These spermatic bodies, which move, may be looked upon as the first assemblages of the organic molecules which proceed from every part of the body; when a quantity of them collect they may be perceived with the microscope; but if they collect only in small quantity the body which they form will be too minute to be perceived, and in this case we shall not be able to distinguish any in the seminal liquor. A very long continuance of observations would be necessary to determine what can be the cause of all the differences remarked in the states of this liquor. I can assert, from having often tried it, that by infusing the seminal liquors in water closely corked, at the end of three or four days an infinite multitude of moving bodies will be found, although the seminal liquors had no motion on being first taken from the body of the animal. Flesh, blood, chyle, urine, nay all animal or vegetable substances, contain organic particles, which move at the end of some days in an infusion of water; they appear to act and move nearly in the same manner, and though produced from different bodies are perfectly similar, without any of them having a power peculiar to themselves. If these bodies must absolutely be termed animals, it must be allowed they are so imperfect that they ought to be looked upon as the outlines of them, or rather as bodies simply composed of particles the most essential to the existence of an animal; for natural machines, such as those found in the roe of a calmar, although they put themselves in action at certain times, are certainly not animals, although they are organized, acting, and, as I may say, living beings. If it is once allowed, that the productions of Nature follow in an uniform order, and advance by imperceptible degrees and links, we shall have no difficulty in conceiving there are organic bodies existing, which belong neither to animals, vegetables, nor minerals.