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Author(s): R. C. Punnett
Source: The American Naturalist, Vol. 62, No. 683 (Nov. - Dec., 1928), pp. 481-507
Published by: The University of Chicago Press for The American Society of Naturalists
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2457049 .
Accessed: 28/12/2010 17:38
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THE
AMERICAN NATURALIST
VOL. LXII Novemnber-Decenber,1928 No. 683
R. D E GRAAF
DE; 1MULIERUM ORGANIS .|
culus,' but this is probably due to a printer's error. The plate in the
G'ContinuatioArea.lioruam Naturae,'' onlwhich the 'Ihomunculi'' are found,.
is engraved "'Pag. 68?,' aad onlthis page is found the referenceto Leeuwen-
hoek's own figuresof human:sperms. But oil page 86 Dalenpatius' figures
are referred to as being shown onl the accompanying plate. In the two
copies of the work that I have seen this plate is missing. I thinkit probable
that the plate onlwhich the ' hoaliulaculiI I are shownshould have been labelled
to face page 86, and that the legend ''Pag. 68'" is an error. Possibly the
figures refelred to onl page 68 were not reproduced, as there is a footnote
to the effectthat ''Figurae hae in actis Philosophicis delineatae cernuntur.'"
Certainly Leeuwelnhoek states that hie is unable to confirmDaleilpatius
account.
1S ' Essai de Dioptrique,'" Paris, 1-694,pl. 230-231.
No. 683] OVISTS AND ANIMALCULISTS 493
1745. A French edition of this work was apparently published in the pres
eeclio' ysearl.
No. 683] OVISTS AND ANIIIALCULISTS 497
AS
FIG. 5. Buffon'a figureof "molecules" from the testis of a dog.
all those other attending Aniiiialcula., except that single one that
is then conceived, evaporate away, and return back into the Atmosphere
again, whence it is very likely they immediately proceeded; into the open
Air, I say, the commonReceptacle of all such disengaged minute sublunary
bodies; and do there circulate about with other Semitro,where,perhaps they
do not absolutely die, but live a latent life, in an insensible or dormant
state, like Swallows in Winter, lying quite still like a stopped Watch when
let down, till (they) are received afresh into sone other Male Body of the
proper Kind . . . to be afresh set on Motion, and ejected again in Coition
as before,to run a fresh ckan-cefor a lucky Conception: For it is very hard
to conceive that Nature is so idly luxurious of Seeds thus only to destroy
them, and to make Myriads of them subservientto but a single one. (Op.
cit., p. 85.)