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This book must not 1
taken from the Librai
building.

Barrs Buffon.

Buffon's Natural History,

CONTAINING

A THEORY OF THE EARTH,

A GENERAL

HISTORY OF MA.K

OF THE ERUTE CREATION, AND OF
VEGETABLES, MINERALS,

FROM THE FRENCH.
WITH NOTES BY THE TRANSLATOR.

IN TEN VOLUMES.
VOL. U\

lonnon :

PRINTED FOR THE PROPRIETOR,
AND SOLD BY H. D. SYMONDS, PATERNOSTER-ROW.

1807.

T. Gillet, Printer, WUd-Courc

CONTENTS

•OF

THE THIRD VOLUME,

-Page

History of Animals - I

Chap. yi. Experiments en the Method

of Generation - - 15
Cliap. Vn. Comparison of my Obserca^

tions mth those of Leeumsn'

hoek - - « 131;

Chap, yni. Ilejlectlons on the prtceding;

Experiments - J 59

Chap. IX. Varleli^es on tJie Generation of

Aninnds - - ;20S

Chap. X. Onth^FormationoftheFcetus'^QQ
Chap. XI. On the Expansion^ Growth^

and F)elixery of the Foetus 260
Recapitulation - ^9

History of Man,
Chap. I. Of the Nature of Mm 517

Chap, K. df Infancy , - SSi

II

w^^

Directions for placing the Plates »

Page 88, Fig. 1,2,3, 4, 5> 6..
lOe, Fig.T, 8,9, 10, 11, 12.
140, Plate III.
148, Plate IV.

••«B^H*MHi^HMa6l

BUFFON'S

NATURAL HISTORY.

HnTORY OF ANIMALS,

ARISTOTLE admits, with Plato, of final
and efficient causes. These efficient
causes are sensitive and vegetative souls, that
give form to matter which, of itself, is only a
capacity of receiving forms ; and as in gene-
ration the female gives the most abundant mat-
ter, and it being against his system of final
causes to admit that what one could efi^ec$
should be performed by many, he concludtts,
x^oL. III. 3 thit

^ BUFFON*S

that the female alone contains the necessary
matter to generation ; and, as another of his
principles was, that matter itself is unformed,
and that form is a distinct being from matter,
he affirmed that the male furnished the form,
and, consequently, nothing belonging to mat-
ter.

Descartes, on the contrary, who admitted
but a few mechanical principles in his philo-
sophy, endeavoured to explain the formation of
the foetus by them, and thought it in his power
to comprehend, and make others understand,
how an organized and living being could be
made by the laws of motion alone. His ad-
mitted principles differed from tliose used by
Aristotle ; but both, instead of examining the
thing itself, without preposses^sion and preju-
dice, have only considered it in the point of
view relative to their systems of philosophy,
which could not be attended with a successful
application to the nature of generation, be-«
cause it depends, as we have shewn, on quite,
different principles. Descartes differs still
iPiQre from Aristotle, by admitting of the mix-
ture of the seminal liquor of the two sexes i
l^e thinks both furnish something material for
j^eneration, an^. that the fermeivtation occa-

siojfted

NATURAL HISTORY. ^

5oned by the mixture of these mo seminal
liquors c?LUse$ the formation of the foetus.

Hippocrates, who lived under Perdicas, u
considerable time before Aristotle, established
art opinion, which was adopted by Galen, and
a great number of physicians who followed
him 5 his opinion was, that the- male and fe-
male had each a prolifit fluid, and suppose^
besides^ that there Were two seminal fluids M
fcach sex> the one strong and aetive^ the othet
weak and inactive.* That a hiixtut-e of the
two strongest fluids produce a male child, atla
of the two weakest a female ; so that, accord-
ing to him, they each contain a iriale arid
a female seed. He supports this hypbthe^is
by the following circumstance j that nidli^
women, who produce otily girls by their ^rst
husbands, have produced boys by a secdhd 5
and that men, who have had Only girls by thfeif
first wives, have had boys by others. It ap-
pears to me, that if eveh this circumstance
could be well established, it would not be ne-
cessary to give to the malt and female twd
kinds of setnihal liquor for an explanation^ be-
cause it may easily be conceived, that women,^

B 2 who

* See Hippocrates, lib. de Genitura, page 129, &llb. de
diaeta, pag^ 198, Lugd. Bat. 1665, vol. I.

4 buffon's

who have brought forth only girls by their
first husbands, and produced boys with other
men, were only those who furnished more
particles proper for generation with their first
husband than with the second ; or that the se-
cond husband furnished more particles proper
for generation with the second wife than with
the first ; for when, in the instant of concep-
tion, the organic molecules of the male are
more abundant than those of the female, the
result will be a male, and when those of the
female abounds a female will be produced ;
nor is it in the least surprising that a man
should have a disadvantage in this respect with
some women, while he will have a superiority
over others.

This great physician supposes, that the seed
of the male is a secretion of the strongest and
most essential parts of all that is humid in the
human body ; and he thus explains how this
secretion is made : " Vense & nervi, he says,
ab omni corpore in pudendum vcrgunt, quibus
dum aliquantulum teruntur & calescunt ac ini-
pleniur, velut pruritus incidit, ex hoc toti cor-
pori voluptas ac caliditas accidit; quum vero
pudendum teritur & homo movetur, humidum
in corpore calescit ac diffunditur, & a motu con-

quassatur

NATURAL HISTORY. ^

quassatur ac spumescit, quem-admodum alii hu-
mores omnes conquassati spumescunt.

" Sic autem in homine ab humido spiimescen-
te id quod robustissimiam est ac pinguissimum
secernitur, & ad meduUam spinalem venit ; ten-
dunt enim in banc ex omni corpore viae, &
difFundiint ex cerebro in lumbus ac in totum
corpus & in medullum ; & ex ipsa medull proa-
cedunt vix, ut & ad ipsum bumidum perferatur
& ex ipsa secedat ; postquam autem ad banc me;* .
duUam genitura pervenerit, procedit ad renes, .
hac enim via tendit per venas, & si renes fue-
rint exulcerati, aliquando etiam sanguis defer-
tur : a renibus autem transit per medois testes
in pudendum, proce dit autem non qua urina,
erum alia ipsi via eft illi contigua, &:c/'*

Anatomists will no doubt discover tbatHippo- -
crates is not correct in tracing the road of the se-
minal liquor ; but that does not affect his opi-
nion, that the semen comes from every part of
the body, and particularly the head, because, he
says, those whose veins have been cut which
lie near the ears only bring forth a weak, and
very often an unfertile semen. The female has
also a seminal fluid, which she emits, some-
times within the matrix, and sometimes without,

when

* See Foesius's Translation, vol. I. page 129.

euffon's

when the internal orifice is more open than it
should. The semen of the male enters into
the matrix, where it mixes with that of the
female •, and as each has two kinds of fluids
the one strong and the other weak, if both
furnish their strongs a male will be the result,
and if their weak, a female; and if in the
mixture there are more particles of the male
liquor than the female, then the infant will
have a greater resemblance to the father than
to the mother, and so on the contrary. It
might here be asked Hippocrates what would
happen when the one furnished its weak se-
men and the other its strong .'' I cannot con-
ceive what answer he could make, and that
alone is sufficient to cause his opinion of two
seeds in each sex to be rejected.

In this manner then, according to him, the
formation of the foetus is made : the seminal
fluids first mix in the matrix, where they
gradually thicken by the heat of the body of
the mother ; the mixture receives and attracts
the spirit of the heat, and when too warm part
of the heat flies out, and the respiration of the
inother sends a colder spirit in ; thus alterna-
tively a cold and a hot spirit enter the mixture,
wjjiich give life, and cause a pellicle to grow

on

NATURAL HISTORY. 9

Oil the surface, which takes a round form, be-
cause the spirits, acting as a centre, extend it
equally on all sides. " I have seen, says this
great man, a foetus of six days old ; it was a
1^11 of liquor surrounded with a pellicle; the
liquor was reddish, and the pellicle was spread
over with vessels, some red and others white,
in the midst of which was a small eminence,
which I thought to be the umbilical vessels, by
which the foetus receives nourishment and the
spirit of respiration from the mother. By de-
grees another pellicle is formed, which sur-
rounds the first ; the menstrual blood, being
suppressed, abundantly supplies it with nutri-
ment, and which coagulates by degrees, and
becomes flesh; this flesh articulates itself in
proportion as it grows, and receives its form
from the spirit ; each part proceeds to take its
proper place ; the solid particles go to their re-
spective situations and the fluid to theirs : each
matter seeks for that which is most like itself,
and the foetus is at length entirely formed by
these causes and these means."

1 his system is less obscure and n>oi-e rea-
sonable than that of Aristotle, because Hippo-
crates endeavours to exj^ain every m^ter by
particular? reasons : he borrows f^om the phi-
losophy

6 buffon's

losophy of his times but one single principle,
which is, that heat and cold produce spirits,
and that those spirits have the power of order-
ing and arranging matter. He has viewed
generation more like a physician than a philo-
sopher, while Aristotle has explained it more
like a metaphysician than a naturalist ; which
makes the defects of Hippocrates*s system
particular and less apparent, while those of
Aristotle's are general and evident.

These two great men have each had their
followers; almost all the scholastic philosophers,
by adopting Aristotle's philosophy, received
his system of generation, while almost every phy-
sician followed the opinion of Hippocrates ;
and seventeen or eighteen centuries passed
without any thing new being said on the
subject. At last, at the restoration of lite-
rature, some anatomists turned their eyes on
generation, and Fabricius Aquapendente was
the first who made experiments and obser-
vations on the impregnation and growth of
the eggs of a fowl. The following is the sub-
stance of his observations.

He distinguished two parts in the matriK
of a hen, the one superior and the other in-
ferior. The superior he calls the Ovarium,

which

NATURAL HISTORY. sg

which Is properly no other than a cluster of
small yellow eggs of a round form, varying in
size from the bigness of a mustard-seed to that
of a large nut or medlar. These small eggs ai»e
fastened together by one common pellicle, and
form a body which nearly resembles a bunch of
grapes. I'he smallest of these eggs are white,
and they take another colour in proportion as
they increase.

Having examined these eggs immediately
after the communication of the cock, he did
not perceive any remarkable difference, nor
any of the male semen in any one of these
-eggs; he therefore supposed that every egg,
and the ovarium itself, became fruitful by a
•subtle spirit, which came from the semen of
the male ; and he says, that in order to secure
this fecundating spirit, nature has placed at the
external orifice of the vagina of birds a kind of
net-work or membrane, which permits, hke
a valve, the entrance of this seminal spirit, but
at the same time prevents it from re-issuinpf or
evaporating.

When the egg is loosened from the commou
-pellicle, it descends by degrees through a
•winding passage into the internal part of the
matrix. This passage is filled with ^a liquor
VOL. ni. C nearlv

10 buffon's

nearly similar to the white of an egg ; It is also
in this part that the eggs begin to be surround-
ed with this white liquor, with the mem-
brane which occasions it, the two ligaments
(chalaza) which passes over the white, and con-
nects it with the yolk and shell, which arc
formed in a very short time before they arc
laid. These ligaments, according to Fabricius,
is the part of the egg fecundated by the seminal
spirit of the male ; and it is here where the
foetus first begins to form. The egg Is not
only the true matrix, that Is to say, the place
of the formation of the chick, but It Is from
the egg all generation depends. The egg pro-
duces it as the agent : It supplies both the mat-
ter and the organs j the ligaments are the sub-
stance of formation j the white and the yolk
are the nutriment, and the seminal spirit of the
male Is the efficient cause. This spirit com-
municates to the ligaments at first an alterative
faculty, afterwards a. formative, and lastly the
power of augmentation, &c.

These observations of Fabricius have not
given us a very clear explication of generation.
Nearly at the same time as this anatomist was
employed In these researches, towards the
middle of the sixteenth century, the famous

Aldrovandi^

NATURAL HISTORY. tl

Aldrovandus* also made observations on eggs ;
but as Harvey judiciously observes, he followed
Aristotle much closer than experiment. The
descriptions he gives of the chicken in the egg
are not exact. Volcher Goiter, one of his scho-
lars, succeeded much better in his enquiries ;
and Parisanus, a physician of Venice, having
also laboured on this subject, they have each
given a description of the chicken in the eggj
which Harvey prefers to any other.

This famous anatomist, to whom we are in-
debted for the discovery of the circulation of
the blood, has composed a very extensive trea-
tise on generation ; he lived towards the middle
of the last century, and was physician to
Charles I. of England. As he was obliged to
follow this unfortunate prince in his misfor-
tunes, he lost what he had written on the gene-
ration of insects among other papers, and he
composed what he has left us on the generation
of birds and quadrupeds from his memory. I
shall concisely relate his observations, his ex-
periments, and his system.

Harvey asserts that man and every animal

proceed from an egg ; that the first produce

of conception In viviparous animals is a kind of

C2 . an

* See his Ornithology'.

%% buffon's

an egg, and that the only difference between
viviparous and oviparous is, that the foetus of
the first take their origin, acquire their growth^
and arrive at their entire expansion in the
matrix ; whereas the foetus of oviparous ani-
mals begins to exist in the body of the mother,
where they are merely as eggs, and it is only
after they have quitted the body of the mother
that they really become foetuses ; and we
must remark, says he, that in oviparous ani-
mals, some hold their eggs within themselves
till they are perfect, as birds, serpents and
oviparous quadrupeds j others lay their eggs
before they are perfect, as fish, crustaceous,
and testaceous animals. The eggs which
these animals deposit are only the rudiments
of real eggs, they afterwards acquire bulk
and membranes, and attract nourishment from
the matter which surrounds them. It is the
same, adds he, with insects, for example, and
caterpillars, which only seem imperfect eggs,
which seek their nutriment, and at the end
of a certain time arrive to the state of chrysa-
lis, which is a perfect egg. There is another
difference in oviparous animals : for fowls and
other birds have eggs of different sizes, whereas
fi«h, frogs, &c. lay them before they are per-
fect,

NATURAL HISTORY. |J

feet, have them all of the same size ; he Indeed
observes, that in pigeons, who only lay two
eggs, all the small eggs which remain in the
ovarium are of the same size, and it is only the
foremost two which are bigger than the rest.
It is the same, he says, in cartilaginous fish, as
in the thornback, who have only two eggs
which increase and come to maturity, while
those which remain in the ovarium are, like
those in fowls, of different sizes.

He afterwards makes us an anatomical ex-
position of the parts necessary to generation,
and observes, that in all birds the situation of
the anus and vulra are contrary to the situation
of those parts in other animals ; the anus being
placed before and the vulra behind j* and with
respect to the cock, and all small birds, that
they generate by external friction, having in
fact no intermission nor real copulation •, with
male ducks, geese, and ostriches, it is evidently
otherwise.

Hens produce eggs without the cock, but
in a very small number, and these eggs, al-
though perfect, are unfruitful: he does not
agree with the opinion of country people, that
two or three days cohabitation with the cock

is
* Most of these articles are taken from Aristotle.

14 BUFFOK S

is sufficient to impregnate all the eggs a hen
will lay within the year, but admits that he
separated a hen from a cock for the space of
twenty days, and that all the eggs she laid dur-
ing that space were fecundated. While the
egg is fastened to the ovarium, it derives its
nutriment from the vessel of the common pel-
licle. But as soon as it is loosened from it, it de-
rives the white liquor which fills the passages in
which it descends, and the whole, even to the
shell, is formed by this mode.

The two ligaments (chalc.Ziz) which Aqua-
pendente looks on as the shoot produced by the
seed of the male, are found in the infecund
eggs which the hen produces without the com-
munication with the cock, as in those which
are impregnated : and Harvey very judiciously
remarks, that those parts do not proceed from
the male, and are not those which are fecun-
dated ; the fecundated part of an egg is a very
small white circle which is on the membrane
that covers the yolk, and forms there a small
spot, like a cicatrice, about the size of a lentil.
Harvey also remarks, that this little cicatrice
is found in every fecund or infecund egg, and
that those who think it is produced by the seed
©f the male are deceived. It is of the same

size

NATl/RAL HISTORY. I J

size and form in fresh eggs, as in those which
have been kept a long time ; but when wc
would hatch them, and when the egg receives
a sufficient degree ofheat, either by the hen, or
artificially, we presently see this small spot in-
crease and dilate nearly like the sight of the
eye. This is the first change, ahd is visible at
the end of a few hours incubation.

When the egg has undergone a proper
warmth for twenty-four hours, the yolk,
which was before in the centre of the shell,
approaches nearer to the cavity at the broad
end •, this cavity is increased by the evapora-
tion of the watery part of the white, and the
grosser part sinks to the small end. The cica-
trice, or speck, on the membrane of the yolk,
rises with it to the broad end, and seems to ad-
here to the membrane there : this speck is then
about the bigness of a small pea, in the middle
of it a white speck is discernible, and many
circles, of which this point seems to form the
centre.

At the end of the second day these circles
are larger and more visible ; the streak also
appears divided by these circles into two, and
sometimes three parts of different colours ; a
small protuberance also appears on the external

part,

?6 ftm-FON's

part, and nearly resembles a small eye, in the
pupil of which there is a point, or little cata-
ract ; between these circles a clear liquor is
contained by a very delicate membrane, and
the speck now appears more to be placed in
the white than on the membrane of the yolk.
On the third day the transparent liquor is con-
siderably increased, as is also the small mem-
brane which surrounds it. The fourth day, a
small streak of purple-coloured blood is observ-
ed at the circumference of the speck or ball,
at a little distance from the centre of which a
point may be seen of a blood colour, and
which beats like a heart. It appears like a
small spark at each diastole, and disappears at
each systole ; from this animated speck issue
two small blood vessels, which these small
vessels throw out as branches into this liquor,
all of which come from the same point, nearly
in like manner as the roots of a tree shoot frora
the trunk.

Towards the end of the fourth day, or at tlie
beginning of the fifth, the animated speck is so
much encreased as to appear like a small bladder
filled with blood, and by its contractions and
dilations is alternatively filled and emptied. In
the same day this vessel very distinctly appears

to

NATURL HISTORY. I7

to divide into two parts, each of which alter-
natively impel and dilute the blood in the same
manner. Around the shortest sanguinary ves-
sel which we have spoken of a kind of cloud
is seen, which, although transparent, renders
the sight of this vessel more obscure ; this
cloud constantly grows thicker and more at-
tached to the root of the blood vessel, and
appears like a small globe : this small globe
lengthens and divides into three parts, one of
which is globular, and larger than the other
two ; the head and eyes now begin to appear,
and at the end of the fifth day, the place for the
vertebra is seen in the remainder part of this
globe.

The sixth day the head is seen more clearly,
the outlines of the eyes now appear, the
wings and thighs lengthen, and the liver, lungs,
and beak, are distinctly observed , the foetus
now begins to move and extend its head, al-
though it has as yet only the internal viscera ;
for the thorax, abdomen, and all the external
coverings of the fore part of the body are want-
ing. At the end of this day, or at tlie begin-
ning of the seventh, the toes appear, the chick
opens and moves its beak, and the anterior
parts of the body begin to cover the viscera ;
on the seventh day the chicken is entirely
VOL. III. D formed,

1 8 i5tJfTdi«i's

fdrmed, dnd from this time until it comes out
c^ftHeegg, nothing happens but only an ex-
pansion of those parts it acquired within these
first seven days : at the fourteenth or fifteenth
day the feathers appear, and at the ttventy-first
it breaks the shell with its beak, and procures
its enlargement.

These observations of Harvey appear to have
been made with the greatest exactness ; never-
theless we shall point out how imperfect they
Jlre, and that he has fallen himself into the error
he reproaches others with, making experiments
to support his favourite hypothesis, that the
heart was the animated speck which first ap-
peared ; but before we proceed on this matter,
it is but just to give an account of his other
observations, and of his system.

It is well known that Harvey made many
experiments on hinds and docs. They re-
ceive the male towards the middle of Septem-
ber : a few days after copulation the horns of
the matrix become thicker, and at the same
time more lax. In each of the cavities five ca-
runculas appear. Towards the 26th or 28th
of the above month the matrix thickens still
more, and the five carunculas are swelled near-
ly to the shape and size of a nurse's nipple j
by opening them, an infinity of small white

specks

IfATURAL HISTORY. Xp

specks are found. Harvey pretends to have
remarked, that there was neither then, nor im-
mediately after copulation, apy alteration or
change in the ovarium, and that he has never
been able to find a single drop of the seed of
the male in the matrix, although he has made
many researches for that purpose.

Towards the end of October, or beginning
of November, when the females separate from
the males, the thickness of the horns begins to
diminish, the internal surfaces of their cavities
are swelled, and appear fastened together ; the
carunculas remain, and the whole, which re-
sembles the substance of the brain, is so soft
that it cannot be touched. Towards the 13th
or 14th of November, Harvey says, that he per-
ceived filaments, like the threads of a spider's
web, which traversed the cavities of the horns
and the matrix itself: these filaments shoot out
from the superior angle of the matrix, and by
their multiplication form a kind of membrane,
or empty tunic ; a day or two after this tunic
is filled with a white, aqueous and glutinous
matter, which adheres to the matrix by a kind
of mucilage ; and in the third month this
tunic, or pouch, contains an embryo about
the breadth of two fingers long, and another
internal pouch, called the amnios, containing
D 2 a trans-r

20 BUFFON*S

a transparent crystalline liquor, In which tlic
foetus swims. The foetus at first was but an
animated speck, like that in the egg of a fowl.
All the rest is performed in the same manner as
that related of the chick ; the only difference Is
in the eyes, which appears much sooner in the
fowl than in the deer. The animated speck
appears about the 19th or 20th of November, a
day or two after which the oblong body, which
contains the foetus, is seen ; in six or seven
days more it is so much formed that the sex and
limbs may be distinguished -, but the heart and
viscera are yet uncovered, and it is two days
more before the thorax and the abdomen cover
them, which Is the last work and completion
of the edifice.

From these observations upon hens and deer,
Harvey concludes, that all female animals have
eggs, that in these eggs a separation of a trans-
parent crystalline liquor contained in the am-
nios is made, and that another external pouch,
the chorion, contains the whole liquors of the
egg ; that the first thing which appears in the
crystalline liquor is the sanguinary and ani-
mated spirit J in a word, that the formation of
viviparous animals is made after the same man-
ner as oviparous ; and he explains the genera-
tion of both as follows.

Generation

NATURAL HISTORY. ^t.

Generation is the work of the matrix, in
which no seed of the male ever enters ♦, the ma-
trix conceives by a kind of contagion, which
the male liquor communicates to it, nearly as
the magnet communicates its magnetic virtue
to steel. This male contagion not only acts
upon the matrix but over all the female body,
which is wholly fecundated, although the ma-
trix only has the faculty of conception, as the
brain has the sole faculty of conceiving ideas.
The ideas conceived by the brain, are hke the
images of the objects transmitted by the senses ;
and the foeiius, which may be considered as the
idea of the matrix, is like that which produces
it. This is the reason that a child has a resem-
blance to its father, &c.

1 shall not follow this anatomist any farther ;
what I have mentioned is sufficient to judge of
his system; but we have some remarks to
make on his observations. He has given them
in a manner most likely to impose ; seems to
have often repeated his experiments, and to
have taken every necessary precaution to avoid
deception ; from which it might be imagined
he had seen all he writes upon, and observed
them with he greatest accuracy. Never-
theless, I perceive both uncertainty and ob-
scurity

scurlty in his descriptions *, his observations art
related chiefly on memory ; and although he
often says the contrary, Aristotle appears to
have been his guide more than experience ; for
he has only seen in eggs what Aristotle has
before mentioned ; and that most of his ob-
servations which may be deemed essential had
been made before him, we shall be perfectly
convinced if we pay a little attention to what
follows :

Aristotle knew that the ligaments (Chalazse)
were of no service to the generation of the
chicken. " Quae ad principium lutei gran-
dines hserent, nil conferunt ad generationem,
ut quidam suspicantur."* Parisanus, Volcher,
Goiter, Aquapendente, and others, remark-
ed the cicatrice as well as Harvey: Aqua-
pendente supposed it of no use ; but Parisa-
nus pretended that it was formed by the male
semen, or at least that the white speck in the
middle of the cicatrice was the seed of the male
which would produce the chicken. " Est-que,
says he, illud galli semen alba & tenuissima
tunica abductum, quod suhstat duabus com-
munibus toti ovo membranis, &c." There-
fore the only discovery which properly be-
longs
* Hist. Anim. lib. vi. cap. 2.

NATURAL HISTORY. 23

longs to Harvey is, his having observed that
this cicatrice is found in infecund as well as
fecundated eggs ; for others had observed, like
him, the dilation of the circles, and the growth
of the white speck ; and it appears that Pari-
sanus had seen it much better ; this is all which
he remarks in the two first days of incubation ;
and what he says of the third day, is only a re-
petition of Aristotle's words. * " Per id tempus
ascendit jam vetellus ad superiorem partem ovi
acutiorem, ubi & principium ovi est & foetus
excluditur ; corque ipsum apparet, in albumine
sanguinei puncti, quod punctum salit & movet
sese instar quasi animatum ; ab eo meatus ve-
narum specie duo, sanguinei pleni, flexuosi,
qui, crcscente foetu, feruntur in utramque
tunicam ambientem, ac membrana sanguineas
fibras habens eo tempore albumen continet
Sub meatibus illis venarum similibus ; ac paulo
post discernitur corpus pufillum initio, om-
mino & candidum, capite conspicuo, atque in
eo oculis maxime turgidis qui diu sic perma-
nent, sero enim parvi fiunt ac considunt. In
parte autem corporis inferiore, nullum extat
membrum per initia, quod respondeat supe-
rioribus. Meatus autum illi qui a corde pro-

deunt,
* Hist. Anim. lib. vl. cap. 4.

^^^C

<24 BUFFON'S

deunt, alter ad circiimdantem, mcmbranam
tcndit, alter adluteutn, officio umbilici."

Harvey attacks Aristotle for saying that the
yolk ascends towards the small end of the egg,
and concludes, that he had not seen any thing
himself, but had apparently received his infor-
mation from some good observer of Nature.
Harvey was wrong in thus reproaching Aris-
totle, and in asserting that the yolk always as-
cends towards the broad end of the eggy for that
depends on the position of the egg during the
time of incubation, for the yolk ahvays ascends
to the uppermost part, as being lighter than the
white, whether it be to the broad or the small
end. William Langley, a physician at Dor-
drecht, who made observations on the hatching
of eggs, in i6^^, twenty years before Harvey,
was the first who made this remark.*

But to return to the passage we have quoted.
By that we see that the crystalline liquor, the
animated speck, the two circles, the two blood
vessels, &c. are described by Aristotle precisely
as Harvey had seen them. This anatomist
also pretends that the animated speck is the
hc^rt, that this heart is formed the first, and

that

■• Fee \Vm. I angh^y Obscrv. edae a jusio Schradcro, Am&t.
1674.

PrntBttTY UUAW

NATURAL HISTORY. 5^

that the viscera and other parts are joined
afterwards. All this has been spoken of by
Aristotle, and seen by Harvey, and nevertheless
it is not conformable to truth. To be assured
of this we need only repeat the same experi-
ments on eggs, or only read with attention those
of Malpighius,* which were made about 40
years after those of Harvey.

This excellent observer of Nature examined,
with attention, the cicatrice, which is the essen-
tial part of the egg ; he found it was large in all
impregnated eggs, and small in those which were
not impregnated; and he discovered in eggs which
had never been sat upon, that the white speck,
spoken of by Harvey as the first which be-
comes animated, is a small pouch or ball, which
swims in a liquor inclosed by the first circle,
and in the middle of this ball he observed the
embryo. The membrane of this small pouch,
which is the amnios, being very thin and trans-
parent, permitted him easily to see the foetus it
surrounded. Mnlplghius,with reason, concludes,
from this first observation, that the foetus exists
in the egg before incubation, and that its first
outlines are then very strong. It is not ne-
cessaiy to point out how opposite this experi-
voL. III. E ment

* Malpighii puUus in ovo.

26 duffon's

ment is to the opinion of Harvey, for he saw
nothing of a form for the two first days of in-
cubation, and it was the third day before the
sign of the foetus appears, which is the animated
speck : whereas according to Malpighius, the
outhnes of the foetus exist in the egg before
incubation has commenced.

After being assured of this important matter,
Malpighius examined, w^ith like attention, the
cicatrice of unimpregnated eggs, which, as we
have observed, is smaller than those which have
been impregnated; it has often irregular cir-
cumscriptions, and sometimes differs in dif-
ferent eggs. Near its centre, instead of the
ball that encloses the foetus, there is a globular
mole, which does not contain any thing orga-
nized, and which being opened does not pre-
sent any thing formed or arranged, but only
some appendages filled with a thick but trans-
parent fluid ; and this unshapen mass is sur-
rounded with many concentric circles.

After six hours incubation the cicatrice Is
considerably dilated, and the ball formed by the
amnios is easily discovered ; this ball is filled
with a liquor, in the middle of which the head
of the chicken and back-bone are distinctly
§een. In about six hours more the little ani-
mal

NATURAL HISTORY. '27

mal is seen more distinctly ; in another six
hours the head is grown larger, and the spine
lengthened; and at the end of twenty-four
hours the neck begins to lengthen, the ver-
tebrae of the back appears of a white colour,
and the head to turn to one side. The ver*
tebras are disposed on each side of the spine,
like small globules; and almost at the same
time the small wings begin to shoot, and the
head, neck, and breast are lengthened. After
^thirty hours nothing new appears, but every
part of the little animal is considerably increas-
ed, especially the amnios. Around this mem-
brane the umbilical vessels are seen of a dark-
ish colour. At the end of thirty-eight hours,
the chicken being grown much larger, its head
is large, and in which are distinguished three
vessels surrounded with membranes, which
also cover the back bone, through which the
vertebrae are still seen. In forty hours, con-
tinues Malpighius, it was wonderful to see
the chicken alive, floating in the liquor ; the
back bone was encreased, the head was turned
on one side, the vesicles of the brain were
less apparent, the first outlines of the eyes
appeared, the heart beat, and the circulation
of the blood was begun. Malpighius then

E -i gives

■28 BUFFON's

gives the description of the vessels and course
of the blood, and reasonably supposes that,
though the heart does not beat before thirty-
eight or' forty hours incubation^ it still existed
before that time, like the other parts of the
chicken *, but on examining the heart in a
dark room, he discovered not the least glimpse
of light to proceed from it, as Harvey insi-
nuates.

At the end of two days the chicken is seen
floating in the liquor of the amnios ; in which
the head, composed of vesicles, is turned on
one side ; the back bone and vertebrae are
lengthened ; the heart, which then hung out
of the breast, beat three times j for the fluid it
contains is impelled into the ventricles of the
heart, from thence into the arteries, and after-
wards into the umbilical vessels. He re-
marks, that having separated the chick from
the white of the egg, the motion of the heart
still continued for a whole day. After two
days and fourteen hours, or sixty-two hours
of incubation, the chicken, although grown
stronger, remained with its head bent down?
wards in the liquor, contained by the .amnios ;
the veins and arteries were seen among the
vessels of the brain; the lineaments of the

eyes.

NATURAL HISTORY. 29

eyes, and the spinal marrow, also appear extend-
ing the length of the vertebrse.

At the end of the third day the head of the
chicken appeared crooked ; besides the eyes
five vessels were seen in the head filled with a
liquid matter ; the first outlines of the wings
and thighs were to be distinguished, and the
"body began to gather flesh ; the pupil of the
eye, and also the crystalline and vitreous hu-
mour were discernible. At the fourth day the
vesicles of the brain were nearer each other ;
the eminences of the vertebrae were more
prominent, the wings and thighs assumed a
greater solidity as they increased in length ; the
whole body, covered with a jelly-like flesh,
was now surrounded within the body by a thin
membrane, and the umbilical vessels that unite
the animal to the yolk, appeared to come
from the abdomen. On the fifth and sixth
days the vesicles of the brain began to be
covered ; the spinal marrow, divided into
two parts, began to take solidity and stretch
along the trunk ; the wings and thighs length-
ened •, the feet began to spread ; the belly was
closed up and tumid ; the liver was distinctly
seen, and appeared of a dusky white ; the
ventricles of the heart were discerned to beat

very

3^

BUFfON'S

very distinctly ; the body of the chicken was
covered with a skin, and the traces of the fea-
thers were visible ; the seventh day the head
, appeared very large, the brain was entirely
covered with its membranes ; the beak began
to appear betwixt the eyes, and the wings, the
thighs, and the legs had acquired their perfect
iigure.

I shall not follow Malpighius any farther,
as the remainder relates only to the expansion
of the parts till the twenty-iirst day, when the
chicken breaks the shell with its beak •, though
before that time it is heard to chirrup in its
imprisonment. The heart is the last part
which receives its proper form, for it is eleven
days. .before the arteries are seen to join, and
the ventricles become perfectly conformable
and united.

We are now in a condition to judge of the va-
lue of Harvey *s experiments and observations.
There is great appearance this anatomist did
not make use of a microscope, which in fact
was not brought to perfection in his days, or
he would not have asserted there was no dif-
ference between the cicatrice of an impreg-
nated and an unimpregnated egg ; he would
not have said the seed of the male produced

no

NATURAL HISTORY. 3?

no alteration in the egg, especially in the
cicatrice; he would not have affirmed that
nothing was perceptible till the third day, that
the animated speck was the first that appeai-ed|
and into which the white speck was changed.
He would have seen that the white speck was
a ball which contained the whole apparatus of
generation, and that every part of the foetus
are there from the moment the hen has con-
nection with the cock. He would also have
learnt, that without this connection it contains
only an unshapen mass, which could never be-
come animated, because in fact it is not orga-
nized like an animal, and because it is only
when this mass, which we must look upon as
an assemblage of the organic particles of the
female semen, is penetrated by the organic
particles of the male semen, that there results
from it an animal, which is formed at the
moment, but whose motion is imperceptible
till the end of forty hours after : he would not
have asserted that the heart is first formed, and
that the other parts are joined to it by a juxta-»
position, since it is evident from Malpighius's
observations, that the outlines of every part
are all immediately formed, but only appear in
proportion as they dilate ; on the whole, if he

had

32 nUFFON*S

had seen what Malpighlus saw, he would not
have affirmed that no impression of the male seed
remained in the eggs, and that it was only by
contagion that they are fecundated, &c.

It is also just to remark, that what Harvey
has said on the parts of the generation of a
cock is not exact ; he asserts that the cock has
no genital member, and that there is no intro-
mission ; nevertheless it is certain that this
animal, instead of one has two, and that they
both act at the same time, and which action
is a x'ery strong compression, if not a true co-
pulation ;* and it is by this double organ that
the cock emits the seminal liquor into the ma-
trix of the hen.

Let us now compare the experiments made
by Harvey on hinds with those ofDe Graafon
doe rabbits ; v/e shall iind that although De
Graaf supposes, with Harvey, that all animals
proceed from eggs, yet there is a great diffe-
rence in the mode which these two anatomists
have observed in the first steps of formation, or
rather expansion, of the foetuses of viviparous
animals.

After having exerted every effort to esta-
blish, by reasons drawn from comparative ana-
tomy,

* See Reyn. Graaf, page 242.

NATURAL HISTORY. o3

tomy, that the testicles of viviparous females
Hre real ovaries, De Graaf explains how the
«ggs are loosened from the ovaries and fall into
the horns of the matrix ; he then relates what
he observed in a rabbity which he dissected half
aa hour after copulation. The horns of the
matrix, he says, were more red than before,
but no other change in the rest of the parts:
there was also no- appearance of any male seed,
neither in the vagina,' matrix, nor horns of the
matrix.

Having dissected another six hours after co-
pulation he observed the folliculcs, or coats,
which he supposes contained the eggs in the
ovary, were become red, but found no male
seed either in ihe ovaria or elsewhere. He
dissected another twenty-four hours after co-
pulation, and remarked in one ovarium three,
and in the otlier five folliculcs that were chan-
ged, the transparency being become dark and
red. In one dissected twenty-seven hours
after copulation he perceived the horns of the
womb had become more red and strictly em-
braced the ovaries. In another, that he opened
forty hours after copulation, he found in one of
the ovaries seven folliculcs, and in the other
three that were changed. Fifty-two hours
^'oii. III. F after

54 bi^ffon's

after copulation he examined another and found
one follicle changed in one of the ovaries and
four in another, and having opened these folii-
rules he found a glandular liquor, in the mid*
die of which there was a small cavity, where
he did not perreive any liquor, which made
him suppose that the transparent liquor, com-
monly contained in the follicules, and which,
he says, is enclosed in its own membranes,
might have been separated by a kind of rup-
ture : he searclied after this matter in the pas-
sages, and in the horns of the matrix them-
selves, but he found none ; he duly perceived
tliat the internal membrane of the horns of the
matrix was very much swelled. In another^
dissected three days after copulation, he ob-
served that the superior extremity of the pas-
sage, which communicates with the liorns of
the matrix, strictly embraced the ovaries ; and
having separated it he perceived three follicules,
longer and harder than usual. After searching
with tlie greatest attention the passages above-
mentioned he found in the right passage one
egg, and in the right horn of the matrix two
more, not bigger than a grain of mustard-seed :
those little eggs were each closed in double
membranes, and the inner one was filled with

a very

NATURAL HISTORY. 35

a rery limpid liquor. Having examined the
other ovarium he ll>und four folliculcs that"
were changed, three of which Vicre v.hitc arid
h^tiAi little liquor within them : but the fourth
was of a dilrket colour, and contained no li-
quor, which made him judge that from this the
egg had been separated. Pursuing his enqui-
ries he found an egg in the superior extremity
of the other horn, and exactly like those he had
discovered in tlie right one. He says that
the eggs which are separated from the ovary
are ten times smaller than those which -are
fastened to it; and he thinks that this dif/er-
ence is occasioned from the eggs containing,
when they are in the ovaries, another matter,
and that is the glandular liquor he remarked in
the molecules.

Four days after copulation he opened another,
and found in one of t lie ovaries four, and in the
other three follicules, emptied of their eggs ;
and in the horns corresponding to these he
found an equal number of eggs. These eggs
were larger than the first that he found three
days after copulation, and were about the
size of a small bird-sliot ; he also remarked
that the internal membrane in these eggs was
Si'paratcd from the external, and appeared like

F 2 a second

a second egg in the first. In another, dissected
five days after copulation, he found five empty
follicules in the ovaries, and as many cggvS in
the matrix, to ^vhkh they adhered. These
eggs were about the size of a duck-shot, and the
internal membrane was more apparent than ir^;
the one he had observed before. In one which*
he opened six days after copulation tliere were
six empty follicules in one ovaria, and only
five eggs in the corresponding horn, and they*
appeared in one mass ; in the other ovaria were
four empty follicules and but one egg ; these
eggs were as big as swan-shot. He opened
another on the seventh day after copulation,*
and found seven empty follicules ; he also per-
ceived several internal tumours in the matrix,
from whence he took eggs the size of a pistol-
bullet. Its membrane was more distinct than
before, but contained only a very clear liquor.
In one, eight days after copulation, he found in
the matrix tumours, or cells, which contained
the eggs, but they were very adherent, for he
could not loosen them. In another, nine days
after copulation, the cells, which contained the
eggs, were greatly increased, and he saw that
the liquor inclosed by the internal membrane
had now got a light cloud floating upon it.

He

NATURAL "ttlgfORY. 3T

He opened another ten da j« after copulation
and the cloud was thicker, and formed an ob-
lon£^ body, like a little v/orm. At last, on the
twelfth day after copulation, the figure of the
embryo was distinctly to be perceived,, .which
two days before only presented the figuTC of
an oblon«: body ; it was even so apparent tliat
the different members mia^ht be disting'irished*
In the region of the breast he perceived two
red and twowhite specks, and in theabcibmen
a mucilaginous substan<5e; somewhat reddish.
Fourteen days after copulation the head of the
embryo was Ijecome large and transparent, the
eyes prominent, the mouth open, the rudiments
ofthe^ars appeared; the backbone, of a whitish
colour, -was bent towards the breast, and small
blood-vessels came from each side, whose rami*
fications ran along the back as far as the feet;
the two red specks, being considerably increas-
ed, appeared to be no other than the ventricles
of the heart ; by the sides of these Yed specks
t?ere two white ones, which were the rudi-
ments of the lungs. In the abdomen the out-
lines of the liver were seen of a reddisli co-
lour, and a little intricate mass, like a ravelled
thread, which was the stomach and intestines.
After this tlic process was no more tlian a

growth

growth and expansion of eycry part till the
Ihirty-first dc} , wbcn the female rabbit brings
forth ber young k

; From these experiments DeGraaf concludes,
that all viviparous females have eo^gs ; that
Ihesc eggs arc contained in the testicles, called
ovaries; that, they cannot disengage tliemsclves
till ihey are impregnated, because, he says, the
glandular substance, by means of ^vhich the
fggs quit their foUiculcs, is not produced till
sf(cr an impregnation^ Me, also insists, that
ihoscwho suppose they have ^eeu eggs in only
(wo or three days; increased, in size, must haviC,
Ix^en mistaken, for these eggs remaui a longer.
tirti<l in the ovary, altliough fecundat'ed, and
instead of immediately iucreasiiig,; the^' r^ither
diminish until they are descended from the
©varies into the matrix. » t^au;

^y comparing these observations \yith thos^
of IJarvej^, we shall easily perceive . tluit tiic
principal circumstances have escaped the lat-
ter ; and altriough there arc man}' errors in the
reasoning and experiments of De Graaf, never-
tlielcss this anatomist, as well as Malpighius,
has made better observations than Harvey.
They agree in the principal points, and are
both contrary to Harvey ; the hitter had never
1 0 seen

NATURAL HISTORr. ^9^

seen the alterations which happen io tjieovurv ;
he did not see the small o-lobules in the matrix
which contain theapparatuc of generation, and
which De Graaf calls eggs. He had not even
a supposition that the foetus existed in this
eg-o- ; and though his experiments gave us near-
ly an exact account of what occurs during
the growtli of the foetus, thej give us no in-
formation cither of the moment of fecunda-
tion or of the first developeraent, Schrader,
a Dutch physician, who held Harvey in great,
veneration, owns that we must not put toa
great a reliance in that anatomist in many
things, and especially on what he says of the
fecundative moment, for the chicken in flict Ls
in the egg before incubation, and that Joseph
de Aromatarius was the. first who observed
it.* Although Harvey pretended that every
animal proceeds from an egg, he did not ima-
gine that the testicles of females contained tlicsci
eggs, and has only irpeated what Aristotle has
said on this subject. The first who speaks
of having discovered eggs in female ovaries i*
Steno, who says, in dissecting a female sea-dog
he saw eggs in the testicles, although that ani^
mal is viviparous ; and he adds, that tlio tos-

I icieg
* Ue Observ. Justl Schraderi, Amst. 1674,

40 BL'FFON'Sl

tides of ^vomen arc aiialoe:ous to the ovaries
of oviparous animals, whether the es!:gs fall in
any manner into the matrix, or Avliether there
only falls the matter they contain. Although
Steno is the first who discovered these pre-
tended eggs, De Graaf claims the merit to
himself, and Swammerdam has disputed it with
him, insisting that Van Horn had perceived
these eggs before De Graaf. It is true this
Inst writer stands cliarged with asserting many
things experience has found to be false. He
pretended tliat a judgment might be formed of
the number of foetuses contained in the matrix
by the number of cicatrices, or empty folli-
«ules, in the ovary, which is not true, as wc
may see by the observations of Vcrrheyen,*
and by those of M. Mery,f and by some of
De Graaf 's own observations, where lie found
fewer eggs in tlie matrix than cicatrices in the
ovaries. Besides, we shall make it appear
that what he says concerning the separation of
the eggs, and the maimer in which tlicy de-
•scend into the matrix, is not exact ^ that do
€ggs exist in the female testicles; tlmtwhat is
yeen in the matrix is not au egg; and that no'-

tJiing

* Vol. I. chap. iii. Brussels edit. 1710.
f Hist of the Academ. 170-1.

NATURAL HISTORY. 41

tliini!^ can be uorse founded than tlie systems
endeavoured to be established on the observa-
tions of this famous anatomist.

This pretended discovery of eggs in the
testicles of females attracted the attention of
most anatomists ; they, however, only met
vyi(h small bladders in the testicles of female
viviparous animals, these they did not hesitate
to look on as real eggs : they therefore gave
the name of ovaries to the testicles, and called
the vesicles eggs^ They also said, with De
Graaf, that there are eggs of different sizes in
the ovarium ; that the largest in the ovarium
of women was not above the size of a small
pea ; that they were very small in the young,
but increased with age and intercourse with
men ; that twenty might be counted in each
ovarium ; that these eggs are fecundated in the
ovarium by the spirited part of the seminal li-
quor of the male ; that afterwards they loosen
and fall into the matrix, where the foetus is
formed, from the internal substance of the egg
and the placenta of the external matter ; that
the glandular substance, which does not exist
in the ovarium till after a fruitful copulation,
serves to compress the eggy and make it quit
the ovarium? &c. But Malpighius having
Vol. hi. G examlaed

i3 BUFFO N*S

examined things more minutely, detected many
of their errors before they were even received ;
yet most physicians adopted the sentiments
of De Graaf, without any attention to the
observations of Malpigh ins : which, notwith-
standini]^, are very important^ and to which
his scholar Valisnieri has given a great deal
of weight.

Malpighius and VaTisnieri, of all naturalists^
speak with the greatest foundation on the
subject of generation. We shall therefore
give an account of their experiments and re-
marks, to which we cannot pay too much
attention.

Malpighius having examined a great num*
ber of the testicles of cows and other female
animals, affirms that he found vesicles of dif-
ferent sizes in the testicles of all of them^
whether j^oung or adults ; these vesicles are
inclosed by a thick membrane, in the inner
parts of which there are blood-vessels, tilled
with a kind of lymph, or liquor, which hard-
ens by the heat of the fire like the white of an

In time a firm yellow body grows whicI^

adheres to the testicles. It is prominent and

increases to the size of a cherry^ occupying*

' " tlis*

NATURAL HISTORY. 43

tlie greatest part of the ovarium. The body is
composed of many little angular tubes, and its
position is irregular ; it is covered ^vith a coat,
or membrane, spread over Avilh nerves and
blood-vessels. The appearance and form of
.this yellow body are not always the same, but
vary according to time. When not above the
size of a millet seed, it is nearly globular, and
if divided appears composed of a kind of va-
riegated net-work. Very often an external
■covering is observed-, composed of the same
substance as the yellow body^ around tlie ve-
sicles of the ovarium.

When the yellow body is become nearly of
the size of a pea, it is the shape of a pear, in
which is a small cavity filled with liquor ; as
is also the case when grown to the size of a
cherry, in some of these yellow substances,
•when increased to their full maturity, Mal-
pighius says, a small egg, with its appendages,
not bigger than a millet seed, may be seen near
the centre; when they have cast out their
-eggs they are empty, resemble a cavernous
passage, and the cavities which inclose them
are about the size oif peas. He thinks this
yellow and glandular substance nature pro-
duces to preserve the egg^ and assist it in leav-

G 2 in»

44 buffon's

ing the testicles, and perhaps to contribute to-
wards the generation of the egg itself; con-
sequently, he says, the vesicles, "svhich are
always observed in the ovary, and which are
of different sizes, are not real eggs that may
be fecundated, but only serve for the produc-
tion of the yellow body where the egg is to be
formed. On the whole, although tlicsc yellow
substances are not found at all times in all
testicles, we nevertheless always find tlie first
traces of them, and Malpighius having seen the
marks of them in young heifers, cows that
were with calf, and in pregnant women, he
reasonably concludes that this yellow and
glandular substance is not, as De Graaf has
supposed, the effect of fecundation, but wliat
produces the infecund eggs, which leave the
ovary without any communication with tlie
male, as well as to those wliich leave it after
communication. When the latter falls into
the tubes of the matrix, all the rest is per-
formed as De Graaf has described.

These observations of Malpighius shew
that the testicles of females are not real ova-
ries, as most anatomists believe ; that the
vesicles they contain are not eggs ; that these
vesicles never fall into the matrix ; and that

the

NATXTRAL HISTORY. 45

tlie testicles, like tliose of the male, are kinds
of reservoirs, containing a liquor ^vliich must
be looked upon as an imperfect -seed of tbe fe-
male, that is perfected in the yellow glandular
borly -which fills Ihe internal cavity, and is shed
"when the glandular substance has acquired its
full maturily. But before we decide on this
important point, we must relate the observa-
tions of V'alisnieri ; and we shall i^jerceivc that,
though Malpighius and V^alisnieri have made
good observations, they have nut carried thera
far enough, nor drawn those consequences
from them which their observations might na-
turally have produced, because they were botk
prejudiced for the system of eggs, and of the
foetus pre-existing therein.

Valisnieri began his experiments in 1692,
on the testicles of a sow, whose testicles are not
composed like those of a cow, sheep, mare,
bitch, female ass, she goat, nor most other
viviparous females, for they resemble a small
bunch of grapes, whose seeds are round and
prominent outwardly. Between these seeds
tliere are smaller, which have not arrived to
maturity. These seeds do not apj>ear to be
surrounded with one common membrane ;
they are, he says, simijar to those yellow ,sul3-

stanc^es

46 buffon's

stances v>hich Malpighius observed in cows ;
ihey are round, of a reddish colour, Iheir sur-
face sprinkled over with sanguinary vessels like
the eggs of viviparous animals, and together
form a mass larger than the ovary ; we may,
with a little address, and by dividing the mem-
brane, separate these grains one by one, and
draw them from the ovary, where they each
leave an impression.

These glandular substances arc not of the
same colour in every sow, in some they are red,
in others more clear ; and they are of all sizes,
from the most minute point to that of a grape.
On opening them we find a triangular cavity
filled with a limpid liquor, which coagulates
by the fire, and becomes white like that con-
tained in the vesicles. Valisnieri hoped to meet
"with the egg in one of those cavities, but al-
thouirh he souirlit for it with the utmost assi-
duity in the glandular substance of the ovaries
of four different sows, and afterwards in those
of other animals, yet he could never discover
the egg which Malpighius asserts to have met
vilh once or twice.

Below these glandular substances the vesicles
of the ovary were seen, and which were in a
greater or lesser number as the glandular sub-
stances

JfATURAL HHTORT. 17

Stances are thicker or smaller, for in proportion
as the glandular substances increase, the vesiclesi
diminish. Some of these vesicles were the size
of a lentil, and others as small as a millet-seed.
In crude testicles twenty, thirty, or thirty-five
vesicles might be counted, but when boiled
a greater number are seen ; and they are so
strongly connected by fibres and membraneous
vessels, that it is impossible to separate them
without a rupture.

Having examined the testicles of a sow
which never had littered, he found there, as m
the rest, glandular bodies, and their triangular
cavities filled with lymph, but never met witit
the egg either in the one or the other. The
vesicles of this sow which had never littered
were greater in number than ia tiwse whick
had littered or conceived. In the testicles of
another sow which had conceived, and whose
young were much expanded, he faund tw4>
large glandular substances, that were empty^
and others smaller, in their common state.
Having also dissected many others when witk
young, he found that the number of glandular
substances was alwavs o^rcater than that of the
foetus, which confirms our observations oa
Dq Graaf's experiments^ and proves they arer
7 not

4S BUFFON^S

not exact ; what lie terms the follicules of
the ovary being only the glandular substances,
T^hose number always exceed that of the foetus.
In the ovaries of a sow but a few months old,
the testicles were large, and sprinkkd with
Tcsicles pretty well tumefied : between these
vesicles there were four rising glandular sub-
stances in one of the testicles, and more in the
ether.

After having finished his experiments on
Fows, Yalisnieri repeated those of M alpighius
on the testicles of cows, and found that all he
had said was conformable to truth ; only Valis*
nieri owns that he has never been able to find
the egg which Malpighius thought he had seen
once or twice in the internal cavity of glandu-
lar bodies. Valisnicri proceeded in his experi-
ments upon a variety of other animals to dis-
cover this eggy but in vain ; nevertlieless his
prejudice for that system induced him, con-
trary to his experience, to admit the existence
of eggs, wliich neither he nor any other man
ever did or ever will see. It is scarcely possible
to make a greater number of experiments, or
better than he has done. He observes, as some-
thing particular to a ewe, that there are never
more glandular substances in the testicles than

fcetuses

N'ATURAL JilSTORY. 49

foetuses in the malrix. In young ewes, \\ir;ch
have never been with the male, Ji re L but one
chmdukr substance in each testicle, -which
when worn away, anotlu r is found ; a.d it a
ewe has Ohly one tbet us in her matrix, there is
but one glandular substance in V e testicles; if
thcrQ are two foetuses there will be two glan-
dular substances. This substance occupies the
greatest part of the testicles; afierit disappears
another is formed for the purpose of another
generation.

In the testicles of a she-ass he perceived ve-
sicles the size of small cherries, wliicli evident-
ly prove they are not eggs, since, beifig of ihat
size, they could not enter ihto the horns of the
matrix, which are too narrow in this animal
for their reception.

The testicles of a female dog, wolf, or fox^
have a kind of cov.l, or coveriug, which is pro-
duced by the expansion of the membrane that
surrounds the hor^s of the matrix. In a bitch,
whose heat was just bcg:ui, and had not been
brought to a dog, Vaiisaieri found this cowl^
which is not adherent to tlie testicle, internally-
bathed with a liquor like whey : he discovered
also tw o glandular substances in the right testi-
cle, which run almost its w hole length. These
VOL. III. H glandular

So BUFFO n's

glandular substances had each a small nipptc,
whli a little orifice, from which of itself issued
a clear liquor like whey, and when pressed, a
greater quantity came out, which made him
imagine, that this liquor was the same as that
found within the cowl : he blew into this ori-
fice, by the means of a small pipe, and imme-
diately the gland(dar body was pulfed up; and
having inlroduceda bristle, he easily penetrated
to the end of it : he opened this glandular sub-
stance the same way as the bristle was entered,
and found within acavity Mhich communicated
with the orifice, and which also contained a
good deal of liquor. Valisnieri was also in
hopes to discover the egg, but, notwithstand-
ing all his endeavours and strict attention, he
never could perceive it. He remarked, that the
extremity of these nipples, from which this li-
quor flowed, was contracted by a sphincter,
which served to shut up, or open the orifice of
the nipple: he found also in the left test iclet^va
glandular bodies with the like cavities, nipples,
orifices, and liquor distilling from them. Still
not being able to find the egg, neither in this
liquor, nor in the cavity which contained it, ha
boiled two of these glandular substances, hoping
that by this means he might discover the ob-
ject

N.\TUIIAL HISTORY. 51

jrct he was in pursuit of, bat it ^vas all ia
vain.

Ilavinir opened anoflier biU b, eii^ht or nine
clavs after slie had been with the male, he foHiid
no (liHerence in the testicles; there were three
glanduhir substances like ihtj preceditii^ one.^,
and, like fhem, di;»tiHed a liquor from the nip-
ples. Here he also persevered in his frufticss
researclies after tlie egg. By ihe help of a mi-
croscope, he perceived the glandular substances
Mere a kind of vascular net-work, formed hjaii
in/inite number of small globular vesicles v> hich
served to hltre the liquor that issues, throitgli
the end of the nipple.

After this he opened another bitch "whose
beat was off, and having- inlrodnced airbefwcen
the testicle and its covering,he found it dil;jt<tl
like a bladder by means of inflation ; having"
raised this cowl, he fouud three glandularsnb-
stances on the testicle, bnt they had no appa-
rent nipple, nor orifice, nor did any liquor
distil from them,

Inanotherbitch (hat liad pupped t>vo months,
and had five puppies, he found five glandnlar
substances, which were become very small, and
began to obliterate, without leaving any cicn-

II 2 trices ;

53 buffon's

triers : llicre sfill remained a smnll cavity in
the middle, but it was dry and empty.

Not content wiih tliese, and many more ex-
periments, V alisnieri, Avho would not give up
Ills researches after the pretended egg, called
together the most cxj ert anatomists of his
country, among \.hom wasM. Morgagni, and
having o|-ened a young bitch at the time of lier
first heat, and had been with a male three days
before, they cxamiheJ the vesicles of the ie:ii['*
cles, the inland ular substances with tlieir nip-
ples, orifice, a!id liquor which flowed from
them, and in their internal cavities, but not an
egg was to be foujid. After this he made ex-
periments on female goats, foxes, cats, and a
great number of mice, &c. He always found
vesicles in the testicles of all those animals, and
often the glnndular substances, and the liquor
they c^n;ain<Hl, bat never any eirg.

At long' h 5 desirous of examinmg tlie testi-
cles of a woman, he had an opjjortunity of
O] enins: a farmer's wife, a young woman that
was Ivilled by a fall from a tree. She had been
ip;^rried several years, but although of a good
Cliabit of body, yet she had never borne a child.
He sought if the cause of her sterility was not

discoverable

naturatj insfoRY. ti

discoverable in the te4icles; and lie found the
vesicles all replete with a blackibli and cor^
nipted matter.

In the testicles of a girl of eighteen, who had
hecn brought up in a convent, and, accordini*
to all appearances, was a virgin, he fonnd the
jriii'ht testicle .somewhat laro;er than the lefts
its shape wns oval, and its surf ice a little nnr
equal. This iiiequalitj was produced by the
protuberance of five or six vesicles of this tes-
ticle which advanced forwards; one of which
tvas more prominent than any of the rest. Hav-*-
ing opened this vesicle, a spirit of lymph issued
out: around it there was a glandular substance
in form of a crescent of ayellowish colour rather
bordering on the red. He cut the remainder
part of tlie testicle transversely, and found many
vesicles filled with a limpid liquor, and remark-
ed that the corresponding trunk to this testicle
uas very red and a little longer than the oilier,
as he had frequently observed in female ani-
mals, when in their amorous season.

The left testicle v/as as round as the right, it
%vas whiter, and its surface more smooth ; for
although there were some vesicles a little pro-
minent, yet there were not any in form of a nip-
ple 5 they were all alike, without any glandular

substance.

54: BUPFON's

9uhbiiW€C^ a^ncl ihe corrcspoRcliiig frank was
Kcither infliinied nor red.

In a little g'iri of five years old^ lie found tlic
Iciiticles with the vesicles, blood veshiels, ftbrcs
and aerves complele.

In tlic lesticles of »i woman sixty years of-
age, Ii<; found some vesicles, and the vestiges
of 3 glandular substance^ ^vhieh were as sa
many tliick points of matter of a da^k brown^
j&h colon F.

From nil tlicse observations Valijinieri cort-*
cTudcSjthat tJtcbusiness of generation is carricti
©n in the female testicles, which he looked upon
as ovaries, although he never found any eggs ii^
them, but on the contrary, evidently saw that
the vesicles were not eggs, lie also says, that
it is not necessary for the seed of the male to
enter into the matrix to impregnate the eg'g : he
snpposes that the eg:g comes from the nipple of
ihe glandular substance, after impregnation in
the ovarium; that from thence it falls into the
trunk, and descends by degrees, till at last it
fastens to the matrix. He adds, he is persuaded
that the egg is concealed in t]i<? glandular sub*
stance, and (Iiat all the business of generation
is performed in the cavity, although neither h(?

NATUllAIj IIIStORY. 55

nor ally otlicr anatomist, have ever seen or
been able (o find it.

According to Valisnicrl the spirit of the
male seed ascends to the ovarium, forces its
wny into the egg", and gives motioji to the
foetus that pre-exists therein. In the ovarium
of the first woman were eggs, which not only
inclosed in miniature every child she brought
forth, but of the whole human race. That if
•we cannot conceive this infinite chain of in-
dividuals contained in one, it is the fault of our
minds, the weakness of which is ever\" dar
perceptible ; but it is, upon that account, no
Ic^s true, that every animal which has been, is^
and will be, were created all at one time, and
inclosed in the first females. The resemblance
of children to parents only proceeds, continues
he, from the imagination of the mother, the
power of w hich is so great on the foetus that
it can produce on it spots, marks, dispropor-
tions, and extraordinary births^ as well as per-
fect resemblances.

This system of the eggs, which is unrea-
sonable, and w ithout foundation, would, never-
tlieless, have obtained the unanimous suffrages
of all physicians, if, when it was fir!>t endea-
voured to be establUhcd, another system find

« liOt

55 BurroN's .

npt beeu formed on the discovery of spermatic
animals.

This discovery, for wliicli we are indebted
to Leeuwcnlioeck and Ilarlsoeker, has been
confirmed by Andri, Valisnieri, Bourgnet, and
many other objseryers of Nature. 1 shall re-r
late -vvliQt has been said concerning the sper-
matic animals ^vhich are found in tlie seminal
liquor of all males : they are in such vast num-
bers that the semen seems to be entirely com-
posed of them ; and Leeuwenhoeck pretends
to have seen many millions of them in a drop
smaller than the smallest grain of sand. Al-
though Ave do not meet with any in female
animals they abound in all males, both in the
semencmii ted naturally and that in the testicles,
as Avcll as in the seminal vesicles. 1 f the semen
of a man is exposed to a moderate heat it
thickens, and the motions of all the animal-
cules immediately cease, but if allowed to
cool it becomes tliinner,. and the animals pre-
serve their motion till tlie liquor thickens as it
dries away. The thinner the liquor becomes
tlie more the animalcule increase, and if water
is added it will appear like a substance of small
animals. When the motion of these animal-
cule is nearly fiuisiicd, whether from heat, or

NATl/RAL HISTORY. 67

any other cause, tlicy sciem' to acseiTil3te 'closer
too'ctlier, and have a ^vliirlino: motion in the
centre of a small drop ^vhich may have been
taken out for observation, and appear all to
perish at one and the same time, whereas in
the larger portion of the liquor they are easily
seen to perish successiv^ely.

The animalculae, say they, have different
figures in different animals ; nevertheless they
are alt long, slender, without any appearance
of limbs, and move with rapidity. The fluid
which contains them, as we have already ob-
served, is heavier than blood. The semen of a
bull afforded Verrheyen, bya chemical process,
first phlegm, afterwards a considerable quantity
of foetid oil, but litle volatile salt, and much
more earth than he could have thought.* This
author appears surprised that in rectifying the
distilled liquor he could not draw any spirit
from it, and being )>ersuaded it contained a?
great quantit}', he attributed the evaporation to
its great subtili<y : but may it not be more rea-
sonablj' imagined that it contains very little or
no spirits, as neither its consistency nor smell
announce any ardent spirit, and wliich is only
plentifully found in fermented liquors ? besides,^
VOL. III. I with

* See Veerheyen, sup, anat. tom.ii. page C9.

5S buffon's

.witli respect to volatile spirits, the horns, bones,
;and other solid parts of animals, afford more
than all the liquor of the animal body. What
jinatomists have called animal spirits, aura sC"
minalisy may possibly not exist ; and it is cer-
tainly not these spirits which agitate the par*
tides seen moving in the seminal liquors; but
"we will here relate the principal observations
that have been made on this subject.

Leeuwenhoeck observed, in the semen of a
cock, animals which resemble the figure of an
eel, but so exceedingly minute, that he pretends
fifty thousand would not equal in size a grain
of sand ; and in that of a rat many millions
would be required to make the thickness of a
hair, &c. This observer imagined that the
whole substance of the semen was only a mass
of these animalcules. He perceived these ani-
malculae in the semen of men, quadrupeds,
birds, fishes, insects, &c. In that of grass-
hoppers they were long and slender. They are
attached, he says, by their extremities, and the
inferior of which he calls tlie tail, had a quick
motion, like that of the tail of a serpent, when
the upper part is motionless. He further adds,
that in the semen of young animals theanimaU
culae are motionless, but as the age for repro-

duct ion

NATURAL HISTORY. SO*

d action comes on they move about 'svitli great
vivacity.

In the semen of a malfe frog he observed
animalcule, at first they Mere imperfect and'
motionless, but some time afterwards he fouiid'
them living : they were so veify small, he says,
that ten thousand would scarcely equal the siz^'
of a single egg of the female. It was oiily
those in the seminal liquor of the frog which
Lad life and motion.

In the semen of a man, and that of a dog,
he pretends to have seen two kinds, which he
looked upon as males and females. Having
inclosed the seed of a dog in a vial, he saysj
that numbers of the animalculae died the first
d^y ; the second and third there died still more^
and very few remained alive the fourth. But
having repeated this experiment on the semen
of the same dog, he found, at the end of seven
days, live animalculae, some of which swAm
with as much swiftness as in fresh-extracted
semen ; and having opened a bitch which had
been three times with the same dog, he could
not perceive by the naked eye any seminal
liquor of the male in either of the horns of
the matrix ; but by help of a microscope he
discovered the spermatic animals of the dog

12 m

^ buffon's

in both liorns of the matrix, and great numbers^
of them in that part of the matrix adjoining to
the vagina, wliich, says he, evidently proves
that the male semen enters the matrix, or at-
least that the spermatic animals of tlie dog had
got there by their own motion, which is suf-
ficient to carry them four or five inches in Iialf
an* hour. In the matrix of a doe rabbit, which
had just received the buck, he likewise observ-
ed an infinite number of spermatic animals ;
hesays, that their bodies are round, wit li long
tails, and that they ofien change their forms,
especially when the humid matter in which
they swim evaporates and dries.

Jvceuwenhoeck's experiments have been
frequently repeated and found conformable to
truth. There have been some inclined to
exceed him in these discoveries. Dr. Dalen-
patius having observed the seminal liquor of a
man, not only pretended to have discovered
animals like tiidpoles, whose bodies appeared
nearly the size of a grain of wheat, and their
tails four or ^yg times longer than their bodies,
arid which moved with great agility, but, what
is;still more marvellous, he observed one of
ttee animals quit its covering; upon which it
was no longer an animalcule, but had. become

» • a human

NATURAL HISTORY. 61

a luittiau body, the two legs of which, he af-
:0rms, were very discernible, as were the arms,
breast, and head.* But by the figures which
this author has given of this pretended em-
bryo, it is evident his assertion is false. He
might suppose he saw what he relates, but he
>vas mistaken ; for the embryo, such as he
describes, was more formed on quitting this
covering, and the state of a spermatic worm,
than it would have been at the end of a month
or five weeks in the matrix of its mother ;
therefore this observation of Diilenpatiiis, in-
stead of having been confirmed by other ob-
servations, has been rejected by every. natural-
ist, the most exact and accurate of which
have only discovered, in the seminal liquor
of man, round and oblong bodies, which seem-
ed to have long tails, but without any kind of
members.

It miglit be said that Plato had spoken
of these spermatic animals which become hu-
man forms; for he says, *' Vulva quoque ma-
trix que in foeminis eadem ratioae animal
avidem generandi, quando procul a fostu per
aetatis florem, aut ultra diutiusdetinetur, aegre

fert

* SeeNouvelles de ia Republlque des Lettres. Aac. 1659,

ir^

62 vrFFoy s

/ertmorahi he plurimiimindignatiir^passimqti^
^LT corpus Oucrrans, nicadis spirit us inteTclu^
Jit, respirarc non finit, extremis vexat angus-
tiis, morbis denique omnibus premit, quosque
Jitrorumquc Cupido amorque quasi ex arbo-
ribus foetum fiiictumve producunt, ipsum
deinde dccerpunt, & in matricem velut agrehi'
ihspargunt: hinc animalia prinium talia, lit'
nice propter parvitatem videantur, needura ap-
pareant formata, concipiunt : mox qucE con-
fiaverant, expl leant, ingentia, intus cnutriunt,
dcraumeducunt in lucem, animaliumquegene-
rationcm perficiunt." Hippocrates, in his
freatise De Diwfa, seems also to insinuate, that
the seed of animals is replete with animalcules.
Dcmocritus speaks of certain worms which
take the human figure, and Aristotle says, that
the first men came out of the earth in the form
of worms ; but neither the authority of Plato,
Hippocrates, Democritus, Aristotle, nor the
observation of Dalenpatius, can make us re-
ceiyc tlie idea that these spermatic worms arc
small human bodies, concealed under a cover-
ing ; for it is evidently contrary to experience
arid observation.

Valisnieri and Bourguet, whom we liave

quoted; discovered small worms in the seed of

-t a raBbit,

NAtURAL HISTORY. <)3

a rabbit, one of whose extremities was tlnckcr
tliaa the other ; tlicy were very lively and ac-
tive, struck the liquor with their tails, and
twisted and turned themselves likesnakes. At
last(sajsValisnieri)I clearly pcrcv?ivcd them to
he real animals, ^' e gli riconobbi, e gli giu-
dicai senza dubitamento alcano per veri, ve-
rissimi arciverissimi verrai*." This author,
who was prejudiced with the system of eggs,
^as, nevertheless, admitted of spermatic worms^
and taken them for real animals.

M. Andry having made observations on these
spermatic worms of a man, pretends that ther
are only found in the age proper for generation ;
that in the younger years, and in old age, they
do not exist : that in those affecfcd with vene-
real disorders there are very few, and those are
languishing, and for the most part dead : that
In impotent persons we do not see any alive ;
that these worms in the semen of men have
larger heads than in that of other animals,
wliich agrees, he says, with the figure of the
foetus and the child ; and he adds, those
people who too frequently enjoy female amours,
have generally but few or none of tliese ani-
malcules in their semen.

L6eu wen hoeck,

* Opere dell. Cav. Valisnieri, vol. II. page 105.

61 buffon\s

Lfieu v/ciihocck, Andry, and manj odicrs,
stremiousTy opposed (he e^^g system ; tlicy had
discovered in the semen of all males living ani-
malcules ; (hey proved (hat these animalcules
could not be regarded merely as dwelling in
(his liqnor, since their bulk was greater than
that of the liquor itself ; and that nothing like
them was found either in the blood, or in the
other animal liquors. They asserted, that fe-
males furnished nothing similar, nothing alive ;
and it was therefore evident that \hc fecun-
clity attributed to them belonged, on the con-
trary, to males alone : and (hat (he discovery
of these spermatic animals in the semen tended
more to the explanation of generation than all
that had been before supposed ; since, in fact,
'what was most difficult to conceive in genera-
tion, was the production of the living part, all
the rest being only accessary operations, and
therefore no do\ibt could remain but these little
animals were destined to become men, or per-
fect animals of their kind. When it was op-
posed (othe par(izans of (his system, (ha( it did
not seem natural to suppose that so many mil-
lions of animalcules, every one of which might
become a humanbeing, should be employed for
d purpose of which one alone was to reap the

advantage ;

NATUH^L illSTORY. 65^

aelvanfage ; Mheii it was asked tliem, ^\hy this
Hsdess profusion of (lie shoots of human beings ?
they answered, that it was only consonant with
thti common munificence of nature : that out
of many millions of seeds which plants and
trees prochico, but a very few succeed, and
therefore we must not be surprised at the same-
circumstance in spermatic animals. When
the infinite minuteness of the spermatic worm,
compared to man, was objected to them, they
ansAvered, by the example of the seed of trees;
and they added, with some foundation, meta-
physical reasonings, by which they proved
that great and small being only relations, the
transition from small to great, or from great to
small, was executed by nature with still more
facility than we can conceive.

Besides, continue they, have we nojt very fre-
quent examples of transformation in insects ? do
we not see small aquatic worms become wing-
ed animals, by Only tlirowing oiF their coats,
which were their apparent and external forms ?
and may not spermatic animals, by a similar
transformation, become perfect animals? All
therefore, they conclude, concurs to favour
this system of generation, and confuting that
founded on eggs; and if tiiereareeggs in viyi-..
VOL. III. K parous

66 buffon's

parous females^ the same as in the oviparous,
these eggs will only be the necessary matter for
the growth of the spermatic worm, which en-
ters into the egg by the pedicle that adheres to
the ovarium, and where it meets with food rea-
dy prepared for it. All the worms which find
not this passage through the pedicle into the
egg will perish, and that one which alone has
traced its way will arrive at its transformation.
The difficulty of meeting with the passage in
the pedicle of the egg, can only be compensated
by the infinite number of spermatic worms. It
is a million to one that any particular sperma-
tic worm Avill meet with the pedicle of the egg,
and therefore what at first appears a profusion
is highly necessary. When one has entered, no
other can introduce itself, because, say they,
the first worm entirely shuts up the passage, or
there is a valve at the entrance of the pedicle,
which is free when the egg is not absolutely
full; but when the worm has filled the egg, the
valve can no longer open although impelled by
another worm. This valve is very well imagin-
ed, because, if the first worm should chance to
return, it opposes its egress, and oblige? it to
remain and undergo the transformation. The
spermatic worm then becomes the foetus, the

substance

NATURAL HISTORY. 67

substance of the egg its food, the membranes,
its covering, and \vhen the nutriment in the
egg is nearly exhausted, the foetus adheres to
the internal skin of the matrix, and thus de-
rives nourishment from the parent's blood, tiU
hy its weight, and augmentation of its strength,
it breaks through its imprisonment, and comes:
perfect into the "world .

By this system it was not the first woman
who inclosed all mankind, but the first man
who contained all posterity in his body. The
pre-existing germs are no longer embryos with-
out light, inclosed in the eggs, and contained
one in another, ad infinitum ; but they are
small animals, the little homunculae organized
and actually living, included in each other in
endless succession, and to which nothing is
wanting for them to become perfect animak,
and human beings, but expansion^ assisted hy
a transformation similar to that which winged
insects undergo.

As our present physicians are divided on
these two systems of spermatic vvorms and
eggs, and as all those who have lately written
on generation have adopted one or the other
of these opinions, it seems necessary to examine
them with care, and to shew that they are not

K 2 only

68 BUFror^V

only sufficient io explain (be phenomena of
generation, but arc also founded on supposi-
tions void of all probability^

Both suppose an infinite progression ; Avhich,
as we have said, is not so much a reasonable
supposition as an illusion of the mind. A sper-
matic worm is more than a thousand million
times smaller than a man; if, therefore, we
suppose the body of a man as an unit, the size
of the spermatic worm can only be expressed by
the fraction tooo^oooo ; and as man is with
respect to the spermatic worm of the first gene-
ration, what this worm is to that of the second
generation, the size of the last spermatic worm
cannot be expressed but by a number composed
of nineteen cyphers ; and so likewise the size
of the spermatic worm of the third generation
will require 28 cyphers ; that of the fourth
generation 37 : the fifth 46, and the sixth 55
cyphers. To form an idea of the minuteness
represented by this fracticm, let us take the
dimensions of the sphere of tlie universe from
Sol to Saturn, and supposing the sun a million
times larger than the earth, and about a thou-
sand solar diameters distant from Saturn, we,
shall perceive that only 45 cyphers are re-
quired to express the number of cuhlc. lines
4 coiit:-Incd

NATL'RAT. HISTORY, ^^

conUiiicd in this splicrc ; and, by reducing:
each cubic line into a thousand miUious of
atoms, 54 cyphers are only required to express
that number; consequently a human bcins:
■Nvill be greater, with relation to a spermatic
worm of the sixtli generation, than the sphere
of the universe is witli relation to the smallest
atom TV liich is possible to be perceived by the
assistance of a microscope. What would it
be if we were to carry it to ten generations ?
The minuteness v/ould be so great, as to leave
us no mode of expressing it. The probability
of this opinion, therefore, evidently disappears
in proportion as the object diminishes. This
calculation may be apj)lied to eggs as well as
spermatic worms, and the want of probability
is general to both ; it will, no doubt, be said,
that matter being divisible, ad wfinitum^ there
fe no impossibility in this diminution of size ;
and although it is not probable, yet we must
regard this division of matter as possible, since
we can always, by thought, divide an atom into
a number of parts. Bat I answer, that the
same illusion is made use of on this infinite
divisibility as on every other geometrical and
arithmetical infinity; they are only abstractions
x>f the mind; and have no existence in nature.

If

1

7^ uuffon'*

Ifwc look on infinite divisibility of matter as
an absolute infinity, it is easy to demonstrate
that in that sense it does not exist ; for, if once
we suppose the smallest atom possible, by that
supposition this atom will necessarily be indi-
visible, since if it were divisible it would no
longer be the smallest atom possible, which
would be contrary to the supposition. It lliere-
fore seems to me, that every hypothesis where a
progress, ad injinitumj is admitted, ought to b«
rejected not only as false, but as void of all
probability ; and as the system of eggs and
spermatic worms supposes this progress, they
should not be admitted in philosophy.

Another great difficulty against these two
systems is, that in tlie egg system the first
Tvoman contained the male and female eggs :
the male eggs contained only a generation of
males ; and that, on the contrary, tJie female
eggs contained thousands of generations, both
of males and females ; insomuch that, at the
game time, and in the same woman, there was
always a certain number of eggs capable of
developing themselves to infinity, and another
number which would be unfolded but once.
The same circumstance must occur in the
other system) a?id therefore I ask if there is

the

NATURAL HISTORY. Vl

the smallest appearance of probability in these
suppositions ?

A tHird difficulty arises against these two
systems, ^vhich is, the resemblance that chil-'
dren bear, sometimes to the father and some-
limes to the mother, and sometimes to both;
and the evident marks of extraordinary diffe-
rence in mules. Sec, If from the spermatic
worm of the father the foetus is produced, ho\y
can the child resemble the mother ; and if the
foetus is pre-existing in the egg of the mother,
how can the child resemble its father ? or if'
the spermatic worm of a horse, or the egg of
a she-ass contains the foetus, how can (lie mule
participate in the nature and figure of both the
horse and the ass ?

These general difficulties, which are invin-
cible, are not the only ones that can be made
against these systems ; there are particular ones
which are no less potent. To begin with tlie
system of spermatic worms, may it not be asked
of those who admit of it, how they think this
transformation is made? and object to them,
that insects have not, nor cannot have any re-
lation with what they suppose. For the worm
which is to become a iiy, or the caterpillar
which is io become a butterfly, passes through

a midd^

7S- ^ ^,j,Bi;rro>'s.

a mkldle stale, and Ai^licn it ceases tabca chrj*
salis, it is completely formed and has acquired
its full si^e, and is then in acondition- of en-
gen derini^ ; whereas in tlic prelendcd transfor-
mation of the spermatic Avorra into man, ife
cannot be said to b<3 in a state of clirjrsalis, and
even if we slionld suppose one during the first
days of conception, why does not the produc-
tion; of this chrysalis^ instead of an unformed
embryo, suppose an adult and perfect being?
"\Ve plainly see how analogy is here violated ;
satd that far from confirming this idea of the
transformation of the spermatic worm, it is
instantly destroyed by examination.

Besides, tlic worm which is transformed into
a fly proceeds from an egg t the egg is the
produce of the copulation of the male and fe-
male, and includes the foetus, which must after-
wards enter into a chrysaiJ!^, before it arrives
at its state of perfection, as a fly ; in Avhich
iorm alone it has an ciigendering power ;
whereas the spermatic worm has no faculty
f)f generation, nor proceeds frojn an egg.
Even should we allow the semen to contain
pggs, from whence issue spermatic worms, the
samedifliGulty will stiil remain, for these sup-
posed eggs bavc not the copulation of the two

SCXGS

\

NATUltAL IIISTORr. 73

sexes for tlieir principle of existence, as in in*
sects ; consequently the partizans of that opi*
nion cannot pretend any similarity^ nor derive
any advantage from the transformation of in*
sects ; which rather destroys the basis of their
explanation.

When the innumerable multitude of sper-*
matic worms are opposed to tliose physicians
who are prejudiced by this system, tlicy an-
swer, as before observed, by the examples of
plants and trees. But tJiis comparison is not
entirely just, because all the spermatic worms
excepting one perish by absolute necessity,
which is not the case with the seeds of a tree
or plant, for those which do not become vege*
tables, serve as food for other organized bo-
dies, and for the expansion and reproduction
of animals ; whereas we do not see any use for
the spermatic wormsj or any end to which
we can refer their prodigious superfluity. On
the whole, I only make this remark in reply
to what is, or may be said on this matter ;
for I own, that no arguments drawn from final
causes will either establish or destroy a physie-
al system.

Another objection made against this opinion
is, there being, to all appe^irance; an equal
;TOL. III. L number

74 BUFFO n's

number of sejoarate worms in the seed of afl
kinds of animals, for, say thev, it is natural to
imagine, that in those kinds where fostuses are
most abundant, as in fishes, insects, Sec. tlic
number of spermatic worms should be more
numerous than in those where generation is least
abundant, as in man, quadrupeds, birds, &c.
for if they are the immediate cause of produc-
tion, why is there no proportion between their
number and that of the foetus ? Besides, there
is no proportionable diiference in the size of
most kinds of spermatic worms, those of lai-ge
animals being as small as those of the least.
Those of a rat, and those of a man, arc nearly
the same, and when there is any difference it i«
BO ways relative to the size of the individuaL
The Calmar, which is a very small fisli, has
spermatic worms above one hundred thousand
times larger than those of a man or a dog.
Another proof these worms are not the imme-
diate and only cause of generation.

The particular difficulties that may be raised
against this egg system are no less considerable.
If the foetus exists in the egg before the com-
munication of the male with the female, why
do we not perceive the foetus as well in thoscf
eggs produced before as after copulation ? We

Lav*

NATURAL HISTORY. 75

have before recounted the observations of Mal-
pighius, ^yllO says he always found the foetus in
those eggs produced by hens that had received
the cock, and only a mass or mole in the ci-
catrice of those who had not ; it is therefore
Tery clear that the foetus does not exist in the
egg till after impregnation.

Another difficulty against this system is,
that not only the foetus is not seen in eggs be-
fore the junction of the sexes, but even the
existence of eggs in viviparous animals is by
no means proved. Tliose physicians who pre-
tend that the spermatic worm is tlie foetus en-
veloped in a covering, are at least assured of
spermatic worms ; but those who affirm that
the foetus is pre-existing in the egg, have no
proof of the existence of the egg itself ; on the
contrary, there is a probability, almost equi-
valent to a certainty, that these eggs do not
exist.

Although the partizans of the egg system do
not agree what must be looked on as the true
egg in the female testicle, nevertheless they all
think that impregnation is made in the testicle
called the ovarium , without paying any atten-
tion that if it was so most foetuses would be
found in the abdomen instead of the matrix,

L2 for

76 bupfon's

for the superior extremity of the trunk bein^
separated from the ovarium, the pretended
eggs must often fall into the abdomen. Now,
it is certain that this case is extremely rare,
and, I believe, never happened, unless occa-
sioned by some accident.

The general difficulties and objections
against these two systems have been noticed
by the author of Venus P/u/sique, whose trea-
tise, although very short, has more philoso-
phical ideas than there are in many folio vo-
lumes on generation. As this book is very
public, and the accuracy with which it is writ-
ten will not permit any extract, I shall only
observe, this author is the first who lias re-
turned into the road of truth, from which we
were further strayed than ever, since the sup-
position of the egg system, and the discovery
of spermatic animals. Nothing therefore re-
mains farther to be said, and I shall conclude
with relating a few particular experiments,
some of which have appeared favourable, and
others contrary, to these systems.

In the History of the Academy of Sciences

of Paris, 1701, some objections arc proposed

by M. Mery against the egg systCiU. TJiis

fible anatomist supports, with reason, that the

8 Asides

NATURAL HISTORY. 77

vesicles fouiKl in the female testicles are not
eggs, but are so adherent to the internal sub-
stance of the testicle that they cannot be na-
turally separated therefrom; that if they could
separate themselves from this substance it would
be impossible for them to get out, because the
common membrane, which surrounds all the
testicle, is a web of too firm a texture to admit
of a conception ; that a vesicle, or round soft
egg^ could open a passage in it ; and as tlic
greatest number of physicians and anatomists
were prejudiced in favour of tlie egg system,
and, from the experiments of De Graaf, be-
lieved tiiat the number of cicatrices in the
testicles marked the number of foetuses, M.
Mery mentions the testicles of a woman, where
there was such a quantity of these cicatrices,
that, agreeable to this system, would have sup-
posed a fecundity almost beyond imagination.
These dilliculties excited otlier partizans of the
egg s^^stem to make new researches. M. Du-
verney examined and dissected the testicles of
cows and sheep : he pretended that the vesicles
were eggs, because there were some less ad-
liercnt to the testicles than others, and insisted
it was natural to believe, that when they came
to perfect mattirit^ they were separated alto-
gether,

gt^lhc^r, •cspfelally as by inflptiiif^ the iniferhal
cttVity of the testicle the* air passed between
these vej^icles and the adjoining pnrfs. M.
Meryorily anJ»iTcis that this is not a suffi(tient
proof, (since thCvSe vesicles have nerer be^n seen
separate from ihc testicles. M. Duverney re-«
marked the glandular bodies on the testicles,
biit he did not look on them as an essential and
ftece&feary p^rt townrds generation, but merely,
as accidental exuberances, like gall-niits. oft
ihe oak. M* Liltre, wliose prejadice for the
€gg system xva^ still greater, pretended, not
only that the vesicles were eggs, but ev6n as-
serted he had discovered in one of them a
well- formed foetus, of which he distinguished
the head and trunk very i)erfcGtly, and even
gave the dimensions. But besides this wonder
being only seen by that gentleman, and no
other naturalist, it is sufficient to read his Me-
moire* to perceive how doubtful was the fact.
By his own words we find the matrix was
schirrhous, that the testicle was corrupted, and
that the vesicle^ or egg, which contained this
imaginary foetus was smaller than the other
t^esicles, or eggs, which did not contain any
thing, &c.

A famous

*^ino 170I,pag;e S.

NATURAL HISTORV. 79

A famous cxperiraent, in favour of (ho egg
system, is supplied bj Dc Niick ; he opened a
bitch three days after copulation; he drew out
one of the horns of the matrix, and made a li**
gature in the middle, so that the upj^cr partof
the passage could have no communication with
tile lower; af(eri\hich he replaced this horn,
and closed up the wound, ^vith iviiich the bilcli
icemed but little incommoded. At the end o£
twenty-one days l>e opened it again, and found
two foetuses in the upper part, thai is Wweea
the testicles and the ligature ; but in the lower
part there was no fostus. In tlie other liom of
the matrix, which had not been tied by a liga-
ture, he found three fostuscs, which were re-
gularly disposed, which proves, he says, that
the foetus does not proceed from the seed of
the male, but exists in the female egg. Sup-
posing this experiment, which has only been
made once, was always followed with the same
effect, we should not then be right in conclud-
ing that fecundation is made in tlie ovary, and
that eggs are detached therefrom which con-
tain the foetus completely formed. It would
only prove that the foetus may be formed in
the upper parts of the horns of the matrix as
^«11 a$ ill the lower ; and it seems very na-
tural

so buffon's

tural to imagine that the ligature, compressing
the middle of the horns of the matrix, impelled
the seminal liquors, which are in the lower
parts, to issue out, and thus destroy the busir
ness of generation in them.

Thus we have gone through the opinions of
anatomists and physicians on the subject of
generation ; and it now only remains for me
to recount what I have been enabled to draw
from my own researches and experiments, and
it will then be seen whether my system is not
infinitely more agreeable to Nature than any
of those I have given an account of.

CHAPTER

NATURAL HISTORY. 9l

CHAPTER VI.

EXPERIMENTS 6N TflE METHOD OF GENERATION.

T OFTEN reflected on the above system, and
was every day more and more convinced
tliat my theory was infinitely the most pro-
bable. I then began to suppose that, by a
microscope, I mi|^ht be able to attain a dis-
covery of the living organic particles, from
which I thought every animal and vegetable
drew their origin. My first supposition was,
that the spermatic animalcules seen in the seed
of every male, might possibly be these or-
ganic particles ; on which I reasoned as fol-
lows :

If every animal and vegetable contain a
quantity of living organic partideS; these par-
VOL. III. M ticks

^^ buffon's

tides would be found in their seed, and in a
greater quantity than in any other substance,
because the seed is an extract of what is most
analogous to the individual, and the most or-
ganic ; and the animalcule we see in the seed of
males are, perhaps, only these same living or-
ganic molecules, or at least the first union ^
or assemblage of them. But if this is so, the
seed of the female must also contain similar
living organic molecules, and, consequently,
we ought to find moving bodies there as well
as in the male : and since the living organic
particles are common both to animals and ve-
getables, We should also find them in the seeds
of plants, in the liectarium, and in the staminay
• which a(re the mOst essenti^d parts of vegetables,
and which contain the organic molecules
necessary for reproduction.- I then seriousfy
•thought of examining the seminal liquors of
both seXe^5 and the germs of plants, "vvith u
-micrbscope., I thought, lik-ewise, that the re-
■iervorrs of the female seed might possibly be
the cavitifes of the glandular bodies, in "vshich
Valisnieri and others had uselessly sought for
•^ the egg ; and at length determined to under*
"take a coufse" of observations and experiments,
*I first communicated my id^s to Mr. Need-

NATUI^AI* HISTORY. ^

hapa, A gcntlenijan well knqw^i foi; Jii^m^crq-
sqopical Qbservatiptis,'^n^/^ead t^^ hiu^ tUp first,
part of th is Wiork ; ^le ^ipei?!^ to approve of these
ic^e»J^, fiD^ did mc ^tie fa.>^uv to \cftd, me Ws mji-
ero§,eQj3(e5 >yljicli was infinitely superior to, m^
own. At tli^ sarjie tinxc I cornmiuiicated my.
syst'era a^d project oj? expenm^l^ts^o |^Iess("Sv.
Daub^iiton, Gfueneau, qnd Dalibard, aJ^ of
whQtn,mco\\ji^g^ ipe tQ persevere ^ my ^qter-.
Biinft^ion, and frqm ^ylipm^ ill the fjojirsc^f mak-
ing those experJH^Q^^i^, \ rec^iv^d much assi^t^
iuacej payticulariy ff9i][^ Mr. D^ul^^ntqn. .
. * JP^r,sptns not experipn^cpd in tlj^, v^O Qif the m^*
^Ket^pope ,\!k ill not be displeased th^t I licrje in»
p^Xi sQ^ae r^i^ar^^ whiph will he useful to thenj,
j{ they repeat tljj^ > foMfi^^ing experiments, of
jm^^ i^ewoneg. "VY^ sl^9uld f ive tfie preference
tp double mierqspqpps, in ^^ickwespe objects
pijl-peadiculjarlyj ftom their haying a plain (j^
fipncave mirror, w hjcji shew^ tjxe ojbjects clear;
the concave mirror is.j^he most pjret'erablp when
the observations arc- oiacje with. the strongesjfc
lens. Leeuwenhoek, who undoubtedly has
been the greatest afid Jiiost indefatigable of all
j^jicroscopical obseryators, is said to have only
j»)ade use of simplje n>icroscopes; witli which he

M 2 viewed

M buffon's

viewed objects horizontally. If this is true, it
is necessary to remark, that most of the plates
given by Leeuwehhoek of microscopical ob-
jects, especially spermatic animals, represents
them much thicker and longer than he really
saw them, which renders the microscopes we
speak of preferable to the horizontal, as they
are more stable ; the motion of the hand, with
which the microscope is held, producing a little
trembling, which causes the object to appear
wavering, and never presents the same part for
any time. Besides, there is always a motion in
the liquors caused by the agitation of the exter-
nal air, at least, if we do not put the liquor
between two plates of glass, or even fine talc,
which diminishes somewhat of its transparency,
and greatly lengthens the experiment ; but the
horizontal miproscope, whose tables are verti-
cal, has the still greater inconvenience, that
the most ponderous parts of the drop of liquor
fall to the bottom ; Consequently there are
three motions, that of the trembling of the hand,
the agitation of thefluid by the action of the air,
and also that of the parts of the liquor falling to
the bottom : from the combination of which,
certain small globules, which we see in these li-
8 - quors,

NATURAL HISTORY. 85

quors, may appear to move by their own mo-
tion and powers, while they only obey th«
compounded power of those three causes*

When we put a drop of liquor on the table
of the double microscope, although horizontally
placed, and in thcmost advantageous situation,
we still see one common motion in the liquor,
which forces all what it contains to one side.
We must wait till the fluid is in an equilibrium
and at rest, before we make our observations ;
for it often occurs, that this motion of the fluid
hurries away many globulcsj and forms a kind
of whirling motion, which returns one of these
globules in a very dilFerent direction to the
others. The eye is then fixed on the globules,
and seeing one take a diflcrent course from the
rest, supposes it an animal, or at least a body,
tvhich moves of itself, whereas its motion is
only owing to that of the fluid ; and as the li»
quor is apt to dry and thicken in the circum-
ference of the drop, endeavours must be made
to fix the lens on the centre of it. The drop
should also be as large as possible, and con-
tain as much liquor as will permit a suffi-
cient transparency, to see perfectly what it
contains.

Before

Before ■VY;e begin to «iake observations, "svc)
should ba)Ve a perftjqt knQwledge of qui- micro-
scope. There isijogla^s whatsoever but ia
Avbich tliere arc. some spots, bubbles, threads,
and other defects, which should 1)0 niei^ly in-»
spccted^ in or4er that such appearc^nces shouldj
not be represented as? real and unkiio^»Yft ohr?
jccts,: yvc must also endeavour to iearn vvhaif
e^ct tlie imperceptible dust has wJuch adher^$
to the glasses of the microscope; ; a :pGrfcci
knowledge of wliich may be aequy^§4 hy ob-
serving the microscope several tin^,. ,

To make proper observations, the s%}|f , or
focus, of the microscope must ^otl^rccisely fall
qn the surface of the liquor, but ^ tittle. Qbove,
it ; as not so much reliance should be placed
on what passes upon the surface, as ^ha<t is seen
in the body of the liquor. There- are. pftfi^
bubbles on the surface which have irregular
motions produced by the contact of the air.

We can see much better with the light of
two short candles, than in the brightest day,
provided this light is not agitated, which is
avoided by putting a small shade on the table,
inclosing the three sides of the lights and the
microscope.

It

NATURAL HISTORY. 87

It will often appear as though dark and
opaque bodies become transparent, and evea
take different colours, or form concentrical
and coloured rings, or a kind of rainbow on
the surface ; and otlier matters, whicli are
^e^n at first sight transparent and clouded, be-
come black ami obsoiire; tliese changes are not
real, but only depend on the obliquity the sight
fall's on the body with, and the height of the
-plain ifi which they are found.

When th^re are bodies in a liquor w hicb
•seem to move with great swiftness, especially
tvlieh they are on the surface, they form a fur-
rowed motion in the liquor, which appears to
'follow the moving body, atid which we might
be inclined to mistake for a 'tail. This ap-
pearance deceived me at first j but I clearly per-
ceived my error, w hen these little bodies met
others which stopped them ; for there was do
longer any appearance of tails. These are
'"the remarks which occurred during my expe-
riments, and which I submit to those w ho would
make use of the microscope for the observation
of liquors.

EXPERN

SB buffon's

EXPERIMENTS.

I. I took from the seminal vessels of a man^
who died a violent death, and whose body was
still warm, all the liquor therein contained, and
put it into a small bottle ; of this I put a drop
on the table of the microscope, without the ad-
dition of water or any other liquor. The first
thing which presented, was a vapour which
steamed from the liquor towards the lens, and
obscured it. These vapours being dissipated,
I perceived large filaments, {fig* I.) which in
some places seemed to extend into different
branches, and in others to intermingle together.
These filamen ts clea rly appeared to be internal \y
agitated by an undulating motion, and looked
like hollow tubes which contained some mov-
ing substance. I distinctly saw two of these fila-
men ts(/?^. 2.) were joined together, and had
a vibration nearly like that of two extended
strings, which are tied at the two extremities,
and pulled asunder in the middle. These
filaments were composed of globules which
touched each other, and resembled beads^ I
afterwards saw filaments which swelled in eer-

tain

PMTE I

FlG.l

riG.2

riG.3

PIG.4

riG.5

FIG. 6

NATURAL HISTORY. flD

feiti parts, and I observed, that on the jnde so
svrelled small globules came out, which b^d a
distinct motion like that of a pendulum; these
small bodies were fastened to the idiaments by
a small thread, (fig. 3^..) which lengthened gra-
dually as the little body moved ; aiid at last I
saw these little bodies eriti*-ely sepatated from
the large lilament, (Carrying after them tie
small thread which connected them. As this
liquor was very thick, and the iiiaments . too
near each othei*, I dilated another drop with
rain water, in which I was assured there were
no animals. I then saw the filaments much
separated, and very distinctly percei\Td the
motion of these little bodies, which was now
more free, and they swam much quicker; and
if I had not seen them separatx? from the fila-
ments, and carry along with them their thread,
I should have taken the movino: bodv in this
second observation for an animal, and the
thread for its tail. I then attentively observed
one of these filaments, that was much thicker
than these small bodies, and! had the satisfao-
,tfi0n of seeing two of those bodies \vhich sepa-
rated with difficulty, drag along with them a
long and small thread, which obstructed their
motion.
toL. iiu N This

^ buffon's

This seminal liquor was at first very thick,
but by degrees it became more fluid ; in less
than an hour it was almost transparent ; and
in proportion as this fluidity increased, the
♦phenomena clianged, as I shall relate,
I : II.; ; When; the seminal liquor attained more
ifluidify, the filaments were no lone^cr to Ije
s een, but Ihe Jittle bodies appeared in. great
numbers ;-• they have for the most part a mo-
tion like that of a pendulum, and they draw
after them a lona^ tliread, which it may clearly
be perceived they want toi get rid of; their
motion forwards is very slow, vibrating to tlie
right and left. The moiion of a boat fastened
in the midst of a rapid stream to one fixed
point, pretty Avell represents the moiion of
these bodies, excepting that the boat remains
in the same place, whereas they advance by
degrees ; but they do not always keep the same
parts in the same direction ; but at each vibra-
tion they take a considerable rolling^ motion ;
50 that^ besides their horizontal motion^ they
have one of a vertical balance, which proves
that these bodies are of a globular figure, or,
at least, tliat their lowest part is not suffi-
ciently extended to maintain them in the same
position,

III. At

NATURAL HISTORY. 91

III. At the end of two or three hours^ when
the liquor was more fluid, we saw a greater
quantity of these moving bodies. They
seemed to be more free ; the threads were
shorter ; their progressive motion was more
direct j and their horizontal motion was greatly
diminished ; far the longer the threads are, the
greater is the angle of their vibration ; and in
proportion as these threads diminish in length,
the vibratory motion lessens, and the pro-
gressive motion increases. The vertical ba-
lance still subsisted) and was always plainly
perceptible.

ly. In five or six hours the liquor attained
its utmost fluidity. Most of these moving sub-
stances were entirely disengaged from their
threads ; they were of an oval ^gure,(fig\ 4.)
and moved progressively with great swiftness,
and by their various motions had a stronger
resemblance than ever to real animals. Those
who had their threads still adhering, were not
so brisk as the others ; and among these that
had not (breads, some seemed to change their
shape and size, some were round, some oval,
and others thicker at their extremities than in
the middle ; the balancing and rolling motion
was still observable.

N 2 V. At

92 buffon's

V. At tke end of twelve hours a kind of
gelatinous matter ^vas settled at tiie bottom oi
the bottle: it was of aa ash-colour, and of a
tolerable consistency ; the liquor tiiat swam
above was almost as clear as water, with a kind
of bluish tint, resembling water in which a
little soap had been dissolved ; nevertheless it
still preserved its viscidity. Tliemovinghodies;
had then a great activity, were loosened front
their threads, and moved in all directions. I
saw some of them change their form, and from
oval become round ; and others separate, and
from one oval form two. As they became
smaller, their activity encreased.

VL In twenty-four hours the liquor had de-
posited a greater quantity of gelatinous matter.
I diluted it with water, but it did not readily
mix, and required a considerable time to dis-*
solve. It then appeared composed of an infi-
nite number of opaque tubes that formed a
kind of net^work, in which no regular dispo-
sition nor the least motion could be seen : in
the clear liquor some few small bodies wete
■still moving. Tlie next morning there were
Also a very fcw ; but after tliat time I saw na
mote in this liquor than ia the globules, with--
out any appearance of motion.

. . These

JfATtJRAL H15T0RY. J>5'

These expeFiraents "were repeated se\^r5»i
times with the most possible exactness ; a:i^ I
am pers^acfed that those threads above men-
tioned arcBkOt tails, i>or do they iDuke any part
of the individual body ; for these tiir&iids
have no proportion with the rest of the ibody;
they are of different sizes, atihouoh the nioy-
ing bodies are always r>early of the same, ai
the same tiniie. The globule a})pcai-s embar-
rassed in its motion, as its tail is longer or
-shorter; sometimes it cannot advance, bat
move only &om right to left, or from left to
right, when the tail is very long ; and it is
clearly seen that they use great eflbrts to get
rid of them.

¥11. Having taken the seminal liquor from
another man but just dead, and still warni^ t
put a drop of it on the table of the microscope,
and it immediately liqiiitied ; it had at first a
condensed appearaiM^e, and seemed to form a
compact web, composed of long and thick
filaments, which grew from the thickest pit*
of theliqi*or. These filaments-scpsratc-d in prc^
portion as the liquor became more^Sukl, f^nrt
at length they divided into gU):?ides, which rvt
first seemed -Hot to have s^tlicieHt powep tO'-set

thfnTi«.elF^'»

themselves in motion, but this power increased
as tliey separated from tlie filament, from which
they made many eft'orts to disengage them-
selves. Each of them in this struggle drew
out tails from the filaraciirts of different sizes^
some of which were so thin and so long as to
have no proportion with the bodies, which were
all so much the more embarrassed as these
threads or tails increased in length. The angle
of iheir vibratory motion was also muchgreater
as those filaments were longer : and their pro-
gressive motion so much the more remarkable
as these tails were shorter.

YIII. Having continued these observations
for fourteen Iiours, I perceived that these
threads, or tails, were continually lessening,
and became so fine, that at last their extremi-
ties were no longer visible, and at length the
whole entirely disappeared. At this time the
globules absolutely ceased their horizontal vi-
brations -^ their progressive motion was direct,
although they had always the vertical balan-
cing motion, like the rolling of a ship. When
disencumbered of these threads, the bodies were
oval, transparent, and perfectly like those pre-
tended animals seen in the liquor of an oyster

on

NATURAL HISTORY. ^5

bn (he seventh day, nnd still more io those
fotind in the jelly of roast veal at the end of the
f(^iTrth day.

'■• IX. Between the tenth and eleventh hour
the liquor became extremely fluid, and all the
globules appeared to proceed in ranks from
one and the same side ; (Jig. 5.) they passed
over the table of the microscope in less than
four seconds ; they were raiig«^d seven or ei^ht
in fron^, and moved on successively, as troo^is
march in files. I observed this singular in-
stance for more than five minutes; and as their
course did not finish, I tvhs desirous of finding
the source: and, liaving gently moved my
-glass, I perceived that all these moving glo-
bules came from a kind of mucilage, (Jig. 6.)
\vhere the filamentary net-work continually
produced them more abundant and much
quicker than the filaments had ten hours be-
fore. There was still a remarkable dilferencc
between these moving bodies produced in the
thicktiquor,and those produced when theliquor
became more fluid ; these last had no thread
behind them, their motion was quicker, and
they went in flocks like sheep. I observed tlie
mucilage from whence they issued for some
time,and perceived it diminished, and was sug-
4 ccssivcly

/CebsiviCly converted Into in<A in^^lobule^, till
the dirtiinutioM of more than half the bulk i
sftrr Vthich, the liquor being- too dry^ this ma-
cilii^e becailie ob^cnre in its middle^ and all
tile <environs >vere divided by the small threads
"wbirh appeared to ]n'. fornrted from the bodies
of t}*ese movdng globules \vliich v.crbdfcstroyed
*cs it dried up, not in one single ra«ss, but ia
length reads^regulaflydtsposefl, \vi(h quadran-
^'UiiH' intervals, forTOinif^ "<*^-w<^^k, very like
to a cobweb, on ^Vhich the inaisturc hiing in an
infin ite n umber of g\ obules .

: X-'J- perceived by the first e.t peri mentis
that .'these little j«ov!ii4t^ bo.dics chaufj^ thejir
form, and I (hought tliey in geneval-dlivunisli-
cd, biit of that I wasnbt ccriain. . I « this Vast
obpervAtion, itf the twelfth and thiiteehlh hour
1 oJisers ed it more distincdy ; at the Harne tirac
rentckFkin^; th a i { houixh diiuiri ished cohsidciably
in aire J yet they ii-hcreased in specific gTa.ity^
ti^peei.'illy vAici: tlieir motion v;as nearly finish-
ed, uliich generally ha ppcnM all at once and
they sui>k to the boKom. forming a sediment of
an tt^h-colour, plnlnly perceptible to (he naked
<»ye, and which appt^\red through the inicrO"
scope to be con>pbsed of glo])ules adherent
to one auoflier, sjometimcs by threads, aud

at

NATURAL HISTORY. 97

at others in knots, but always- in a regular
manner. ...

XI. Having procured the seed of a do^^
emitted naturally, I observed that this li-
quor was clearj and had but little tenacity. I
put it^ in a phial, and having examined it with
a microscope, without diluting it w'ith water j
I perceived moving bodies entirely like thosft
I had observed in the human semen; they had
threads, or tails, perfectly the same ; they were
also nearly of the same size ; in a Ivord, they
resembled, as perfectly as possible, those I sa\^
in the human liquor, liquified during two or
three hours. I then sought for the filaments
which I had seen in the human liquor, but it
was useless ; I perceived only some long threads
entirely like those which served as tails to the
globules. These threads were not attached
to any globules, nor hj)d they any motion.
Those globules which were in motion, and
held tails, appeared to me to move quicker thafl'
those in the human semen : they had scarcely
any horizontal vibrations, but a rolling motion.
They were not in a great number; and, al-
though their progressive motion was stronger,
they took more time to cross the microscope
than those I had before remarked. I observed
vol.. Ill, O this

98 , bltfon's

this liquor for three hours, but perceived no
change : after "which I examined it at another
time for four hours, and remarked, that the
number of moving bodies diminished by de-
grees ; the fourth day there was still some,
though they Mere very few, and often I only
found one or two in a drop of liquor. The?
second day most of them were deprived of
their tails ; the third day very few retained
them, yety at the last day, there still remained
some which had them ; the liquor had then de-
posited a whitish sediment, which appeared 4o
be composed of immoveable globules, and
many threads, that seemed to be tails se-
parated from the globules. There were also
some attached to the globules, which appeared
to be the dead bodies of these little animals,
but whose forms were different from those that
moved, for they appeared larger than the mov-
ing globules, or the rest, which remained with-
out motion at the bottom of the liquor, and
appeared to have a fissure or opening.

XII. Another time, having taikcn the se-
minal liquor of the same dog, I again per-
ceived the fore-mentioned phenomena ; and I
saw, besides, in one of tlie drops of this liquor,
a mucilaginous part, which produced moving

globules.

NATURAL HISTORY. 99

globules, as in the ninth experiment, {ftg. C.)
and these globules formed a current, and went
in ranks like troops. This mucilage appeared
to me animated with an internal inflated mo-
tion , wh icli prod uccd small bloated appearances
in different parts, and from whence issued these
bloated forms, or moving globules, with a
nearlj-cqual swiftness, and in the same direc-
tion. The bodies of these globules were not
different from the rest, excepting they had no
tails. I observed that many of them changed
their shape, and lengthened considerably, till
they became little cylinders, after which the
two extremities of the cylinders were bloated,
and dirided into two globules, both moving
and following the same direction as that be-
fore they were united.

XIII. The phial, which contained this li-
quor, having been broke by accident, I, a third
time, took the liquor of the same dog, but
whether the animal was wearied by too re-
iterated emissions, or by other causes, the se-
minal liquor contained none of the above
bodies, but was transparent and viscous, like
the serum of blood ; I examined it then, and
at one, two, three, and even twenty-four hours
after wardr, but it presented nothing new : there

O 2 was

IQO BUFFON^S

was not a, single moving body to be seen, nor
any mucilage ; in a Tvord, nothing that I had
$een before.

XI V. I then opened a dog, and separated
the testicles and the adherent vessels, but I per-
ceived no seminal vesicles, and apparently the
seed in those animals passes directly from the
testicles into the urethra. 1 found but a small
quantity of liquor in the testicles, although the
jdog was adult and vigorous. In the small
quantity I could collect I could not discover
any bodies that were in motion. I only per-
ceived a great quantity ofvery small globules,
most of which were motionless, and some of
the smallest had some trifling approximating
motion, which I could not follow, because
the drops I gathered were so exceedingly mi-
nute that they dried in two or three minutes
after they were placed in the microscope.

XV. Having: cut the testicles of this do£:
into two parts, I infused it in water, and
closely sealed up the vessel. Three days after
I examined this infusion, which I made with
the design of discovering whether the flesh did
not contain moving bodies, and 1 saw a great
quantity of moving bodies of a globular and
oval form^like those I had seen in the seminal
10 liquor

NATURAL HISTORY. 101

Ikjtior of tlie dog, excepting they had not any
threads. They moved in all manner of direc-
tions with great swiftness. I observed these bo-
dies, which appeared animated for some time,
and saw many change their form ; I perceived
some to lengthen, and otliers to contract, while
some swelled at bolh eittremitics : there were
numbers that were smaller and tliicker than the
rest; but tliey were all in motion, and were
about the size and figure of those I have de-
scribed in the fourth experiment.

XYI. The next morning the number of
these globules were increased, but they ap-
peared smaller ; their motion was more rapid
and irregular ; they had. also another appear-
ance with respect to their form and man^
ner of moving, which seemed confused ; the
next and several days after, till the fifteenth
.day, there were moving bodies iii the water,
whose size gradually diminished till they were
no longer visible. The last, which I perceived
with great difficultj^, was on the nineteenth
and twentieth days, and they moved with
greater rapidity than ever. Upon the water a
kind of pellicle was formed, w^hich appeared to
be composed of the coverings of those moving
bodies, small threads, scales, &c. but entirely

motionless j

I OS BUFFO n's

molionless ; this pellicle, and the moving bo*
dies could not come into the liquor by means
of external air, since the bottle had been kept
carefully sealed.

XVIL I then successively opened ten rab-
bits, on different daj's, to examine their semi-
nal liquors ; the first had not a drop, either in
the testicles or seminal vessels. In the second I
was no more successful, although I was assured
lie was the father of a very numerous progeny.
I succeeded no better in the third. I then ima-
gined that the presence of the female might be
requisite ; f therefore put males and females
into cages so contrived that it was impossible
for them to copulate. At first these endeavours
did not succeed ; for, on opening two, not
a drop of seminal liquor was to be found ;
however, in the sixth that I opened, a large
white rabbit, I found, in the seminal vesicles,
as much liquor as could be contained in a tea-
spoon ; this matter resembled calves' jelly, was
nearly transparent, and of a citron colour.
Having examined it with the microscope, I
perceived it to resolve, by slow degrees, into fi-
laments and thick globules, many of which
appeared fastened io each other ; but I did not
|:emark any distinct motion in them, only as the

matter

NATURAL IlISTOUY. 103

matter liquefied, it formed a kind of current
by which these fihiments and globules seemed
to be drawn all to one side. I expected to find
this matter take a greater degree of fluidity, but
that did not happen, for, after it was a little li-
quefied, it dried, and I could perceive nothing
further than what is above mentioned. When
this matter was mixed with water, tlie latter
did not appear to have power to dilute it.

XVIII. Having opened another rabbit,
I only found a very small quantity of seminal
matter, which was of a colour and consistency
entirely different from the former; it was
scarcely tinctured of a yellow hue, and was
much more fluid. As there was but very
little, I feared it would dry too hastily, and
therefore mixed it with water : from the first
observation, I did not perceive the filaments I
had seen in the other, but I discovered three
globules, all in a trembling and restless motion ;
they had also a progressive motion, but it was
very slow ; some moved round tlie others, and
most appeared to turn upon their centres. I
could not pursue this observation because the
liquor so soon got dry.

XIX. I opened another of these rabbits,
but could not discover any of this matter ; in
the seminal vessels of another, I found almost

104i buffon's

as much. congealed liquor as in xviith Experi*
ment : I examined it in the same manner as the
rest, but it afforded me ho greater discovery.
I infused the whole I had collected, in almost
double the quantity of water, and after briskly
shaking them together, I suffered them to
settle for ten minutes ; after which, on inspect-
ing tliis infusion, I saw the same large glo-
bules as before ; there were but few and tliose
very distant from each other. They. had ap-
proximating motions with respect- to eacli
otlicr, but tliey were so slow, as tabii scarcely
discernable; two or three hours after, these
globules seemed to be diminished, their motion
was become more distinct, and they appeared
to turn upon their centres. Although this trem-
bling motion was more than their progressive^
nevertheless they were clearly, sein.'ta change
their situation irregularly w ith rdspect to each
other. Six or seven hours after . the globules
were become still less, and their actibriwais in-
creased : tliey appeared to me to be in much
greater numbers, and all their motions distinct.
The next morning there was a prodigious mul-
iitude of globules in motion, which were at
least three times smaller than those that at
first appeared. 1 observed these. globules for'
eight days, and observed that many of them.
s seemed

NATURAL HISTORY. 105

seemed to join together, after which their mo-
tion ceased ; this union, however, appeared to
me only superficial and accidental. Some were
larger than others ; most were round and spheri-
cal 5 and some of them were oval . The largest
were most transparent, and the smallest were
almost black. This diflfcrence did not proceed
from the light, for in whatever situation these
small globules were in, they were always of
the same appearance; the motions of the small
were much more rapid than the large ones, and
what I remarked most clearly and most gene-
rally in all, was their diminution of size, $o
that at the eighth day they were so exceedingly
small as to be hardly perceptible, and at last
absolutely disappeared.

XX. At length having obtained, with no
small difficulty, the seminal liquor of another
rabbit, as it would have been conveyed to the
female, I remarked it to be more fluid than
that which had been taken from the seminal
vesicles, and the phenomena which it olFered
were also very indifferent; for in this liquor
there were moving globules and filaments with-
out motion ; and also a kind of global^ with
threads or tails, resembling those of a dog or

a man, but only appearing smaller and brisker
VOL. HI. ' P (/g. 7.)

106 BUFFO n'^

^fig- 7.) They i:mssed aver the microscope m
an instant, their tailfe api>earcd shorter than
those of otlier spermatic animals, and I own I
am not certain whetlicr some of those tails wcr6
not false appeamnces, produced by the far-
rows which these moving globules formed in
tiie liquor, as thej^ moved with too great a ra-
pidity to admit of my clearly, observing them ;
besides, the liquor^. though sufficiently fluid at
first, very speedily dried away.

XXI. After this I resolved to es:amine the
sem inal liquor of a ram ; I applied to a butcher,
who supplied me w ith the necessary parts of at
least twelve or thirteen, directly after they were
liilled, but I c6urd not fiml liquor sufficient for
any experiment, either in the epididymis or
seminal vesicles. In. the little drops I Avas able
to collect, I only perceived globules which hacV
no raotioiiv As I made these experiments ia
March, I supposed by repeating them in Octo-
ber, the season-of female attachments, I should
discover more seminal liquor in. these vessels.
1 cut many of these testicles in two loivgitu-
diiially, and collected a small quantity of li--
quor, but found nothing more in them.

XXII. I took tliree of these testicles, of three-
diffcrcid tftms, cut each of them iAto four

parts^

PLATE. II

FIG.

FIG. 8

riG.9

FIG.IO

FTG.ll

FlG.lo

NATURAL HISTORY, 107

^arts, and put them into separate bottles, with
as much water as was sufficient for them. Se-*
curing these bottles from the admission of air
I sulibred the infusion to remain for four daysy
^after which I examined the liquor of each by
the microscope, a-ad found them aH replete
with an infinity of moving bodicsj-most part
'Of which were oval, and the rest globular ;r
they were pretty thick, and resembled those
described Ih the viiitt experiment ; their
motion was neither brisk, uncertain, nor very
•rapid, bat equal, uniform, and in all directions.
These moving bodies were p.early of the same
size in each liquor, but differed one bettle w ith
"the other. They had no tails, nor v.ere there
any filaments or tli reads in this liquor; during
the fifteen or sixtcea days ihey were retained^
they often schaMged their form, and seemed
successively to throw oil' their exiteriial cover-
ings; they ako became^every day ^nailer, and
^n the sixt^oentli day, they were no longer per-
ceptible, . ^ . . y

XXI IL In the uiontll &fOcioher 1 opened
a ram, and found a great quantity of seminal
liquor in the epididymis ; having examined it
with the microscope, 1 i>erceived an innu-
jiacjrable multitude of moving bodies, so nu-

P 2 merous.

108 buffon's

merous, that all the liquor seemed to be en-
tirely composed of them ; as it was too thick,
I dilated it with water, but I was surprised to
see the motion of these bodies suddenly stop,
though I perceived them very distinctly ; hav-
ing many times repeated the same observation,
I perceived that the water which diluted the
seminal liquors of a man, a dog, &c. seemed
to coagulate that of a ram.

XXIV. I then opened another ram, and
in order to prevent the seminal liquor from
coagulating, I permitted the parts of genera-
tion to remain in the body of the animal, and
covered it over with warm clothes. By these
precautions I observed the seminal liquor in
its fluid state; it was replete with an infinity of
oblong moving bodies, (j^g-. 8.) traversing in
various directions ; but as soon as the liquor
grew cold, the motion of all these bodies im-
mediately ceased. I diluted the liquor with
warm water, when the motion of the small
bodies remained for three or four minutes.
The quantity of these moving bodies was so
great in this liquor, that although diluted, they
nearly touclied each other. They were all of
the same size and form, but none of them had
tails. Their molion was not very quick, and

when

NATURAL HISTORY. 10!)

when it stopped by the coagulation of the li-
<(i!or, they did not change their form.

XX y. As I was persuaded, not only by my
own theory, but also by the observations ot all
tbose who had made experiments before me,
that the female, as well as the male, has a
seminal and prolific liquor ; and, as I had no
doubt, but the reservoir of this liquor was the
glandular body of the testicle, where preju-
diced anatomists attempted to find the egg, I
purchased several dogs and bitches, and soma
male and female rabbits, which Ikept separate
from each other; and in order to have a com-
parative object witli the liquor of the female, I
again observed the seminal liquor of a dog, and
discovered there tlie same moving bodies as
described in the xith experiment.

XXyi. While I was thus occupied, a
bitch was dissected which had been four or five
days in heat, and had not received the dog.'
The testicles were readily found, and on one
of them I discovered a red, glandular, promi-
nent body, about the size of a pea, which per-
fectly resembled a little nipple ; on the out-
side was a visible orifice formed by two lips ;
one of which jutted out more than the other.

Having

lit) bufIfo.Vs

Having" introduced a small instfument into
this orifice, a liquor dropped from it, whick
we carefully caught 4o examine with the mi-
croscope. The surgeon replaced the testicles
ill the body of the animal, which was yet alive,
in order to keep them warm. I then examin-
ed this liquor with a microscope, and, at the
first glance, had the satisfaction to see moving
bodies with tails, exactly like those I just be-
fore saw in the seminal liquor of the dog*
(fig' 9.) Messrs. Needham and Daubenton,
who observed them with me, were so sur-
prized at this resemblance, that they could
scarcely believe but that these spermatic ani-
mals were the same, and thought I had for-
gotten to change tlie tabic of the microscope,
or that the instrument v>ii\i which we had ga-
thered the liquor of the female, might before
have been used for the dog, Mr. Needham
then took dilferent instruments, and having ob-
tained some fresh liquor, he examined it first,
and saw there the same kind of animals, and
was convinced, not only of the existence of
spermatic animals in the seminal liquor of the
female, but likewise of their resemblance to
those of the semen of the male. We repeated

ii

2ff ATL R AL~ H ISTO R Y . Ill

il ten times at least, in dilFerent drops of the
same liquor, without perceiving the smallest
variation in the phenomena.

XXYIL Having afterwards Examined tlie
othet tcsticle,^ I found a glandular body in its^
growing state; it had not any external orificey
was much smalle?, and not sO red as the firsts
Having opened it, 1 found no liquor ; but only
a small fold in the internal part, which I
judged to be the origin of the cavity that was
to contain the liquor. This second vesicle
had some very small lympliatic vesicles exter-
nally I pierced one of them with a lancet,
and a clear and limpid liquor flowed out,
which I examined with the microscope ; it
contained nothing similar to that of the glan^^
dular body ; it was a clear matter, composed
of small globules, which were motionless.-
Maving often repeated this obsetvatioH;^ 1 was^
assured ,^ that this liquor in the vesicles was,
only a kind of lymph, which contains nothing
animated, or similar to that seen in the female^
seed, which is formed and perfected in the
glandular bodies. ,' -: .

XXVIIL Fifteen dfeys after I opened ano*
ther bitch that had been lii heat seven or eight

darsjt

X12 BUFFO \*S

days, but Lad not received the dog. I found
the testicles contiguous to the extremities of
the horns of the matrix ; these horns were very
long, their external tunic surrounded the tes-
ticles, and they appeared covered with that
membrane like a cowl. In each testicle I
found a glandular body in its full maturity.
The first was Iialf open, and there was a passage
Avhich penetrated into the testicle, and which
was replete with seminal liquor ; the second
was somewhat more large and prominent, and
the orifice, or canal, which contained the li-
quor was below the nipple. I took these two
liquors, and having compared them, found
them perfectly alike. The seminal liquor of
the female is at least as liquid as that of the
male. Having afterwards examined the two
liquors with the microscope, I perceived the
like moving bodies, (Jig- 10.) and the same
phenomena, as in the seminal liquor of the
other. I saw besides many globules which
moved very briskly, and endeavoured to dis-
engage themselves from the mucilage that sur-
rounded them : there was a great quantity of
them as in the seed of the female.

XXIX. From these glandular bodies I

pressed out all the liquor, and having collected

10 it»

NATURAX. HISTORY. 113

*it, I found enough to last for four or five hours
^dbsetvations. 1 remarked that it deposited
somewhat to the bottom, or at least began to
thicken. I took one drop of this. Which was
thicker than the rest, and having put it on The
microscope, perceived that the mucilaginous
part of the seed was conderiied, and formed a
continued network. On the external border
of this network, there was a torrent, or current,
composed of globules, which moved with ra-
pidity. These globules were lively, active,
and appeared to be disengaged from their
mucilaginous covering, and then* tails. This
stream perfectly resembled the course of the
blood in small transparent veins ; for they ap*
peared not only to be animated by their own
powers, but also to be impelled by a common
force, and constrained to follow in a herd.
From this experiment, and the xith and xiith,
I concluded, that when the fluid bedris to
coagulate and thicken, these active globule?
break and tear their mucilaginous coverings,
and escape by that side where the liquor re-
mains most fluid. These moving bodies had
then neither threads nor tails ; they were for
the most part oval, and appeared to be flat at
the bottpm, for they had no rolling motion.

114f buffon's

XXX. The horns of the matrix were ex-
ternally soft ; I opened tliem longitudinally,
and only found a very small quantity of liquor,
which, upon examination, appeared to contain
the same as that pressed from theglandular sub-
stance of the testicle. These glandular bodies
are placed so as easily to sprinkle this liquor on
the horns of the matrix ; and I am persuaded
that, as long as the amorous season remains,
there is a continual dropping of this liquor
from theglandular substance into the horns of
the matrix ; that this dropping remains till
the glandular substance has emptied the vesi-
cles ; it then becomes fluid by degrees, is ef-
faced, and only leaves a little reddish cicatrice
on the external part, of the testicle.

XXXI. I took this seminal liquor of the
female, with the same quantity of that just
emitted from the male, and mixed them toge-
ther, and having examined this mixture with
the microscope, I perceived nothing new, the
liquor remaining the same, and the moving
bodies were so similar, that it was impossible
to distinguish those of the male from those of
the female ; I only thought their motion ap-
peared a little slackened.

XXXII. Having dissected a young bitch
that had never been in heat, I only discovered

a small

NATURAL HISTORY. 115

a small protuberance on one of the testicles,
"whicli I supposed to be the origin of a glan-
dular body. The surface of the testicles was^
smooth and even, and the lymphatic vessels
could scarcely be seen externally, until the tu-
nic, which covered the testicles, was separated ;
but these vesicles were not considerable, and
contained but a small quantity of liquor, in
which I could only perceive some little glo-
bules without any motion.

XXXIII. In another bitch, which was
younger, and only three or four months old,"
there was no appearance of glandular bodies '
on the testicles ; they were white, smooth, and'
covered with a cowl like the rest. 'Jliere
w'cre some little vesicles which contained little'
or no liquor ; and it was with great difficulty'
we could perceive any vesicles externally. D
compared one of these testicles with that of i''
3^oung dog of nearly the same age, arnd they"
appeared internally of a fleshy nature, and per-'
fectly similar. I do not mean to contradict-
what some anatomists have said concerning the
testicles of dogs, but only that the appearance
of the internal substance of the female testicle*;
is like that of the mates, when the glandular
substances are not yet grown. ' '^

Q2 XXXir.

1-16 buffon's

XXXiy. The genital parts ofa cow, 'svhicK,
had been just killed, was sent to me, covered..
QV£r with hot cloths, and put into a basket ,
with a live rabbit, which likewise squatted on,
a cloth at the bottom, so that I received them,
almost as warm as when taken out of the body-
Ij immediately inspected the testicles, and'
fpund them of the size of a hen's, or, at least, ^
a pigeon's egg. One of these testicles, had a,
glandular body, about the size. of. a pea, pro-
tuberating outwardly like a small nipple, but
itivvas not pierced, nor had any external orifice.:,
ij w;as close and hard. I pressed it with my
fingers, but no liquor issued from it. I oh- .
servpd, before this testicle was dissected, ther^,
were two other glandular substances at a dis-.
tanpe from the other ; but these were just be-,
gun to grow; their colour was a whitislxr
yellow, whereas that which seemed to have ,
pierced the membrane, of the testicle was ofa,
YQhB colour, I opened this last^ and examined
it with the greatest attention^ but could not*
discover that it contained any liquor, I there-^r
fore judged that it w^s, far distant from its
maturity.

XXXV. The other testicle iiad no glan-
dular body which had pierced the common
7' membrane

NATURAL HISTORY- 317

membrane that covered the testicle, there were
only two small ones, which l^egan to fonn a
little protuberance below this membrane. 1
opened both of them but no liquor issued
therefrom : they were hard, whitish, and with
a little yellow tint ; each of them had four or .
iive lymphatic vesicles, very easily distin-
guishable on their surface, and appearing
transparent. I judged they contained a quan-
tity of liquor, and having pierced them with a
lancet, the liquor issued out to some inches
distance. I collected a suiTicient quantity of
this liquor to observe it easily ; I only saw
some very minute immoveable globules; and.
although I continued my examination for two .
days, I neither discovered alteration, change,
nor motion, therein.

XXXyi. Eight days after, two more ge-
nital parts were brought to me in the same
mode as the last. I was assured that one was
taken from a young cow that had never calved,
and the; other from one that had had several,
but was not old. I first examined the testicle*
of the latter, and on one of tliem I found a
glandular substance, as large and as red as a
cherry, which appeared a little soft towards the
nipple. I distinguished three small holes, in

which

118 BUFFOX'S

"vvluch a hair might be introduced. Having
pressed this substance with my fingers a siniill
quantity of liquor issued, wliich I placed on the
table of a microscope, and had the satisfaction
to see some moving globules there, but quite
different from those ^hich I had seen in other
seminal liquors (fig- II.). These globules
were obscure and little ; their progressive mo-
tion, although distinct, was, nevertheless, very
slow. The liquor was not thick ; the little
globules had no appearance of threads, or tails,
and they were not all in motion. This is all
I was able to perceive in the liquor this glan-
dular substance afforded me, for although I
pressed it again, it only afforded a less quantity,
mixed with blood. I again discovered it in
the small moving globules, but they seemed to
be at least four times smaller than the sanguin-
ary globules.

XXX VII. 'i'his glandular body was situate
at one of the extremities by the side of the
horn of the matrix, and the liquor, which it
prepares, must fallupon tliis horn ; neverthe-
less, on oy^ening this horn I found no material
quantity of liquor. This glandular body pe-
netrated very forward m the testicle, and oc-
cupied more than a third of its internal sub-
stance.

NATUJRAL HISTORY. 119

stance. I opened lliom loni^ifudinally, and
found a pretty lar^e cavity, but entirely void
of any liquor. At some distance from this
glandular body there ^vas a small one of the
same kind^ about the size of a lentil. There
were also two small cicatrices, about the same
size, "vvhich formed two small indentions, of a
deep red colour: they were the remains of obli-
terated glandular bodies. Having afterwards
examined the oilier testicle, I counted four
cicatrices and three glandular bodies ; the fore-
most of which had pierced the membrane,
was of a flesh colour, and the size of a pea. It
was solid, and without any oiiiice or liquor:
the two others were smaller, harder, and of a
dct^p orange colour. On the iirst Testicle only-
two or three apparent lymphatic vesicles re-
mained. I counted eight on the external part,
and having examined the liquor of these vesi-
cles I perceived only a transparent matter,
without any moving bodies.

XXXVill. I then examined the testicles of
the young cow which had not calved, wJiich,
notwithstanding, were something larger than
the other, but it is true there were no cica-
trices on either of them ; the one was smooth
and very white, ^nd a number of lymphatic

vesicles

ISO BUFFO N*S

Tesicles were sprinkled about it, but tliere was
not the least mark of a glandular body. On
the other testicle I perceived the marks of two
glandular substances, the one had just began
to grow, and the other was the size of a pea ;
there was also a great number of lymphatic
Tesicles, which I pierced with a lancet, but the
liquor did not contain any thing ; having
pierced the two small glandular bodies some
blood alone issued thereout.

XXXIX. I divided each testicle of both
cows into four parts, and, having put them
into separate phials, I poured as much water
on as would cover them, and after having
closely corked them up, I suffered to infuse for
six days; I then examined these infusions, and
■discovered an innumerable quantity of living
moving bodies (fig' 12.); they were all, in
these infusions, extremely small, moved with a
surprising rapidity in all directions. I observ-
ed them for three -days, and they always ap-
peared to diminish, till at last, on the third
4ay, they entirely disappeared.
. XL. The following day tliey brought to
me the genital parts of three more cows. I
immediately searched the testicles to find one
ithere the glandular substance was in perfect

maturity

NATURAL HIStORY. 121

maturity; but in two of them I oiily discovered
some growing glandular substances on the tes-
ticles. I could not team whether these cows
had calved or not, but there was a great ap*
pearance they had all been in season, for there
were a great number of cicatrices on all these
testicles. In the third I found a testicle, on
which was a glandular substanccj as thick and
as red as a cherry ; it was inflamed, and seemed
to be in full maturity. I(s extremity was a
nipple, with a small hole; I pressed it a little
between my fingers, and a quantity of liquor
issued out. I fouhd in this liquor moving glo-
bules, exactly like those in the liquor pressed
from the glandular body of the other cow, I
have before spoken of in experiment xxxvi.
They appeared to be more numerous, their
progressive motions were not so slow, and their
size larger. Having observed them for some
time I perceived some to lengthen and change
their form* I then introduced a very fine in*
strument into the little hole of the glandular
substance, and having opened it I found the
internal cavity replete with liquor; this liquor
offered me the same phenomena, and the same
moving globules, as I before observed in experi*
v*L. III. R njent

1?2 buffon's

ment xxxvi. with either filaments, threads,
or tails attached to them. The liquor of the
vesicle presented me with nothing more than
nearly a transparent matter, which did not con-
tain one moving thing.

XLI. At different times thej brought me
the genitals of several other cows. In some I
found the testicles loaded with an almost ma-
ture glandular substance ; in others tliey were
of different growths, and I remarked nothing
new, excepting that in the two testicles of two
different cows I perceived the glandular sub-
stance in a decayed state ; the base of one was
as broad as the circumference of a cherry ; the
extremity of the nipple was soft, wrinkled, and
shrivelled ; the two small holes were very per-
ceptible, from whence the liquor had flowed.
With some difficulty I introduced a small
hair, but there was no liquor in the canal, nor
in the internal cavity, which was still to be
seen. The flaccidity of these glandular sub-
stances begins, therefore, at the most external
part, or extremity of the nipple. They di-
minish at first in height, and afterwards in
breadth, as I observed in another testicle, where
this glandular substance had diminished more
than three fourths.

XLII. As

NATURAL HISTORY. 123

XLII. As the testicles of (Joe rabbits, as
■well as the glandular bodies formed, there, are
very small, I could observe nothing very
exactly with respect to their seminal liquor.
I only discovered, that the testicles of doc
rabbits are dilFerent, and that none of those I
saw resembled what Dc Graaf represents in-
his engravings ; tor the glandular substances
did not enclose the lymphatic vesicles; and
I never saw a pointed end, as he has depicted
them.

XLIII. I found on the testicles of some
cows a kind of bladders, replete with trans*
parent liquor. I remarked they were of dif-.
ferent sizes, the largest about that of a pea ;
they were fastened to tlie external membrane
of the testicle by a strong membraneous pe-
dicle, as was also another, still smaller ; and a
third, nearly of the same size as the second,
appeared to be only a lymphatic vesicle, much
more apparent than the rest. I imagined these
bladders, which the anatomists have called
hf/datidesy might possibly be of the same na-
ture as the lymphatic vesicles of the testicles,
for having examined the liquor they contained
I found it to be perfectly similar ; it was a

R 2 transparent

I24j buffon'«

transparent and homogeneous liquor, Tvhich
did not coj^tain one moving substance.

XLIV. At the same time I made observa-
tions on the liquor in an oyster ; on the water
in whicli 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 ^hich 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
Bor 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. Needhara
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 innu-
merable multitude of moving globules which
appeared animated like those of the seminal

liquors,

NATURAL HISTORY. 1S5

liquors, and in the infusions of the flesh of ani-
mals : these were also large, and in violent
motion during the first days, but they dimi-
nished by degrees, and disappeared only from
their minuteness.

I perceived the same thing, but later, in the
liquor -wheixiin 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 tlie
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, con-
sisting of great balls, which ascended to the
surface, and almost instantaneously obscured
the focus of the microscope : this was a disso-
lution of the grosser parts, which being com-
pleted 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, bar-
bel, Sec, which I took out while they were liv-

125 BUFro>*M

ing, and having observed three differcTit liquors
"wilh great attenliofi, I perceived a great quan-
tliy of obscure globules, all in motion. I took
several more of these fish alive, and with my
fingers ^cntl J compressed that part of the belly
v.hcjrc this liquor is emitted : and in that wliich
I obiained, L perceived an infinity of moving
globules therein, very black and very small. •
XT/v [. llcibrc 1 (inlsh tliis chapter I shall
Tela'c the experiments of Mr. Needhara on the
seed of a kind of cvittle fish, called calmar.
This a])lc naturalist luiving songht for sperma-
tic animals in tiie milts of many difi'erent fisli,
found them iu the roe of a calmar, apparent to
the naked eye. During the summer he dis-
sected calmars at Lisbon, but found no appear-
ance of any roc, nor any reservoir Avhich apr
pcarcd to be destined for tlie reception of the
seminal liquor ; and it ^Yas in the middle of
December tjiat he began to discern the first
traces of a new vessel replete v/ith a milky juice.
This reservoir increased, and the seed \Yhich it
coutaincd was diffused very abundantly. By
examining this liquor with the microscope, he
perceived only small opaque globules, which
foatcd in a kind of .serous matter, without the
least appearance of life. But some time after,

in

NATURAL IIlStORY. 127

m the milt of another calmar, he found llicsi?
organic parts completely formed ; th^y seemed
like spiral sprinpvs shut up in a kind of traspa-
rent cr:se. They appeared as perfect at first a»
they did at last, excepting that by degrees they
contracted and formed a kind of screw, TJie
lid of the case was a species of viil ve that opened
ouhvardIy,and by which all the contents might
issue; it contained another valve, a barrel, and
a spongy substance ; therefore the whole xnu-
diine consisted in an external, t ran sp'tUXTit, ami
cartilaginous case, whose iip|:er extremity is
terminated by a round head, formed by thccasc
itself, and which performs the ollice of a valve-
In this external case is contained a transpTircnt
tube, which encloses thesprhjg, piston, or ralvc,
barrel, or spongy substance. The scr-ew oc-
cupies the upper part of the tube and case,tbe
piston and barrel are placed in the middle, and
the spongy substance occupies tlie Lower part-
These machines pump up the lacteal licfwor.
of ^\hich the spongy substance is full ; and
before the animal spawns, the whole miit is
no more than a comjX)sition of thcKC organiii^
parts, which haye absolutely pumped up die
lacteal liquor. As soon as these little machines
are taken from the bodyof the animal, and d^:-

positcl

123 BTJFFON^S

posited 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 tlie 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 in-
contestibly proves that the moving bodies found
in the milt of the calmar are not aninials, but
simple machines, a kind of pumps, I have
deemed it necessary to give Mr. Need ham's
own words.*

'^ When the small machines, he says, ar^ar-
rived to their perfect maturity, many of them
act the moment tliey are in the open air ; ne-
vertheless most of them may be commodiously
placed, so as to be seen with a microscope, be-
fore their action begins ; and even to make
them act, the upper extremity of the external

case

* See New Discoveries made with the microscope by Mr.
Needham, chap. vi. Leyden, 1747.

NATURAL HISTORY. 129

case must be moistened with a drop of water
which then begins to expand, while the two
small ligaments which issue from the ease twist
and turn indifferent manners : at the same time,
the screw ascends slowly, the volutes, which ar^
at its upper end, approach and act against the
top of the case : those at the bottom also ad*
Vance, and seem to be continually followed by
others which come from the piston. I say, they
seem to be followed, because I do not think
they are so effectually, but only a deception
produced by the nature and motion of the
screw. The piston and barrel also follow the
same direction, extend lengthways, and at the
same time move towards the top of the case,
which is perceived by the vacuum at the bot*
tom. As soon as the screw, with the tube in
which it is enclosed, begins to appear exter-
nally from the case, it folds, because it is re*
tained by its two ligaments : nevertheless, all
the internal contents continue to move gently
and gradually, until the screw, pistonj and
bladder, are entirely come out. When that
is done, the rest follow directly after. The
piston separates from the barrel, and the appa-
rent ligament, which is below the latter, swells
TOL. Ill, S and

130 buffon's

and acquires a diameter equal to tliat of the
spongy substance Mhich follows it. Tliis,
although much larger than when in the case,
becomes still five times longer than before.
The tube which incloses it all is straightened in
its middle, and forms two kinds of knots, about
a third of its length distant from each extremity :
the semen then flows through, and is composed
of small opaque globules, which float in a serous
matter, without shewing any signs of life, and
which are precisely such as I have said to have
seen them when thej- were diffused in the reser-
Toir of the milt. In the figure, the part between
the two knots seems tobe broken : when itisexa-
mined attentively, v»e find that what causes it to
appear as such, is, that the spongy substance
within the tube is broken in nearly equal pieces,
which the following phenomena will clearly
prove. Sometimes it happens, that the screw
and the tube break by ihe piston, which remains
in the barrel ; then the tube closes in a moment,
and takes a conical figure, by contracting, as
much as it is possible, above the end of tJie screw,
which demonstrates its great elasticity in that
part : and the manner in which it accommodates
itself with the figure of the substance it incloses,

when

NATURAL HISTORY. 131

when it receives the least change, proves, that
it is equal in every other respect."

Mr. Needham from this conceives that we
might imagine the actions of all this machine
were owing to the spring of tbe screw, but he
proves, by many experiments, thai the screw,
on the contrary, only obeys a power which
resides in the spongy part. As soon as the
screw is separated from the rest, it ceases its
action, and loses all its activity. The author
afterwards makes this reflection on this singu-
lar machine :

'' If, says he, I had seen the animalcule
pretended to be in the semen of living animals,
perhaps I might be in a condition to determine
whether they are really living creatures, or
simple machines prodigiously minute, and
which are in miniature, what the vessels of the
calmar are in the great."

By this, and some other analogies, Mr.
Needham concludes, there is a great appear-
ance that the si^ermatic worms of other animals
are only organized bodies and machines, like
to those of the calmar, whose actions are
made at different times ; '' for, says he, let us
suppose, that in the prodigious number of sper-

S 2 matie

1S!& BUrFON's

malic womas seen on the table of a microscope,
there are some thousands which act at the same
time, that will be sufficient to shew us, they
are all alive. Let us also conceive, adds he,
that the motion of these spermatic worms re-
mains, like that of the machines of the calmar,
about half a minute ; then the succession oi
action of tlrese small machines, will remain
a long time, and the pretended animals will
appear to decrease successively. Besides why
should the calmar alone hav€ machines in i(s
seed, whereas every other animal has spermatic
worms, and real animals ? Analogy is here of
such great weight, that it does not appear pos-
sible to refuse it. " Mr. Needham likewise ver^r
justly remarks, that even the observations of
Leeuwenhoek, seems to indicate that the sper-
matic worms have a great resemblance with
the organized bodies in the seed of the calmar.
*^ I have, says Leeuwenhoek, speaking of the
cod, taken those real substances for hollow and
extended animalcule, because they were four
times as large as the living animalcule." And
in another part, '' I have remarked j he says,
speaking of the seed of a dog, that theanimal-
puleg often <>hange theirfp^m, especially wher^

the

4

NATURAL HISTOHr. lo$

the liquor in wliicli tlioy float evaporates.
The progressive motion does not extend above
the diameter of a hair."*

After considering ail these circumstances
Mr. Needham conjectures, that the supposed
spermatic animals might possibly be only na-
tural machines, substances much more simply
organized than the bodies of animals. I have
seen with the microscope, these machines in
the calmar, and the description he gives of
them, is very faithful and exact. His observa-
tions then shew us, that the seminal liquor is
composed of parts wliich seek to be organized ;
that it, in fact, produces organized substances,
but that they are not as yet, either animals or
organized substances, like the individual which
produced them. We might suppose, that tliese
substances are only instruments which serve to
.perfect the seminal liquor, and strongly impel
it ; and that it is by their brisk and internal
action, that it most intimately penetrates tlic
eeminal liquor of the female.

CHAPTER

♦ See Leeuwenh. Arch.-Nat. page 306,309,310.

134: b^ffon's

CHAPTER VII,

COMPAPilSON OF MY OBSERVATIONS WITH THOSE
OF LEEUWENHOEK.

A LTHOUGH I made the preceding ex-
periments with all the circumspeclion
possible ; and although I repeated them a num-
ber of times, I am persuaded that many things
escaped my notice; I have only related what I
saw, and what all the world may see, with a
little art and much practice. In order to be
free from prejudices, I endeavoured to forget
what Other naturalists asserted to have seen,
conceiving that by so doing, I should be more
certain of only seeing in fact what really ap-
peared ;

TfATURAL HISTORT. 13 J

peared ; and it v/as not till after I had digested
my observations, that I compared them with
those of Lecuwenhoek, &c. 1 by no means
pretend to have greater abilities in microscopi-
cal observations than that great naturalist, who
passed more than sixty years in making vari-
ous experiments.

Notwithstanding the authority his observa-
tions may justly claim, it is surely permitted
to examine and compare others with them.
Truth can only be . gained by sucli examina-
tions, and errors discovered, particularly as
we do it without any partiality, and in the sole
view of establishing something fixed and cer-
tain on the nature of those movirg bodies seen
in the seminal liquors.

In November iG77, Leeuwenhcek,who had
already communicated to the Royal Society
of London many microscopical observations
on the optic nerve, the blood, the juice of
the plants, the texture of trees, rain-water,
^c. addressed to Lord Brouncker, President
pf the Society, in the following words :
" Postquam Exc* &c. Dominus Professor
Cranen me visitatione sua sogpius honorarat,
litteris rogavis, Domino Ham concrato suo,

quasdam
* See Phil. Trans, N«, 141. page I04I.

155 BUFFO n's

quasdam observationum mearum,videndasda*
rem. Hie dominus Ham me sccundo invisens^
secnm in lagunciila, vitrea semen virijgonorr-
Iiaea laborantis, sponte destillatum, attulit^
dicens, se post paucissimas temporis minutias
(cum materia ilia jam in tantum esset resoluta.
ut fistula? vitreee immitti posset) animalcula
viva in eo observasse, quae caudam & ultra 24
Loras non viventia judicabat ; idem reierebat
se ajiimalcula observasse mortua post suraptam
ab a^groto therebintinam. Materiam pradi-
catam fistulae vitrei immissam, praesente Do-
mino Ham, observavij quasdamque in eacrea.^
turas viventes, at post decursum 2 aut 3 hora-
rum eamdera solus materiam observans, mor-
iuas vidi.

" Eamdem materiam (semen virile) non
SEgroti alicujus, non diuturna conservatione
corruptam, vel post aliquot momenta fluidi-
oreni factam, sed sani viri stalim post ejec-
tionem, ne interlabentibus quidem sex arteriac
pulsibus, saspiuscule observavi, tantamque in
ea viventium animalculorum multitudinein,
I'idijUt interdum plura quura 1000 in magniln-
dine arena; scse movereiit ; non in toto semine,
sed in materia fluida crassiori adhaerente, in*
gentera illam animalculorum multitudinem

observavi

NATURAL. HISTORY, 137

dbservavi ; : in crassiori vcro scminis materia
quasi sine raotu jacebant, quod iude pro venire
mibi imaginabar, quod materia iila crassa ex
tam variis coha?reat partibus, ut animalcula
in ea se movere ncquirent; minora, -globulia
sanguiniruboremadfcrentibus hagc animalcula
erantj ut judicem, millena milUaarenam gran-
diorcm magnitudine non aequatura. Corpora
corum, rotunda, antcriora obtusa, posteriora
ferme.in aculeum desinentia habebant ; cauda
tenui longitudine corpus quinquies sexiesve
excedente, & pcUucida crassitiem vero ad 25
partem corporis habente pradita crant, adeo
ut ea quoad figuram cum cyclaminisaninori-
bus, longam caudam liabentibus, optime, com-
parare queam ; motu caudaeserpentino, aut ut
anguillae in, aqua natantis progrediebantur ;
in materia vero aliquantulum crassioricaudaia
octies dccicsve quidcm evibrabant antequam
latitudinem capilli prpcedebant. Interdum
mihi imaginabar,rae;interriOscere> posse adhucS
varias in cor pore hori|manimalculoriyn,partesj
quia vero continuo eas videre nequibam, de iis
tacebo. His animalculis minora adhup ani-
malcula, quibus,non ,nisl glpbiili %ujEam. attri-
buere possum, permiss^ .erant. ^^f^i v,>
VOL. in. T- "Memini

13B BlfFFON's

'' Memini me ante tres aut quatuor annos,
togatu Domini Olden burs^, B. M. semen virile
observasse, & praedicta animalia pro «:lob«lis
habuisse ; sed quia fastidiebara ab ulteriori in-
quisitione, & magis quidem a descriptione,
tunc tempdris earn omisi. Jam quoad partes
ipsas, ex quibus crassam seminis materiamj
quoad majoiem sui partem consistere saepius
cum admiratione bbservavij ea sunt tam varia
ac multa vasa, imo in tanta multitudine lia^c
vasa vidi, utcredam me in unica seminis gutta
plura observasse quam anatomico per integrum
diem subjectum aliquod secanti occurrant.
Quibus visis, firmitercredebamnulki in corjwve
humano jam formato esse vasa, quae in semine
virili bene constituto non repcriantur. Cnm
iftiateria baec per momenta quaBdani aeri ftiisset
expositajprasdicta vasorum niultitudo inaqiio-
sam magnis olcaginosis globulis permistam
materiam mutabatur, &c.''
' The Secretary of the Royal Society, in an-
swer to this letter, says, that it would ho pro-
per to make the like experiments on tlie seed
of other animals, as dogs, horses, &c. wot
mdy to ft^rm a better judgment on 4lte first
discovery, but to kno^f the lUllerences whicli
• • " ^ taiiirht

NATURAL HISTORY. J39

might be found in the number, and the figure
of those animalcules. And with relation to
the vessels of the thickest part of the seminal
liquors, he greatly doubts they were only fila-
ments without any organization, *' quae tibi
videbatur vasorum congeries, fortassis seminia
sunt quffidam filamenta, haud org-anice con-
structa, sed dum permearunt vasa generation!
inservientia in istiusmodi figuram elongata.
Non dissimili modo ac sacpius notatus sura sa-
livam crassiorera ex glandularum faucium
foraminibus editam quasi e convolutis fibrilis
constantem."*.

Leeuwenhoek answered him on the 18th of
March, 1678, in the following words : " Si
quando canes coeunt marem a foemina statim
seponas materia quaedam tenuis & aquosa
(lympha scilicet spermatica) e pene solet pau-
latim exstillare ; banc materiam nuraerosissimis
animaleulis repletam aliquoties vidi, eorum
magnitudine quae in semine virili conspiciun-
tur, quibus particular globulares aliquot quin-
quagies majores permiscebantur.

" Quod ad vasorem in crassiori seminis viri-
lis portione spcctabiiium observationem atti-

T 2 net,

• See the Secretary's answer to Leeuwenhoek's Letter in
the Pliil. Trans. No. 141, page 1043.

140 BUFFON^S

net, denuo non scmcl itcratam, saltern mihi-
metipsi comprobasse videor ; nieqiic oninino
persuasum liaboo, cuniculi, canis, felis, ar(c-
rias venasve fuissc a pcritissimo analomico
haud unqiiam magis perspiciie observatas,
quam mihi rasa in scmine virili, ope perspi-
cilli, in confectum venere.

" Cum mihi praedicta vasa primum inno-
luere, statim etiam pituitam, tnm & salivam
perspicillo applicavi ; verum liic minime ex-
istentia animalia frustra qua^sivi.

*' A cuniculorum coitu lympliiC spcrmatica*
ofuttulam, miam ct alteram, e feiTiella evstil-
lantcm, examini subjeci, iibl animalia praidic-
torum similia, sed longe pauciora, compa-
ruere. Globuli item quam plurimi, pleri-
quc magnitudine animalium, iisdcm pcrmisti
sunt.

" Florum animalium aliquot etiam dclinen-
fioncs transmisi, figura a (plate 3.) cxprimit
corum aliquot vivum (in semirie cuniculi arbi-
tror) eaque forma qua vidcbatur, dum aspicl-
cntcm me versus tendit. ABC, capitulum
cum trunco indicant ; CD, ejusdem caudam,
quam pariterutsuam anguilla inter natanduiu
vibrat, Horummillena millia, quantum con-
jectare est, arenula? majovis molem vix supe-

ranf,

PL/ITE. III.

AiiimaU'ula or du

h if •" r

.ininudcula n;' I In
Jtabbii

Ts^ATURAL HISTOHY. 141

rant, (fig^ h, c, d,) sunt cjusdem generis ani-
malia^ sed jam mortua.

^^(Fig.e.) Dclineatur vivum animalailura.,
quemadmodum in semine canino sese aliquo-
lies mihi aftcntius intuenli cxhibuit. EFG,
caput cum trunco indigitant, GH cjusdem
caudani, (fig. f, g^ //,) alia sunt in semine ca-
nino qui£ motu Sz vita privantur, qualium
eliam vivorum numerum adeo ingentem yidi,
ut judicarcm portionem Ijmplic'e spermaticas
arenulic mcdiocri respondenlem, eorum ut
minimum decena millia continere.''

By another ktter written to the Royal So-
ciety, the Slst of May, 167S, Lceuwenhoek
adds, " Seminis canini tantillum raicroscopio
applicatnm iterum contcmplatus sum, in eoque
antea descripta animalia numerosissime con-
spexi. Aqua pluvialis pari qnantitatc adjecta,
iisdem coniostim mortem accerslt. Ejusdem
semiriis canini portiuncula in vitreo tubulo
uncia? partem duodecimalem crasso servata,
sex & triginta horarum spatiocontenta anima-
lia vita dcstitua pleraque, reliqua moribunda
videbantur.

'' Quo de vnsorum in semine genitali exis-
tent ia magis constaret, delincationem eorum
aliqualcmmitfo, ut in figura ABODE, (/?£>•. /.)
7 qui bus

142 BUFFa:«'s

«iiib;is litcris circumscripiuiTi spatium arena*
la ill nictliocrem vix sui[)erat."

I have copied these first remarks of Leeu-
veiihoek from the Philosophical Transactions,
because, ill matters of this kind, observations
made without any systematical view are those
v/hich are the most faiihfiuly described, and^
even this able naturalist no sooner formed a
system on spermatic animals, than he be^^an to
vary in essential points.

It is evident by the above dales, that Hart-
soeker is not the first who published, if he was
the first who discovered spermatic animals.
In the Journal do S<;avans, in the year 1774,
there is a letter from Mr. Huguens, on the sub-
ject of a microscope, made by one small ball
of glass, with which he asserts he perceived
animals in the water, wherein pepper had been
infused for two or three days, as Leeuwenhock
before had ol)served with the like microscopes,
but whose balls were not so minute. " There
are also other seeds, lie conlinnes, which en-
gender such animals, as coriander seeds, Sec,
and 1 have seen the same thing in the pith of
the birch tree, after liaving kept it for four or
five days; and some have observed them in
the water where nutmegs and cinnamon have

been

NATURAL HISTORY. HS

been soaked. These animals may be said t»
engender from some corruption or fenncnta-
lion : but there are others which must have a
different origin ; as those in the seed of animals j
which seem in such great ntimbers, a« to l>c
almost composed of them ; they are all traits-
parent, have a quick motion, and tiKiir figures
are like the tadpole."

Huguens does not mention the autiioro^'tlils
discovery ; but in the Jounial of the 99&i of
August in the same jear, there is an extract oi' a
letter <yf M. Hartsoeker, in which lie gives tlie
meth<>(l of forming these giass balls by ineaBs
of the flame of a lamp ; and tlie author of l^*e
Journal says, " By this method lie has disco-
vei^d that little animals are engendered Ir itrinc
T\hich has been kept for some days, and have
the figure of little eels : he found some in ike
seed of a code, which ap]x»ared of (he same form,
but quite different from those found in theseed
of oth(M- animals, which resemble tadpoles, or
young frogs, Ixifore their legs are formed-"
Theautltor ^eeras to attribute the invention t»
flartsot'ker ; but if we reflect on tlie uncertain
manner in which it is there represented, and on
the particular manner in which Leeuwenhoek
^jjieaks in his letter, written and published alx>ve

a vear

144: kltffqn's

a year before, we must allow him to be the
first Avho made this observation ; but between
them a contest took place as to the discovery
which has never been decided. Be this as it
will, Leeuwenhoek was undoubtedly the first
inventor of the microscope, whose focuses arc
balls of glass forwicd by the flame of a lamp.
But to return to his observations.

I shall first remark, that what he says of
tlie number and motion of these pretended
aaimals^ is. true ; but the figure of the body
is not always the same as he describes it :
sometimes the part which precedes the tail
is round, and at otlicrs long ; often flat, and
frequently broader than it. is long, &c. and
with respect to tlie tail, it is often much
larger and shorter tlian he asserts. The mo-
tion of vibrations wliich he gives to the tiiil^
and by means of which he pretends that the
animalcules advance progressively in this fluid,
has never appeared to me as lie has described
it. 1. have seen these moving substances make
eight or icn oscillations from the right to the
left, or vice versa, without advancing the
breadth of a hair ; and I have even seen many
more which could not advance at all; because
tliistail, instead of being of any assistance to

them *

NATURAL HISTORY. 145

them ^vas, on the contrary, a tliread attached
cither in the iihimcnts or mucilaginous parts of
the liquor, and rather retained the moving sub-
stance like as a thread fastened to the point re-
tains the ball of a pendulum; and ^vhen this
tail had any motion, it only resembled a thread
which formsa curve at the end of an oscillation.
I have seen these threads, or tails, fastened to the
filaments which Lceuwenhoek stiles vessels ; I
have seen them separate alter many reiterated
efforts of the moving bodies ; I have seen them
at first lengthen, then diminish, and at last to-
tally disappear. I therefore think these tails
should be considered as accidental parts, and
not as essential to the bodies of these pretended
animals. But what is most remarkable, I^cu-
wenhoek precisely says, in his letter to Lord
Brouncker,that, besides these animals that had
tails, there were also smaller animals in this li-
quor, which had no other form than that of a
globule. «' His animalculis (caudatis scilicet)
minora adhuc animalcula, quibus non nisi
globuli figuram attribuere possum, permista
crant." This is the truth ; but after Lceuwen-
hoek had advanced that these animals were the
only efficient principle of generation, and that
tliey were transformed into human ficrures, he

VOL, III. TT " ,

^ has

Ii6 - BUFFO n's

tas only regarded those as animals which had
tails ; and as it was consistent for animals that
were iran stormed into human figures^ to have
a constant form, he never afterwards mentions
those^smaller animalcules without tails ; and I
was greatly surprised J on comparing the copy of
this letter with that he published twenty years
after^ in his 3d volume, where, instead of the
above words, the following are found: *' Arii-
malculis liisce permistaB jacebant alia) minu*
tiores particul3e,quibus nonaliam quamglobu-
loruna scai sphaericam figuram assignare queo ;"
which is quite difR^rent. A particle of matter to
which he attributes no motion, is very different
from an animalcule : and it is astonishing that
Let^iiw^nhoek, in copying his own ^^ orks, has
altered this essential article. What, he adds
immediately after likewise merits attcnt Lou: he
iays, tliat by tlie desire of Mr. Oldenburg he
had examined tliis liqum* three or four year&
before, when he took these animalcules for glo-
bules; tliat is, there arc times when tliese pre-
tended animalcules arc no more than globules,
without any remarkable motion, and others
wlien they move with great activity; sometimes
ihey have tails, and at others they liaye none.
Speaking ill general of spermatic animals he

savs

^^ATUltAL HISTORY. H7

^ajs, ^*ExIiisce meis observationibus cc^tarc
coepi, quamvis anteliac tie animalculis in scmii
nibus masculinis agens, scripserim. me in illis
caudas non detexisse, fieri tamen posse ut ilia
animalcula a?que caudis fuerint instructa jic
nunc comperi de animalculis in gallorum gal-
linaceorum semine masculino;" another proof
lliat he has often seen spermatic animals of all
kinds without tails.

In the second place we must remark, that the
filaments wliich are seen in the seminal liquor
before it is liquefied were discovered by Leeu-
wenhoek, and tliat in his first observations, be-
fore he had made any hypothesis on spermatic
animals, he considered these filaments as veins,
nerves, and arteries ; and firmly believed all the
parts and vessels of the human body might
clearh^ be seen in the seminal liquor. This op^
nion he persisted in, in defiance of the repre-
sentations which Oldenburg made to him on
tiiis subject iVom theRoyalSofciety : but as soon
as he thought of tfansforrriing these pretended
spermatic animals into men, he no longer men-
tioned these vessels ; and instead of lookingon
them as nerves, arteries, and veins, of the hu-
man body already formed in the seed ;' lie did
not even attribute to them th^ functions they

U 2 really

148 BUFFO n's

really possess, the producing of these movinf|
bodies : and he says, vol. 1. p. 7, " Quid fiet
de omnibus illis particulis sen corpusculis pra>
ter ilia animalcula semini virili horninnm in-
liaerentibus? 01iiTi& priusquamha^c scriberem,
in ea sentenlia fui, pra^dictas siriasvel vasa ex
testicnlis principium secum ducere, &c." And
ill another part he says, that if lie had formerly
written any thing on the subject of these ves-
sels found in the seed, we must pay no atten-
tion to it.

We shall observe in the third place, that if
we compare the figures «, /;, r, fl, (tlate hi.)
copied from the Philosophical Transactions,
with those which Lecuwenhoek had engraved
many years after, (platg iv.) we shall find
considerable difference, especially in the figures
of the dead animals, of a rabbit and in those of
a dog, (which plate we have also copied far t he
satisfaction of our readers) from all which we
may conclude, that Leeuwenhoek has not al-
ways observed objects entirely alive : that the
moving bodies, which he looked upon as ani-
mals, appeared to him under diilcrent forms ;
and that he has varied in his assertions, with a
view of making the s}5ecics of men and animals
perfectly consistent ; he has not only varied in

the

pjLJTj:.jr.

NATURAL HISTORY. 249

the basis of these experiments, but even in the
manner of making them, for he expressly says,
that ]^€ always diluted the liquor with water, in
order to separate, and to give more motion to
these animalcules : nevertheless, in his letter to
Lord Brounckcr,he says, that having mingled
an equal quantity of rain water with the seminal
liquor of a dog, in which he had before per-
ceived an infinity of living animalcules, yet the
mixing of this water killed them. The firstex-
periraent ofLecuwenhoek's therefore was made,
like mine, without any mixture ; and it even
seems, that he was not of opinion to mix any
water with the liquor till a long time after; be-
cause he thought hehad discovered, by his first
essay, that water caused the death of the aniraal-
culiE; which however is not the fact. I think
that the mixture of the water only dissolves the
filaments very suddenly; fori have seen but very
few filaments in alUhe experiments I havemadc
«ifter mixing the water with the seminal liquor.
As soon as Leeuwenhoek was persuaded that
spermatic animals were transformed into men,
tind other animals, he imagined hesawtwosorts
in the seminal liquor of every aniiual, the one
male, and the other female; and this difference,
according to him, served not only for the gc-
7 Herat ion

130 BUFFO n's

ccration of theniselves, but (or (he produclioh
of males and females, ivhich ^vas very difficult
lo conceive bv a simple transformation. He
speaks of t he male and female animalcule, in bis
letter printed in the Philosophical Transactions,.
Noil45, and in many par<s of his works,* but
he does not describe the difference of these male
and femals animalcules, and which in fact iie-
Tcr existed but in his own imagination.

The famous Boerhaave having asked Leeu*
"wenhoek, if he had not observed in spermatic
animals different degrees of growth and size?
I^eeuwenhoek answered, that having dissected
a rabbit, he observed in the semen an infinite
number of living animals. " Incredibileiii, says
he, viventium animalculorum, numerum con-»
spexerunt, cum haec animalcula scypho impo-
sita vitreo & ilHc emortua, in rariores ordines
drsparasscut, & per con tinuos aliquot dies sas^-
pius visu examiuassem, qua^dam ad justam
magiiitudinem notidum excrevisse adverti. Ad
Itajc quasdam observavi particulas perexilcs &
oblongas, alias aliis majores, &, quantum oculis
apparebat, cauda destitutas ; quas quidem par^*
ucula3 lion nisi aniraalcula esse credidi, qua? ad

justara

* See vol. I. p.tge 163, and vol. III. page 101, of Ihls works^

NATURAL HISTORY. 151

jusla.m magnitudincin noh excrevlsserif .'"* *
Here then are animalcules of different size?,
some with tails and others without, which mucli
better agrees with my experiments, than with
Leeuwenhoek's own system. We differ onlj
in one particular ; lie says, that those wifbotit
tails were young animalcuki^, which were not
arrived at their full growth ; while I, on tlw?
contrary, have seen tliese pretended anim^k
quit the filaments with tails or threads, ajid
afterwTirds lose them bj^ degrees.

In the same letter to Boerhaave, he says, ia
the semen ©fa rani, he perceived animalcules
following each other in swarms like a flock gC
sheep. '^' A tribus circiter annis testes arietis,
adhuc calentes, ad xdes meas de.ferri curave-
ram, cum igitur materiam ex epididymibus
eductam, ope microscopii contemplarer, non
sine ingenti voluptate advertebam animalcula
omnia, quotquot innatabant semini masculino,
eundem natando cursum tenere, ita nimirum
ut quo itinere priora prinatarent eodem ]x>ste*
riora subsequerentur, adeo ut hisce animalcidi^
quasissit iiigenitum, quod oves factitaro vide-
mus, scilicet ut preccilcntium vcstigiis grex
universus incedat." This observation, which

Lceuwenhoejk

' * See fol. IV. pages 280 and 281.

152 buffon's

Lceuwenhoek made in 17 I3y and "wbicli he
looks upon as singular and novel, proves to
me, that he had never examined the seminal
liquors of animals with attention, at least suffi-
cient to give very exact descriptions of them.
Leeuwenhoek was sixty-one years old in 17 J 3,
had made microscopical observations for more
than forty-five years, had published the dis-
covery of spermatic animals for about thirty-
six years, and then, for the first time, saw in
the seminal liquor of a ram, what is seen in all
geminal liquors, and what I have described
in Experiment ix. in the seed of a man ;
Experiment xii. in the seed of a dog ; and in
Experiment XXIX. in that of a bitch.. It is
not necessary to suppose the spermatic ani-
mals of the ram are endowed with instinct, to
explain the floating of these animals, in flocks
like sheep, since those of a man, dog, or bitcli,
does the same ; and which motion depends
solely on particular circumstances, whose prin-
ciple is, that all the fluid matter of <he seed
is on one side, while the thick matter is on
the other ; for then all the bodies in motion
will be disengaged from the mucilage, and
follow the same road into the most fluid j^art
of the liquor*

In

NATURAL inSTORY. 153

In anollier letter, written the same year, to
Bocrhaavc, he relates some further observations
he made on rams, and says, that he has seen, in
the va^a 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
praecideram partibus, observavi. Ad hac, in
quadam parastatarum resecta portione com-
plura vidi nnimalcula, qua2 necdum in justam
inagnitudinem adoleverant, nam et corpuscula
illis cxiliora & caudae triplo breviores erant
qiiam adultis. Ad haic, caudas non hal)cbant
desinentes in mucronem, quales tamen adultis
esse passim comperio. Prsetereain quandam pa-
rastatarum portionem incidi, animalculis quan-
tum discerncre potui, destitutam, tantuni illi
quandam perexiguaj inerant particulae, partini
longiores, partini breviores, sed altera sui ex-
trcmitate crassiunculae ; istas particulas in aui-
malcula traasituras esse non dubitabam." It
is easy to see, by this passage, that Leeuwen-
hoek had seen, in this seminal liquor, what I
found in all ; that is to say, moving bodies of
difi^crent sizes, figures, and motions ; and which
agrees much better with the idea of organic par-
ticles in motion than of that with real animals.

VOL. Ill, X It

154: buffon's

it appears, therefore, that liCeuwenhoek's
observations are not contrary to mine, although
'lie has drawn very different conclusions from
^them. I am persuaded that if any person
would take the trouble of making the like ex-
periments 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 io decide thereon, I
shall subjoin a few remarks.

The filaments I have spoken of are not al-
'ways to be perceived in the seminal liquor of a
man. To discover them it must be examined
''the moment it is taken from the body, arid
' even then it will sometimes happen that there
'is not one to be seen. Sometimes the seminal
' liquor presents, especially when it is very thick,
' only large globules, which may be even distin-
guished with a common lens. By inspecting
'them 'with the microscope they appear like
young oranges ; they are very opaque, and a
single one often fills up the whole table of the
microscope. The first time I saAV these glo-
bules I thought they were some foreign mat-
ters fiillen into the liquor, but having examined
^iffbrent drops I discovered that the whole was

composed

NATURAL HISTORY. 355

composed of these thick globules. I selected
o^e of the roundest, and Avhose size was such:
that, its centre being in the middle of the table
of the microscope, I could at the same time
observe the wJiole circumference ; at first it was
absolutely opaque; a short time afterwards
I perceived a bright luminous ring to form on
its surface, which remained about half an hour,
and then approached by degrees towards the-
centre, which became clear, and of different
colours, wliile the remainder of the globule
continued opaque. This light, which bright-
ened in the centre of the globule, resembled
tliosc seen in the great air bubbles. The glo-
bule then began to get a little flat, and acquire
a small degree of transparency. Having exa-
mined it more than three hours I perceived no
more alteration, nor any appearance of mo-
tion, either internally or externally. I then
imagined, that by mixing this liquor with
water, tlicse globules miglit be changed ; ia
fact they did change, but they presented only a^
transparent and homogeneous liquor, wherein
was nothing remarkable. I suffered the se-
minal liquor to liquefy of itself, and examined
it at the end of six, twelve, and twenty-four
hourS;biit saw notliing more than a fluid, witli-

X2 out

156 buffon's

out the smallest resemblance of life or motion.
I only relate this observation to shew that there
are times when the common phenomena arc
not to be seen in tJic seminal liquor.

At times all the moving bodies appear to
have tails, especially in the semen of a man
and a dog ; the motion is then the least brisk,
and performed with difficulty. If this liquor
is suffered to dry, the tails or threads are de-
prived of motion the first ; the anterior extre-
mity continues to vibrate for some time, and
then all motion entirely ceases. These sub-
stances may be preserved in this state of dry-
ness for a long time : if a small drop of water is
mixed therewith, their figure clianges, tliey
are reduced into many globules, which some-
times appear to be in motion, as well by tlieir
approximation to each other, as by tlic trepi-
dation and twirling round their centres.

These moving bodies in the seminal liquor
ofaman, dog, or bitch, so nearly resemble
each other, as to admit of mistaking one for
the otlier, especially if they are examined the
moment the liquor is drawn from ihc animal.
Those of the rabbit appear smaller and brisker ;
but these differences proceed more from the
different states in which the liquor is at the time

of

NATURAL HISTORY. 157

of observafion, than from tlio nature of the
liquor itself, which ought to be . difl'crent in
different kinds of animals ; for example, in
that of a man I Iiave seen strealis of thick tila-
ments, {fig' 3.) and have perceived the mov-
ing bodies separate themselves from these fila-
ments from whence they appeared to proceed;
but 1 have never seen any thing like it in the
semen of a dog; where, instead uf filaments, or
separated streaks, it is commonW a mucilage
whose texture is more compact, and in which
we with difficulty discern any filamentary
parts ; yet tliis rnucilage gives birth to moving
bodies like those in the semen of men.

The motions of these bodies remain a longer
time in the liquor of a dog, than in that of a
jnan; from which it is more easy to be certain
of the alteration of form above m.entioned.
The moment the liquor issues from the body
of the animal we perceive the animalcules to
have tails; in twelve, twenty-four, or thirty-six
hours after, we shall find they have lost those
tails, and are then no more than ovals in mo-
tion, often much brisker than at first.

The moving bodies are always a little be-
low the surface of the liquor. On the surface
some large transparent air bubbles, which have

no

158 buppon's

no motion, generally appear, thougli some-
times these bubbles stir and seem to have a
progressive motion, but which is nothing more
than the agitation of the air. Below the mov-
ing substances we often see others much small-
er, and which only appear like globules, hr?v-
ing no tails, but the greatest number of wliich
are oftentimes in motion. I have also gene-
rally remarked, that in the infinite number of
globules, in all those liquors, those which are
very small, are commonly black, or darker
than tlie rest ; and that those which arc ex-
tremely minute and transparent, have but little
or no motion ; they appear also to weigli spe-
cifically heavier, for they arc always the deep-
est in the liquor.

CHAPTER

^TATUHAL HISTORY. I59

CHAPTER XIII.

•r£flecti6ns on the preceding experiments.

T>Y the experiments we Lave just described, I

was assured tlmt females, as well as males,

have a seminal liquor which contains moving

substances; that these substances were not real

animals, but only living organic particles ; and

• that those particles exist, not only in theseminal

liquors of the two sexes, but even in the flesh

•of animals, and in the germs of vegetables.

To discover whether all the parts of animals,

and all the germs of vegetables, contained

living organic particles* I caused infusions- of

7 the

160 BUFFON^S

the flesb of diiTirent animals to be made, and
of more than twenty kinds of seeds of differ-
ent jilants ; and after they had infused four or
five days, in phials closely stopt up, I had the
satisfaction to see moving organic parts in
tliem all ; some appeared sooner, and others
later ; some preserved their motion for months
together, while others were soon deprived of
it ; some directly produced large moving
globules, that had the appearance of real
animals, which changed their figures, sepa-
rated, and became successively smaller: others
produced only small globules, whose motions
were very brisk ; others produced filaments
which lengthened and seemed to vegetate,
swelled, and afterwards thousands of moving
globules issued therefrom ; but it is useless to
detail my observations on the infusion of
plants, since Mr. Needham has published so
excellent a treatise on the subject. I read
tlie preceding treatise to that able naturalist,
and often reasoned with him on the subject,
particularly on the probability that the germs
of vegetables contained similar moving bodies
to those in the seed of male and female animals.
He thought those views sufficiently founded to
deserve to be pursued; and therefore began

to

NATURAL inSTORY. 161

to make experiments on all parts of vegetables;
and I must own that the ideas I gave him on
tliis subject have reaped greater profit under
his hands than they would have done from me.
I could quote many examples, but shall con-
fine mvself to one, because I indicated the ctt*
cumstance I am goiiig to relate.

To determine whether the moving sub-
stances seen in the infusions of fiesh were true
animals, oronlj, as I supposed, moving organic
particles, Mr. Necdham imagined that he had
only Xo examine some roasted meat, because
if they were animals the fire must destroy*
them ; and if not animals, they might still be
found there as weFl as when the meat was raw;
having therefore taken the jelly of veal, and
other roasted meat, he infused them for several
days in water, closely corked up in phials,
and upon examination he found in every on^
of them a great quantity of moving substances,
lie shewed me some of these infusions, and
among the rest tliat of flie jelly of veal, iii
•wliich there were moving substances, perfectly
like those in the seminal liquor of ar man, a
dog, and a bitch, when they have no threads,
or tails ; and although we perceived them \q
change their figures, their motions so perfectly
VOL. HI. Y resembled

162 buffon's

resembled those of an animal which swims, that
whoever saw them, without being acquainted
with what has been already mentioned, might
certainly have taken them for real animals. I
shall only add, that Mr. Needham assured
himself, by a multiplicity of experiments, that
all parts of vegetables contain moving organic
particles, which confirms what I have said,
and extends my theory on the composition of
organized beings, and their reproduction.

All animals, both male and female, and all
Vegetables whatsoever, it is therefore evident
are composed of living organic parts. Thet^e
organic parts are in the greatest abundance in
the seminal liquor of animals, and in seeds of
vegetables. It is from the union of these or-
ganic parts returned from all parts of the ani-
mal or vegetable body, that reproduction is
performed, and is always like the animal or
vegetable in which it operates; because the
union of these organic parts cannot be made
but by the means of an internal mould, in
"which the form of an animal or vegetable is
produced. It is in this also the essence of the
unity and continuity of the species consists,
and will so continue while the great Creator
permits their existence.

But

NATUllAL HIStORY. l63

But before I draw general conclusions from
the system I am establishing, I must endeavour
to remove some objections which might be
made, and mention some other circumstances
■wliich will serve to place this matter in a better
light.

It will be askedj why I deny ihoSd moving
substances in the sdminal liquors to be animals,
since tliey have constantly been regarded as
such by Lceuwenhoek, and every other natu-
ralist, who has examined them ? I may also be
told, that living organic particles are not per-
fectly intelligible, if they are to be looked upon
as animalculae ; and to suppose an animal is
composed of a number of small animals, is
nearly the same as saying that an organized
being is composed of living organic particles.
I shall therefore endeavour to answer these ob-
jections in a satisfactory manner.

It is certain that almost all naturalists agree
in looking on the moving substances in semi-
nal liquors as real animals ; but it is no less cer-
tain, from my own observations, and those of
Mr. Nccdham, on the seed of the calmar, that
these moving substances are more simple and
less organized beings tlian animals.

Y 2 The

164 BUFFO n's

The word animal^ in the acceptation we
commonly receive it, represents a general idea
formed of particular ideas drawn from parti-
cular animals. All general ideas include many
different ones, which approach, or are more or
less distant from each other, and consequently
no general idea can either be exact or precise.
The general idea which we form of an animal
may be taken principally from the particular
idea of a dog, a horse, and other beasts, which
appear to us to act and move according to the
impulse of their will, and which are besides
composed of flesh and blood, seek after their
food, have sexes, and the faculty of reproduc-
tion. The general idea, therefore, expressed
by the word animal ^ must comprehend a num-
ber of particular ideas, not one of which con-
stitutes the essence of the general idea, for there
are animals which appear to have no reason,
will, progressive motion, flesh nor blood, and
which only appear to be a congealed substance :
there are some ^hich cannot seek their food,
but only receive it from the element thoy live
in : there are some which have no sensation,
not even that of feeling, at least in any sensible
degree : there are some have no sexes, or are
both- in one ; there oidy belongs, therefore, ia

the

NATURAL HISTORY. |6j

the animal a general idea of what is common
also to the vegetable, that is, the faculty of re-
production.

The general idea then is formed from the
"vvholc taken together, which whole Ix'ing com-
posed of diiferent parts, there is consequently
between these parts degrees and links. An in-
sect, in this sense, is something less of an ani-
mal than a dos^; an ovster still less than an in-
sect ; a sea-nettle, or a frt^h-water polypus,
still less than an oyster; and as nature acts by
insensible links, wc may find beings wliich are
still less animated than a sea-nettle, or a poly-
pus. Our general ideas are only artiiicial me-
thods to collect a quantity of objects in the
same point of view ; and they have, like the
artificial methods we shall speak of- the defect
of never being able to comi)rehend the w hole.
Thcy are likewise opposite to the walk of na-
ture, which is uniform, insensible, and always
particular, insomuch that by our endeavouring^
to comprehend too great a number of parti-
cular ideas in one single Avord, we have no
longer a clear idea of what that word co/tveyb ;
because, the word being received, we imagine
that it is a line drawn between the productions
ofaatiire; that all aba vc this line is animal^

aflii

1G6 Burrox's

and all below it vegetable; another worj, a«
general as tbe first, and \vhich is used as aline?
of separation bchvecn organized bodies and in-
animate matter. But as we have already said,
these lines of separation do not exist in nature ;
there are beings Avhich arc neither animals^
vegetables, nor minerals, and which we in vain
niiglit attem])t to arrange with either. For
example, "when Mr. Trembly first observed the
polypus, he employed a considerable time be*
fore he could determine whether it was an ani*
mal or a plant ; and possibly from tliis reason
that it is perhaps neither one nor the other,
and all that can be said is, that it approaches
nearest to an animal; and as we suppose every
living (hing must be either an animal or a plant,
we do not credit the existence of an organized
being, that cannot be referred to one of those
general names ; wliereas there must, and in fact
are, a great number of organized beings which
are neither the one nor tlie other. The moving"
substances perceived in serahial liquors, in in-
fusions of the flesh of animals, in seed, and
other parts of plants, arc all of tliis kind. We
caimot call these animals, nor can we say they
are vegetables, and certainly we can still less
assert thev are minerals,

3 W»

NATURAL IIISTORV. 1C7

We can therefore affirm, without fear of ad-
vancing too much, that the grand division of
nature's productions mio Animals^ Vegetables^
and Minerals^ do not contain every material
being ; since there are some that exist \vhicli
cannot be classed in lliis division. We have al-
ready observed, tliat nature passes by insensible
links from the animal to i\\Q vegetable, but from
the vegetable to the mineral the passage is quick,
and the distance considerable; from ^vhence the
law of nature's passing by imperceptible de-
grees appears untrue. This made me suppose
that by examining nature closely we shall dis-
cover intermediate organized beings, which
without having the power of reproduction, like

animals and vegetables, would nevertheless have
a kind of life and motion; other bein"s which
without being either vegetables or animals,
might possibly enter into the composition of
both, and likewise other beings which would
be only the assemblage of the organic molecules
I have s|)oken of in the preceding chapters.

In the first class of these kind of beings
eggs must be placed ; those of hens, and other
birds, are fastened to a common pedicle, and
draw their Jiourishment and growth from the

body

IGS BUFFO n's

h(x\y of llie animal, but when fastened to the
ovary, they arc not (lien real eggs, but only
yellow globules which separate from the ovary
Tts soon as they have attained a certain growtli.
Their internal organization is such that they
derive nourishment from the lymph, the ma-
trix of the hen, and by -sv hich they form the
white membranes, and at last the shell. The
ff^s: therefore has a kind of life and organiza-
tion, a growth^ expansion^ and a form which
it assumes by its own powers. It docs not live
like an animal, nor ycgetatc like a plant, nor
is possessed of the power of reproduction ; ne-
Tcrtheless it grows, acts externally, and is or-
ganized. Must we not then look upon it as a
being of a separate class, and which ought not
to he ranked either with animal or mineral ?
for if it is pretended that the egg is oidy an
animal production, destined for the nutriment
of the chicken, and shonld be looked upon as
.1 part of the hen; I answer, that the. eggs,
whether impregnated or not, will be always
organized after the same mode ; that im-
prcgnalion only changes an almost invisible
part ; and that it attains its perfection and
growth, as well externally as iaiternally, whe-
ther

NATURAL HISTORY. 1C9

ther it contains the chicken or not, and that
consequently it ought to be considered as a se-
parate being.

What I have said will appear more clear, if
"we consider the formation and growth of the
eggs of tish ; when the female deposits them in
tiie water they are only the outlines of eggs^
which being separated from the body of the
animal, attract and appropriate to themselves
the particles which agree the best for their
nourisliment, and grow thus by intussuscep-
tion. In the same manner as the hen's ess:
acquires the white and membranes in the ma-
trix, wherein it floats, so the eggs of fish ac-
quire their membranes and white in the wa-
ter ; and whether the male impregnates them,
by emitting on these the liquor of its roe, or
whether they remain unimpregnated, they do
not the less attain their entire perfection. It
appears to me, therefore, that the eggs should
be considered as organized bodies, which being
neither animals nor vegetables, are a genus
apart.

A second class of beings, of the same kind,
are the organized bodies found in the semen
of all animals, and which, like those in the
milt of a calmar, are rather natural machines
VOL. III. Z than

170 bupfon's

ihan animals. These are properly the first
assemblages >vhich result from the organic
molecules we have so much spoken of, and
ihey are, perhaps, the parts which constitute
the organized bodies of animals. They are
found in the semen of all animals, because the
semen is only the residue of the organic mole-
cules that the atiimal takes in with its aliment,
and which, as we have already observed, are
those parts most analogous to the animal itself,
and most organic ; it is those particles which
compose the matter of (he semen, and conse-
quently we must not be astonished to find or-
ganized bodies therein.

To be perfectly convinced that these or-
ganized bodies are not real animals, we need
only reflect on the preceding experiments.
The moving bodies in the seminal liquor have
been taken for animals, because they have a
progressive motion, and are thouglit to have
a tail ; but if we consider, on one hand, the
nature of tliis progressive motion, which
finishes in a very short time without ever re-
newing its motion ; and on the other, ihe
nature of these tails, which are only threads
which the moving bodies draw after them, we
shall bsgin to hesitate ; for an animal goes

sometimes

NATURAL IIKTORY. 171

sometimes slow, sometimes fast, and sometimes
remains in a state of rest ; these moving bodies,
on tbc contrary, always continue the same
motion, and I have never seen thera stop and
renew their movement again. I ask, whether
this kind of continued motion, without any
rest, is common to animals, and if that ought
rsot to make us doubt these moving bodies
being real animals ? An animal of any kind
must also have a constant form and distinct
limbs ; but these moving bodies vary, and
change their forms every moment, have no
distinct limbs, and their tails appear as a part
which does not belong to the individual. Can
we then imagine these bodies to be real ani-
mals? In seminal liquors filaments are seen
which lengthen and appear to vegetate ; after
which they swell and produce moving bodies.^
These filaments may be kinds of vegetables,
but the moving bodies which spring from them
cannot be animals, for a vegetable has never
yet been seen to produce an animal. These
moving bodies are found in all vegetable and
animal substances ; they are not produced by
the modes of generation, they have no uni-
formity of species, and therefore can neither
be animals nor vegetables. They are to bo

Z 2 met

179 btjffon's

met with in the flesh of animals, and in the sub-
stance of vegetables, but are most numerous in
their seeds ; is it not therefore natural to regard
them as living organic particles which compose
the animal or vegetable ; as particles which
having motion and a kind of life, ought, by
their union, to produce moving and living
beings, and so form animals and vegetables ?

But in order to leave this matter as little in
doubt as possible, let us examine other sub-
stances. Can it be said, the active machines
which Mr. Needham perceived in the milt of
the calmar were animals ? Can it be thought
that eggs, which are active machines of another
kind, are also animals? If we turn our eyes to
the representation of almost all the moving bo-
dies Leeuwenhoek saw in different matters,
shall we not be convinced, even at the first in-
spection,that thosebodies arenot animals, since
not one of them has any limbs, but are all either
globular or oval? If we afterwards examine
■what this celebrated naturalist says, when he
describes the motion of these pretended animals,
we can no longer doubt of his being in an error
when he considered them as such ; and we shall
be still more and more confirmed that they are
only moving organic particles by the following
7 examples ;

NATURAL HISTORY. }?

o

examples : Leeuwenlioek gives -^ the fit^ure of
the moving bodies which he observed in the
liquor of a male frog. Tliis figure only repre-
sents a slender body, long, and pointed at one
of its extremities ; and of this lie says, '' Ui\o
tempore caput (thus he calls the thickest ex-
tremity of this moving body) crassius mihi
apparebat alio ; plermiique agnoscebam ani-
malculum haud ultcrius quam a capitc ad
medium corpus, ob caudae tenuitatem, & cum
idem animalculum paulo vehementius move-
retur (quod tamen tarde fiebal) quasi volumine
quodam circa caput ferebatur. Corpus fere
carebat motu ; cauda tamen in trcs quatuorve
iiexus volvebatur." This then is the chancre
of form ^vhich I mentioned to have seen, the
mucilage from which tlie moving bodies use
all their efforts to be disengaged, the slowness
of their motion before they are disengaged;
and the animal, according to Leeuweniiock,
one part of which is in motion, and the other
dead: for he afterwards says, " Movebant
posteriorem solum partem, quie ultima, morti
Ticinia esse judicabam." All this does not
agree with an animal, but with what I have
spoken of: excepting tliat I never sa.v the tail

move

» Vol. I. p. 51.

174 BUFFO n's

move but by the a<*itatioii of the body. He af-
terwards sayF, spcakin^^ of the seminal liquor
of a cod, " Noil est putandum omnia animal-
rula in semiiie aselli contcnta uno eodeiDquc
tempore vivcre, seJ ilia potius tantum vivere
quag exitui sou partui viciniora sunt, qujc &
copiosiori humido innatant prae reliquis vita
carentibas,ad]iuc in crassa materia, quam hu-
mor eorum cfficit. jacentibus.'*

If these are animals, why have they not all
life? wliy are they in the most fluid part of the
liquor alive, while those in the thickest are
not so ? Leeuwcnhoek did not perceive that
the thick matter, the origin of whicli he at-
tributes to the Immour of the animalcula?,
is nothing but a mucilaginous matter which
produces them. By diluting this mucilage
-with water, lie would have given life to the
"whole of tliera. Even this mucilage is often-
times only a mass of those bodies which are
set in motion on bei;;g separated ; and conse-
quently this thick matter, instead of being a
humour^ produced by the animalcules, is only
the su])sfance of the animals themselves, or ra-
ther, as we have already observed, the matter
from which they originate. Speaking of the
seed of a cock, Leeuwenhock says, in his let-
ter

NATUnAL HISTORY. 175

tcrtoGrew, ^'Contemplando materiam (semi-
nalem) animadverli ibidem tantam abundan-
tiam virentium animalium, ut ca stuperem ;
forma seu externa figura sua nosi rates anguillas
fiuviatilesreierebantjVehcmentissimaagitatione
movebantur; quibus tamcnsiibstrati videbanliir
multi & admodam exiles globuli, item miilt«
plan-ovales figure, quibus etiam vita posset
attribui, & quidem propter earuiKlern com-
motioncs; sed existimabam omncs hascecom-
moticnes & agitationes pro venire ab animal-
cules, sicque etiam res se habebat; attaraea
ego non opiiiione solum, sed etiam ad verita-
tem mihi persuadeo has particulas planam &
ovalera figuram babentes, esse qua^dam ani-
malcula inter se ordine sno disposita & mixta
vitaque.adhuc carentia." Here we see in ihs
same seminal liquor animalcules of different
forms ; and I am convinced, by my own expe-
riments, that if Leeuwenhoek had closely ob-
served these oval substances, he would havedis-
coveredthat they moved by tlieir own powers,
and that consequently they were as much alive
as the rest. This change perfectly coincides
with what I have said, that they are organic
particles which take difierent forms, and not
constant species of animals ; for in the present

case^

176 ^t'FFOh'^S

case, if tlic bodies, Avhicli have the figure of
an eel, are true spermatic animalcules, eacli
destined to become a cock, wliich supposes a
very perfect organiza,tion, and a very constant
i'orm, Mliat will those be ^vhicli have an oval
figure, and \vhat end do tliey ansv. er ? He says
indeed afterwards, that these ovals maybe con-
ceived to be the same animals, by supposing
tlieir bodies to be twisted in a spiral form ; but
then. how shall we conceive that an animal,
whose body is constrained, can move without
being extended ? I maintain, tlierefore, that
these oval substances are no other than the
organic particles separated from their threads,
and that the eels were the separated parts
which dragged those threads af(er tliem, as I
have many times perceived in other seminal
liquors.

. Leeuwenhock, who imagined all these mov-
ing bodies were animals, and established a sys-
tem tliereon ; who also pretended, that sperma-
tic animals must become men and animals, now
suspected they were oidy natural machines, or
organic particles in motion ; for he does not
doubt these spermatic animals contained the
great animal in miniature, he says, " Pro-
geucratio animalis ex animalculo in seminibus

masculinis

NAtURAL HISTORY. 177

ifnasculinis omni exceptione major est ; nam
qtiamsi in animalculo ex semine masculo undo
ortum est, figuram animalis conspicere nequea-
mus,attamen satis supcrque ccrti esscpossumus
iiguram animalis ex qua animal ortum est, in
animalculo quod in semine masculo reperitur,
conclusam jacere sive esse ; & quanquam milii
sa}pius conspectis animalculis in semine mas-
culo animalis, imaginatus fuerim me posse
dicere, en ibi caput, en ibi humeros, en ibi
femora ; attamcn eum ne minima quidem cer-
titudine de iis judicium ferre potuerim, hu-
jusque certi quid statuere supersedeo, donee
tale animal, cujus semina mascula tarn magna
crunt, ut in iis figuram crcaturae ex qua
provenit, agnoscere queam, inyenire secunda
nobis concedat fortuna." Tbis fortunate
chance, which Leeuwenhoek desires, present-
ed itself to Mr. Need ham. Every part of the
spermatic animals of the calmdr are easy io
be seen "svithout a microscope ; but they arc
not young calmars, as Leeuwenhoek thinks,
nor even animated, althougli they are in mo-
tion,, but only machines ■which must be re-
garded as the first produce of the union of or-
ganic particles.
VOL- III. A a Althdusli

f7S BUFFO >^S

Although Loeuwenhock had not such ant
opportunity of undeceiving himself, he never-
theless had another phenomena whicli ought
to have had that effect ; for example, he had
remarked' that the sper!?KitiG animals of a dog^
often eliange their figures, especially when the
liquor was on the point of evaporating ; that
these pretended animals had a hole in the head
when they were dead, and that this hole did
not appear when they were alive; he had seen
that tlie part which he looked upon as the
Bead was fiill and plump when it was alive,
and flaccid and flat when dead. AH this ought
to have led him to doubt whether these moving
bodies were real animals ; and consider it as
agreeing better with a machine, which emp-
ties itself like that of the calmar, than with a
moving animal.

I have said that these moving bodies, these
organic particles, do not move like animals,
nor have an. interval of rest. Lceuwenhock has
observed the samet ^'-Quotiescnnque, says he,
animalcula in semine masculo animalium fuc-
irim contemplatus, attamen ilia se unquam ad
quietem cohfulisse,- me nunquanividisse, mihi
diccndum est, si mode sat fluida? superesset ma-

KATTJRAL HISTORY. 179

lerisB in qua sese commode movcrc poferant ;
et eadem in continuo manent mofu, & tem-
pore quo ipsis moricndum appropiiiquante,
Biotus magis magisque deficit, usquedum nul-
lus proisus motus in illis aguoscendus sit."
It appears difficult to conceive that animals
can exist, from the moment of their birth till
that of their death, in a continual rapid mo-
tion witliout the least interval of rest ; and I
>cannot possibly imagine how these animals in
llie semen of a dog, which Leeuwcnhock saw
the seventh day in as rapid motion as they
were when they Mere first taken from the body
of the animal, preserved a motion during that
time so exceedingly swift, tliat no animal has
sufficient power to move in for an hour : espe-
cially if wc consider the resistance which pro-
ceeds from the density and the tenacity of the
liquor. This kind of continued motion, on the
contrary, agrees with the organic particles,
which, like artilicial machines, produce their
effiLxts in a continual operation, and which stop
when that effixt is over.

Among the great number of Loeuwerihoek's

experiments, he, without doubt, often j^er-

ceivcd spermatic animals without tails ; and

fee endeavours to explain this phenomena

A a 2 by

180 BUFFON*S

by a supposition ; for exam pic, lie says, speaki
ing of the semen of a cod, '^ Ubi vero ad lacs
turn accederem observationcm, in iis partibiis
qiias animalcula esse censebam neque vitam
neque caudam dignoscere podii ; cujus rei ra-
tionem esse existimabam, quod quamdiu ani-
malcula natando loca sua pcrfectc mutare non
possunt tarn diu etiam cauda concinne circa
corpus maneat ordinata, quodqueideo singula
animalcula rolundum reprsesentent corpuscu-
lorum."

It would have been better to Ihave said, as it
in fact is, that the spermatic animals of these
fish have tails at certain times and none at
Others, than to suppose their tails twisted so
exactly round their bodies as to give them
the shape of a globule. But this must not lead
lis to think that Leeuwenhoek only attend-
ed to the moving bodies which he saw with
tails, but rather that he did not describe the
others, because, although ihcy were in motion,
he did not regard them as animals ; and this
is the cause that all the spermatic animals he
has depicted resemble each other, and drawn
with tails, since he only took them for real
animals in that state ; and that when he saw
ih^m under other forms, he thought them im-

pcrftct,

NATURAL IITSTOIIY. 181

peifccf, or ratlicr that they -were dead. On
the whole it appears, by my experiments, that
far from displaying their tails the more as they
are in a more perfect condition of swimming",
as Leenwcnhoek says, they, on the contrary,
lose tiieir tails in a gradual manner, till at last
these tails, which are no more tlian foreign bo-
dies of <he animalcules, and which they dra^
after tliem, entirely disappear.

In anotlier part Leeuwenhoek, speaking of tlie
spermatic animals of man, says, '- A'iquando
etiam animadverti inter animalcnla particulas
quasdam minorcs & subrotundas; cum vero se
ea aliquoties eo modo oculis meis cxhibueriwf,
ut mihi imngiuarer eas exiguis instructas csi^e
caudisjcogitarc coapi annon hro forte particulae
forent animalcula recens nata ; cerium cnlm
mihi est ca ctiam animalcula per generationeni
provenire, vel ex mole minuscula ad aduUam
proccdere quajttitatem : & qais sit annon ca
animalcula, ubi moriuntur, aliorum animalcu-
lorum nutrition i atque augmini inserviant T*
JJy this passage it aj)pcars tltat Leeuvveahoek
had seen animals without tails in the seminal
liquor of a man, and that he is obliged to sup^
pose them to be just born, and not adult; but
} have observed quite the contrary ; for the

mo y inn;

18? buffon's

moving bodies are never larger than wlicn tliej
separate from the filaments, and begin to move.
When they are entirely disengaged from the
mucilage thcj become smaller, and continue
decreasing as long as they remain in motion.
With respect to thegeneration of these animals,
•which Leeuwenhoek speaks of as certain, I am
persuaded no sign of generation has ever been
discovered; all hesays is advanced on raeresup-
positions, which it is easy to prove by his own
observations ; for example, lie says that the milt
of certain fish, as the cod, fills by degrees with
seminal liquor, which after the fish has emitted,
the milt dries up, leaving only a membrane des-
iiiu'c of any liquor. " Eo tempore, says he,
quo ascellus major lactes suos emisit,ruga} ilia?,
sen forlilcs lactium partes, usque adeo contra-
huntur,ut nihil prnsterpelliculas seu membrana;
«sse vidcantur." How then does he understand
that this dry membrane, in which there is no
longer either seminal liquor or animalcules, can
reproduce animals of the samekind the succeed-
ing year ? if there was a regular generation in
ihese animals, there could not be this interrup-
tion, which in most fishes lasts for a whole year.
To draw himself out of thisdifficully, he says,
** Necessario btutucndum erit, ut ascellus major

semcft

NATURAL HfSTORV. 185

semen SLiani emiserit, in lactibus ctiumnuirf
mull urn mateiiae seminalis gigiicndis animal-'
euHs aptae remansisse, ex qua materia plara
oportet provenire animalcula seminalia quairt
anno proxime elapso emissa fuerant." This
suppositionytbat there remains somelhingintlic
seminal liquor in the milts to produce spermatic
animals for th^ succeeding year, is absolutely
contrary to observations, for the milt is in ihis
interval only a thin and absolutely dry mem-
brane. But what reply can be made to a still
further opposition to this point, tliere being fisb
like the calmar, the seminal liquor of wliich Ls
not only renewed every year, but cveiv tlie re-
servoir which contains it ? Can it be said, that
there remains a semiiial matter in the milt for
the production of the animals for thesucceeding
year, when evca Hie milt does not remain ? it i-s
therefore very certain that thcseprctcn ded s|>er-
malic animals are not mulliplicd,likeo(h(^auj^
mals, by the mode of generation ; ^hich alone
h sufficient to make us presume, that those par-
ticles which move in the seminal liquors are
not real animals. Thus L ecu werjhoekj, whr>
in the passage above quoted says, it is certain
that spermatic animals mulliply and propagate
by generation, neverthdcss- ow^fs, in another
1 part.

1B4 buffon's

part, that the manner in wliicli Uiese animal*
are produced is very obscure, and that he leaves
to others the task of clearing up this matter.
^' Persuadebam mihi," says he, speaking of the
spermatic animals of the dormouse, '' haecce
animalcula ovibus prognascijquia diversain or-
bem jacentia & in semet convoluta videbam ;
sed unde,quaeso,primam illorum originem dc-
jivabimus? inanimonostro concipiemushorum
animalculorum semen jam procreatum esse in
ipsa g-cnerationc, hocque semen tarn diu in tes-
ticulis hominum haerere, usquedum ad annum
setatis decimum-quartum vel decimum-quin-
tum aut sextum perveneriiit, eademque ani-
malcula turn demum vita donari vel in justam
staturam excrevisse, illoque tcmporis articulo
generandi maturitatem adesse ! sed hrec 1am-
pada aliis trado." I do not think it necessary
to make any remarks on ^vhat Leeuwenhoek
says on this subject : he saw spermatic animals
"Without tails, and round, in the seed of a dor-
mouse; *' in semet convoluta," snys he, because
lie supposes thattiiey should have tails, and in-
stead of being certain, as he before had been,
that the animals propagate by generation, he
here seems convinced of tlie contrary. But^vhen
he had observed the generation of pucerons,

and

NATURAL HISTORY. 185

and was assured* that they engendered witliout
-copulation, he caught the idea to explain the
generationof spermatic animals. '' Quemadrao-
dum, says he, animalcula hasc qua3 pediculo-
rumantea nomine designavimus (the pucerons)
dum adhuc in uteromaterno latent, jam prasdita
sunt materia seminali ex qua ejusdem generis
proditurasunt animalcula, pari ratione cogitare
licet animalculos in seminibus masculinis ex
animalium testiculis non migrare seu ejici quia
post se relinquantminuta an imalculaaut saltern
materiam seminalem ex qua iterum alia ejus-
dem generis animalcula proventura sunt idque
absque coilu; eadera ratione qua supradicta ani-
malcula generari observavimus." This suppo-
sition gives no more satisfaction than the pre-
ceding : for we do not understand by this com-
parison of the generation of these animalcules
with that of a puceron, why they are not found
in the seminal liquor of a man, before he has
attained the age of fourteen or fifteen years ;
nor do we know from whence they proceed, nor
liow they are renewed every year in fish, &c.
and it appears, that whatever efforts Leeuwen-
lioek made to establish the generation of sper-
matic animals on some probability^ it still re-
voL. III. B b mained

* See vol. II. paje 499, and rol. Ill, page 27L

18G

BUFFO. \S

inained an entire obscurif y, and wouldj pcr-
liaps, perpetually have remained so, if the
preceding experiments had not evinced that
Ibcyarenot animals, but moving organic par-
ticles contained in the nutriment the animal
receives, and which are found in great num-
bers in the seminal liquor, which is the most
pure, and in the most organic extracts drawn
from this nutriment.

Lecuwenhoek acknowledges that he had not
always found animalcules in the seminal liquor
of males ; in that of the cock, for example,
which he had often examined, he saw sperma-
tic animals in the form of eels but once, and
some years after he could not discover any un-
der that form, but observed some with large
heads and tails, which his designer could not
perceive. He says also, that one season he could
not find living animals in the seminal liquor
of the cod. All these disappointments pro-
ceeded from his desire of finding tails to these
animals ; and although he perceived little bo-
dies in motion, he did not consider them as ani-
mals, because they were without tails, notwith-
standing it is under that form they are gene-
rally seen, either in seminal liquors, or infusions
of animal or vegetable substances. He says, in

11 the

NATURAL HISTORY. 187

the same place, that he was never able to make
liis designer perceive the spermatic animal-
cules of a cod, wliich he had so often seen liira-
self. — '• Non solum, says he, ob eximiara co-
rum cxilitatcm, sed etiam quod corum corpora
adeo essent fragilia, ut corpuscula passim di-
rumperentur ; unde factum fuit ut nonnisi rare,
nee sine attentissima observatione, animadver-
terem parliculas planas atque ovorum in mo-
rem longas, in quibus ex parte caudas digno-
scere licebat ; particulas has oviformes existi-
raavi animalcula essedirupta, quod particulas
hae dirupta^ quadruplo fere vidercntur majores
corporibus animalculorum viv^orum." A¥hen
an animal of any kind ceases to live, it does not
then suddcidy alter i(s form, and from being
long, like a thread, becomes round like a bail ;
neither does it become four times larger after
its death than it was before. Nothiii"' that
Leeuwenlioek says here agrees with the nature
of animals; but, on the contrary, the whole
corresponds with a kind of machine, which,
like those of a calmar, empty themselves after
having performed their functions. But let us
pursue this observation ; he says, he has seen
the spermatic animals of the cod in different
forms, '' multa apparebant animalcula spha?-

B b 2 ram

188 BUFFO n'^S

ram pellucidam represcntantia ;" he has alsc?
seen them of different sizes, " hiEC animalcula
minori videbantur mole, quam ubi eadeni an-
tehac in tubo vitreo rotundo examinaveram."
There needs nothing more to shew that
there are no constant and uniform species of
these animalcules; and that consequently they
are not animals, but only organic particles in
motion, which, by their different combina-
tions, take different forms and sizes. These
organic moving particles are found in great
quantities in the extract and residue of our
nutriment. The matter which adheres to the
teeth, and which in healthy people has the
same smell as the seminal liquor, is only a re-
sidue of the food, and a great numljer of these
pretended animals are also found there, some
of which have tails, and resemble those in the
seminal Kquor. Mr. Baker had four dif-
ferent kinds of them engraved, and whicli
were all of a cylindrical or oval make, or
globules with and without tails. I am per-
suaded, after having strictly examined tliem,
that net any of them are real animals, but are
like those in the seed, only living organ ical
parts of the nutriment which present them-
selves under different fotms, Leeuwenhoek,

who

NATURAL HISTORY. 1S9

i^ho did not know how to account for these
pretended animals in the matter which adhered
to the teeth, supposed them to proceed from
certain food they were previously in, as che^e,
&c. but we find them among the teeth oftliose
who do not eat cheese, as well as in those that
do ; besides, they have not the least resem-
blance to mites, nor the other animalcules seen
in rotten cheese. In another place he says,
these animals of the teeth may proceed from
the cistern water that is drank, because he ob-
served animals like them in dew and rain wa-
ter, especially in that whicii stagnates upon
lead and tiles ; but with which we can prove
there is not the least resemblance.

Most seminal liquors dilute of themselves,
and liquefy when exposed to the air or a cer-
tain degree of cold ; but they thicken wh^n a
moderate degree of heat is communicated to
them. I have exposed some of these liquors
to a very intense cold, as water on the point of
freezing, but it did no injury to these supposed
animals ; thoy coiitinued to move with the
same swiftness, and as long as those which had
not been so exposed, but those which had suf-
fered but a little v/armJh soon ceased to m.ovc,
l^ecause the liquor thickened. If the moving

bodies

190 btjffon's

bodies were animals, they were of a complexion
and temperament quite different from all others,
to whom a gentle and moderate beat strengthens
their powers and motions, which the cold stops
and destroys.

Notwithstanding it may be thought I have
dwelt too long upon this subject, I cannot con-
clude it without making one remark, from
which some useful conclusions may be drawn.
These pretended spermatic animals, which arc
Oidy living organic pavtic'cs of »]»e nutriment,
not only exist in the seminal liquors of the
two sexes, and in the residue of the nutriment
which adheres to the tectli, but also in the
eliyle and excrements. Leeuwenhoek having
met v>ith them in the excrements of frogs, and
olher animals, which he dissected, was at
first very much surprised, and notable to con-
ceive from whence these animals proceeded,
so entirely like tliose he had observed in the
seminal liquors, accuses himself of having, in
dissecting the animal, opened the seminal ves-
sels, and that the seed had by that means been
mixed with tlie excrements. But having after-
wards found them in the excrements of other
animals, and even in his own, lie no longer,
knew to what to attribute them, I.rruwenlioi^k,

it

NATURAL HISTORY. 191

it is worthy remark, never met with them in his
own excrcRients, but wlien they were liquid.
J very time he was disordered and the stomach
did not perform its functions, and was relaxed,
he discovered tliese animalcules; but when the
concoction of the food was well performed,
and the excrement was hard, there was not a
single one, although it was diluted with water.
This seems perfectly to agree with all we have
before advanced : for vrhcn the stomach and
intestines perform their functions, the excre-
ments are only the grosser parts of the nu-
triment ; and all that is really nutritive and
organic passes into the vessels Avhich serve to
nourish the animal ; whereas if the stomacli
and intestines are not in a condition to com-
minute the food, then it passes with the in-
animate parts, and wc find the living organic
molecules in the excrements ; from whence it
may be concluded, that tho^e which are often
lax must have less seminal liquor, and be less
proper for generation, than thosc^f adifierent
habit of body.

In all I have said, I conslanUy supposed the
female furnished a seminal liquor, which was
as necessary to generation as that of the male.
I have endeavoured to establish inChap. I. that

evtry

192 BUFFO^'S

every organized body must contain living or-
ganic pariicks, and I have endeavoured to
prove Chap. IJ. and ill. that nutrition and re-
production operates by the same cause ; that
ijutrition is made by (lie iiiiimate p(?nelration
of these organic particles through each part of
the body, and ihM reproduction operates by
the superfluity of (hese same organic particles
co-Uccted together from all parts of tlie body
and deposited in proper reservoirs. I have ex-
plained in Chap. IV^. how this theory must be
understood in the generation of man and ani-
mals \vh ich have sexes. Females then being or-
ganized boilies like males, ihry must also have
some reservoirs for tlic superfluity of organic
particles returned from every part of their bo-
dies. Tills superfluity cannot come there
through any other form than that of a liquor,
since it is an extract of all parts of the body ;
and this liquor is that to which I have given
the name of the female semen.

This liquor is not, as Aristotle pretends, an
infecund matter of itself, which enters neither
as matter nor form into the business of gene-
ration, but as essentially prolific as that of the
male, containing characteristic parts of the fe-
Hiininesex, which the female alone can produce,
tliesiimeas the male contains par tides necessary

to

NATURAL HISTORY. 193

to form the masculine organs; and each of
them contains every other organic particle that
can be looked on as common to both sexes ;
which causes that, by their mixture, the daugh-
tet may resemble her father ,'and the son his mo-
ther. This semen Hippocrates says, is com-
posed of two liquors ; the one strong, for the
production of males ; and the other weak, for
the production of females. But this supposition
is too extended ; I do not see how it is to be con*
ceived that a liquor, which is the extract of
every part of the female body, should contain
particles for the formation of the male organs. •
This liquor must enter by some way into the
matrix of animals which bear and nourish their
foetus within the body, and in others, as ovipa-^
rous animals, it must be absorl3ed by the eggs^
which may be looked upon as portable ma-
trixes. Each of these matrixes contains a
small drop of this prolific liquor of the female,
in the part that is called the cicatrice. When
there has been no communication with the
male, this prolific drop collects under the form
of a small mole, or mass, as Malpighius ob-
serves ; but when impregnated by that of the
male, it produces a fostus which receives its
nutriment from the juices of the egg.
VOL. Ill, C c Eggs,

191 BtlFFO.N's

Eggs, instead of being parts generally found
in every female, are therefore only instruments
made use of by Nature to serve as the matrix
in females which are deprived of that organ.
Instead also of being active and essential to the
first fecundation, they only serve as passive and
accidental parts for the nutrition of the foetus
already formed by the mixture of tlie liqaor of
the two sexes in a particular pari of this matrix.
Instead also of being existing bodies, inclosed y
adwfmtumj one within the other, eggs, on the
contrary, are bodies formed from the super-
fluity of a more gross and less organic part of
the food, than that which produces the seminal
and prolific liquor ; and are in oviparous females
something equivalent, not only to the matrix,
but even to the menstrua in the viviparous. » '

We slioidd be perfectly convinced, that eggs
arc only destined by Nature to serve as a ma-
trix in animals who have not tliat viscera, by
those females producing eggs independant of
the male. In the same manner as the matrix
exists in viviparous animals, as a part apper-
taining to the female sex, hens, which have no
matrix, have eggs in their room, which are
successively produced of themselves, and ne-
cessarily exist in the female indej^endantly of

any

NATURAL HISTORY. if)5

any communication with the male. To pre-
tend that the foetus is pre-existing in the e<^g&,
and that these -eggs are contained, ad infinitKm^
within each other, is nearly the same as to pre-
tend that the foettis.is pre-existing inthematrix^
and that the masirix of the lirst female indlosed
all that ever were or will be produced.

Anatomists have taken the word egg in seve-
ral acceptations and mea nings . When Harvey
took for his motto. Omnia exovOy he under-
stood by the word egg, as applied to viviparous
animals, the membrane which includes the £33-
tus and all its appendages : he thought, lie per-
ceived this eggy or membrane, form iramedi-
aicly after the copulation of the male and the
female. But this egg does not proceed from the
ovium of the female ; and he has even main-
tained, that he did not remark ihe least altera-
tion in this testicle, &c^ We perceive there is
kevc nothing like what is commonly understood
by theword.egg unless thefiguce of the bagmay
be supposed to have some resem^blance thereto.
Harvey, who dissected so many viviparous fe-
males, did notjhe says,evcr perceive any altera-
tion in the ovaria; he looked on them even as
small glands, perfectly useless to general ion,*al-
C c 2 though

* ,See Harvey Exercit. 64 and Q5.

196 BUFFOX'S

though they undergo very remarkable changes
and alterations in them, since we may perceive
in cows the glandular bodies grow from the size
of a millet seed to that of a cherry. This great
anatomist was led into this error by thesmallness
of the glandular bodies in the species of deer,
to which he principally paid his attention. C.
Peyerus, who also made many experiments on
them, says, *' Exigui quidem sunt damarum
testiculi, sod post coitum foecundum, in alter-
utro eorum, papilla, sive tuberculum fibro-
sum, semper succrescit; scrofis autem prag-
nantibus tanta accidit testiculorum mutatio,
ut mediocrem quoque attentionem fugere ne-
queat."* This author imagines, with some
reason, that the minuteness of the testicles of
does, is the cause of Harvey's not having re-
marked the alterations ; but he is wrong in ad-
vancing that the alterations he had remarked,
and which had escaped Harvey's notice, did
not happen till after impregnation.

It appears that Harvey was deceived in many
other essential points ; he asserts, that the seed
of the male does not enter into the matrix of the
female, and even that it cannot ; yet Yerheyen
found a great quantity of the male seed in the

matrix
* Vide Conradi Peyeri Merycologia.

NATUHAL HISTORY. 197

matrix of a cow, which lie dissected six hours
after copulation.* The celebrated Rujsch
asserts, that having dissected a woman who had
been caught in the act of adultery, and was as-
sassinated, he found, not only in the cavity of
the matrix, but also in the trunks, a quantity of
the seminal liquor of the male, t Valisnieri af».
firms, that Fallopius and other anatomists had
also discovered male seed in the matrix of many
women. After the positive testimony of these
great anatomists, there can remain no doubt hut
Harvey was deceived in this important point ;
especially when tp these are added that of Leeu-
wenhoek, who found the male seed inthe matrix
of agreat number of females of difierent species.
Harvey makes another error in speaking of an
abortion in the second month, where the mass
was as large as a pigeon's egg, but without any
foetus regularly formed ; wliereas, it is main^
tained by Ruysch, and many other anatomists,
tliatthe foetus is perceptible, even to the naked
eye, in the first month. The History of the
Academy mentions a foetus, that was com-
pletely formed in twenty-one days after impreg-
nation. If to these authorities we add that of

Malpighius,

* See Verheyen Sup. Anat. Tra. v. cap. ili.
.f See Ruysch, Tbes.Anat. p. 90, tab. vi, fig. I.

198 btjffon's

Malpighins, who perceived the chicken in the
cicafrice, immediately after the egg was laid
by the hen, we cannot doubt, but that the
folns is formed immediately after copulation;
consequently, we must not pay any credit to
what Harvey says on the parts encreasing one
after the other by juxta-position, since they are
all existent from the first, and gradually expand
until the wliole is complete.

DeGraaf took the acceptation of the word
esrg ii^ ^ quite dift'erent light to Harvey : he in^
bists that the testicles of women were true ova-
lies, and contain eggs like those of oviparous
«,nima]s, only that they are much smaller, do
not quit the body, and are never detached tiU
after impregnation, when they descend fromthe
ovary into the horns of the matrix. The expe-
riments of De Graaf have contributed most to
establish the existence of these pretended eggs,
.which yet is not at all founded; for this famous
anatomist is deceived, first, by mistaking the
vesicles of the ovarium for eggs, whereas they
are inseparable from it, form parts of its sub-
stance, and are filled with a kind of lymph.
Secondly, he is also deceived when lie considers
the glandular bodies tobe the covering of those
eggs, or vesicles; for it is certain, by Malpig-
1 1 hius's,

NATUmAL HISTORY. 199

iiitts's, Valisnieri's, and my own observations,
that tlie glandular bodies neither surround nor
contain one of those vesicles. Thirdly, fie is
deceived still more when he supposes the glan-
dular body is never formed till after fecunda-
tion ; as they are invariably foiind in every female
who has attained ihe age of puberty. Fourthly,
he is no less deceived when hebelie\x?s that the
g^lobules which he saw in the matrix, and which
contained the foetuses, were the same \'esicles,
or eggs, wliich had fallen from the ovarium,
and wliich, he remarks, were become ten times
smaller than they were in the ovary. This re-
mark alone, one would imagine, should have
m^de him perceive liis error. Fifthly, he is
wrong in saying that the glandular bodies are
Only the coverings of the fecundated eggs^ and
that the number of coverings, or empty folli-
cles, always answer to tlte number of foetuses.
This assertion is entirely contrary to truth :
for on the testicles of all females we find a
greater number of glandular bodies, or cica-
trices, than there are productions of foetuses,
and they are also found in those which have
never brought forth. To this we may add,
that neither he, Verheyen, nor any other per-
son, have ever seen these eggs, much less these

pretended

200 BUFFO n'8

pretended coverings, on which thej have, not-
Tjfithstanding, established their system.

Malpighius, who perceived the growth of
the glandular bodies in the female testicles,
^as deceived when he thought he had seerk
the egg in their cavities, since they contain
aniy liquor ; nor indeed has any tliii^ like an
egg ever been discovered. i?^l on

VaKsnieri, who was not deceived in facts,
lias yet drawn false conclusions in asserting
that, although neither himself, ncMP- any ana-
tomist in whom he could confide, ever found
the egi^ in the cavity of the glandular body,
yet it must there exist.

Let us, therefore, examine what may be
fairly called the real discoveries of these natu*
lalists. Graaf was the first who perceived
there were alterations in the female testicles ;
and he had reason to affirm, they were parts
essential and necessary to generation. Mal^
pighius demonstrated that these alterations
were occasioned by the glandular bodies which
grew to perfect maturity, afterwards they be-
eome flaccid, oblilerated, and left only a slight
cicatrice remaining. Yalisnicri has placed
this discovery in a very clear light ; he has
shewn that these glandular bodies are found
ill tiie testicles of every female; that they

are

NATURAL HISTORY. 201

arc augmented consitlcrably in ilie season of
love, that tliey increase at the expence of the
lymphatic vesicles of tlie testicles^ and that at
the time of their maturity they were hollow
and filled with liquor. This, then, is all that-
can be reduced to truth on the subject of the
prclended ovaries and eggs of viviparous ani-
mals. What must we conclude therefrom ?
Two things appear very evident; the one, that
there does not exist any eggs in the female tes-
ticles; the other, that there exists a liquor in
the vesicles of the testicle, and in the cavity of
the glandular bodies. We have demonstrated
by the preceding experiments, that this last
liquor is the true seed of the female, since it
contains, like that of the male, spermatic ani-
mals, or rather organic moving particles.

We must, therefore, now be assured, that
females have, as well as males, a seminal li-
quor. After all tliat has been advanced, wo
cannot doubt but the seminal liquor is tlie su-
perfluity of the organic nutriment, which is
sent back from all parts of the body into the
testicles and seminal vesicles of the males, and
into the testicles and glandular bodies of fe-
males. This liquor, which issues by the nipple
of the glandular bodies, continually sprinkles
VOL. III. D d the

SD2 BUFFO n's

the horns of the matrix, and may easily pi'o-
cure admission either by the suction of the
membrane of these horns, or by the little open-
ing which is at the upper extremity, and thus
enter into the matrix ; but in the supposition
of these pretended eggs, which were ten of
twenty times larger than the opening of the
horns of the matrix, we cannot comprehend
how they could enter therein.

The liquor emitted by females, when they
are excited, and which, according to de Graaf,
issues from the neck of the matrix, and the
orifice of the urethra, may be a superabundant
portion of the seminal liquor which continually
distils from the glandular bodies on the trunks
of the matrix. But, possibly, this liquor may
be a secretion of another kind, and perfectly
useless in generation. To decide this question
observations with a microscope are requisite ;
but all experiments are not permitted even to
philosophers. I can only say, that I am in-
clined to believe that the same spermatic ani-
mals would be met with in this liquor as in that
of the glandular bodies, i can quote an Italian
doctor on this subject, who made this observa-
tion with attention, and which is thus related
by Valisnieri : " Aggiugne il lodato fig. Bono

'' d'avergU

NATURAL HISTORY. 203

" d'avergli anco veduti (animali spermatici) in
^' questa linfa o siero, diro cosi voluttuoso, che
^' nel tempore dell' amorosa zuffa scappa dalle
-' femine libidinose, senza ehe si potesse sospe-
*^ tare che fossero di que'del maschio, &c." If
this circumstance is true, as I do not doubt, it
is certain, that this liquor is the same as that
found in the glandular bodies, and that, conse-
quently, it is the true seminal liquor : and al-
though anatomists have not discovered the
communication between the vacuities of de
Graaf and the testicles, tliat does not prevent
it being once in the matrix, from issuing out
by the vacuities about the exterior orifice of
the urethra.

From hence we must conclude that the most
abandoned women will be the least fruitful^
because they emit that liquor which ought to
remain in the matrix for the formation of the
fcetus. Thus we see why common prostitutes
seldom have children, and why women in hot
countries, where they have stronger desires
than in the cold, are much less fertile ; but we
shall have occasion to speak of this hereafter.

It is natural to think that the seminal liquor
of the male or female would not be fertile but
when it contains moving bodies ; nevertheless

DdS 4hat

201 BUFroN^S

that is still a question, and I should be led to
think, as there are different states of this liquor,'
that in Avhich these organic particles are seen in
motion is not absolutely necessary for tlie pur-
pose of generation. TJie Italian physician,
above quoted, never perceived spermatic ani-
mals in his semen till he had attained a middlti
age, although lie was father of several children
before, and continued to have them aftcnvards.*

These spermatic bodies, ^vhich move, may
be looked upon as the first assemblages of the
organic molecules ^vhich proceed from every
part of the body ; ^vhen a quantity of them
collect they may be perceived ^vith tlie micro-
scope ; but if the}' collect only in small quan-
tity the bofly which they form will be too mi-
nute to be perceived, and in this ca.se we shall
not be able to distinguish any in the seminal
liquor. A very long continuance of observa-
tions 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, tliat
by infusing the seminal liquors in water closely
corked, at the end of three or four days an infi-
nite multitude of moving bodies will be found,
although the seminal liquors had no motion on

beins:

NATURAL HISTORY. 205

being first taken from the body of the animal.
Flesh, blood, chyle, urine, nay all animal or ve-
getable substances, contain organic particles,
w hich move at the end of some days in tin in-
fusion of water ; they appear to act and move
nearly in the same manner, and though pro-
duced from different bodies are perfectly simi-
lar, without any of them having a power pecu-
liar to themselves. If these bodies must abso-
lutely be termed animals, it must be allowed
they are so imperfect that they ought to lye
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 tlie
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 ad-
vance by imperceptible degrees and links, we
shall have no dithculty in conceiving there arc
organic bodies existing, which belong neither
to animals, vegetables, nor minerals.

It is certain, however, that all animals and
vegetables contain an infinity of organic living

molecules.

J06 BUFFO nV

molecules. These molecules successively take
different forms, aud different degrees of motion
and activity, according to different circum-
stances* They are in a much greater number
in the seminal liquor of both sexes, and in the
germs of plants, than in other parts of the ani-
mal or vegetable. There exists, then, a living
fcubstance in animals and vegetables, common
to both, and ^hich substance is necessary to
(heir nutrition. An animal procures nutri-
ment from an animal or vegetable substance,
and the vegetable can likewise be nourished
from an animal or vegetable in a decomposed
state. This nutritive substance, common to
both, is always living, always active, and pro-
duces an animal or vegetable, as it finds an
internal mould or an ajialogous matrix, as we
have explained in the first cliapters ; but when
this active substance collects in great abund-
ance, in those parts where it can unite, it forms
in the animal body other living creatures, such
as the tape-worm, ascarides,and worms, which
are sometimes found in the veins, in the sinus
of the brain, in the liver, &c. These kinds of
animals do not owe their existence to the ani-
mals of the same species, and we may, there-
fore, suppose, they are produced by this or-

10 ganic

NATURAL HIStORY. 907

ganic matter when it is extra vasated, or is too
abundant for the lacteal vessels to absorb.
We shall hereafter have occasion to examine
more largely the nature of those worms, and
many other animals which are formed in a si*
niilar manner.

When this organic matter, which may be
looked on as an universal seed, is collected in
any great quantity, as in the seminal liquors,
and in the mucilaginous parts of the infusion of
plants, its first effect is to vegetate, or rather
to produce vegetating beings. These zoo-
phytes swell, extend, ramify, and produce
globules, ovals, and other small bodies, of dif-
ferent figures, which have all a kind of animal
life, a progressive motion, which is often very
swift, and sometimes very slow. These glo-
bules themselves decompose, change their
figures, and become smaller ; and in propor-
tion as they diminish in size the rapidity of
their motion augments.

I have sometimes thousrht that the Venom of
the viper, and other active poisons, even that
of the bite of a mad dog, might possibly be
this active matter too rarefied ; but I have not
as yet had time to make the experiments which
I had projected on this matter, as well as on

druffs

208 BUFroN's

drugs used in medicine ; all tliat I can at pre-
sent ascertain is, tbat all infusions of the most
active drugs swarm witli moving bodies, which
form therein in much less time than in other
substances.

Almost all microscopic animals are of the
same nature as the organized bodies which
move in the seminal liquor, in the infusions of
vegetables and the flesh of animals ; the eel -like
bodies in flour, vinegar, and water, in which
lead has been soaked, are beings of the same
nature as the first, and have a like origin.

CHAPTER IX,

VARIETIES IN THE GENERATION OF ANIMALS.

T

HE matter which serves for the nutrition
and reproduction of animals and vege-
tables is tlierefore the same; it is a productive
and universal substance, composed of organic
molecules, and whose union produces organ-
ized bodies. Nature always works on the

same

NATURAL HISTORY. 209

same fund, which is inexhaustible^ but the
means she employs to stamp its value are dif*
ftrent, and these differences, or general agree-
ments, deserve attention, because it is from
thence we must derive our reasons to account
for exceptions and particular varieties.

Jn general large animals are less productive
than small. The whale, elephant, rhinoceros,
camel, horse, the human species, &c. only pro-
duce one, and very seldom two, at a birth ;
whereas small animals, as rats, herrings, in-
sects, &c. produce a great number at a time.
Does not this difference proceed from there
being more food required to support a large
body than to nourish a small one, and from
hence the former has less superfluous organic
particles, which would convert into semen,
than the latter ? It is certain that small ani-
mals eat more in proportion than large ones ;
but it is likewise probable that the prodigious
multiplication of the small animals, as bees,
flies, and other insects, may be attributed to
their being endowed with very fine and slender
limbs and organs, by which they are in a con-
dition to chuse what is most substantial and
organic in the vegetable or animal matters
from whence they derive their nutriment. A
ToL. ni. E e bee,

210 buffon's

bee, who lives on the purest parts of flowers,
certainly receives more organic particles in
proportion than a horse who feeds on the
grosser parts of vegetables, hay, &c. The
Ifiorse produces but one at one time, whereas
the bee will bring forth three thousand.

Oviparous animals are in general smaller
than the viviparous, and produce also more at
a birth. Tlie duration of the foetus in the ma-
trix of viviparous animals likewise opposes
their increase, nor can there be any new ge-
neration take place during gestation, or while
they are suckling their young ; whereas ovi-
parous animals produce at the same time both
matrix and foetuses, which they cast out of
the body, and are therefore almost always in
a state of reproduction ; and it is well known
that by preventing a hen from setting, and
largely feeding, the number of her eggs will
be considerably increased. If hens cease to
lay when they sit, it is because they have ceased
to feed; and it is the fear lest their eggs should
not produce which causes them not to quit
their nests but once a day, and that for a very
short time, during which they take a little nu-
triment, but not one-tenlh part of what they
take at other times.
:• • Animals

NATURAL nisTonv. 21 1

^ Animals wliich produce but a small nuni--
bcr at a time, acquire the chief part of their
growth before they are fit for engendering,
whereas those which multiply numerously
generate before they have received half their
growth. The human species, the horse, the
ass, the goat, and the ram, are not able to en-
gender until they have obtained nearly the
whole of their growth. It is the same with
pigeons and other birds, who lay but a few
eggs ; but those which produce in great num-
bers, as poultry, fish, &c. engender much
sooner. A cock is capable of engendering at
the age of three months, when he has not at-
tained a third part of his growth ; a fish, which
at the end of twenty years will weigh thirty
poimds, engenders in the first or second year^
when perhaps it does not weigh half a pound*^
But exact observations on the growth and du-
ration of the life of fish are still wanting: theit
age may be nearly known by examining the
annual layers of their scales ; but we are not
certain how far that may extend. I have seert
carp in the Comte de Maurepas' canals, at his
castle at Pont Chartrain, which were said to
be 150 years old, and they appeared as brisk
and lively as the common carp. I will not
E e 2 say,

212 BUFFOI^'S

say, with Leeuwenhoek, that fish are immortal,
or at least can never die with age ; all must j)e-
lish in time, that is; all -which have a begin-
ning, a birth, must, arrive to an end, or death ;
biit fish, living in an uniform .element, and
being sheltered from the vicigsitudes and all
the injuries of the air, must live a longer time
in the same state than other animals,. especially
if these vicissitudes of the air be, as aigreat phit
losopher asserts*, the principal causes of the
destruction of living beings ^ But what must
contribute to the long duration of their life is,
that their bones are softer than those of other
animals, and do not harden with age. The
bones offish lengthen, and grow tliick without
taking any mote solidity; whereas the bones
pf other animals continually increase in hard-
Uiess and density, until at length, being abso-
lutely full, the motion of their fluid ceases^
and death ensues. In their bones the repletion
or obstruction, which is the cause of natural
death, is formed by such slow and insensible
degrees, that fish must require much time to
arrive at what we call old age.

AH quadrupeds co.vejred with hair are vivi-
parous; all those coveredwith scales oviparous.
May we not then believe than in oviparous

quadrupeds,

NATURAL HigXORY. 213

quadrupeds, a much less "waste is made by
transpiration, than the cloathing of scales re-
tains ; whereas in animals covered with hair
this transpiration is more free and abundant ?
and is it not partly by this superabundance of
Hutriraent, which cannot be carried off by
transpiration, that those animals multiply so
abundantly, and are enabled to go so lon^j
•without food ? All birds and all insects that fly
are oviparous, excepting some kinds of flies
"which bring forth their young alive. These
flies have no "wings at their birth, but they
shoot out and grow by degreies, and which they
cannot use before they are of full growth.
Scaly fish are likewise oviparous ; as are all
reptiles which have no legs, such as snakes and
difl:erent kinds of serpents; they change their
skins, which are composed of small scales. The
viper is only a slight exception to tlie general,
rule, for it is not truly viviparous, as it pro*
duces eggs, from which the young are hatch-
ed : it is certain this is performed in the body
of the mother, who instead of casting tho^ie
eggs, like other oviparous animals, she retains
and hatches them in her own body. The sa-f
lamander, in which eggs and young ones are
found at the same time, as observed by M . de

Maupcrtuii,

214 buffon's

Maup^rtuis, is an exception of tlie same kind
in oviparous quadrupeds.

Most animals are perpetuated by copula-
tion ; yet many birds seem only strongly to
compress the females ; indeed the ostrich,
crane, and some few others, are so well sup-
plied as to leave intromission no ways equi-
vocal. Male fish approach the female in the
spawning time ; they seem even to rub their
bellies against each other, for the male often
turns upon its back to meet the belly of the
female ; but the necessary part for copulation
does not exist in them ; and the male fish ap-
proaches the female only to emit the liquor
in their milts on the- eggs, which the female
then deposits; and it seems rather to be at-
tracted by the eggs than the female ; for when
she ceases throwing out the eggs, he instantly
forsakes her, and with eagerness pursues tlie
eggs, which the stream carries away, or that
the wind disperses. Male fish may be seen to
pass and repass every spot where eggs are de-»
posited several times. It is certainly not for
the love he bears the female that all these mo-r
tioiis are made, because it is not to be presum-
ed he always knows her ; often being seen to
^mit his liquor on all eggs that he comes near,
. 10 and

natuHal history. ^15

and that oflen before lie has met with the fe-
male to which thev belcnsfcd.

There are therefore animals, distiiifi^iiishcd
by sexes, which have proper ])arts for copula-
tion, and some which are deficient in them ;
others, as snails, have both, and the two sexes
in the same individual; others, as vine-fretters,
have no sex, and engender in themselves sepa-
rately ; although they couple together when
they please, we cannot determine ^\hetIler that
is a conjunction of sexes ; if it is so, we must
suppose that Nature has included in this small
individual more faculties for generation than
in any other kind of animal, and that it not
only has the power of reproducing distinctly,
but also the means of multiplying by the com-
munication of another individual.

But whatever difference takes place in ge-
neration, Nature, by a new production, pre-
pares the body for it, and which, whetlier
manifested outwardly, or concealed internally,
always precedes generation. The ovaries of
oviparous animals, and the testicles of female
viviparous animals, before the season of im-
pregnation, experience a considerable change.
Oviparous animals produce eggs, which at
first are attached to the ovaries, by degrees

they

216 buffon's

ihey encrease in size, until they fall info the
canal of the matrix, where they acquire their
white membranes, and shell. This production
has marks of the fecundity of the female, and
■without which generation cannot be perform-
ed : so in viviparous females there are always
one or more glandular bodies on the testicles,
which by degrees grow under tlie membrane
that surrounds them ; these glandular bodies
enlarge and pierce, or rather impel and lift up
the membrane of the testicle ; when their ma-
turity is complete, a small slit or several small
holes appear at their extremities, by which the
seminal liquor escapes, and falls into the ma-
trix : these glandular bodies arc new produc-
tions that precede generation, and without
which there would not be any.

In males there is also a similar change
which always precedes their capacity for
generating. In oviparous animals a great
quantity of liquor fills a considerable reser-
voir, and which reservoir itself is sometimes
formed every year ; as in the calmar and
some other fish. The testicles of birds swell
surprisingly just preceding their amorous
season. In viviparous males the testicles
also swell considerably in those who have

seasons.

NATURAL HISTORY. 217

seasons, and in general there is a swelling and
an extension of the genital members in all spe-
cies, whicli, although it be external, must be
regarded as a new jorod action necessarily pre-
ceding generation.

In the body of every animal, male or female,
new productions are formed which precede o-e-
neration ; and when there is no real production
there is always a swelling, and considerable ex-
tension in some of tlie parts. There are spe-
cies in which this new production is not only
manifest, but even the whole body seems to be
renewed before generation can be performed ;
as is the case with insects whose various meta-
morphoses seem to be only for the purpose of
generating ; for the growth of the animal is
completed before it is tranformed. It ceases
from taking nutriment, has no organs for ge-
neration, no means of converting the nutritive
particles, of which they abound, into eggs or
seminal liquor, and therefore this superfluity
unites and moulds itself at first into a form
something like that of the original. The ca-
terpillar becomes a butterfly, because, for these
reasons, it is unable to produce small organiz-
ed beings like itself; the organic particles, al-
ways active, take another form, by uniting,
VOL. III. Ff ^hose

218 liVFFON'S

whose figure answers in part, and even in e^m
sentiul constitution, to that of the caterpillar,
but in which the organs of generation are de-
veloped, and may receive and transmit the or-
ganic particles of the nutriment which forms
the eggs, and the individuals of the species.
The individuals whicli proceed from the but-
terfly ought not to be butterflies, because the
nutriment, from whence the organic particles
proceed, was taken while in the form of cater-
pillars ; the produce therefore must be similar,
and not butterflies, Avhich is only an occasional
production of the superabundant nutrim^ent;
n method adapted by Nature to accomplish
the purposes of generation in these species,
as by the glandular bodies and milts in otli(3i'
animals.

When the superabundant quantity of orga-
nic nutriment is not great, as in man and most
large animals, generation is not made till the
growth of the animal is nearly complete, and
then it is confined to the production of a small
number of individuals. When these particles
are more abundant, as in many kinds of birds,
and in oviparous fishes, generation is com-
pleted before the animal has received its full
growth, and their production of individuals

is

NATURAL HISTORY, 219

is very numerous. When the quantity of par-
tides is still greater, as in insects, it first forms
a large organic body, which, though retain-
ing the essential constitution of its original,
differs in many parts, as the butterfiy from
the caterpillar, but shortly produces an asto-
nishing number of young, similar in form to
the animal which selected the nutriment.
When the superabundance is greater still, and
wlien at the same time tlie animal has the ne-
cessary organs for generation, as the vine-
frctter, it immediately produces a generation
in every individual, and afterwards a trans-
formation, like other insects. The vine-fretter
becomes a fly, but cannot produce any thing,
because it is only the remainder of the organ-
ized particles which had not been made use of
in the production of the young.

Almost every animal except man has stated
times for generation. Spring is marked out
for birds. Carp, and many kinds of fish, spawn
in J une and August. Barbel, and other kinds,
in spring. Cats have three seasons, in Ja-
nuary, May, and September. Roebucks, in
December. Wolves and Foxes, in January.
Horses, in summer. Stags, in September and
October ; and almost all insects generate in

F f 2 autumn :

i!'2() BUFFO n'S

autumn : these last seem to be totally exhaust-*
ed by generation, and die a short time after.
Other animals, though not exhausted, become
extremely lean and very weak, and require a
considerable time to repair the loss which is
made of the organic substance. Others are
exhausted still less, and are soon restored to
an engendering state; while man is scarcely in
the least affected ; his loss is speedily repaired,
and therefore may be said to be at all times
in a state for propagation; all which depends
solely on the particular construction of the
animal organs. The grand limits Nature has
placed in the mode of existence are equally
conspicuous in the manner of receiving and
digesting the food, in the manner of retaining
it in, or excluding it from, the body, and in the
means by which the organic molecules, neces-
sary for reproduction, are extracted. In a
word, we shall find throughout all nature, that
all what can be, is.

The same difference exists in tlie time of
female gestation ; some, as mares, carry their
young eleven or twelve months ; others, as
women, cows, &c. nine months ; others, as
foxes, wolves, &c. five months ; bitches, nine
%veeks ; cats, six weeks : rabbits, thirty-one
8 days.

NATURAL Hisfonr. §21

days. Most birds come out of the egg at the
end of twenty-o!ie days ; though somCy as ca-
nary birds, hatch in thirteen or fourteen days.
The variety is as great here as in every thing
else relative to animals. The largest animals
Mhicli produce only few, are those wliich go
the longest "vvith young ; this still more con-
firms what Tve have already said, that the quan-
tity of organic food is in proportion less in
large than in small animals ; for it is from the
superfluity of the mother's food that the foetus
derives what is necessary to the growth and
expansion of its parts, and since this expan-
sion demands much more time in large than in
small animals, it is a proof that tlie quantity of
matter which contributes is not so abundant
in the first as in the last.

There is, therefore, an infinite variety in ani-
mals, with respect to the time and manner of
gestation, engendering, and bringing forth ;
and this variety is found even in the causes of
generation ; for altliough the general principle
of production is this organic matter common
to all that lives or vegetates, the manner in
which the union is made, must have infinite
combinations, which must all proceed from
the source of new productions. My experi-
ments

raents clearly demonstrate, that (here are nd
pre-existing germs, and at the same time prove
that the generation of animals and vegetables
k not equivocal ; there are, perhaps, as many
beings, either living Qi vegetating, which are
produced by the fortuitous assemblage of or-
ganic molecules, as by a constant and successive-
generation. It is to thoseproduciions we should
apply the axiom of tlie ancients, " Corruptio
unius, generatio alterius." The corruption and
composition of animals and vegetal^lcs pro-
duce an infinite number of organized bodies ;
some, as those of the calmar, form only kinds
of machines, which, although very simple, are
exceedingly active ; others, as the spermatic
animalcules, seem by their motion, to imitate
animals ; others imitate vegetables by their
manner of growing or extending ; there are
others, as those of blighted corn, which maybe
made to live and die alternately, and as often
as ^\e please; there are still others, even in
great quantities, which are at first kinds of ve-
getables, afterwards become species of ani-
mals, then return again to vegetables, and so
on alternately. There is a great appearance,
that the more we shall observe this race of or-
ganized bcings,^ the more we shall discover

varieties*

NATURAL IliStORY. 923

varieties, always so much the more singular as
they are tlie more remote from our sio-lil, and
from the varieties of other animals that have
already become known to us.

For example, spurred barley, winch is pro-
duced by an alteration or decomposition of the
organic substance of the grain, is composed of
an infinityoflittle organized bodies, like to eels.
By infusing the grain for ten or twelve hours in
water, we find them to have a remarkable
twirling, and a slight progressive motion; when
almost dry, they cease to move, but by adding
frcsli water their motion returns. The same
effects may be produced for months, or even
years; insomuch that we can make these little
machines act as often and as long as we please
without destroying tliem, or their losing any.
of their power or activity. Their tlireads
will sometimes open, like the filaments of se-
men, and produce moving globules ; we may
therefore suppose tliem to be or the same na-
ture, only more fixed and solid.

Eels, in paste made with flour, have no
other origin than the union of tlie organic
particles of the most essential }5arts of the
grain : tlie first which appear are certainly
not produced by many othc)-s; yet, although

they

224 BUFFO n's

tliey liavc not been engendered, they engender
others. By cutting thcni 'with the point of a
lancet, we may perceive small eels come from
their bodies in great numbers; the body of the
animal appears to be only a sheath or bag
ivhich contains a multitude of other little
animals, M'liich perhaps are tliemselvcs only
slieaths of the same kind, in which the or-
ganic matter assimilates, and takes the form
of eels.

Tlicre requires a great number of observa-
tions to be made to establish classes and races
between such singular beings, which are at pre-
sent so little known ; there are some which
may be regarded as real zoophytes, which ve-
getate, and at the same time appear to twirl
and move like animals. There are some
that at first appear to be animals, which af-
terwards join and form kinds of vegetables.
A little attention to the decomposition of a
grain of wheat infused in water will eluci-
date all I have asserted. I could add more
examples, but I have related these only to
point out the varieties there are in generation.
There arc certainly organized beings which
we regard as animals, but which are not en-
gendered by others of the same kind 3 there

are

NATURAL HI5TORY, J695

aie some "which are only a kind of machines,
whose action is limited to a certain effect, and
which can act but once in such a certain time,
as those in the caimar; and there are others, as
we have just remarked, which we can cause to
act as long and as often as we please. There
are vegetatino- beings which produce animated
bodies, as the filaments of the human seed,
from whence the active globules spring, and
which move by their own powers. In the cor-
ruption, fermentation, or rather the decompo-
sition of animal and vegetable substances, there
are organized bodies wliich are real animals,
and can propagate their like, although they
have not been so produced. The limits of
these varieties are perhaps still greater than
we can imagine. AVe may ex*tend <i)ur ideas,
and ex^rt every effort to reduce the effects of
Nature to certain points, and class her produc-
tions to certain classes, yet an infinit'e number
of liaks will always escaj[)e us.

VOL. III. G g CHAPTER

$26 buffon's

CHAPTER X,

©F THE FORMATION OF THE FOETUS.

TT appears to be clearly ascertained by the
experiments of Verheyen, who in one of
them found the seed of a bull in the matrix of
a cow ; and by those of Ruysch, Fallopius,
Leeuwenhoek, and many others, who perceived
the male semen in the uterus of women, and
numberless other animals, that the seminal li-
quor of the male enters by some means into the
matrix of the female. It is probable, that in
the time of copulation the orifice of the matrix
opens to receive the seminal liquor, but if that
is not the case, the active and prolific sub-
stance

NATUnAL HISTORY. 2S7

stance of this liquor, may penetrate the mem*
branes of the matrix ; for the seminal liquor
being, as we have proved, almost all compos*
ed of organic molecules, which are in great
motion, and extremely minute, they may pass
across the coat of the closest n^pmbranes, and
penetrate those of the matrix with the greatest
facility.

What proves that the active part of this li»-
quor may not only pass through the pores of
the matrix, but even penetrate its substance,
is the sudden change that immediately takes
place after conception. The menses are sup-
pressed, the matrix becomes softer, swells, and
appears inflamed. All tliese alterations can
only happen by the action of an external cause;
by the penetration of some part of the seminal
liquor into the substance even of the matrix.
This penetration not only operates on the ex-
ternal surface of the matrix, but on all the
other parts of which this viscera is composed,
like that penetration by which nutrition and
expansion is produced.

We shall be easily persuaded that it is so,

when we consider that the matrix, during the

time of gestation, not only augments in bulk

but also in quantity of matter, and that it has

G g2 a kind

298 BUFFO N 'si

a kind of life or vcicctation, wliich Is continu-
ally increasing till the time of delivery ; for if
the matrix was only a pouch, a destined recep-
tacle to receive the seed and contain the foetus,
it would extend and grow thin in proportion
as the foetus iucrcased in size ; but in reality
the matri;i not only extends in proportion
as the foetus grows larger, but receives at the
same time a thickness and solidity. This
augmentation is a real growth, like the expan-
sion of the body in young animals, which caa
only be produced by the intimate penetration
of the organic molecules analogous to the sub-
stance of the parts ; and as this expansion of
the matrix never happens but after impregna-
tion, we cannot doubt its being produced by
the liquor of the male, especially as the expan-
sion takes place before the foetus has sufficient
bulk to dilate it.

It seems certain, by my experiments, that
the female has a seminal liquor which com-
mences to be formed in the testicles, and is^
completed in the glandular bodies : this liquor
distills through: the small holes, at the extre-
mities of these bodies ; and may, like that of
the male, enter into the matrix in two diiferent
manners, either by these holes at the cxtremi-

NATURAL HISTORY. 2f5

ties, or tlirough Ihe membraneous coat of th^

These seminal liquors arc both extracts from
all parts of the bor'j, and in the mixture of
them there is every chiii«: necessary to form a
certain number of males and females ; a!ul the
more the animal abounds with this liquor, and
the more that abounds with organic molcciiles,
the greater is their number of young ; as y/e
haye already remarked is (he case with the
small animals, and diminishes in the large.

But to pursue our subject with greater at-
tention, we shall first examine the particular
formation of tlic human fcsLus, and afterwards
return to the other animals. In the human spe-
cies, as well as in large animals, the seminal
liquors of the male and female do not cojitaiii
a great abuiidance of organic molecules, and
therefore seldom produce more than one at a
time : the fcctus is a male, if the number of
the organic molecules of the male predomi-
nates in the mixture, and a female if the con-
trary ; and it resembles the fiither or the mo-
ther as they happen to abound in the mixture
of the two liquors.

I conceive, therefore, that the seminal li-
quor of both are two matters equally actiye

and

$30 BuiroN-'s

and necessary for generation; and this I think
is sufficiently proved by my experiments, since
I have seen the same moving bodies in the one
as the other. I perceived that the liquor of the
male enters into the matrix, where it meets
with that of the female : that tuey have a per-*
feet analogy, and are both not only composed
of similar parts by their form, but also in their
motions and actions ; as we have remarked in
Chap. vi.

By the mixture of these two liquors I con-
ceive the activity of the organic molecules of
each is stopped, and that the actions of one
counterbalance that of the other, insomuch that
eacli particle ceasing to move, remains in the
place most analogous to itself, and that they
will naturally take the same position, and will
dispose themselves in the same order they held
in tlie animal body ; tliose that came from the
head will arrange themselves in the head of the
foetus, those of the back the same, and so of
every other part ; consequently they will form
a small organized being, in every thing like th^
animal from which they are extracted.

It must be observed that this mixture of or*
^anic molecules of the two sexes contains si-
milar

NATURAL HISTORY. 231

niilar and different particles ; tlie similar ones
are those which have been extracted from every
part common to both sexes. Tlie different
particles are those wh ich have been extracted
from the parts >\hereby the sexes are distin-
guished; thus there is, in this mixture, double
the number of organic molecules to form the
Jiead, or tlie lieart, or sucli other parts common
to both, whereas there are only what are requi-
site to form the parts of the sex. JVow tlie si-
milar particles may act upon each other with-
out being disordered, and collect together as if
Ihey had been extracted from the same body ;
but the dissimilar parts cannot act on each other,
nor unite together, because they have not any
relation ; hence these particles will preserve
tlieir nature without mixture, and will fix of
themselves the first, v/ilhout the need of being
penetrated by tlie others. Thus the molecules
proceeding from the sexual parts w ill be the
first fixed, and all the rest which are common
to both, will afterwards fix indiscriminatelv,
whether they are those of the male or female,
and form an organized being which, in its
sexual parts, will perfectly resemble its father,
if it is a male, and its mother if a female ; but

which

fS;? BUFFO n's

which may resemble one another, or bo!hj ill
all the other parls of the body.

It seems to me that if this was well under-
stood, we shall in a great measure be enabled
<a ansv.er the objeciions made ib the senti-
ments of Arifjtotle, and which miq;ht also be
advanced again'^.t this system. The question
is, Why each individual, male and female,
does not produce of itself an animal of its own
sex ? It must be acknowledged this question
seems to carry weight with it ; but having re-
jected a long time on this subject 1 think I
liavc found an answer, and which I shall en-
deavour to explain.

It is certainly evident, from what we have
said in the preceding chapters, andtlie experi-
ments we have described, tliat reproduction is
CiTccted by the union of organic molecules re-
turned from each part of the body of the animal,
or vegetable, into one or many common reser-
voirs ; and that they are the same molecules
which serve for nutriment and expansion of the
body. This appeiars to me to have been so
cfcarly proved, that I apprehend no scruple can
remain as to the foundation of the theory ; but
I admit there may be some reason to ask, Why
each animal and vegetable docs not produce its

own

NATURAL HISTORY. 2S3

lOfwn likeness, since each individual tctutus
irom every part of its body, arid eoltetfs in a
common reservoir, all the >oi^»niC' 'molecules
necessary for the forsnation oif a ■small ofi^'n-
ized being ? Why then is 'notthis orgni^i^ed
being" formed? and. why, in almost ei'^ery ani-
mal, is a mixture of theliqiiors of th^ t\v<^ sexes
Tequired to produce an animt'il ? ff I content
myself ivith answering, that in' almost all ve-
getables, and all'kinds-o'f atiimalstvliich mul-
tijHy by cutting/ that it apj)ears the design of
Natu^ that- each individual shoMci iixiiiease its
^wn species, ahd that We miist*rega«id '• bfs -aw ex-
•ceptidn to this Tule; thd use whicli is made of
the sexes in other- kihd of ammals ; it iitay be
saidy that tlieexcej^ion-is more Universal than
the rule itself. This'difficulty will be Very little
'Aveakened, if we Were to- say*, that-feach indivi-
dual perhaps would produce its lik-e^ if it had
proper organs, and ' contained the necessary
miatter towards the nutriment of t-he embryo-;
because females have both this matter, and or-
gans, and yet do not produce either maie or
female foetus without the intcrv^itioii of the
male ; which intervention of sexes' in all ani-
mals is essential and absolutely necessary.

Although the testicles and seminal vesicles of
a man, contain all the necessary molecules to
roL. III. II h form

f3it ^uffon's

form a male, yet the local establishment and
arrangement of these molecules cannot be made,
because the effect of an union is prevented by
the continual circulation of the seed both by
absorptrion, and the action of the new organic
molecules which constantly come into this re-
servoir from all parts of the body. The same '
circumstances taking place with the organic
molecules of the female, is an evident reason
-why neither can produce of themselves, because
when the seminal liquors of the male and female
are mi'xed, they have more analogy to each
other, than with the parts of the body of the
female where the mixture is performed. By
admitting of this explication, it may be asked,
Why the common mode of generation in ani»
mals does not agree with it ; for, upon that
supposition, each individual would produce
like snails, and impregnate each other, and each
individual receiving the organic molecules the
other furnished, the union would be made of
itself, and by the sole power of the affinity of
these molecules among themselves ? I own , if
it was by this cause alone the organic molC"
cules could unite it would be natural to con-
clude, that the shortest mode to perform the re-
production of animals, would be to give to one

individual

NATtlUAL HISTORY. 235

individual both sexes. But it is quite contrary
to the general rule pursued by Nature, as this
manner of generation is confined to snails^ and
a small number of Gather animals. This answer
cannot be said to fully satisfy the question^ as
it merely supposes the male does not produce^
as it cannot receive any thing from the female^
and that having besides no proper viscera to
contain and nourish the foetus.

We may also suppose that the activity of
the organic molecules, in the semen of one indi«
vidual, has need of being counterbalanced by
the activity or force of those of another indivi-
dual, in order to fix and bring them into a kind
of equilibrium, a state of rest highly necessary
to the formation of the animal ; and that this
activity in the organic molecules can only be
counterbalanced by there being- a contrary ac*
tion in those which come from the male, and
those proceeding from the female ; so that, irt
this sense, all living or vegetating beings
must have two sexes, conjointly and sepa*
lately, to produce their resemblances. But this
answer is too general to be entirely clear ; ne-
vertheless, if we pay attention to all the pheno*
mena, we shall find some explanation resulting
therefrom. The mixture of those two liquors
H h !S producCw^

236^ bufton's

produces not only a male or female foetus, hivt
also other organized bodies, which have a kind
of growth or expansion. The placenta, mem-
branes, &c. are produced at the same time as
the fcetus. There are, therefore, in the seminal
liquor of the male or female, or in the mixture
of botb^ not only organic molecules necessary
for the production of the foetus, but also tliose
which form the placenta and membranes. AYe
know not from; whence these molecules come,
since there is no part of the body, either of the
male or female, from which they could be sent
back. From hence itseems it must be admitted^
that the molecules of the seminal liquors of
each 7 being alike activcj form organized bodies
every time they can fix, by acting mutually one
on the other ; that the particles employed to
forma male, will be thoseof the masculine sex,
which will fix the first, and form the sexual
parts ; and that those common to both sexes
will then fix indifferently to form the rest of
the body, and that the placenta and membranes
are then formed from the superabundant par-
ticles, which have not been used to form the
foetus ; if, as we suppose, the foetus is a male,
then there remains to form the placenta, and
membranes, all the organic particles peculiar
.5 . i! !i i9

/

NATURAL HISTORY. 237

to the feminine sex which have not been em-
ployed ; and also all those of both which
shall not have entered the composition of the
foetus, and which cannot be less than one half.
So likewise, if the foetus is a female, the same
abundance will be left for the formation of the
placenta, and membranes, and the whole ef-
fects be the same, excepting it will have the
superfluity of the male, instead of tliat of the
female.

But, it may be said, that in that case the
placenta and membranes ought to become
another foetus, which would be a female, if the
first was a male ; and a male if the first was a
female ; for ihe first having consumed the or-
ganic molecules of the sexual parts of only one
individual, and half those common to both,
there remains all the molecules of the sexual
parts ofthe other individual, and the other half
of those common to both. To this I answer,
that the first union of the organic molecules
prevents a second, at least, under a similar
form; that the foetus, being the first formed,
exercises an external power, which disorders the
arrangement of the other organic Hiolecules,
prevents the formation of a second foetus, and

throws

S38 BUFFO n's

throws them into a state from which the form
of the placenta and membranes result.

We are assured by the experiments and ob-
servations we have made, that every living
being contains a great quantity of living and
active molecules. The life of the animal or ve-
getable appears to be only the result of all the
young lives (if tliat ex;iression is permitted
me)of each of these active molecules, whose life
is primitive, and appears impossible to be de-
stroyed. We have found tliese living mole-
cules in every living or vegetating being, and
are assured, that they are alike necessary for
nutrition, and consequently, for the reproduc-
tion of animals or vegetables. It is not, then,
difficult to conceive, that a certain number of
those molecules united should compose a living
being. Each of these particles possessing ani-
mation, an assemblage of them must be en-
dowed with life, and thus these living organic
molecules, being common to all living beings,
they necessarily form any particular animal or
vegetable, according as they are arranged.
Now, this arrangement absolutely depends
on the form of the individuals which furnish
those molecules. If they are furnished by an

animal^

NATURAL HISTORY. g^ft

animal, they will arrange under the form of
an individual like to it, exactly as they were
arranged m hen they served for the expansion
of the animal itself; but must we not then
suppose that this arrangement cannot be made
either in animals or vegetables, but by the
means of a kind of base, round which ihe
molecules might unite to form the feetus?
Now, it is plain, this basis is furnished by par-
ticles peculiar to the different sexes, as I shall
explain.

While the molecules of either sex remain
by themselves, their action produces no effect,
jbecause they are without any opposition from
any different kind of particles ; but, when these
molecules are mixed, then there are dissimilar
parts, and those serve for .the base and point
of rest to tjbe other molecules, and fix their
activity,

. In this supposition that the organic mole-,
cules, which, in the mixture of the seminal
liquors of the two individuals, represent tlie
sexual parts of the nmle, can alone serve for a
base to the organic molecules proceeding from
every part of the female, and those peculiar
to the female sex as a base to them which are
extracted from the male, we miglit conclude,

that

§40 bupfok's

that the sexual part of the male infant is form-
ed of the organic molecules of the father, and
from those of the mother^ for the rest of the
body : and that, on the contrary, the female
partakes of its motlier only in sex, and takes
the rest of its body from its father. Boys,
therefore, ought, excepting the parts of the
sex, to have a greater resemblance to their
mother than to their father,, and girls more
to the father than to the mother; but this
consequence is not, perhaps, conformable to
experience.

By considering, under this point of view^
generation by sexes, \ix^ should conclude it to
be the most general mode of reproduction, as
it is in fact. Beings, "whose organization is
the most complete, as animals, whose bodies
compose a whole, which can neither be sepa-
rated nor divided, and whose powers ore con-
centered to one single ]X>int, can only repro-
duce by this mode; because they contain only
particles which resemble each other, ami whose
union can only be made by diflerent parti-
cles, furnished by another individual. Those
where organization is less perfect, as tliat of
Vegetables, whose bodies may be divided and
separated without being destroyed, can be re-
produced

NATURAL HISTORY. g^l

produced by other modes. First, because they
coniain dissimilar particles ; secondly, because
tlicir forms not being so determinate and fixed
as that of animals, the particles may supply
the functions of each other, and change ac-
cording to circumstances ; as we see roots be-
come branches, and shoot out leaves when
exposed to the air, which causes that the ve-
getable particles obtain a local establishment,
become fixed, and are enabled to multiply, by
various modes.

It will be the same with animals, whose or-
ganization is less perfect, as the fresh water po-
lypus, and others, which can reproduce by di-
vision of their parts. These organized beings
are not so much a single animal, as a number
united under one common covering, as trees
arc composed of a multiplicity of young trees,
(see Chap, ii.) Pucerons, which engender
singly, also contain dissimilar particles, since,
after producing their young they change into
flies which do not produce at all. Snails com-
municate mutually these dissimilar particles,
and afterwards they both produce. Thus, in
all known matters of generation, we see that
the requisite union of organic particles, can
only be made by the mixture of diiferent par-
voL. III. I i ticks.

212 buffon's

tides, wliicli serve as a basis capable of ijxiijg'
their motions.

If to the idea of the word sex, we give all the
extent here supposed, we shall say, that sexes
are found throughout alt nature ; for then sex
will mean only the parts which furnish the
organic particles, different from the common
particles, and which must serve as a fixed point
for their union. But, enough of reasoning on
a question that can be at once resolved, by say-
ing, that God liaving created sexes, it necessa-
rily follows that animals should reproduce by
their connection. In fact, we are not made,
as I have formerly said, to give a reason for
every zvh?/. We are not in a state of explain-
ing ttj/i!^ Nature, almost throughout her works,
makes use of sexes for the reproduction of
animals, or why sexes exist ; we ought, there-
fore, to content ourselves with reasoning on
what is, on things as they are, since we cannot
go beyond, by forming suppositions which
will remove us from the sphere we onght to
contain ourselves in, and to which the small
extent of our knowledge is limited.

Quitting, therefore, all doubtful conjectures^
I shall rest on facts and observations. I find^
that the reproduction of beings is formed in

many

NATURAL HISTORY. 243

snany clifFercut manners ; but, at the same
time, I clearly perceive, that it is by the union
efthe organic particles sent back from every
part of the individual, that the reproduction
of vegetables and animals are effected. lam
certain of the existence of these organic and
active molecules in the seminal liquors of male
imd female animals and seed of vegetables;
and cannot doubt but every species of repro-
duction is accomplished by the union of these
organic molecules. Nor can I doubt, that in
the generation of animals, and particularly in
that of man, that the male and female particles
mix in the formation of the fostus, since we see
infants which resemble both father and mother;
and what confirms this conclusion is, that
those parts, common to both sexes, mix pro-
miscuously ; whereas those never mix which
represent the sexual parts. For we every day
see children with eyes like the father, and the
forehead and mouth like the mother ; but we
jiever find a like mixture of the sexual parts ;
it never happens that they have the testicles
of the father, and the vagina of the mother,
for even the fact of hermaphrodites is very
doubtful.

I i 2 h

244 BUFFO n's

In the parts of generation of the two sexes
in the human species, there is so much resem-
blance, and so singular a conformily, that we
might be inclined to think those which appear
so different externally, are at bottom the same
organs, only more or less developed ; this was
the opinion of the ancients, and M. Dauben-
ton's ideas on this subject appear to me very
ingenious.

The formation of the foetus is, then, made
by the union of the organic particles contained
in the mixture of the seminal liquor of both
sexes; this union produces the local establish-
ment of the particles, wliich determines them
to arrange themselve.- as they were in the indi-
viduals which furnished them ; insomuch, that
the molecules, which proceed from the head,
cannot, by virtue of these laws, place them?*
selves in the legs, or any other part of the
foetus. All these molecules must be in motion
when they unite, and in a motion which mu^t
cause them to tend to a kind of centre, about
which the union is made. This centre, or
fixed point, whicli is necessary to the union
of the molecules, and which, by i<s reaction
and inertia, fixes the activity, and destroys

the

NATURAL HISTORY. 24:5

the motion, is, probably, the first assemblasce
of the molecules which proceed from the sexual
par(s of the other individual ; they must ar-
range nndcr the form of an organized body
Tvhicli will not be another foetus, for the rea-
sons we have before given.*

On the whole, I conceive there arc organic
particles of the sexual parts, which serve as a
fixed point, or a centre of union, around which
all the other parts that form the embryo collect.
I speak of it only as probable; but as they are
the only particles which differ, I have thought
it more natural to imagine, that it is around
these- different particles the union is formed
than those which are common to both sexes.

We have before ob^^erved, that those who
Lave imagined the heart was the first formed,
are deceived : those who say it is the blood, are
no less so. All is formed at the same time. If
we only consult observation, thechicken is seen
in the egg before it has been sat upon ; we per-
ceive the spine of the back and the head, and,
at the same time, the appendages whicli form
the placenta. I have opened a great number of

eggs,

* In this, as in some other places, our author has gone
into a diffuse repetition which \re have considered unne-
cessary and therefore avoid.

SIG BUFFO n's

egc^, before and after incubation ; and I am
convinced, by my sight, (hat the chicken exists
entirely in tlie middle of the cicatrice, the mo-
ment it comes from the body of the hen . The
heat, communicated to it by incubation, only
expands the parts by setting the liquors in mo-
t'ion ; but it is not possible to determine which
parts of the foetus are iixed in the instant of
formation.

I have always said, that the organic mole-
cules were fixed, and that their uniting was
caused only by their loss of mo ion. This ap-
pears to me certain : for, if we separately exa-
mine the seminal liquor of the male and female,
Vie shall see an infinity of small bodies in great
laotion, but being mixed, their motion is in-
stantly sus^x^nded, and heat is necessary to re-
new their activity ; for thechicken which exists
in the centre of the cicatrice is without any
motion before incubation ; and even twentj'-
four hours after, when it begins to become per-
ceptible with a microscope, there is not (he least
appearance of motion then, nor even the day
following. During the first day it is only a
small white mucilaginous mass, which is of a
consistence on the second, and insensibly in-
creases, but whose motion is very slow, and

does

NATURAL HISTORY. 217

iloes not at all resemble that of (he oriranic par-
ticles which move rapidly in the seminal liquor.
Besides, I have reason to say, that this motion
of the ori^anic molecules is absolutely dtstroj-
ed ; for if we keep an egg without exposing it
to a degree of heat necessary to expand the
chicken, the embryo, althougli formed entirely,
will remain without anj' molion ; and the or-
ganic molecules of which it is composed, will
remain fixed without being able to give niolioFi
and life to (he embryo which has been formed
by their union. Thus, after the molion of the
organic molecules has been destroyed, after the
union of these molecules, necessary to form aa
animal body, there is si ill an external agent
required to animate and give it life and motion ;
and this agent is heat, which, by rarefying the
liquors, obliges them to circulate and put also
every organ in action, which afterwards do no
more than develope and grow, provided that
this external heat continues to assist them iii
their functions.

Before the action of (his external heat, not
the least appearance of blood is to be seen ; and
it is not till twenty-four hours after, that I have
perceived any change in the colour of the ves-
sels. The blood first appears in the placenta,
i whlcli

248 buffon's

■which communicates with the body of the chick-
en : but tliis blood seems to lose its colour as itap-
proachesthebodjofthe animal; forthe chicken
is entirely white, and we with difficulty disco-
ver in the first, second, and third days after in-
cubation, a few small sanguinary points which
are close to the body of the animal, but which
seem not to make part of it, although it is these
sanguinary points which afterwards form the
heart. Thus, the formation of the blood is a
change occasioned in the liquors by the mo-
tion heat communicates to them, and this
blood is formed even out of the body of the
animal, the whole substance of which is then
only a kind of mucilage, or thick jelly.

The foetus, as well as the placenta, derives
the necessary nutriment for expansion, by a
kind of absorption, and they assimilate the or-
ganic parts of the liquor in which they float :
for the placenta cannot be said to nourish the
animal, no more than the animal nourishes the
placenta ; since, if the one nouris.hed the other,
the first would soon appear to diminish, while
the other increased, whereas both increase to-
gether. I have indeed observed in eggs, that
the placenta at first increases much more in
proportion than the foet us, and therefore it may

nourish

NATURAL HISTORY. 249

nourish the animal, or rather convey the nu-
triment to it, by intus-susception.
-, What we have just said concerning" the
chicken, is easily applied to the human foetus,
which is formed by the union x)f the organic
molecules of the two sexes. The membranes,
and placenta, are formed from the superabund-
ance of the particles which have entered into
the composition of the embryo : which is then
inclosed in a double membrane, where there is
also^ quantity of liquor, whicli is, ]>«rhaps, at
first, but a portion of the semen of the father
and the mother; and as the fiaetus dues not quit
the matrix, it enjoys, from the instant >even of
its formation, an external heat necessary for it«
expansion f this heat eommunicates a motion
to liquors, and sets tiie organs in play, and
blood is formed in the placenta, and in the
body of the embryo, by the motion occasioned
by this bea*. It may be even said, that the
formation of the blood of the infajit is as inde-
pendent of the iTtothcr, as that Which passes
into the egg^ is of the lien which hatclies it,
or of the oven which heats it.

It is certain, that tlie foetus^ placenta, and
membranes, grow by intus-susception ; for, ia
the earliest days of conception, the poucli,which
VOL, 111, K k cpntaius

250 buffon's

contains the whole product of generation, is
not adherent to the matrix. Do Graaf, in his
experiments on doe rabbits, made these glo-
bules, wherein the whole business of generation
lies, move about in the matrix. Thus, in the
first stages, they increase and grow by drawing
nutriment from the liquors which bathe the
matrix, to which they are afterwards attached
by a mucilage, in which small vessels are form-
ed with time, as we shall hereafter explain.

But, not to quit the subject, let us return to
the immediate formation of the foetus, on which
there are many remarks to be made, both as to
its situation, and the dilTerent circumstances
which may prevent or stop its formation.

In the human species, the seed of the male
enters into the matrix, the cavity of which is
considerable; and when it meets M'ith a suffici-
ent quantity of female semen, a mixture of the
organic particles succeed, and the formation of
the foetus ensues : the whole, perhaps, is done
instantaneously, especially if the liquors are
both in an active and flourishing state. Tlie
place where the foetus is formed, is the cavity
of the matrix, because the seed of the male can
enter there more easily than into the trunks ;
and as this yiscera has but one small orifice",

'wliicli

NATUllAL HISTORY. S51

wliicli is always shut, excepting when the ar-
dour of love causes it to open, the materials of
generation remain therewith safety , and scarce-
ly ever reissue but by rare and unfrequent cir-
cumstances : but as the liquor of the male
sprinkles the vagina, before it penetrates the
matrix, by the activity of the organic molecules
"which compose it, it may go farther into the
trunks, and, perhaps, into the ovarium. As
the liquor of the female has already its perfec-
tion in the glandular bodies of the testicles,
from which it flows and moistens the trunks
and other parts before it descends into the ma-
trix, and as it may issue out of the vacuities left
around the neck of the matrix, it is not impos-
sible, that the mixture of the two liquors may
be made in all these different places. It is,
therefore, probable that foetuses are often form-
ed in the vagina, but which fall out as soon as
they are formed, because there is nothing to
retain them. It may also sometimes happen,
that fcBtuscs are formed in the trunks ; but thi^
case is very rare, and cannot happen but when
the seminal liquor of the male enters the matrix
in great plenty.

The collection of aiiatomical observations
makes mention of foetuses not only being found

Kk2 i in

^52 BrrroN's

m Ihe trtiriks, bat also in thie testicles. In tl^
History of the Old Academy of Sciences, (vol.
1 J. page 91.) we meet with an observation on
this subject. M. Theroudc, a surgeon at Paris,
shewed the academy an unformed mass,^ which
he found in tlie right testicle of a girl of eigh-
teen yeai^ of age. In it were two open slits, fur-
nished Avith hair like two eyelids, above which
was a kind of forehead, with a black line in-
stead of eyebrows; immediately over that were
many hairs matted together in two separate
lines, oiwi of which was seren^ and the other
tliree inches long; under the great angle of the
eye, two of the grind ing teeth appeared to shoot*,
hard, thick, and white ; they had their prongs,
and a third tooth thicker than the rest above
them. There appeared likewise other teeth at
different distances from each other r two be-
tween these, of the canine nature, issued from
an opening where the ear is placed . In the same
volume, page 144, it is related, that M. Mery
found,^ in the testicle of a woman who had con-
Gcivedy a bone of the upper jaw,^ with many
teeth therein,. so perfect that some appeared to
be of more than ten years growth. We find, in
the Journal de Medicine y for January 1683,
published by the Abbe de la Roque, the his-
11 tory

NATURAL HISTORY. S53

tory of a lady \vho died with the niiitli child,
which was formed in or near one of tlie testicles,
which is not very clearly explained. Thefostus
was about an inch in size, completely formed,
and the sex easily to be distinguished. We also
find, in the Philosophical Transactions, some
observations on the testicles of women, wherein
teeth, hair, and bones, have been found. If all
these circumstances are true, we must suppose,
that the seminal liquor of the male sometimes
ascends, although very seldom, to the testicles
of the female. Yet, notwithstanding all this, {
have some difliculty to believe it; first, because
the circumstances, which appear to prove it,
are extremely rare: secondly, because a perfect
foetus has never been seen in the testicles but
by M. Littre, who seems to relate it in a very
suspicious manner : tliirdly, because it is not
impossible, that the seminal liquor of the female
5ilone may produce organized masses, as moles,
liair, bones, flesh, and, in short, because if we
give credit to anatomists, foetuses may be
formed in the testicles of men, as well as in
tliose of women: for we find, in the History of
the Koyal Academy, vol. ii. p. 298, an ob-
servation of a surgeon, who says, he discovered
in the scrotum of a man^ the figure of a child

inclosed

254r BUFFO NS

inclosed in his membranes ; and that the headj
feet, eyes, bones, and cartilages, were distin-
guibhable. If all these observations were equal-
ly true, we must necessarily adopt one of these
two hypotheses, either that the seminal liquor,
of each sex, cannot produce any thing without
being mixed with that of the other sex, or that
cither of them can produce irregular masses of
itself. By keeping to the first, we should be
obliged to admit, to explain in all the circum-
stances we have related, tliat the liquor of the
male sometimes ascends to t]ie testicle, and, by
mixing with the seminal liquor of the female,
forms organized bodies ; and so may also the
female fluid, by being plentiful in tlie vagina,
penetrate, during the time of copulation, into
the scrotum of the male, nearly as the venereal
virus often reaches that part; and that in this
case, an organized body may be found in the
scrotum, by the mixture of the male and fe-
male fluids ; or, if \^e admit the other hypo-
thesii), which appears to be the most probable,
and suppose, that the seminal liquor of each
individual may produce organized masses,
then \\c may be able to say, that all these bony,
fleshy, and hairy productions, sometimes
found in the testicl&s of females^ and in the

bcrotunr

NATURAL HISTORY. 255

scTotura of males, may derive their origin from
the liquor of the individual in ^vhich they are
found . But enoilgh of observations upon facts,
%vhich appear to be as uncertain as inexplicable,
for i am much inclined to believe, that, in
certain circumstances, the seminal liquor of
each individual may produce something alone
and of itself, and that young girls might form
moles without any communication with the
male, as hens form eggs without having receiv-
ed the cock. 1 might support this opinion
with observations which appear to me as cre-
dible as those I have quoted. M. de la Saonc,
physician and anatomist qf the Academy of
Sciences, published a memoir on this subject,
in which he asserts, that religious nuns,though
strictly cloistered, had formed moles. Why-
should that be impossible, since hens form
eggs without communication with the cock ?
and in the cicatrice of these eggs we perceive a
mole, with appendages, instead of a chicken ?
The analogy appears to me to have sufficient
power for us, at least to doubt, or suspend otir
determination. Be this as it will, it is certain
that the mixture of the two liquors are re-
quired to form a foetus, and that this mixture
cannot come to any effect but when it is in the

matrix,

matrix, where llie anatomists luivc sometimf-s
found foetuses ; and it is natural to imagine,
that those which have been found out of the
matrix, and in the cavity of the abdomen >
bave escaped bj the extremity of the trunks,
or by some accidental openin.^, and that they
never fall from the tes^ticlcs into the abdomen,
because it is almost an impossibility that the
fceminal liquor of the male can ascend so high.
Leeuwenhoek has computed the motion of
these pretended spermatic animals to be four
or live inches in forty minutes, which would
be more than sufficient for the animalcules
to traverse from the vagina into the matrix,
from the matrix into the trunks, and from
the trunks into the testicles, in an hour or
two, provided all the liquor had that motion.
But how is this to lie conceived, that the or-
ganic molecules, whose motion ceases as soon
ys the liquid fails, can arrive as far as the tes-
ticles, unless brought there by the liquor in
which they swim ? This progressive motion
cannot be given by. tlie organic molecules to
the Jiquor which it contains, therefore, what-
ever activity these molecules may be supposed
to have, we cannot see how they can arrive at
the testicles, and form a foetus there, unless tlie

liquor

NATURAL HISTORY. 257

liquor itself was pumped up and attracted tlii-
Iher, a supposition not only gratuitous but
even against all human probability.

The doubts which this supposition gives rise
to, confirm the opinioii that the male lluid pe-
netrates the matrix, and enters therein by the
orifice, or across the membraneous coat of the
viscera. The female fluid may also enter
into the matrix, either by the opening at the
tipper extremity of the trunks, or across the
skin even of the trunks and matrix. M. de
Weirbrcch, an able anatomist of Petersburg,

confirms this opinion: " Res omni atten-

tione dignissima (says he) oblata mihi est ia
utero femimie alicujus a me dissect 03; erat
uterus ea magnitudine qua esse solet in vir-
ginibus, tubitque ambs aperta? quidemad in^
gressum uteri, ita ut ex hoc in illas cum spe-
cilio facile possem transire ac flatum injicere,
sed in turbarum extremo nulhi dabatur aper-
tura, nuUus adilus; fimbriarum enim ne ves'-
tiigium quideni aderat, sed loco illarum bulbn^j
aliquis pyritbrmis materia subalbida > fluida
turgens, in cujus medio fibra plana nervea,
cicatriculae asmula, apparebat, quae sub liga-
Bientuli specie usque ad ovarii involucra
protcndebatur.
VOL. iij. LI '' Dicesj

258 buffon's

'' Dices, eadcni a Regnero de Graaf jam
olim notata. Eqnidem non negaverimillustrera
hunc proscctorem in libro suo de organis mu-
lieribus non raodo similcm tubam delineassc,
Tabula xix, fig. 3, sed & moniiisse, ' tubas
quamvis secundum ordinariam naturae dispo-
sitionein in extremitate sua notubilcm semper
coarctationem habeant, praBter naturam tamen
aliquando claudi ;' vcrum enimvero cum non
meminerit auctor an id in utraque tuba ita
deprehcnderit ; an in virgine; an status iste
pmBternatu rails sterilitatem inducat : an vcro
conceptio nihilominus fieri possit; an aprin-
cipiovitiB talis structura suam originem ducat ;
sive an tractu tempora ita degenerare tuba?
possint; facile perspicimus multa nobis relicta
esse problemata quae, utcumque soluta, mul*
turn negotii facessant in exemplo nostro. Erat
enim hacc femina maritata, viginti quatuor
annos nata, quag filium pepererat quern vidi
ipse, octo jam annos natum. Dic-igitur tubas
ab incunabulis clausas sterilitatem inducere ;
quare haec nostra femina peperit? Die concc-
pisse tubis clausis ; quomodo ovulum ingredi
tubam potuit? Die coal uisse tubas postpar-
tum: quomodo id nosti? Quomodo adeo
evanescerc in utroque latere fimbriae possunt,

tanquam *

NATURAL Htstonv. 259

fanquam nunquam adfuisscnt ? Si quidem ex
ovario ad tubas alia daretur via. pragter illarum
orificiiim, unico gressu omnes sui^^rarcntur
difficullatcs; sed fictiones intellectum quidem
adjuvant) vei vcritatem ndn demonstrant ; prae-
stat iiritut iguorationem fateri^ quam specula-
tionibus indulgcrc*." The difficulties which
occurred to this able a nth or arc insurmountable
in the egg system^ but \\ hicli disappear in our
explanation. This oljservation seems only to
prove what we have observed, that the seminal
liquor of both male and female may penetrate
the coat of the matrix, and enter across the
pores of the membranes ; to be assured of it,
it is only necessary to pay attention to the al-
teration that the seminal liquor of the male
causes to the viscera, and to tlie kind of ve^e-
tation or expansion that it causes there. Be-
sides, the liquor which issues by the vacuities
of Dc Graaf, being of the same nature as tlie
liquor of the glandular bodies, it is very evi-
dent that tliis liquor comes from the testiclesj
and yet there is no vessel through which it call
pass ; consequently we must conclude, that it
penetrates the spongy coat of all these parlr?,
LIS and

* Vide Comment. Acad. Petropol. <ol. IV. page 2S1
and 2G2.

and that it' not only enters the matrix^ but
even can issue out ^vhen these parts are iib
irritation.

But even should we refuse this idea of pe-
nctration, we cannot deny that tlie liquor of the
female, which flows from (he glandular bodies
of tlie testicles, may enter by (lie opening at the
extremity of the truuk, as that of the male does
by the prifiGe of the viscera ; and that conse-
quently these two liquors may mix of themselves-
in thi& cavity, and form there the foatus in the
itisinner we have explained.

CHAPTER IX.

OF THE EXPANSION, GROWTH, AND DELIVERY OF
THE FOiTUS, SiC.

TN the expansion of the foetus, two different
degrees of growtli make different kinds of
expansion. The first,. which succeeds imme-
diately after the formation of the foetus, is

not

NATURAL HISTORY. 261

fiot proportionable in all the parts of which it
is composed. . The more distant it is from tlie
formation, the more in proportion are its partsy-
and it is only after it kas quitted the won>b of
its motlier that the grawth; of the parts- Js-
made in nearly an equal manner. It must
not be imagined that the figure of the fgetusy
althe moment of forraatiouj is absolutely like
that of a,ri adult. It is certain that the embryo
containsf every i>art which must fiompose a
man, but tliey dilier in their successive ex-
pansion. ,7
111 an organized body, as that of an animai,-
we may suppose some parts are more essential
than othersj and though some may be useless-
or superfluous, there are some on which the
rest seem to depend for their expansion and
disposition. We mustconsider sonie as funda-
mental parts, without which the animal cannot
exist, and which are more accessory and ex-
ternal, and appear to .derive their origin from
the first, and which seem to be formed as
much foi' the ornament, symmetry, and exter-
nal perfection of the animal, as for the ne-
cessity of its existence^ aud the exercise of the
essential functions of life. These two kinds
of difibrent parts expand successively, and are

almost

BIjFION'*

almost equally apparent when the foetus quits
the womb; but (here are others which Nature
seems to keep in reserve, as the teeth, whicli
do not appear for some time, and also the
glandular bodies in the testicles of females, the
lieards of males, &c. which do not shew them-
selves till the age of puberty.

In order to discover the fundamental and
essential parts of an animal body, we must pay
attention to the number, situation, and natnre
of the whole; those which are simple, those
whose position is invariable, and those without
which the animal cannot exist, will be tlic
rssential parts ; those, on the contrary, which
are double, or in a greater number, those whose
size and position vary, and those which may be
retrenched from the animal without destroying
or even doing it an injury, may be looked
Tipon as less necessary, and more accessory, to
the animal machine. Aristotle has said that
the only parts essential to animals were those
with which they take their nutriment, and
throw out the superfluous parts of it from the
body. From the mouth to the arms are simple
parts, which no other can supply. The head
and spine of the back are also simple parts,
whose position is invariable. The spine of tlic

back

NATURAL HISTORY. 263

hack serves for a foundation to the fabric of
the body ; and it is from the marrow which it
contains tliat the motion and action of most
of the members and organs proceed; it is also
this part which appears one of tlic first in the
embryo. Now these simple parts which appear
the first are all essential to the existence and
form of the animal. There are many more
double tlian simple parts in the body of an ani-
mal, and seem to be produced on each side of
the simple parts by a kind of vegetation; for
these double parts are similar in form, and dif-
ferent in position. The left hand exactly re-
sembles the right, because it is composed of the
same number of parts; nevertheless, if it was
placed in the situation of the right, we could
not make use of it for the same purposes, and
should have reason to regard it as a very dif-
ferent member. It is the sajne with respect to
the other double parts ; they are similar as to
form, and different as to the position which is
connected to the body of the animal : and by
supposing a line to divide the body into two
equal parts, the position of all the similar parts
would refer to this line as a centre.

The spinal marrow, and the verlebraB wliich

contains it, appear to be the real axis, to which

4 ^\c

^f buffon's

'wemnst refer all the double par<s of the aoi*
ma\^ for they seem to derive tlieir origin, and
to be only symmetrical branches issuing from
;lliis trunk or common base, for -we see the riljs
«hoot out on each side of the vertebra in tlie
young chiciven as the young branches shoot
out from the principal braneli of a tree. In
all embryos the middle of the head and verte-
brae appear to be the first formed ; afterwards
^e see on the two sides of a vesicle wliicb
forn>s the middle of the head two other vesicles
which appear to proceed from the first. These
two vesicles contain the eyes and tlic otiier
fiGuble parts of the liead ; so likewise we per-
eeive little tr bercles shoot out in equal num-
bers from each side of the vertebra?, which ex-
tend by degrees and form the ribs, and otl}er
<Ionble parts of the trunk. On the side of this
trunk already formed, as the conclusion, the
legs and arms appear. This first expansion is
very diflcrcnt from that which is made after-
wards ; it is the production of parts which ap-
pear for the first time ; tliat which succeeds i«
only a growth of all tlie parts already created.
Tliis symmetrical order of all the double
parts found in every animal, the regularity of
their position, the equality of their extension

and

NATURAL HISTORY. 265

and gro^vlli, and the perfect resemblance be-
tween them, seem to indicate that they derive
their origin from the simple parts ; that there
must reside in these simple parts a power which
acts equally on each side, or, which answers
the same meaning, they are the fixed points
against wliich the power that produces the ex-
pansion of the double parts is exercised. That
the power wliich acts on the riglit is equalled
by that of the left side, and consequently they
are counterbalanced by this re-action.

From hence we may infer, that if there is
any defect or excess in the matter which is to
serve for the formation of (he double parts, as
the powers which impel tlieni on each side are
equal, the defect or excess must be formed
the same both on the right and left ; for ex-
ample, if, from a defect of matter, a man has
but two fingers instead of five on the riffht
hand, he will have but two on the left hand ; or
if, by an excess of matler, he lias six fingers
on one hand, he will have six on the other ; or
if the matter be vitiated, and causes an alfera-
tion in the right part, it will be the same on
the left. This fact is very often seen. Most
monsters are made with symmetry; the dis-
arrangement of the parts of monsters appears
YOL. HI, M m to

BUFFON S

to be made -with order : Nature, therefore, even
in her errors, mistakes as little as possible.

This liarmony of position in the doul^le parts
df animals is found also iti vegetables; branches
shoot out from buds on every side ; the veins
in the leaves are equally disposed as to the prin-
cipal vein; and although symmetrical order
appears to be less exact in vegetables than in
animals, it is only because it is more varied,
and its limits are more extended, and less pre-
cise ; but we may nevertheless easily discover
this order, and distinguish the simple and es-
sential parts from those which are double^ and
the latter we must regard as having taken their
origin from the former. We shall more fully
discuss tlws point, as far as relates to vetjcta-
bles, when %^ come to treat of them.

It iis not possible to determine under what
form the double parts exist before expansion,
nor in what manner they are folded, nor what
figure results from their position by connec-
tion with thd simple parts. The body of the
animal, in the instant of formation, certainly
contains every part which is to compose it ;
but the relative position of these parts must be
very diflerent tiien from what it becomes after-
wards. It is the same with vegetables, for if

we

NATURAL HISTORY. 267

we observe the expansion of a young leaf, we
shall perceive that it is folded on both sides the
principal vein, and that its figure does not re-
sembk at that time what it afterwards assumes.

When we amuse ourselves by folding paper
to form croAYus, boats, &c. the difierent folds
of the paper seem to have no resemblance to the
form which must result by tlie unfolding ; we
only sec that these folds are always made in an
uniform order, and exactly the same on one side
as that we have made on the other; but it
would be a problem beyond known geometry,
to determine tlie figures which may result from
all the unfoldings of a certain given number of
folds. All what immediately relates to the
position, is beyond our mathematical sciences.
This art, which Leibnitz calls Analysis Situs,
is not yet found out ; tliougli the art, whicli
would shew us the connections that result from
the position of things, would perhaps be more
useful than that which has only bulk for its
object, for we have often more need to know
the form than the matter.

In tlie unfolding of Nature's productions,

not only the folded parts take new positions,

but they acquire, at the same time, extent and

^dlidity. Since we cannot therefore deter-

M m 2 mine

268 BurFON*s

jTime the result of tlie simple unfolding of a
folded form, in which, as in a piece of folded
paper, there is but one change of position be-
tween the parts, without any augmentation or
diminution of the bulk or mass of the matter,
how is it possible for us to judge of the complex
unfolding of the body of an animal, in which
not only the relative position of the parts, but
also iheir mass of matter, undergoes considerable
changes ? We cannot, therefore, reason upon
this subject, but by drawing some inductions
from the examination of tlie things at the dif-
ferent periods of their unfolding, and by assist-
ing ourselves with the observations that we
have had the opportunity to make.

It is true we sec the chick in the egg before
incubation; it floats in a transparent liquor,
contained in a small purse, formed by a very
fine membrane in the centre of the cicatrice ;
but this chick is then only a particle of inani-
mate matter, in which we cannot discern any
organization, nor any determined figure. We
judge by the external form that one of tlie ex-
tremities is the head, and the rest to be the
spine of the back. It appears that this is the
first product of fecundation rirsiilling from the
mixture of the seed of the male and female;

neyerlheless,

NATURAL HISTORY. 269

nevertheless, before asserting this as a fact,
there are many things should be considered.
When the hen lias cohabited with the cock for
a few days, and afterwards separated from him,
the eggs she produces for a month after sepa-
ration are as fertile as those she produced dur-
ing ihe time of cohabitation with the male, and
unfold at the same time ; they only require
twenty-one days sitting, and the embryo of the
one will be as forward and as completely form-
ed as that of the other. From hence we mij^ht
think, that this form, under which the chick
at first appears to us in tlie eggy does not im-
mediately proceed from a mixture of the two
liquors, but that it existed in other formsduring
the time the egg remained in the body of the
mother; for the embryo in the form we see it
before incubation, requires only heat to untold
and bring it forth. Now, if it had this form
twenty days, or a month before, when the egg
was first fecundated, why was it not hatched
by the internal heat of (he hen ? anil why is not
the chicken perfectly formed in those eggs
Avhich are fecundat(;d twenty-one days before
ihe hen lavs them ?

This diflicalty is not so great as it appears ;

for v/c must conceive, that in the time of the

1 cock's

J?70 buffon's

cock's coliabitation with the hen, each egg
receives in its cicatrice, wherein the female
liquor is contained, a small portion of the semen
of the male. The egg attached to the ovary
is in oviparous females, what the glandular
substance is in the testicles of viviparous fe-
males. Tlic cicatrice of the egg corresponds
with the glandular bodies in w hich the seminal
liquor of the female resides ; that of tlie male
penetrates and mixes tlicre wilh it; from this
mixture, the formation of the embryo instantly
results. The first egg which the hen lays after
coition is fecundated, and capable of produ-
cing a chicken ; those which she lays after-
wards were fecundated at the same instant ;
but as there is still wanting essential parts to
this egg, the production of which is inde^
pendent of the seed of the male, as the white,
membranes, and shell, the young embryo con-
tained in the cicatrice cannot unfold in this
imperfect egg, although assisted by the internal
heat of the moihcr. It remains, therefore, itx
the cicatrice in the state in which it was form-
ed, until the egg has acquired all tlie parts ne-
cessary to the growth and nourishment of the
chicken: and it is not till (he es^s: has attained
ih perfection that tlic embryo begins to unfold :

this

NATLRAL IlISTORT. 271

this unfolding is performed by the external heat
of incubation ; but it is certain, if the egg could
be confined within the body of the hen for
gl days after it was completely formed, the
chicken would be produced, unless the internal
heat of the hen should prove too powerful, for
the degrees of heat necessary to hatch chickens
are not very extended, and the least defect or
excess is equally prejudicial to their unfolding.
The last eggs the hen lays, containing the same
as the first, proves nothing more than that the
egg must acquire entire perfection before the
embryo can unfold itself; and for want of the
heat necessary to this unfolding, eggs may be
kept n considerable time before incubation^
without preventing the produce of the chickens
they contain.

It appears, therefore, that the state of the
Embryo, when the egg is laid by the hen, is the
first state which succeeds fecundation ; that th<&
form under which we see it is the first form
resulting from the intimate mixture, and for-m
the penetration of the two seminal liquors ;
iind ccnseqiienily by following, as Malpighias
has done, this unfolding from hour to hour, we
discover all that is possible to be known, unless
i^e could see tiie two liquors mix before our-

eyes.

572 BurroN^s

eyes, and bow tlie first arrangement of iLe par-
ticles are made, which produces the first form
of the embryo.

If we reflect on this fecundation (which is
made at the same time) of these eggs, which
are laid successively, and along time after each
other, we shall find new arguments against
the existence of eggs in viviparous animals ;
for if the females of viviparous animals, or if
"Women contained eggs, like hens, why are
there not many fecund at the same time ? why
arc not some of ihem produced in nine months,
and others at distant periods ? and when wo-
men have two or three children, why do tliey
all come into tlie world at one time? If
these foetuses were produced by the means of
eggs, would not they come successively, ac-
cording as the eggs come to perfection, after
the time of impregnation? And would not
super-foetation be as frequent as ihey now are
scarce, or as natural as they appear to be ac-
cidental ?

We cannot follow the unfolding of tlic
fee! us in the matrix as we pursue that of the.
chick in the egg] the opportunities of observ-
ing it arc few, and we can only Isnow wliat
anatomists, surgegns, and midwives have

written

t^AtUItAL HISTORY. 273

written thereon. It is by collecting all their
particular observations > and by comparing
tlieir remarks and their descriptions, that we
have made the following abridged history of
the human fo3tus.

There is a great appearance that, imme-
diately after the mixture of the two seminal
liquors, the \s hole materials of generation exist
in the matrix under the form of a globe ; since
we know, by anatomists, that thrfee or four
days after conception there is a small oval ball
in the matrix, this ball is formed by an ex*
tremely fine membrane, which incloses a lim*
pid liquor like the white of an egg. We can
then perceive some small united fibres in this
liquor, which are the first outlines of the foetus*
A net-work of fine fibres collects on the surface
of the ball, which extends from one of the ex-
tremities to the middle* These are the first
vestiges of the placenta.

Seven days after conception we may distin*
guish, by the naked eye, the first lineaments qf
the foetus, as yet unformed ; being only a mass
of transparent jelly, which has acquired some
small degree of solidity ; the head and trunk are
easily discernible, because this mass is of an
oblong form, and the trunk is more delicate
VOL. III. N n and

274 BUFFO .n's

and somewhat longer. Some small fibres^ m
form of a plume of feathers, spring from the
body of the foetus, and "svhich turn towards
the membrane in which it is included ; these
fibres are to form the umbilical cord.

'^. Fifteen days after conception, the head, and
the most apparent features of the face, are dis-'
tingiiishable ; the nose resembles a small pro-
minent and perpendicular thread affixed to a
line^ which indicates the division of the lips.
iTwo small black points are in the places of
the eyes, and two little holes in those of the
ears ; the body of the foetus has also received
some growth. On each side of the upper and
inferior parts of the trunk, little protuberances
appear, which are the first outliJics of the arm&
and legs.

/Eight days after, that is in three weeks, the'
body of the foetus has only increased about a
line ; but the arms and legs, the hands and feet^
are apparent; the growth of the arms is more
quick than that of the legs, and tire fingers^
separate sooner than the toes. At this time
internal organization begins to- be discernible ;
the bones appear like small threads as fine as-
hairs; the ribs are disposed regularly from the
tTfo sides of the back bone; and as well as the

SkvmSir

NATURAL HISTORV. §75

arm*, legs, fingers, and toes, ace frepreseuieil
by very small threads.

At a month the foetus is more than an inch
iong ; it naturally takes acurved posture, in Ihe
middle of the liquor which surrounds it, and
the membranes v»hich contain t^e whole arc
increased in extent and thickness; the massif
oval, and it is then about an inch and an half
in its greatest, and an inch aiad a quarter the
smallest diameter. The human figure is- nc>
longer equivocal, every part of the face is
already discernible; tbeb^dy is fashioned, the
thighs and belly are seen, the limbs formed,
the toes and lingers divided, the skin thin and
transparent, the viscera marked by fibres, the
vessels as fine as threads, and the membranes
extremely delicate, the bones are as yet soft,
and have only taken solidity in some few parts;
ihc vessels which compose the umbilical cord,
are as yet in a straight line by llie side of each
other; now the placenta only occupies a third
of the whole mass ; w&ereas in tlic beginning
jit occupied the half, it appears, therefore, that
its growt-b, in superficial extent, has not beeo
30 great as that of the foetus, and the r^st
of the mass ; but it ha? increased much pi<)d;e
m solidity ; its thickness has become greater
N n 2 in

276 BUFFON*S

in proportion than the membranes of the foetusj
both of which are now easily distinguished .

According to Hippocrates, the male foetus
is developed sooner than the female. He says*
all parts of the body in the first are apparent
in thirty, whereas the latter are not so till the
expiration of forty-two days.

In six weeks the foetus is nearly two inches
long ; the human figure begins to be more per-
fect; the head is only larger in proportion than
the other parts of the body ; the motion of the
heart is perceived about this time. It has been
seen to beat in a foetus of sixty days, a long
while after it ha4 been taken out of the womb
of its mother.

In two months the foetus is more than two
inches long ; the ossification is discernible as
far as the middle of the arm, thigh, and leg,
and in the point of the lower jaw, which is
then very forward before the upper. These,
however, are only ossified points ; but by the
effect of a more ready expansion, the clavicles
are wholly ossified. The umbilical cord is
formed, and the vessels which compose it ,begin
to twist nearly like threads which compose a
rope : but th is cord is still very short in com-
parison of what it becomes hereafter.

In

natuhal histohy. ^7t

In three months the foetus 4s nearly three
inches long", and Aveighs about three ounces*
Hippocrates says, that it is at this time the
motion of the male foetus I^egins to be felt by
its mother ; but that those of the female are
not felt till after the fourth ; there are women
who affirm they have felt the motions of the
child at the beginning" of the second month.
It is very difficult to be certain on this subject,
the sensations excited by the first motions of
the foetus depending, perhaps more on the sen-
sibility of the mother than the strength of tlie
child.

Four months after conception the length of
the foetus is six or seven inches ; every part of
its body is so greatly augmented as to be per-
fectly distinguished from each other ; even the
nails appear on the fingers and toes. The
testicles of the males are shut up in the belly
above the kidneys ; the stomach is filled with
somewhat of a thick humour, like that which
incloses the amnios. We find a milky fluid
in the little vessels, and in the large ones a
black liquid matter. There is a little bile in
the gall, and some urine in the bladder. As
the foetus floats freely in the liquid which sur-
rounds it, there is always a space between the
body and membranes in which it is contained.

These

fit bupfon's

These coverings grow at fust more than thfe
fostus ; but after a crrtain time it is quite the
contrary. Before the end of the third month
the head is bent forward, the chin rests on the
breastj the knees are lifted up, the legs bent
backwards upon the tliiglis (sometimes the
kncci are so high as almost to touch the jaws),
the arms are generally folded across the breast,
and one of the hands, and often both touch the
face. The foetus afterwards takes dificrcnt
^'^ituations, as it acquires strength. Ex-f^er
lienced mid wives have pretended to be cerr
tain til at it clianges much often cr than ij^
commonly thought, and which they i)rove
by several observations ; first, tlie umbilical
cord is often found twisted round the body and
limbs of the child, in a manner which neces?
sarily supposes, that the foetus has moved in
many directions, and taken different positions ;
secondly, a mother feels the motions of the
foetus sometimes on one side of the womb and
sometimes on another ; and it often strikjcs
against many different places, which must be
occasioned by diflbrent positions^ and supposes
that it takes different situations; thirdly, as it
floats in a liquid which surrounds it on all
sides, it can very easily turn and extend itself by
its own strengih ; and it must also take dif-
ferent

]»ATUJIAL HiSTORT. S7^

ferent situations according to the various atti-
tudes of the mother ; for example, when she
lies down, the foetus must be in another situa-
tion to what it was when she stood upright.

Most anatomists have said, that the fuel us is
constrained to bend its bod}', because it is too
confined in its covering ; but this opinion does
not appear well founded, for in the first five or
six months there is more space than is required
for the fcetus to extend, and yet during that
time it is beirt and folded . We also see the
chicken is in a curved posture in the liquor of
tlie amnios, although this membrane and its
liquor are sufficient to contain a body five or
six times as large as the foetus. Thus we may
conclude that this curved form of the fcetus is
mitural, and not the effect of force. I am
somewhat of Harvey's opinion, who says, it
takes tliis attitude because it is the most fa-
vourable io rest and sleep; and as the fcetus
sleeps almost continually, it naturally fakes th^
most advantageous situation. " Certe (says
this famous anatomist) aniraalia omnia, dum
quiescunt & dormiunt, membra sua ut pluri-
mum adducunt & complicant, figuramquc
o^valem ac conglobatam quserunt : ita pariler
ejnbryones qui atatem suam maxima somncj
4 transiguntj

2S0 BtJFFOh's

transigunt, membra sua positione ea qtia plas*
manlur (tanquam naturalissima acmaximein*
dolenti quietique aptissima) componunt*."

The matrix, as we have already said, take?
a very ready growth after conception, and it
continues also to increase in proportion with
the foetus ; but the foetus at length outgrows
the matrix, and then, especially when it ap-
proaches maturity, it may be too much con-
fined, and agitate the matrix by reiterated mo*
tions and violent efforts. The mother sensibly
feels the impression of tliesc painful sensations,
and which are called periodic pains after the
labour commences. The more power the
fcetus exerts to dilate the matrix the greater it
finds the resistance, from the natural compres-
sion of the parts. From thence all the effect
falls on the orifice, which has been increasing
by degrees during the latter months of preg-
nancy. The head of the foetus, forcibly in-
Qlining against the sides of the orifice, dilates
it, by a continual pressure, till the moment of
delivery, when it opens sufficiently for the
child to escape from the womb.

What makes it probable that the labour-
pains proceed only from the dilatation of the

orifice
* Harvey on Generation, page 257,

NATURAL HISTORY. 281

oiifice of the matrix is, that this dilatation is
the only means to discover whether the pains
felt are in fact the pains of labour, for women
often feel very sensible pains, which are not
those that immediately precede delivery. To
distinguish the false from true pains, it has been
recommended for the midwife to touch the
orifice of the matrix, as if the pains be true
the dilatation will always increase, and if they
are false pains, that is to say, pains which pro-
ceed from some other cause than that of the
approaching delivery, the orifice will contract
rather than dilate, or at least will not continue
to dilate. From hence we have sufficient
foundation to imagine, that these pains proceed
from a forced dilatation of the orifice. The
only thing which embarrasses on this occasion
is that alternative of rest and suHerings the
luother endures. This circumstance of the
effect does not perfectly agree with the cause
w hich we have just indicated ; for the dilatation
of an orifice, which is made by degrees, should
produce a constant and continued pain, without
any intervals of ease. But possibly the whole
may be attributed to the separation of tlie
placenta, which we know is fastened to the
matrix by a number of papilla^, which penc-
Toi.. in. Go trate

^82 BUFFO nV

trate into the vacuities or cavities of this \i&*
cera ; therefore may it not be supposed that
they do not separate from their cavities all at
tlie same time ; tliateach separation causes those
acute pains, and tlie intervals between are those
of case and rest? The eflbct in this case per-
fectly answers the cause, and we can support
this conjecture by another observation. — Im-
mediately before delivery there issues a whitish
and viscous liquor, like that which flows from
the nipples of the placenta when drawn out of
tlicir places, which makes it probable that this
liquor, which then issues from the matrix, is
produced by the separation of some of the pa-
pillaj of the placenta;.

It often happens that the foetus quits the
matrix without bursting the membranes, and
consequently without the contained liquor
flowing out. This kind of delivery appears
to be most natural, and resembles that of most
animals ; nevertheless, the human foetus com-
monly pierces its membranes by the resistance
it meets with at the orifice of the matrix. It
also sometimes brings away part of the amnios,
and even the chorion, upon its head like a cap.
When these membranes are pierced or torn,
the liquors, called the xcaters^ which they con-
. 2 taia

NATURAL HISTORY. 2SS

Isihi flow out J and the sides of the orifice of the
•matrix, and the vagina, being thus moistened,
^veway more easily to the passage of the child.
After tlie flowing of this liquor there remains
sufficient room in the matrix for the midwife
to return the cliild, if the position is unfa-
vourable. When tlie foetus is come out tlie
delivery is net entirely completed, the placenta
and membranes remain in the matrix, and the
ncAV-born infant adheres to tliem by the um-
bilical cord ; the hand of the midwife, <or the
weight of the body of the infant alovie, drawc
them out by means of this cord. Those organs
which were necessary to the life of the foetus
become useless, and even noxious to tlie new-
born infant. Thej^ are instantly separated
from the body of the child, hy tying tlie um-
bilical cord about an inch distance from the
navel, and by cutting it about an inch from the
ligature. The remainder of this cord dries
away, and separates of itself from the navel,
about the sixth or seventh day.

On examining the fostas previous to its
birth we may form some idea of its natural
functions. It has organs, wliich are necessary
to it while in the womb of its mother, but
which become useless. For the better under-
O 0 2 standinji

standing the meclianism of these funcfiofls, W6
mast explain a little more particularly the
nature of those necessary parts, the umbilical
cord, the membranes, the liquor v/hich they
contain and the placenta. The umbilical
cord, which is attached to the body of the
foetus at the navel, is composed of two ar-?
teries and one vein; these prolong the circu-
lation of the blood, but the vein is larger
than the arteries. At the extremity of the
coird each of these vessels divide into an infinity
of ramifications, wliich extend between two
membranes. They separate at equal distances
from the common trunk ; so that these rami-
fications are round and flat, and are called,
v/hen thus collected, the placenta. The ex*
ternal surface, which is applied against the
matrix, is convex ; the internal concave. Th6
blood of the foetus circulates in the cord, and
in the placenta. Tlie arteries of the cord
spring from two large arteries of the foetus,
and carry the blood through the arterial rami-i-
fications of the placenta ; from thence it passes
into the venous branches which carry it into
the umbilical vessels ; these communicate with
a vein of the fostus, in which vessels it is re*
ceived.

The

NATURAL HISTORY. §S5

The concave surface of tlie placenta is
plothed by the chorioti; the convex is also
covered by a kind of soft membrane, easily
torn, "which seems to be a continuation of th^
chorion, and the foetus is included under the
double coat of the chorion and the amnios.
The form is globular, because the intervals
between the membranes and the foetus are
filled with a transparent liquor. Tliis liquor
is contained by the amnios, wliich is the in-
ternal membrane, it is thin and transparent ;
it folds round the umbilical cord at its in-
sertion into the placenta^ and covei's it the
"whole length to the navel of the feet us. The
chorion is the external membrane ; It is thick
and spongy, sprinkled with sanguinary vessels,
and composed of many coats, the exterior
of which covers the cmivex surface of the
placenta. It follows the inequalities, and
covers the papilla?, whit^h spring fVom the
placenta, atul are received in the cavities found
at the bottom of the matrix, called lacunar.
The fetus adheres to the mattix bv these in-
sertions.

Some anatomists have thought that the hu-
man form had, like tliose of certain qUadru-
pedsj a membrane called atlantois, destined

to

g85 buffon's

to receive the urine; and they Lave pretended
lo have found it between tlie chorion and the
amnios, or in the middle of the placenta at the
root of the umbilical cord, under the form
of a very large bladder, in which the urine
entered by a long pipe that composed part of
the chord, and which opened on one side into
the bladder, and on tlie other in this allantois
membrane, being similar to the urachus in
other animals. They owned, however, that it
was not near so large in the human fostus as
in quadrupeds, bat that it was divided into
many tubes, «o minute, that they could
scarcely be perceived, and that the urine
passed into their cavities.

The experience and observations of most
anatomists arc contrary to this supposed disco-
yery. They admit there is a kind of ligament
which adheres by one end to the external sur-
face of the bottom of the bladder, and extends
to the navel; but it becomes so delicate, on
entering into the cord, as to be nearly reduced
to nothing : ia common this ligament is not
hollovv', and we can see no oriiice at the bot-
tom of the bladder.

The fcetus has no communication with the
Ojpen air, and the experiments made upon the

lung's

NATURAL HI&TORY. S87

lungs prove Ihey have never respired ; for tliey
sink to the bottom when put in water: whereais
those of infill! ts who have breathed always float
on the top ; the foetus tlien does not respire
in the womb, consequently it cannot form
any sound by its voice ; and therefore what
has been related of the groaning and crying
of children before their birth may be consi-
derered as fables. After the flowing of tlie
waters it may happen, that the air has found
an entrance into the cavity of the matrix, and
then the inflint may begin to respire before it
is brought forth. In this case it may be able
to cry, as the chicken cries before the shell of
the egg is broken, which it can do from
there being air in the cavity which is between
tlie external membrane and the shell. This
air is found in all eggs, and is produced by tlie
internal fermentation of matters contained in
them*.

The lungs of the foafus being without any
motion, have no more blood enter into them
than is requisite to nourish and make them
liTOW ; and there is another road opened for the
course of its circulation. The blood in ths
ri^ht auricle of the heart, instead of passing

into

* See La Statique des Vegetaux, Chap. ▼!,

into (lie pulmonary artery, and returuinp:, aftdr
Laving ran through the lungs into the left
auricle by the pulmonary vein, passes imme-
diately into tJie left by an o^ieningj called the
foramen ovale ^ which is in the partition of the
Leart between tlie two auricles, it enters af-
terwards into the aorta, whicli distributes it by
its ramifications, at going out of which the
venous branches receive it, and bring it back
to the heart by uniting all in the tetia caxa^
■which terminates at tlie right auricle of the
heart. The blood which this auricle contains,
instead of passing entirely by theforamen ovale,
may escape in part iisto tlie pulmonary and the
aorta by an arterial canal, which goes immedi-
ately from the one to the other. It is by these
roads that the blood of the foetus circulates
•without entering into the lungs, as it enters
into those of children, adults, and every animal
which breathes.

It has been thouglit that the blood of the
mother passes into the body of the foetus, by
means of the placenta and umbilical cord. It
was supposed that the sanguinarj" vessels of the
matrix opened into the vacuities, and those
of the placenta iixlo the nipples, and that they
joined one to the other; but experience is

quite

NATURAL HISTORY. S89

^ 111^ e contrary to this opinion; for if tbe ar-
teries of he umbilical cord is i jected the li-
quor returns by the veins, and not any par^
of it escapes extemalty. Besides, the nipj les
nnay be drawn from the vacuities where they
are 1 dgel, without any blood issuing eiiier
from the matrix or placenta : a milky liquor
only issues from both, and which, we have al-
ready observed, serves the foetus for nutriment.
This liquof possibly enters into the veins of
the placenta, as the chyle enters into the sub-
clavian vein; and perhaps the placefjta in a
great measure performs the office of the lungs
in bringing the blood to maturity. It is cer-
tain that the blood appears much sooner in the
placenta than in the foetus, and I have often
observed in eggs that have been under the hen
-for a day or two, that the bio >d appeared at
first in tlie membranes, and that their sangui-
nary vessels are very large and numerous, while
the whole body of the chicken, excepting the
point where those blood-vessels terminate, is
only a white and almost transparent matter, in
which there is not the smallest sign of a san-
guinary vessel.

It has been imagined, that the liquor
of the amnios is a nutriment the foetus re-
woL. III. P p ceives

290 , ,,,, ruffon's

jqeivfes t>y its xaouth. Sonvj naturalist? p^Cr

teii4 to Uave observed fhU; lifluor in ,tlic sto-

: mycb,,an4 to Ji/iye seen sc^ ^fcyeluigs to \y,lMch

^.jjhe umbilical' qoxd was entirely waiting, :an.d

.oUiers who had but a vevj siBt^U portion, which

did pot at: iUt adhere to the placenta ; but in this

.- cajse i^ig^ not. Ilic liquor h^ ve entered ini,a the

,lpody qf.ilic iceins by th^; small pprt ion jOfith^

virabilic^J-cord, orbj theji^inbilieal vessel ifcscl/f

J^e^icles,, ^Q tlv?sc obseifv^tjons v^e raayoppbfte

j^hc^, ■ .Sonje ffetiises (have beeri found; wUeise

lips were not. separated, aji^l others without at>y

o,pening ifl ,<,h^ ocsopUa^VJS. - Xq concilii^te

^thesQ eirciimstances,, same anatomists' harye

,^hongl^t i^hat the aliments passed into th/? fcetiWJ

partly bjr.Miie um;bilical cord, and p^'vrtly by.t^e

mouth :• flone of tjiese opinions appear -to haye

any fom^dalion. It is not the questioil to e:^^-

amine the growth of the fp^us alofliif , i^ind.tp

ieek from whence ^nd by what it dr^w^s, its

xiutrimef^t, bvit how the gro^vUi o^ iholyfhiAe

j.^ made; ^r the placent45 Uq^)pr, and mena?-

branes increase in size as well as in the J&atUs;

and. con^equfently the instruupbeats and lianfels

employed to receive or carry this niitfim^nt

^o lh6 fo^us,, h^/ve a. Jjind of life tbenjeclYes.

3!hc exf^ansion of the pUcenta and^membiaiies

10 ,': ; iLiis

NATURAL HlStORY. §91

is as difficult to conceive as that of the foetus ;
and vfc might say, with equal propriety, that
the fostus nourishes the placeiita, as that the
plat^nta nourishes the foetus. The whole mass
is floating in the matrix, and witliout any ad*
herenceat the conimencement of this growth c'
therefore the nourishment can be oivlj made
by an absorption of the milky matter contained-
in the matrix. The placenta appears first to
draw this nutriment, to convert this milk
ihto blood , and to carry it to the fcetus by
veins. The liquor of the amnios appears to
be only this milky liquor depurated, the quan-
tity of which increases by a like abiiorption,
proportionate to the increase of the membranes^
and the foetus probably absorbs the liquor,
which appears to be the necessary nutriment
for its expansion i For we must observe, that
fat the first two or three months the fcetu«
contains very little blood ; Jt is as \^ hite as-
ivory, and appears tb be composed of lymph
which has taken some solidity;: and as th^J
skin is transparent, and all the parts Very sof^,-
vre may easily conceive that the liquor in
wliich the foetus swims may peneti^clte them^'
and thus' furnish the necessitry matter for its
nutrition and expansion. It may be supposed
Pp 2 that

292 buffqn's

thai the fcetus in the latter stages takes its i>a-
trimeiitby the mouth, since in the stomach wc
find a liquor similar to that in the amnios, urine-
in the bladder, and excrements in the intes-
tines ; and as we find neither urine nor meconium
in the amnios, there is reason to conclude that
the foetus does not void its excrements, espe-
cially as some are born without having the
anus pierced, although they had a great quan-
tity oi 7neconiiim'\nihQ. intestines.

Although the foetus docs not immediately
adhere to the matrix, but is only attached to
it by small external nipples, though it has no
communication with the blood of its mother,
but is as independant of her who bears it, in
many respects, as the egg is of the hen that
hatclies it, yet it has been pretended, that all
which affects the mother affects the foctu^ ; that
the impressions of the one act on the brain of
the other ; and to this imaginary influence re-
semblances, monsters, and especially marks on
the skin of some children, have been attributed.
I haveexamined many of these marks, and they
all appear to me to have been caused by a
derangement in the texture of the skin. Every
mark must have a figure which will resemble
something or other ; but I am certain the re-

semblancc.^

NATURAt HISTORY. 295

sppmblances so formetl depend ralher on tin?
imagination of those >vho see them than on that
of the mother. On tliLs subject the marvel- r
lous has been carried as far as it could <jo. it
lias not been only said that the fmtus carried
real representations of tljc longings of its
mother, but that, by a singular sympathy, the
marks, which represent stra»\berrii5», cherries^
&c. change tlk3ir colour, and bt^conie dee^^er
in the season of those fruits. Witii a litth*
more consideration, and less prejudice, this
colour may ])e seen to change much oftener,
and that it must happen every tinielhe motioii
of the blood is accelerated, av bet her by the lieat
of summer or from any other cause. These
marks are either yellow, red, or Wack, because
the blood gives these tints to the skin when it
enters in too great quantities into the v^xsels.
If these marks Jiave the longings of the mou-
ther for their cause, why have tlicy not the
forms and colours as varied as the objects of
her desires? \yhat a curious assemblage of
figures would be seen if all (he wliin'sical de-
sires of the motlicr were wriUcn on l)ie skin yf
the chikl ?

As our sensatto^js h:? vo no resemblance to the
objects wUitb cxiuselhcui; it is i»ipQ»siblo ih'it

d5i^i^:^l

desire, fear, horror, or any passion, or internal
emotion, can produce real representations o^*
those objects ; and the child being in this re-
spect ats independant of the mother as the egg-
is of the hen, I should as soon believe that a
hen^ "which saw the neck of a cock twisted,
vould hatch chickens with wry necks^ asihat^
by the power of imagination, a woman, who
happened to sec a man broke upon llie wheel^
would bring forlh a child with its limbs broken
in the same manner.

But even supposing this drciimstance jit-
tested, I should still support tlie opinion, that
the imagination of the mother had not been
the canse, for what is the effect of horror ? an
internal motion, a convulsion in the body of
the mother, which might shakcj compress, antl
agitate the womb. What can result frjm tliis
commotion? nothing similar to the cause, foir^
if this com^Tiotion was very violent the fcetus*
might be killed, wounded, or deformed in some
of its parts ; but how is it to be conceived that
this comniol ion Clin produce anj- thing resem-
bling the fancy of the mother in the fcstus,
unless we believe, v.ith Harvey, that the may
tfix has the faculty of conceiving ideas, and
realizing tliem on the foetus?

But^

' But, kiTfiay be urged, if it wa-s not affected
by the imagination of the mother, why did t}>e
(♦hild come int^ the world with broken limbs?
Jlo^^fcyer rash it may appear to explain a mat-
ter" which is eactraordinary and uncertain, and
of which wehave no right to exact a solution,
yet this question appears to me answerable in
a satisfactory manner. Circumstances of the
iraost rare and extraordinary kind happen as
necessarily as those which are frequent and
^tommon. In the infinite combinations wbidi
• Eaatter can take, tlie most extraordinary arrange-
ments must sometimes happen ; hence we might
venture to wager, that in a million, or a thou-
sand millions of children, there will be one
born with two heads, four legs, or with broken
'limbs ; it may, therefore, naturally happen,
•without tlie concurrence of the mother's ima-
gination, that a child should be born witji
broken limbs. This may have happened more
ihan once, and the mother, while pregnant,
might ha\:e been present at the breaking on the
wheel, and therefore the defect of the child*.s
formation has been attributed to what she had
seen, and to her impressed imagination. Buf,
independant of this general answer, we may
giye a more direct explanation^ The foetus>

as

1^6 uuffon's

as we have said, has nothing in common with
the mother ; its functions, ora^ans, blood, &c.
are all }3articnlar, and beJong to itself; the only
thing ^^hich it derives from its mother is the
liquor, or nutritive lympli, Avbich filtrates from
the matrix, if itiis lymph is bad, or enve-
nomed \vith th<; venereal virns, tlie child wijl
be (^'ike disordered ; and it may be imagined,
that all thediseases which procec^d from vitiated
fcuiTioursRiay be communicated from the mo-
itber to (he child. We know that the sniaH-
pox is commumcntive, and we Tiave but too
jua.ry examples of children who are, directly
after Iheir birth,J^the victims of tlve debauches
of their p'lrciit^l The venereal virus attacks
the most i-olid partsof the bones, and it appears
to act with niore f^rce tov/nrds ilic middle (if
the bone, where ossitication commences;!
coHdHve, ikereibrc, that the child here spokea
ot has brcTi attacked by the venereal disorder
while in its niother^s womb, and from thait
cau^ it came into the world with its bonos
brolven tlirongh the midiUe.

IvickeLs may also produce the same ffJbct,
Tlicre is a skeleton of a rickety child in the
French kinec's cabinet,. whose arms and leprs
have calbr^ilii^s in the middle of Ihjeir bones^

NATURAL HISTORY. 297

By tlie inspection of this skeleton, it apj^eared
evident that tlie bones had been broken during
the lime it was in the womb, and that after-
wards the bones re-united, and formed these
callosities.

But enoua^h of a subject which credulity
alone has rendered marvellous. Prejudice,
especinlly that sort which is founded on the
marvellous, will always triumph over reason,
and we should have but litlle philosophy if we
"were astonished at it. We must not therefore
ever expect to be able to persuade women, that
the marks on their children have no connection,
with their unsaxisfied longings. Yet might it
not be asked them, before the birth of the
child, of what particular lono:ings they had
been disappointed, anH consequently what will
be the marks their children will bear? I have
often asked this question, and have only made
persons angry wi hout having ever convinced
them .

The time that a woman goes with child is
genernlly about nine months ; but it is however
sometimes longer and sometimes shorter. M^ny
cfaiMren are born at seven or eight months, and
seme not till after the ninth; but in general
the deliveries which precede the term of nine
VOL. iH. Q q mouths

?{)8 BUFIO'S

iyioi)(]is are more frequent than (lie others;
The common time of a natural deUvery ex->
te«ds to twenty days, tha.t .is, from eight
Kipmhs fouiieeii days t^^.nine months and fou^
hours. J

y M.Tny ;Ciiildron are horn Ijefore the SQOth
day, and filthough these tkelivfries )i|:ecedc tbo.
g^je?a} \enny t^ey nre iit>| aJjar^ions, bccnusa;
tiwse qbjlijf^^ ' mostly livet ! . ;I^' is com nionlyv
tl^ught- that children born at eight months
Cannot .live, orat least that pwjfymore of them-
d^ jtlian th9se bprn a$ seven-mpiBths. This*
9pinion ap>pei^cs,to lie a^paradox'; and by. con-
jjjQKmg' experience 1 think we shall find i| an-
error, jlj'hecdiilcl brought fork a.^eij^ht months
i^ more formed, ami consequently inore yigoh,
iKpus, and likely toli^e than that Vrhich is. born^
at the seventh. evertlieless this opinion is
pretty generally received, and founded oji the
authority of xiristotle.

The beginning of the seventh month is the.
^rli(?st term for delivery; if the foetus is
brought forth sooner it dies, and is termed an>
ajL>ortion. There are, however, greiit limits,
for the time of human delivery, since they ex->
tend froju the seventh to the tenth, and perliaps >
t^ the elevei^th month. i

NATir-RAL HISTORY. 599

• Women who livivc had many children assert,
that fifirls remain longer in the womb than boys.
If this is really <he case,- we must not be sur-
prized at female children being born at ten
months. When children come before nine
months they are not so well proportioned as
those who are not brought into the world till
ten months, the bodies of the latter are sensibly
larger and better formed ; Iheir hair is longer,
the growth of the t^eth, although still liid under
the gums, is more advanced; the voice is
clearer, and the tone more deep.

There is much uncertainty on the occasional
causes of delivery, and we do not perfectly
know what obliges the infant to quit the womb.
Some imagine, that the foetus having acquired
a certain size, tlie matrix is too confined for its
longer stay, and that the constraint felt by the
foetus, obliges it to use every effort to quit its
prison ; others say, and it is nearly to the same
purport, that the weight of the foetus becomes
io great, that the matrix is forced to open to free
itself from the burthen. These reasons do not
appear satisfactory ; for the matrix must always
have capacity and strength to contain and sus*
tain the weight of a foetus of nine months, since
it often contains two, and it is certain that the

Q q 2 woin^ht

3^ BtJPFON*S

weiffht and size of the twins of eis^lit months are
more considerable than the weight and size of
a single child of nine. BesifleSj it ofte hap*
pens that a child born at nine months issiP^dU
er than the foetus of eight months, although
it continues in the womb.

Galen pretends j that the child remains in the
matrix till it is able to receive its food by the
mouth, and (hat it only forces its escape from
the need of nutriment. Others have said, that
the fcetus alwaj s receives its nourishment by
the mouth from the liquor of the amnios ; but
which becomes at length so contaminated, by
the transpiration and urine of the fostus, that
it becomes disgustful, and obliges the foetus to
use every exertion to quit its confinement.
These reasons do not appear better than the
first ; for it would from thence followj that the
weakest and smallest foetuses would remain
longer in the womb than the strongest and
largest, which never happens ; besides, it is not
food that the fcetus seeks immediately after it u
born, for it can stay some time without it ; oq
the contrary, it seems most desirous to disembar-
rass itself from the nutriment it took when ia
the womb of its mother, and to return the me-
ronium. Other anatomists have supposed that

tli«

Natural historv. SOI

flie excrement acciunulated in tlic bowels of
llie fcEtus, gives it great pain, and causes it to
make such efforts, that the matrix is at length
obligee! to give wa}'', and lo open a passage for
its escape. I acknowledge I am not better sa*
lisfied with this explanation than the rest ;
because, why carinot the foetus \ oid its excre-
ments in the amnios, if it was pressed so to do?
Now this never happens ; it appears, on the
contrary, that this necessity of voiding the me*
conium is not felt till after the birth, when the
motion of ihe diaphragm, occasioned by that of
the lungs, compresses the intestines and causes
this evacuation ; far the meconium lias never
been found in the amnios of a foetus of ten
months who had not respired, whereas a fcetus
of six or seven months voids this meconium a
short time after respiration.

Other anatomists, and among them Fabri-
cius de Aquapendente, have supposed thefastus
quitted the matrix through the need of pro-
curing refreshment by means of respiration.
This cause appears to me still more remote than
all the rest, because the fojlus can have no idea
of respiration without having n^spire^l.

After having weighed all these explanations,
j suppose the foetus's quitting the niatrix de*

pcjjds

50S »uffon\s

pends on a quite diiFerent cause. The flowing
of the menstrua is periodical, and at determined
intervals; and although conception suppresses
its appearance, it does not destroy the cause;
for notwiihstauding the blood docs not appear
at the accustomed times, yet a kind <'f revolu-
tion takes place, like that which is made before
conception. Thus it is, there are many wo-
men whose menstrua are not suppressed in the
first two or three months. I imagine, there*
fore, that when a woman has conceived, the
periodical revolution is made as regular as be-
fore ; but as the matrix is swelled, the excretory
canals cannot give issue to the blood, at least
unless it arrives tiiere with such force, and in
such quantities, as to open a passage in spite of
the resistance, that is opposed to it. In this case
blood will appear, and if it iiows in a great
quantity ab(;r(ion will ensue, and the matrix
take the form it had before. But if the blood
only forces one part ofthese canals, the business
of generation will not be desiroyed, alihougb
tJie blood appears, because the greatest part of
the matrix still remains in the state which is
necessary for that purpose.

When no blood op, ears, as is generally the

case, t lie first periodic.drcvolntion is remarkably

10 and

NATUHAJ^ 'HISTORY. 303

and felt 'by -tiie same pains and : symptofns.
From ihc first suppression of ihe mensem, there-
fore, a: violent action on the matrix iS' made,
and provided the action is augraentcv], it de-»
sirojs the prodiict of generation. It may from
thence be concluded, that every conception
which is made just before the useful return of
the menses seldom succeeds, and that the actioa
of that blond easily destroys the weak roots of
a germ so tender and so delicate. The concep-
tions, on the contrary, which are made just
after the perit>dical evacuations succeed the
best, because -the produce of the conception
has more time to grow, strengthen, and resist
the action of the blood, by the time the next^
revolution happens.

The foetus hcivirrg undergone this first trial,r
and having resisted it, receives more strength
and growth, and is more in a condition to con-
tend against the succeeding revolutions. Mis-
carriages may and do happen in all the perio-
dical revolutions ; but they are less frequent
in the fourth and fifth months, than either at the
beginning or near the end. We have assigned
the reasons why they are more frequent at the
beginning ; it iherefore only remains to explain
why ihcy are also more frequent towards the
ead.

Th^

304 BUF^O>'*S

The foetu« generally comes into ihe world
during the tenth revolution. V\ hen it is born
at the eighth or ninth it lives, and these de-
liveries are not looked upon as miscarriages,
because the child, although not so perfectly
fbrmedj is still sufficiently so for the purpose
of life. It has been pretended, that examples
have been seen of children born at the seventh
and even at the sixth revolution, that is, at
five or six mouths, 'vvhich have lived. There
is, therefore, no difference between a birth and
a miscarriage but what is relative to the living
po>vers of the inOmt. In general the number
of miscarriages in the first, second, and third
inonilis are very considerable for the reasons we
have given ; and tlie number of deliveries of
tlie seventh and eighth months are also very
great, in comparison with the miscarriages of
the fourth, fifth, and sixth months, because in
this middle period the product of generation has
received mofc solidity and strength, and hav-
ing resisted the action of the four first periodi-
cal revolutions, a more violent force than the
y-receding is required to destroy it. The same
reason subsists, with additional force, for the
^fth and sixth months. Hut the toe; us, which
till liven is weak, and can act only by its own

fcebJc

NATiTJiAL history/ S05

(epMe strength, begins to get strong, and move
with vigour ; and at the eighth revolution the
foetus, uniting its efforts with those of the ma-
trix, facilitates its exclusion, and it may come
into the world in the seventh month, and be
capable of living, especially if it happens, as is
sometimes the case, to have more than ordinary
strength for that period. But if it comes into
the world only through the weakness of the
matrix, which could not resist the action of the
blood in this eighth revolution, the delivery
would be regarded as a miscarriage, and the
child would not live. But these cases are very
rare, for if the foetus has resisted the seven first
revolutions, only particular accidents can pre-
vent it from resisting the eighth. The fostus,
which has acquired this same degree of strength
and vigour only a little later, will come into the
world at the ninth revolution ; and those which
require nine months to obtain this same strength,
will come at the tenth revolution, which is the
most common aiui general term ; but when the
foetus has not acquired in nine months this de-
gree of perfection, it may remain in the womb
till the eleventh, and even till the twelfth re-
volution ; that is, till the tenth or eleventh
month, as we have many examples.
VQiu. iiu R r This

This opinion, tljat it is tUe menstrua wUich
i^ the occasional cause of delivery at diil(^cn,t
times, raaj' be confirmed by many other rct^-
gons. The females of- every animal whicli
have n,o menses, bring fortli at nearly the same
terms, and there is but a very slight variation
in the duration of their gestation. We may,
therefore, suppose that this variation, ^yhich is
$o great in women, comes from tlie action of
the menstrual blood, which is constantly exert-
ed at every periodic return.

We have observed, that the placenta adheres
to the papilla, or the matrix, only by nipples;
that there is no blood eitlier in these nipples or
in the vacuities they are niched into, and that
when they arc separated (which is easly done)
a milky liquor only issues from them. Now,
how, happens it that delivery is always apcomfr
pauiedwith a considerable haemorrhage, at first
of pure blood, and afterwards mixed with a
watery liqifpr ? This bipod does not proceed
from the separation of the placenta, as the
nipples are drawn out without any effusion of
blood. Delivery, which entirely consists, of
this separation, shoul^l not, therefore, prpducq
^ny blood. Is it not tlien more accordant
with reason to suppose, that it is tlic action of

tUo

KATUiflAt ill^tORY, So?

ibe blood wliicli causes delivery, and that it is
this menstrual blood which forces the vessels
ds sboh as the matrix is emptied, and which
bei^ins to flow immediately after delivery as it
did before conception ?

It is known, that in the first months of preg-
nancy that which contains the seed of genera-
tion is not adherent to the inatrix. By the
experiments of De Graaf it has been seen, that
hv blowinfiT on the little ball we can make it
move. The adli^sion to the matrix is nbver
very strong, and at first the pldccnta with dif-
ficulty adheres to the internal membrarie of
the viscera, arid those parts aire only contigudti^,
or joined by a mucilaginous matter, which has
scarcety any adhesion . Why then does it occur,
that in miscarriages of the first and second
hibhih. this ball never escapes without a great
effti^ori of blood ? It is certainly not caused
by the passage of the ball quitting the matrix,
since it do^s not adhere to it ; but it is, on the
contrary, by the action of thi^- blood that the
ball is driven out. Miist we riot then Con-
clude this blood to be menstrual, which by
{oMtig the ca^^L^, through whicli it Iiad
bl?cn' accustorn^d io pass before impregnation,

R r 2 destroys

SOS BUFFON^S

destroys the product of conception by retakiir^
its common road ?

It appears, therefore, that \\\e periodical re-
volution of the menstrual blood has great in-
fluence on delivery, and that it is the cause
why the times of delivery in women vary so
much more than in every other female who is
not subject to the periodical evacuation, and
which always bring forth at the same times.
It also appears that this revolution, occasioned
by the action of the menstrual blood, is not the
sole cause of birth, but that the action of the
foetus itself contributes towards it, since there
are instances of a child escaping from th«
womb after the death of the mother, which ne-
cessarily supposes an action proper and parti-
cular in itself.

The space of time which cows, sheep, and
other animals go with young is always the
same, and their deliveries are not attended with
an hiemorrhage. May we not then conclude,
that the blood voided by women after delivery
is the menstrual blood, and that the human
foetus being born at such different terms, can
only be by the actions of this blood on the
matrix during every periodical revolution? It

is

NATUKAL HISTORY. SOU

H natural to imagine, that if the females of vi-
viparous animals had menses like women, their
deliveries would be followed with an effusion
of blood, and happen at different terms. The
foetuses of animals come into the world cloath-
ed with their membranes (and it seldom hap»
pens that the membranes are broken), and the
waters flow before tlie delivery ; whereas it is
very rare a child is brought forth with its mem-
branes entire. This seems to prove that the
human foetus makes more efforts than other
animals to quit its prison ; or that the matrix
of a woman does not so naturally incline to the
passage of the child, for it is the foetus which
tears its membranes, by the efforts it makes
against the resistance it meets with at the ori-
fice of the viscera.

RECAPITULATION.

A LL animals procure nutriment from vege-
tables, or other animals which feed upon
vegetables ; there is, therefore, one common
matter tg both, which serves for the nutrition

4 and

$10 BUFFOX'S

and expans!on bf every tiling wliicli lives oi*
vegetates. This matter Cannot perform them
but by assimilating itself to each part of the
animal or vegetable, and by intimately pene-
trating the texture and form of these parts,
fi hich I havecalled the 'Jileiiial mould. When
this nutritive mjitter is more abundant than is
necessary io nourish and expand the animal or
Tegetable, it is sent back ffom every part of the
body, and deposited in one or more reservoirs,
in the form of a liquor; this liquor contains
all the molecules analogous 16 all parts of the
body I and ccmseqnenti yall that is necessary fo*
the reptoductioti of a young being, pcrfecily
resembling the first. Commonly this nutritive
matter does not become superabundant, in most
kinds of animals, till they have acquired the
greatest part of their growth ; and it is for this
r^^son that animals are not in a state of eno:en-
dering before that time.

When this nutritive and productive matter,
which is universally spread abroad, has passed
through the internal mould of an anim.al or
regetable, aiid has found a proper matrix, it
produces an animal or vegetable, of the same
kind ; but when it does not meet with a proper
jHnUi&y it produces org«ii)ized beings different

from

NATURAL HISTORV. SH

from auimals and vegetables, as tlic moving
and vegetating bodies seen iu the seminal li-
quov of animals, in the infusion of tlie gciui
of plants, &c.

This productive matter is Gorappscd of or-
ganic par^cles, ahyays active, the motion aii4
action of which J^re fixed by i\\e inauunatc parts
of matter in general, and particularly bj oily
and saline bodies, but as soon as thev are disen-
gaged from this foreign matter, tbej retake
their action, and produce diiieiGnt kinds of
vegetations and other animated beings.

By the microscope, the effects of this pro-
ductive matter may be perceived in the seminal
liquors of animals of bolli sexes. The seed
of the female viviparous animals is liUered
through the glandular bodies which grow upon
their testicles, and tlicse glandular bodies con-
tain a large quantity of seminal fluid in tlieir
internal cavities. Oviparous females have, as
well as the viviparous, a seminal liquor, which
is still more aclive than the viviparous. The
seed of the female is in general like tlh'vt of the
male, when, they are botli in a natural state :
they decompose after tlie same manner, con-
tain similar organic bodiesy and they alike
oiler the same phenomena.

All

ri

i^ BUFFO N^S

All animal or vegetable substances include
a great qnantitj^ of this organic and productive
matter. To perceivo it, we need only separate
the inanimate parts in which the active par-
ticles of this matter are engaged. And this
is done by infusing animal or vegetable sub-
stances in water. The salts will dissolve, the
oils separate, and the organic particles will
i)e seen by their putting themselves in motion.
They arc in greater abundance in the seminal
liquors than in any other parts, or rather,
they are less entangled by tlie inanimate part&i
in the beginning of this infusion, when the
flesh is but slightly dissolved, the organic mat-
ter is seen under the form of movincr bodies,
which are almost as large as those of the semi-
nal liquors : but, in proportion as the decom-
position augments, these organnic particles di-
minish in size and increase in motion ; and
when the flesh is entirely decomposed, or cor-
rupted, these same particles are exceedingly
minute, and their motion exceedingly rapid. It
is then that their matter ma3^ become a poison,
like that of the tooth of a vii^cr, wherein Mr.
Mead perceived an infinite number of small
pointed bodies, which he took for salts, although
they are only these same organic particles in a

state

NATURAL IIISTORV. 313

state of great activity. The pus whicli issues
from wounds abounds with little insects, and
it may take such a degree of corruption as to
become one of the most subtle poisons ; for
every time this active matter is exalted to a
certain point, which may be known by the
rapidity and minuteness of the moving bodies
it contains, it will become a species of poison.
It is the same with t!ie poison of vegetables.
The same matter which serves to feed us when
in its natural state, will destroy us when cor-
rupted. Spurred barley, for instance, throws
the limbs of men and animals into a gangrene
who feed on it. It is also evident by compar-
ing the matter whicli adheres to our tcctli,
which is the residue of our food, with that
from the teeth of a viper or mad dog, which is
only the same matter too much exalted, and
corrupted to the last degree.

When this organic and productive matter is
found collected in a great quantity in some part
of an animal^ where it is obliged to remain, it
forms living beings which have been ever re-
garded as animals; the tasniaj ascaridcs, all the
worms found in the veins, liver, in wounds, in
corrupted fiesh, and pus, have no other origin ;
the eels in paste, vinegar, and all the preleiided
VOL. III. >S s mino-

314 buffon's

microscopical animals are only different forms
-vviiicli this active matter takes of itself, accord-
ing to circumstances, and which invariably
tends to organization.

In all animal and vegetable substances, de*
composed by infusion, this productive matter
manifests itself immediately under the form of
vegetation . Filaments are seen to form, which
grow and extend like plants. Afterwards these
exiremities and knots swell and burst, to give
passage to a multitude of bodies in motion,
which appear to be animals ; so that it seems as
if all nature began by a motion of vegetation.
It is seen by microscopical objects, and like-
wise by the expansion or unfolding of the ani-
mal embryo; for the foetus at first has only a
species of vegetable motion.

Sound food docs not furnish any of thesa
moving molecules for a considerable time.
Several days infusion in water is required for
fresh meat, grain, kernels, &c. before they
offer to our siglit any moving bodies ; but the
more matters are corrupted, dccomposcJ, oi:
exalted, the more suddenly these moving bodies
manifest themselves ; they are all free from other
matters in seminal li(][uors ; but a few hours

infusion

NATURAL HISTORY. StS

infiisioQ is required to see tliem in pus, spurred
barley, honey, drugs, &c.

There exists therefore, an organic matter,
universally diffused in all animal and vegetable
substances, which alike serves for their nutri*
4ion, their growth, and their reproduction.
Nutrition is performed by the intimate pene-
tration of this mattier in all parts of the animal
or vegetable body. Expansion or growth is
only a kind of more extended nutrition, wliich
is made arid performed as long as the parts have
sufficient ductility to swell and extend ; and
reproduction is made by the same matter when
it superabounds in the body of the animal or
•vegetable ; each part of the body sends back, to
the appropriate reservoirs, the organic particles
-which exceed what are sufficient for their nou-?
rishment. These particles are absolutely ana^-
logons to each part from which they are sent
backjbecause they were destined to nourish those
parts from hence, when all the particles sent
back from, collect together, they must form
a body similar to the first, since each particle is
like that part from which it was detached ; thus
it is that reproduction is effected in all kinds of
trees, plants, polypuses, pucerons, &c. where
one individual can produce its like ; and it is

S s 2 also

p

16 BUFFO n's

also the first mode which Nature uses for the
reproduction of animals which haveneed of the
communication of different sexes ; for the se-
minal liquors of both sexes contain all the ne-
cessary molecules for reproduction ; but some-
thing more is required for its effectual comple-
tion, which is the mixture of these two liquors
in some places suitable to the expansion of the
foetus which must result therefrom, which place
is the matrix of tlie female.

There are, therefore, no pre-existing germs,
no germs contained one in the other, adinjinu
turn; but there is an organic matter perpetually
active, and always ready to form, assimilate, and
produce beings similar to those which receive
it. Animals and vegetables, therefore, can
never be extinct ; so long as there subsist in-
dividuals the species will ever be new ; they
are the same at present as they were tliroe thou-
sand years ago, and will perpetually exist, by
the powers they are endowed with, unless anr
nihilated by the will of the Alj^ighty Creator,

HISTORY

KATURAL IIISTORT. S17

HISTORY OF MAN.

CHAPTER I.

OF THE NATURE OF MAN,

^"pHOUGH so much interesled in acquiring
a thorough knowledge of ourselves, vet I
do not know if man is not less acquainted with
the human, than with any other existence.
Provided by nature with organs, calculated
solely for our preservation, we only employ
them to receive foreign impressions. Intent
on multiplying the functions of our senses,
^nd on enlarging the external bounds of our
1 being,

318 euffon's

being, we rarely make use of that infernal
sense which reduces us to our true dimensions,
and abstracts us from every other part of the
creation. It is, however, by a cultivation of
this sense alone that we can form a proper
judgment of ourselves. But how shall we
give it its full activity and extent? How shall
the soul, in which it resides, be disengaged
from all the illusions of the mind ? We have
lost the habit of employing this sense ; it has
remained inactive amidst the tumult of our
corporeal sensations, and dried up by the heat
of our passions ; the heart, the mind, the senses,
have all co-operated against it.

Unalterable in its substance, and invulne-
rable by its essence, it still, however, continues
the same. Its splendor has been overcast, but
its power has not been diminished : it may be
less luminous, but its guidance is not the less
certain. Let us then collect those rays, of
which we are not yet deprived, and its obscu^
rity will decrease ; and though the road may not
jn every part be equally filled with light, ^m
yet shall have a torch that will prevent us from
going astray.

The first and most difficult step which
leads to the knowledge of ourselves, is a disr

jtijict

NAtUhAL>HlSTORY. S19

tiiict conception of the two substances that
constitute our being. To say simply, that the
one is unextended, immaterial, and immortal,
and that the other is extended, material, and
mortal, is only to deny to the one, what we af-
firm the other possesses. What knowledge is
to be acquired from this mode of negation?
Such negative expressions can exhibit no posi-
tive ideas : but to say that we arc certain of the
existence of the former, and that of the latter
is less evident ; that the substance of the one is
simple, indivisible, and has no form, since it
only mainfests itself by a single modification,
vJiich is thought ; that the other is a less sub-
stance than a subject, capable of receiving dif-
ferent forms, which bear a relation to our
senses, but are all as uncertain and Vciriable as
tlie organs themselves ; that is to say something;
it is to ascribe to each such distinct and positive
properties as may lead us to an elemental know-
ledge of both, and to a comparison between
them.

From the smallest reflection on the oriirin of
our knowledge, it is easy to perceive that it is
by comparison alone we acquire it. What is
absolutely incomparable, is utterly incompre-
hensible; ofihis Godistheonly exampHei he

c xceeds

320 buffon's

exceeds all comprehension, because he is above"
all comparison. But whatever is capable of
being compared, contem plated j and considered
relatively, in different lights, may always come
within the sphere of our understanding. The
more subjects of comparison we have for exa-
mining any object, the more methods there
are for obtaining a knowledge of it; and w ith
greater facility.

The existence of the soul is fully demon*
strated. To be and to think are with us iden-
tically the same. This truth is more than in-
tuitive ; it is independent of our senses, of our
imagination, of our memory, and of all our
other relative faculties. The existence of our
bodies, and of external objects, is however held
in uncertainty by every unprejudiced reasoner ;
for what is that extension of length, breadth,
and thickness, which we call our body, and
which seems to be so much our own, but as it
relates to our senses ? What arc even the ma-
terial organs of those senses, but so many con-
formities with the objects that affect them?
And With regard to our internal sense, has it
any tiling similar or in common with these
external organs ? Have the sensations excit-
ed by light or sound any n semblance to that

tenuous

NAPTTRAL HISTORY. 321

tenuous ma!ler, Mhich seems to difTuse light, or
to (hat tremulous undulation, which sound pro-
duces in tlie air ? The effects are certainly pro-
duced by the necessary conformity there is be-
tween the eyes and ears, and those matters
which act upon them. Is not that a sufficient
proof, that the nature of the soul is different
from that of matter ?

It is then a certain trutli, that the internal sen-
sation is altogether different from its cause: as
also, if external objects exist, they are in them-
selves very different from wliat we conceive
them. As sensation therefore bears no resem-
blance to the thing by which it is excited : does
it not follow, that tlio causes of our sensa-
tions, fiecessarily difler from our ideas of
them : The extension which we perceive by
our eyes, the impenetrability, of which we re-
ceive an idea by the touch in all those qualities,
whose various combinations consti-ute matter,
are of a doubtful existence ; since our internal
sensations of extension, iniix^netrabiiity, &c.
are neither ex tended nor impenetrable, and have
not even the smallest affinity with those quali-
ties.

The mind being often affected with sensa*
4ions, during sleep, very different from thoac
VOL. Til. T t which

tj22 BUFro.x's

wliicli it has experienced by tlie presence af the
same objects, docs it not lead to a belief, Wmi
the presence of objects is not necessary to the
existence of our sensations ; and that, of conse-
quence, our mind and body may exist indepen-
dent of those objects ? During sleep, and after
death, for example, our body has the same ex*
istence as before; yet the mind no longer per-
ceives this existence, and the bo(Jy with regard
to us, has ceased to be. The question is there-
fore, whetlier a tiling which can exist, and af-
terwards be no more, and wliich affects us in ak
manner altogether different from what it is, or
what it has been, may yet be a reality of indubi-
table existence.

That something exists without us, we may
believe, though not with a positive assurance ;
whereas of the real existence of every thing
within us, we have a certainty. That of our
soul, therefore, is incontestable, and that of our
body seems doubtful ; because the mind has or»e
mode of perception wlien we are awake, and
another when we are asleep; after death, it
will perceive by a method still more different,
and the objects of its sensations, or matter in
general^ may then €case to exist with respect to

it.

NATURAL IIISTORT. SS3

it, as well as our bodies with wliicli we iiave 131Q
further connection.

But let usadmit thisexistence of matter ; and
that it even exists as it appears to our senses,
yd by comparing the mind with any material
object, we shall find differences so great, and
qualities so opposite that every doubt will va-
nisli of the latter being of a nature totally dif-
ferent, and infinitely superior.

The mind has but one form, which is simple,
genera], and uniform. Thought is this form ;
has nothing in it of division, extension, impe-
netrability, nor an}' other quality of matter ; of
consequence, therefore, our mind, the subject
of this form, is indivisible, and immaterial.
Our bodies on the contrary, and all other ob-
jects have many forms, each of which is com-
pounded, divisible, variable, and perishable:
and has a relation to the different organs,
through which we perceive them. Our bodies,
and matter in general, therefore, have neither
permanent, real, nor gejieral properties, by
which we can attain a certain knowledge of
them. A blind man has no idea of those objects,
which sight represents to us ; a leper, whose skin
has lost the sense of feeling, is.denied all the
ideas which aiise from the touch ; aud a deaf

T t 2 man

man has no knowledge of sounds. Let these
three modes of sensalion be successively de-
stroyed, yet tlie mind will exist, its external
fmictioRswill subsistj-indthoui^ht will still ma-
nifest it within the man so deprived. But
ciivcst matter of all its qualities ; strip it of co-
lour, of solidity, and of every oilier property
which has any relation to our senses, and the
consequence will be its annihilation. Our
mind, then, is unperishable, but matter may,
and will perish.

It is the same with all the other faculties of
our soul when compared with tlie most essen-
tial properties of matter. As the mind wills
and commands, so the body obeys in every
thing within its power. The mind forms, at
pleasure, an intimate union with any object ;
neither distance, magnitude, nor figure, can
obstruct this union, when the mind wills it, it
is effected in an instant. The body can form
no union ; whatever touches it too closely iii^
jures it ; it requires a long time in order to ap-
proach another body ; it every where meets
with resistance,and obstacles, and from thesmal-
lestsliock its motion ceases. Iswillthennothina:
more than a corporeal movement; and is con-
templation but a simple contact ? II pw could

this

NATURAL HISTOHY. S25

1!hs contact take place upon a remote object
or abstracted subjects ? How could this move-
ment be accomplished in an indivisible iiLstant ?
Is it possible to liave a conception of motion
•without having aconceptionofspace andtime?
Will, therefore, if it be a motion, is not a ma-
terial one; and if the union of the mind with
its object be a contact, it is effected at a dis-
tance : and is not this co!itact a ])enctration ?
qualities wJiich areabi^oluiely opposite to those
of matter, and which of cor.sequcnce can only
belong to the immaterial being*.

But I fear I have already dwelt too long on
a subject wliicb, by many, may be considered
as foreign to our purpose; and it might be
asked, " Ought Metaphysical Considerations
on the Soul to fiTid a place in a System of Na-
tural History r" Were I conscious of abilities
equal to the discussion of a topic so exalted,
this reflection, I must own, would have little
weight with me ; and I have contracted my
remarks only because [ was afraid I should
not be able to coinprehend a subject so en-
larged and so important in its full extent.
Why retrench from the A\atural History of
Man the history of his noblest part? Why
(bus preposterously debasehim^ by cojisidering

him

3^ buffon's

liim merely as an animal, while lie is of a na-
fare so different^ and so superior, to that of tjie
brtetcs, that those must l)e immersed in is^no-
lance like ttie brutes themselves who over
thoui^ht of confounding^ them.

Man, as to tlie material part of his cxist-
cjice, certainlv l>ears a resemblance to other
animals, and in comprehending^ the circle of
natural beings there is a necessity for placing
him in the class of animals. Nature, however,
has neither classes nor species ; it contains
only individuals. These species and classes
are iTOthiiTg but ideas which we have ourselves
formed and established, and though we place
man in on« of sucli classes we do not change
his Ix'ing ; we do not derogatefrom hisdignity;
"we do not alter his condition. In a word, we
only place him at the head of those who bear a
similitude to him in the material part of his
being-.

In comparing- man with the animal we find
in Tx>^tli an organized body, senses, flesh, blood,
motion, and a mnllitude of other resemblances.
Brit these resemblances are all external, and
Bot sntlicient to justify a decision, that the hu-
man and ihe animal natures are similar. In
erder io form a proper judgment of the nature

of

15ATU11AL HISTORV. SS7

<>f cacli we ought to have as distinct a know-
ledge of the internal qualities of an animal as
we have of our own* As tlic knowledge of
what passes within animals is im^iossible to be
aUained, and as we know not of what order
and kind its sensations may be, in relation to
those of man, we can only judge from a com-
parison of the eflects which result from the na-
tural operations of both.

Let us, then, take a view of these ciTects;
and^ while we admit of all tlie particular re-
semblances, limit our investigation to the most
general distinctions. It will be allowed, that
the most stupid man is able to manage the most
acute animal ; he governs it, and renders it
subservient to his purposes; and this, not so
much on account of his strength or skill as by
the superiority of his nature, and from his
being possessed of reason, which enables him
to form a rational system of action and method,
by which he compels the animals to obey him.
The strongest and most acute animals do not
give law to the inferior, nor hold them in ser-
vitude. The stronger, it is true, devour the
weaker, but this action implies no more than an
urgent necessity, or a rage of appetite ; qualities
very diiierent from that which produces a series

32S buffon's

of actions, all tending to tlie same end. Bid
animals enjoy 111 is faculfj, should we not see
some of llicm assume dominion over others,
and oblige them to furnish their food, to watch
over them, and to atter.d them when sick or
wounded ? Now, throughout the creation of
animals, there is no vestige of such suhordin.i-
•tion, no appearance that one of tliem knows,
or is sensible of, the superiority of his own na-
lure over that of others. It follows, then, that
they must all be considered as of one nature,
and that the nature of muji is not only highly
superior to tliat of tlie brute, but also entirely
different from it.

Man, by outward signs, indicates whaf passes
within him; he communicates his sentiments
hy speech, which is a sign common to the
whole human species. The savage and the
civilized man liave the same powers of utter-
ance; both speak naturally, and so as to be
understood. No other animal is endowed with
this expression of thought ; nor is that defect
owing, as some have imagined, to the want of
proper organs. Anatomists have found the
tongue of an ape to be as perfect as that of a
man. The ape, therefore, if he had thought,
would have speech, and if its thoughts had
4 aught

NATURAL HISTORY. 329

•aught analogous to ours, this speech would
have an analogy to ours also. Supposing its
thoughts were peculiar to its species, it still
would hold discourse with those of its kind, a
circumstance of which we should have Iieard
^lad it been endowed with the powers of speech.
iSo far then is the ape from having any thought
like ours, that it has not even any order of
thoughts of its own. As Ihey express nothing
by combined and settled signs, they of conse*-
quencc are void of thought, or at most have it
in a very small degree.

That it is from no organical defect animals
are denied the gift of speech is plain, as several
species of them may be taught to pronounce
words, and even repeat sentences of some
length. Perhaps many others miglit be found
capable of articula'ing particular sounds*; but
to make them conceive the ideas which such
sounds denote is an impracticable task. They
seem io repeat and articulate merely as an
echo, or an artificial machine. It is not in
the mechanical powers, or the material organs,
but in the intellectual faculties, that they are
deficient.

* Leibnitz meotions a' dog which had been taught to pro-
aounoe several German and French wards.

VOL. III. U u As

330 • blffon's

As all language supposes a chain of thought,
it is on that account that brute animals liave no
speech, for even allowing, something in tliem
%Nhich resembles our first apprehensions, our
most gross and mechanical sensations, they still
will be found incapable of forming that associa-
tion of ideas which can alone produce reflec-
tion; and in this consists the essenceof thought.
To this inability of connecting and separating
ideas it is that they are destitute of thouglit and
speech, as also that they neither can invent nor
improve any thing. Were they endowed with
the power of reflection 5 even in the most subor-
dinate degree, they would be capable of mak-
ing some kind of proficiency , and acquire more
industry ; the modern beaver would build with
more art and solidity than the ancient ; and the
bee would daily be adding new improvements
to its cell ; for if we suppose this cell as perfect
already as it can be, we ascribe to the insect an
intelligence superior to our own ; by which it
could discern at once tlie last degree of perfec-
tion to which its work might be carried, while
we ourselves are for ever in the dark as to this
degree, and stand in need of much reflect ioj),
time, and practice, in order to perfect even one
pf oi|r most trivial arts,

Whencf*

NATUltAL HISTORY. 3Sl

Whence can arise the uniformity that is iii
all the works of animals ? Why does each
species invariably perform the same actions in
the same manner ? And why does not one
individual perform them better or worse than
another ? Can there be a stronger proof that
their operations are merely the effects of me-
chanism and materiality ? If they possessed the
smallest spark of tliat light which is inherent
in mankind) their works would display variety
at least, if not perfection, and one individual
would, in its performance, make some little
difference from what another had done. But
this is far from being the case. One plan of
action is common to the whole species, and
whoever would attribute a mind or soul to ani-
mals, must of necessity allow but one to each
species, of which each individual would be an
equal partaker, and as thereby it would be di-
visible, it would consequently be material, and
of a nature widely different from ours.

Why, on the other hand, are the productions
and performances of men so various and so
diversified? Why is a servile imitation more
troublesome to us than an original design ? It
is because our. souls are our own, and inde-
pendent of any other, and because we have no-
li u 2 thing

$32 liUFFOiN s

thing in common with our species bat the mat*
ter which forms our body, and in which our
rescmbhance to brute animals is confiued.

Were internal sensations dependent on cor*
poreal organs, should we not see as remarkable
difference in the works of animals of the same
Species as in those of men ? Would not those
which were the most happily organized, build
their nests and contrive tlieir cOUs in a manner
more solid^ elegant, and commodious? And
if any individual possessed a superior genius,
would it not take an opportunity to miinifest
that superiority in its actions ? But nothing of
this kind has ever happened, and therefore the
corporeal organs, however perfect or imper-
fect, have no influence on the nature of the in-
ternal sensations. Hence we may conclude,
that animals have no sensations of this kind ;
that such sensations have no connection with
matter, no dependence in their nature on the
texture of corporeal organs, and that of con-
sequence tliere must be a substance in man dif-
ferent from matter, which is the subject and
the cause that protlucesand receives those sen-
sations.

But these proofs of the immateriality of the
4iuman mind may be carried still farther. In

all

'NATURAL ntStORY. SS3

all the works of nature there are imperceptible
gradations maintaine^L This truth, which in
no other instance admits of exception, is hero
expressly contradicted. Between the faculties
of man and those of the most perfect animal
the distance is infinite ; an evident proof that
man is of a different nature from the brute
species, and thatof himself he forms a distinct
class, Ix'twcen which and thatof animals there
is an immense chasm. If man belonged to the
class of animals, there would be a certain num-
ber o( beings in nature less perfect than man,
and more perfect than beast, in order to com-
plete the gradation from a man to the mon-
key. But this is not the case ; the transition is
immediate from the thinking being to the ma-
terial being ; from intellectual faculties to me-
chanical powers ; from order and design to
blind motion ; from reflection and choice to
sensual appetite.

Enough has been here advanced to demon-
strate the excellence of our nature, and of the
immense distance which the bounty of the Cre-
ator has placed between man and the brute.
The former is a rational being, the latter a be-
ing devoid of reason. And as there is no me-
dium between the positive and the negative,

between

334 buffon's

between the rational and irrational being, it is
evident that man is of a nature entirely dif-^
ferent from that of the animal ; that all the re-
semblance he bears to it is merely external ;
and that to judge of him by this resemblance,
is wilfully to shut our eyes against that light,
by which we ought to distinguish truth from
falsehood.

Having thus considered man as to his internal
properties, and proved the immateriality of his
soul ; we shall now proceed to examine liis
external part, and give the history of his body.
We have already traced him from his formation
to his birth, and after taking a view of the dif-
ferent ages of his life, we shall conduct him to
that period when he must be separated from
liis body, and then resign him to the common
mass of matter to which he belongs.

CHAPTER III.

OF INFANCY.

OTHING can give us a more striking idea
of imbecility, than the condition in which
an infant appears on its iirst entrance into the
world. Incapable of making use of its organs,

or

N

KATURAL HISTORY, S33

or senses, the infant is in want of every assist-
mice. It is an image of pain and misery ; it is
more helpless than 1 he young of any other ani-
mal ; it seems as if every moment would finish
its doubtful existence; it can neither move nor
support itself; hardly has it strength enough io
exist or announce, by its cries, the sufferings it
experiences ; as if nature chose to apprise it,
that it was born to suffer, and that it has ob-
tained a place among the human species to par-
take of its infirmUiesand sorrows.

liCt us not disdain to consider that state
through which we liave all passed ; let us view
human kind in the cradle ; let us enquire by
what degrees this delicate machine, this new-
born and hardly existing body, acquires mo-
tion, consistency, and strength.

The infant at its birth comes from one cle-
ment into anotlier. On emeririns: from its
watery residence in the womb, it becomes ex-
posed to the air, and instantly experiences the
impressions of that active fluid. The air acts
upon the olfactory nerves and upon the organs
of respiration, and thereby produces a shock, a
kind of sneezing which expands the chest, and
allows the air a passage into the lungs ; the ve-
!8icle« of which it dilates, and the air remaining

for

SS5 BUFFO N^S

for some time becomes warm and nirified to 9,
certain degree; after which this spring of the
fibres thus dilated re-acts upon this light fluid,
and expels it from the lungs. Instead of under-
taking to explain the causes of the alternate mo-
tion of respiration, we shall confine ourselves to
an elucidation of its effects. This function is
essential to the existence of man and o( several
species of animals. It is by respiration that life
is preserved ; and when it is once begun, it ne*
vcr ceases till death. Yet there is reason to l>e-
lieve that the foramen ovale is not closed imme-
diately after the birth ; and of consequence a
part of the blood may cont inue to pass through
that aperture. All (he blood cannot, therefore,
at first have a communication with ibe lungs ;
s^nd it is probable a new-born child might sus-
tain a privation of air for a considerable time
without losing its existence. Or at least t\\e
possibility of this, I once seemingly confirmed
by an experiment upon some young dogs. I
put a pregnnnt bitch, of the large greyhound
species, just as she was about to litter, into a
tub filled wiih warm water, where after fasten-
ing her in such a manner that the lower parts
ygere covered with some water, she brought
forth three puppies, which were accordingly
4 received

NATURAL HISTORY. 337

received into a liquid as warm as they had left.
After washing them in this water, I removed
thcpuppiesjwithoutgivingthemtimetobreathe,
into a smaller tub filled with warm milk ; I
chose milk in order that they might receive
nourishment if they required it. In this milk
they were kept immersed above half an liour ;
and wlien taken out tliey were all found
alive. They began to breathe, and to discharge
some moisture by the mouth . Having allowed
them to respire for half an hour, I again put
them into warm milk, and left them a second
half-hour; at the expiration of whicli two of
them were taken out vigorous and seemingly
no wise incommoded, but tlie Ihird appeared
rather in a languishing state ; this I caused to
be carried to the mother, whicli by this time
had producedjin the natural way, six other pup-
pies ; and though it had been brought forlh in
water and had lived in milk one half hour be-
fore, and another after it had breathed, it yet
received so little injury from the experiment,
that it presently recov<M"ed and was as strong
and lively as the rest of (he litter. After allow-
ing the other two about an hour to breathe, I
put them once more into the warm milk, in
which they remained another half hour. Whe-
VOL. III. X X ther

SS8 buffon's

tlier they swaliowed any of this liquor or not
is uncertain ; but on being taken out they ap-
peared nearly as vigorous as ever. After being
carried to the mother, however, one died the
same day ; but whether by any accident, or by
what it had suffered while iramer^^ed in the li-
quid, and deprived of air, I could not deter-
mine. The other lived, as well as the first,
and both throve equally with those which had
not gone through the same trials. This expe-
riment I never carried farther ; but I saw enough
to convince me tliat respiration is less necessa-
ry to a new-born, tlian to a grown animal ;
and that it might be possible, with proper pre-
cautions, to keep the foramen ovale from being
closed, and thus produce excellent divers, and
different kinds of amphibious animals, which
might live equally in air or in water.

The air, on its first admission into the lungs,
generally meets with some obstacle, occasioned
by a liquid collected in the windrpipe. This
obstacle is more or less great, in proportion as
the liquid is more or less viscous. At its birth,
however, the infant raises it head, which before
reclined on its breast, and by this movement
the canal of the wind-pipe is lengthened], the
fiir obtains a place, and forces the liquid into

th
8

NATURAL HISTORY. 539

tlie lungs: and by dilating ^lie bronchia, it
distributes over their coats the mucous sub-
stance which opposes its passage. The super-
fluity of this moisture is presently dried up by
the renewal of the air ; or, if the infant is in-
commoded by it, it coughs, and at length re-
lieves itself by expectoration, which, as it has
not yet the strength to spit, is seen to flow from
the mouth.

As we remember nothing of what happened
to us at til is period, it is impossible to deter-
mine what feelings tlie impression of air pro-
duces in a new-born infant. Its cries, however,
the instant it first draws breath, are pretty cer-
tain signs of tlie pain it feels from the action of
the air. Till the moment of its birth, the in-
fant is Accustomed to the mild warmth of a
tranquil liquid ; and we may suppose, that the
action of a flnid, whose temperature is unequal,
gives too violent a shock to the delicate fibres
of its body. By warmth and by cold it seems
to be equally affected ; in every situation it
complains, and pain appears to be its first, its
only sensation.

For some days after tliey are brought into the

world, most animals have their eye-lids closed.

Infants open them the moment of their birtli,

X X 2 but

3i0 BUFFO n's

but tliey arc fixed and dull; they want tliat
lustre which tliey afterwards acquire ; and when
they move, it is rather an accidental roll than
an act of vision. The pupil of the eye is seen
to dilate, or contract, in proportion to the quan-
tity of light it receives, yet is incapable of dis-
tinguishing objects, because the organs of vi-
sion are still imperfect ; the tunica cornea, or
liorny tunicle is wrinkled, and perhaps the
retina is also too soft to receive the images
of external objects, and admit the sense of
seeing.

Tlie same remark is equally applicable totlie
other senses ; they have not acquired that con-
sistency which is necessary to their operations ;
and even when they have, a long time must
elapse before the sensations of the infant can
be just and complete. The senses are so many
instruments which wc must learn to employ.
Of these siglit, which seems to be the noblest
and the most admirable, is also the most uncer-
tain and delusive ; and were its effects not every
moment corrected by the testimony of touch-
ing we should constantly be misled and draw
false conclusions. This sense of touching is the
measure and criterion of all the others; it alone
is essential to the animal's existence; and is

alan«'

NATURAL HISTORY. 341

alone diffused universally over its body. Yet,
even this sense, in an infant just born, is im-
perfect ; by its cries, indeed, it gives indica-
tion of pain ; but it has no expression to denote
pleasure. It is forty days before it begins to
smile ; about the same time also it begins to
weep ; its former expressions of pain being
unaccompanied with tears. On the counte-
nance of a new born infant there appears no
vestige of the passions, the features of the face
not having acquired that consistence and form
which are necessary for expressing the sentiments
of the soul. All the other parts of its l3ody arc
alike feeble and delicate; its motions are un-
steady and uncertain ; it is unable to stand up-
right ; its legs and thighs are still bent, from
the habit it contracted in the womb ; it has
not strength enough to stretch forth its arras or
to grasp any thing with its hands ; and, if
abandoned, it would remain on its back, with*
out being able to turn itself.

From all which it apj^ears, that the pain felt
by infants soon after their birth, and which they
express by crying, is a sensation merely cor-
poreal, similar to that of other animals, who
also cry the minute they are brought forth ; as
5ilso, tliat the mental sensations do not begin to

manifest

Sit fitJFf Oi\ S

Hlanifest themselves till forty days liave elapsed;
smiling and weeping being produced by iwd
internal sensations, which both depend on the
action of the mind. The former is the eifect
of an agreeable emotion, wliich can only arise
from the sight, or resemblance of an object
tnown, beloved, and desired ; the latter is that
of a disagreeable impression^ compounded of
sympatliy, and anxions concern for ourselves ;
both imply a certain degree of knowledge, as
well as an ability to compare, and to reflect.
Smiles and tears, tlierefore, are signs peculiar
to tlie human species, for expressing mental
pleasure or pain ; while cries, and the other
signs of boddy pain and pleasure, are common
to man, and to the greatest part of the animal
creation.

But let us return to the material organs and
affections of the body. The size of an infant
born at the full time, is usually about twenty-
one inches ; this is uot without exception, some
falling short of and others exceeding this mea-
surement. In children of twenty-one inches,
the breast, measured by the length of the ster-
num, is nearly three inches; and in those of
fourteen, only two inclies. At nine montlis,
the foetus generally weighs from twelve to four-
teen

NATURAL HISTORY. i>4^

teeu pounds. The head is large in proportion
to the rest of the body; but this disproportion
gradually wears off as the size of the child en-
creases. Its skin is very soft , and from its
transparency, by which the blood beneath ap-
pears, it is also of a reddish cast. It is even
pretended, that those children whose skins are
the mobt red when born, will afterwards be the
fairest, and the most beautiful.

The form of the body and the members
of a new born infant, are by no means perfect :
all the parts are too round, and even when the
child is in good health, they seem swelled. At
the end of three days, there generally appears
a kind of jaundice; and at this time there is
generally milk in the breasts of the infants,
which is squeezed out with the fingers. The
superfluous juices, and the swelling of the dif-
ferent parts diminish by degrees, as the child
increases in growth .

In some children just born, the brain-pan
maybe observed to palpitate; and in all, the
action of the sinuses, or arteries of the brain,
may be felt at this place. Over this aperture
is formed a kind of scurf, which is sometimes
very thick, and m.ust be rubbed with brushes
in proportion as it begins to dry. This matter
:gecms to have some analogy with that of the

honi§

'•»

44 BUFFO X'S

horns of some animals, which also derive their
€>rigin from an aperture of the skull, and from
the substance of the brain . We shall hereafter
take an opportunity to shew, that the ex-
tremities of the nerves become solid by being
exposed to the air, and that it is this nervous
substanceproduces claws, nails, horns, &c.

The fluid contained in the amnios leaves a
viscous, whitish matter upon the infant, whicli
is sometimes so adhesive, that it must be di-
luted with some mild liquid before it can be
removed. In this country we never wash the
infant but in warm water; yet there are whole
tiations, who inhabit climates raucli more
severe than ours, that plunge their children
into cold water the minute they are boniy
without their sufibring the least injury. The
Laplanders are even said to leave their infants
in snow, till by the cold their respiration is nearly
stopped, and then plunge them into a ba(h of
■warm water. They are treated thus roughly
thrice every day during the first year, and
afterwards as often every week, do they under-
go an immersion in cold water. The people
of the North are persuaded that the practice
of cold bathing renders men niiore healthy
and robust ; and it is for this reason they
enure their progeny to it from their birth.

Th(?

NATURAL HISTORY. S15

The friitli is, we are ignorant with the extent
of what our body is capable of sufTering", ac-
quiring, or losing by the power of habit. Tlie
Indians in tlie isthmus of America, for ex-
ample, receive no iiijury from plunging into
cold water when in a sweat ; and as the most
speedy reme(\v tor intoxication, the women
tlirow their liusbands into the river when they
are drunk ; the minute after delivery, mothers
scruple not to bathe in cold water witli their
infants, and yet dangerous as we should con-
sider this practice, these women are rarely
known to die in child-bearing.

A few minutes after birth the infant dis-
charges urine, and tliis generally when it feels
the heat of the fire : and sometimes also the
meconium or excrement whicli have been col-
lected in the intestines during its residence in
the matrix. This last evacuation is not always
performed so soon, but if it does not hapi)en in
the course of the first day, the child is often af-
fected with a pain in the bowels; in which case
methods are taken to flicilitate the discharge.
The meconium is black, and when the infant
is ciFcctually eased of it, the subsequent stools
are of a whitish cast. This change generally
happens on the second or third day, and then
the excrement becomes more foetid than the
roL. III. y y meco-

346 buffon's

meconium ; a proof that the bile and other
bitter humours of the body begin (o intermix
with it. ; TJiis fact tends to support our former
remark, that the foetus did not receive any
iood by its mouth, but received all its nourish-
ment by absorption.

The infant is allowed time to throw off the
slime &ud meconium, whicli are in its bowels
and intcstinee, before it is allowed to suck. As
these snbstances might sour the milk, and pro-
duce bad ellects, it is first made to sv*^allow a
little wine and sugar, in order to fortify the sto-
mach, and to procure such evacuations as may
be necessary to prepare it for receiving and di-
gesting its food ; nor ought it to receive the
breast till 10 or 12 hours after the birth.

Hardly has the infant left the womb of its
mother, and enjoj^ed the liberty of extending
its liriibs, v* hen it is again put into a more cruel
confinement. The head of the helpless infant
is fixed to one position ; its arms and legs put
in strict bondage, and it is laced v, ith bandages
so strait as not to be able to move a single
joint. Well is it when the compression is not
so great as to obstruct the respiration, or that
the midwife has taken tlie precaution to lay it
upon its side, that the natural moisture may
emit of itself from ttie mouth, since it is

denied

NATURAL HISTORY. S47

denied iiie power of turiiing its bead in order
tofaeilitatc ibis cmissioiii Do not then thos«
natioriS act more wisely tiian we who cover or
cloilic their children without siiackling tlieni
inswathing-baiids? the Siamese, (he Japjinese,
Ibe Indians, the Negroes, the Savaqjes of Ca-
nada, of Virginia, or Brazil, and almost all
ths inhabitants of Soutn Anierica, lay their
infants naked upon a suspended bed of cotton
or put them inio their cradles lined with fur.
Those practices 5ire certainly liable to less in*-
conveniences than ours. Iii swaddling a ch iid,
it is impossible but therestraint must give it un-
easiness; and ilm t^iibrts it makes tod^senianglij
itself: haV'e. a greater icvAcixcy to iiy^re ihs
form of the body, tlmii any position it might
assume was it left at full liberty. Swathing-
bands may be compared to slays, v/hich young
girls are made to wear in order to preserve their
shapes, but wlilch nevertheless occasion mor«
diseases and deformities than they are supposed
to prevent.

Iftheefforis v^Iiich children make for liberty',
wlien contined in tbc swaddling-cloaths, are
hurtful, the inaction in whicli they are held by
it, is perhaps still more so. Want of exercise
naturally retanls the growtli of their limbs,
and diminishes Ihc strength of their bodies ;

ami

548 buffon's natural history.

and of consequence such children as enjoy Ihc
liberty of moving at pleasure, must be tliemost
vigorous. It was for this reason tliat the an-
cient Peruvians gavetlieir infants the full free-
dom of tlicir arms in a swatliing-bag; after-
wards, as t])('ir cliildren grew, they put them
lip to tlic middle in a hole dug in the eartli, and
lined with linen; by this method they had their
arms free, and could move their heads and bend
their bodies, without falling or hurting tliem-
selves. So soon as they were able to st(»p, tliey
were presented A\ith the breast, at a little dis-
tance, as ah incentive for them to walk. The
children of Negroes are often exposed to much
greater fatigues, in order to come at the nipple,
they cling round one of their mother's h«iunches
with their legs, and support themselves without
any assistance from her; seizing the breast they
cojitinue to suck iri perfect safety, notwith-
standing she is all the while in motion, or at
work. These children begin to walk, or ra-
ther creep on their knees and hands, in the se-
cond month ; and this exercise qualities thera
for running afterwards in this manner, almost
as nimble as they do upon their {eeL

END OF THE THIRD VOLUME.

T. GiUet, Printer, Wiia Court.

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