THE POLYPUS. il5 



contemplating their motions, he was enabled distinctly to pro- 

 nounce on their being of the animal and not of the vegetable king- 

 dom ; and he called them polypi, from their great resemblance 

 to those larger ones that were found in the ocean. Still, however, 

 their properties were neglected, and their history unknown. 



Mr Trembley was the person to whom we owe the first dis- 

 covery of the amazing properties and powers of this little viva- 

 cious creature. He divided this class of animals into four dif- 

 ferent kinds : into those inclining to green, those of a brownish 

 cast, those of a flesh-colour, and those which he calls the polype 

 de panadie. The differences of structure in these, as also of 

 colour, are observable enough ; but the manner of their subsist- 

 ing, of seizing their prey, and of their propagation, is pretty 

 nearly the same in all. 



Whoever has looked with care into the bottom of a wet ditch 

 when the water is stagnant, and the sun has been powerful, may 

 remember to have seen many little transparent lumps of jelly, 

 about the size of a pea, and flatted on each side ; such also as 

 have examined the under side of the broad-leafed weeds that 

 grow on the surface of the water, must have observed them 

 studded with a number of these little jelly-like substances, which 

 were probably then disregarded, because their nature and his- 

 tory were unknown. These little substances, however, were no 

 other than living polypi, gathered up into a quiescent state, and 

 seemingly inanimate, because either undisturbed, or not excited 

 by the calls of appetite to action. When they are seen exerting 

 themselves, they put on a very different appearance from that 

 when at rest : to conceive a just idea of their figure, we may 

 suppose the finger of a glove cut off at the bottom ; we may 

 suppose also several threads or horns planted round the edge 

 like a fringe. The hollow of this finger will give us an i(^ea of 

 the stomach of the animal ; the threads issuing forth from the 

 edges may be considered as the arms or feelers with which it 

 hunts for its prey. The animal, at its greatest extent, is seldom 

 seen above an inch and a half long, but it is much shorter when 

 it is contracted and at rest ; it is furnished neither with muscles 

 nor rings, and its manner of lengthening or contracting itself 

 more resembles that of the snail, than worms, or any other in- 

 sect. The polypus contracts itself more or less, in proportion 

 as it is touched, or as the water is agitated in which they are 



