and the greater Virgil had told me, that certain Mares of his Acquaintance were impregnated by a Weft Wind, which, therefore I concluded to be one of those opportune Places, and confidered it as the proper Vehicle of these floating Embryos. But not willing to rely on Hypothefis only, or prefume on the Authority of great Names, efpecially in this enlightened Age, where experimental Philofophy is fo triumphant, and nothing goes down that is not made obvious to our Senfes, I refolved to have Demonftration before I ventured to publish my Thoughts to the World. There are, I know, a droll Sett of Gentlemen, who think themselves authorifed to tell any Lies in Print, and afterwards to quarrel with the World for not believing them: But for my Part, I write purely and fimply for the Love of Truth, for the Ufe and Emolument of my Countrymen; and I should esteem myself the most unworthy of all Beings, if I prefumed to amuse them with Fables, or abuse them with Forgeries. Accordingly, after much Exercife of my Invention, I contrived a wonderful cylindrical, catoptrical, rotundo-concavo-convex Machine (whereof a very exact Print will speedily be published for the Satisfaction of the Curious, defigned by Mr. H-y-n, and engraved by Mr. V-rtu) which being hermetically fealed at one End, and electrified according to the niceft Laws of Electricity, I erected it in a convenient Attitude to the West, as a kind of Trap to intercept the floating Animalcula in that prolific Quarter of the Heavens. The G 3 Event Event answered my Expectation; and when I had caught a fufficient Number of these small, original, unexpended Minims of Existence, I fpread them out carefully like Silk-worms Eggs, upon white Paper; and then applying my best Microfcope, plainly difcerned them to be little Men and Women, exact in all their Limbs and Lineaments, and ready to offer themselves little Candidates for Life, whenever they fhould happen to be imbibed with Air or Nutriment, and conveyed down into the Veffels of Generation. * After this first Succefs in my Undertaking, I continued to make Experiments of various Kinds, too tedious to be related, for a whole Year, till I had at length fully established the Doctrine of Winds and Embryos; and I find that as other Infects are ufually brought by an Easterly Wind, your Human Infects are always wafted from the oppofire Quarter; the Swarms of both appear like Blights to the naked Eye; and both feem deftined to much the fame End of Exiftence, fruges confumere nati, born to confume the Fruits of the Ground, Oftentimes, while I was viewing them through my Glafs, my Imagination would turn romantic upon the Subject, and reprefent to me the great Variety of Fortune thefe Infects might go through, whenever they should happen to be called out into Day-light. I faid in my Mind, this little Reptile may be an Alexander, that a' Fauftina, another a Tully, and another à Mountebank; and I was struck with Admiration to confi der der how many Heroes, and Patriots, and Legisla tors, and Monarchs, were now contained on a Sheet of Paper, whofe great Souls, in Time to come, may make them efteem the whole World too confined a Scene for their Ambition. I remembered the Sarcasm of Juvenal, as true before Life as after Death, Expende Annibalem, &c. and I repeated, with a kind of Enthusiasm, those excellent Lines in Dr. Garth's Difpenfary; Now he unfolds the faint and dawning Strife. T'extend its recent Form, and firetch to Man; Young Ammon, Cæfar, and the great Naffau. But now the great Trial of all was come, which, I believe, would have puzzled a whole College of Phyficians, and fet at nought all the confulting Powers of W-rw-k Lane. The preparatory Points were established to my entire Satisfaction, but whether Animalcula could be ripened into Exiftence, by paffing through the feminal Veffels of a Woman only, was ftill a Queftion; and how to make the Experiment, bie labor, illud opus. Very hard it was to know when a Woman had imbibed the neceffary Seed; and harder still to reftrain her from all Commerce with Man, till the Experiment had Time to take Effect. If I made Choice of a married Woman, there the Difficulties were innumerable; or if I made Choice of a Maiden, Virginity has, in all Ages, been esteemed a very brittle Ware; and, I prefume, G 4 fume, has not greatly mended its Nature of later Days. Sometimes I thought of taking a Wife, over whom I could ufurp an absolute Authority, and lock her up till the Day of her Labour; but fearing the might grow defperate, when she should find I had only married her to try an Experiment upon her; and at the fame Time grievously mistrufting the Continuance of my own Affection, after I had accomplished my Ends, I dismissed that Project, and refolved, after much Perplexity, to hazard all upon a Chambermaid. Accordingly, having first persuaded the Girl she was ill, I read Jacob Behmen five Times over; and then mixing up fome Animalcula in a Chymical Preparation, I adminiftered them to her as a Dofe of Phyfick. After which I discarded my Footman, and fuffered no Male Creature, in human Shape, to approach my Doors; nay, fo great was my Caution to have my Stratagem fucceed, that I hardly permitted a Dog of the masculine Gender to enter my House. In about Six Months it was very visible the Medicine had taken Effect; and let the Reader imagine, if he can, the Joy I felt, when first I perceived her begin to bourgeon: At the fame Time too a little Circumftance happened, which heightened my Joy, and put the manner of her Conception beyond all Poffibility of Doubt. As I was fitting alone one Morning in my Study, ruminating on this great Event, the Girl came in to me with Tears in her Eyes, and having obtained my Leave to ask a Question, entreated me earnestly to tell her, if it was poffible to breed after three Years? Years? Though I gueffed the Drift of her Queftion, yet, affecting an Air of Ignorance, and putting on a grave Phyfician's Afpect, I ordered her to be more explicit; whereupon the proceeded, with frequent Breaks of Crying, to tell me how much she was astonished at fome Symptoms; that Heaven above knew what was the Matter with her, but he verily believed herself a breeding, and yet She could take her Bible Oath, fbe bad not beenbeen-been touched by a Man for these three Years [6]. So then, faid I, with a fterner Countenance, G 5 and [6] When I wrote this, I had not feen a remarkable Cafe published in the Philofophical Tranfactions of September, of a Woman, from whom a Fatus was extracted, that had been lodged thirteen Years in the Fallopian Tubes, fent from Riga by Dr. James Mounfey, Phyfician to the Czarina's Army, together with the Bones of the faid Fœtus, as a Prefent to the Royal Society of London. The Woman, as we are told in that ingenious Treatife, was a Soldier's Wife of Abo in Finland, of a middle Stature, who, being pregnant for the third Time in the Year 1730, was afflicted with violent Pains and Twiftings of the Bowels, &c. and continued fickly for ten Years afterwards. In the Month of September 1741, the pierced her Navel with an Awl, out of which ran a yellow-coloured Water, &c. In the Month of June two finall Bones came out, c. and in October 1742, the was taken in hand by Dr. Mounfey, and Mr. Geitle, Surgeon, who thruft a grooved Probe into the Fiftula, and made an Incifion with a Bistory, upwards and obliquely, from the Linea alba, into the Cavity of the Abdomen but the Woman being unruly (as well the might) and the Operation not going on according to the Doctor's. liking, he proceeded no further till the next Day, &c. At the next Operation the Incifion was carried downwards; but care taken not to make the external Wound larger than needful, left the Omentum and Guts fould fall |