IxTlil INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIOlsrs. 



and tail cut off a water newt will be reproduced. 

 Lofmg the head is not a mortal mutilation. I 

 have feen one of the planar ice regenerate a new 

 head in fourteen or fixteen days ; and the 

 fevered head acquires a new body. Indeed, the 

 reproductive faculties of this animal are almoU 

 equal to thore.of the polypus, and perhaps will 

 prove a more interefting fubjeft for experiment. 

 Indifputable evidence proves, tfiat the fnail will 

 acquire a new head in place of the old one cut 

 off, and that it regenerates almoll every other 

 part of the body. Certainly it is a mod extra- 

 ordinary property, to reproduce one of thefe or- 

 gans commonly reputed the mofl important in 

 the prefervation of animal hfe. But we have al- 

 ready feen, that thofe organs which are of the 

 utmoil confequence to one animal are not fo to 

 another ; and that they may be wounded, muti- 

 lated, or deflroyed, without death infallibly fol- 

 lowing. The reproductive faculty is not exhaufl- 

 ed by a fingle regeneration i if the fecond head 

 is fevered, a third will come in its place; and if 

 this alfo is. cut off, another will grow.. 



The fea anemone, fome fpecies of which are fe- 

 veral inches in diameter, and which realifes the an- 

 cient fable, applied to another animal, of produ- 

 cing its young by the mouth, poflelTss the repro- 

 duclive property in a degree little inferior to the 

 polypus. It the earth worm is cut in pieces, each. 



wiU 



