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.