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
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 præcideram partibus,
observavi. Ad hæc, in quadam parastatarum resecta portione complura
vidi animalcula, quæ necdum in justam magnitudinem adoleverant, nam
et corpuscula illis exiliora & caudæ triplo breviores erant quam
adultis. Ad hæc, caudas non habebant desinentes in mucronem, quales
tamen adultis esse passim comperio. Præterea in quandam parastatarum
portionem incidi, animalculis quantum discernere potui, destitutam,
tantum illi quædam perexiguæ inerant particulæ, partim longiores,
partim breviores, sed altera sui extremitate crassiunculæ; 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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