REPAIRS AND REGENERATION 165 



It was known, of course, at this time that 

 plants could be multiplied by a cutting process, 

 and Trembley seems at first to have been un- 

 decided as to whether he ought not to consider 

 the hydra a plant, because it also could be 

 multiplied in this way. However, his observa- 

 tions gnjts methods of feeding and its~~power 

 of movement brought him to the conclusion 

 that it was in truth an animal and that his 

 discovery revealed a new and hitherto un- 

 known power of animal life. " I felt," he 

 says with commendable modesty, " strongly 

 that nature is too vast, and too little known, 

 for us to decide without temerity that this or 

 that property is not found in one or another 

 class of organised bodies." Trembley con- 

 tinued his experiments, which have constantly 

 been repeated and verified in the years which 

 have passed since his death. He found that 

 a Hydra could be divided into a number of 

 pieces, and that each bit would, under favour 

 able circumstances, develop into a new and 

 complete creature. He also found that if the 

 head-end was bisected, the result was the 

 formation of a two-headed Hydra. Moreover, 

 he found that he could again and again bisect 

 these heads until he had an eight-headed Hydra 

 with a single stalk or lower portion. It is clear 

 that this lowly, or comparatively lowly, form 



