discovered thefe animals,, and gave fome account o f them in the
Philofophical Tran factions for the year 1703. There is plfo ia
die fame volume a letter from an anonymous hand on this fubjeft.
We had, however, no regular account o f them, their various
habits, their different fpecies, or o f their wonderful properties,
till the year 1740, when they firft engaged the attention o f Mr.,
Trembley, to whofe affiduity and obfervations we are indebted-
for the knowledge-of their nature and ceconomy.
Before thefe difcoveries o f Mr. Trembley, Leibnitz and Boer-
haave, by reflections on the various gradations in. the fcale o f '
animated nature, had endeavoured to prove that there might be
degrees of. life between the animal and the plant, and that animals,
might be found which would propagate by flips, like plants.
Thefe conjectures were verified by Mr. Trembley, but notin con-
fequence o f any preconceived ideas in favour o f fuch a fuppo-
fition; on the contrary, it. was only by repeated obfervations that
he could deftroy his own prejudices, and join thefe wonderful
beings to the animal kingdom*
Though natural hiftory is fo fruitful in extraordinary faCfs, it
has hitherto produced none fo fingular as the various properties
o f the different fpecies of the hydra, I
I fhall endeavour, firft,. to trace the progrefs of this difcovery,
in which we fha]l fee with what, fage- caution and accuracy Mr..
Trembley, and other naturalifts, examined this wonderful p h e nomenon,
and what accumulated evidence was judged necefiary.-
to .eitablifh the facts.
We
We find Mr. Trembley writing in January, 1741, to Mr.
Bonnet, that he did not know whether he fhould calf the objeCt
which then engaged his attention a plant or an animal. “ I have
ftudied it, fays he, ever fince June laft, and have found in it
ilriking charaaeriftics o f both plant and animal. It is a little
aquatic being. At firft fight every one imagines it to be a p lant;
but if it be a plant, it is fenfitive and ambulant; if it be an animal’
it may be propagated by flips, or cuttings, like many plants.” ft
was not till the month o f March, in the fame year, that he could
fatisfy himfelf as to their nature.
When Mr. Reaumur Taw, for the firft time, two polypes formed
Trom one that he had divided into two parts, he could hardly
believe his eyes ; and even after having repeated the operation an
hundred times, and again examined it an hundred more, he fays,
•that the fight was not become familiar to him.
T h e firft account the Royal Society received o f the furmizino-
properties o f this infed, was in a letter from M. Buffon (dated the
18th o f July, 1741) to Martin Folkes, Efq. their prefident, acquainting
them with the difcovery o f a fmall infeft called a poly,
-pus, which is found flicking about the common duck weed, and
which, being cut in two, puts forth from the upper part a tail,
and from the lower end a head, fo as to become two animals
mftead o f one. I f it be cut into three parts, the middiemoft puts
out from one end a head, and from the other a tail, fo as to become
three diftinft animals, all living like the firft, and performing
the various offices o f their fpecies : which obfervations are,
adds M. Buffon, well averred.