Biographical Memoir of Charles Bonnet. SI 7 



made him acquainted. He discovered a multitude of beings, of 

 which Reaumur had taken no notice ; and now behold him, at 

 the age of sixteen, become a naturahst. He would probably 

 have remained so for life, had not his infirmities constrained him 

 to give another direction to his mind. 



He entered upon the career of observation with gigantic steps. 

 At the age of eighteen he communicated to Reaumur several in- 

 teresting facts, and at twenty he submitted to him his beautiful 

 discovery of the fecundity of aphides without previous copu- 

 lation. Nine successive generations, independent of sexual in- 

 tercourse, were then an unheard-of wonder ; but the admirable 

 patience exercised by so young a man in determining the fact, 

 all the precautions, and all the sagacity requisite for such an 

 undertaking, were not less wonderful. They announced a mind 

 of which every thing might be expected ; and the Academy of 

 Science thought it could not too speedily but inscribe the name 

 of this young observer in the lists of its correspondents. 



Soon after, a fellow-countryman of Bonnet's presented a still 

 greater miracle to the astonished world of science ; the history of 

 the polypus, and its indefinite reproduction by cutting, were pub- 

 lished by Abraham Trembley. Bonnet immediately applied the 

 scissors to all the animals commonly called imperfect. He saw 

 the cut parts grow again in land and fresh water worms. He 

 also multiplied the individuals by dividing them, although no 

 comparison could be made between their highly complicated or- 

 ganisation, and the almost perfect simplicity of structure of the 

 polypus. 



In this manner, a power began to shew itself in animals, 

 which had hitherto been regarded as peculiar to plants. It was 

 by following the views of Bonnet that Spallanzani carried the 

 proofs of this power to their utmost limit, when he caused the 

 head, \yith the tongue, jaws, and eyes, to be reproduced in a 

 ^^"gj — and the feet, with all their bones, muscles, nerves, and 

 vessels, in the salamander. 



This property, experimented upon in worms, presented Bonnet 

 with several phenomena calculated to excite astonishment. The 

 anterior extremity, on being split, afforded two heads, which, 

 while yet scarcely formed, became enemies to each other. When 

 die animal was cut into three distinct pieces, the middle piece 



