Buffon's Natural History, Volume 03 (of 10): Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c.Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de
History
Buffon's Natural History, Volume 03 (of 10): Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c.
Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de
Natural history
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account