THE WORM. 



831 



composition, the more difficult it is to disar- 

 range it. Some animals live without their 

 limbs, and often are seen to reproduce them ;. 

 some are seen to live without their brain for 

 many weeks together; caterpillars continue 

 to increase and grow large, though all their 

 nobler organs are entirely destroyed within; 

 some animals continue to exist, though cut in 

 two, their nobler parts preserving life, while 

 the others perish that were cut away : but 

 the earth-worm, and all the zoopln te tribe, 

 continue to live in separate parts, and one 

 animal, by the means of cutting, is divided 

 into two distinct existences, sometimes into a 

 thousand ! 



There is no phenomenon in all natural 

 history more astonishing than this, that man 

 at pleasure should have a kind of creative 

 power, and; out of one life make two, each 

 completely formed, with all its apparatus and 

 functions; each with its perceptions, and 

 powers of motion and self preservation ; each 

 as complete in all respects as that from 

 which it derived its existence, and equally 

 enjoying the humblegratifications of its nature. 



When Des Cartes first started the opinion, 

 thnt brutes were machines, the discovery of 

 this surprising propagation was unknown, 

 which might, in some measure, have strength- 

 ened his fanciful theory. What is life in 

 brutes, he might have said, or where does it 

 reside ? In some we find it so diffused, that 

 every part seems to maintain a vivacious 

 principle, and the same animal appears pos- 

 sessed of a thousand distinct irrational souls 

 at the same time. But let us not. he would 

 say, give so noble a name to such contemp- 

 tible powers, bat rank the vivifying principle ; 

 in these with the sap that rises in vegetables, 

 or the moisture that contracts a cord, or the 

 heat that puts water into motion ! No- 

 thing, in fact, deserves the name of soul, but 

 that, which reasons, that which understands, 

 and by knowing God, receives the mark of 

 its currency, and is minted with the impres- 

 sion of its great Creator. 



Such might have been the speculations of 

 this philosopher: however, to leave theory, 

 it will be sufficient to say, that we owe the 



(a) Allied to these In their vermicular shape, are seve- 

 iI other kinds of worms, commonly known by the name 



first discovery of this power of reproduction 

 in animals to Mr. Trembley, who first ob- 

 served it in the Polypus, and after him, 

 Spalanzani and others found it taking place 

 in the earth-worm, the sea-worm, and several 

 other ill-formed, animals of a like kind, which 

 were susceptible of this new mode of propa- 

 gation. This last philosopher has tried seve- 

 ral experiments upon the earth-worm, many 

 of which succeeded according to his expecta- 

 tion ; every earth-worm, however, did not 

 retain the vivacious principle will) the same 

 obstinacy ; some, when cut in two, were en- 

 tirely destroyed ; others survived only in the 

 nobler part; and while the head was living, 

 the tail entirely perished, and a new one was 

 seen to bourgeon from the extremity. But 

 what was most surprising of all, in some, par- 

 ticularly in the small red-headed earth-worm, 

 both extremities survived the operation ; Uie 

 head produced a tail, with the anus, the in- 

 testines, the annular muscle, and the prirkly 

 beards ; the tail part, on the other hand, was 

 seen to shoot forth the nobler organs, and in 

 less than the space of three months sent forth 

 a head, a heart, with all the apparatus and 

 instruments of generation. This part, as 

 may easily be supposed, was produced much 

 more slowly than the former, a new head 

 taking above three OP four months for its 

 completion; anew tail being shot forth in 

 less than as many weeks. Thus two animals, 

 by dissection, were made out of one, each 

 with their separate appetites, each endued 

 with life and motion, and seemingly as per- 

 fect as that single animal from whence they 

 derived their origin. 



What was performed upon the earth-worm,, 

 was found to obtain also in many of the ver- 

 micular species. The sea-worn), the white 

 water-worm, and many of those little worms 

 with feelers, found at the bottom of dirty 

 ditches; in all these the nobler organs are of 

 such little use, that if taken away, the animal 

 does not seem to feel the want of them ; it 

 lives in all ks parts, and in every part; and 

 by a strange paradox in nature, the most use- 

 less-and contemptible life is of all others the 

 most difficult to destroy." 



of Threifd-worms. The common Hair-worm is found ia 

 fresh waters, or in a wet clayey soil, through which it per- 



