Observationes circa viventia, quae in rebus non viventibus reperiuntur cum micrographia curiosa

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and approved, added spurs to the author so that he might undertake many experiments, from which some light might flow to distinguish spontaneous generation more clearly, and it could be probably deduced whether nature, with the utmost hatred, excludes it entirely from the universality of things, just as it excludes a vacuum.

Therefore, having taken many things from water, flowers, fruits, fish, and the putrefied flesh of various animals, he printed a volume in Rome this year, 1691, in quarto, at the press of Dominicus Antonius Hercules, the title of which is On Living Things Which Are Found in Non-Living Things. In it, having instituted a peaceful contest of dialogue, he inquires into many things concerning spontaneous generation, which he attempts to indicate in the many generations of insects observed, and to dilute the objections by which very many have affirmed it to be impossible.

These observations provided an occasion for calling back to the balance some problems proposed when he was dealing with shells, and for observing many very small particles of various things with a microscope. For this reason, in the volume divided into three parts, in its second [part] he places fifty images of shells not previously brought to light, with a description of each added. In the third [part], he presents a curious micrography, in which he expressed the individual parts of the smallest things enlarged by the microscope with his own pen, and described them exactly with his quill.

He promises a not insignificant addition to such a micrography, which, God willing, he will hand over to the presses. Meanwhile, farewell.