POLYPUS. 185 



gjressive motion ; but the moderns have given the 

 name of Polypus to a reptile that lives in fresh 

 water, by no means so large or observable. These 

 are found at the bottom of wet ditches, or attach- 

 ed to the under surface of the broad-leafed plants 

 that grow and swim on the waters. The same 

 difference holds between these and the sea water 

 polypus, as between all the productions of the 

 sea, and of the land and the ocean. The marine 

 vegetables and animals grow to a monstrous size. 

 The eel, the pike, or the bream of fresh waters, is 

 but small ; but in the sea they grow to an enor- 

 mous magnitude. The herbs of the field are at 

 most but a few feet high ; those of the sea often 

 shoot forth a stalk of a hundred. It is so be- 

 tween the polypi of both elements : Those of the 

 sea are found from two feet in length to three or 

 four, and Pliny has even described one, the arms 

 of which were no less than thirty feet long. Those 

 in fresh waters, however, are comparatively mi- 

 nute ; at their utmost size, seldom above three 

 parts of an inch long, and when gathered up into 

 their usual form, not above a third even of those 

 dimensions. 



It was upon these minute animals that the 

 power of dissection was first tried in multiplying 

 their numbers. They had been long considered 

 as little worthy the attention of observers, and 

 were consigned to that neglect in which thousands 

 of minute species of insects remain to this very 

 day. It is true, indeed, that Reaumur observed, 

 classed, and named them. By contemplating 

 their motions, he was enabled distinctly to pro- 



