ANIMAL REPRODUCTIONS, 249 
and fhown to many friends, to the great amaze. 
ment of them all. The water newt is fo much 
more the object of admiration, fince it never des 
frauds the eager experimentalift of its multiplied 
reproductions, which is otherwife with {nails, as 
fome of them will not reproduce, 
Behold the evident exiftence of reproduction, 
beginning with the polypus, proceeding to vari- 
ous worms, then to fnails, and, laftly, to water 
newts, that is, advancing from the moft fimple 
animals to others lefs fimple, and from thefe to 
fome whofe organic ftruture is more complicat- 
ed; and there is no effential difference produced 
by the more fimple or more complex organiza- 
tion. 
Thefe faéts alfo prove, that the tendernefs or 
delicacy of fibre is by no means a condition ne- 
ceflary for animal reprodu@ion. How great ig 
the difference between the body of a polypus and 
the tail or limbs of a water newt? But do not 
both reproduce in the fame manner ? How ma- 
ny {mall animals are there, as delicate as the po- 
lypus, even much more fo, and as completely 
aquatic, which, inftead of reproducing when cut 
afunder, inevitably perifh ? as I have alcertained’ 
by numerous experiments. 
However it is proper to remark, that of the 
animals adapted by nature for reproduction, thofe 
provided with the more tender fibre have a fin- 
gular 
