ANIMAL REPRODUCTIONS. 227 
fin other animals: and here is one of thofe ufeful 
illuftrations which teach us to diftruft analogi- 
cal reafoning. ‘The famous Reaumur firft fhew- 
ed, that the principle of reproduction, in the 
limbs of the frefh water cray fifh, began with a 
little cone in the centre of the trunk, whofe bafe 
was infinitely fmaller than that of the trunk, and, 
by the procefs of time alone, became equal to it. 
A finilar phenomenon has been obferved by the 
celebrated Bonnet, in his earth and frefh water 
worms. The fame appearances have been ex- 
hibited to me by the tadpoles of frogs, and by 
‘water newts, in reproducing the tail and-limbs (1). 
The rays of fea ftars, whether cafually deftroyed 
by the bite of an animal, or cut off by men, pro- 
trude a little cone or tongue from the middle of 
the trunk, which is the expanding germ of the 
defetive portion. And, in my voyage in the 
Mediterranean, during fummer 1781, I faw fe- 
veral ftars, that had loft the rays, budding thefe 
cones of different fizes ; particularly, the aferias 
rubens of Linnzeus ; feveral of which I preferve in 
the great Mufeum of Natural Hiftory, in the 
Univerfity of Pavia. But the truncated horn of 
a {nail does not advance in this manner. The 
trunk itfelf rounds into a little button of a bluith 
colour, which becomes larger and the colour 
darker ; and at the fummit, if we fpeak of the 
apt Pi | larger 
(1) Prodromo. Citat. 
