i8o LETTER VII. 



" this peculiarity in it, that when it Is cut into 

 *' feveral Parts, each of thofe Parts produces of 

 *' itfelf, in the fpaceof twenty-four hours, what it 

 " wants to compleat a Body. So that this Infeft 

 *' being cut tranfverfly in three Parts, the Part be- 

 " longing to the Head will produce a Tail: fome 

 *' of thofe Infeds have been cut even tranfverfly 

 ** into forty Parts, which each produced what was 

 *' wanting in it, to make a perfect Infeft; fo 

 *' that of one Polypus forty were made. If 

 *' they be cut down through the middle from 

 ** head to Tail, each half will produce another. 

 *' On this occafion Mr. de Reaumur made feveral 

 *' learned and judicious Obfervations, particularly 

 •' that as it is an Axiom that Nature is not fingu- 

 '' lar in its Produdions, fo there muft be other 

 *' Infefts fufceptible of the like wonderful produc- 

 *^ tion: He reports, that by Experiments already 

 " made by him, he has difcovered certain Earth- 

 '* worms that have the fame Properties -, but that 

 " Nature operates in them, in a much larger Ipace 

 *' of time. 



36. Thefe Experiments put me in mind that 

 in the defcription of Lizards^ in paragraph the fe= 

 cond of my fourth Letter, I ought to have men- 

 tioned one property or quality belonging to them, 

 which could never before I went to the Wejl Indies^ 

 fall under my own cognizance j viz ; That if one 

 of them had the misfortune to have half of its 



Tail 



