408 HISTORY or- 



grow large, tliough all their nobler oigaiis 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 zoophyte tribe, con- 

 tinue 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 astonish- 

 ing than this, that man at pleasure should have a kind of crea- 

 tive power, and out of one life make two, each completely 

 formed, with all its apparatus and functions ; each with its per- 

 ceptions, and powers of motion and self-preservation ; each as 

 complete in all respects as that from which it derived its exist- 

 ence, and equally enjoying the humble gratifications of its 

 nature. 



When Des Cartes first started the opinion, that brutes were 

 machines, the discovery of this surprising propagation was un- 

 known, which might, in some measure, have strengthened 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 possessed of a thousand distinct irrational souls 

 at the same time. But let us not, he would say, give so noble 

 a name to such contemptible powers, but 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 ! Nothing, 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 im- 

 jjression of its great Creator. 



Such might have been the speculations of t'uis philosopher : 

 however, to leave theory, it will be sufficient to say, that we owe 

 the first discovery of this power of reproduction in animals tc 

 Mr Trembley, who first observed 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 propaga- 

 tion. This last philosopher has tried several experiments upon 

 the earth-worm, many of which succeeded according to bis ex- 

 pectation : every earth-worm, however, did not retain the viva- 



