L ANIMALCULA OF INFUSIONS. 247 



marked by M. Trembley in one of my explana- 

 tions muft be pointed out. Ir forms part of a long 

 letter which I wrote you, i November 1766, on 

 animal reproductions , \vhich at my defire you 

 have communicated to the public in one of your 

 notes on la Contemplation de la Nature ; but you 

 beftow too much praife on my fnicere avowal of 

 the error ; for in one as fallible as me, there is 

 little merit in publicly acknowledging he has 

 been deceived. I faid fo at the end of the Pre- 

 face to Confiderat'wns fur les Corps Organifes. 

 One ' / have erred * is zvorib more than an hun- 

 dred ingenious replies. You have alfo feen that 

 I guarded againfl an attempt to explain the cluf- 

 ter polypus. On thefe in particular, and on po- 

 lypi in general, I have publilhed Philofopbical 

 Confiderations ^ where materials are coile£ted for 

 logic to be employed by naturahfls. Thefe oc» 

 cupy the three laft chapters, Part 6. of the Con- 

 templation. The intelligent reader, who takes 

 the trouble to read and meditate on them, will 

 find good prefervatives againfl precipitate judg* 

 ments. ' What analogy can apply in the examina- 



* tion of the bulb-polypus ? Can we even define 

 ' the bulbs, or does ihis name exprefs more than 



* tneir mere appearance ? Flow can analogy eluci- 



* date the nature of thefe minute bodies, the man- 

 ' ner in which they engender or are engendered, 

 ' while nothing i3 prefented eithv-^r by the animal 



O A. '- o.r 



