HENRY THOMAS BUCKLE, - Horntip

[ 82 1
In the meantime, many of my father's propofitions
ftand upon a good foundation, only reje6ting that
generating power of the feed lodged in the reins. The
reft of his arguments are very evident Some of the
moderns may perhaps endeavour to explain thefe
phenomena otherwife from their own hypothefis, as a
certain ingenius perfon did, who was firmly perfuaded
that the matter of the feed was made of the chyle and
not of the blood and that by ftrokes upon the loins
the fwelling alveus was heated, and then that the
matter of the feed defcended with a fwifter motion to
the genital parts. Reafons very different from thefe
might be brought by fuch who are pleafed with the
fanciful hypothefis Saccus Nervofus, or nervous juice,
which they think, too, affords matter for the feed ; but
it is not my bufinefs to enquire at prefent into the
truth of their hypothefis. I perceive now that the
obfervation is true in this inflance, which Grcecinus,
in Columella, formerly faid of all kinds of inventions,
That moft people began new works with more bold-
nefs than they could maintain thefe that were before
perfea. However, I think that the opinion I have
propofed of the heat of the blood in the loins does
not depend upon bare hypothefis but certain experi-
ment