letti d'ultimo ordine included the active Molecules as well as true Animalcules.
I may next mention that Gleichen, the discoverer of the motions of the Particles of the Pollen, also observed similar motions in the particles of the ovulum of Zea Mays.
Wrisberg and Müller, who adopted in part Buffon's hypothesis, state the globules, of which they suppose all organic bodies formed, to be capable of motion; and Müller distinguishes these moving organic globules from real Animalcules, with which, he adds, they have been confounded by some very respectable observers.
In 1814 Dr. James Drummond, of Belfast, published in the 7th volume of the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a very valuable Paper, entitled "On certain Appearances observed in the Dissection of the Eyes of Fishes."
In this Essay, which I regret I was entirely unacquainted with when I printed the account of my Observations, the author gives an account of the very remarkable motions of the spicula which form the silvery part of the choroid coat of the eyes of fishes.
These spicula were examined with a simple microscope, and 6] as opaque objects, a strong light being thrown upon the drop of water in which they were suspended. The appearances are minutely described, and very ingenious reasoning employed to show that, to account for the motions, the least improbable conjecture is to suppose the spicula animated.
As these bodies were seen by reflected and not by transmitted light, a very correct idea of their actual motions could hardly be obtained; and with the low magnifying powers necessarily employed with the instrument and in the manner described, the more minute nearly spherical particles or active Molecules which, when higher powers were used, I have always found in abundance along with the spicula, entirely escaped observation.
Dr. Drummond's researches were strictly limited to the spicula of the eyes and scales of fishes; and as he does not
