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
"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, arenulæ 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 quæ motu & vita privantur, qualium etiam vivorum numerum
adeo ingentem vidi, ut judicarem portionem lymphæ spermaticæ arenulæ
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 unciæ 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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