HYDRA. 181 
Having thus given a meagre digest of these interesting 
memoirs, so beautifully illustrated by the engravings of 
Lyonet, we may add, that we can scarcely have any idea now 
of the great interest which this subject excited then through- 
out the whole of Europe. Nor did it cease to be regarded 
as important after it had become familiar, for the justly cele- 
brated Cuvier speaks of Trembley of Geneva as “immortel 
par la découverte de la réproduction du polype ;” and says, 
moreover, that he acquired “une réputation universelle par 
sa découverte extraordinaire, qui changeait, pour ainsi dire, 
toutes les idées qu’on avait eues sur la physiologie et V’ana- 
tomie animales.” ‘Trembley’s experiments and observations 
were soon repeated and verified by the distinguished natu- 
ralist Réaumur, at Paris, and by other naturalists of note in 
different countries, and among others, by Henry Baker, 
Fellow of the Royal Society of London, from whose ‘ Natu- 
ral History of the Polype,’ published in 1743, we shall 
briefly extract some additional information on this subject. 
His work is in the form of a letter addressed to the Presi- 
dent of the Royal Society ; and he begins by saying, “ The 
accounts we have been favoured with from abroad concern- 
ing the little creature called a polype, have appeared so ex- 
traordinary, so contrary to the common course of nature and 
