Experiments & Contemplations

...size of a common grain of sand, in a very short time several thousand bubbles emerged, not just from a single spot but from various places at once, and from all sides. When many air bubbles adhered to that particle for a little while, it was carried upwards; and conversely, when some bubbles left it, it sank toward the bottom. Hardly had it sunk a little when the air bubbles increased so much in number, or some of them in size, that it was carried up again. In a word, as long as air bubbles came out of the particles of crab’s eye original: "oculi cancri" — These are stony concretions of calcium carbonate found in the stomachs of crayfish, used in 17th-century medicine as an antacid. When placed in an acidic liquid like vinegar or certain beers, they produce carbon dioxide bubbles., they were kept in constant motion, being carried upward, sinking, or rolling around.

A detailed engraving of a vertical glass tube or ampoule, labeled with letters to indicate its parts and levels. At the top is a narrow pointed neck labeled G. Below the neck is a dotted elliptical line labeled E and F, suggesting a seal or opening. The main cylindrical body of the tube is marked with horizontal divisions: D-H, C-I, and B-K. The base of the tube is labeled A-L. The bottom section, from A-L to B-K, is shaded with dense cross-hatching to represent its contents.

When I had understood the various opinions regarding the generation of little animals animalcules Leeuwenhoek’s term for the microscopic organisms—bacteria and protozoa—that he was the first to observe., and specifically that a certain Gentleman Likely a reference to Francesco Redi, who famously challenged the theory of spontaneous generation by showing that maggots come from fly eggs, not decaying meat. had written that no living thing could be produced if a certain vessel or flask original: "ampulla", into which some liquid or meat had previously been placed, were sealed as accurately as possible. I desired to see some experiments on this matter myself. Therefore, I took two glass tubes marked ABCDEFHIKL in the diagram which, once both were sealed at the bottom part AL, were filled with crushed pepper up to the level BK and further up to the level CI with pure rainwater. This water had been collected at that very time on the 26th of May in a clean earthenware dish (which had not held food for ten years). In addition, I gave the glass its specific shape ABCDGHIKL by the heat of fire...