EARLY DISCOVERIES BY THE MICROSCOPE. 23 



wonderful than all, it was found that this ex- 

 traordinary creature could endure to be turned 

 inside out like a glove, so that what had been 

 outer skin should become stomach, and the 

 lining of the stomach become the outer cover- 

 ing or skin ; while, from all this cutting and 

 dissecting, grafting and transforming, the ani- 

 mal itself seems to suffer not the slightest 

 inconvenience, being apparently blessed with 

 exemption from everything like bilious attacks 

 or stomach complaints in that department of 

 the body from which so many of man's ailments 

 arise ! However happily Dryden's famous de- 

 scription fitted a versatile character of old, 



" Was everything by starts, and nothing long," 



it might in some respects be as truly applied 

 to this very curious little gentleman, the Fresh- 

 water Polype, or Hydra. Trembley gives us the 

 following episode in the life of these strange 

 beings, which alone would stamp them with 

 the mark of singularity : On one occasion, 

 he tells us, two hydras, one stronger than the 

 other, had seized a worm ; neither would let go 

 its hold of the prey, and each went on devour- 

 ing it. As the victim disappeared, it soon be- 



