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]