+fish acquire their membranes and white in the water; and whether the
+male impregnates them, by emitting on these the liquor of its roe, or
+whether they remain unimpregnated, they do not the less attain their
+entire perfection. It appears to me, therefore, that the eggs should
+be considered as organized bodies, which being neither animals nor
+vegetables, are a genus apart.
+
+A second class of beings, of the same kind, are the organized bodies
+found in the semen of all animals, and which, like those in the milt of
+a calmar, are rather natural machines than animals. These are properly
+the first assemblages which result from the organic molecules we have
+so much spoken of, and they are, perhaps, the parts which constitute
+the organized bodies of animals. They are found in the semen of all
+animals, because the semen is only the residue of the organic molecules
+that the animal takes in with its aliment, and which, as we have
+already observed, are those parts most analogous to the animal itself,
+and most organic; it is those particles which compose the matter of the
+semen, and consequently we must not be astonished to find organized
+bodies therein.
+
+To be perfectly convinced that these organized bodies are not real
+animals, we need only reflect on the preceding experiments. The moving
+bodies in the seminal liquor have been taken for animals, because they
+have a progressive motion, and are thought to have a tail; but if we
+consider, on one hand, the nature of this progressive motion, which
+finishes in a very short time without ever renewing its motion; and
+on the other, the nature of these tails, which are only threads which
+the moving bodies draw after them, we shall begin to hesitate; for an
+animal goes sometimes slow, sometimes fast, and sometimes remains in
+a state of rest; these moving bodies, on the contrary, always continue
+the same motion, and I have never seen them stop and renew their
+movement again. I ask, whether this kind of continued motion, without
+any rest, is common to animals, and if that ought not to make us doubt
+these moving bodies being real animals? An animal of any kind must also
+have a constant form and distinct limbs; but these moving bodies vary,
+and change their forms every moment, have no distinct limbs, and their
+tails appear as a part which does not belong to the individual. Can
+we then imagine these bodies to be real animals? In seminal liquors
+filaments are seen which lengthen and appear to vegetate; after which
+they swell and produce moving bodies. These filaments may be kinds
+of vegetables, but the moving bodies which spring from them cannot
+be animals, for a vegetable has never yet been seen to produce an
+animal. These moving bodies are found in all vegetable and animal
+substances; they are not produced by the modes of generation, they
+have no uniformity of species, and therefore can neither be animals
+nor vegetables. They are to be met with in the flesh of animals, and
+in the substance of vegetables, but are most numerous in their seeds;
+is it not therefore natural to regard them as living organic particles
+which compose the animal or vegetable; as particles which having motion
+and a kind of life, ought, by their union, to produce moving and living
+beings, and so form animals and vegetables?
+
+But in order to leave this matter as little in doubt as possible,
+let us examine other substances. Can it be said, the active machines
+which Mr. Needham perceived in the milt of the calmar were animals?
+Can it be thought that eggs, which are active machines of another
+kind, are also animals? If we turn our eyes to the representation of
+almost all the moving bodies Leeuwenhoek saw in different matters,
+shall we not be convinced, even at the first inspection, that those
+bodies are not animals, since not one of them has any limbs, but
+are all either globular or oval? If we afterwards examine what this
+celebrated naturalist says, when he describes the motion of these
+pretended animals, we can no longer doubt of his being in an error
+when he considered them as such; and we shall be still more and more
+confirmed that they are only moving organic particles by the following
+examples: Leeuwenhoek gives[W] the figure of the moving bodies which he
+observed in the liquor of a male frog. This figure only represents a
+slender body, long, and pointed at one of its extremities; and of this
+he says, "Uno tempore caput (thus he calls the thickest extremity of
+this moving body) crassius mihi apparebat alio; plerumque agnoscebam
+animalculum haud ulterius quam a capite ad medium corpus, ob caudę
+tenuitatem, & cum idem animalculum paulo vehementius moveretur (quod
+tamen tarde fiebat) quasi volumine quodam circa caput ferebatur. Corpus
+fere carebat motu; cauda tamen in tres quatuorve flexus volvebatur."
+This then is the change of form which I mentioned to have seen, the
+mucilage from which the moving bodies use all their efforts to be
+disengaged, the slowness of their motion before they are disengaged;
+and the animal, according to Leeuwenhoek, one part of which is
+in motion, and the other dead: for he afterwards says, "Movebant
+posteriorem solum partem, quę ultima, morti vicinia esse judicabam."
+All this does not agree with an animal, but with what I have spoken
+of; excepting that I never saw the tail move but by the agitation
+of the body. He afterwards says, speaking of the seminal liquor of a
+cod, "Non est putandum omnia animalcula in semine aselli contenta uno
+eodemque tempore vivere, sed illa potius tantum vivere quę exitui seu
+partui viciniora sunt, quę & copiosiori humido innatant prę reliquis
+vita carentibus, adhuc in crassa materia, quam humor eorum efficit,
+jacentibus."
+
+[W] Vol. I. p. 51.
+
+If these are animals, why have they not all life? why are they in the
+most fluid part of the liquor alive, while those in the thickest are
+not so? Leeawenhoek did not perceive that the thick matter, the origin
+of which he attributes to the humour of the animalculę, is nothing but
+a mucilaginous matter which produces them. By diluting this mucilage
+with water, he would have given life to the whole of them. Even this
+mucilage is oftentimes only a mass of those bodies which are set
+in motion on being separated; and consequently this thick matter,
+instead of being a humour, produced by the animalcules, is only the
+substance of the animals themselves, or rather, as we have already
+observed, the matter from which they originate. Speaking of the seed
+of a cock, Leeuwenhoek says, in his letter to Grew, "Contemplando
+materiam (seminalem) animadverti ibidem tantam abundantiam viventium
+animalium, ut ea stuperem; forma seu externa figura sua nostrates
+anguillas fluviatiles referebant, vehementissima agitatione movebantur;
+quibus tamen substrati videbantur multi & admodum exiles globuli, item
+multę plan-ovales figurę, quibus etiam vita posset attribui, & quidem
+propter earundem commotiones; sed existimabam omnes hasce commotiones
+& agitationes pro venire ab animalcules, sicque etiam res se habebat;
+attamen ego non opinione solum, sed etiam ad veritatem mihi persuadeo
+has particulas planam & ovalem figuram habentes, esse quędam animalcula
+inter se ordine suo disposita & mixta vitaque adhuc carentia." Here
+we see in the same seminal liquor animalcules of different forms;
+and I am convinced, by my own experiments, that if Leeuwenhoek had
+closely observed these oval substances, he would have discovered that
+they moved by their own powers, and that consequently they were as
+much alive as the rest. This change perfectly coincides with what
+I have said, that they are organic particles which take different
+forms, and not constant species of animals; for in the present case,
+if the bodies, which have the figure of an eel, are true spermatic
+animalcules, each, destined to become a cock, which supposes a very
+perfect organization, and a very constant form, what will those be
+which have an oval figure, and what end do they answer? He says indeed
+afterwards, that these ovals maybe conceived to be the same animals,
+by supposing their bodies to be twisted in a spiral form; but then
+how shall we conceive that an animal, whose body is constrained, can
+move without being extended? I maintain, therefore, that these oval
+substances are no other than the organic particles separated from their
+threads, and that the eels were the separated parts which dragged those
+threads after them, as I have many times perceived in other seminal
+liquors.
+
+Leeuwenhoek, who imagined all these moving bodies were animals, and
+established a system thereon; who also pretended, that spermatic
+animals must become men and animals, now suspected they were only
+natural machines, or organic particles in motion; for he does not doubt
+these spermatic animals contained the great animal in miniature, he
+says, "Progeneratio animalis ex animalculo in seminibus masculinis
+omni exceptione major est; nam etiamsi in animalculo ex semine masculo
+unde ortum est, figuram animalis conspicere nequeamus, attamen satis
+superque certi esse possumus figuram animalis ex qua animal ortum est,
+in animalculo quod in semine masculo reperitur, conclusam jacere sive
+esse; & quanquam mihi sępius conspectis animalculis in semine masculo
+animalis, imaginatus fuerim me posse dicere, en ibi caput, en ibi
+humeros, en ibi femora; attamen eum ne minima quidem certitudine de iis
+judicium ferre potuerim, hujusque certi quid statuere supersedeo, donec
+tale animal, cujus semina mascula tam magna erunt, ut in iis figuram
+creaturę ex qua provenit, agnoscere queam, invenire secunda nobis
+concedat fortuna." This fortunate chance, which Leeuwenhoek desires,
+presented itself to Mr. Needham. Every part of the spermatic animals of
+the calmar are easy to be seen without a microscope; but they are not
+young calmars, as Leeuwenhoek thinks, nor even animated, although they
+are in motion, but only machines which must be regarded as the first
+produce of the union of organic particles.
+
+Although Leeuwenhoek had not such an opportunity of undeceiving
+himself, he nevertheless had another phenomena which ought to have had
+that effect; for example, he had remarked that the spermatic animals of
+a dog often change their figures, especially when the liquor was on the
+point of evaporating; that these pretended animals had a hole in the
+head when they were dead, and that this hole did not appear when they
+were alive; he had seen that the part which he looked upon as the head
+was full and plump when it was alive, and flaccid and flat when dead.
+All this ought to have led him to doubt whether these moving bodies
+were real animals; and consider it as agreeing better with a machine,
+which empties itself like that of the calmar, than with a moving animal.
+
+I have said that these moving bodies, these organic particles, do
+not move like animals, nor have an interval of rest. Leeuwenhoek has
+observed the same: "Quotiescunque, says he, animalcula in semine
+masculo animalium fucrim contemplatus, attamen illa se unquam ad
+quietem contulisse, me nunquam vidisse, mihi dicendum est, si modo
+sat fluidę superesset materię in qua sese commode movere poterant;
+et eadem in continuo manent motu, & tempore quo ipsis moriendum
+appropinquante, motus magis magisque deficit, usquedum nullus prorsus
+motus in illis agnoscendus sit." It appears difficult to conceive that
+animals can exist, from the moment of their birth till that of their
+death, in a continual rapid motion without the least interval of rest;
+and I cannot possibly imagine how these animals in the semen of a dog,
+which Leeuwenhoek saw the seventh day in as rapid motion as they were
+when they were first taken from the body of the animal, preserved
+a motion during that time so exceedingly swift, that no animal has
+sufficient power to move in for an hour; especially if we consider the
+resistance which proceeds from the density and the tenacity of the
+liquor. This kind of continued motion, on the contrary, agrees with
+the organic particles, which, like artificial machines, produce their
+effects in a continual operation, and which stop when that effect is
+over.
+
+Among the great number of Leeuwenhoek's experiments, he, without
+doubt, often perceived spermatic animals without tails; and he
+endeavours to explain this phenomena by a supposition; for example,
+he says, speaking of the semen of a cod, "Ubi vero ad lactum accederem
+observationem, in iis partibus quas animalcula esse censebam neque
+vitam neque caudam dignoscere potui; cujus rei rationem esse
+existimabam, quod quamdiu animalcula natando loca sua perfecte mutare
+non possunt tam diu etiam cauda concinne circa corpus maneat ordinata,
+quodque ideo singula animalcula rotundum repręsentent corpusculorum."
+
+It would have been better to have said, as it in fact is, that the
+spermatic animals of these fish have tails at certain times and none
+at others, than to suppose their tails twisted so exactly round their
+bodies as to give them the shape of a globule. But this must not lead
+us to think that Leeuwenhoek only attended to the moving bodies which
+he saw with tails, but rather that he did not describe the others,
+because, although they were in motion, he did not regard them as
+animals; and this is the cause that all the spermatic animals he has
+depicted resemble each other, and drawn with tails, since he only
+took them for real animals in that state; and that when he saw them
+under other forms, he thought them imperfect, or rather that they
+were dead. On the whole it appears, by my experiments, that far from
+displaying their tails the more as they are in a more perfect condition
+of swimming, as Leeuwenhoek says, they, on the contrary, lose their
+tails in a gradual manner, till at last these tails, which are no more
+than foreign bodies of the animalcules, and which they drag after them,
+entirely disappear.
+
+In another part Leeuwenhoek, speaking of the spermatic animals of man,
+says, "Aliquando etiam animadverti inter animalcula particulas quasdam
+minores & subrotundas; cum vero se ea aliquoties eo modo oculis meis
+exhibuerint, ut mihi imaginarer eas exiguis instructas esse caudis,
+cogitare coepi annon hę forte particulę forent animalcula recens
+nata; certum enim mihi est ea etiam animalcula per generationem
+provenire, vel ex mole minuscula ad adultam procedere quantitatem: &
+quis sit annoa ea animalcula, ubi moriuntur, aliorum animalculorum
+nutritioni atque augmini inserviant?" By this passage it appears that
+Leeuwenhoek had seen animals without tails in the seminal liquor of
+a man, and that he is obliged to suppose them to be just born, and
+not adult; but I have observed quite the contrary; for the moving
+bodies are never larger than when they separate from the filaments,
+and begin to move. When they are entirely disengaged from the mucilage
+they become smaller, and continue decreasing as long as they remain
+in motion. With respect to the generation of these animals, which
+Leeuwenhoek speaks of as certain, I am persuaded no sign of generation
+has ever been discovered; all he says is advanced on mere suppositions,
+which it is easy to prove by his own observations; for example, he
+says that the milt of certain fish, as the cod, fills by degrees with
+seminal liquor, which after the fish has emitted, the milt dries up,
+leaving only a membrane destitute of any liquor. "Eo tempore, says
+he, quo ascellus major lactes suos emisit, rugę illę, seu tortiles
+lactium partes, usque adeo contrahuntur, ut nihil pręter pelliculas
+seu membranę esse videantur." How then does he understand that this
+dry membrane, in which there is no longer either seminal liquor or
+animalcules, can reproduce animals of the same kind the succeeding
+year? if there was a regular generation in these animals, there could
+not be this interruption, which in most fishes lasts for a whole year.
+To draw himself out of this difficulty, he says, "Necessario statuendum
+erit, ut ascellus major semen suum emiserit, in lactibus etiamnum
+multum materię seminalis gignendis animalculis aptę remansisse, ex qua
+materia plura oportet provenire animalcula seminalia quam anno proxime
+elapso emissa fuerant." This supposition, that there remains something
+in the seminal liquor in the milts to produce spermatic animals for
+the succeeding year, is absolutely contrary to observations, for the
+milt is in this interval only a thin and absolutely dry membrane. But
+what reply can be made to a still further opposition to this point,
+there being fish like the calmar, the seminal liquor of which is not
+only renewed every year, but even the reservoir which contains it? Can
+it be said, that there remains a seminal matter in the milt for the
+production of the animals for the succeeding year, when even the milt
+does not remain? it is therefore very certain that these pretended
+spermatic animals are not multiplied, like other animals, by the mode
+of generation; which alone is sufficient to make us presume, that those
+particles which move in the seminal liquors are not real animals. Thus
+Leeuwenhoek, who in the passage above quoted says, it is certain that
+spermatic animals multiply and propagate by generation, nevertheless
+owns, in another part, that the manner in which these animals are
+produced is very obscure, and that he leaves to others the task of
+clearing up this matter. "Persuadebam mihi," says he, speaking of the
+spermatic animals of the dormouse, "hęcce animalcula ovibus prognasci,
+quia diversa in orbem jacentia & in semet convoluta videbam; sed unde,
+quęso, primam illorum originem derivabimus? in animo nostro concipiemus
+horum animalculorum semen jam procreatum esse in ipsa generatione,
+hocque semen tam diu in testiculis hominum hęrere, usquedum ad annum
+ętatis decimum-quartum vel decimum-quintum aut sextum pervenerint,
+eademque animalcula tum demum vita donari vel in justam staturam
+excrevisse, illoque temporis articulo generandi maturitatem adesse!
+sed hęc lampada aliis trado." I do not think it necessary to make any
+remarks on what Leeuwenhoek says on this subject: he saw spermatic
+animals without tails, and round, in the seed of a dormouse; "in semet
+convoluta," says he, because he supposes that they should have tails,
+and instead of being certain, as he before had been, that the animals
+propagate by generation, he here seems convinced of the contrary. But
+when he had observed the generation of pucerons, and was assured[X]
+that they engendered without copulation, he caught the idea to explain
+the generation of spermatic animals. "Quemadmodum, says he, animalcula
+hęc quę pediculorum antea nomine designavimus (the pucerons) dum adhuc
+in utero materno latent, jam prędita sunt materia seminali ex qua
+ejusdem generis proditura sunt animalcula, pari ratione cogitare licet
+animalculę in seminibus masculinis ex animalium testiculis non migrate
+seu ejici quin post se relinquant minuta animalcula aut saltem materiam
+seminalem ex qua iterum alia ejusdem generis animalcula proventura
+sunt idque absque coitu; eadem ratione qua supradicta animalcula
+generari observavimus." This supposition gives no more satisfaction
+than the preceding: for we do not understand by this comparison of
+the generation of these animalcules with that of a puceron, why they
+are not found in the seminal liquor of a man, before he has attained
+the age of fourteen or fifteen years; nor do we know from whence
+they proceed, nor how they are renewed every year in fish, &c. and
+it appears, that whatever efforts Leeuwenhoek made to establish the
+generation of spermatic animals on some probability, it still remained
+an entire obscurity, and would, perhaps, perpetually have remained so,
+if the preceding experiments had not evinced that they are not animals,
+but moving organic particles contained in the nutriment the animal
+receives, and which are found in great numbers in the seminal liquor,
+which is the most pure, and in the most organic extracts drawn from
+this nutriment.
+
+[X] See vol. II. page 499, and vol. III. page 271.
+
+Leeuwenhoek acknowledges that he had not always found animalcules
+in the seminal liquor of males; in that of the cock, for example,
+which he had often examined, he saw spermatic animals in the form
+of eels but once, and some years after he could not discover any
+under that form, but observed some with large heads and tails, which
+his designer could not perceive. He says also, that one season he
+could not find living animals in the seminal liquor of the cod. All
+these disappointments proceeded from his desire of finding tails to
+these animals; and although he perceived little bodies in motion, he
+did not consider them as animals, because they were without tails,
+notwithstanding it is under that form they are generally seen, either
+in seminal liquors, or infusions of animal or vegetable substances. He
+says, in the same place, that he was never able to make his designer
+perceive the spermatic animalcules of a cod, which he had so often
+seen himself.--"Non solum, says he, ob eximiam eorum exilitatem, sed
+etiam quod eorum corpora adeo essent fragilia, ut corpuscula passim
+dirumperentur; unde factum fuit ut nonnisi rare, nec sine attentissima
+observatione, animadverterem particulas planas atque ovorum in morem
+longas, in quibus ex parte caudas dignoscere licebat; particulas
+has oviformes existimavi animalcula esse dirupta, quod particulę hę
+diruptę quadruplo fere viderentur majores corporibus animalculorum
+vivorum." When an animal of any kind ceases to live, it does not then
+suddenly alter its form, and from being long, like a thread, becomes
+round like a ball; neither does it become four times larger after
+its death than it was before. Nothing that Leeuwenhoek says here
+agrees with the nature of animals; but, on the contrary, the whole
+corresponds with a kind of machine, which, like those of a calmar,
+empty themselves after having performed their functions. But let us
+pursue this observation; he says, he has seen the spermatic animals
+of the cod in different forms, "multa apparebant animalcula sphęram
+pellucidam representantia;" he has also seen them of different sizes,
+"hęc animalcula minori videbantur mole, quam ubi eadem antehac in tubo
+vitreo rotundo examinaveram."
+
+There needs nothing more to shew that there are no constant and
+uniform species of these animalcules; and that consequently they are
+not animals, but only organic particles in motion, which, by their
+different combinations, take different forms and sizes. These organic
+moving particles are found in great quantities in the extract and
+residue of our nutriment. The matter which adheres to the teeth, and
+which in healthy people has the same smell as the seminal liquor, is
+only a residue of the food, and a great number of these pretended
+animals are also found there, some of which have tails, and resemble
+those in the seminal liquor. Mr. Baker had four different kinds of
+them engraved, and which were all of a cylindrical or oval make, or
+globules with and without tails. I am persuaded, after having strictly
+examined them, that not any of them are real animals, but are like
+those in the seed, only living organical parts of the nutriment which
+present themselves under different forms, Leeuwenhoek, who did not
+know how to account for these pretended animals in the matter which
+adhered to the teeth, supposed them to proceed from certain food they
+were previously in, as cheese, &c. but we find them among the teeth of
+those who do not eat cheese, as well as in those that do; besides, they
+have not the least resemblance to mites, nor the other animalcules seen
+in rotten cheese. In another place he says, these animals of the teeth
+may proceed from the cistern water that is drank, because he observed
+animals like them in dew and rain water, especially in that which
+stagnates upon lead and tiles; but with which we can prove there is not
+the least resemblance.
+
+Most seminal liquors dilute of themselves, and liquefy when exposed to
+the air or a certain degree of cold; but they thicken when a moderate
+degree of heat is communicated to them. I have exposed some of these
+liquors to a very intense cold, as water on the point of freezing, but
+it did no injury to these supposed animals; they continued to move with
+the same swiftness, and as long as those which had not been so exposed,
+but those which had suffered but a little warmth soon ceased to move,
+because the liquor thickened. If the moving bodies were animals,
+they were of a complexion and temperament quite different from all
+others, to whom a gentle and moderate heat strengthens their powers and
+motions, which the cold stops and destroys.
+
+Notwithstanding it may be thought I have dwelt too long upon this
+subject, I cannot conclude it without making one remark, from which
+some useful conclusions may be drawn. These pretended spermatic
+animals, which are only living organic particles of the nutriment, not
+only exist in the seminal liquors of the two sexes, and in the residue
+of the nutriment which adheres to the teeth, but also in the chyle
+and excrements. Leeuwenhoek having met with them in the excrements
+of frogs, and other animals, which he dissected, was at first very
+much surprised, and notable to conceive from whence these animals
+proceeded, so entirely like those he had observed in the seminal
+liquors, accuses himself of having, in dissecting the animal, opened
+the seminal vessels, and that the seed had by that means been mixed
+with the excrements. But having afterwards found them in the excrements
+of other animals, and even in his own, he no longer knew to what to
+attribute them. Leeuwenhoek, it is worthy remark, never met with
+them in his own excrements, but when they were liquid. Every time he
+was disordered and the stomach did not perform its functions, and was
+relaxed, he discovered these animalcules; but when the concoction of
+the food was well performed, and the excrement was hard, there was not
+a single one, although it was diluted with water. This seems perfectly
+to agree with all we have before advanced: for when the stomach and
+intestines perform their functions, the excrements are only the grosser
+parts of the nutriment; and all that is really nutritive and organic
+passes into the vessels which serve to nourish the animal; whereas if
+the stomach and intestines are not in a condition to comminute the
+food, then it passes with the inanimate parts, and we find the living
+organic molecules in the excrements; from whence it may be concluded,
+that those which are often lax must have less seminal liquor, and be
+less proper for generation, than those of a different habit of body.
+
+In all I have said, I constantly supposed the female furnished a
+seminal liquor, which was as necessary to generation as that of the
+male. I have endeavoured to establish in Chap. I. that every organized
+body must contain living organic particles, and I have endeavoured to
+prove Chap. II. and III. that nutrition and reproduction operates by
+the same cause; that nutrition is made by the intimate penetration
+of these organic particles through each part of the body, and that
+reproduction operates by the superfluity of these same organic
+particles collected together from all parts of the body and deposited
+in proper reservoirs. I have explained in Chap. IV. how this theory
+must be understood in the generation of man and animals which have
+sexes. Females then being organized bodies like males, they must also
+have some reservoirs for the superfluity of organic particles returned
+from every part of their bodies. This superfluity cannot come there
+through any other form than that of a liquor, since it is an extract of
+all parts of the body; and this liquor is that to which I have given
+the name of the female semen.
+
+This liquor is not, as Aristotle pretends, an infecund matter of
+itself, which enters neither as matter nor form into the business
+of generation, but as essentially prolific as that of the male,
+containing characteristic parts of the feminine sex, which the female
+alone can produce, the same as the male contains particles necessary
+to form the masculine organs; and each of them contains every other
+organic particle that can be looked on as common to both sexes; which
+causes that, by their mixture, the daughter may resemble her father,
+and the son his mother. This semen Hippocrates says, is composed of
+two liquors; the one strong, for the production of males; and the
+other weak, for the production of females. But this supposition is
+too extended; I do not see how it is to be conceived that a liquor,
+which is the extract of every part of the female body, should contain
+particles for the formation of the male organs.
+
+This liquor must enter by some way into the matrix of animals which
+bear and nourish their foetus within the body, and in others, as
+oviparous animals, it must be absorbed by the eggs, which may be looked
+upon as portable matrixes. Each of these matrixes contains a small
+drop of this prolific liquor of the female, in the part that is called
+the _cicatrice_. When there has been no communication with the male,
+this prolific drop collects under the form of a small mole, or mass,
+as Malpighius observes; but when impregnated by that of the male; it
+produces a foetus which receives its nutriment from the juices of the
+egg.
+
+Eggs, instead of being parts generally found in every female, are
+therefore only instruments made use of by Nature to serve as the matrix
+in females which are deprived of that organ. Instead also of being
+active and essential to the first fecundation, they only serve as
+passive and accidental parts for the nutrition of the foetus already
+formed by the mixture of the liquor of the two sexes in a particular
+part of this matrix. Instead also of being existing bodies, inclosed,
+_ad infinitum_, one within the other, eggs, on the contrary, are bodies
+formed from the superfluity of a more gross and less organic part of
+the food, than that which produces the seminal and prolific liquor; and
+are in oviparous females something equivalent, not only to the matrix,
+but even to the menstrua in the viviparous.
+
+We should be perfectly convinced, that eggs are only destined by Nature
+to serve as a matrix in animals who have not that viscera, by those
+females producing eggs independant of the male. In the same manner as
+the matrix exists in viviparous animals, as a part appertaining to the
+female sex, hens, which have no matrix, have eggs in their room, which
+are successively produced of themselves, and necessarily exist in the
+female independently of any communication with the male. To pretend
+that the foetus is pre-existing in the eggs, and that these eggs are
+contained, _ad infinitum_, within each other, is nearly the same as
+to pretend that the foetus, is pre-existing in the matrix, and that
+the matrix of the first female inclosed all that ever were or will be
+produced.
+
+Anatomists have taken the word _egg_ in several acceptations and
+meanings. When Harvey took for his motto, _Omnia ex ovo_, he understood
+by the word egg, as applied to viviparous animals, the membrane which
+includes the foetus and all its appendages: he thought, he perceived
+this egg, or membrane, form immediately after the copulation of the
+male and the female. But this egg does not proceed from the ovium
+of the female; and he has even maintained, that he did not remark
+the least alteration in this testicle, &c. We perceive there is here
+nothing like what is commonly understood by the word egg unless the
+figure of the bag may be supposed to have some resemblance thereto.
+Harvey, who dissected so many viviparous females, did not, he says,
+ever perceive any alteration in the ovaria; he looked on them even
+as small glands, perfectly useless to general ion,[Y] although they
+undergo very remarkable changes and alterations in them, since we
+may perceive in cows the glandular bodies grow from the size of a
+millet seed to that of a cherry. This great anatomist was led into
+this error by the smallness of the glandular bodies in the species
+of deer, to which he principally paid his attention. C. Peyerus, who
+also made many experiments on them, says, "Exigui quidem sunt damarum
+testiculi, sed post coitum foecundum, in alterutro eorum, papilla,
+sive tuberculum fibrosum, semper succrescit; scrofis autem pręgnantibus
+tanta accidit testiculorum mutatio, ut mediocrem quoque attentionem
+fugere nequeat."[Z] This author imagines, with some reason, that the
+minuteness of the testicles of does, is the cause of Harvey's not
+having remarked the alterations; but he is wrong in advancing that the
+alterations he had remarked, and which had escaped Harvey's notice, did
+not happen till after impregnation.
+
+[Y] See Harvey Exercit. 64 and 65.
+
+[Z] Vide Conradi Peyeri Merycologia.
+
+It appears that Harvey was deceived in many other essential points;
+he asserts, that the seed of the male does not enter into the matrix
+of the female, and even that it cannot; yet Verheyen found a great
+quantity of the male seed in the matrix of a cow, which he dissected
+six hours after copulation.[AA] The celebrated Ruysch asserts, that
+having dissected a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery,
+and was assassinated, he found, not only in the cavity of the matrix,
+but also in the trunks, a quantity of the seminal liquor of the
+male,[AB] Valisnieri affirms, that Fallopius and other anatomists
+had also discovered male seed in the matrix of many women. After the
+positive testimony of these great anatomists, there can remain no doubt
+but Harvey was deceived in this important point; especially when to
+these are added that of Leeuwenhoek, who found the male seed in the
+matrix of a great number of females of different species.
+
+[AA] See Verheyen Sup. Anat. Tra. v. cap. iii.
+
+[AB] See Ruysch, Thes. Anat. p. 90, tab. VI, fig. I.
+
+Harvey makes another error in speaking of an abortion in the second
+month, where the mass was as large as a pigeon's egg, but without any
+foetus regularly formed; whereas, it is maintained by Ruysch, and
+many other anatomists, that the foetus is perceptible, even to the
+naked eye, in the first month. The History of the Academy mentions
+a foetus, that was completely formed in twenty-one days after
+impregnation. If to these authorities we add that of Malpighius,
+who perceived the chicken in the cicatrice, immediately after the
+egg was laid by the hen, we cannot doubt, but that the foetus is
+formed immediately after copulation; consequently, we must not pay any
+credit to what Harvey says on the parts increasing one after the other
+by juxta-position, since they are all existent from the first, and
+gradually expand until the whole is complete.
+
+De Graaf took the acceptation of the word egg in a quite different
+light to Harvey: he insists that the testicles of women were true
+ovaries, and contain eggs like those of oviparous, animals, only that
+they are much smaller, do not quit the body, and are never detached
+till after impregnation, when they descend from the ovary into the
+horns of the matrix. The experiments of De Graaf have contributed most
+to establish the existence of these pretended eggs, which yet is not at
+all founded; for this famous anatomist is deceived, first, by mistaking
+the vesicles of the ovarium for eggs, whereas they are inseparable from
+it, form parts of its substance, and are filled with a kind of lymph.
+Secondly, he is also deceived when he considers the glandular bodies
+to be the covering of those eggs, or vesicles; for it is certain,
+by Malpighius's, Valisnieri's, and my own observations, that the
+glandular bodies neither surround nor contain one of those vesicles.
+Thirdly, he is deceived still more when he supposes the glandular body
+is never formed till after fecundation; as they are invariably found in
+every female who has attained the age of puberty. Fourthly, he is no
+less deceived when he believes that the globules which he saw in the
+matrix, and which contained the foetuses, ware the same vesicles,
+or eggs, which had fallen from the ovariam, and which, he remarks,
+were become ten times smaller than they were in the ovary. This remark
+alone, one would imagine, Should have made him perceive his error.
+Fifthly, he is wrong in saying that the glandular bodies are only the
+coverings of the fecundated eggs, and that the number of coverings,
+or empty follicles, always answer to the number of foetuses. This
+assertion is entirely contrary to truth: for on the testicles of all
+females we find a greater number of glandular bodies, or cicatrices,
+than there are productions of foetuses, and they are also found in
+those which have never brought forth. To this we may add, that neither
+he, Verheyen, nor any other person, have ever seen these eggs, much
+less these pretended coverings, on which they have, notwithstanding,
+established their system.
+
+Malpighius, who perceived the growth of the glandular bodies in the
+female testicles, was deceived when he thought he had seen the egg in
+their cavities, since they contain only liquor; nor indeed has anything
+like an egg ever been discovered.
+
+Valisnieri, who was not deceived in facts, has yet drawn false
+conclusions in asserting that, although neither himself, nor any
+anatomist in whom he could confide, ever found the egg in the cavity of
+the glandular body, yet it must there exist.
+
+Let us, therefore, examine what may be fairly called the real
+discoveries of these naturalists. Graaf was the first who perceived
+there were alterations in the female testicles; and he had reason
+to affirm, they were parts essential and necessary to generation.
+Malpighius demonstrated that these alterations were occasioned by the
+glandular bodies which grew to perfect maturity, afterwards they become
+flaccid, obliterated, and left only a slight cicatrice remaining.
+Valisnieri has placed this discovery in a very clear light; he has
+shewn that these glandular bodies are found in the testicles of every
+female; that they are augmented considerably in the season of love,
+that they increase at the expence of the lymphatic vesicles of the
+testicles, and that at the time of their maturity they were hollow and
+filled with liquor. This, then, is all that can be reduced to truth on
+the subject of the pretended ovaries and eggs of viviparous animals.
+What must we conclude therefrom? Two things appear very evident: the
+one, that there does not exist any eggs in the female testicles; the
+other, that there exists a liquor in the vesicles of the testicle, and
+in the cavity of the glandular bodies. We have demonstrated by the
+preceding experiments, that this last liquor is the true seed of the
+female, since it contains, like that of the male, spermatic animals, or
+rather organic moving particles.
+
+We must, therefore, now be assured, that females have, as well as
+males, a seminal liquor. After all that has been advanced, we cannot
+doubt but the seminal liquor is the superfluity of the organic
+nutriment, which is sent back from all parts of the body into the
+testicles and seminal vesicles of the males, and into the testicles
+and glandular bodies of females. This liquor, which issues by the
+nipple of the glandular bodies, continually sprinkles the horns of the
+matrix, and may easily procure admission either by the suction of the
+membrane of these horns, or by the little opening which is at the upper
+extremity, and thus enter into the matrix; but in the supposition of
+these pretended eggs, which were ten or twenty times larger than the
+opening of the horns of the matrix, we cannot comprehend how they could
+enter therein.
+
+The liquor emitted by females, when they are excited, and which,
+according to de Graaf, issues from the neck of the matrix, and the
+orifice of the urethra, may be a superabundant portion of the seminal
+liquor which continually distills from the glandular bodies on the
+trunks of the matrix. But, possibly, this liquor may be a secretion
+of another kind, and perfectly useless in generation. To decide this
+question observations with a microscope are requisite; but _all_
+experiments are not permitted even to philosophers. I can only say,
+that I am inclined to believe that the same spermatic animals would
+be met with in this liquor as in that of the glandular bodies. I can
+quote an Italian doctor on this subject, who made this observation with
+attention, and which is thus related by Valisnieri: "Aggiugne il lodato
+fig. Bono d'avergli anco veduti (animali spermatici) in questa linfa o
+siero, diro cosi voluttuoso, che nel tempore dell'amorosa zuffa scappa
+dalle femine libidinose, senza che si potesse sospettare che fossero
+di que' del maschio, &c." If this circumstance is true, as I do not
+doubt, it is certain, that this liquor is the same as that found in
+the glandular bodies, and that, consequently, it is the true seminal
+liquor: and although anatomists have not discovered the communication
+between the vacuities of de Graaf and the testicles, that does not
+prevent it being once in the matrix, from issuing out by the vacuities
+about the exterior orifice of the urethra.
+
+From hence we must conclude that the most abandoned women will be the
+least fruitful, because they emit that liquor which ought to remain in
+the matrix for the formation of the foetus. Thus we see why common
+prostitutes seldom have children, and why women in hot countries, where
+they have stronger desires than in the cold, are much less fertile; but
+we shall have occasion to speak of this hereafter.
+
+It is natural to think that the seminal liquor of the male or female
+would not be fertile but when it contains moving bodies; nevertheless
+that is still a question, and I should be led to think, as there are
+different states of this liquor, that in which these organic particles
+are seen in motion is not absolutely necessary for the purpose of
+generation. The Italian physician, above quoted, never perceived
+spermatic animals in his semen till he had attained a middle age,
+although he was father of several children before, and continued to
+have them afterwards.
+
+These spermatic bodies, which move, may be looked upon as the first
+assemblages of the organic molecules which proceed from every part of
+the body; when a quantity of them collect they may be perceived with
+the microscope; but if they collect only in small quantity the body
+which they form will be too minute to be perceived, and in this case we
+shall not be able to distinguish any in the seminal liquor. A very long
+continuance of observations would be necessary to determine what can be
+the cause of all the differences remarked in the states of this liquor.
+
+I can assert, from having often tried it, that by infusing the seminal
+liquors in water closely corked, at the end of three or four days
+an infinite multitude of moving bodies will be found, although the
+seminal liquors had no motion on being first taken from the body of
+the animal. Flesh, blood, chyle, urine, nay all animal or vegetable
+substances, contain organic particles, which move at the end of some
+days in an infusion of water; they appear to act and move nearly in the
+same manner, and though produced from different bodies are perfectly
+similar, without any of them having a power peculiar to themselves.
+If these bodies must absolutely be termed animals, it must be allowed
+they are so imperfect that they ought to be looked upon as the outlines
+of them, or rather as bodies simply composed of particles the most
+essential to the existence of an animal; for natural machines, such as
+those found in the roe of a calmar, although they put themselves in
+action at certain times, are certainly not animals, although they are
+organized, acting, and, as I may say, living beings.
+
+If it is once allowed, that the productions of Nature follow in an
+uniform order, and advance by imperceptible degrees and links, we shall
+have no difficulty in conceiving there are organic bodies existing,
+which belong neither to animals, vegetables, nor minerals.
+
+It is certain, however, that all animals and vegetables contain an
+infinity of organic living molecules. These molecules successively
+take different forms, and different degrees of motion and activity,
+according to different circumstances They are in a much greater number
+in the seminal liquor of both sexes, and in the germs of plants, than
+in other parts of the animal or vegetable. There exists, then, a
+living substance in animals and vegetables, common to both, and which
+substance is necessary to their nutrition. An animal procures nutriment
+from an animal or vegetable substance, and the vegetable can likewise
+be nourished from an animal or vegetable in a decomposed state. This
+nutritive substance, common to both, is always living, always active,
+and produces an animal or vegetable, as it finds an internal mould or
+an analogous matrix, as we have explained in the first chapters; but
+when this active substance collects in great abundance, in those parts
+where it can unite, it forms in the animal body other living creatures,
+such as the tape-worm, ascarides, and worms, which are sometimes found
+in the veins, in the sinus of the brain, in the liver, &c. These kinds
+of animals do not owe their existence to the animals of the same
+species, and we may, therefore, suppose, they are produced by this
+organic matter when it is extravasated, or is too abundant for the
+lacteal vessels to absorb. We shall hereafter have occasion to examine
+more largely the nature of those worms, and many other animals which
+are formed in a similar manner.
+
+When this organic matter, which may be looked on as an universal seed,
+is collected in any great quantity, as in the seminal liquors, and in
+the mucilaginous parts of the infusion of plants, its first effect is
+to vegetate, or rather to produce vegetating beings. These zoophytes
+swell, extend, ramify, and produce globules, ovals, and other small
+bodies, of different figures, which have all a kind of animal life, a
+progressive motion, which is often very swift, and sometimes very slow.
+These globules themselves decompose, change their figures, and become
+smaller; and in proportion as they diminish in size the rapidity of
+their motion augments.
+
+I have sometimes thought that the venom of the viper, and other active
+poisons, even that of the bite of a mad dog, might possibly be this
+active matter too rarefied; but I have not as yet had time to make the
+experiments which I had projected on this matter, as well as on drugs
+used in medicine; all that I can at present ascertain is, that all
+infusions of the most active drugs swarm with moving bodies, which form
+therein in much less time than in other substances.
+
+Almost all microscopic animals are of the same nature as the organized
+bodies which move in the seminal liquor, in the infusions of vegetables
+and the flesh of animals; the eel-like bodies in flour, vinegar, and
+water, in which lead has been soaked, are beings of the same nature as
+the first, and have a like origin.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+VARIETIES IN THE GENERATION OF ANIMALS.
+
+
+The matter which serves for the nutrition and reproduction of animals
+and vegetables is therefore the same; it is a productive and universal
+substance, composed of organic molecules, and whose union produces
+organized bodies. Nature always works on the same fund, which is
+inexhaustible, but the means she employs to stamp its value are
+different, and these differences, or general agreements, deserve
+attention, because it is from thence we must derive our reasons to
+account for exceptions and particular varieties.
+
+In general large animals are less productive than small. The whale,
+elephant, rhinoceros, camel, horse, the human species, &c. only
+produce one, and very seldom two, at a birth; whereas small animals,
+as rats, herrings, insects, &c. produce a great number at a time. Does
+not this difference proceed from there being more food required to
+support a large body than to nourish a small one, and from hence the
+former has less superfluous organic particles, which would convert
+into semen, than the latter? It is certain that small animals eat more
+in proportion than large ones; but it is likewise probable that the
+prodigious multiplication of the small animals, as bees, flies, and
+other insects, may be attributed to their being endowed with very fine
+and slender limbs and organs, by which they are in a condition to chuse
+what is most substantial and organic in the vegetable or animal matters
+from whence they derive their nutriment. A bee, who lives on the
+purest parts of flowers, certainly receives more organic particles in
+proportion than a horse who feeds on the grosser parts of vegetables,
+hay, &c. The horse produces but one at one time, whereas the bee will
+bring forth three thousand.
+
+Oviparous animals are in general smaller than the viviparous, and
+produce also more at a birth. The duration of the foetus in the
+matrix of viviparous animals likewise opposes their increase, nor can
+there be any new generation take place during gestation, or while they
+are suckling their young; whereas oviparous animals produce at the same
+time both matrix and foetuses, which they cast out of the body, and
+are therefore almost always in a state of reproduction; and it is well
+known that by preventing a hen from setting, and largely feeding, the
+number of her eggs will be considerably increased. If hens cease to
+lay when they sit, it is because they have ceased to feed; and it is
+the fear lest their eggs should not produce which causes them not to
+quit their nests but once a day, and that for a very short time, during
+which they take a little nutriment, but not one-tenth part of what they
+take at other times.
+
+Animals which produce but a small number at a time, acquire the chief
+part of their growth before they are fit for engendering, whereas those
+which multiply numerously generate before they have received half their
+growth. The human species, the horse, the ass, the goat, and the ram,
+are not able to engender until they have obtained nearly the whole of
+their growth. It is the same with pigeons and other birds, who lay but
+a few eggs; but those which produce in great numbers, as poultry, fish,
+&c. engender much sooner. A cock is capable of engendering at the age
+of three months, when he has not attained a third part of his growth;
+a fish, which at the end of twenty years will weigh thirty pounds,
+engenders in the first or second year, when perhaps it does not weigh
+half a pound. But exact observations on the growth and duration of
+the life of fish are still wanting: their age may be nearly known by
+examining the annual layers of their scales; but we are not certain how
+far that may extend. I have seen carp in the Comte de Maurepas' canals,
+at his castle at Pont Chartrain, which were said to be 150 years old,
+and they appeared as brisk and lively as the common carp. I will not
+say, with Leeuwenhoek, that fish are immortal, or at least can never
+die with age; all must perish in time, that is; all which have a
+beginning, a birth, must arrive to an end, or death; but fish, living
+in an uniform element, and being sheltered from the vicissitudes and
+all the injuries of the air, must live a longer time in the same state
+than other animals, especially if these vicissitudes of the air be, as
+a great philosopher asserts, the principal causes of the destruction of
+living beings. But what must contribute to the long duration of their
+life is, that their bones are softer than those of other animals, and
+do not harden with age. The bones of fish lengthen, and grow thick
+without taking any more solidity; whereas the bones of other animals
+continually increase in hardness and density, until at length, being
+absolutely full, the motion of their fluid ceases, and death ensues. In
+their bones the repletion or obstruction, which is the cause of natural
+death, is formed by such slow and insensible degrees, that fish must
+require much time to arrive at what we call old age.
+
+All quadrupeds covered with hair are viviparous; all those covered
+with scales oviparous. May we not then believe than in oviparous
+quadrupeds, a much less waste is made by transpiration, than the
+cloathing of scales retains; whereas in animals covered with hair
+this transpiration is more free and abundant? and is it not partly
+by this superabundance of nutriment, which cannot be carried off by
+transpiration, that those animals multiply so abundantly, and are
+enabled to go so long without food? All birds and all insects that fly
+are oviparous, excepting some kinds of flies which bring forth their
+young alive. These flies have no wings at their birth, but they shoot
+out and grow by degrees, and which they cannot use before they are of
+full growth. Scaly fish are likewise oviparous; as are all reptiles
+which have no legs, such as snakes and different kinds of serpents;
+they change their skins, which are composed of small scales. The viper
+is only a slight exception to the general rule, for it is not truly
+viviparous, as it produces eggs, from which the young are hatched; it
+is certain this is performed in the body of the mother, who instead
+of casting those eggs, like other oviparous animals, she retains and
+hatches them in her own body. The salamander, in which eggs and young
+ones are found at the same time, as observed by M. de Maupertuis, is
+an exception of the same kind in oviparous quadrupeds.
+
+Most animals are perpetuated by copulation; yet many birds seem only
+strongly to compress the females; indeed the ostrich, Crane, and
+some few others, are so well supplied as to leave intromission no
+ways equivocal. Male fish approach the female in the spawning time;
+they seem even to rub their bellies against each other, for the male
+often turns upon its back to meet the belly of the female; but the
+necessary part for copulation does not exist in them; and the male
+fish approaches the female only to emit the liquor in their milts on
+the eggs, which the female then deposits; and it seems rather to be
+attracted by the eggs than the female; for when she ceases throwing out
+the eggs, he instantly forsakes her, and with eagerness pursues the
+eggs, which the stream carries away, or that the wind disperses. Male
+fish may be seen to pass and repass every spot where eggs are deposited
+several times. It is certainly not for the love he bears the female
+that all these motions are made, because it is not to be presumed he
+always knows her; often being seen to emit his liquor on all eggs that
+he comes near, and that often before he has met with the female to
+which they belonged.
+
+There are therefore animals, distinguished by sexes, which have proper
+parts for copulation, and some which are deficient in them; others, as
+snails, have both, and the two sexes in the same individual; others,
+as vine-fretters, have no sex, and engender in themselves separately;
+although they couple together when they please, we cannot determine
+whether that is a conjunction of sexes; if it is so, we must suppose
+that Nature has included in this small individual more faculties for
+generation than in any other kind of animal, and that it not only has
+the power of reproducing distinctly, but also the means of multiplying
+by the communication of another individual.
+
+But whatever difference takes place in generation, Nature, by a new
+production, prepares the body for it, and which, whether manifested
+outwardly, or concealed internally, always precedes generation. The
+ovaries of oviparous animals, and the testicles of female viviparous
+animals, before the season of impregnation, experience a considerable
+change. Oviparous animals produce eggs, which at first are attached to
+the ovaries, by degrees they increase in size, until they fall into
+the canal of the matrix, where they acquire their white membranes, and
+shell. This production has marks of the fecundity of the female, and
+without which generation cannot be performed: so in viviparous females
+there are always one or more glandular bodies on the testicles, which
+by degrees grow under the membrane that surrounds them; these glandular
+bodies enlarge and pierce, or rather impel and lift up the membrane of
+the testicle; when their maturity is complete, a small slit or several
+small holes appear at their extremities, by which the seminal liquor
+escapes, and falls into the matrix: these glandular bodies are new
+productions that precede generation, and without which there would not
+be any.
+
+In males there is also a similar change which always precedes their
+capacity for generating. In oviparous animals a great quantity of
+liquor fills a considerable reservoir, and which reservoir itself is
+sometimes formed every year; as in the calmar and some other fish. The
+testicles of birds swell surprisingly just preceding their amorous
+season. In viviparous males the testicles also swell considerably in
+those who have seasons, and in general there is a swelling and an
+extension of the genital members in all species, which, although it be
+external, must be regarded as a new production necessarily preceding
+generation.
+
+In the body of every animal, male or female, new productions are formed
+which precede generation; and when there is no real production there
+is always a swelling, and considerable extension in some of the parts.
+There are species in which this new production is not only manifest,
+but even the whole body seems to be renewed before generation can be
+performed; as is the case with insects whose various metamorphoses
+seem to be only for the purpose of generating; for the growth of the
+animal is completed before it is transformed. It ceases from taking
+nutriment, has no organs for generation, no means of converting the
+nutritive particles, of which they abound, into eggs or seminal liquor,
+and therefore this superfluity unites and moulds itself at first into
+a form something like that of the original. The caterpillar becomes
+a butterfly, because, for these reasons, it is unable to produce
+small organized beings like itself; the organic particles, always
+active, take another form, by uniting, whose figure answers in part,
+and even in essential constitution, to that of the caterpillar, but
+in which the organs of generation are developed, and may receive
+and transmit the organic particles of the nutriment which forms the
+eggs, and the individuals of the species. The individuals which
+proceed from the butterfly ought not to be butterflies, because the
+nutriment, from whence the organic particles proceed, was taken while
+in the form of caterpillars; the produce therefore must be similar,
+and not butterflies, which is only an occasional production of the
+superabundant nutriment; a method adapted by Nature to accomplish the
+purposes of generation in these species, as by the glandular bodies and
+milts in other animals.
+
+When the superabundant quantity of organic nutriment is not great,
+as in man and most large animals, generation is not made till the
+growth of the animal is nearly complete, and then it is confined to
+the production of a small number of individuals. When these particles
+are more abundant, as in many kinds of birds, and in oviparous fishes,
+generation is completed before the animal has received its full
+growth, and their production of individuals is very numerous. When
+the quantity of particles is still greater, as in insects, it first
+forms a large organic body, which, though retaining the essential
+constitution of its original, differs in many parts, as the butterfly
+from the caterpillar, but shortly produces an astonishing number of
+young, similar in form to the animal which selected the nutriment. When
+the superabundance is greater still, and when at the same time the
+animal has the necessary organs for generation, as the vine-fretter, it
+immediately produces a generation in every individual, and afterwards
+a transformation, like other insects. The vine-fretter becomes a fly,
+but cannot produce any thing, because it is only the remainder of the
+organized particles which had not been made use of in the production of
+the young.
+
+Almost every animal except man has stated times for generation. Spring
+is marked out for birds. Carp, and many kinds of fish, spawn in June
+and August. Barbel, and other kinds, in spring. Cats have three
+seasons, in January, May, and September. Roebucks, in December. Wolves
+and Foxes, in January. Horses, in summer. Stags, in September and
+October; and almost all insects generate in autumn: these last seem to
+be totally exhausted by generation, and die a short time after. Other
+animals, though not exhausted, become extremely lean and very weak,
+and require a considerable time to repair the loss which is made of
+the organic substance. Others are exhausted still less, and are soon
+restored to an engendering state; while man is scarcely in the least
+affected; his loss is speedily repaired, and therefore may be said to
+be at all times in a state for propagation; all which depends solely
+on the particular construction of the animal organs. The grand limits
+Nature has placed in the mode of existence are equally conspicuous
+in the manner of receiving and digesting the food, in the manner of
+retaining it in, or excluding it from, the body, and in the means by
+which the organic molecules, necessary for reproduction, are extracted.
+In a word, we shall find throughout all nature, that all what can be,
+is.
+
+The same difference exists in the time of female gestation; some, as
+mares, carry their young eleven or twelve months; others, as women,
+cows, &c. nine months; others, as foxes, wolves, &c. five months;
+bitches, nine weeks; cats, six weeks; rabbits, thirty-one days. Most
+birds come out of the egg at the end of twenty-one days; though some,
+as canary birds, hatch in thirteen or fourteen days. The variety is
+as great here as in every thing else relative to animals. The largest
+animals which produce only few, are those which go the longest with
+young; this still more confirms what we have already said, that the
+quantity of organic food is in proportion less in large than in small
+animals; for it is from the superfluity of the mother's food that the
+foetus derives what is necessary to the growth and expansion of its
+parts, and since this expansion demands much more time in large than
+in small animals, it is a proof that the quantity of matter which
+contributes is not so abundant in the first as in the last.
+
+There is, therefore, an infinite variety in animals, with respect to
+the time and manner of gestation, engendering, and bringing forth; and
+this variety is found even in the causes of generation; for although
+the general principle of production is this organic matter common to
+all that lives or vegetates, the manner in which the union is made,
+must have infinite combinations, which must all proceed from the source
+of new productions. My experiments clearly demonstrate, that there are
+no pre-existing germs, and at the same time prove that the generation
+of animals and vegetables is not equivocal; there are, perhaps, as
+many beings, either living or vegetating, which are produced by the
+fortuitous assemblage of organic molecules, as by a constant and
+successive generation. It is to those productions we should apply
+the axiom of the ancients, "Corruptio unius, generatio alterius."
+The corruption and composition of animals and vegetables produce an
+infinite number of organized bodies; some, as those of the calmar, form
+only kinds of machines, which, although very simple, are exceedingly
+active; others, as the spermatic animalcules, seem by their motion, to
+imitate animals; others imitate vegetables by their manner of growing
+or extending; there are others, as those of blighted corn, which may
+be made to live and die alternately, and as often as we please; there
+are still others, even in great quantities, which are at first kinds of
+vegetables, afterwards become species of animals, then return again to
+vegetables, and so on alternately. There is a great appearance, that
+the more we shall observe this race of organized beings, the more we
+shall discover varieties, always so much the more singular as they are
+the more remote from our sight, and from the varieties of other animals
+that have already become known to us.
+
+For example, spurred barley, which is produced by an alteration or
+decomposition of the organic substance of the grain, is composed of
+an infinity of little organized bodies, like to eels. By infusing
+the grain for ten or twelve hours in water, we find them to have a
+remarkable twirling, and a slight progressive motion; when almost dry,
+they cease to move, but by adding fresh water their motion returns.
+The same effects may be produced for months, or even years; insomuch
+that we can make these little machines act as often and as long as we
+please without destroying them, or their losing any of their power or
+activity. Their threads will sometimes open, like the filaments of
+semen, and produce moving globules; we may therefore suppose them to be
+of the same nature, only more fixed and solid.
+
+Eels, in paste made with flour, have no other origin than the union of
+the organic particles of the most essential parts of the grain: the
+first which appear are certainly not produced by many others; yet,
+although they have not been engendered, they engender others. By
+cutting them with the point of a lancet, we may perceive small eels
+come from their bodies in great numbers; the body of the animal appears
+to be only a sheath or bag which contains a multitude of other little
+animals, which perhaps are themselves only sheaths of the same kind, in
+which the organic matter assimilates, and takes the form of eels.
+
+There requires a great number of observations to be made to establish
+classes and races between such singular beings, which are at present so
+little known; there are some which may be regarded as real zoophytes,
+which vegetate, and at the same time appear to twirl and move like
+animals. There are some that at first appear to be animals, which
+afterwards join and form kinds of vegetables. A little attention to the
+decomposition of a grain of wheat infused in water will elucidate all I
+have asserted. I could add more examples, but I have related these only
+to point out the varieties there are in generation. There are certainly
+organized beings which we regard as animals, but which are not
+engendered by others of the same kind; there are some which are only
+a kind of machines, whose action is limited to a certain effect, and
+which can act but once in such a certain time, as those in the calmar;
+and there are others, as we have just remarked, which we can cause to
+act as long and as often as we please. There are vegetating beings
+which produce animated bodies, as the filaments of the human seed,
+from whence the active globules spring, and which move by their own
+powers. In the corruption, fermentation, or rather the decomposition
+of animal and vegetable substances, there are organized bodies which
+are real animals, and can propagate their like, although they have
+not been so produced. The limits of these varieties are perhaps still
+greater than we can imagine. We may extend our ideas, and exert every
+effort to reduce the effects of Nature to certain points, and class her
+productions to certain classes, yet an infinite number of links will
+always escape us.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+OF THE FORMATION OF THE FOETUS.
+
+
+It appears to be clearly ascertained by the experiments of Verheyen,
+who in one of them found the seed of a bull in the matrix of a cow;
+and by those of Ruysch, Fallopius, Leeuwenhoek, and many others, who
+perceived the male semen in the uterus of women, and numberless other
+animals, that the seminal liquor of the male enters by some means
+into the matrix of the female. It is probable, that in the time of
+copulation the orifice of the matrix opens to receive the seminal
+liquor, but if that is not the case, the active and prolific substance
+of this liquor, may penetrate the membranes of the matrix; for the
+seminal liquor being, as we have proved, almost all composed of organic
+molecules, which are in great motion, and extremely minute, they may
+pass across the coat of the closest membranes, and penetrate those of
+the matrix with the greatest facility.
+
+What proves that the active part of this liquor may not only pass
+through the pores of the matrix, but even penetrate its substance, is
+the sudden change that immediately takes place after conception. The
+menses are suppressed, the matrix becomes softer, swells, and appears
+inflamed. All these alterations can only happen by the action of an
+external cause; by the penetration of some part of the seminal liquor
+into the substance even of the matrix. This penetration not only
+operates on the external surface of the matrix, but on all the other
+parts of which this viscera is composed, like that penetration by which
+nutrition and expansion is produced.
+
+We shall be easily persuaded that it is so, when we consider that
+the matrix, during the time of gestation, not only augments in bulk
+but also in quantity of matter, and that it has a kind of life or
+vegetation, which is continually increasing till the time of delivery;
+for if the matrix was only a pouch, a destined receptacle to receive
+the seed and contain the foetus, it would extend and grow thin in
+proportion as the foetus increased in size; but in reality the matrix
+not only extends in proportion as the foetus grows larger, but
+receives at the same time a thickness and solidity. This augmentation
+is a real growth, like the expansion of the body in young animals,
+which can only be produced by the intimate penetration of the organic
+molecules analogous to the substance of the parts: and as this
+expansion of the matrix never happens but after impregnation, we cannot
+doubt its being produced by the liquor of the male, especially as the
+expansion takes place before the foetus has sufficient bulk to dilate
+it.
+
+It seems certain, by my experiments, that the female has a seminal
+liquor which commences to be formed in the testicles, and is completed
+in the glandular bodies: this liquor distills through the small holes,
+at the extremities of these bodies; and may, like that of the male,
+enter into the matrix in two different manners, either by these holes
+at the extremities, or through the membraneous coat of the matrix.
+
+These seminal liquors are both extracts from all parts of the body, and
+in the mixture of them there is every thing necessary to form a certain
+number of males and females; and the more the animal abounds with this
+liquor, and the more that abounds with organic molecules, the greater
+is their number of young; as we have already remarked is the case with
+the small animals, and diminishes in the large.
+
+But to pursue our subject with greater attention, we shall first
+examine the particular formation of the human foetus, and afterwards
+return to the other animals. In the human species, as well as in large
+animals, the seminal liquors of the male and female do not contain a
+great abundance of organic molecules, and therefore seldom produce
+more than one at a time: the foetus is a male, if the number of the
+organic molecules of the male predominates in the mixture, and a female
+if the contrary; and it resembles the father or the mother as they
+happen to abound in the mixture of the two liquors.
+
+I conceive, therefore, that the seminal liquor of both are two matters
+equally active and necessary for generation; and this I think is
+sufficiently proved by my experiments, since I have seen the same
+moving bodies in the one as the other. I perceived that the liquor
+of the male enters into the matrix, where it meets with that of the
+female: that they have a perfect analogy, and are both not only
+composed of similar parts by their form, but also in their motions and
+actions; as we have remarked in Chap. VI.
+
+By the mixture of these two liquors I conceive the activity of the
+organic molecules of each is stopped, and that the actions of one
+counterbalance that of the other, insomuch that each particle ceasing
+to move, remains in the place most analogous to itself, and that they
+will naturally take the same position, and will dispose themselves in
+the same order they held in the animal body; those that came from the
+head will arrange themselves in the head of the foetus, those of the
+back the same, and so of every other part; consequently they will form
+a small organized being, in every thing like the animal from which they
+are extracted.
+
+It must be observed that this mixture of organic molecules of the two
+sexes contains similar and different particles; the similar ones
+are those which have been extracted from every part common to both
+sexes. The different particles are those which have been extracted
+from the parts whereby the sexes are distinguished; thus there is,
+in this mixture, double the number of organic molecules to form the
+head, or the heart, or such other parts common to both, whereas there
+are only what are requisite to form the parts of the sex. Now the
+similar particles may act upon each other without being disordered,
+and collect together as if they had been extracted from the same body;
+but the dissimilar parts cannot act on each other, nor unite together,
+because they have not any relation; hence these particles will preserve
+their nature without mixture, and will fix of themselves the first,
+without the need of being penetrated by the others. Thus the molecules
+proceeding from the sexual parts will be the first fixed, and all the
+rest which are common to both, will afterwards fix indiscriminately,
+whether they are those of the male or female, and form an organized
+being which, in its sexual parts, will perfectly resemble its father,
+if it is a male, and its mother if a female; but which may resemble
+one another, or both, in all the other parts of the body.
+
+It seems to me that if this was well understood, we shall in a great
+measure be enabled to answer the objections made to the sentiments pf
+Aristotle, and which might also be advanced against this system. The
+question is, Why each individual, male and female, does not produce of
+itself an animal of its own sex? It must be acknowledged this question
+seems to carry weight with it; but having reflected a long time on this
+subject I think I have found an answer, and which I shall endeavour to
+explain.
+
+It is certainly evident, from what we have said in the preceding
+chapters, and the experiments we have described, that reproduction is
+effected by the union of organic molecules returned from each part
+of the body of the animal, or vegetable, into one or many common
+reservoirs; and that they are the same molecules which serve for
+nutriment and expansion of the body. This appears to me to have been
+so clearly proved, that I apprehend no scruple can remain as to the
+foundation of the theory; but I admit there may be some reason to ask,
+Why each animal and vegetable does not produce its own likeness, since
+each individual returns from every part of its body, and collects
+in a common reservoir, all the organic molecules necessary for the
+formation of a small organized being? Why then is not this organized
+being formed? and why, in almost every animal, is a mixture of the
+liquors of the two sexes required to produce an animal? If I content
+myself with answering, that in almost all vegetables, and all kinds
+of animals which multiply by cutting, that it appears the design of
+Nature that each individual should increase its own species, and that
+we must regard as an exception to this rule, the use which is made of
+the sexes in other kind of animals; it may be said, that the exception
+is more universal than the rule itself. This difficulty will be very
+little weakened, if we were to say, that each individual perhaps would
+produce its like, if it had proper organs, and contained the necessary
+matter towards the nutriment of the embryo; because females have both
+this matter, and organs, and yet do not produce either male or female
+foetus without the intervention of the male; which intervention of
+sexes in all animals is essential and absolutely necessary.
+
+Although the testicles and seminal vesicles of a man, contain all the
+necessary molecules to form a male, yet the local establishment and
+arrangement of these molecules cannot be made, because the effect of
+an union is prevented by the continual circulation of the seed both
+by absorption, and the action of the new organic molecules which
+constantly come into this reservoir from all parts of the body. The
+same circumstances taking place with the organic molecules of the
+female, is an evident reason why neither can produce of themselves,
+because when the seminal liquors of the male and female are mixed,
+they have more analogy to each other, than with the parts of the
+body of the female where the mixture is performed. By admitting of
+this explication, it may be asked, Why the common mode of generation
+in animals does not agree with it; for, upon that supposition, each
+individual would produce like snails, and impregnate each other, and
+each individual receiving the organic molecules the other furnished,
+the union would be made of itself, and by the sole power of the
+affinity of these molecules among themselves? I own, if it was by this
+cause alone the organic molecules could unite it would be natural
+to conclude, that the shortest mode to perform the reproduction of
+animals, would be to give to one individual both sexes. But it is
+quite contrary to the general rule pursued by Nature, as this manner of
+generation is confined to snails, and a small number of other animals.
+This answer cannot be said to fully satisfy the question, as it merely
+supposes the male does not produce, as it cannot receive any thing from
+the female, and that having besides no proper viscera to contain and
+nourish the foetus.
+
+We may also suppose that the activity of the organic molecules, in
+the semen of one individual, has need of being counterbalanced by the
+activity or force of those of another individual, in order to fix
+and bring them into a kind of equilibrium, a state of rest highly
+necessary to the formation of the animal; and that this activity in
+the organic molecules can only be counterbalanced by there being a
+contrary action in those which come from the male, and those proceeding
+from the female; so that, in this sense, all living or vegetating
+beings must have two sexes, conjointly and separately, to produce
+their resemblances. But this answer is too general to be entirely
+clear; nevertheless, if we pay attention to all the phenomena, we
+shall find some explanation resulting therefrom. The mixture of those
+two liquors produces not only a male or female foetus, but also
+other organized bodies, which have a kind of growth or expansion. The
+placenta, membranes, &c. are produced at the same time as the foetus.
+There are, therefore, in the seminal liquor of the male or female, or
+in the mixture of both, not only organic molecules necessary for the
+production of the foetus, but also those which form the placenta and
+membranes. We know not from whence these molecules come, since there
+is no part of the body, either of the male or female, from which they
+could be sent back. From hence it seems it must be admitted, that the
+molecules of the seminal liquors of each, being alike active, form
+organized bodies every time they can fix, by acting mutually one on the
+other: that the particles employed to form a male, will be those of the
+masculine sex, which will fix the first, and form the sexual parts; and
+that those common to both sexes will then fix indifferently to form the
+rest of the body, and that the placenta and membranes are then formed
+from the superabundant particles, which have not been used to form
+the foetus; if, as we suppose, the foetus is a male, then there
+remains to form the placenta, and membranes, all the organic particles
+peculiar to the feminine sex which have not been employed; and also
+all those of both which shall not have entered the composition of the
+foetus, and which cannot be less than one half. So likewise, if the
+foetus is a female, the same abundance will be left for the formation
+of the placenta, and membranes, and the whole effects be the same,
+excepting it will have the superfluity of the male, instead of that of
+the female.
+
+But, it may be said, that in that case the placenta and membranes
+ought to become another foetus, which would be a female, if the
+first was a male; and a male if the first was a female; for the first
+having consumed the organic molecules of the sexual parts of only
+one individual, and half those common to both, there remains all the
+molecules of the sexual parts of the other individual, and the other
+half of those common to both. To this I answer, that the first union
+of the organic molecules prevents a second, at least, under a similar
+form; that the foetus, being the first formed, exercises an external
+power, which disorders the arrangement of the other organic molecules,
+prevents the formation of a second foetus, and throws them into a
+state from which the form of the placenta and membranes result.
+
+We are assured by the experiments and observations we have made, that
+every living being contains a great quantity of living and active
+molecules. The life of the animal or vegetable appears to be only the
+result of all the young lives (if that expression is permitted me) of
+each of these active molecules, whose life is primitive, and appears
+impossible to be destroyed. We have found these living molecules in
+every living or vegetating being, and are assured, that they are alike
+necessary for nutrition, and consequently, for the reproduction of
+animals or vegetables. It is not, then, difficult to conceive, that a
+certain number of those molecules united should compose a living being.
+Each of these particles possessing animation, an assemblage of them
+must be endowed with life, and thus these living organic molecules,
+being common to all living beings, they necessarily form any particular
+animal or vegetable, according as they are arranged. Now, this
+arrangement absolutely depends on the form of the individuals which
+furnish those molecules. If they are furnished by an animal, they will
+arrange under the form of an individual like to it, exactly as they
+were arranged when they served for the expansion of the animal itself;
+but must we not then suppose that this arrangement cannot be made
+either in animals or vegetables, but by the means of a kind of base,
+round which the molecules might unite to form the foetus? Now, it is
+plain, this basis is furnished by particles peculiar to the different
+sexes, as I shall explain.
+
+While the molecules of either sex remain by themselves, their action
+produces no effect, because they are without any opposition from any
+different kind of particles; but, when these molecules are mixed, then
+there are dissimilar parts, and those serve for the base and point of
+rest to the other molecules, and fix their activity.
+
+In this supposition that the organic molecules, which, in the mixture
+of the seminal liquors of the two individuals, represent the sexual
+parts of the male, can alone serve for a base to the organic molecules
+proceeding from every part of the female, and those peculiar to the
+female sex as a base to them which are extracted from the male, we
+might conclude, that the sexual part of the male infant is formed of
+the organic molecules of the father, and from those of the mother, for
+the rest of the body: and that, on the contrary, the female partakes
+of its mother only in sex, and takes the rest of its body from its
+father. Boys, therefore, ought, excepting the parts of the sex, to have
+a greater resemblance to their mother than to their father, and girls
+more to the father than to the mother; but this consequence is not,
+perhaps, conformable to experience.
+
+By considering, under this point of view, generation by sexes, we
+should conclude it to be the most general mode of reproduction, as
+it is in fact. Beings, whose organization is the most complete, as
+animals, whose bodies compose a whole, which can neither be separated
+nor divided, and whose powers are con-centered to one single point, can
+only reproduce by this mode; because they contain only particles which
+resemble each other, and whose union can only be made by different
+particles, furnished by another individual. Those where organization is
+less perfect, as that of vegetables, whose bodies may be divided and
+separated without being destroyed, can be reproduced by other modes.
+First, because they contain dissimilar particles; secondly, because
+their forms not being so determinate and fixed as that of animals,
+the particles may supply the functions of each other, and change
+according to circumstances; as we see roots become branches, and shoot
+out leaves when exposed to the air, which causes that the vegetable
+particles obtain a local establishment, become fixed, and are enabled
+to multiply, by various modes.
+
+It will be the same with animals, whose organization is less perfect,
+as the fresh water polypus, and others, which can reproduce by division
+of their parts. These organized beings are not so much a single animal,
+as a number united under one common covering, as trees are composed of
+a multiplicity of young trees, (see Chap, II.) Pucerons, which engender
+singly, also contain dissimilar particles, since, after producing
+their young they change into flies which do not produce at all. Snails
+communicate mutually these dissimilar particles, and afterwards they
+both produce. Thus, in all known matters of generation, we see that the
+requisite union of organic particles, can only be made by the mixture
+of different particles, which serve as a basis capable of fixing their
+motions.
+
+If to the idea of the word _sex_, we give all the extent here supposed,
+we shall say, that sexes are found throughout all nature; for then
+sex will mean only the parts which furnish the organic particles,
+different from the common particles, and which must serve as a fixed
+point for their union. But, enough of reasoning on a question that
+can be at once resolved, by saying, that God having created sexes, it
+necessarily follows that animals should reproduce by their connection.
+In fact, we are not made, as I have formerly said, to give a reason
+for every _why_. We are not in a state of explaining _why_ Nature,
+almost throughout her works, makes use of sexes for the reproduction of
+animals, or why sexes exist; we ought, therefore, to content ourselves
+with reasoning on what is, on things as they are, since we cannot go
+beyond, by forming suppositions which will remove us from the sphere
+we ought to contain ourselves in, and to which the small extent of our
+knowledge is limited.
+
+Quitting, therefore, all doubtful conjectures, I shall rest on facts
+and observations. I find, that the reproduction of beings is formed in
+many different manners; but, at the same time, I clearly perceive, that
+it is by the union of the organic particles sent back from every part
+of the individual, that the reproduction of vegetables and animals are
+effected. I am certain of the existence of these organic and active
+molecules in the seminal liquors of male and female animals and seed
+of vegetables; and cannot doubt but every species of reproduction
+is accomplished by the union of these organic molecules. Nor can I
+doubt, that in the generation of animals, and particularly in that of
+man, that the male and female particles mix in the formation of the
+foetus, since we see infants which resemble both father and mother;
+and what confirms this conclusion is, that those parts, common to both
+sexes, mix promiscuously; whereas those never mix which represent the
+sexual parts. For we every day see children with eyes like the father,
+and the forehead and mouth like the mother; but we never find a like
+mixture of the sexual parts; it never happens that they have the
+testicles of the father, and the vagina of the mother, for even the
+fact of hermaphrodites is very doubtful.
+
+In the parts of generation of the two sexes in the human species,
+there is so much resemblance, and so singular a conformity, that we
+might be inclined to think those which appear so different externally,
+are at bottom the same organs, only more or less developed; this was
+the opinion of the ancients, and M. Daubenton's ideas on this subject
+appear to me very ingenious.
+
+The formation of the foetus is, then, made by the union of the
+organic particles contained in the mixture of the seminal liquor
+of both sexes; this union produces the local establishment of the
+particles, which determines them to arrange themselves as they were in
+the individuals which furnished them; insomuch, that the molecules,
+which proceed from the head, cannot, by virtue of these laws, place
+themselves in the legs, or any other part of the foetus. All these
+molecules must be in motion when they unite, and in a motion which must
+cause them to tend to a kind of centre, about which the union is made.
+This centre, or fixed point, which is necessary to the union of the
+molecules, and which, by its re-action and inertia, fixes the activity,
+and destroys the motion, is, probably, the first assemblage of the
+molecules which proceed from the sexual parts of the other individual;
+they must arrange under the form of an organized body which will not be
+another foetus, for the reasons we have before given.[AC]
+
+[AC] In this, as in some other places, our author has gone into a
+diffuse repetition which we have considered unnecessary and therefore
+avoid.
+
+On the whole, I conceive there are organic particles of the sexual
+parts, which serve as a fixed point, or a centre of union, around which
+all the other parts that form the embryo collect. I speak of it only
+as probable; but as they are the only particles which differ, I have
+thought it more natural to imagine, that it is around these different
+particles the union is formed than those which are common to both sexes.
+
+We have before observed, that those who have imagined the heart was the
+first formed, are deceived: those who say it is the blood, are no less
+so. All is formed at the same time. If we only consult observation, the
+chicken is seen in the egg before it has been sat upon; we perceive the
+spine of the back and the head, and, at the same time, the appendages
+which form the placenta. I have opened a great number of eggs, before
+and after incubation; and I am convinced, by my sight, that the chicken
+exists entirely in the middle of the cicatrice, the moment it comes
+from the body of the hen. The heat, communicated to it by incubation,
+only expands the parts by setting the liquors in motion; but it is not
+possible to determine which parts of the foetus are fixed in the
+instant of formation.
+
+I have always said, that the organic molecules were fixed, and that
+their uniting was caused only by their loss of motion. This appears
+to me certain: for, if we separately examine the seminal liquor of
+the male and female, we shall see an infinity of small bodies in
+great motion, but being mixed, their motion is instantly suspended,
+and heat is necessary to renew their activity; for the chicken which
+exists in the centre of the cicatrice is without any motion before
+incubation; and even twenty-four hours after, when it begins to become
+perceptible with a microscope, there is not the least appearance of
+motion then, nor even the day following. During the first day it is
+only a small white mucilaginous mass, which is of a consistence on
+the second, and insensibly increases, but whose motion is very slow,
+and does not at all resemble that of the organic particles which move
+rapidly in the seminal liquor. Besides, I have reason to say, that
+this motion of the organic molecules is absolutely destroyed; for if
+we keep an egg without exposing it to a degree of heat necessary to
+expand the chicken, the embryo, although formed entirely, will remain
+without any motion; and the organic molecules of which it is composed,
+will remain fixed without being able to give motion and life to the
+embryo which has been formed by their union. Thus, after the motion
+of the organic molecules has been destroyed, after the union of these
+molecules, necessary to form an animal body, there is still an external
+agent required to animate and give it life and motion; and this agent
+is heat, which, by rarefying the liquors, obliges them to circulate
+and put also every organ in action, which afterwards do no more than
+develope and grow, provided that this external heat continues to assist
+them in their functions.
+
+Before the action of this external heat, not the least appearance of
+blood is to be seen; and it is not till twenty-four hours after, that
+I have perceived any change in the colour of the vessels. The blood
+first appears in the placenta, which communicates with the body of
+the chicken: but this blood seems to lose its colour as it approaches
+the body of the animal; for the chicken is entirely white, and we
+with difficulty discover in the first, second, and third days after
+incubation, a few small sanguinary points which are close to the body
+of the animal, but which seem not to make part of it, although it is
+these sanguinary points which afterwards form the heart. Thus, the
+formation of the blood is a change occasioned in the liquors by the
+motion heat communicates to them, and this blood is formed even out of
+the body of the animal, the whole substance of which is then only a
+kind of mucilage, or thick jelly.
+
+The foetus, as well as the placenta, derives the necessary nutriment
+for expansion, by a kind of absorption, and they assimilate the organic
+parts of the liquor in which they float: for the placenta cannot be
+said to nourish the animal, no more than the animal nourishes the
+placenta; since, if the one nourished the other, the first would soon
+appear to diminish, while the other increased, whereas both increase
+together, I have indeed observed in eggs, that the placenta at first
+increases much more in proportion than the foetus, and therefore
+it may nourish the animal, or rather convey the nutriment to it, by
+intussusception.
+
+What we have just said concerning the chicken, is easily applied
+to the human foetus, which is formed by the union of the organic
+molecules of the two sexes. The membranes, and placenta, are formed
+from the superabundance of the particles which have entered into the
+composition of the embryo: which is then inclosed in a double membrane,
+where there is also a quantity of liquor, which is, perhaps, at first,
+but a portion of the semen of the father and the mother; and as the
+foetus does not quit the matrix, it enjoys, from the instant even
+of its formation, an external heat necessary for its expansion; this
+heat communicates a motion to liquors, and sets the organs in play, and
+blood is formed in the placenta, and in the body of the embryo, by the
+motion occasioned by this heat. It may be even said, that the formation
+of the blood of the infant is as independent of the mother, as that
+which passes into the egg, is of the hen which hatches it, or of the
+oven which heats it.
+
+It is certain, that the foetus, placenta, and membranes, grow by
+intussusception: for, in the earliest days of conception, the pouch,
+which contains the whole product of generation, is not adherent to
+the matrix. De Graaf, in his experiments on doe rabbits, made these
+globules, wherein the whole business of generation lies, move about
+in the matrix. Thus, in the first stages, they increase and grow by
+drawing nutriment from the liquors which bathe the matrix, to which
+they are afterwards attached by a mucilage, in which small vessels are
+formed with time, as we shall hereafter explain.
+
+But, not to quit the subject, let us return to the immediate formation
+of the foetus, on which there are many remarks to be made, both as
+to its situation, and the different circumstances which may prevent or
+stop its formation.
+
+In the human species, the seed of the male enters into the matrix, the
+cavity of which is considerable; and when it meets with a sufficient
+quantity of female semen, a mixture of the organic particles succeed,
+and the formation of the foetus ensues: the whole, perhaps, is done
+instantaneously, especially if the liquors are both in an active and
+flourishing state. The place where the foetus is formed, is the
+cavity of the matrix, because the seed of the male can enter there
+more easily than into the trunks; and as this viscera has but one
+small orifice, which is always shut, excepting when the ardour of
+love causes it to open, the materials of generation remain there
+with safety, and scarcely ever reissue but by rare and unfrequent
+circumstances: but as the liquor of the male sprinkles the vagina,
+before it penetrates the matrix, by the activity of the organic
+molecules which compose it, it may go farther into the trunks, and,
+perhaps, into the ovarium. As the liquor of the female has already its
+perfection in the glandular bodies of the testicles, from which it
+flows and moistens the trunks and other parts before it descends into
+the matrix, and as it may issue out of the vacuities left around the
+neck of the matrix, it is not impossible, that the mixture of the two
+liquors may be made in all these different places. It is, therefore,
+probable that foetuses are often formed in the vagina, but which fall
+out as soon as they are formed, because there is nothing to retain
+them. It may also sometimes happen, that foetuses are formed in the
+trunks; but this case is very rare, and cannot happen but when the
+seminal liquor of the male enters the matrix in great plenty.
+
+The collection of anatomical observations makes mention of foetuses
+not only being found in the trunks, but also in the testicles. In
+the History of the Old Academy of Sciences, (vol. II. page 91.) we
+meet with an observation on this subject. M. Theroude, a surgeon at
+Paris, shewed the academy an unformed mass, which he found in the
+right testicle of a girl of eighteen years of age. In it were two
+open slits, furnished with hair like two eye-lids, above which was a
+kind of forehead, with a black line instead of eyebrows; immediately
+over that were many hairs matted together in two separate lines, one
+of which was seven, and the other three inches long; under the great
+angle of the eye, two of the grinding teeth appeared to shoot, hard,
+thick, and white; they had their prongs, and a third tooth thicker than
+the rest above them. There appeared likewise other teeth at different
+distances from each other: two between these, of the canine nature,
+issued from an opening where the ear is placed. In the same volume,
+page 144, it is related, that M. Mery found, in the testicle of a woman
+who had conceived, a bone of the upper jaw, with many teeth therein,
+so perfect that some appeared to be of more than ten years growth. We
+find, in the _Journal de Medicine_, for January 1683, published by the
+Abbé de la Roque, the history of a lady who died with the ninth child,
+which was formed in or near one of the testicles, which is not very
+clearly explained. The foetus was about an inch in size, completely
+formed, and the sex easily to be distinguished. We also find, in the
+Philosophical Transactions, some observations on the testicles of
+women, wherein teeth, hair, and bones, have been found. If all these
+circumstances are true, we must suppose, that the seminal liquor of
+the male sometimes ascends, although very seldom, to the testicles of
+the female. Yet, notwithstanding all this, I have some difficulty to
+believe it; first, because the circumstances, which appear to prove
+it, are extremely rare: secondly, because a perfect foetus has never
+been seen in the testicles but by M. Littre, who seems to relate it in
+a very suspicious manner: thirdly, because it is not impossible, that
+the seminal liquor of the female alone may produce organized masses,
+as moles, hair, bones, flesh, and, in short, because if we give credit
+to anatomists, foetuses may be formed in the testicles of men, as
+well as in those of women: for we find, in the History of the Royal
+Academy, vol. II. p. 298, an observation of a surgeon, who says, he
+discovered in the scrotum of a man, the figure of a child inclosed in
+his membranes: and that the head, feet, eyes, bones, and cartilages,
+were distinguishable. If all these observations were equally true, we
+must necessarily adopt one of these two hypotheses, either that the
+seminal liquor, of each sex, cannot produce any thing without being
+mixed with that of the other sex, or that either of them can produce
+irregular masses of itself. By keeping to the first, we should be
+obliged to admit, to explain in all the circumstances we have related,
+that the liquor of the male sometimes ascends to the testicle, and,
+by mixing with the seminal liquor of the female, forms organized
+bodies; and so may also the female fluid, by being plentiful in the
+vagina, penetrate, during the time of copulation, into the scrotum of
+the male, nearly as the venereal virus often reaches that part; and
+that in this case, an organized body may be found in the scrotum, by
+the mixture of the male and female fluids; or, if we admit the other
+hypothesis, which appears to be the most probable, and suppose, that
+the seminal liquor of each individual may produce organized masses,
+then we may be able to say, that all these bony, fleshy, and hairy
+productions, sometimes found in the testicles of females, and in
+the scrotum of males, may derive their origin from the liquor of
+the individual in which they are found. But enough of observations
+upon facts, which appear to be as uncertain as inexplicable, for I am
+much inclined to believe, that, in certain circumstances, the seminal
+liquor of each individual may produce something alone and of itself,
+and that young girls might form moles without any communication with
+the male, as hens form eggs without having received the cock. I might
+support this opinion with observations which appear to me as credible
+as those I have quoted. M. de la Saone, physician and anatomist of the
+Academy of Sciences, published a memoir on this subject, in which he
+asserts, that religious nuns, though strictly cloistered, had formed
+moles. Why should that be impossible, since hens form eggs without
+communication with the cock? and in the cicatrice of these eggs we
+perceive a mole, with appendages, instead of a chicken? The analogy
+appears to me to have sufficient power for us, at least to doubt, or
+suspend our determination. Be this as it will, it is certain that the
+mixture of the two liquors are required to form a foetus, and that
+this mixture cannot come to any effect but when it is in the matrix,
+where the anatomists have sometimes found foetuses; and it is natural
+to imagine, that those which have been found out of the matrix, and
+in the cavity of the abdomen, have escaped by the extremity of the
+trunks, or by some accidental opening, and that they never fall from
+the testicles into the abdomen, because it is almost an impossibility
+that the seminal liquor of the male can ascend so high. Leeuwenhoek has
+computed the motion of these pretended spermatic animals to be four or
+five inches in forty minutes, which would be more than sufficient for
+the animalcules to traverse from the vagina into the matrix, from the
+matrix into the trunks, and from the trunks into the testicles, in an
+hour or two, provided all the liquor had that motion. But how is this
+to he conceived, that the organic molecules, whose motion ceases as
+soon as the liquid fails, can arrive as far as the testicles, unless
+brought there by the liquor in which they swim? This progressive
+motion cannot be given by the organic molecules to the liquor which it
+contains, therefore, whatever activity these molecules may be supposed
+to have, we cannot see how they can arrive at the testicles, and form a
+foetus there, unless the liquor itself was pumped up and attracted
+thither, a supposition not only gratuitous but even against all human
+probability.
+
+The doubts which this supposition gives rise to, confirm the opinion
+that the male fluid penetrates the matrix, and enters therein by the
+orifice, or across the membraneous coat of the viscera. The female
+fluid may also enter into the matrix, either by the opening at the
+upper extremity of the trunks, or across the skin even of the trunks
+and matrix. M. de Weirbrech, an able anatomist of Petersburg, confirms
+this opinion:----"Res omni attentione dignissima (says he) oblata mihi
+est in utero feminę alicujus a me dissectę; erat uterus ea magnitudine
+qua esse solet in virginibus, tubęque ambę apertę quidem ad ingressum
+uteri, ita ut ex hoc in illas cum specillo facile possem transire
+ac flatum injicere, sed in turbarum extremo nulla dabatur apertura,
+nullus aditus; fimbriarum enim ne vestigium quidem aderat, sed loco
+illarum bulbus aliquis pyriformis materia subalbida fluida turgens, in
+cujus medio fibra plana nervea, cicatriculę ęmula, apparebat, quę sub
+ligamentuli specie usque ad ovarii involucra protendebatur.
+
+"Dices, eadem a Regnero de Graaf jam olim notata. Equidem non negaverim
+illustrem hunc prosectorem in libro suo de organis mulieribus non modo
+similem tubam delineasse, Tabula XIX, fig. 3, sed & monuisse, 'tubas
+quamvis secundum ordinariam naturę dispositionem in extremitate sua
+notabilem semper coarctationem habeant, pręter naturam tamen aliquando
+claudi;' verum enimvero cum non meminerit auctor an id in utraque
+tuba ita deprehenderit; an in virgine; an status iste pręternaturalis
+sterilitatem inducat: an vero conceptio nihilominus fieri possit;
+an a principio vitę talis structura suam originem ducat; sive an
+tractu tempora ita degenerare tubę possint; facile perspicimus multa
+nobis relicta esse problemata quę, utcumque soluta, multum negotii
+facessant in exemplo nostro. Erat enim hęc femina maritata, viginti
+quatuor annos nata, quę filium pepererat quem vidi ipse, octo jam
+annos natum. Dic igitur tubas ab incunabulis clausas sterilitatem
+inducere: quare hęc nostra femina peperit? Dic concepisse tubis
+clausis; quomodo ovulum ingredi tubam potuit? Dic coaluisse tubas post
+partum: quomodo id nosti? Quomodo adeo evanescere in utroque latere
+fimbrię possunt, tanquam nunquam adfuissent? Si quidem ex ovario ad
+tubas alia daretur via, pręter illarum orificium, unico gressu omnes
+superarentur difficultates; sed fictiones intellectum quidem adjuvant,
+rei veritatem non demonstrant; pręstat igitur ignorationem fateri,
+quam speculationibus indulgere[AD]." The difficulties which occurred
+to this able author are insurmountable in the egg system, but which
+disappear in our explanation. This observation seems only to prove what
+we have observed, that the seminal liquor of both male and female may
+penetrate the coat of the matrix, and enter across the pores of the
+membranes; to be assured of it, it is only necessary to pay attention
+to the alteration that the seminal liquor of the male causes to the
+viscera, and to the kind of vegetation or expansion that it causes
+there. Besides, the liquor which issues by the vacuities of De Graaf,
+being of the same nature as the liquor of the glandular bodies, it is
+very evident that this liquor comes from the testicles, and yet there
+is no vessel through which it can pass; consequently we must conclude,
+that it penetrates the spongy coat of all these parts, and that it not
+only enters the matrix, but even can issue out when these parts are in
+irritation.
+
+[AD] Vide Comment. Acad. Petropol, vol IV. page 261 and 262.
+
+But even should we refuse this idea of penetration, we cannot deny
+that the liquor of the female, which flows from the glandular bodies
+of the testicles, may enter by the opening at the extremity of the
+trunk, as that of the male does by the orifice of the viscera; and that
+consequently these two liquors may mix of themselves in this cavity,
+and form there the foetus in the manner we have explained.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+OF THE EXPANSION, GROWTH, AND DELIVERY OF THE FOETUS, &C.
+
+
+In the expansion of the foetus, two different degrees of growth make
+different kinds of expansion. The first, which succeeds immediately
+after the formation of the foetus, is not proportionable in all
+the parts of which it is composed. The more distant it is from the
+formation, the more in proportion are its parts, and it is only after
+it has quitted the womb of its mother that the growth of the parts is
+made in nearly an equal manner. It must not be imagined that the figure
+of the foetus, at the moment of formation, is absolutely like that of
+an adult. It is certain that the embryo contains every part which, must
+compose a man, but they differ in their successive expansion.
+
+In an organized body, as that of an animal, we may suppose some parts
+are more essential than others, and though some may be useless or
+superfluous, there are some on which the rest seem to depend for their
+expansion and disposition. We must consider some as fundamental parts,
+without which the animal cannot exist, and which are more accessory and
+external, and appear to derive their origin from the first, and which
+seem to be formed as much for the ornament, symmetry, and external
+perfection of the animal, as for the necessity of its existence, and
+the exercise of the essential functions of life. These two kinds of
+different parts expand successively, and are almost equally apparent
+when the foetus quits the womb; but there are others which Nature
+seems to keep in reserve, as the teeth, which do not appear for some
+time, and also the glandular bodies in the testicles of females, the
+beards of males, &c. which do not shew themselves till the age of
+puberty.
+
+In order to discover the fundamental and essential parts of an animal
+body, we must pay attention to the number, situation, and nature of
+the whole; those which are simple, those whose position is invariable,
+and those without which the animal cannot exist, will be the essential
+parts; those, on the contrary, which are double, or in a greater
+number, those whose size and position vary, and those which may be
+retrenched from the animal without destroying or even doing it an
+injury, may be looked upon as less necessary, and more accessory, to
+the animal machine. Aristotle has said that the only parts essential to
+animals were those with which they take their nutriment, and throw out
+the superfluous parts of it from the body. From the mouth to the arms
+are simple parts, which no other can supply. The head and spine of the
+back are also simple parts, whose position is invariable. The spine of
+the back serves for a foundation to the fabric of the body; and it is
+from the marrow which it contains that the motion and action of most
+of the members and organs proceed; it is also this part which appears
+one of the first in the embryo. Now these simple parts which appear
+the first are all essential to the existence and form of the animal.
+There are many more double than simple parts in the body of an animal,
+and seem to be produced on each side of the simple parts by a kind of
+vegetation; for these double parts are similar in form, and different
+in position. The left hand exactly resembles the right, because it is
+composed of the same number of parts; nevertheless, if it was placed
+in the situation of the right, we could not make use of it for the
+same purposes, and should have reason to regard it as a very different
+member. It is the same with respect to the other double parts; they are
+similar as to form, and different as to the position which is connected
+to the body of the animal; and by supposing a line to divide the body
+into two equal parts, the position of all the similar parts would refer
+to this line as a centre.
+
+The spinal marrow, and the vertebrę which contains it, appear to be the
+real axis, to which we must refer all the double parts of the animal,
+for they seem to derive their origin, and to be only symmetrical
+branches issuing from this trunk or common base, for we see the ribs
+shoot out on each side of the vertebrę in the young chicken as the
+young branches shoot out from the principal branch of a tree. In all
+embryos the middle of the head and vertebrę appear to be the first
+formed; afterwards we see on the two sides of a vesicle which forms the
+middle of the head two other vesicles which appear to proceed from the
+first. These two vesicles contain the eyes and the other double parts
+of the head; so likewise we perceive little tubercles shoot out in
+equal numbers from each side of the vertebrę, which extend by degrees
+and form the ribs, and other double parts of the trunk. On the side
+of this trunk already formed, as the conclusion, the legs and arms
+appear. This first expansion is very different from that which is made
+afterwards; it is the production of parts which appear for the first
+time; that which succeeds is only a growth of all the parts already
+created.
+
+This symmetrical order of all the double parts found in every animal,
+the regularity of their position, the equality of their extension and
+growth, and the perfect resemblance between them, seem to indicate that
+they derive their origin from the simple parts; that there must reside
+in these simple parts a power which acts equally on each side, or,
+which answers the same meaning, they are the fixed points against which
+the power that produces the expansion of the double parts is exercised.
+That the power which acts on the right is equalled by that of the left
+side, and consequently they are counterbalanced by this re-action.
+
+From hence we may infer, that if there is any defect or excess in the
+matter which is to serve for the formation of the double parts, as the
+powers which impel them on each side are equal, the defect or excess
+must be formed the same both on the right and left; for example, if,
+from a defect of matter, a man has but two fingers instead of five on
+the right hand, he will have but two on the left hand; or if, by an
+excess of matter, he has six fingers on one hand, he will have six on
+the other; or if the matter be vitiated, and causes an alteration in
+the right part, it will be the same on the left. This fact is very
+often seen. Most monsters are made with symmetry; the disarrangement
+of the parts of monsters appears to be made with order: Nature,
+therefore, even in her errors, mistakes as little as possible.
+
+This harmony of position in the double parts of animals is found also
+in vegetables; branches shoot out from buds on every side; the veins in
+the leaves are equally disposed as to the principal vein; and although
+symmetrical order appears to be less exact in vegetables than in
+animals, it is only because it is more varied, and its limits are more
+extended, and less precise; but we may nevertheless easily discover
+this order, and distinguish the simple and essential parts from those
+which are double, and the latter we must regard as having taken their
+origin from the former. We shall more fully discuss this point, as far
+as relates to vegetables, when we come to treat of them.
+
+It is not possible to determine under What form the double parts exist
+before expansion, nor in what manner they are folded, nor what figure
+results from their position by connection with the simple parts. The
+body of the animal, in the instant of formation, certainly contains
+every part which is to compose it; but the relative position of these
+parts must be very different then from what it becomes afterwards.
+It is the same with vegetables, for if we observe the expansion of
+a young leaf, we shall perceive that it is folded on both sides the
+principal vein, and that its figure does not resemble at that time what
+it afterwards assumes.
+
+When we amuse ourselves by folding paper to form crowns, boats, &c.
+the different folds of the paper seem to have no resemblance to the
+form which must result by the unfolding; we only see that these folds
+are always made in an uniform order, and exactly the same on one side
+as that we have made on t he other; but it would be a problem beyond
+known geometry, to determine the figures which may result from all the
+unfoldings of a certain given number of folds. All what immediately
+relates to the position, is beyond our mathematical sciences. This art,
+which Leibnitz calls _Analysis Situs_, is not yet found out; though the
+art, which would shew us the connections that result from the position
+of things, would perhaps be more useful than that which has only bulk
+for its object, for we have often more need to know the form than the
+matter.
+
+In the unfolding of Nature's productions, not only the folded parts
+take new positions, but they acquire, at the same time, extent and
+solidity. Since we cannot therefore determine the result of the simple
+unfolding of a folded form, in which, as in a piece of folded paper,
+there is but one change of position between the parts, without any
+augmentation or diminution of the bulk or mass of the matter, how is
+it possible for us to judge of the complex unfolding of the body of
+an animal, in which not only the relative position of the parts, but
+also their mass of matter, undergoes considerable changes? We cannot,
+therefore, reason upon this subject, but by drawing some inductions
+from the examination of the things at the different periods of their
+unfolding, and by assisting ourselves with the observations that we
+have had the opportunity to make.
+
+It is true we see the chick in the egg before incubation; it floats
+in a transparent liquor, contained in a small purse, formed by a very
+fine membrane in the centre of the cicatrice; but this chick is then
+only a particle of inanimate matter, in which we cannot discern any
+organization, nor any determined figure. We judge by the external form
+that one of the extremities is the head, and the rest to be the spine
+of the back. It appears that this is the first product of fecundation
+resulting from the mixture of the seed of the male and female;
+nevertheless, before asserting this as a fact, there are many things
+should be considered. When the hen has cohabited with the cock for a
+few days, and afterwards separated from him, the eggs she produces for
+a month after separation are as fertile as those she produced during
+the time of cohabitation with the male, and unfold at the same time;
+they only require twenty-one days sitting, and the embryo of the one
+will be as forward and as completely formed as that of the other. From
+hence we might think, that this form, under which the chick at first
+appears to us in the egg, does not immediately proceed from a mixture
+of the two liquors, but that it existed in other forms during the time
+the egg remained in the body of the mother; for the embryo in the form
+we see it before incubation, requires only heat to unfold and bring it
+forth. Now, if it had this form twenty days, or a month before, when
+the egg was first fecundated, why was it not hatched by the internal
+heat of the hen? and why is not the chicken perfectly formed in those
+eggs which are fecundated twenty-one days before the hen lays them?
+
+This difficulty is not so great as it appears; for we must conceive,
+that in the time of the cock's cohabitation with the hen, each egg
+receives in its cicatrice, wherein the female liquor is contained,
+a small portion of the semen of the male. The egg attached to the
+ovary is in oviparous females, what the glandular substance is in the
+testicles of viviparous females. The cicatrice of the egg corresponds
+with the glandular bodies in which the seminal liquor of the female
+resides; that of the male penetrates and mixes there with it; from
+this mixture, the formation of the embryo instantly results. The first
+egg which the hen lays after coition is fecundated, and capable of
+producing a chicken; those which she lays afterwards were fecundated at
+the same instant; but as there is still wanting essential parts to this
+egg, the production of which is independent of the seed of the male,
+as the white, membranes, and shell, the young embryo contained in the
+cicatrice cannot unfold in this imperfect egg, although assisted by the
+internal heat of the mother. It remains, therefore, in the cicatrice
+in the state in which it was formed, until the egg has acquired all
+the parts necessary to the growth and nourishment of the chicken: and
+it is not till the egg has attained its perfection that the embryo
+begins to unfold: this unfolding is performed by the external heat of
+incubation; but it is certain, if the egg could be confined within the
+body of the hen for 21 days after it was completely formed, the chicken
+would be produced, unless the internal heat of the hen should prove too
+powerful, for the degrees of heat necessary to hatch chickens are not
+very extended, and the least defect or excess is equally prejudicial
+to their unfolding. The last eggs the hen lays, containing the same as
+the first, proves nothing more than that the egg must acquire entire
+perfection before the embryo can unfold itself; and for want of the
+heat necessary to this unfolding, eggs may be kept a considerable time
+before incubation, without preventing the produce of the chickens they
+contain.
+
+It appears, therefore, that the state of the embryo, when the egg is
+laid by the hen, is the first state which succeeds fecundation; that
+the form under which we see it is the first form resulting from the
+intimate mixture, and form the penetration of the two seminal liquors;
+and consequently by following, as Malpighius has done, this unfolding
+from hour to hour, we discover all that is possible to be known, unless
+we could see the two liquors mix before our eyes, and how the first
+arrangement of the particles are made, which produces the first form of
+the embryo.
+
+If we reflect on this fecundation (which is made at the same time) of
+these eggs, which are laid successively, and along time after each
+other, we shall find new arguments against the existence of eggs in
+viviparous animals; for if the females of viviparous animals, or if
+women contained eggs, like hens, why are there not many fecund at
+the same time? why are not some of them produced in nine months,
+and others at distant periods? and when women have two or three
+children, why do they all come into the world at one time? If these
+foetuses were produced by the means of eggs, would not they come
+successively, according as the eggs come to perfection, after the time
+of impregnation? And would not super-foetation be as frequent as they
+now are scarce, or as natural as they appear to be accidental?
+
+We cannot follow the unfolding of the foetus in the matrix as we
+pursue that of the chick in the egg; the opportunities of observing it
+are few, and we can only know what anatomists, surgeons, and midwives
+have written thereon. It is by collecting all their particular
+observations, and by comparing their remarks and their descriptions,
+that we have made the following abridged history of the human foetus.
+
+There is a great appearance that, immediately after the mixture of
+the two seminal liquors, the whole materials of generation exist in
+the matrix under the form of a globe; since we know, by anatomists,
+that three or four days after conception there is a small oval ball in
+the matrix, this ball is formed by an extremely fine membrane, which
+incloses a limpid liquor like the white of an egg. We can then perceive
+some small united fibres in this liquor, which are the first outlines
+of the foetus. A net-work of fine fibres collects on the surface of
+the ball, which extends from one of the extremities to the middle.
+These are the first vestiges of the placenta.
+
+Seven days after conception we may distinguish, by the naked eye, the
+first lineaments of the foetus, as yet unformed; being only a mass of
+transparent jelly, which has acquired some small degree of solidity;
+the head and trunk are easily discernible, because this mass is of an
+oblong form, and the trunk is more delicate and somewhat longer. Some
+small fibres, in form of a plume of feathers, spring from the body
+of the foetus, and which turn towards the membrane in which it is
+included; these fibres are to form the umbilical cord.
+
+Fifteen days after conception, the head, and the most apparent
+features of the face, are distinguishable; the nose resembles a small
+prominent and perpendicular thread affixed to a line, which indicates
+the division of the lips. Two small black points are in the places of
+the eyes, and two little holes in those of the ears; the body of the
+foetus has also received some growth. On each side of the upper and
+inferior parts of the trunk, little protuberances appear, which are the
+first outlines of the arms and legs.
+
+Eight days after, that is in three weeks, the body of the foetus
+has only increased about a line; but the arms and legs, the hands and
+feet, are apparent; the growth of the arms is more quick than that
+of the legs, and the fingers separate sooner than the toes. At this
+time internal organization begins to be discernible; the bones appear
+like small threads as fine as hairs; the ribs are disposed regularly
+from the two sides of the back bone; and as well as the arms, legs,
+fingers, and toes, are represented by very small threads.
+
+At a month the foetus is more than an inch long; it naturally takes
+a curved posture, in the middle of the liquor which surrounds it, and
+the membranes which contain the whole are increased in extent and
+thickness; the mass is oval, and it is then about an inch and an half
+in its greatest, and an inch and a quarter the smallest diameter.
+The human figure is no longer equivocal, every part of the face is
+already discernible; the body is fashioned, the thighs and belly are
+seen, the limbs formed, the toes and fingers divided, the skin thin
+and transparent, the viscera marked by fibres, the vessels as fine
+as threads, and the membranes extremely delicate, the bones are as
+yet soft, and have only taken solidity in some few parts; the vessels
+which compose the umbilical cord, are as yet in a straight line by
+the side of each other; now the placenta only occupies a third of the
+whole mass; whereas in the beginning it occupied the half. It appears,
+therefore, that its growth, in superficial extent, has not been so
+great as that of the foetus, and the rest of the mass; but it has
+increased much more in solidity; its thickness has become greater in
+proportion than the membranes of the foetus, both of which are now
+easily distinguished.
+
+According to Hippocrates, the male foetus is developed sooner than
+the female. He says all parts of the body in the first are apparent in
+thirty, whereas the latter are not so till the expiration of forty-two
+days.
+
+In six weeks the foetus is nearly two inches long; the human figure
+begins to be more perfect; the head is only larger in proportion than
+the other parts of the body; the motion of the heart is perceived about
+this time. It has been seen to beat in a foetus of sixty days, a long
+while after it had been taken out of the womb of its mother.
+
+In two months the foetus is more than two inches long; the
+ossification is discernible as far as the middle of the arm, thigh,
+and leg, and in the point of the lower jaw, which is then very forward
+before the upper. These, however, are only ossified points; but by the
+effect of a more ready expansion, the clavicles are wholly ossified.
+The umbilical cord is formed, and the vessels which compose it, begin
+to twist nearly like threads which compose a rope: but this cord is
+still very short in comparison of what it becomes hereafter.
+
+In three months the foetus is nearly three inches long, and weighs
+about three ounces. Hippocrates says, that it is at this time the
+motion of the male foetus begins to be felt by its mother; but that
+those of the female are not felt till after the fourth; there are women
+who affirm they have felt the motions of the child at the beginning of
+the second month. It is very difficult to be certain on this subject,
+the sensations excited by the first motions of the foetus depending,
+perhaps more on the sensibility of the mother than the strength of the
+child.
+
+Four months after conception the length of the foetus is six or
+seven inches; every part of its body is so greatly augmented as to
+be perfectly distinguished from each other; even the nails appear on
+the fingers and toes. The testicles of the males are shut up in the
+belly above the kidneys; the stomach is filled with somewhat of a
+thick humour, like that which incloses the amnios. We find a milky
+fluid in the little vessels, and in the large ones a black liquid
+matter. There is a little bile in the gall, and some urine in the
+bladder. As the foetus floats freely in the liquid which surrounds
+it, there is always a space between the body and membranes in which it
+is contained. These coverings grow at first more than the foetus;
+but after a certain time it is quite the contrary. Before the end
+of the third month the head is bent forward, the chin rests on the
+breast, the knees are lifted up, the legs bent backwards upon the
+thighs (sometimes the knees are so high as almost to touch the jaws),
+the arms are generally folded across the breast, and one of the
+hands, and often both touch the face. The foetus afterwards takes
+different situations, as it acquires strength. Experienced midwives
+have pretended to be certain that it changes much oftener than is
+commonly thought, and which they prove by several observations; first,
+the umbilical cord is often found twisted round the body and limbs of
+the child, in a manner which necessarily supposes, that the foetus
+has moved in many directions, and taken different positions; secondly,
+a mother feels the motions of the foetus sometimes on one side of
+the womb and sometimes on another; and it often strikes against many
+different places, which must be occasioned by different positions, and
+supposes that it takes different situations; thirdly, as it floats in
+a liquid which surrounds it on all sides, it can very easily turn and
+extend itself by its own strength; and it must also take different
+situations according to the various attitudes of the mother; for
+example, when she lies down, the foetus must be in another situation
+to what it was when she stood upright.
+
+Most anatomists have said, that the foetus is constrained to bend
+its body, because it is too confined in its covering; but this opinion
+does not appear well founded, for in the first five or six months there
+is more space than is required for the foetus to extend, and yet
+during that time it is bent and folded. We also see the chicken is in
+a curved posture in the liquor of the amnios, although this membrane
+and its liquor are sufficient to contain a body five or six times as
+large as the foetus. Thus we may conclude that this curved form of
+the foetus is natural, and not the effect of force. I am somewhat of
+Harvey's opinion, who says, it takes this attitude because it is the
+most favourable to rest and sleep; and as the foetus sleeps almost
+continually, it naturally takes the most advantageous situation. "Certe
+(says this famous anatomist) animalia omnia, dum quiescunt & dormiunt,
+membra sua ut plurimum adducunt & complicant, figuramque ovalem ac
+conglobatam quęrunt: ita pariter embryones qui ętatem suam maxime
+somno transigunt, membra sua positione ea qua plasmantur (tanquam
+naturalissima ac maxime indolenti quietique aptissima) componunt[AE]."
+
+[AE] Harvey on Generation, page 257.
+
+The matrix, as we have already said, takes a very ready growth after
+conception, and it continues also to increase in proportion with the
+foetus; but the foetus at length outgrows the matrix, and then,
+especially when it approaches maturity, it may be too much confined,
+and agitate the matrix by reiterated motions and violent efforts. The
+mother sensibly feels the impression of these painful sensations,
+and which are called periodic pains after the labour commences. The
+more power the foetus exerts to dilate the matrix the greater it
+finds the resistance, from the natural compression of the parts. From
+thence all the effect falls on the orifice, which has been increasing
+by degrees during the latter months of pregnancy. The head of the
+foetus, forcibly inclining against the sides of the orifice, dilates
+it, by a continual pressure, till the moment of delivery, when it opens
+sufficiently for the child to escape from the womb.
+
+What makes it probable that the labour-pains proceed only from the
+dilatation of the orifice of the matrix is, that this dilatation is
+the only means to discover whether the pains felt are in fact the
+pains of labour, for women often feel very sensible pains, which
+are not those that immediately precede delivery. To distinguish
+the false from true pains, it has been recommended for the midwife
+to touch the orifice of the matrix, as if the pains be true the
+dilatation will always increase, and if they are false pains, that
+is to say, pains which proceed from some other cause than that of
+the approaching delivery, the orifice will contract rather than
+dilate, or at least will not continue to dilate. From hence we have
+sufficient foundation to imagine, that these pains proceed from a
+forced dilatation of the orifice. The only thing which embarrasses on
+this occasion is that alternative of rest and sufferings the mother
+endures. This circumstance of the effect does not perfectly agree
+with the cause which we have just indicated; for the dilatation of
+an orifice, which is made by degrees, should produce a constant and
+continued pain, without any intervals of ease. But possibly the whole
+may be attributed to the separation of the placenta, which we know
+is fastened to the matrix by a number of papillę, which penetrate
+into the vacuities or cavities of this viscera; therefore may it not
+be supposed that they do not separate from their cavities all at the
+same time; that each separation causes those acute pains, and the
+intervals between are those of ease and rest? The effect in this
+case perfectly answers the cause, and we can support this conjecture
+by another observation.--Immediately before delivery there issues a
+whitish and viscous liquor, like that which flows from the nipples of
+the placenta when drawn out of their places, which makes it probable
+that this liquor, which then issues from the matrix, is produced by the
+separation of some of the papillę of the placenta.
+
+It often happens that the foetus quits the matrix without bursting
+the membranes, and consequently without the contained liquor flowing
+out. This kind of delivery appears to be most natural, and resembles
+that of most animals; nevertheless, the human foetus commonly pierces
+its membranes by the resistance it meets with at the orifice of the
+matrix. It also sometimes brings away part of the amnios, and even the
+chorion, upon its head like a cap. When these membranes are pierced or
+torn, the liquors, called the _waters_, which they contain flow out,
+and the sides of the orifice of the matrix, and the vagina, being thus
+moistened, give way more easily to the passage of the child. After the
+flowing of this liquor there remains sufficient room in the matrix for
+the midwife to return the child, if the position is unfavourable. When
+the foetus is come out the delivery is not entirely completed, the
+placenta and membranes remain in the matrix, and the new-born infant
+adheres to them by the umbilical cord; the hand of the midwife, or the
+weight of the body of the infant alone, draws them out by means of this
+cord. Those organs which were necessary to the life of the foetus
+become useless, and even noxious to the new-born infant. They are
+instantly separated from the body of the child, by tying the umbilical
+cord about an inch distance from the navel, and by cutting it about
+an inch from the ligature. The remainder of this cord dries away, and
+separates of itself from the navel, about the sixth or seventh day.
+
+On examining the foetus previous to its birth we may form some idea
+of its natural functions. It has organs, which are necessary to it
+while in the womb of its mother, but which become useless. For the
+better understanding the mechanism of these functions, we must explain
+a little more particularly the nature of those necessary parts, the
+umbilical cord, the membranes, the liquor which they contain and the
+placenta. The umbilical cord, which is attached to the body of the
+foetus at the navel, is composed of two arteries and one vein; these
+prolong the circulation of the blood, but the vein is larger than the
+arteries. At the extremity of the cord each of these vessels divide
+into an infinity of ramifications, which extend between two membranes.
+They separate at equal distances from the common trunk; so that these
+ramifications are round and flat, and are called, when thus collected,
+the _placenta_. The external surface, which is applied against the
+matrix, is convex; the internal concave. The blood of the foetus
+circulates in the cord, and in the placenta. The arteries of the cord
+spring from two large arteries of the foetus, and carry the blood
+through the arterial ramifications of the placenta; from thence it
+passes into the venous branches which carry it into the umbilical
+vessels; these communicate with a vein of the foetus, in which
+vessels it is received.
+
+The concave surface of the placenta is clothed by the chorion; the
+convex is also covered by a kind of soft membrane, easily torn, which
+seems to be a continuation of the chorion, and the foetus is included
+under the double coat of the chorion and the amnios. The form is
+globular, because the intervals between the membranes and the foetus
+are filled with a transparent liquor. This liquor is contained by the
+amnios, which is the internal membrane, it is thin and transparent; it
+folds round the umbilical cord at its insertion into the placenta, and
+covers it the whole length to the navel of the foetus. The chorion
+is the external membrane; it is thick and spongy, sprinkled with
+sanguinary vessels, and composed of many coats, the exterior of which
+covers the convex surface of the placenta. It follows the inequalities,
+and covers the papillę, which spring from the placenta, and are
+received in the cavities found at the bottom of the matrix, called
+_lacunę_. The foetus adheres to the matrix by these insertions.
+
+Some anatomists have thought that the human form had, like those of
+certain quadrupeds; a membrane called _allantois_, destined to receive
+the urine; and they have pretended to have found it between the chorion
+and the amnios, or in the middle of the placenta at the root of the
+umbilical cord, under the form of a very large bladder, in which the
+urine entered by a long pipe that composed part of the chord, and which
+opened on one side into the bladder, and on the other in this allantois
+membrane, being similar to the urachus in other animals. They owned,
+however, that it was not near so large in the human foetus as in
+quadrupeds, but that it was divided into many tubes, so minute, that
+they could scarcely be perceived, and that the urine passed into their
+cavities.
+
+The experience and observations of most anatomists are contrary to
+this supposed discovery. They admit there is a kind of ligament which
+adheres by one end to the external surface of the bottom of the
+bladder, and extends to the navel; but it becomes so delicate, on
+entering into the cord, as to be nearly reduced to nothing: in common
+this ligament is not hollow, and we can see no orifice at the bottom of
+the bladder.
+
+The foetus has no communication with the open air, and the
+experiments made upon the lungs prove they have never respired; for
+they sink to the bottom when put in water: whereas those of infants
+who have breathed always float on the top; the foetus then does not
+respire in the womb, consequently it cannot form any sound by its
+voice; and therefore what has been related of the groaning and crying
+of children before their birth may be considered as fables. After the
+flowing of the waters it may happen, that the air has found an entrance
+into the cavity of the matrix, and then the infant may begin to respire
+before it is brought forth. In this case it may be able to cry, as
+the chicken cries before the shell of the egg is broken, which it can
+do from there being air in the cavity which is between the external
+membrane and the shell. This air is found in all eggs, and is produced
+by the internal fermentation of matters contained in them[AF].
+
+[AF] See La Statique des Vegetaux, Chap. vi.
+
+The lungs of the foetus being without any motion, have no more blood
+enter into them than is requisite to nourish and make them grow; and
+there is another road opened for the course of its circulation. The
+blood in the right auricle of the heart, instead of passing into the
+pulmonary artery, and returning, after having ran through the lungs
+into the left auricle by the pulmonary vein, passes immediately into
+the left by an opening, called the _foramen ovale_, which is in the
+partition of the heart between the two auricles. It enters afterwards
+into the aorta, which distributes it by its ramifications, at going
+out of which the venous branches receive it, and bring it back to the
+heart by uniting all in the _vena cava_, which terminates at the right
+auricle of the heart. The blood which this auricle contains, instead
+of passing entirely by the foramen ovale, may escape in part into the
+pulmonary and the aorta by an arterial canal, which goes immediately
+from the one to the other. It is by these roads that the blood of the
+foetus circulates without entering into the lungs, as it enters into
+those of children, adults, and every animal which breathes.
+
+It has been thought that the blood of the mother passes into the body
+of the foetus, by means of the placenta and umbilical cord. It
+was supposed that the sanguinary vessels of the matrix opened into
+the vacuities, and those of the placenta into the nipples, and that
+they joined one to the other; but experience is quite contrary to
+this opinion; for if the arteries of the umbilical cord is injected
+the liquor returns by the veins, and not any part of it escapes
+externally. Besides, the nipples may be drawn from the vacuities
+where they are lodged, without any blood issuing either from the
+matrix or placenta: a milky liquor only issues from both, and which,
+we have already observed, serves the foetus for nutriment. This
+liquor possibly enters into the veins of the placenta, as the chyle
+enters into the subclavian vein; and perhaps the placenta in a great
+measure performs the office of the lungs in bringing the blood to
+maturity. It is certain that the blood appears much sooner in the
+placenta than in the foetus, and I have often observed in eggs that
+have been under the hen for a day or two, that the blood appeared at
+first in the membranes, and that their sanguinary vessels are very
+large and numerous, while the whole body of the chicken, excepting
+the point where these blood-vessels terminate, is only a white and
+almost transparent matter, in which there is not the smallest sign of a
+sanguinary vessel.
+
+It has been imagined, that the liquor of the amnios is a nutriment
+the foetus receives by its mouth. Some naturalists pretend to have
+observed this liquor in the stomach, and to have seen some foetuses
+to which the umbilical cord was entirely wanting, and others who had
+but a very small portion, which did not at, all adhere to the placenta;
+but in this case might not the liquor have entered into the body of
+the foetus by the small portion of the umbilical cord, or by the
+umbilical vessel itself? Besides, to these observations we may oppose
+others. Some foetuses have been found whose lips were not separated,
+and others without any opening in the oesophagus. To conciliate
+these circumstances, some anatomists have thought that the aliments
+passed into the foetus partly by the umbilical cord, and partly by
+the mouth: none of these opinions appear to have any foundation. It
+is not the question to examine the growth of the foetus alone, and
+to seek from whence and by what it draws its nutriment, but how the
+growth of the whole is made; for the placenta, liquor, and membrane
+increase in size as well as in the foetus; and consequently the
+instruments and canals employed to receive or carry this nutriment to
+the foetus, have a kind of life themselves. The expansion of the
+placenta and membranes is as difficult to conceive as that of the
+foetus; and we might say, with equal propriety, that the foetus
+nourishes the placenta, as that the placenta nourishes the foetus.
+The whole mass is floating in the matrix, and without any adherence at
+the commencement of this growth: therefore the nourishment can be only
+made by an absorption of the milky matter contained in the matrix. The
+placenta appears first to draw this nutriment, to convert this milk
+into blood, and to carry it to the foetus by veins. The liquor of the
+amnios appears to be only this milky liquor depurated, the quantity of
+which increases by a like absorption, proportionate to the increase
+of the membranes, and the foetus probably absorbs the liquor, which
+appears to be the necessary nutriment for its expansion. For we must
+observe, that for the first two or three months the foetus contains
+very little blood; it is as white as ivory, and appears to be composed
+of lymph which has taken some solidity; and as the skin is transparent,
+and all the parts very soft, we may easily conceive that the liquor
+in which the foetus swims may penetrate them, and thus furnish the
+necessary matter for its nutrition and expansion. It may be supposed
+that the foetus in the latter stages takes its nutriment by the
+mouth, since in the stomach we find a liquor similar to that in the
+amnios, urine in the bladder, and excrements in the intestines; and as
+we find neither urine nor _meconium_ in the amnios, there is reason to
+conclude that the foetus does not void its excrements, especially
+as some are born without having the anus pierced, although they had a
+great quantity of _meconium_ in the intestines.
+
+Although the foetus does not immediately adhere to the matrix, but
+is only attached to it by small external nipples, though it has no
+communication with the blood of its mother, but is as independant of
+her who bears it, in many respects, as the egg is of the hen that
+hatches it, yet it has been pretended, that all which affects the
+mother affects the foetus; that the impressions of the one act on
+the brain of the other; and to this imaginary influence resemblances,
+monsters, and especially marks on the skin of some children, have been
+attributed. I have examined many of these marks, and they all appear
+to me to have been caused by a derangement in the texture of the
+skin. Every mark must have a figure which will resemble something or
+other; but I am certain the resemblances so formed depend rather on
+the imagination of those who see them than on that of the mother. On
+this subject the marvellous has been carried as far as it could go. It
+has not been only said that the foetus carried real representations
+of the longings of its mother, but that, by a singular sympathy, the
+marks, which represent strawberries, cherries, &c. change their colour,
+and become deeper in the season of those fruits. With a little more
+consideration, and less prejudice, this colour may be seen to change
+much oftener, and that it must happen every time the motion of the
+blood is accelerated, whether by the heat of summer or from any other
+cause. These marks are either yellow, red, or black, because the blood
+gives these tints to the skin when it enters in too great quantities
+into the vessels. If these marks have the longings of the mother for
+their cause, why have they not the forms and colours as varied as the
+objects of her desires? What a curious assemblage of figures would be
+seen if all the whimsical desires of the mother were written on the
+skin of the child?
+
+As our sensations have no resemblance to the objects which cause
+them, it is impossible that desire, fear, horror, or any passion, or
+internal emotion, can produce real representations of those objects;
+and the child being in this respect as independant of the mother as the
+egg is of the hen, I should as soon believe that a hen, which saw the
+neck of a cock twisted, would hatch chickens with wry necks, as that,
+by the power of imagination, a woman, who happened to see a man broke
+upon the wheel, would bring forth a child with its limbs broken in the
+same manner.
+
+But even supposing this circumstance attested, I should still support
+the opinion, that the imagination of the mother had not been the cause,
+for what is the effect of horror? an internal motion, a convulsion
+in the body of the mother, which might shake, compress, and agitate
+the womb. What can result from this commotion? nothing similar to the
+cause, for if this commotion was very violent the foetus might be
+killed, wounded, or deformed in some of its parts; but how is it to
+be conceived that this commotion can produce any thing resembling the
+fancy of the mother in the foetus, unless we believe, with Harvey,
+that the matrix has the faculty of conceiving ideas, and realizing them
+on the foetus?
+
+But, it may be urged, if it was not affected by the imagination of
+the mother, why did the child come into the world with broken limbs?
+However rash it may appear to explain a matter which is extraordinary
+and uncertain, and of which we have no right to exact a solution,
+yet this question appears to me answerable in a satisfactory manner.
+Circumstances of the most rare and extraordinary kind happen as
+necessarily as those which are frequent and common. In the infinite
+combinations which matter can take, the most extraordinary arrangements
+must sometimes happen; hence we might venture to wager, that in a
+million, or a thousand millions of children, there will be one born
+with two heads, four legs, or with broken limbs; it may, therefore,
+naturally happen, without the concurrence of the mother's imagination,
+that a child should be born with broken limbs. This may have happened
+more than once, and the mother, while pregnant, might have been
+present at the breaking on the wheel, and therefore the defect of the
+child's formation has been attributed to what she had seen, and to
+her impressed imagination. But, independant of this general answer,
+we may give a more direct explanation. The foetus, as we have
+said, has nothing in common with the mother; its functions, organs,
+blood, &c. are all particular, and belong to itself; the only thing
+which it derives from its mother is the liquor, or nutritive lymph,
+which filtrates from the matrix. If this lymph is bad, or envenomed
+with the venereal virus, the child will be alike disordered; and it
+may be imagined, that all the diseases which proceed from vitiated
+humours may be communicated from the mother to the child. We know that
+the small-pox is communicative, and we have but too many examples
+of children who are, directly after their birth, the victims of the
+debauches of their parents. The venereal virus attacks the most solid
+parts of the bones, and it appears to act with more force towards
+the middle of the bone, where ossification commences; I conceive,
+therefore, that the child here spoken of has been attacked by the
+venereal disorder while in its mother's womb, and from that cause it
+came into the world with its bones broken through the middle.
+
+Rickets may also produce the same effect. There is a skeleton of a
+rickety child in the French king's cabinet, whose arms and legs have
+callosities in the middle of their bones. By the inspection of this
+skeleton, it appeared evident that the bones had been broken during the
+time it was in the womb, and that afterwards the bones re-united, and
+formed these callosities.
+
+But enough of a subject which credulity alone has rendered marvellous.
+Prejudice, especially that sort which is founded on the marvellous,
+will always triumph over reason, and we should have but little
+philosophy if we were astonished at it. We must not therefore ever
+expect to be able to persuade women, that the marks on their children
+have no connection with their unsatisfied longings. Yet might it not be
+asked them, before the birth of the child, of what particular longings
+they had been disappointed, and consequently what will be the marks
+their children will bear? I have often asked this question, and have
+only made persons angry without having ever convinced them.
+
+The time that a woman goes with child is generally about nine months;
+but it is however sometimes longer and sometimes shorter. Many children
+are born at seven or eight months, and some not till after the ninth;
+but in general the deliveries which precede the term of nine months
+are more frequent than the others. The common time of a natural
+delivery extends to twenty days, that is, from eight months fourteen
+days to nine months and four hours.
+
+Many children are born before the 260th day, and although these
+deliveries precede the general term, they are not abortions, because
+these children mostly live. It is commonly thought that children born
+at eight months cannot live, or at least that many more of them die
+than those born at seven months. This opinion appears to be a paradox;
+and by consulting experience I think we shall find it an error. The
+child brought forth at eight months is more formed, and consequently
+more vigorous, and likely to live than that which is born at the
+seventh. Nevertheless this opinion is pretty generally received, and
+founded on the authority of Aristotle.
+
+The beginning of the seventh month is the earliest term for delivery;
+if the foetus is brought forth sooner it dies, and is termed an
+abortion. There are, however, great limits for the time of human
+delivery, since they extend from the seventh to the tenth, and perhaps
+to the eleventh month.
+
+Women who have had many children assert, that girls remain longer
+in the womb than boys. If this is really the case, we must not be
+surprized at female children being born at ten months. When children
+come before nine months they are not so well proportioned as those
+who are not brought into the world till ten months, the bodies of the
+latter are sensibly larger and better formed; their hair is longer,
+the growth of the teeth, although still hid under the gums, is more
+advanced; the voice is clearer, and the tone more deep.
+
+There is much uncertainty on the occasional causes of delivery, and we
+do not perfectly know what obliges the infant to quit the womb. Some
+imagine, that the foetus having acquired a certain size, the matrix
+is too confined for its longer stay, and that the constraint felt
+by the foetus, obliges it to use every effort to quit its prison;
+others say, and it is nearly to the same purport, that the weight of
+the foetus becomes so great, that the matrix is forced to open to
+free itself from the burthen. These reasons do not appear satisfactory;
+for the matrix must always have capacity and strength to contain
+and sustain the weight of a foetus of nine months, since it often
+contains two, and it is certain that the weight and size of the twins
+of eight months are more considerable than the weight and size of a
+single child of nine. Besides, it often happens that a child born at
+nine months is smaller than the foetus of eight months, although it
+continues in the womb.
+
+Galen pretends, that the child remains in the matrix till it is able
+to receive its food by the mouth, and that it only forces its escape
+from the need of nutriment. Others have said, that the foetus always
+receives its nourishment by the mouth from the liquor of the amnios;
+but which becomes at length so contaminated, by the transpiration and
+urine of the foetus, that it becomes disgustful, and obliges the
+foetus to use every exertion to quit its confinement. These reasons
+do not appear better than the first; for it would from thence follow,
+that the weakest and smallest foetuses would remain longer in the
+womb than the strongest and largest, which never happens; besides,
+it is not food that the foetus seeks immediately after it is born,
+for it can stay some time without it; on the contrary, it seems most
+desirous to disembarrass itself from the nutriment it took when in the
+womb of its mother, and to return the meconium. Other anatomists have
+supposed that the excrement accumulated in the bowels of the foetus,
+gives it great pain, and causes it to make such efforts, that the
+matrix is at length obliged to give way, and to open a passage for its
+escape. I acknowledge I am not better satisfied with this explanation
+than the rest; because, why cannot the foetus void its excrements
+in the amnios, if it was pressed so to do? Now this never happens; it
+appears, on the contrary, that this necessity of voiding the meconium
+is not felt till after the birth, when the motion of the diaphragm,
+occasioned by that of the lungs, compresses the intestines and causes
+this evacuation; for the meconium has never been found in the amnios of
+a foetus of ten months who had not respired, whereas a foetus of
+six or seven months voids this meconium a short time after respiration.
+
+Other anatomists, and among them Fabricius de Aquapendente, have
+supposed the foetus quitted the matrix through the need of procuring
+refreshment by means of respiration. This cause appears to me still
+more remote than all the rest, because the foetus can have no idea of
+respiration without having respired.
+
+After having weighed all these explanations, I suppose the foetus's
+quitting the matrix depends on a quite different cause. The flowing of
+the menstrua is periodical, and at determined intervals; and although
+conception suppresses its appearance, it does not destroy the cause;
+for notwithstanding the blood does not appear at the accustomed times,
+yet a kind of revolution takes place, like that which is made before
+conception. Thus it is, there are many women whose menstrua are not
+suppressed in the first two or three months. I imagine, therefore,
+that when a woman has conceived, the periodical revolution is made as
+regular as before; but as the matrix is swelled, the excretory canals
+cannot give issue to the blood, at least unless it arrives there with
+such force, and in such quantities, as to open a passage in spite of
+the resistance, that is opposed to it. In this case blood will appear,
+and if it flows in a great quantity abortion will ensue, and the matrix
+take the form it had before. But if the blood only forces one part
+of these canals, the business of generation will not be destroyed,
+although the blood appears, because the greatest part of the matrix
+still remains in the state which is necessary for that purpose.
+
+When no blood appears, as is generally the case, the first periodical
+revolution is remarkable and felt by the same pains and symptoms. From
+the first suppression of the menses, therefore, a violent action on
+the matrix is made, and provided the action is augmented, it destroys
+the product of generation. It may from thence be concluded, that every
+conception which is made just before the useful return of the menses
+seldom succeeds, and that the action of that blood easily destroys the
+weak roots of a germ so tender and so delicate. The conceptions, on the
+contrary, which are made just after the periodical evacuations succeed
+the best, because the produce of the conception has more time to grow,
+strengthen, and resist the action of the blood, by the time the next
+revolution happens.
+
+The foetus having undergone this first trial, and having resisted
+it, receives more strength and growth, and is more in a condition to
+contend against the succeeding revolutions. Miscarriages may and do
+happen in all the periodical revolutions; but they are less frequent
+in the fourth and fifth months, than either at the beginning or near
+the end. We have assigned the reasons why they are more frequent at the
+beginning; it therefore only remains to explain why they are also more
+frequent towards the end.
+
+The foetus generally comes into the world during the tenth
+revolution. When it is born at the eighth or ninth it lives, and these
+deliveries are not looked upon as miscarriages, because the child,
+although not so perfectly formed, is still sufficiently so for the
+purpose of life. It has been pretended, that examples have been seen
+of children born at the seventh and even at the sixth revolution, that
+is, at five or six months, which have lived. There is, therefore, no
+difference between a birth and a miscarriage but what is relative to
+the living powers of the infant. In general the number of miscarriages
+in the first, second, and third months are very considerable for the
+reasons we have given ; and the number of deliveries of the seventh and
+eighth months are also very great, in comparison with the miscarriages
+of the fourth, fifth, and sixth months, because in this middle period
+the product of generation has received more solidity and strength, and
+having resisted the action of the four first periodical revolutions, a
+more violent force than the preceding is required to destroy it. The
+same reason subsists, with additional force, for the fifth and sixth
+months. But the foetus, which till then is weak, and can act only by
+its own feeble strength, begins to get strong, and move with vigour;
+and at the eighth revolution the foetus, uniting its efforts with
+those of the matrix, facilitates its exclusion, and it may come into
+the world in the seventh month, and be capable of living, especially
+if it happens, as is sometimes the case, to have more than ordinary
+strength for that period. But if it comes into the world only through
+the weakness of the matrix, which could not resist the action of the
+blood in this eighth revolution, the delivery would be regarded as a
+miscarriage, and the child would not live. But these cases are very
+rare, for if the foetus has resisted the seven first revolutions,
+only particular accidents can prevent it from resisting the eighth. The
+foetus, which has acquired this same degree of strength and vigour
+only a little later, will come into the world at the ninth revolution;
+and those which require nine months to obtain this same strength, will
+come at the tenth revolution, which is the most common and general
+term; but when the foetus has not acquired in nine months this degree
+of perfection, it may remain in the womb till the eleventh, and even
+till the twelfth revolution; that is, till the tenth or eleventh month,
+as we have many examples.
+
+This opinion, that it is the menstrua which is the occasional cause of
+delivery at different times, may be confirmed by many other reasons.
+The females of every animal which have no menses, bring forth at
+nearly the same terms, and there is but a very slight variation in
+the duration of their gestation. We may, therefore, suppose that this
+variation, which is so great in women, comes from the action of the
+menstrual blood, which is constantly exerted at every periodic return.
+
+We have observed, that the placenta adheres to the papillę, or the
+matrix, only by nipples; that there is no blood either in these
+nipples or in the vacuities they are niched into, and that when they
+are separated (which is easily done) a milky liquor only issues from
+them. Now, how happens it that delivery is always accompanied with a
+considerable hęmorrhage, at first of pure blood, and afterwards mixed
+with a watery liquor? This blood does not proceed from the separation
+of the placenta, as the nipples are drawn out without any effusion of
+blood. Delivery, which entirely consists, of this separation, should
+not, therefore, produce any blood. Is it not then more accordant with
+reason to suppose, that it is the action of the blood which causes
+delivery, and that it is this menstrual blood which forces the vessels
+as soon as the matrix is emptied, and which begins to flow immediately
+after delivery as it did before conception?
+
+It is known, that in the first months of pregnancy that which
+contains the seed of generation is not adherent to the matrix. By
+the experiments of De Graaf it has been seen, that by blowing on the
+little ball we can make it move. The adhesion to the matrix is never
+very strong, and at first the placenta with difficulty adheres to the
+internal membrane of the viscera, and those parts are only contiguous,
+or joined by a mucilaginous matter, which has scarcely any adhesion.
+Why then does it occur, that in miscarriages of the first and second
+month this ball never escapes without a great effusion of blood? It is
+certainly not caused by the passage of the ball quitting the matrix,
+since it does not adhere to it; but it is, on the contrary, by the
+action of this blood that the ball is driven out. Must we not then
+conclude this blood to be menstrual, which by forcing the canals,
+through which it had been accustomed to pass before impregnation,
+destroys the product of conception by retaking its common road?
+
+It appears, therefore, that the periodical revolution of the menstrual
+blood has great influence on delivery, and that it is the cause why the
+times of delivery in women vary so much more than in every other female
+who is not subject to the periodical evacuation, and which always
+bring forth at the same times. It also appears that this revolution,
+occasioned by the action of the menstrual blood, is not the sole cause
+of birth, but that the action of the foetus itself contributes
+towards it, since there are instances of a child escaping from the womb
+after the death of the mother, which necessarily supposes an action
+proper and particular in itself.
+
+The space of time which cows, sheep, and other animals go with young
+is always the same, and their deliveries are not attended with an
+hęmorrhage. May we not then conclude, that the blood voided by women
+after delivery is the menstrual blood, and that the human foetus
+being born at such different terms, can only be by the actions of this
+blood on the matrix during every periodical revolution? It is natural
+to imagine, that if the females of viviparous animals had menses like
+women, their deliveries would be followed with an effusion of blood,
+and happen at different terms. The foetuses of animals come into the
+world clothed with their membranes (and it seldom happens that the
+membranes are broken), and the waters flow before the delivery; whereas
+it is very rare a child is brought forth with its membranes entire.
+This seems to prove that the human foetus makes more efforts than
+other animals to quit its prison; or that the matrix of a woman does
+not so naturally incline to the passage of the child, for it is the
+foetus which tears its membranes, by the efforts it makes against the
+resistance it meets with at the orifice of the viscera.
+
+
+RECAPITULATION.
+
+All animals procure nutriment from vegetables, or other animals which
+feed upon vegetables; there is, therefore, one common matter to both,
+which serves for the nutrition and expansion bf every thing which
+lives or vegetates. This matter cannot perform them but by assimilating
+itself to each part of the animal or vegetable, and by intimately
+penetrating the texture and form of these parts, which I have called
+the _internal mould_. When this nutritive matter is more abundant than
+is necessary to nourish and expand the animal or vegetable, it is
+sent back from every part of the body, and deposited in one or more
+reservoirs, in the form of a liquor; this liquor contains all the
+molecules analogous to all parts of the body; and consequently all
+that is necessary for the reproduction of a young being, perfectly
+resembling the first. Commonly this nutritive matter does not become
+superabundant, in most kinds of animals, till they have acquired the
+greatest part of their growth; and it is for this reason that animals
+are not in a state of engendering before that time.
+
+When this nutritive and productive matter, which is universally
+spread abroad, has passed through the internal mould of an animal or
+vegetable, and has found a proper matrix, it produces an animal or
+vegetable, of the same kind; but when it does not meet with a proper
+matrix, it produces organized beings different from animals and
+vegetables, as the moving and vegetating bodies seen in the seminal
+liquor of animals, in the infusion of the germ of plants, &c.
+
+This productive matter is composed of organic particles, always active,
+the motion and action of which are fixed by the inanimate parts of
+matter in general, and particularly by oily and saline bodies, but as
+soon as they are disengaged from this foreign matter, they retake their
+action, and produce different kinds of vegetations and other animated,
+beings.
+
+By the microscope, the effects of this productive matter may be
+perceived in the seminal liquors of animals of both sexes. The seed of
+the female viviparous animals is filtered through the glandular bodies
+which grow upon their testicles, and these glandular bodies contain a
+large quantity of seminal fluid in their internal cavities. Oviparous
+females have, as well as the viviparous, a seminal liquor, which is
+still more active than the viviparous. The seed of the female is in
+general like that of the male, when, they are both in a natural state:
+they decompose after the same manner, contain similar organic bodies,
+and they alike offer the same phenomena.
+
+All animal or vegetable substances include a great quantity of this
+organic and productive matter. To perceive it, we need only separate
+the inanimate parts in which the active particles of this matter are
+engaged. And this is done by infusing animal or vegetable substances
+in water. The salts will dissolve, the oils separate, and the organic
+particles will be seen by their putting themselves in motion. They are
+in greater abundance in the seminal liquors than in any other parts,
+or rather, they are less entangled by the inanimate parts. In the
+beginning of this infusion, when the flesh is but slightly dissolved,
+the organic matter is seen under the form of moving bodies, which are
+almost as large as those of the seminal liquors: but, in proportion as
+the decomposition augments, these organnic particles diminish in size
+and increase in motion; and when the flesh is entirely decomposed,
+or corrupted, these same particles are exceedingly minute, and their
+motion exceedingly rapid. It is then that their matter may become a
+poison, like that of the tooth of a viper, wherein Mr. Mead perceived
+an infinite number of small pointed bodies, which he took for salts,
+although they are only these same organic particles in a state of
+great activity. The pus which issues from wounds abounds with little
+insects, and it may take such a degree of corruption as to become
+one of the most subtle poisons; for every time this active matter is
+exalted to a certain point, which may be known by the rapidity and
+minuteness of the moving bodies it contains, it will become a species
+of poison. It is the same with the poison of vegetables. The same
+matter which serves to feed us when in its natural state, will destroy
+us when corrupted. Spurred barley, for instance, throws the limbs of
+men and animals into a gangrene who feed on it. It is also evident by
+comparing the matter which adheres to our teeth, which is the residue
+of our food, with that from the teeth of a viper or mad dog, which is
+only the same matter too much exalted, and corrupted to the last degree.
+
+When this organic and productive matter is found collected in a great
+quantity in some part of an animal, where it is obliged to remain,
+it forms living beings which have been ever regarded as animals;
+the tęnia, ascarides, all the worms found in the veins, liver, in
+wounds, in corrupted flesh, and pus, have no other origin; the eels in
+paste, vinegar, and all the pretended microscopical animals are only
+different forms which this active matter takes of itself, according to
+circumstances, and which invariably tends to organization.
+
+In all animal and vegetable substances, decomposed by infusion, this
+productive matter manifests itself immediately under the form of
+vegetation. Filaments are seen to form, which grow and extend like
+plants. Afterwards these extremities and knots swell and burst, to give
+passage to a multitude of bodies in motion, which appear to be animals;
+so that it seems as if all nature began by a motion of vegetation. It
+is seen by microscopical objects, and likewise by the expansion or
+unfolding of the animal embryo; for the foetus at first has only a
+species of vegetable motion.
+
+Sound food does not furnish any of these moving molecules for a
+considerable time. Several days infusion in water is required for fresh
+meat, grain, kernels, &c. before they offer to our sight any moving
+bodies; but the more matters are corrupted, decomposed, or exalted, the
+more suddenly these moving bodies manifest themselves; they are all
+free from other matters in seminal liquors; but a few hours infusion
+is required to see them in pus, spurred barley, honey, drugs, &c.
+
+There exists therefore, an organic matter, universally diffused in
+all animal and vegetable substances, which alike serves for their
+nutrition, their growth, and their reproduction. Nutrition is performed
+by the intimate penetration of this matter in all parts of the animal
+or vegetable body. Expansion or growth is only a kind of more extended
+nutrition, which is made and performed as long as the parts have
+sufficient ductility to swell and extend; and reproduction is made
+by the same matter when it superabounds in the body of the animal
+or vegetable; each part of the body sends back, to the appropriate
+reservoirs, the organic particles which exceed what are sufficient
+for their nourishment. These particles are absolutely analogous to
+each part from which they are sent back, because they were destined
+to nourish those parts from hence, when all the particles sent back
+from, collect together, they must form a body similar to the first,
+since each particle is like that part from which it was detached; thus
+it is that reproduction is effected in all kinds of trees, plants,
+polypuses, pucerons, &c. where one individual can produce its like; and
+it is also the first mode which Nature uses for the reproduction of
+animals which have need of the communication of different sexes; for
+the seminal liquors of both sexes contain all the necessary molecules
+for reproduction; but something more is required for its effectual
+completion, which is the mixture of these two liquors in some places
+suitable to the expansion of the foetus which must result therefrom,
+which place is the matrix of the female.
+
+There are, therefore, no pre-existing germs, no germs contained one in
+the other, _ad infinitum_; but there is an organic matter perpetually
+active, and always ready to form, assimilate, and produce beings
+similar to those which receive it. Animals and vegetables, therefore,
+can never be extinct; so long as there subsist individuals the species
+will ever be new; they are the same at present as they were three
+thousand years ago, and will perpetually exist, by the powers they are
+endowed with, unless annihilated by the will of the Almighty Creator.
+
+
+
+
+HISTORY OF MAN.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+OF THE NATURE OF MAN.
+
+
+Though so much interested in acquiring a thorough knowledge of
+ourselves, yet I do not know if man is not less acquainted with the
+human, than with any other existence. Provided by nature with organs,
+calculated solely for our preservation, we only employ them to receive
+foreign impressions. Intent on multiplying the functions of our senses,
+and on enlarging the external bounds of our being, we rarely make use
+of that internal sense which reduces us to our true dimensions, and
+abstracts us from every other part of the creation. It is, however, by
+a cultivation of this sense alone that we can form a proper judgment
+of ourselves. But how shall we give it its full activity and extent?
+How shall the soul, in which it resides, be disengaged from all the
+illusions of the mind? We have lost the habit of employing this sense;
+it has remained inactive amidst the tumult of our corporeal sensations,
+and dried up by the heat of our passions; the heart, the mind, the
+senses, have all co-operated against it.
+
+Unalterable in its substance, and invulnerable by its essence, it
+still, however, continues the same. Its splendor has been overcast,
+but its power has not been diminished: it may be less luminous, but
+its guidance is not the less certain. Let us then collect those rays,
+of which we are not yet deprived, and its obscurity will decrease; and
+though the road may not in every part be equally filled with light, we
+yet shall have a torch that will prevent us from going astray.
+
+The first and most difficult step which leads to the knowledge of
+ourselves, is a distinct conception of the two substances that
+constitute our being. To say simply, that the one is unextended,
+immaterial, and immortal, and that the other is extended, material, and
+mortal, is only to deny to the one, what we affirm the other possesses.
+What knowledge is to be acquired from this mode of negation? Such
+negative expressions can exhibit no positive ideas: but to say that we
+are certain of the existence of the former, and that of the latter is
+less evident; that the substance of the one is simple, indivisible, and
+has no form, since it only manifests itself by a single modification,
+which is thought; that the other is a less substance than a subject,
+capable of receiving different forms, which bear a relation to our
+senses, but are all as uncertain and variable as the organs themselves;
+that is to say something; it is to ascribe to each such distinct and
+positive properties as may lead us to an elemental knowledge of both,
+and to a comparison between them.
+
+From the smallest reflection on the origin of our knowledge, it is
+easy to perceive that it is by comparison alone we acquire it. What
+is absolutely incomparable, is utterly incomprehensible; of this
+God is the only example; he exceeds all comprehension, because he
+is above all comparison. But whatever is capable of being compared,
+contemplated, and considered relatively, in different lights, may
+always come within the sphere of our understanding. The more subjects
+of comparison we have for examining any object, the more methods there
+are for obtaining a knowledge of it, and with greater facility.
+
+The existence of the soul is fully demonstrated. To be and to think are
+with us identically the same. This truth is more than intuitive; it is
+independent of our senses, of our imagination, of our memory, and of
+all our other relative faculties. The existence of our bodies, and of
+external objects, is however held in uncertainty by every unprejudiced
+reasoner; for what is that extension of length, breadth, and thickness,
+which we call our body, and which seems to be so much our own, but as
+it relates to our senses? What are even the material organs of those
+senses, but so many conformities with the objects that affect them?
+And with regard to our internal sense, has it any thing similar or
+in common with these external organs? Have the sensations excited by
+light or sound any resemblance to that tenuous matter, which seems to
+diffuse light, or to that tremulous undulation, which sound produces in
+the air? The effects are certainly produced by the necessary conformity
+there is between the eyes and ears, and those matters which act upon
+them. Is not that a sufficient proof, that the nature of the soul is
+different from that of matter?
+
+It is then a certain truth, that the internal sensation is altogether
+different from its cause; as also, if external objects exist, they are
+in themselves very different from what we conceive them. As sensation
+therefore bears no resemblance to the thing by which it is excited;
+does it not follow, that the causes of our sensations, necessarily
+differ from our ideas of them? The extension which we perceive by our
+eyes, the impenetrability, of which we receive an idea by the touch in
+all those qualities, whose various combinations constitute matter, are
+of a doubtful existence; since our internal sensations of extension,
+impenetrability, &c. are neither extended nor impenetrable, and have
+not even the smallest affinity with those qualities.
+
+The mind being often affected with sensations, during sleep, very
+different from those which it has experienced by the presence of
+the same objects, does it not lead to a belief, that the presence
+of objects is not necessary to the existence of our sensations; and
+that, of consequence, our mind and body may exist independent of
+those objects? During sleep, and after death, for example, our body
+has the same existence as before; yet the mind no longer perceives
+this existence, and the body with regard to us, has ceased to be. The
+question is therefore, whether a thing which can exist, and afterwards
+be no more, and which affects us in a manner altogether different from
+what it is, or what it has been, may yet be a reality of indubitable
+existence.
+
+That something exists without us, we may believe, though not with a
+positive assurance; whereas of the real existence of every thing within
+us, we have a certainty. That of our soul, therefore, is incontestable,
+and that of our body seems doubtful; because the mind has one mode of
+perception when we are awake, and another when we are asleep; after
+death, it will perceive by a method still more different, and the
+objects of its sensations, or matter in general, may then cease to
+exist with respect to it, as well as our bodies with which we have no
+further connection.
+
+But let us admit this existence of matter; and that it even exists as
+it appears to our senses, yet by comparing the mind with any material
+object, we shall find differences so great, and qualities so opposite
+that every doubt will vanish of the latter being of a nature totally
+different, and infinitely superior.
+
+The mind has but one form, which is simple, general, and uniform.
+Thought is this form; has nothing in it of division, extension,
+impenetrability, nor any other quality of matter; of consequence,
+therefore, our mind, the subject of this form, is indivisible, and
+immaterial. Our bodies on the contrary, and all other objects have
+many forms, each of which is compounded, divisible, variable, and
+perishable; and has a relation to the different organs, through which
+we perceive them. Our bodies, and matter in general, therefore, have
+neither permanent, real, nor general properties, by which we can
+attain a certain knowledge of them. A blind man has no idea of those
+objects, which sight represents to us; a leper, whose skin has lost
+the sense of feeling, is denied all the ideas which arise from the
+touch; and a deaf man has no knowledge of sounds. Let these three
+modes of sensation be successively destroyed, yet the mind will exist,
+its external functions will subsist, and thought will still manifest
+it within the man so deprived. But divest matter of all its qualities;
+strip it of colour, of solidity, and of every other property which
+has any relation to our senses, and the consequence will be its
+annihilation. Our mind, then, is unperishable, but matter may, and will
+perish.
+
+It is the same with all the other faculties of our soul when compared
+with the most essential properties of matter. As the mind wills and
+commands, so the body obeys in every thing within its power. The
+mind forms, at pleasure, an intimate union with any object; neither
+distance, magnitude, nor figure, can obstruct this union, when the mind
+wills it, it is effected in an instant. The body can form no union;
+whatever touches it too closely injures it; it requires a long time in
+order to approach another body; it every where meets with resistance,
+and obstacles, and from the smallest shock its motion ceases. Is will
+then nothing more than a corporeal movement; and is contemplation but a
+simple contact? How could this contact take place upon a remote object
+or abstracted subjects? How could this movement be accomplished in an
+indivisible instant? Is it possible to have a conception of motion
+without having a conception of space and time? Will, therefore, if it
+be a motion, is not a material one; and if the union of the mind with
+its object be a contact, it is effected at a distance: and is not this
+contact a penetration? qualities which are absolutely opposite to those
+of matter, and which of consequence can only belong to the immaterial
+being.
+
+But I fear I have already dwelt too long on a subject which, by many,
+may be considered as foreign to our purpose; and it might be asked,
+"Ought Metaphysical Considerations on the Soul to find a place in a
+System of Natural History?" Were I conscious of abilities equal to
+the discussion of a topic so exalted, this reflection, I must own,
+would have little weight with me; and I have contracted my remarks
+only because I was afraid I should not be able to comprehend a subject
+so enlarged and so important in its full extent. Why retrench from
+the Natural History of Man the history of his noblest part? Why thus
+preposterously debase him; by considering him merely as an animal,
+while he is of a nature so different, and so superior, to that of
+the brutes, that those must be immersed in ignorance like the brutes
+themselves who ever thought of confounding them.
+
+Man, as to the material part of his existence, certainly bears a
+resemblance to other animals, and in comprehending the circle of
+natural beings there is a necessity for placing him in the class of
+animals. Nature, however, has neither classes nor species; it contains
+only individuals. These species and classes are nothing but ideas which
+we have ourselves formed and established, and though we place man in
+one of such classes we do not change his being; we do not derogate from
+his dignity; we do not alter his condition. In a word, we only place
+him at the head of those who bear a similitude to him in the material
+part of his being.
+
+In comparing man with the animal we find in both an organized body,
+senses, flesh, blood, motion, and a multitude of other resemblances.
+But these resemblances are all external, and not sufficient to justify
+a decision, that the human and the animal natures are similar. In
+order to form a proper judgment of the nature of each we ought to
+have as distinct a knowledge of the internal qualities of an animal
+as we have of our own. As the knowledge of what passes within animals
+is impossible to be attained, and as we know not of what order and
+kind its sensations may be, in relation to those of man, we can only
+judge from a comparison of the effects which result from the natural
+operations of both.
+
+Let us, then, take a view of these effects; and, while we admit of
+all the particular resemblances, limit our investigation to the most
+general distinctions. It will be allowed, that the most stupid man is
+able to manage the most acute animal; he governs it, and renders if
+subservient to his purposes; and this, not so much on account of his
+strength or skill as by the superiority of his nature, and from his
+being possessed of reason, which enables him to form a rational system
+of action and method, by which he compels the animals to obey him.
+The strongest and most acute animals do not give law to the inferior,
+nor hold them in servitude. The stronger, it is true, devour the
+weaker, but this action implies no more than an urgent necessity, or
+a rage of appetite; qualities very different from that which produces
+a series of actions, all tending to the same end. Did animals enjoy
+this faculty, should we not see some of them assume dominion over
+others, and oblige them to furnish their food, to watch over them, and
+to attend them when sick or wounded? Now, throughout the creation of
+animals, there is no vestige of such subordination, no appearance that
+one of them knows, or is sensible of, the superiority of his own nature
+over that of others. It follows, then, that they must all be considered
+as of one nature, and that the nature of man is not only highly
+superior to that of the brute, but also entirely different from it.
+
+Man, by outward signs, indicates what passes within him; he
+communicates his sentiments by speech, which is a sign common to the
+whole human species. The savage and the civilized man have the same
+powers of utterance; both speak naturally, and so as to be understood.
+No other animal is endowed with this expression of thought; nor is that
+defect owing, as some have imagined, to the want of proper organs.
+Anatomists have found the tongue of an ape to be as perfect as that
+of a man. The ape, therefore, if he had thought, would have speech,
+and if its thoughts had aught analogous to ours, this speech would
+have an analogy to ours also. Supposing its thoughts were peculiar to
+its species, it still would hold discourse with those of its kind, a
+circumstance of which we should have heard had it been endowed with the
+powers of speech. So far then is the ape from having any thought like
+ours, that it has not even any order of thoughts of its own. As they
+express nothing by combined and settled signs, they of consequence are
+void of thought, or at most have it in a very small degree.
+
+That it is from no organical defect animals are denied the gift of
+speech is plain, as several species of them may be taught to pronounce
+words, and even repeat sentences of some length. Perhaps many others
+might be found capable of articulating particular sounds[AG]; but
+to make them conceive the ideas which such sounds denote is an
+impracticable task. They seem to repeat and articulate merely as an
+echo, or an artificial machine. It is not in the mechanical powers, or
+the material organs, but in the intellectual faculties, that they are
+deficient.
+
+[AG] Leibnitz mentions a dog which had been taught to pronounce several
+German and French words.
+
+As all language supposes a chain of thought, it is on that account
+that brute animals have no speech, for even allowing something in
+them which resembles our first apprehensions, our most gross and
+mechanical sensations, they still will be found incapable of forming
+that association of ideas which can alone produce reflection; and in
+this consists the essence of thought. To this inability of connecting
+and separating ideas it is that they are destitute of thought and
+speech, as also that they neither can invent nor improve any thing.
+Were they endowed with the power of reflection, even in the most
+subordinate degree, they would be capable of making some kind of
+proficiency, and acquire more industry; the modern beaver would build
+with more art and solidity than the ancient; and the bee would daily
+be adding new improvements to its cell; for if we suppose this cell as
+perfect already as it can be, we ascribe to the insect an intelligence
+superior to our own; by which it could discern at once the last degree
+of perfection to which its work might be carried, while we ourselves
+are for ever in the dark as to this degree, and stand in need of much
+reflection, time, and practice, in order to perfect even one of our
+most trivial arts.
+
+Whence can arise the uniformity that is in all the works of animals?
+Why does each species invariably perform the same actions in the same
+manner? And why does not one individual perform them better or worse
+than another? Can there be a stronger proof that their operations are
+merely the effects of mechanism and materiality? If they possessed
+the smallest spark of that light which is inherent in mankind, their
+works would display variety at least, if not perfection, and one
+individual would, in its performance, make some little difference from
+what another had done. But this is far from being the case. One plan
+of action is common to the whole species, and whoever would attribute
+a mind or soul to animals, must of necessity allow but one to each
+species, of which each individual would be an equal partaker, and as
+thereby it would be divisible, it would consequently be material, and
+of a nature widely different from ours.
+
+Why, on the other hand, are the productions and performances of men
+so various, and so diversified? Why is a servile imitation more
+troublesome to us than an original design? It is because our souls are
+our own, and independent of any other, and because we have nothing in
+common with our species but the matter which forms our body, and in
+which our resemblance to brute animals is confined.
+
+Were internal sensations dependent on corporeal organs, should we
+not see as remarkable difference in the works of animals of the same
+species as in those of men? Would not those which were the most happily
+organized, build their nests and contrive their cells in a manner
+more solid, elegant, and commodious? And if any individual possessed
+a superior genius, would it not take an opportunity to manifest that
+superiority in its actions? But nothing of this kind has ever happened,
+and therefore the corporeal organs, however perfect or imperfect,
+have no influence on the nature of the internal sensations. Hence we
+may conclude, that animals have no sensations of this kind; that such
+sensations have no connection with matter, no dependence in their
+nature on the texture of corporeal organs, and that of consequence
+there must be a substance in man different from matter, which is the
+subject and the cause that produces and receives those sensations.
+
+But these proofs of the immateriality of the human mind may be carried
+still farther. In all the works of nature there are imperceptible
+gradations maintained. This truth, which in no other instance admits
+of exception, is here expressly contradicted. Between the faculties of
+man and those of the most perfect animal the distance is infinite; an
+evident proof that man is of a different nature from the brute species,
+and that of himself he forms a distinct class, between which and that
+of animals there is an immense chasm. If man belonged to the class
+of animals, there would be a certain number of beings in nature less
+perfect than man, and more perfect than beast, in order to complete
+the gradation from a man to the monkey. But this is not the case; the
+transition is immediate from the thinking being to the material being;
+from intellectual faculties to mechanical powers; from order and design
+to blind motion; from reflection and choice to sensual appetite.
+
+Enough has been here advanced to demonstrate the excellence of our
+nature, and of the immense distance which the bounty of the Creator has
+placed between man and the brute. The former is a rational being, the
+latter a being devoid of reason. And as there is no medium between the
+positive and the negative, between the rational and irrational being,
+it is evident that man is of a nature entirely different from that of
+the animal; that all the resemblance he bears to it is merely external;
+and that to judge of him by this resemblance, is wilfully to shut our
+eyes against that light, by which we ought to distinguish truth from
+falsehood.
+
+Having thus considered man as to his internal properties, and proved
+the immateriality of his soul; we shall now proceed to examine his
+external part, and give the history of his body. We have already traced
+him from his formation to his birth, and after taking a view of the
+different ages of his life, we shall conduct him to that period when he
+must be separated from his body, and then resign him to the common mass
+of matter to which he belongs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+OF INFANCY.
+
+
+Nothing can give us a more striking idea of imbecility, than the
+condition in which an infant appears on its first entrance into the
+world. Incapable of making use of its organs, or senses, the infant is
+in want of every assistance. It is an image of pain and misery; it is
+more helpless than the young of any other animal; it seems as if every
+moment would finish its doubtful existence; it can neither move nor
+support itself; hardly has it strength enough to exist or announce, by
+its cries, the sufferings it experiences; as if nature chose to apprise
+it, that it was born to suffer, and that it has obtained a place among
+the human species to partake of its infirmities and sorrows.
+
+Let us not disdain to consider that state through which we have all
+passed; let us view human kind in the cradle; let us enquire by what
+degrees this delicate machine, this new-born and hardly existing body,
+acquires motion, consistency, and strength.
+
+The infant at its birth comes from one element into another. On
+emerging from its watery residence in the womb, it becomes exposed
+to the air, and instantly experiences the impressions of that active
+fluid. The air acts upon the olfactory nerves and upon the organs of
+respiration, and thereby produces a shock, a kind of sneezing which
+expands the chest, and allows the air a passage into the lungs; the
+vesicles of which it dilates, and the air remaining for some time
+becomes warm and rarified to a certain degree; after which this spring
+of the fibres thus dilated re-acts upon this light fluid, and expels
+it from the lungs. Instead of undertaking to explain the causes of
+the alternate motion of respiration, we shall confine ourselves to an
+elucidation of its effects. This function is essential to the existence
+of man and of several species of animals. It is by respiration that
+life is preserved; and when it is once begun, it never ceases till
+death. Yet there is reason to believe that the foramen ovale is not
+closed immediately after the birth; and of consequence a part of
+the blood may continue to pass through that aperture. All the blood
+cannot, therefore, at first have a communication with the lungs; and
+it is probable a new-born child might sustain a privation of air for
+a considerable time without losing its existence. Or at least the
+possibility of this, I once seemingly confirmed fey an experiment
+upon some young dogs. I put a pregnant bitch, of the large greyhound
+species, just as she was about to litter, into a tub filled with warm
+water, where after fastening her in such a manner that the lower parts
+were covered with some water, she brought forth three puppies, which
+were accordingly received into a liquid as warm as they had left.
+After washing them in this water, I removed the puppies, without giving
+them time to breathe, into a smaller tub filled with warm milk; I chose
+milk in order that they might receive nourishment if they required
+it. In this milk they were kept immersed above half an hour: and when
+taken out they were all found alive. They began to breathe, and to
+discharge some moisture by the mouth. Having allowed them to respire
+for half an hour, I again put them into warm milk, and left them a
+second half-hour; at the expiration of which two of them were taken
+out vigorous and seemingly no wise incommoded, but the third appeared
+rather in a languishing state; this I caused to be carried to the
+mother, which by this time had produced, in the natural way, six other
+puppies; and though it had been brought forth in water and had lived
+in milk one half hour before, and another after it had breathed, it
+yet received so little injury from the experiment, that it presently
+recovered and was as strong and lively as the rest of the litter. After
+allowing the other two about an hour to breathe, I put them once more
+into the warm milk, in which they remained another half hour. Whether
+they swallowed any of this liquor or not is uncertain; but on being
+taken out they appeared nearly as vigorous as ever. After being carried
+to the mother, however, one died the same day; but whether by any
+accident, or by what it had suffered while immersed in the liquid, and
+deprived of air, I could not determine. The other lived, as well as the
+first, and both throve equally with those which had not gone through
+the same trials. This experiment I never carried farther; but I saw
+enough to convince me that respiration is less necessary to a new-born,
+than to a grown animal; and that it might be possible, with proper
+precautions, to keep the foramen ovale from being closed, and thus
+produce excellent divers, and different kinds of amphibious animals,
+which might live equally in air or in water.
+
+The air, on its first admission into the lungs, generally meets with
+some obstacle, occasioned by a liquid collected in the wind-pipe. This
+obstacle is more or less great, in proportion as the liquid is more
+or less viscous. At its birth, however, the infant raises its head,
+which before reclined on its breast, and by this movement the canal of
+the wind-pipe is lengthened, the air obtains a place, and forces the
+liquid into the lungs: and by dilating the bronchia, it distributes
+over their coats the mucous substance which opposes its passage. The
+superfluity of this moisture is presently dried up by the renewal of
+the air; or, if the infant is incommoded by it, it coughs, and at
+length relieves itself by expectoration, which, as it has not yet the
+strength to spit, is seen to flow from the mouth.
+
+As we remember nothing of what happened to us at this period, it is
+impossible to determine what feelings the impression of air produces
+in a new-born infant. Its cries, however, the instant it first draws
+breath, are pretty certain signs of the pain it feels from the action
+of the air. Till the moment of its birth, the infant is accustomed to
+the mild warmth of a tranquil liquid; and we may suppose, that the
+action of a fluid, whose temperature is unequal, gives too violent a
+shock to the delicate fibres of its body. By warmth and by cold it
+seems to be equally affected; in every situation it complains, and pain
+appears to be its first, its only sensation.
+
+For some days after they are brought into the world, most animals
+have their eye-lids closed. Infants open them the moment of their
+birth, but they are fixed and dull; they want that lustre which they
+afterwards acquire; and when they move, it is rather an accidental
+roll than an act of vision. The pupil of the eye is seen to dilate, or
+contract, in proportion to the quantity of light it receives, yet is
+incapable of distinguishing objects, because the organs of vision are
+still imperfect; the tunica cornea, or horny tunicle is wrinkled, and
+perhaps the retina is also too soft to receive the images of external
+objects, and admit the sense of seeing.
+
+The same remark is equally applicable to the other senses; they have
+not acquired that consistency which is necessary to their operations;
+and even when they have, a long time must elapse before the sensations
+of the infant can be just and complete. The senses are so many
+instruments which we must learn to employ. Of these sight, which seems
+to be the noblest and the most admirable, is also the most uncertain
+and delusive; and were its effects not every moment corrected by the
+testimony of touching we should constantly be misled and draw false
+conclusions. This sense of touching is the measure and criterion of
+all the others; it alone is essential to the animal's existence; and
+is alone diffused universally over its body. Yet, even this sense,
+in an infant just born, is imperfect; by its cries, indeed, it gives
+indication of pain; but it has no expression to denote pleasure. It
+is forty days before it begins to smile; about the same time also it
+begins to weep; its former expressions of pain being unaccompanied with
+tears. On the countenance of a new born infant there appears no vestige
+of the passions, the features of the face not having acquired that
+consistence and form which are necessary for expressing the sentiments
+of the soul. All the other parts of its body are alike feeble and
+delicate; its motions are unsteady and uncertain; it is unable to
+stand upright; its legs and thighs are still bent, from the habit it
+contracted in the womb; it has not strength enough to stretch forth its
+arms or to grasp any thing with its hands; and, if abandoned, it would
+remain on its back, without being able to turn itself.
+
+From all which it appears, that the pain felt by infants soon after
+their birth, and which they express by crying, is a sensation merely
+corporeal, similar to that of other animals, who also cry the minute
+they are brought forth; as also, that the mental sensations do not
+begin to manifest themselves till forty days have elapsed; smiling
+and weeping being produced by two internal sensations, which both
+depend on the action of the mind. The former is the effect of an
+agreeable emotion, which can only arise from the sight, or resemblance
+of an object known, beloved, and desired; the latter is that of a
+disagreeable impression, compounded of sympathy, and anxious concern
+for ourselves; both imply a certain degree of knowledge, as well as an
+ability to compare, and to reflect. Smiles and tears, therefore, are
+signs peculiar to the human species, for expressing mental pleasure or
+pain; while cries, and the other signs of bodily pain and pleasure, are
+common to man, and to the greatest part of the animal creation.
+
+But let us return to the material organs and affections of the
+body. The size of an infant born at the full time, is usually about
+twenty-one inches; this is not without exception, some falling short
+of and others exceeding this measurement. In children of twenty-one
+inches, the breast, measured by the length of the sternum, is nearly
+three inches; and in those of fourteen, only two inches. At nine
+months, the foetus generally weighs from twelve to fourteen pounds.
+The head is large in proportion to the rest of the body; but this
+disproportion gradually wears off as the size of the child increases.
+Its skin is very soft, and from its transparency, by which the blood
+beneath appears, it is also of a reddish cast. It is even pretended,
+that those children whose skins are the most red when born, will
+afterwards be the fairest, and the most beautiful.
+
+The form of the body and the members of a new born infant, are by no
+means perfect: all the parts are too round, and even when the child
+is in good health, they seem swelled. At the end of three days,
+there generally appears a kind of jaundice; and at this time there
+is generally milk in the breasts of the infants, which is squeezed
+out with the fingers. The superfluous juices, and the swelling of the
+different parts diminish by degrees, as the child increases in growth.
+
+In some children just born, the brain-pan may be observed to palpitate;
+and in all, the action of the sinuses, or arteries of the brain, may be
+felt at this place. Over this aperture is formed a kind of scurf, which
+is sometimes very thick, and must be rubbed with brushes in proportion
+as it begins to dry. This matter seems to have some analogy with that
+of the horns of some animals, which also derive their origin from an
+aperture of the skull, and from the substance of the brain. We shall
+hereafter take an opportunity to shew, that the extremities of the
+nerves become solid by being exposed to the air, and that it is this
+nervous substance produces claws, nails, horns, &c.
+
+The fluid contained in the amnios leaves a viscous, whitish matter upon
+the infant, which is sometimes so adhesive, that it must be diluted
+with some mild liquid before it can be removed. In this country we
+never wash the infant but in warm water; yet there are whole nations,
+who inhabit climates much more severe than ours, that plunge their
+children into cold water the minute they are born, without their
+suffering the least injury. The Laplanders are even said to leave their
+infants in snow, till by the cold their respiration is nearly stopped,
+and then plunge them into a bath of warm water. They are treated thus
+roughly thrice every day during the first year, and afterwards as often
+every week, do they undergo an immersion in cold water. The people of
+the North are persuaded that the practice of cold bathing renders men
+more healthy and robust; and it is for this reason they enure their
+progeny to it from their birth. The truth is, we are ignorant with
+the extent of what our body is capable of suffering, acquiring, or
+losing by the power of habit. The Indians in the isthmus of America,
+for example, receive no injury from plunging into cold water when in
+a sweat; and as the most speedy remedy for intoxication, the women
+throw their husbands into the river when they are drunk; the minute
+after delivery, mothers scruple not to bathe in cold water with their
+infants, and yet dangerous as we should consider this practice, these
+women are rarely known to die in child-bearing.
+
+A few minutes after birth the infant discharges urine, and this
+generally when it feels the heat of the fire: and sometimes also the
+meconium or excrement which have been collected in the intestines
+during its residence in the matrix. This last evacuation is not always
+performed so soon, but if it does not happen in the course of the first
+day, the child is often affected with a pain in the bowels; in which
+case methods are taken to facilitate the discharge. The meconium is
+black, and when the infant is effectually eased of it, the subsequent
+stools are of a whitish cast. This change generally happens on the
+second or third day, and then the excrement becomes more foetid than
+the meconium; a proof that the bile and other bitter humours of the
+body begin to intermix with it. This fact tends to support our former
+remark, that the foetus did not receive any food by its mouth, but
+received all its nourishment by absorption.
+
+The infant is allowed time to throw off the slime and meconium, which
+are in its bowels and intestines, before it is allowed to suck. As
+these substances might sour the milk, and produce bad effects, it is
+first made to swallow a little wine and sugar, in order to fortify the
+stomach, and to procure such evacuations as may be necessary to prepare
+it for receiving and digesting its food; nor ought it to receive the
+breast till 10 or 12 hours after the birth.
+
+Hardly has the infant left the womb of its mother, and enjoyed the
+liberty of extending its limbs, when it is again put into a more cruel
+confinement. The head of the helpless infant is fixed to one position;
+its arms and legs put in strict bondage, and it is laced with bandages
+so strait as not to be able to move a single joint. Well is it when the
+compression is not so great as to obstruct the respiration, or that
+the midwife has taken the precaution to lay it upon its side, that the
+natural moisture may emit of itself from the mouth, since it is denied
+the power of turning its head in order to facilitate this emission.
+Do not then those nations act more wisely than we who cover or clothe
+their children without shackling them in swathing-bands? the Siamese,
+the Japanese, the Indians, the Negroes, the Savages of Canada, of
+Virginia, or Brazil, and almost all the inhabitants of South America,
+lay their infants naked upon a suspended bed of cotton or put them into
+their cradles lined with fur. Those practices are certainly liable to
+less inconveniences than ours. In swaddling a child, it is impossible
+but the restraint must give it uneasiness; and the efforts it makes to
+disentangle itself have a greater tendency to injure the form of the
+body, than any position it might assume was it left at full liberty.
+Swathing-bands may be compared to stays, which young girls are made to
+wear in order to preserve their shapes, but which nevertheless occasion
+more diseases and deformities than they are supposed to prevent.
+
+If the efforts which children make for liberty, when confined in the
+swaddling-clothes, are hurtful, the inaction in which they are held by
+it, is perhaps still more so. Want of exercise naturally retards the
+growth of their limbs, and diminishes the strength of their bodies;
+and of consequence such children as enjoy the liberty of moving at
+pleasure, must be the most vigorous. It was for this reason that the
+ancient Peruvians gave their infants the full freedom of their arms in
+a swathing-bag; afterwards, as their children grew, they put them up to
+the middle in a hole dug in the earth, and lined with linen; by this
+method they had their arms free, and could move their heads and bend
+their bodies, without falling or hurting themselves. So soon as they
+were able to step, they were presented with the breast, at a little
+distance, as an incentive for them to walk. The children of Negroes are
+often exposed to much greater fatigues, in order to come at the nipple,
+they cling round one of their mother's haunches with their legs, and
+support themselves without any assistance from her; seizing the breast
+they continue to suck in perfect safety, notwithstanding she is all the
+while in motion, or at work. These children begin to walk, or rather
+creep on their knees and hands, in the second month; and this exercise
+qualities them for running afterwards in this manner, almost as nimble
+as they do upon their feet.
+
+
+_END OF THE THIRD VOLUME._
+
+
+T. Gillet, Printer, Wild Court.
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+All paragraphs split by illustrations were rejoined.
+
+All obvious typographical errors were corrected.
+
+In the Table of Contents, Chapter VI's starting page was corrected
+to 81.
+
+On page 203, the word sospetare was changed to sospettare.
+
+Chapter XI (p. 260) was mislabeled as "IX" and was corrected.
+
+Likewise, Chapter II (page 334) was mislabeled "III" and
+was corrected.
+
+Otherwise, all text is as presented in the printed version.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BUFFON'S NATURAL HISTORY, VOLUME III
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