Buffon's Natural History, Volume 03 (of 10) / Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c.

by comte de Georges Louis Leclerc Buffon

VI. In twenty-four hours the liquor had deposited a greater quantity of gelatinous matter. I diluted it with water, but it did not readily mix, and required a considerable time to dissolve. It then appeared composed of an infinite number of opaque tubes that formed a kind of net-work, in which no regular disposition nor the least motion could be seen: in the clear liquor some few small bodies were still moving. The next morning there were also a very few; but after that time I saw no more in this liquor than in the globules, without any appearance of motion.

These experiments were repeated several times with the most possible exactness; and I am persuaded that those threads above mentioned are not tails, nor do they make any part of the individual body; for these threads have no proportion with the rest of the body; they are of different sizes, although the moving bodies are always nearly of the same, at the same time. The globule appears embarrassed in its motion, as its tail is longer or shorter; sometimes it cannot advance, but move only from right to left, or from left to right, when the tail is very long; and it is clearly seen that they use great efforts to get rid of them.

VII. Having taken the seminal liquor from another man but just dead, and still warm, I put a drop of it on the table of the microscope, and it immediately liquified; it had at first a condensed appearance, and seemed to form a compact web, composed of long and thick filaments, which grew from the thickest part of the liquor. These filaments separated in proportion as the liquor became more fluid, and at length they divided into globules, which at first seemed not to have sufficient power to set themselves in motion, but this power increased as they separated from the filament, from which they made many efforts to disengage themselves. Each of them in this struggle drew out tails from the filaments 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 their vibratory motion was also much greater as those filaments were longer: and their progressive motion so much the more remarkable as these tails were shorter.

VIII. Having continued these observations for fourteen hours, I perceived that these threads, or tails, were continually lessening, and became so fine, that at last their extremities were no longer visible, and at length the whole entirely disappeared. At this time the globules absolutely ceased their horizontal vibrations; their progressive motion was direct, although they had always the vertical balancing motion, like the rolling of a ship. When disencumbered of these threads, the bodies were oval, transparent, and perfectly like those pretended animals seen in the liquor of an oyster on the seventh day, and still more to those found in the jelly of roast veal at the end of the fourth 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; ([fig. 5.]) they passed over the table of the microscope in less than four seconds; they were ranged seven or eight in front, and moved on successively, as troops march in files. I observed this singular instance for more than five minutes; and as their course did not finish, I was desirous of finding the source: and, having gently moved my glass, I perceived that all these moving globules came from a kind of mucilage, ([fig. 6.]) where the filamentary net-work continually produced them more abundant and much quicker than the filaments had ten hours before. There was still a remarkable difference between these moving bodies produced in the thick liquor, and those produced when the liquor became more fluid; these last had no thread behind them, their motion was quicker, and they went in flocks like sheep. I observed the mucilage from whence they issued for some time, and perceived it diminished, and was successively converted into moving globules, till the diminution of more than half the bulk; after which, the liquor being too dry, this mucilage became obscure in its middle, and all the environs were divided by the small threads which appeared to be formed from the bodies of these moving globules which were destroyed as it dried up, not in one single mass, but in long threads, regularly disposed, with quadrangular intervals, forming a net-work, very like to a cobweb, on which the moisture hung in an infinite number of globules.

X. I perceived by the first experiment, that these little moving bodies change their form, and I thought they in general diminished, but of that I was not certain. In this last observation, at the twelfth and thirteenth hour I observed it more distinctly; at the same time remarking that though diminished considerably in size, yet they increased in specific gravity; especially when their motion was nearly finished, which generally happened all at once and they sunk to the bottom, forming a sediment of an ash-colour, plainly perceptible to the naked eye, and which appeared through the microscope to be composed of globules adherent to on another, sometimes by threads, and at others in knots, but always in a regular manner.

XI. Having procured the seed of a dog, emitted naturally, I observed that this liquor was clear, and had but little tenacity. I put it in a phial, and having examined it with a microscope, without diluting it with water, I perceived moving bodies entirely like those 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 word, they resembled, as perfectly as possible, those I saw 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 had they any motion. Those globules which were in motion, and had tails, appeared to me to move quicker than those in the human semen: they had scarcely any horizontal vibrations, but a rolling motion. They were not in a great number; and, although their progressive motion was stronger, they took more time to cross the microscope than those I had before remarked. I observed 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 degrees; the fourth day there was still some, though they were 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, yet, at the last day, there still remained some which had them; the liquor had then deposited a whitish sediment, which appeared to be composed of immoveable globules, and many threads, that seemed to be tails separated 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 moving globules, or the rest, which remained without motion at the bottom of the liquor, and appeared to have a fissure or opening.

XII. Another time, having taken the seminal liquor of the same dog, I again perceived the fore-mentioned phenomena; and I saw, besides, in one of the drops of this liquor, a mucilaginous part, which produced moving globules, as in the ninth experiment, ([fig. 6.]) and these globules formed a current, and went in ranks like troops. This mucilage appeared to me animated with an internal inflated motion, which produced small bloated appearances in different parts, and from whence issued these bloated forms, or moving globules, with a nearly-equal swiftness, and in the same direction. 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 divided into two globules, both moving and following the same direction as that before they were united.

XIII. The phial, which contained this liquor, having been broke by accident, I, a third time, took the liquor of the same dog, but whether the animal was wearied by too reiterated emissions, or by other causes, the seminal 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 afterwards, but it presented nothing new: there was not a single moving body to be seen, nor any mucilage; in a word, nothing that I had seen before.